A couple of weeks ago, I ordered three bottles or Architekt ink from xFountainPens.com (Pittsburgh, U.S.A.). I have purchased pens from them previously, but never ink. Yesterday a box arrived from Australia Post containing the remains of my order. In transit, one bottle was smashed. To their credit Australia Post cleaned up the mess, rinsed and repacked the remaining two bottles in a new box along with a letter explaining what had occurred and a comment that the original packing was inadequate for the contents. The original packing never got to me so I can't comment on the accuracy of their claim.

I'm fully aware that parcels from overseas can receive some terrible handling mishaps that can often damage the best packaged order. One squashed box arrived recently with the offending footprint still visible (it was at least a size 10!). But in the past 2 years I have received more than 40 bottles from overseas without a single spill - let alone a breakage. I'm quite happy to acknowledge that there may have been something very usual that could have happened that couldn't be attributed to the seller, however, what I can't excuse is that on opening the repackaged box, I discovered that one of the remaining bottle was missing around 30% of its contents and had a loose cap. There was no ink from this bottle in the repacked box, meaning the loss had occurred in the original package. I find it most unacceptable that anyone would pack ink for shipping and not ensure that the cap(s) on the bottle(s) were secure.

I sent an email to xFountainPens.com detailing the events and overnight they emailed a reply offering to replace the order, which is decent of them. However, I've declined acceptance as I don't wish to expose Australia Post to the risk of any re-occurrence. I will rely on my other reputable sources for my inks in the future.

What has been your experiences with shipments of ink? Have you had any mishaps such as mine?