Favorite Pen Dealers

[HauntedMyst]

For me, Endless Pens and Pen Chalet are my go too.   Good prices and service from both.

[Preserved_Killick]

Speaking of pen retailers, here's a question.  Am I wrong to think that a retailer should not need more than five business days to fulfill an order, one that does require nib tuning of any kind, just picking a product they have in stock, packing, and shipping?  Has 5+ days processing time become acceptable during the pandemic?  I just can't believe that a competently run business should need so long to process an order.

 

Kudos to retailers who do much better than 5 days: Vanness, Goulet, Anderson Pens.

 

I shall not for now mention the retailer that's unable to ship a pen within 5 business days.

 

If at my workplace we could not fulfill an order for an item we had in stock in five days we would all be dismissed the business.

[mke]

8 hours ago, Preserved_Killick said:

Am I wrong to think that a retailer should not need more than five business days to fulfill an order

Is it so important? Isn't the most important thing that they fulfill the order and pack the stuff well for transportation?

My favorite seller sometimes needs 2 months until they ship. But now, I know that they need their time - and accept it.

I understand that if you don't know if that seller will fulfill the order or not, then it is a nuisance. 

[dragondazd]

12 hours ago, Preserved_Killick said:

Speaking of pen retailers, here's a question.  Am I wrong to think that a retailer should not need more than five business days to fulfill an order, one that does require nib tuning of any kind, just picking a product they have in stock, packing, and shipping?  Has 5+ days processing time become acceptable during the pandemic?  I just can't believe that a competently run business should need so long to process an order.

 

Kudos to retailers who do much better than 5 days: Vanness, Goulet, Anderson Pens.

 

I shall not for now mention the retailer that's unable to ship a pen within 5 business days.

 

If at my workplace we could not fulfill an order for an item we had in stock in five days we would all be dismissed the business.

That does seem like longer than usual if those are business days. Many of these companies don't pack on weekends. I would notice that delay at the end of the third business day and appreciate/expect a warning if it would take longer than normal to process ("we are at a pen show/on vacation/etc."). If said items were readily also available on Amazon, they aren't doing themselves any favors.

[A Smug Dill]

12 hours ago, Preserved_Killick said:

Am I wrong to think that a retailer should not need more than five business days to fulfill an order, one that does [Is a not missing here?] require nib tuning of any kind, just picking a product they have in stock, packing, and shipping?

 

You can choose to expect whatever, but without express agreement with the retailer, I think you are ‘wrong’ to frame not meeting your expectations as either the retailer's process failure or its incompetence, if that's where you're going with it. Whether the retailer actually needs more than five business days is a matter of its business process, and your claim of “should” is surely based on a whole bunch of assumptions that you're in no position to validate (and probably don't desire or intend to validate in the first place) as an end-consumer with no visibility of every process step.

 

12 hours ago, Preserved_Killick said:

Has 5+ days processing time become acceptable during the pandemic?

 

If you personally don't accept it, then tell the retailer you'll cancel the order if it isn't dispatched by the end of five business days from ordering. Others are free to individually accept or not accept it, and retailers can gauge for themselves what is considered acceptable in the mainstream.

 

Even Amazon sometimes doesn't dispatch what I ordered within five business days, even though the product is supposedly in stock when I placed my order. However, if at the time the given delivery estimate in in three weeks' time, then as long as the item reaches me within that timeframe, then Amazon has done its job competently and fulfilled its promise to me. Whether I think it could do ‘better’, and whether it could actually fulfil the order and get the item to me more quickly if it chose to, are irrelevant to whether Amazon succeeded or failed in delivery what it “should”.

 

I'm a staunch believer of rights and entitlements, including that of the consumer and the customer. That means there is a “minimum” set to which the retailer is obliged to deliver, and in which the consumer and the customer have no say; they don't get to dictate the “should” to anyone, but only get what is provided for by consumer law and industry regulations, as well as individual companies' published policies. Delivering to only that and not any better, even when it is entirely feasible to do so — with or without that being made known to the customer — is implicitly acceptable in my book.

