Originally Posted by
Ron Z
Frank Dubiel used to say that if you are going to repair pens, you are going to break pens, no matter how good or careful you are. There are hidden flaws, and inherent risks with some materials, both of which can cause a pen to break. The trick is to get your skill level to where you are firmly in the "success" column. ...and you wonder why it takes us so long sometimes? Often we're being asked to do the impossible, and rather than dive in and risk breaking the pen, we think about it and look for the best way to do a repair so that we don't break your pen.
General practice is to assess the pen when starting repair. If there are risks, I will often warn the client up front, and tell them that if it breaks there will be extra charges. If I'm finding a pen to be especially difficult to get apart, I will often write to the client and tell them what's going on, and ask if they want me to proceed. If they say keep going, I am off the hook if it breaks. I will repair it, or will help to find the part, but I'm not going to eat the cost. I've often said that the big difference between an amateur pen mechanic and the true professional is their ability to work their way back out of a repair problem, or take what would otherwise be a disaster and turn it in to a successful repair.
There are some things that break so often, that I charge for repairing the part no matter what. An example is a Vacumatic pellet cup. They break very easily, and sometimes shatter for no reason at all. I've taken fillers out of a pen to find no trace of the pellet cup. In those cases I charge for the rebuilding/repair of the filler. Parker 51 jewels are another. The stems can shear off very easily, and it is a common as dirt when you take one out to take a clip off of a pen. I will fix it if I can, or charge a minimal amount for reproduction if not, but an OEM jewel is expensive.
There have been cases where I have had to pay for an expensive part. If I'm too aggressive, if I've been impatient or something like that, sure, I eat the cost. But again, no matter how good someone is, pens will break. A blanket "it's always the pen mechanic's fault" is unrealistic, and enough to convince even the most skilled that it simply isn't worth the effort.
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