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Thread: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    I'm a new member here, but joined because I was told there were first hand reports here of the new service center.

    I do not live near a boutique or AD, so mail order service is my only option.

    I have two LEs I've bought in the past year that I'd like nib swaps on. One is the Walt Disney, bought in January of last year(so the clock is ticking for me on that one) and the other is the 146 80 Days bought pretty much as soon as they were available(I want o say mid-May). I really want an OBB on the Disney and an OM on the 80 days, but had drug my feet on sending them to Texas.

    To be honest, in my communication with MyJewelryRepair, I was a bit put off. I didn't in particular appreciate that I had to arrange shipping through them, but that's a different story(also did Texas charge for return shipping?).

    Also, reading this thread, it seems that they don't really "get" in-date nib swaps if I understand correctly, and also it looks like they'll hit hard if they need to send to Hamburg. I was under the impression that Texas would order the LE nibs from Hamburg and install in house, but I'm wondering if this place will simply send swaps directly there.

    Separate from that, I have a 60s 149 with a cracked barrel and I'm afraid I might be at the end of the road on finding a replacing or repairing it(plus I still have the lingering leaky piston seal, which I did patch up with silicone grease, but I don't know how permanent that is). From what I understand, in the past at Texas this would have been an L1 service and basically been fitting the old nib onto a new 149 body. It sounds like the new place might not treat it as such.

    Because of all of that, I'm seriously considering bypassing them and going directly to Hamburg with all three. Has anyone in the US had any experience with doing that? How would you all approach what I'm wanting to do?

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Hi bunnspecial and welcome to fpg. Your best bet is to contact Montblanc directly through their concierge service. The Canada Montblanc Representative gave me a number of 1-800-995-4810 and hours of 0900 to 2000 EST Monday through Friday. They may be closed tomorrow for the Labor Day holiday. If you do send your pens to Hamburg be sure to note on the US Customs form that they are being returned to manufacturer for Repair. (Thanks for the tip, Chrissy!)

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by bunnspecial View Post
    ...I have a 60s 149 with a cracked barrel....
    This is a job for the independents with a supply of vintage parts.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Hi Bunnspecial, glad you made it over here.

    I would advise patience with the 1960s 149 — depending, of course, on how fond you are of the 1960s version. The lighter weight is nice. If you don’t care then obviously it doesn’t matter, but then you face the dilemma of whether to send it to the MyJewelryRepair people. I would try to dig up a parts pen before i did that. Even if you don’t find anything that suits you, MyJewelryRepair may behave better down the road or at least become more predictable.
    Last edited by guyy; September 5th, 2021 at 02:15 PM.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by bunnspecial View Post
    ...I have a 60s 149 with a cracked barrel....
    This is a job for the independents with a supply of vintage parts.
    While that would certainly be preferable, I don't know if Ron Zorn or Linda at Indy-Pen-Dance would have the necessary hard-to-find parts. The last I saw Ron had a 16+ week queue before he even looks at your fountain pen, although he would be able to do the lathe work if a brand new barrel would be made, but it probably would be $$$. The only other repair person I can think of who might have the parts is Dr. Osman Sumer in Hamburg, Germany.

    And to answer bunnspecial's question, when the old MB Repair Center returned my unrepaired pen to me they sent it by Second Day Fedex Insured without charge.
    Last edited by junglejim; September 5th, 2021 at 02:59 PM.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    For vintage German pen parts or their fabrication, I was thinking in terms of Osman Sümer, Max (Horst) Schrage, Francis Goossens and Tom Westerich.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    For vintage German pen parts or their fabrication, I was thinking in terms of Osman Sümer, Max (Horst) Schrage, Francis Goossens and Tom Westerich.
    Is Brad Torelli still doing repairs?

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Thank you everyone for the comments. The nib swaps on the LEs are more pressing to me, and I will contact the concierge service as suggested.

    As for the 60s 149-I have been hoping a replacement barrel will turn up as I'm rather fond of the profile of the early resin one piece barrels(even more so than the 70s one-piece ones).

