(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
We’re all familiar with the acronym NPD for New Pen Day, or NID for New Ink Day, but have you heard of SPD (and no,I don’t mean Shimano Pedaling Dynamics for you cycling folks). I’m talking about the (hopefully) lesser known and used acronym for Sad Pen Day.
While I hope none of us experience a SPD, it will inevitably happen at some point or another. Maybe it is a mild sadness, like when you get a pen but it has the wrong nib and you need to work with the vendor to get the nib exchanged. Or you ink up the pen for the first time and it writes fine but maybe not as well as you expected. Or you picked an ink that doesn’t quite work with the pen and it doesn’t feel right when you write with it. Or maybe it’s a bigger sadness when you get a scratch on the pen, or gasp, you drop the pen and damage the nib and it needs a nib grinder to fix it. All of those things are valid reasons to be sad to varying degrees and I hope none or very few of them ever happen to you. I’ve had all of those things happen to me (except the dropping the pen part) and while it’s not fun, it’s usually not too earth-shattering and you get upset/annoyed and then figure out how to fix it, whether it’s dumping out the ink, reaching out to the vendor, or finding a nib grinder.
Recently, I experienced a different kind of SPD. As I have mentioned in the past, I have been trying to sell pens that I’m not using (so I can buy more pens, of course), and at a meetup recently, someone asked if my pen was supposed to open “like this”. This person showed me the Aurora Optima Nera Perla that was in my sell binder and it looked like this…(Warning - The following picture might cause gasping and shock!)
The cap and barrel of my (now broken) Aurora Optima Nera Perla. Talk about sad face!
You can see the nipple (yes, that’s what it’s really called) of the feed inside the cap.
I was able to get the grip section out, but Aurora’s don’t have removable grip sections, so this is definitely not what it’s supposed to look like. 😭
Pieces of my broken heart pen vs how it’s supposed to look like (Optima Azzurra on the right.)
Let me first say that the person who told me did not break the pen - they just pointed out the pen because they wanted to see what it looked like and it came out of my binder like this. I will also say that it is definitely not the binder’s fault. I put my sell pens in my very sturdy 48-pen binder from Girologio, and the binder is in my carryon, aka it never gets checked, and by extension, doesn’t get thrown around. Occasionally, the binder is in my backpack when I bring it to meetups. I’ve been using this binder for the past several years as my sell binder with absolutely zero issues. Oh, and the pieces were held in place by the binder elastics, so it looked like the pen was fine.
So, if it’s not the binder, then what happened? Honestly, I don’t know. Someone either dropped it when they were looking at the pen or forcefully pulled the screw cap off (instead of unscrewing it). I don’t routinely pull out every pen in the sell binder, I don’t know how long it’s been like that. However and whenever it happened, they put it back into the binder like nothing happened. And that’s the part that made me the saddest.
I’ve spent some time thinking about this and this is what I would have liked to have happened, and what I think/hope that I would do if I accidentally did this to someone’s pen:
— If I was having problems with the pen, I would ask the owner how to uncap it, ink it, use the piston, etc. I wouldn’t do anything with force since whatever I’m doing doesn’t seem to work, so I’d start by asking. I usually hand the pen back to the owner and let them show me what to do.
— If, despite their demonstration, I still manage to break the pen, I would apologize profusely, tell the owner exactly what happened, and offer to pay for some/all of the repairs, or potentially even buy the pen.
— This is where one has to be extra careful with checking out pens that might be way out of your budget, because the owner might make you pay for breaking their pen. If you’re not sure if it’s out of your budget, as I often say, ask first.
— Even if the owner can get it covered under warranty somehow, I would, at a minimum, offer to pay for it to be shipped with insurance to the distributor/vendor/nib grinder, or at least buy them a drink or lunch or something.
Well, rather than wallow in my sadness and disappointment, I thought it might be helpful to talk about next steps, in case something like this happens to you.
— If it looks like something that might be covered by warranty, like the piston knob popping out, or cap not threading properly, aka a defect in the pen manufacturing, as opposed to someone breaking something, and you bought it at a reputable dealer recently (within a reasonable amount of time, typically anywhere from 1 month to 1 year), reach out to the vendor you purchased it from and see if there is any recourse.
— If that doesn’t work, or if it isn’t something covered by warranty like breakage, reach out to the distributor (who is sometimes the brand itself, like TWSBI, for example) and see what can be done. The answer may range from “sorry, we can’t help you”, to “yes, we can fix it or replace it for a fee”, to “yes, we can get it handled but we’ll have to send it to country of brand or manufacture and it will take several months”. Sometimes those fees include you paying to ship the pen to them, as well as return shipping and a modest repair charge, other times, it’s almost the cost of the pen itself.
— Before sending in the pen, you should speak with the distributor to make sure you both understand what’s being sent, what work is required, and what the costs would be up front. If repair costs aren’t yet known because they need to inspect it first, be clear as to whether you are pre-authorizing repair work, or if you want them to let you know before they proceed with the repair. In any case, you are usually responsible for paying for shipping the pen to and from them.
— Shipping the pen - Unless you’ve arranged with the distributor/vendor to drop off your pen in person (like at a pen show or in-store), you will need to ship the pen to them. Unless they tell you otherwise, do NOT include the original box, especially if it’s a fancy, heavy, special, etc. box. It will likely not get returned in your box since distributors often send repair pens in batches and they don’t want to send or keep track of boxes either.
— In my case, I have a factory italic grind on my Aurora and will not be including the nib with my pen. This is in case they can’t repair the pen and opt to send me a new barrel; I’d hate for them to just swap the whole barrel and forget to swap my nib too. (Aurora specialty nibs cost at least an additional $100, so it’s worth it to make sure my nib doesn’t get kept.)
— Insure the pen shipment - Unless you are ok with the possibility of your pen getting lost in transit, you should include insurance for the pen when shipping it for service.
I have already reached out to Kenro, the distributor for Aurora, about repairing my pen and will be paying the service fee for repair. They will let me know of any additional costs before they repair/replace the barrel. Next step for me is to get the pen to them and then wait a couple months for it to be repaired.
The other thing I’ve learned from this experience is that I may have been a little too trusting with my sell binder. I like to think I’m a friendly person and have had no issues leaving my sell binder with a pen friend who is sitting with people I may not know and then walking away to use the restroom or go to another table, etc. I’ve not had to worry about theft (thankfully), but moving forward, I will be keeping a closer eye on my pens (both in my sell binder and my inked binder, which I usually keep with me), partly to prevent this from happening again, but also to meet other folks who are checking out the pens, whether they want to buy them or are just curious. It gives me an opportunity to share and educate, even if they aren’t interested in buying anything. After all, talking with people about pens is one of the best parts of this rabbit hole, right?
