Review of ranga splendour

[Carlos barros]

Thanks  K.Singh  !!! You are a good man  !!! 💥💥💥

[Harish N V]

Hi carlos barros, 

I spoke to Mr rao and we had a long chat about this. I can tell a summary of the points he told me. 

1) like ksingh mentioned, he was not willing to do a custom order for one pen. He said it's difficult to do that. 

2) secondly he told to ship one custom pen is not a very viable thing financially. The details of this I was not able to fully understand. 

3) He also told he finds doing custom pens with Indian customers easy as he prefers having a long chat over phone to understand the requirement. But with foreign customers he finds it difficult to understand the customization and hence feels he may not want be able to satisfy the customer fully. It might end up spoiling his reputation and hence he prefers to go with standard models with overseas customers. 

 He covered more details regarding the raw materials which are very fine details and not a big thing. 

 

So he asked me to convey that he is still willing to the existing models

[mhguda]

Let me jump in here, I think my experience may be a little helpful...

I discovered Indian pens long pre-pandemic, and I bought a lot of them, from different sellers. One of the cheaper ones, for me, was Asapens.in (no affiliation, just a very satisfied customer!), but my best experience was with one of our fellow members, who, sad to say, does not seem to frequent FPN anymore. With her, she would find pens for me, photograph them, and give a good description - and she also told me, I think you will like this pen... she's never been wrong once.

The thing was, she wanted to branch out and sell pens, so she made a profit from sales. And also, when talking custom pens, she either found one or two others who would want to join (a sort of group buy) or, she basically told me, You will have to buy more than one or two. All in all, it worked. But one important component, which is now very different, is that she could ship by India mail - inexpensive, trustworthy, even if sometimes a little slow.

Today, that has completely changed. India mail does not yet seem to ship overseas - at least, I cannot get it! and so pen sellers ship by courier. I have since stopped buying pens from India because of some very bad experiences with FedEx and DHL, the only two services that would ship to my country. I am hoping regular mail from India will come back...

So, Carlos, since you are in roughly the same boat, maybe you should work with Fountainpenrevolution (satisfied customer only!) because they still seem to have a way of getting Indian pens at affordable prices. But it won't be custom... If you don't want to do Lotus, Ranga is your best choice, given they have some big pens in their standard lineup. But they use DHL - you have been warned...

Anyhow, I hope this helps. I will say I feel your pain...

[K Singh]

1 hour ago, mhguda said:

Let me jump in here, I think my experience may be a little helpful...

I discovered Indian pens long pre-pandemic, and I bought a lot of them, from different sellers. One of the cheaper ones, for me, was Asapens.in (no affiliation, just a very satisfied customer!), but my best experience was with one of our fellow members, who, sad to say, does not seem to frequent FPN anymore. With her, she would find pens for me, photograph them, and give a good description - and she also told me, I think you will like this pen... she's never been wrong once.

The thing was, she wanted to branch out and sell pens, so she made a profit from sales. And also, when talking custom pens, she either found one or two others who would want to join (a sort of group buy) or, she basically told me, You will have to buy more than one or two. All in all, it worked. But one important component, which is now very different, is that she could ship by India mail - inexpensive, trustworthy, even if sometimes a little slow.

Today, that has completely changed. India mail does not yet seem to ship overseas - at least, I cannot get it! and so pen sellers ship by courier. I have since stopped buying pens from India because of some very bad experiences with FedEx and DHL, the only two services that would ship to my country. I am hoping regular mail from India will come back...

So, Carlos, since you are in roughly the same boat, maybe you should work with Fountainpenrevolution (satisfied customer only!) because they still seem to have a way of getting Indian pens at affordable prices. But it won't be custom... If you don't want to do Lotus, Ranga is your best choice, given they have some big pens in their standard lineup. But they use DHL - you have been warned...

Anyhow, I hope this helps. I will say I feel your pain...

Nice to hear about your experience. I often bump into old threads on FPN while searching for some old Indian pen. Just today I was reading a thread from 2007 regarding some pen. Wish I had started collecting pens that early 😌 

[Carlos barros]

Thanks  for all the help and advices !!! You all are wonderful people  !!! I wish Krsna  protects you all !!!💥💥💥

[Manalto]

The Kanwrite that I just ordered on eBay has India Mail listed in the shipping notifications, so unless this information is inaccurate, they seem to be back in business. There is no link to track the parcel.

[mhguda]

2 hours ago, Manalto said:

The Kanwrite that I just ordered on eBay has India Mail listed in the shipping notifications, so unless this information is inaccurate, they seem to be back in business. There is no link to track the parcel.

That would be very good news, even if you cannot track your parcel... Do let us know what results, I will keep it in mind if this pans out...