La Couronne Du Comte

[Intensity]

It is indeed not an uncommon practice. Just recently part of my order from a well-known USA fountain pen on-line store got cancelled, because there were no more of that item in stock, and when the vendor had contacted the manufacturer, they had learned the item had been discontinued.

 

LCdC provides amazing prices but makes you wait. It's a trade off I am personally happy to take. But if ordering something that needs to be delivered ASAP, it's best to go elsewhere. Or I'm sure you could contact LCdC in advance and inquire whether the item you want to buy will be in stock for quick shipment or not.

[Visua]

Every negative thing said about LCdC so far in this thread mirrors my experience 100%. I kid you not, my grievances with LCdC were a major inspiration for making an account here on FPN (this is in fact my first post)

Edited December 24, 2019 by Visua

[sansenri]

Unfortunately they do that, take your order even if the item is not in stock.

Mind you, they then can source the item in a rather short while, so it does depend on your urgency and keeping in mind they tend to do this...

I ordered from them a few times and all was delivered reasonably fast. Only just recently they informed me the item I wanted was not in stock, and since it was a Christmas present I bought from elsewhere to be sure it would be delivered on time and cancelled my order with them.

They insisted a while that they had asked for a fast restock due to my order, but since I had already placed another order from another seller eventually they agreed to cancel the order and refund my paypal.

I'll probably buy from them again when not in a hurry, the rests of their service has been ok so far.

[oregano]

Add me to the list— I have never seen another online retailer list an item is in stock when it isn’t.

 

One time I returned an expensive pen that was claimed never to have been received, even though tracking said it was delivered. It took a year for me to receive a refund. Even after that, I ordered again with them, for an item I thought was in stock. Flash forward two and a half months later, after several emails where it would be coming ‘next week’. I finally cancelled my order. I can see how for a small shop it makes sense to order as the orders come in, but then say it is not in stock, for those of us who want the items immediately.

[grmbrk]

I have ordered 2 times from them, and this is my experience.

 

The good: the prices (even better with coupon codes), the packaging, the email communication, the variety of brands they carry.

 

The bad: shipping cost (a bit more expensive than most stores), items out of stock not advertised as out of stock (but they will get them).

 

The 2 times I bought I had a couple of inks out of stock, they offred me a similar ink or to wait, I decided to wait. They shipped my entire order except for the items that were out of stock and later, they shipped the remaining inks. Everything was OK.

 

Conclusion, if you dont mind to wait, this is one of the best stores to buy, total price is even cheaper than buying local, shipping considered.

Edited December 27, 2019 by grmbrk

[A Smug Dill]

The bad: shipping cost (a bit more expensive than most stores),

I don't think I've ever expressly/explicitly paid La Couronne du Comte for any shipping charges in my history of >20 orders with them, in spite of my being in Australia halfway around the globe from the Netherlands.

 

I didn't usually see the PostNL shipping costs to the company, but once LCdC sent me a single bottle of ink (as a replacement for a leaky bottle) that wasn't handled the usual way, and it was over €18 if I recall correctly. That was staggering, and PostNL's international parcel service isn't even that good at all; quite often I can see, from the tracking, that items will get held up on PostNL's end for a week before being put on an international flight, and items generally took three weeks or so from the initial "item shipped" notification to arrive.

 

Now that LCdC has moved to shipping to Australia by DHL, it is much quicker (taking one calendar week or less to arrive), although there are some teething issues in the B2B processes and/or data interchange that they really need to work out.

 

items out of stock not advertised as out of stock (but they will get them).

As far as I understand it, LCdC's online shop application keep count of how many units are in the store's inventory. When something such as a "last model" (read: last unit in stock of that model) gets added to the list of current specials, someone at LCdC has to physically "pull" the listing from the system and mark it as not in stock; that's when those prospective purchasers who have the item in their shopping carts will see the error message. Doing it for ten clearance/closeout sales items might be manageable, but doing it for several hundred colours of ink in its current product catalogue is just impossible.

