La Couronne Du Comte

[Boz]

Are these guys on holiday?

No response to emails.

 

Ordered a pen in the first week of May - requested for updates last week and no replies yet.

 

 

[OmegaMountain]

Believe they are.

[City74]

They are just VERY slow

[Boz]

Thank you for replying.

[nibtip]

They are no way on holliday. I think they are very busy. I got that message at midnight GMT +1:

 

Today, July 31st, is the last day that you can take advantage of a 20% discount on our entire assortment!

Please use the following discount code:

HOTSUMMER20

Please note: orders made with this discount code will also enter our special summer win offer

for the wonderful Montblanc Meisterstück 149 fountain pen!

Please click here to visit our webstore!

[Boz]

Busy with the sale, I suppose.

I didn't get that offer, not being on their mailing list.

[nibtip]

They can be very slow to respond. But you can insist for a reply. You can even call them. They are courteous.

Since they have amongst the best prices, they have hard time with the avalanche of orders.

They don't have all in stock so one has to be patient or cancel. I have done that a few times.

I am a satisfied customer knowing in advance it can be longer than expected.

Appelboom ships faster and tells you if there is a wait.

Anytime these two shops and a few british ones instead of a_zon. No question.

[Boz]

Thank you; I'll call them next week - give them some time to recover from their sale

 

 

They can be very slow to respond. But you can insist for a reply. You can even call them. They are courteous.

Since they have amongst the best prices, they have hard time with the avalanche of orders.

They don't have all in stock so one has to be patient or cancel. I have done that a few times.

I am a satisfied customer knowing in advance it can be longer than expected.

Appelboom ships faster and tells you if there is a wait.

Anytime these two shops and a few british ones instead of a_zon. No question.

[eciton]

Every single time I've ordered with a discount code, they've been out of stock of whatever I've ordered. I've let them string me on a few times waiting for stuff to come in, but eventually I've had to cancel. I won't bother ordering from them again even with great prices.

[City74]

Every single time I've ordered with a discount code, they've been out of stock of whatever I've ordered. I've let them string me on a few times waiting for stuff to come in, but eventually I've had to cancel. I won't bother ordering from them again even with great prices.

I can understand that. My transaction from the first part of June is ongoing, however they have replied recently (past month) to email inquiries. Im not 100% happy with the transaction but as of now placed another order with them today. They already told me it had to be ordered and to wait 2-4 weeks. We shall see. If this goes smoothly then yes I would order again. If not.....

[OmegaMountain]

 

They are no way on holliday. I think they are very busy. I got that message at midnight GMT +1:

 

Today, July 31st, is the last day that you can take advantage of a 20% discount on our entire assortment!

Please use the following discount code:

 

HOTSUMMER20

Please note: orders made with this discount code will also enter our special summer win offer

for the wonderful Montblanc Meisterstück 149 fountain pen!

Please click here to visit our webstore!

There was also another thing that was put up around the same time as this that a lot of their suppliers were about to be on break and it would delay orders. I like their prices, but they don't show if items are in stock. They show what they can get and don't say how long that may take. I went to order a Montblanc case from them and it was going to be over a month for them just to get it in stock. Bad business practice, in my opinion.

[NeverTapOut]

I have had the same response...which is no response. Usually Dennis returns emails within an hour. I sent him one last week...nothing. I sent him a follow up today...nothing. I'm not worried or upset. I just want the status of my order that I place 45 days ago and I wanted to order another pen.

Edited August 1, 2019 by JesusNeverTappedOut

[Intensity]

They can take a very long time to fulfill orders, but their pricing is fantastic, and they do reply to all correspondence. I've placed many orders with them, for lots of inks and an expensive fountain pen, and have received everything, extremely neatly packaged and wrapped. Highly recommended.

[A Smug Dill]

Are these guys on holiday?

There was also another thing that was put up around the same time as this that a lot of their suppliers were about to be on break and it would delay orders.

From a newsletter I received in email from LCdC on 18 July 2019,

 

In July and August many of our suppliers are closed, our store in the Nieuwlandstraat 23, Tilburg will remain open as usual.

Orders through our web site will be handled immediately and we are also fully available by phone and email. It may happen that your order cannot be shipped immediately and that's why every order gets a free gift and is eligible to win a Montblanc Meisterstück 149!

 

See also the web page for that campaign:

[following much of the same text as above...] It may happen that your desired product is not in stock or, because of lower capacity, your order cannot be shipped immediately. We will do everything in our power to ship your order as soon as possible and keep you informed on the progress.

 

I like their prices, but they don't show if items are in stock.

It depends. LCdC's clearance sale items are (almost always) in stock, and the moment the remaining units are sold they disappear from its list of current specials. Furthermore, if you have one of those items in your shopping cart, when you go to review your cart it'll show that the item is not available. I've seen that happen for a 'last unit' Pelikan M400 brown tortoiseshell with F nib LCdC offered on special recently, that I was umming-and-ahing for just a minute; clicking on the hyperlink to the product page returned "Product not found."

