Parker's pathetic state in India

[Shyahi]

 

Off late parker has been having quality control issues. Some in our local groups have had issues with parker fountain pen inks claiming Brill to be far better than Parker in terms of ink bottles.

 

The gell refill breaking off halfway

 

So it all starts with me buying their Parker Jotter in my favourite orange colour with a separate Parker Quink Black Refill

 

The moment I start writing it starts to go thin and thick with no consistency at all so with this i complaint to the Parker India distributor Luxor Writing Instruments Pvt Ltd over their email on 7Feb 23

 

With no response over email i approach them on social media reminding them since 2 weeks my complaint is lying dormant in your inbox what have you done?

 

They reply on 21Feb 23

 

"We are in receipt of the detail complaint from you. We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to you and delayed reply from our end. 

 

We would like to thank you  for your valuable feedback about the Parker Pens it helps us to improve the product quality and services to the customers.

 

Kindly arrange to share your postal address we will arrange a reverse pick up for your defective writing instrument for repair/ replacement purpose for your continuous pleasure of writing with Parker Pens. 

 

 

Ensuring you best of our services at all times."

 

Then i reply my details next day and since then they start ignoring.

 

Then  I approach consumer forum  on 2 March 23 seeing this they reply the replacement refill will be dispatched in todays mail.

 

On 13March 23 today i got a parcel just having 2 parker quink Blue refills not even an apology letter.

 

When i checked the tracking number on the parcel it shows parcel booked on 10th March 23.Which shows they literally lied on 02 March 23.

 

Now my complaint was for Parker quink black but the kind folks at Luxor sent me Blue which is not my issue and i wont accept this.

 

When i contact Waterman they don't  reply.

 

-Why are customers treated differently based on the geographical locations when brands are taking the major share from the sale then aren't they equally or more responsible as is the distributor who takes some commission

 

-The brands that never take responsibility passing on the blame on distributor isn't ethical. When it's registered under your brand and you are taking major profits then where are you when there's an issue of quality arises?

 

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Update

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Instead of asking 2 weeks time and sending black they send whatever they feel like and later when asked about they say

 

We would like to confirm you that we were not having the Parker Ball Pen refill in packing for black colour, that is the reason dispatch team  dispatched you  blue Packed refill to you, if you allow we will dispatch you Black Ball Pen refill in loose packing

 

Pls confirm ,we will dispatch the refill in today’s dispatch .

[txomsy]

You are right in that there should be no geographical discrimination and that is unacceptable. One may understand that if some services require long distance shipping there may be differences, but it being understandable does not make it any less unacceptable.

 

OTOH it seems like they are trying to be helpful (if I got it right, which at this time of night is unguaranteed).

[inkstainedruth]

A number of years ago I sent a Parker Urban back to Parker (under the extended warranty) when I had problems with an old style converter getting stuck in the barrel (I had gotten what a local store had as a substitute for the cheapie slide converter it came with).  I had to jump through hoops to pack it carefully.  

They sent it back in a bubble wrap envelope (at least it was in a nice tube) with a snotty note about how I'd used the "wrong" converter".  And after that?  The pen leaked like a sieve from the collar....

Needless to say, I was, um, UNPLEASED....  And I was dealing with people in France, but sending the pen to Janesville (the facility in the UK I believe was still in operation at that point).  So I let the chick in France I'd been dealing with just HOW unpleased I was (including pointing out that I was active on an INTERNATIONALLY READ pen forum -- i.e. FPN) and they sent me a nice leather two pen leather case as a sop....  

Other than Vectors, you couldn't pay me enough to use a modern Parker after that.  The quality was lousy and their customer service was WORSE.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: The Urban from H*ll ended up in a trash can -- I would have felt too guilty GIVING the piece of junk away, let ALONE selling it....

[GallComp]

Sadly the quality of Parker pens has gone downhill for a while, I recently purchased a Vector made/distributed in India, and it is just unusable and so low quality of materials compared to one I previously purchased "made in France".

 

From that moment I simply avoid anything distributed by Luxor, no mater how good the prices are, at the end they are nothing but trash products milking the Parker brand. 

[inkstainedruth]

That's good (if unfortunate) to know, GallComp.  

I keep looking at the Luxor-made "Time Check" Vectors on eBay because it's kind of a neat design (basically a world map showing timezones).  But most of the sellers are in India and do NOT have 100% positive feedback ratings; and in SOME cases if you read the fine print the pens are being shipped from CHINA (not India)!  Tried to get one a while back from a seller in Jamaica, Queens (in NYC).  Negotiated a price, hit the "buy" button, and two days later woke up to a notice from PayPal that my money had been refunded.  BEFORE hearing back from the seller (who originally claimed to have TWO of the pens at first).  And eBay was going "The transaction was cancelled so no, you CAN'T provide feedback...."  And my response to eBay was "JUST WATCH ME!" after seeing feedback about other sellers who had pulled similar stunts.  And now I'm starting to wonder if the NYC address was just a drop box and the seller wasn't actually even in the US....   

But if the Luxor production pens are as lousy as you say, maybe I *don't* want one (the problem is that the design is only being sold in Asia).  So thanks for the heads-up.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ted_1944]

I also have some of the refills from India, and they are not as good as the ones from France. That said, they are better than the unbranded Chinese refills that one sees all over the net. Their pens, are not bad. I have three Frontier fountain pens that are pretty good but you may have to tinker with the nib a bit. But they are very low in price and Parker doesn't make them any more, so if you like the pen, you have no other choice. They DO take Parker cartridges and converters, and are really nice sized pens. I also have a Parker Classic from India. When Parker had stopped making them in the West the price was, I believe around 34 dollars, and that wasvat least 25 or 30 years ago. Compared to the original Classic matte black ball point, the one from India look a bit cheaper, but other than that they are fine. If you don't have one for an a-b comparison, I would say it's a good deal, especially if you like the super thin feel of the pen, and be sure to put a refill from France into it. There are times when I pick up one of my Classic ball points and marvel at the engineering that allows a Parker refill to actually fit into it!  As far as the refills, Amazon sells 10 packs of Parker refills a very low prices, but you have to look carefully to be sure that they are from France, and not India. I got one for eleven dollars a few years ago. In January, I believe, they were 16 dollars. But for 10 refills that is a bargain. A week or two ago that same pack was 30 dollars, and just now it was down to 21. But even at 30 for 10 refills, that's not bad.