 

It's a system limitation that the business has chosen to live with for now (and have for a very long time), which is the source of most of the grievances and discontent on the part of customers, which (not unreasonably) dent the company's reputation as a retailer.

 

Conclusion, if you dont mind to wait,

Including waiting for the next 20%-off site-wide campaign, which happens several times a year but not necessarily when a particular Joe Consumer wants to buy a bottle of ink or a replacement nib.

 

this is one of the best stores to buy, total price is even cheaper than buying local, shipping considered.

I agree that such is the case, for most items. For me to buy a bottle of Rohrer & Klingner 2018 Limited Edition Aubergine ink from a local retailer — even one which doesn't maintain a bricks-and-mortar outlet, but only sells online — it would have cost me A$25 plus shipping (which wouldn't get waived even if I was prepared to buy four bottles at a go to meet the nominal free shipping threshold of A$99), totalling A$33. For marginally (15%) more than that, I managed to get three bottles of the ink from LCdC, tacked onto an outstanding order that qualified for free shipping so effectively the ink is shipped free to me as well.

 

So it's not all bad that sometimes LCdC takes a while to get items in from distributors before it is able to fulfil customers' orders.

[aurore]

Do you think they might have a New Year discount as previous years?

[dapprman]

Unfortunately they do that, take your order even if the item is not in stock.

Mind you, they then can source the item in a rather short while, so it does depend on your urgency and keeping in mind they tend to do this...

 

Can not will. For me they could not and I later found out from else where they never would have been able to. Mean while I ended up out of pocket as I had to pay conversion charges not just on the original payment but also the refund.

 

[Bill P]

It is indeed not an uncommon practice. Just recently part of my order from a well-known USA fountain pen on-line store got cancelled, because there were no more of that item in stock, and when the vendor had contacted the manufacturer, they had learned the item had been discontinued.

 

LCdC provides amazing prices but makes you wait. It's a trade off I am personally happy to take. But if ordering something that needs to be delivered ASAP, it's best to go elsewhere. Or I'm sure you could contact LCdC in advance and inquire whether the item you want to buy will be in stock for quick shipment or not.

 

Offering a product and NOT disclosing that you do not have it in stock, IS NOT a common practice. There should be full disclosure of the lack of inventory.

Without full disclosure in advance it is not appropriate, or a good Business Practice, to take the order and then attempt to fill it.

Edited December 28, 2019 by Bill P

[bbs]

Do you think they might have a New Year discount as previous years?

Yes, they do! Until Jan 2.

[A Smug Dill]

Yes, they do! Until Jan 2.

 

And, as usual, it requires a discount code that is "only" sent out to marketing email subscribers at the start of the campaign, and not otherwise "advertised" on the web site itself.

 

I also note that Dennis has removed three of the "Christmas special" offers that were mildly interesting to me, but ultimately not enough to make me commit to purchases while they were available: the Aurora 888 Nettuno limited edition (EF nib available), Aurora Optima 365 Coral Red (EF nib not available), and Aurora Ipsilon Rigorosa with sterling silver body and 14K gold nib.

Edited December 31, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[hu-327]

Chiming in here as well.. Ordered some inks and other items for fun on August 1st, knowing there'd be a wait (and also because of the promotion going on for a "free wonderful gift with every order" since I was dying to know what the wonderful gift was -- haha!), items arrived on October 15th. Not long after placing order (same day), got an update email that most of order was out of stock and would have to wait. In between that time, got periodic updates on what came to be in stock after, which i appreciated, but knowing the wait from posts here, wasn't too bothered. Everything was wrapped very nicely. They forgot the gift, so I emailed them back, and they sent it to me separately. In case any one else was curious, it was just a bottle of yellow-ish ink. picture included for comparison next to a Diamine bottle. Out of curiosity, did anyone else who ordered get the same thing? Now that I know, I suppose I won't be tempted to order for a silly promotion anymore

[A Smug Dill]

Ordered some inks and other items for fun on August 1st, knowing there'd be a wait (and also because of the promotion going on for a "free wonderful gift with every order" since I was dying to know what the wonderful gift was_...snip... Out of curiosity, did anyone else who ordered get the same thing?

