Montblanc's Warranty

[torstar]

On 5/26/2024 at 12:50 PM, Karmachanic said:

 

They offered you a solution, including a nib exchange.

 

Lots of people think a perfect solution is out there.

 

My dealings with MB HQ have been fair, some problems were dealt with adequately by private hobbyists with the know-how.

 

Amazing how repair estimates happen to fall 1% below my "forget it" price level 

 

[JCC123]

The main boutique is on Madison Ave and 59th. It's a nice store.

 

In terms of returns. All you had to do was to clean out the nib and reservoir and let it dry out. They will never know the difference. These plastic feeders won't retain ink, unlike the old ones. What they won't accept is that you try to return one that's dirty and filled with ink. 10 minutes of work would have saved you all this aggravation.

[DrJohn]

10 hours ago, JCC123 said:

The main boutique is on Madison Ave and 59th. It's a nice store.

 

In terms of returns. All you had to do was to clean out the nib and reservoir and let it dry out. They will never know the difference. These plastic feeders won't retain ink, unlike the old ones. What they won't accept is that you try to return one that's dirty and filled with ink. 10 minutes of work would have saved you all this aggravation.

 

I didn't know that until this posting. Now that I know that, I washed the ink out and let it dry before sending it to My Jewelry Repair.

 

John

[EricTheRed]

On 5/30/2024 at 10:58 PM, JCC123 said:

The main boutique is on Madison Ave and 59th. It's a nice store.

 

In terms of returns. All you had to do was to clean out the nib and reservoir and let it dry out. They will never know the difference. These plastic feeders won't retain ink, unlike the old ones. What they won't accept is that you try to return one that's dirty and filled with ink. 10 minutes of work would have saved you all this aggravation.

The point is, since he bought the pen brand new, MB should have happily cleaned out the pen for him and fixed it to his satisfaction.  The fact they didn’t even try reflects very poorly on their reputation for standing behind their products.  I find this shameful.  MB stood behind their products in the 1980s when they went above and beyond for me after my dog chewed up my new MB.  I subsequently purchased about 20 additional pens over the years.  Unfortunately, it is not the same company today and I will not be buying any new pens from them unless they start supporting their customers again.

[JCC123]

1 hour ago, EricTheRed said:

The point is, since he bought the pen brand new, MB should have happily cleaned out the pen for him and fixed it to his satisfaction.  The fact they didn’t even try reflects very poorly on their reputation for standing behind their products.  I find this shameful.  MB stood behind their products in the 1980s when they went above and beyond for me after my dog chewed up my new MB.  I subsequently purchased about 20 additional pens over the years.  Unfortunately, it is not the same company today and I will not be buying any new pens from them unless they start supporting their customers again.

I don't think they were refusing service. They were refusing a full refund. When you return something for a refund, retailers usually want you to return it in a salable condition. Having ink in the pen is not salable. You may be able to quibble over who should actually clean the pen when it's so expensive but it's up to the salesperson's discretion whether to do it for you. Sounds like the salesperson in this case didn't.

[DrJohn]

Currently, my pen is at "My Jewelry Repair" It cost $30 to sent it to them in California from NY and $36 for them to send it back. It's been several weeks and I'm still waiting.

 

John

6/15/24

 

[EricTheRed]

12 hours ago, JCC123 said:

I don't think they were refusing service. They were refusing a full refund. When you return something for a refund, retailers usually want you to return it in a salable condition. Having ink in the pen is not salable. You may be able to quibble over who should actually clean the pen when it's so expensive but it's up to the salesperson's discretion whether to do it for you. Sounds like the salesperson in this case didn't.

I think they did refuse service.  Rather than immediately addressing the problem in-house, they simply referred him to a third party for service. He is now out an additional $66, plus the hassle, as a result of him being unhappy with a genuine brand new pen which was scratchy (probably out of alignment) and skipped (probably needed to be cleaned thoroughly with water to remove grease from the manufacturer).  Mont Blanc NEEDS to do better for its customers IMO.

[NoType]

3 hours ago, DrJohn said:

It's been several weeks and I'm still waiting.

@DrJohn Sixteen calendar or ten working days, actually.

 

[NoType]

5 minutes ago, EricTheRed said:

I think they did refuse service.  Rather than immediately addressing the problem in-house, they simply referred him to a third party for service.

@EricTheRed MyJewelryRepair is, for better or for worse, though external to Montblanc and therefore “third-party,” the authorised repair service company for Montblanc pens and watches in the US.  I have been informed by three US Montblanc boutique managers on separate occasions that MyJewelyRepair is the “triage” centre: Montblanc sends all US pens and watches needing service to MyJewelryRepair, where they are assessed and either serviced there or then sent elsewhere such as Hamburg.  In this way Montblanc has handled @DrJohn’s pen service in much the same way as they would have managed any pen needing service, and as posts upthread attest, @DrJohn had different options to submit the pen, some of which avoided shipping fees.  
 

Though many are unhappy with Montblanc’s service policies and procedures, a group to which I belong, Montblanc did not refuse service to @DrJohn.

[EricTheRed]

No Type - Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate it!

[Seney724]

4 hours ago, NoType said:

 
 

Though many are unhappy with Montblanc’s service policies and procedures, a group to which I belong, Montblanc did not refuse service to @DrJohn.

I, too, have very put off by Montblanc's having closed their USA Repair Center and contracting with an outside third party to handle all repair claims...... both in & out of warranty.

 

That said, I think the specific incident which has been the subject of this thread has made a mountain out of a molehill.  Montblanc has, repeatedly, been cast in far too harsh a light via inaccurate statements about time, distance, requirements, etc., etc.

