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Wing Sung 698, 83% Defect Rate


LostArk

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Last year I began to dabble in Chinese pens. Based on recommendations from FPN, I bought a Wing Sung 698 from eBay. When I received it, it seemed too good to be true; a nice writer, piston filler, no problems, etc. So, I bought five more. Each of the subsequent five I opened and tested has the same defect: the nib and feed don't snap into place, and just fall out if I so much as shake the pen in my hand. I feel sick. I now have five defective pens that total almost as much as a Pilot Custom 74.

 

About 50% of other Chinese pens I've tried (Lingmo, Delike) also had major defects.

 

This really puts me off trying any other Chinese pens. Am I just having extremely bad luck, or? Can you guys suggest some models with better QC?

 

 

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jewelrymathematics

As far as I know, he is a good guy. It's not down to him.

Like a lot of people, I also believed in the Chinese FP mirage. In most cases, the pens I've handled turned out to be crappy and a lot of them found their way to the trash bin.

 

There are a lot of people here who profess their love for these Chinese pens, many of which are really good writers for one or two fills, and then they begin to fall apart. I'm personally done with them.

It's not a question of you having good or bad luck. There is no QC to speak of, and if there is, it is minimal.

 

Last one I tried was a WS 618 - the section cracked while I was looking at it. Ironically, the only pen which still works and has not cracked is a WS 698! I also own a few old Hero 616s which still get an occasional run, but life is too short to muck around with subpar pens. And the blatant copies of well-known manufacturers I find rather disheartening. Plagiarism is not my thing.

 

You really do get what you pay for. In other words, it's not you, it's... the pens.

My advice is save your hard earned money and buy a quality pen. You said it: you could have gotten a nice Pilot pen with a gold nib in a size you would have chosen for the price of a pack of WS. Or a few resacked Esterbrooks. Or whatever. There are a lot of possibilities out there.

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I purchased two such pens from this seller. I did however replace the nibs with a Pluminix F an B. No problems at all. Feels substantial in hand. No cracking like a certain other brand. No drying out after a week of no use. I look at images of demonstrator M205s, which look remakably similar, and feel very happy with the 698 at 1/10th of the cost.

 

The transparent feed is a pleasant lagniappe.

 

So my experience is 100% success!

Edited by Karmachanic

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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Must be the luck of the draw: I have three 698s and two 618s in various finishes, in constant use for the last 8 months or so, without any hint of a problem. Even using Diamine Shimmering inks in three of them.

Cheers,

Effrafax.

 

"It is a well known and much lamented fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it"

Douglas Adams ("The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Original Radio Scripts").

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That's why you should buy one Chinese pen at a time if it's in the double digits range, or two at maximum. You can buy pens in bunches if they're, say, Jinhao 992, 1€ each. But knowing that Chinese manufacturers don't use a strict quality control system (or any), I don't think you should dump so much money so quickly, because there is always the risk that the pen you got was good out of sheer luck.

 

I like my Wing Sung 698 so much that I bought another recently. The first one I used as regularly as possible for the past 6 months. 6 months. That's how littleI trust certain manufacturers. Because in most cases, it's the customer that carries out the quality control process, not the manufacturer, not the seller.

 

Very sorry about your subsequent 698. The fact that the nib and feed unit don't stay inside the grip section is unheard of, this is the first time I read something like this.

I've done the same thing Karmachanic did, swapping the WS nib for Pilot Pluminix nibs, and I haven't had issues yet. I'm careful not to fiddle with the nib and feed unit though. The more you fiddle with them, the more they'll loosen up in the section and the more likely you are to have leakage problems on your hands, literally.

 

But this last advice is for those who own normally functioning WS 698s who read this thread. You OP, obviously have encountered the proverbial exception to the rule.

fpn_1502425191__letter-mini.png

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Well, let's state the obvious, QC in many case in Chinese manufacturing, if ever it exist, among to only the parts being put together as the worker had been shown. IS that part really prepared proper for the assembly, is the assembly tolerance required check, is a particular fit ensured, etc etc etc ... well likely no ... and the same can be said to many a process in between the raw material and the final pen. And as many of these process are now machine / robot automized, you can be sure that the adjustment is dialed to efficiency rather than quality

 

Incremental faults here and there ultimately would add up and this is pretty much the main cause of many an anguish result from just buying and using these pens. Lesser so with more up market model ( cost allows ) and of course with different among different Mfr(s).

 

The case of the 698 IMHO is not really too much of an exception, as we witness time after time Vikto's effort to put forth pens in the Wing Sung namesake. And come out one way or others having issues. Does that made those pens bad, well technically NO, as many happy user would reflect, and those pens work just fine ( ok Nib is a personal preference thing so we would not deal with that ). We can say the pen by design actually were not bad and in many cases do quite well. But is it any good as such , well NO either as these pens were sold in numbers and considering the feedback it seems many receive them in good working order, but plenty receive them in less than that.

 

What we can say is the failure rate is pretty high considering todays ( world wide ) customer expectation of how they see a pen should be delivered. I say world wide because in China and those who had been using Chinese fountain pens for periods, there is a consent to work up a routine to prepare the pen for operation. Namely through and meticulous cleaning, adjusting, tuning, and if needed disassembly and assembly by the user himself / herself ... this might be seemingly a direct opposite of what customer expected but this is fact in play. And in fact most Chinese fountain pen Mfr recommend the cleaning part. I had almost no failure in my Chinese fountain pen venture but then I've been using them for decades, I generally do not buy the cheapest ( which usually do not excite the crowd here anyway ), and for those I do buy ; I had the pen go through my routine before any inking and using / testing. In short I've made myself the final QC personal ( and some time technician, assembly worker ).

