Best After Sale Customer Service?

[FloatingFountain]

 

My Sonnet was received and sent back to me in just over a week. They do send them all to France though, and I think their postal system may be a bit inconsistent. I'm not sure if nib swaps would take longer, but they may do.

 

Parker replied that the pen would be delivered to the store this week.

 

" Our apologies for this delay in shipping."

[lzykramer]

Customer service is very important if fountain pen meant to last more than a life time.

[richtl]

Namiki/Pilot service is exceptional. I sent back my 9 year old vanishing point after dropping it 10 or 20 too many times and cracking the barrel. They repaired and replaced at no cost. Did the same thing again 3 years later. I also sent back my Vanishing Point Fermo a few months back (same reason--I seem to drop pens a lot), same thing. Namiki has gone well beyond reasonable expectation!

 

While on the topic, I send my Visconti Opera in for repair awhile ago--the spring in the clip broke. For the cost of shipping (about $30USD), the service center sent it to Firenze for repair. Took about 10 weeks, but no cost other than the initial $30.

 

Rich

[Postscript]

Conway Stewart since none of mine have needed service.

 

Post Script

[Keyless Works]

I haven't needed much in the way of manufacturer repairs but I can say Montblanc is decent as is Cartier. I am not in love with their pens but Italix has excellent customer service. I would suspect that newer brands like Edison and Franklin Christoph would provide excellent customer service as well.

[aardvarkbark]

Kenro Industries, the US distributor for Omas, Montegrappa and other brands. I had an Extra Lucens which Bryant at Chatterley/Pentime had recently ordered for me that needed to go back for service, and when speaking with his contact at Kenro to coordinate shipping, mentioned that I had also recently found a NOS Montegrappa Extra 1930 turtle brown with the gold trim (from Richemont days, so originally shipped to dealer a few years ago) that came with a Fine nib, but that I'd really prefer an ExtraFine and so was planning on having a nibmeister grind it down. He offered to facilitate a complimentary nib exchange for a factory XF as a courtesy to me since I was a customer of one of his best customers. It took eight weeks for me to get the two back (both went back to Italy) and he was very good about keeping me informed of their progress.

[PatientType]

From my perspective there is no "best" customer service. There are stratas and various fountain pen makers tend to group at various levels. EVERY brand will have an occational horror story, it seems. On the other hand ... some fountain pen makers have a presence in the US and expend a LOT of effort to serve their customers and some make little effort.

Personally, I've gotten superb after sales service from Conway Stewart.

Very, very good service from Pelikan.

Good service from Bexley and Pilot.

 

Very limited service/response from Delta.

 

Note that I'm grouping manufacturers and their authorized distributors in this comment. And, of course, the majority of my fountain pens from various other brands never needed after-purchase support.

 

[max dog]

Cross customer service is stellar! They will fix your pen no matter how old or what condition it is in, no questions asked. That is why I have so many of them. They are going to last forever as Cross will keep fixing and restoring them for me!

 

I also had very good experience with Montblanc repair center.

Edited May 23, 2014 by max dog

[hot cocoa]

Franklin Christoph as best - they're responsive to actual problems and quick.

 

Stipula, not so impressive.

[FloatingFountain]

From my perspective there is no "best" customer service. There are stratas and various fountain pen makers tend to group at various levels.

 

Could it also be that customer service is different, depending on the pen you send in? I could imagine the service being better / faster (maybe even for free) on a Limited Edition $1500 fountain pen, compared to the $25 starter pen sold by the same brand.

[Blue_Moon]

Franklin-Christoph and Mr. Pen, maker of Italix pens. Others are good, but these two are the best!

[lzykramer]

Thank you for all your responses

[Bill Wood]

Edison then .. TWSBI.

[GUNGA GALUNGA]

No personal experience but my understanding is that TWSBI has very good if not great customer service.

I ordered Three pens from TWSBI and got them in the mail a week later