Martemodena Auctions - Questionable Business Practices

[pchand2]

I would like to bring my experience with MareModena and their business practice to other members here.

 

I won an auction of Visconti Desert Spring fountain pen at MarteModena at their website on Aug 15 2017. I paid immediately. They have not shipped out the pen to date, they have no shipping estimate and also they are dragging their feet on my re-fund request. I don't want to make this a rant, but rather highlight some of the wrong business practice they adopt in their auctions.

 

1. Show Pen in Stock when it is not: The pen was shown as "In Stock" at the auctions. But they did not have the pen in stock clearly and they knew that Visconti is on holidays during August, so they have no chance to acquire the pen for a month or so clearly. yet, they did not mention this detail in the auction, but outright lied by showing the pen as "In Stock".

 

2. Mislead customer as much as possible: When i asked about shipping estimate - They said pen will ship within 15 Working days policy. That means it should have shipped until Sep 6th. When i asked for more details later, one customer support engineer said, there is delay due to Visconti management change. Another customer support engineering said, Visconti will be back on Sep 1 and they will ship out the pen to me in 4 working days. I followed up on Sep 7th, and they said please wait for 4 more days and if the pens will not ship out they will refund me. It is been another 18 days since then and no shipment nor refund was done. Then i started daily follow up on refund and the customer support said that the delay can be with Paypal, which i checked and clearly that is not the case.

 

3. Cancellation of auctions without asking customer: While i was waiting for the above pen to be shipped I won auction of Divina Elegance for 1Euro. I paid promptly, but they cancelled the payment immediately and refunded within minutes saying there is a technical error with the auction. That i can accept since that pen is worth way more than that. Then 2 days later i won auction of Delta Rollerball pen for 1 euro. This time i wrote to them before payment asking if they will honor the deal? 5mins later, the auction dis-apeared from my account. I haven't heard from customer support on a reason after multiple follow up and then i gave up.

 

Please be aware if you planning to deal with them in future.

[Uncial]

They are now gone from ebay as far as I know. there is a thread about them elsewhere that is still active. They changed their name but the account was deactivated soon after. What you describe is common practice with them. If you still can, I would advise chasing a refund through your payment method (hopefully Paypal).

[katanankes]

Shameful practices. Are they desperate?

[Theroc]

I have bought a significant number of pens from their eBay store in the past.

They have always been rather aloof, but they always delivered.

Until this summer.

Most, if not all, non-MarteModena pens ordered after June never got delivered.

FPN members who ordered from their website have described similar experiences.

[pchand2]

Finally i got my money back via paypal dispute. Paypal closed the transaction in my favor and refunded me my money. I encourage every one to be careful with Martemodena. I followed up with martemodena for weeks for refund and all I got was empty promises. I am glad i used paypal.

[coppilcus]

For sure it was always a sloppy transaction...

 

The currency's of transactions were never specified and I ended paying more import taxes because of that, but these examples are way beyond the limit of sloppy and entering the realm of shabby.

Edited October 7, 2017 by coppilcus

[Bill P]

Update and to summarize:

 

Won a Martemodena auction on 8/24

Paid in full on 8/24

Several days later no shipment

Over the next weeks several emails sent to Martemodena - replies kept putting me off..will ship soon..ship next week..Visconti closed for vacation...blah blah blah

Requested a refund - should ship next week..

No shipment..requested refund

Martemodena says will issue refund

No refund issued

filed escalated claim with Paypal

MarteModena never replied to Paypal

Claim closed in my favor original payment refunded to my Paypal account by Paypal

 

So now have learned that for several months Martemodena was selling items in their auction and in their non auction areas on their website that they did NOT have in stock...They did not indicate on their site that the items were not in stock, nor did they initially tell the buyers. BUT they collected the $$ from the buyers. Customer requested refunds, and I am not aware of anyone who received refunds from Martemodena...claims filed with Paypal were refunded by Paypal.

 

I am aware of several FPN members who have experienced the above set of circumstances....similar experiences from other customers are also documented on ebay in the recent feedback ratings and comments.

 

Martemodena is no longer a registered member/user of ebay.

 

The above info is provided to FPN members so you can make an informed decision, taking into account the feedback and experiences of other members...when choosing who you do business with.

 

Best Regards,

 

Bill P.

[stipulaaa]

I bid on a Montblanc 4810 on ebay and paid on 12 July. Contacted them 5 days later, they said it takes up to 15 days to ship, so I waited. 15 days later, I contacted again, they said that the transaction will be done within the week so I waited. Afterwards they said the warehouse is closed until 23 Aug, fine so I waited. And then on 25/8, they did not received the item yet and asked for delay until 27/9. And then I waited and contacted them few days before and got not reply whatsoever. SO I contacted on Facebook, I did got a response said that I have to contact them via their email on their site, however, I was not able to visit their site, seems their site was down. And I got tired of this got a refund from Paypal(and suffer a lost) and file a complain on Ebay, and their Ebay got report as a fraud. How silly I am to wait, should have refund awhile back.

 

 

My suggestion is never do business with them

Edited October 11, 2017 by stipulaaa

[Kevan]

All of this makes me wonder if the "lifetime guarantee" that came with their new Martemodena brand Dolcevita Stantuffos is worth the paper it's printed on. The piston system on the pen seems rock-solid, but you never know. I thought about asking them for a new cap since the threads on this one always stick, but it doesn't seem to me like it's worth the trouble dealing with them.

 

I hate when pen companies sell things that they don't have in stock. But I will say that, in the 3 times it's happened to me, at least the vendor got back to me immediately and offered to refund if I didn't want to wait for a restock.