 

Sadly I must say for the price of the 698 Vikto should be able to do better in the consistency of result part ( so far as manufacturing QC goes ) but reality check show otherwise. I shall say though, Vikto's Wing Sung does not represent the majority of todays current production pens from China, what they represent is what Vikto had to offer. Vintage models aside, I've seldom heard report of similar from contemporary Hero(s), PenBBS(s), or even student pens like M&G which even I myself am surprised. Look like the whole Chinese fountain pen manufacturing do improves but there are still improvement to be made to made it really consumer friendly on a world scale.

Edited by Mech-for-i
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Can't do anything but express my condolences for such a tragic outcome: I have bought, gifted and occasionally sold a number of Chinese pens, mostly Hero, and they all have been superb for the price paid.

 

My father had a 616 Doctor inked with ESSRI, he kept it for two years with zero maintenance and little use but the occasional signature. Binned because the hood cracked after lending his pen to someone else.

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I'm careful not to fiddle with the nib and feed unit though. The more you fiddle with them, the more they'll loosen up in the section and the more likely you are to have leakage problems on your hands, literally.

 

But this last advice is for those who own normally functioning WS 698s who read this thread. You OP, obviously have encountered the proverbial exception to the rule.

 

This is not peculiar to Chinese pens. I believe this to be the case with friction fit regardless of country of manufacture.

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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This is not peculiar to Chinese pens. I believe this to be the case with friction fit regardless of country of manufacture.

Apologies, I should have kept the sentence general enough to include this assumption.

Edited by RoyalBlueNotebooks

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I agree with RBN: I never buy in bulk. I have never received a faulty pen from China, but I am parsimonious and not a risk taker with my money.

 

Write the vendor and ask for another batch. Always start there.

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I guess it just depends on the sample lot !

 

Some one may buy 5 pens and get all good ones and say they have 100% success ..

Another buys 5 and gets all faulty pens 100% garbage ..

 

Then some one may have 50 or more pens and find that quality is very hit or miss ..

I love talk about QC , but what is required is a decent sample lot before any meaningful data can be extracted .

Personally I don't know how many Chinese FP's I own currently , certainly its North of 50 , I don't know how North , I hope I am not North of 100 ...

 

Anyhow , from say $1 to $15 for some pens ( I have a few Euro Budget FP's now ) ...

I don't know that quality varies that greatly ..

Would be nice if it did .

So far I have tested about 30 pens and only a very small number would I call keeper ...

 

I would love to see more FP meet and greets ...

A venue to which to take your pens and compare them to other pens ..

Because - How do you know if you have a good pen or not ? or even - What is a good pen ? Till you have actually used one !

The guy that has used a thousand fountain pens just might have some idea of what is good .

Does more money buy good ? And how do you know ?

We all have our own level or expectation of good , but where is the universal reference point ?

We all know NQR or broken , but good ?

 

If you have only eaten bad food all your life , how do you conceptualize good food ?

Or if you have only driven bad cars all your life , how can you comprehend good ?

 

Did I wander off track there , sorry ....

Not everyone is going to rush out and buy a $1000 fountain pen , so where does good start ?

I would love to try a good pen , that way I could really say where a budget pen falls on the yardstick .

 

To date I have not tried anything superior to a decent BP pen ...

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Well , I have 4 Wing Sung 3008 .. And they are all some what disappointing ..

The only cheap piston filler not to be such is my 660 Piston Filler ..

I will be doing a Cheap Piston filler shoot out soon ..

 

I have thought about the 698 .. But for the same price or less I can buy German made pens

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Well , I have 4 Wing Sung 3008 .. And they are all some what disappointing ..

The only cheap piston filler not to be such is my 660 Piston Filler ..

I will be doing a Cheap Piston filler shoot out soon ..

 

I have thought about the 698 .. But for the same price or less I can buy German made pens

 

Do tell. Which German piston filler can be found for $15?

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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Do tell. Which German piston filler can be found for $15?

Maybe they're referring to vintage Pelikan 1XX on ebay?

fpn_1502425191__letter-mini.png

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Cheapest German Piston filler is NOS and about $5 USD + Postage ..

And yes , look hard enough and you can buy Pelikan for $15 .. ( I did )

I have 3 of those old NOS piston fillers ( Late 80's ? )

 

Actually - I never said German Piston Filler !

I said German Pens ..

 

And for $15 USD so far I have purchased

 

Pelikan

Rotring

And some unbranded German Piston Fillers

 

As well there are quite a few other brand names that can be had for $15 , American , Japanese , Eastern European (?)

Just got to Troll FeeBay ..

Edited by old4570
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As far as I know, he is a good guy. It's not down to him.

 

 

I purchased two such pens from this seller. I did however replace the nibs with a Pluminix F an B. No problems at all.

 

 

When I messaged the seller about the problem, they were abusive and rude. Screenshot attached. I'd advise everyone to stay far away from this seller.

 

vayAmlj.png

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When I messaged the seller about the problem, they were abusive and rude. Screenshot attached. I'd advise everyone to stay far away from this seller.

 

vayAmlj.png

 

That's a disappointing response ...

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