 

[Enkida]

I'm not as eloquent or as blunt as Dill is here, but I agree with them, basically.  I'm pleasantly surprised by speedy, good service, but I don't demand it.  I don't mind being patient and waiting for a quality product delivered with quality service, particularly if the cost for that quality is merely time and not cash.  I feel like many things in ye modern life have trained us to to expect unreasonably fast and speedy service for everything, without having to pay more for said services, and a part of me is always thinking about how that is very likely putting the logistics end of these deliveries through a pressure cooker for our mere convenience.  And when I think about it couched in those terms, I'm willing to wait more than 5 days for a delivery, as long as that truck driver bringing it to my door is getting paid a fair living wage and allowed to have bathroom breaks, if you know what I mean.

 

Now.  If you ordered something, the shop said they would send it to you within five days, and you're on, say, day 12 without a word, *that* is a different bag of beans.  That would mean the shop made you a promise/contract and then failed to keep it without informing you of any extenuating circumstances as to why that might have happened.  I'd feel fine taking issue with the shop in that case, as it could be a sign of questionable business practices if they don't reach out to you or respond to you reaching out to them about an unexpected delay.

[Misfit]

I like Speerbob on eBay. Good prices, and guarantees are in place for the pens. 

[Preserved_Killick]

Thanks for your thoughts mke, dragondazd, Dill, Enkida.

 

In this case, my expectation that an order of an in-stock item should ship within five business days was not based on an assumption, but on a statement on the retailer's website.

 

 

On 4/23/2022 at 11:01 AM, A Smug Dill said:

I'm a staunch believer of rights and entitlements, including that of the consumer and the customer. That means there is a “minimum” set to which the retailer is obliged to deliver, and in which the consumer and the customer have no say; they don't get to dictate the “should” to anyone, but only get what is provided for by consumer law and industry regulations, as well as individual companies' published policies. Delivering to only that and not any better, even when it is entirely feasible to do so — with or without that being made known to the customer — is implicitly acceptable in my book.

 

 

A business that delivers only what is minimally acceptable, "even when it is entirely feasible to do so — with or without that being made known to the customer" seems to me like a business that would retain very few repeat customers.

 

Fortunately, there are many pen retailers who deliver much more than what is minimally acceptable, and seem to take pride in doing so.

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, Preserved_Killick said:

A business that delivers only what is minimally acceptable, "even when it is entirely feasible to do so — with or without that being made known to the customer" seems to me like a business that would retain very few repeat customers.

 

It depends on what the customer's priorities are in the given context. My local supermarket doesn't give what I would describe as good customer service, and its selection of products in some categories are only minimally acceptable; but it's half a city block up the street from where we live, so my wife and I keep shopping there week after week. Paddy's Markets, which is a famous weekend groceries market in my neighbourhood, has gone from mediocre to worse in recent years in terms of quality of the produce and low prices compared to supermarkets, but we still go there to look, and spend money when there are bargains on seasonal picks. AliExpress offers much less than Amazon in terms of service, shipping speed and reliability, shopper protection and guarantees, and general confidence on the part of the customer ordering from English-speaking parts of the world, but it gives me access to a lot of products that aren't available from Amazon (or any well-known retailers far and wide in the fountain pen industry, for that matter), and generally much better pricing than the odd eBay listing for those products if they are listed at all, so I keep shopping on AliExpress.

 

I imagine I'm not alone in making those consumer choices, and the number of shoppers who give my local supermarket, Paddy's Markets, and fountain pen sellers on AliExpress their custom probably eclipses the loyal customer bases of any of your favourite, delivers-more-than-minimally-acceptable pen retailers that you may care to name.

[dragondazd]

If there is a disconnect between the service many readily available competitors provide and any individual company, the market will sort itself out.  *Shrug*

 

My preferred retailers in order of dollars spent:

• Gouletpens by a big margin: they sell me via videos plus general loyalty. I feel like my pen habit grew up with their company.
• Pen chalet: good prices, good selection, anecdotally good service
• jet pens: convenience; low bar for free ship, faster ship time due to proximity, combine with good selection of other items
• Honorable mention Vanness! Bought from them for the first time this year but I will keep buying from their huge ink selection. They will likely be my #2 in a year or three.

I also buy a lot of Franklin Christoph pens and (before recent preference changes) paper but they only sell their own stuff so I don't know if they  count for this thread.

 

I've bought something from most of the US general FP retailers and never had bad service. shout out to lemur ink with great service on my first order earlier this month!

 

Lot of items have fixed prices so I shop around for only some things and also patronize shops with good free info that informs my choice on something I'm researching. Goulet and jetpens provide a lot of free info so they win a lot of ties.