You HAVE to be kidding me!!!

[Firefyter-emt]

Guys, before I blow a cork, take a look at this centerband on the Jr. Statesman and tell me if this is a "new plating" of black-ti that has no gloss and is not even close to the same as my old one or the rest of the new kit.

A little background. CSUSA was nice enough to replace my pen due to the Rhodium plating pitting. The first replacement had a minor mess up due to both of us, I did not mention that it was a non-post pen and they did not ask. I guess I could live with that, but the big issue was that the centerband did not have any black-ti plating. Well, today the new one came in the same way!!

Tell me that I am wrong and this is the "new kit" but it look like garbarge! The band is no where even close to the same as the kit. You would think they would of checked the kit, I even suggested they check the stock to see if they had more like this.

Is it just me?? Or is this defective? I have to wait until Monday to call them, but this can't be the way they make them now, is it??!!

Digging in the photos I found this good photo of what my old pen looked like. Did they change from what I had to what is seen above?

Thanks Jim!

 

[kirkfranks]

Lee,
I would say from what I see that they have a problem and even though you asked them to check their stock they must not have done a good job.
I think since the ring is not the same as the rest of the kit that really tells the answer.
Just because they have good customer service dosen't mean that the one that you are talking to knows all about the product. If the customer service policy is to replace and someone else will investigate then I could see how this could happen.
I hope they either dont have many like this or the investigate really quickly to get the problem off the shelf.
I will be interested to hear what they say on Monday

 

[redfishsc]

Well, unfortunately, no shockers there. [V]

SOUNDS TO ME LIKE IT IS HIGH TIME SOMEONE START MAKING KITS HERE IN THE GOOD OL USA. Not that we could afford them if they were[V]

 

[Firefyter-emt]

I know what you mean Kirk... It's not like it's a slimline kit or something, you would think at the very least the replacement kit would of been checked before it was shipped.

Has anyone else noticed this before??

 

[IPD_Mrs]

Lee,
When you call on Monday, ask for Aubrey. Explain just as you did on here. I am sure that want to know there is a problem as they are very proud and work hard on their reputation. Also maybe Eric will see your post. The pictures are worth a thousand words.

In regards to making them in the USA....You have three very costly parts to US production. First is building the location that you can do plating and milling. Pretty heafty expense just for the equipment not to mention the building and zoning requirements. Then there are the two factors that are out of our control. OSHA and EPA. Notice that employment was not mentioned. That doesn't become a major problem until the employees band together and form a union.

 

[arioux]

Hi,

Something is wrong. very very wrong. I've been turning for few years, my father few years before me and we never experience as much problems as we are having righ now. From the 4 different suppliers we ordered from in the last few weeks 3 had problems eitheir with parts quality or with plating defect. And as funny as it sound, only PSI kits where all ok.
Altough they all have good service, and all stand behing their product, you can start to feel their iritation when you talk with them on the phone. Bad for their business specially when it's their best seller ot higher end kit that are the problems.

Alfred

 

[jcollazo]

My feeling is that the weakening US dollar against global currencies has been affecting how our suppliers are dealing with cost issues. With certain costs such as shipping, general overhead etc. remaining relatively the same, a couple of the places to make cuts could be in plating quality and general QC. If a kit visibly looks the same as last years version, then it's fine. It doesn't matter that the plating material is a cheaper product and it's not applied to the same thickness as before. As long as the kit looks the same no one will ever notice...... until the revolution starts.

Here's another thought... CSUSA and Berea get their kits from companies in Taiwan. Better companies with better salaries equal higher costs. PSI buys from mainland China. Let's just say it's "less expensive". PSI may not have cut QC (yet) because their pricing had been lower all along. How long that will last, who knows?

My point is... until the US dollar rises, we may see more than pen kits losing quality.[:0]

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Well Joe, if they think that if they just forgo the plating on the centerband all togather then there is going to be issues!! Heck, at this point I would make it as a ti-gold pen, I like the black ti better, but if "this is it" that's a joke! I said in my other post that in a million years you would probably never see that again... man how time flys!

 

[LEAP]

I think its all a conspirancy to drive Lee crazy. You do seem to be on the receiving end of more than your fair share of defects. Bad Karma or something.

 

[cdcarter]

Hey, look at the toys. Anybody checked this stuff for lead?

 

[Firefyter-emt]

It may just be Phil, it just may be!!

 

[ashaw]

This is the reason next year I will be putting money aside to make my components here. I figure by next year I will have all of the necessary equiptment to manufactor my own parts. I have been intouch with a local plating company. We are working out cost per unit fiqures and hopefully by early next year I will have all of the dollar per unit costs figured out. I will see what happens next. But this has been the trend over the last twenty or more years where all of the US manufacturing have going overseas.

Our economy has become one of consumption.