Affirmative. I got a 30ml bottle of Comte d'Or ink (obviously made by Diamine for LCdC as a retailer-exclusive colour) as well.

[Karmachanic]

LCdC and MontBlanc are still on holiday...

I asked 2 weeks ago for an ETA and they would look into it.

No response so I sent another email asking for an ETA...

The response from LCdC is they can't get an ETA from MB because MB is on holiday and is gearing up.

This has been going on 9 or 10 weeks now.

I will still probably do business with LCdC...however it is very frustrating.

I should have bought a Conid.

 

You'd still be waiting for the Conid. I ordered Aug 19

Ordered ink yesterday to take advantage of the 20% discount. We'll see

Edited January 1, 2020 by Karmachanic

[Driften]

I ordered Diplomat Excellence A2 Skyline in blue from them today. After the 20% discount code it worked out to be $137 USD. That is a lot less money then buying it from a shop in the US were it would have been $200 plus tax.

 

I have been happy buying from them in the past and expect it will go as easy this time.

[Lam1]

Given how much of a cost savings I had vs US retail price, purchasing from them allowed me to secure a pen I would have missed out on otherwise. I always go by the project management product triangle where you have to choose between two sides of a (good, fast, cheap) triangle, and, in my case, I need to sacrifice on speed in order to get the quality and pricing that I want. With that said, as many have noted, I would just recommend that their site better reflect product availability, so that if someone needs a pen immediately they can make a purchase through an alternate retailer if necessary.

 

This puts it perfectly.

 

I hardly ever found a place that has better prices and I am perfectly happy waiting a little for that.

 

Have I, on occasion, had to wait a long time? Sure, but I was happy to wait and see if they could get pens that were hard to get and for excellent prices. Besides, Dennis has always been extremely accommodating.

 

I ordered Diplomat Excellence A2 Skyline in blue from them today. After the 20% discount code it worked out to be $137 USD. That is a lot less money then buying it from a shop in the US were it would have been $200 plus tax.

 

I have been happy buying from them in the past and expect it will go as easy this time.

 

Same here. I just put a (pre-)order and saved a bunch. With almost 40 orders from them, I have been nothing but happy (although, I must say, I do have a good friend that has not been so happy).

 

 

 

Oh, during Thanksgiving I also put an order. The order was placed on Friday night and arrived on Wednesday of the following week. Here it is:

 

 

The notebook was a wonderful gift.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Lam1

[Karmachanic]

Ordered ink yesterday (Dec 31) to take advantage of the 20% discount. We'll see

Shipped today.

[hu-327]

Hm, seems like the gifts are different then, depending on what you order. Although my order came in around $95 USD shipped, so I didn't expect as nice of a gift as a Montblanc notebook lol.

 

This puts it perfectly.

 

I hardly ever found a place that has better prices and I am perfectly happy waiting a little for that.

 

Have I, on occasion, had to wait a long time? Sure, but I was happy to wait and see if they could get pens that were hard to get and for excellent prices. Besides, Dennis has always been extremely accommodating.

 

 

Same here. I just put a (pre-)order and saved a bunch. With almost 40 orders from them, I have been nothing but happy (although, I must say, I do have a good friend that has not been so happy).

 

 

 

Oh, during Thanksgiving I also put an order. The order was placed on Friday night and arrived on Wednesday of the following week. Here it is:

 

 

The notebook was a wonderful gift.

[Driften]

After several positive orders I got the out of stock on something that seemed to be in stock. I was first told it would be available the last part of this month and when I said cancel it, they then said should be available this week. I still decided to cancel anyways.