Franklin Christoph pens are a highlight in my collection. Right now I have six of their pens. In order I bought them: Model 66 Stabilis, Model 02 Intrensic, Model 31 Omnis, and Model 46 XLVI. I have two Model 02 and Model 31 pens. The 02/Intrensic is my favorite model though I’m warming up to the 46.
As it happens, two of my pens – an 02 and a 31 – had issues. I dropped the 31 just so to break something about the clip. The 02 had an overly tight cap; enough that it would unscrew the section from the body at times. After some reluctance on my part, I mailed them off to Franklin Christoph with a letter of explination. I did a tracked package and bought extra insurance on it. The tracking was listed as “number not found” for a long time – I stopped checking when Franklin Christoph sent me an e-mail saying they had the package, assessed the pens, and had them both off to the production department to make new parts. Well, actually I called Franklin Christoph to ask if they had happened to receive the package before I checked my e-mail. The lady that answered the phone was the one that handled my pens. She let me know it might be a week before the parts were done since they were in crunch time before the Philly Pen Show, just a week away.
This was all a relief. The pens were in good hands. A week for parts doesn’t sound bad at all, especially before a pen show. Explains why they haven’t been listing many one-off colors online recently. I was quite suprised when I recived an e-mail on wednesday of the same week: Your order of (blank) has been shipped from Franklin Christoph, tracking number ####.
Natrually the tracking on that package was also weird. It started as “due for Friday delivery” but on Friday it was still somewhere in the midwest. Over the weekend the “due for delivery” went totally blank.
Monday the pens did arrive. I opened the package at work. Both pens look fantastic. The 02’s cap had a small, distinctive dot of color that looked misplaced. It was the kind of thing that bugs you, you can’t un-see it, and is always… there. Well, the new cap doesn’t have anything of the sort. I’m lucky here – these are custom materials with expected batch variations. Having the same type of raw stock available isn’t a sure thing, much less stock that matches so well. The other pen’s remade cap also matches well.
This alone would leave me a happy camper. My pens are back with fixed caps. I was suprised to see on the material order form a note: “nib testing gave a hard start; adjusted nib and replaced feed” and another seperate sheet of paper in the other pen “nib testing had some skips; replaced feed and adjusted nib. Looks ok for an Extra Fine”. Hmm… I think someone prefers Broad nibs there!
So not only did they make new parts during an extra busy part of the production schedule, they gave the nibs some love, attention, and new parts. Total cost: Shipping and my extra Insurance, about $20. That’s it. Nothing for their labor, parts, time, or shipping it back to me.
I’ll be back for more Franklin Christoph pens in the future. There are more nibs to try, models to explore, and endless limited edition colors/materials.