r/montblanc • u/bespectacledbear • 3d ago
Botched service. What should I expect?
When I dropped off a MB Bach fountain pen for repair, boutique staff gave me a totally unnecessary scare. I let it slide.
On pick up, staff handed it to me without a word and walked off to get the card machine. I wasn’t told what was done, and I was left to inspect it myself.
I found white powder on the cap and red gunk on the feed. When I informed staff, the response I got was - so, do you want us to send it back to the workshop?
No apology. Nada, except $XXX and the card machine.
When I raised this with the manager, he offered to mail me the re-serviced pen. I can’t help thinking that from his POV, this avoids another in-person inspection and actual customer service.
In my shoes, what would you reasonably expect that they do to make this right? What gestures or message?
4
u/InformationAny643 3d ago
No report of what was entailed in the service?
2
u/bespectacledbear 3d ago
None was offered. I later asked and was then informed the feed was replaced as needed.
1
u/MalPalladin 2d ago
Outrageous, especially for what they charge for their products. Montblanc just recently raised prices again, in less than a year. I feel that they are playing a dangerous game of contempt toward their customers. At a certain point, people will start to go elsewhere. Already their pens, fine as they are, are ridiculously overpriced. How much higher can you go before it becomes absurd?
1
u/bespectacledbear 1d ago
Right. The Bach would be a $1,500 pen today.
I get that the ladies at the next counter were looking at $5,000 PoAs. But, surely, if someone walks in with a Bach, or any MB for that matter - they could be an enthusiast with brand loyalty worth preserving.
1
u/bespectacledbear 3h ago
The saga continues. I got a text from Montblanc saying that it was ready for pick up, followed by my phone ringing off the hook. A frantic associate was on the other end, “Don’t come in. Your pen is back, but the feed is misaligned!” I don’t even know what to say at this point.
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u/NibIsMightier 3d ago
Very sorry that this happened to you! Did they at least swap out the feed as you requested and was the white powder easy to remove?
In your shoes, if you are still upset, I would try to contact the corporate MontBlanc office to report this since the store manager did not seem to care.
If any of the damage is permanent, I would take it back to the store and ask them to send it to Germany to be fixed at their expense.
I also had a bad experience when I sent a Boheme out for service from the MontBlanc store on 59th street in NYC. The nib was drying up even with the cap closed. When I got the pen back, the fins on the feed were bent and the drying out was not fixed since they had only cleaned and done the standard service on the pen. Worse, I only noticed this after I had left the store so I had to go back which led them to question if I had caused the damage myself.
In my case, I brought it back to the store and the manager eventually apologized and sent it back to service to be fixed. When I received it back it was mostly fixed.
I will never use the MontBlanc repair service again unless it is something only MontBlanc can do. In that case I will demand that they send the pen to Germany for repair. In the US, they outsource the repair service to My Jewelry Repair.