Indian Frontier, Qc, Tipping – Ouch!

[dan in montreal]

How to kill a brand? Licensing and fast and loose quality control. On a whim, I ordered this Parker Frontier made in India by Luxor Writing Instruments. It was inexpensive and I thought I’d give it a go, even if I’d read some negative comments about Luxor Parkers. I figured it couldn’t be that bad. BTW, I have had several Frontiers over the years and I’ve never had cause to complain. All were UK made.

 

The pen came in a blister pack. I rinsed it, dried it and inked it up. The converter was very oily and the matte black barrel had grease marks on it.

 

I really should have checked the nib with a loupe before I did anything. The stamping is atrocious. The tines were misaligned – big time, as in around 1 mm. And the tipping! This is a fine nib, by the way. Perhaps this is a freak example. I don’t know – but from what I’ve been reading here, seems like this is normal. If it is, shame on Newell Rubbermaid for licensing to Luxor, cheapening the brand even further.

 

No sense in returning it, it took more than a month to get to me and it was 17.00 CDN. I will fiddle with the nib and keep the converter. I expected something cheap, but not this cheap. The Jinhao X750 looks like a luxury item compared to this.

 

 

 

Sorry for the quality of the photos, best I could do with a loupe and my camera phone.

[inkstainedruth]

That's okay. Better pix would probably have been even more depressing.

Frankly, I would still contact Parker/Newell-Rubbermaid and complain, even if you don't want to deal with sending the pen back. I sent an Urban back to them TWICE (under warranty) and they just replaced it the second time. Only the replacement pen leaks from the section so badly I was half convinced that I had stumbled upon a stable wormhole to the ink universe.... At this point I'm considering tossing the pen in the trash, because it's out of warranty by now, and I would feel too guilty selling it (or even doing a PiF) as knowingly selling defective merchandise.

Modern Parkers mostly just suck. I have some Vectors that are all UK made, and they're fine, but beyond that I'll stick to the vintage ones. The second time I sent the Urban back I made them send me a Priority Mail box, telling them "The brand name used to STAND for something", and they should be more concerned by one uppity American customer with access to an internationally read forum (meaning FPN of course ) and not just how many pens Newell-rubbermaid can sell in China.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mitto]

A lot of people here wouldn't agree with you. The fact is that the luxor Parkers are no Parkers. People also say there are luxor made Sonnets. I doubt this. There might be luxor distributed Sonnets that are made in France but for the Indian market with no mention of the country of origin.

Edited June 30, 2016 by mitto

[mitto]

Ruth , Luxor Parkers have no warranty outside India.

Edited June 30, 2016 by mitto

[dan in montreal]

Modern Parkers mostly just suck. I have some Vectors that are all UK made, and they're fine, but beyond that I'll stick to the vintage ones. The second time I sent the Urban back I made them send me a Priority Mail box, telling them "The brand name used to STAND for something", and they should be more concerned by one uppity American customer with access to an internationally read forum (meaning FPN of course ) and not just how many pens Newell-rubbermaid can sell in China.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Yes Ruth, I aree. Licensing like this, as far as I'm concerned, means the parent company doesn't give a damn about the brand. I guess they really are choosing Waterman over Parker and Rotring... If I was new to fountain pens and got my hands on one of these Luxor Parkers, I'd certainly be surprised at the quality, given the history of the brand. BTW, the only company name and logo on the pen are Parker's, not Luxor.

 

A lot of people here wouldn't agree with you. The fact is that the luxor Parkers are no Parkers. People also say there are luxor made Sonnets. I doubt this. There might be luxor distributed Sonnets that are made in France but for the Indian market with no mention of the country of origin.

 

This is also true, they're "not really" Parkers. However like I said, the name Luxor is nowhere to be found on the pen, only Parker, hence the confusion.

[mitto]

Yes, Parker but 'made in nowhere on the planet Earth'. I can't understand why they are ashamed of putting the country of origin on pens made in China and India.

Edited July 2, 2016 by mitto