    Ron Zorn is who I usually go to for parts, and he has done some absolutely amazing work for me in the past. I just got 4 pens back from him two months ago, two of them Montblancs. One of them was an 18C BB 147 that had made a trip through the washing machine(that one killed me) plus had some missing rhodium plating from before I bought it, and he made it perfect again. Ron has told me, though, that he absolutely won't touch MB resin as he's found nothing that he can reliably work it with.

    I've contacted Brad Torelli, but never heard back. I'm afraid this might be too "lowly" of work for him to take on, as there's nothing especially special about the pen other than its tri-tone 18c B nib, which I don't think is especially rare either. I've tried using Capt. Tolley's to fix it, which I know won't repair the crack but I'd hoped would keep it from leaking, but it seems to be a short lived repair.

    In any case, I hate to lose the character of the pen, and I'm partial to features like ebonite feeds, but an MB factory repair would at least get me a functional pen with this nib...I do keep my eyes open and if a barrel popped up, I'd be on it.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Now 5+ weeks out since MyJewelryRepair said they would be sending my pen to MB Hamburg. Still no word from either and my Repair Inquiry Number at the MJR website no longer works. Seems a bit premature to suddenly erase a customer's only link to their pen repair.

    The waiting continues ...

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by junglejim View Post
    Now 5+ weeks out since MyJewelryRepair said they would be sending my pen to MB Hamburg. Still no word from either and my Repair Inquiry Number at the MJR website no longer works. Seems a bit premature to suddenly erase a customer's only link to their pen repair.

    The waiting continues ...
    Jeez. Good luck.

    Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by junglejim View Post
    ...The waiting continues....
    Is it a limited/special edition pen that were sent to Hamburg in the past, or one of the standard models? If the latter, perhaps My Jewelry Repair is finding that it is over its head.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Fred-- It's a MB Large Boheme that was only made for one year in 2002. So it's very likely that MJR wouldn't have any needed parts.

    BTW, sorry to hear about the USPS abandoning your mail route. There is an Autumn card waiting for you at the Post Office.
    Last edited by junglejim; October 11th, 2021 at 02:17 PM.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by junglejim View Post
    Now 5+ weeks out since MyJewelryRepair said they would be sending my pen to MB Hamburg. Still no word from either and my Repair Inquiry Number at the MJR website no longer works. Seems a bit premature to suddenly erase a customer's only link to their pen repair.

    The waiting continues ...
    Oh dear I'm really very sad to read this. Have you tried making contact with Montblanc directly? It may be worth a try.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    I left a message on MJR's "Contact Us" page to try and find out what is going on. If no response, then I'll try the MB Concierge phone number.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by junglejim View Post
    I left a message on MJR's "Contact Us" page to try and find out what is going on. If no response, then I'll try the MB Concierge phone number.
    I hope it all gets sorted out very soon especially as we're racing towards the big C word
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Okay, I still didn't try but you all are scaring me. I have until January on my Walt Disney and May on my 80 days, but I'd like to do them both at the same time.

    MJR didn't give me the greatest feeling of confidence when I specifically asked about the nib swaps. No "We have the parts here"(unlikely I'm guessing) or "It will have to go to Germany" but I think I was told to just send it in and they would evaluate it and advise me of the cost. The latter especially scares me since there shouldn't be any cost. I'm not sure the person I contacted even understood what I was asking, and I'd hate also to go through sending it and have them report "no problems" or maybe tweak the nib a bit and cal it a day.

    I really think these pens need to go to Hamburg. I'll sleep a lot easier if I send them there myself, especially if MJR charges me $100 to forward it on as someone else indicated.

    On another note, in a previous message, I mentioned my 60s 149 with a cracked barrel. I found a not perfect but serviceable one surprisingly inexpensively($40) and everything was perfect. I still need to do a bit of nib tweaking on this pen as it's not flowing consistently and I THINK the issue is that the channel in the feed is a bit off-center so nib alignment is a bit tricky(I'd had it working well at one point), but that's another story and again, if I can't do it myself there are plenty of people other than Montblanc who can do it.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by bunnspecial View Post
    ...On another note, in a previous message, I mentioned my 60s 149 with a cracked barrel. I found a not perfect but serviceable one surprisingly inexpensively($40) and everything was perfect....
    Congrats! That's what we like to read. :-)






    (Goodness, my 4,000th post!)