 

It's a shame about Martemodena. Their new Delta Journal relaunch, the "Chronicle" is awfully attractive.

[Chrissy]

It's a shame about Martemodena. Their new Delta Journal relaunch, the "Chronicle" is awfully attractive.

 

But if they took your money and never sent you the pen, would that not 'knock the shine off of it' for you?

[Kevan]

Yep, it would.

[whichwatch]

I keep wondering who dragged who down?

 

Martemodena has for some time issued a number of "special editions" that were made by Delta. Some were normal Delta models with less expensive trim that sold for lower prices.

 

Delta was apparently in trouble and finally went under or at least "closed permanently" (according to their website. It seems like Martemodena's widely reported "bad behavior" started somewhere in the same time frame.

 

I wonder if one entity dragged the other down? Not that it really matters. Delta is gone and after reading all the reports about Martemodena, I sure wouldn't buy anything from them. But the apparent cooperation between the two companies and the timing of the two events causes me to wonder, who dragged who down?

[jekostas]

I keep wondering who dragged who down?

 

Martemodena has for some time issued a number of "special editions" that were made by Delta. Some were normal Delta models with less expensive trim that sold for lower prices.

 

Delta was apparently in trouble and finally went under or at least "closed permanently" (according to their website. It seems like Martemodena's widely reported "bad behavior" started somewhere in the same time frame.

 

I wonder if one entity dragged the other down? Not that it really matters. Delta is gone and after reading all the reports about Martemodena, I sure wouldn't buy anything from them. But the apparent cooperation between the two companies and the timing of the two events causes me to wonder, who dragged who down?

 

I would bet nearly any sum of money that Delta would not have started releasing lower-cost models through Martemodena if they weren't already in financial distress. It's just not something a luxury brand does unless there are serious concerns about keeping the doors open in the short term.

[shahrincamille]

I bought a Delta Hippocratica with a Fusion nib from MM 2 years ago (October 2015) for just EU127, which was about half the asking price from other sellers back then. Along with a bottle of Delta ink, shipping was just EU15 to Malaysia.

 

A year later I bought a Federico plus an extra different-coloured barrel for about EU60 from them. Shipping was free worldwide. It was like buying 2 different models of the Federico, but sharing the same cap, section and business end. They were also then selling other components of the Federico piecemeal, so you can actually mix-and-match without having to buy entire pens

 

So Delta was not just producing lower-priced models to keep afloat, but was also clearing off more expensive ones, with MM acting as the outlet for these "clearance sales". Looks like Delta was already in trouble back then.

 

 

Shahrin

[Greyknight]

Finally gave in and asked for a PayPal refund. They had my money for 2 crazy low successful bids for a brown Divinia and Desert Springs. After more than 6 weeks and emailing them what is going on, they admitted they can't souce the pens from visconti (and blames visconti too) and asked me to open a PayPal dispute.

 

I suspect they don't have the funds to repay and are relying on PayPal to refund. No money back yet as PayPal are waiting for them to reply.

 

However, sniped a Visconti Opera Metal 3 weeks ago and they sent it the next day, got it yesterday. Decent pen

[whichwatch]

 

However, sniped a Visconti Opera Metal 3 weeks ago and they sent it the next day, got it yesterday. Decent pen

 

 

Do I understand this properly? They screwed you around on two pens, so you bought another one from them?

[pchand2]

Finally gave in and asked for a PayPal refund. They had my money for 2 crazy low successful bids for a brown Divinia and Desert Springs. After more than 6 weeks and emailing them what is going on, they admitted they can't souce the pens from visconti (and blames visconti too) and asked me to open a PayPal dispute.

 

I suspect they don't have the funds to repay and are relying on PayPal to refund. No money back yet as PayPal are waiting for them to reply.

 

However, sniped a Visconti Opera Metal 3 weeks ago and they sent it the next day, got it yesterday. Decent pen

 

How did you pay for the opera metal 3? As i heard they stopped taking pay-pal or put some crazy 10% charge.

[Greyknight]

I know it sounded silly to order another pen when the initial pens weren't even shipped. I paid the first lot with PayPal via mastercard. Was confident that if that got cancelled I'll get a refund

 

With the Opera metal, it was a no reserve, free shipping Sunday auction. Paid with mastercard, which gives some protection and given the low successful bid, I was prepared to lose the money in the worst case. Funny how the Opera was shipped within 2 days

[Aysedasi]

I bought three excellent cheapish Delta pens from Marte Modena. I was (and still am) very pleased with them. Then I 'won' a pen in one of their auctions and they flatly refused to supply it. I won it at a low price, but there was no reserve on the auction and that's the risk you take. I've never done business with them since. They appear to be in business still under the name Marte Modena Brand.

 

https://www.martemodenabrand.com/

[bbs]

I bought three excellent cheapish Delta pens from Marte Modena. I was (and still am) very pleased with them. Then I 'won' a pen in one of their auctions and they flatly refused to supply it. I won it at a low price, but there was no reserve on the auction and that's the risk you take. I've never done business with them since. They appear to be in business still under the name Marte Modena Brand.

 

https://www.martemodenabrand.com/

Was that recently? A few weeks ago I won a Waterman C/F with an 18ct nib for less than the cost of the postage. It arrived safely and turns out to be a very nice Moire.

 

I’ve also won a couple of auctions for Montblanc pens - not super cheap but fairly good prices. The packing wasn’t great but they did both arrive.

 

That’s no excuse for your experience, sorry to hear about it.