[NoType]

48 minutes ago, Seney724 said:

I, too, have very put off by Montblanc's having closed their USA Repair Center

@Seney724 Strangely, the one aspect of all this that is not clear is whether Montblanc’s section of Richemont’s Fort Worth, TX repair centre is closed.  

 

Although junglejim on FP Geeks posted almost three years ago that they received an email stating* as such

(https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/34911-Montblanc-USA-Fort-Worth-Repair-Center-now-CLOSED),

I was told last year by the aforementioned three US Montblanc boutiques (Boston [at Copley Place], Costa Mesa [at South Coast Plaza], San Diego [at Fashion Valley]) that the Montblanc Fort Worth service department is still open but that it receives pens and watches for service from MyJewelryRepair.  

 

Granted, neither piece of information is actually current, so perhaps another member can provide up-to-date data.

———-

* The closure seems to be an interpretation, since the email’s wording is not definitive

[dbs]

2 hours ago, NoType said:

Strangely, the one aspect of all this that is not clear is whether Montblanc’s section of Richemont’s Fort Worth, TX repair centre is closed.  

 

 

Fort Worth repair center has been closed in 2021. However, it is still the US headquarter and handles sales order from US boutique stores. If you order a pen at boutique via phone, the pen usually will ship out from Texas.

 

Both MJR and montlblanc.com (a.k.a Yoox Net-a-porter) are the third party companies,licensed from Montblanc, running sales and repair. 

 

As far as I can remember, this is the FIRST sales dispute between end user and Montblanc (yoox in fact).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NoType]

1 hour ago, dbs said:

Fort Worth repair center has been closed in 2021. However, it is still the US headquarter and handles sales order from US boutique stores.

@dbs Thank you for this information.  I am always in awe at the amount of knowledge available on this forum!

 

 

1 hour ago, dbs said:

Both MJR and montlblanc.com (a.k.a Yoox Net-a-porter) are the third party companies,licensed from Montblanc, running sales and repair.

@dbs I remember your mentioning “YNAP” and “ynap” as an acronym in the context of a discussion regarding online sales for Montblanc elsewhere on the forum, so clearly that must be the Italian online retailer YOOX Net-a-Porter Group SpA to which you refer here.  It is interesting that Montblanc uses third party companies for online sales and (US) service.

 

Now if someone could only explain why Montblanc boutiques refer internally to MyJewelryRepair not as “MJR,”  as one would expect, but rather as “M and G” (“M & G” in correspondence).  (I actually asked a Montblanc boutique manager when they said “M and G” in response to a service question I had posed, and after I confirmed that they were indeed referring to MyJewelryRepair and asked them why they didn’t call it “MJR,” they simply shrugged and said that they had no idea.  Admittedly not an important question, but one that arose out of simple curiosity.)

 

In any event, thank you very much @dbs for your information.

[Keane]

13 hours ago, NoType said:

@dbs Thank you for this information.  I am always in awe at the amount of knowledge available on this forum!

 

 

@dbs I remember your mentioning “YNAP” and “ynap” as an acronym in the context of a discussion regarding online sales for Montblanc elsewhere on the forum, so clearly that must be the Italian online retailer YOOX Net-a-Porter Group SpA to which you refer here.  It is interesting that Montblanc uses third party companies for online sales and (US) service.

 

Now if someone could only explain why Montblanc boutiques refer internally to MyJewelryRepair not as “MJR,”  as one would expect, but rather as “M and G” (“M & G” in correspondence).  (I actually asked a Montblanc boutique manager when they said “M and G” in response to a service question I had posed, and after I confirmed that they were indeed referring to MyJewelryRepair and asked them why they didn’t call it “MJR,” they simply shrugged and said that they had no idea.  Admittedly not an important question, but one that arose out of simple curiosity.)

 

In any event, thank you very much @dbs for your information.

Yep, my most recent MB order (a few weeks ago), shipped from YNAP.  The "we're sorry we suck at shipping on time" apology ink shipped from Grand Prairie Texas, presumably from their headquarters.

[Centurion]

On 6/15/2024 at 10:27 PM, NoType said:

Now if someone could only explain why Montblanc boutiques refer internally to MyJewelryRepair not as “MJR,”  as one would expect, but rather as “M and G” (“M & G” in correspondence).  (I actually asked a Montblanc boutique manager when they said “M and G” in response to a service question I had posed, and after I confirmed that they were indeed referring to MyJewelryRepair and asked them why they didn’t call it “MJR,” they simply shrugged and said that they had no idea.  

Which boutique did you ask?

[Centurion]

Slightly off-topic: Have you noticed high end boutiques have very strict policies like No returns, all sales final. That's the policy at a Hermes boutique, but purchases on their online store are less strict, perhaps because it was bought sight unseen. Would Montblanc be considered at the same level as Hermes?

[NoType]

2 hours ago, Centurion said:

Which boutique did you ask?

@Centurion Montblanc San Diego (at Fashion Valley), which claims to process more service requests than any Montblanc boutique in the Western US (AZ, CA, NV, WA).

[NoType]

2 hours ago, Centurion said:

Slightly off-topic: Have you noticed high end boutiques have very strict policies like No returns, all sales final. That's the policy at a Hermes boutique, but purchases on their online store are less strict, perhaps because it was bought sight unseen. Would Montblanc be considered at the same level as Hermes?

@Centurion For pens, yes.  For any other goods, no.

[torstar]

If the pens weren't so darned great I'd have NOTHING to do with MB.  (so there)

 

[Little man on my shoulder:  sell it.... do it...

 

Me:  never!!!!]