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by bunnspecial View Post
    ...On another note, in a previous message, I mentioned my 60s 149 with a cracked barrel. I found a not perfect but serviceable one surprisingly inexpensively($40) and everything was perfect....
    Congrats! That's what we like to read.
    Thanks! I was really happy to get this one going also. This particular pen came out of an estate and I offered what I thought was a fair price($600) based on the pen seemingly being in good condition with a really nice broad tri-tone 18C nib. I may have overpaid a bit on this, and in fact it's the most expensive of my 4 149s(although my favorite one, a late 70s B nib, albeit sold serviced and gauranteed, was not too far behind) but spent a bit extra because I knew a bit of the estate's situation and wanted to help them a bit.

    The barrel turned up on Ebay. There's a jeweler out of Chicago that lists a lot of MB parts, and they listed a one piece barrel for a reasonable price. I contacted them since the age range was kind of vague and they confirmed that the listed one was a screw in piston. The guy who handles this, though, has come up with an epoxy formula that WILL repair cracks. He told me he had a friction piston barrel with a small crack he'd repaired at the piston end that he'd sell inexpensively and with a return if I wasn't happy. When it arrived I could see some of his sanding/polishing work and tell where the crack was, but couldn't actually SEE the crack directly.

    I may send him this other barrel to fix, although he said that with it running through the threads, it may not be an attractive repair.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    I still have a bad experience with MJR as well. Sent in my 1912 some time ago and still waiting for the nib to arrive from Hamburg, was an ordeal in the start to even get them to zero out the cost for free nib change, and still no estimate on when it will be done after 8 wks.

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    Default Re: Montblanc USA Fort Worth Repair Center now CLOSED.

    After a week of no reply from the MyJewelryRepair "Contact Us" form, I try calling again using a landline:

    Me: Listening to the inane music and the occasional message about how "every call is important to us, please stay on the line"... 11 minutes later Anne picks up the line:

    Anne: Thank-you for waiting how may I help you?

    Me: I'm trying to find out information about my repair. You received my Montblanc fountain pen on 4-August, then I paid $125 on 4-Sept because it had to be sent to Montblanc Hamburg for repair. I am no longer able to access my Order Number from your website like I could before. Could you tell me what is going on? Was the pen sent off to Germany, or is it still waiting somewhere at your facility in Rancho Cucamonga?

    Anne: Let me look that up for you sir:

    Me: Hears a click and then disconnected.... I mutter into the phone about how some peoples ancestors preferred ducks for sexual partners... Redial the phone and wait another 6 minutes.

    Erin: Thank-you for waiting how may I help you?

    I explain all over again and Erin tells me the information that my pen was shipped out to Germany on 13 September. She has no information about how it was shipped (Fedex, DHL Express, UPS, USPS?) or any tracking number that might be available. As soon as Montblanc contacts MyJewelryRepair asking for additional money to repair my pen, they will contact me by email. Or if I want I could call MJR every month to see if there are any updates from Montblanc. The reason why the Order Repair Number is no longer working is that once an item leaves MJR the number is scrubbed from the system. MJR can retrieve the information, but the customer can not from their online website account.

    And as for why no one answered from the MJR "Contact Us" form? "A different person handles that and I wouldn't know."

    The waiting continues...

    IMHO for a company like Montblanc that has their luxurious reputation of high-end goods and service, they are certainly failing by contracting out to third parties for repairs. So far I am out $145 ( $20 to send it to MJR and $125 for MJR to send it to Montblanc Hamburg ) and Montblanc hasn't even looked at my pen yet, much yet received it. grrrr
    Last edited by junglejim; October 19th, 2021 at 05:40 PM.

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