 

I commented to Dennis about it, and he told me he had to keep an eye on special sales very closely because he has to manually deactivate the listings.

 

They show what they can get and don't say how long that may take.

In my experience, even if and when LCdC told me how long it'd take to get something in, it may still not be accurate because in actual fact it has little control over the supply chain. I had to cancel my order of a bottle of Noodler's Blue Ghost ink after (more than) three months, even though I was told it was going to be in stock and available for dispatch late April, because when Noodler's shipment sent LCdC arrived in late April there was no Blue Ghost in its contents. I had to wait a very long time for an Aurora Talentum Full Black with Stub nib to arrive, because Aurora just failed to deliver that nib to LCdC in the expected timeframe.

 

I went to order a Montblanc case from them and it was going to be over a month for them just to get it in stock. Bad business practice, in my opinion.

I don't disagree, but then I just take it as the compromise I implicitly accept when I buy from LCdC's regular catalogue when it has a 20%-off site-wide campaign and offer free international shipping to Australia on top of that. When it really matters whether something is in stock and ready to ship, I just sent Dennis or his staff an email to ask about immediate availability. Bear in mind that even if LCdC ships my order the next business day, it often takes three weeks end-to-end for the parcel to be delivered to my address anyway, so I wouldn't order anything that is time-critical from LCdC and most other European retailers anyhow. (Iguana Sell has proven to be an exception, and got what I ordered delivered to me from Europe in less than one week, notwithstanding that shipping was free for my order.)

 

Every single time I've ordered with a discount code, they've been out of stock of whatever I've ordered.

I bought a Sailor Professional Gear Ocean (which was the last unit, I think), Sailor Professional Gear Slim Ocean (one of two or three units), and a Pelikan M200 Smoky Quartz gift set from LCdC mid-July, off its specials list and applying a discount code on top of those prices, and I've received everything two days ago. An ink I also had on that order was not in stock, so I was told the day after I placed the order, but I swapped it for two bottles of other inks that Dennis quickly confirmed for me that was ink stock.

 

I've let them string me on a few times waiting for stuff to come in, but eventually I've had to cancel. I won't bother ordering from them again even with great prices.

I'm happy to buy from LCdC again in spite of all that, especially if I want to pre-order an Aurora pen or some such. If I'm not mistaken, LCdC has sold out of its allocation of Aurora Ipsilon Quadra Cento Italia pens and fulfilled the pre-orders with international delivery, even while American retailers are still listing the pen as "coming soon".

[Boz]

Just got a reply to my email to say that the pen will be in the next shipment, which has been delayed due to the holiday season.

God knows how long of a delay.

[Lam1]

LCdC is my go to place for inks and pens. Their price is hard to beat and Dennis and his team are top notch!

 

Sure, some times they take a while to ship, but they always come through (IME) and if something happens they keep the client in mind.

 

As an example, I once bought a MB 146 ultra black in a 30% sale and PayPal took the money from my account and never delivered to them. So, they were never aware of the sale and the pen sold out. I wrote an email on a Sunday night and Dennis replied within 5 min: not to worry, on Monday he wold figure out what was going on and a solution to my satisfaction would be reached. Once he learned that PayPal had troubles with the system, he offered to locate an ultra black for me (he couldnt say how long it would take) or the same 30% off any MB Id like (thats really any one). As he said, a solution to my satisfaction was indeed reached. I have plenty of other situations in which they were extremely accommodating.

 

With service like this, I dont mind a little delay. I have plenty of pens and inks to use in the meantime.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Lam1

[Says]

To be fair, yes sometimes it takes them forever to restock...

I have items pending for 4 months now. However, their prices are great, and Dennis can be quite accommodating.

 

Even sending parcels back to back on his cost...

So I tend to give them more leeway..

 

I can imagine at his prices, he wouldn't be that popular among his suppliers, and they wouldn't put his requests in very high priority. Somethings have to give.

 

Honestly how many of us are in a big rush to get a certain item, besides being impatient?

[City74]

For me it isn’t really being impatient as much as 2 months is enough. I’m not upset so to speak I just think that’s enough time to make things happen. This is my first MB pen so yes I want to get it. No doubt

[dapprman]

I had an extremely bad experience with them that almost ended with the Dutch equivalent of Trading Standards and I now will not buy from them unless the item is an old one discounted, as that way they may actually have it in stock. They pretend to be a pen store but have very little stock, take the money from you and then eventually procure the goods or give a refund - even for items marked as being in stock, I started demanding my refund after about 4 months, think the whole process took six with me losing money as I had to pay conversion charges on both the original payment and also on the eventual (and had to be repeatedly chased once agreed) refund.

[Aysedasi]

Every single time I've ordered with a discount code, they've been out of stock of whatever I've ordered. I've let them string me on a few times waiting for stuff to come in, but eventually I've had to cancel. I won't bother ordering from them again even with great prices.

 

 

I had exactly the same. Tried three times to buy ink from them over a long period only to be met with 'Out of Stock'. I was kept hanging for over 6 months and just gave up on them. I wouldn't bother with them again.