 

[ericatcraft]

Lee,

I apologize for the two defective parts you received, I really don't know what to tell you. I just went down to our warehouse and checked our inventory on all the Jr. Statesman w/ black titanium and the center bands look just like they always have. They are dark the the photo of your previously turned pen. I checked the full size Statesman as well. I even checked our spare parts drawer and all the pens that I checked looked perfectly normal. We have heard no other complaints so it would seem that you were the lucky (unlucky in this case) customer who got the only two defective parts that we had! I am really sorry about that and if you email me with your address I will personally pick the new center band coupler and have it sent next day air so you have it tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[arioux]

Lee,

You now have a very rare item (only two in the world !!!)

Should ask a premium for those pens [][][][}]

Sorry, could not resit. (The devil make me do it)[}]

Alfred

 

[wizical]

hey everybody,

I have to agree with the falling Price of the "dollar" that pen kits are going to cost more to import. Hopefully the dollar goes back up soon and the price goes back down.

As to Ashaw, Starting your own pen making company-Kudos and good luck to you, If you can make something within reason and have great quality, im aboard. But it will get very expensive.

Good luck to all

I have to say with dealing with CSUSA for the past two years, you cannot beat there Customer service, they have replaced parts for me when I requested it, no problem whatsoever, but that is my opinion.

 

[alamocdc]

Lee, you could always PC the two in different colors and see how it looks.[]

 

[Firefyter-emt]

OK... Just to set things STRAIGHT here. The center-band that I posted, is the "new" style that CSUSA apparently started selling about a year ago. I have checked this with a couple other guys here that make the kits a lot and I have even seen photos that are the same as mine. I am shocked no one who made one like this in the last year did not pick up on it and mention it, no did anyone at CSUSA (although on their end, the change was a year ago)

I e-mailed Eric, and hopefully he can stop the order and it has not gone out yet. I don't like the new style as much, but maybe it will grow on me with time.

Just to clarify once and for all, this is what the new band looks like. The post end and final cap are the same "solid" Black -Ti plating as like the old style.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Originally posted by ericatcraft
<br />Lee,

I apologize for the two defective parts you received, I really don't know what to tell you. I just went down to our warehouse and checked our inventory on all the Jr. Statesman w/ black titanium and the center bands look just like they always have. They are dark the the photo of your previously turned pen. I checked the full size Statesman as well. I even checked our spare parts drawer and all the pens that I checked looked perfectly normal. We have heard no other complaints so it would seem that you were the lucky (unlucky in this case) customer who got the only two defective parts that we had! I am really sorry about that and if you email me with your address I will personally pick the new center band coupler and have it sent next day air so you have it tomorrow. Thanks.

Well, after all that commotion, I thought I go down to my basement and check on my Statesman Jr kits. I have made some 20 Statesman Jr and have about 15 or so kits left for future pens. Yesterday, I was selling two of them and the customer asked me if she could have the two pens with the same nib. I checked them, and see they have different nib styles!! One has the rounded nib that gave some discussions sometime back here, the other had the more straight, tapered nib. Interesting!! I actually never picked this up until yesterday. Here is a comparison of the two nibs:

Now, since I was down in the shop, I took a look at all the nib assemblies and see, I also have two of the dark, shiny ones!!

And here is a picture showing two of each. I also found that the plastic part is a two piece assembly with the shiny and dark Black Ti ring; the other one has a one-piece plastic part with the matte and lighter grey ring. I must say, all my other kits as well as all my finished pens in my stock have the light colored, matte ring.

Too bad the photos don't show this a bit more distinct - as they are in real life.
Guess, both Lee and I have gotten a very special gift from CSUSA - maybe this were some prototype parts that somehow got mixed in. Funny in my case is that the two shiny, dark ring nib assemblies have also a different plastic (thread) assembly.
Maybe Eric can chime here in again.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Thanks a million Rudy for helping clear this up. From what I have gathered, the dark bands (aka the plated ones!) [] Are the kits from about a year ago, still the V2 kit, but an earlier model. Now I am not sure if the "Pen Island" style nib was always with that style CB or not, but my Jr.Statesman had the smaller (more fragile?) plastic thread coupler. That was the same style that had broken on me once. The new style looks much stronger and I can't wait to give it a try.

Apparently those kits you got in with your order had been kicking around for about a year.

Oh, and thanks for the photo... the one I posted was yours, I figured you wouldn't mind to put an end to the "what is this" question.

 

[nethowler]

Originally posted by redfishsc
<br />Well, unfortunately, no shockers there. [V]

SOUNDS TO ME LIKE IT IS HIGH TIME SOMEONE START MAKING KITS HERE IN THE GOOD OL USA. Not that we could afford them if they were[V]

2nd

 

[LanceD]

Well I was going through some of my Jr Statesman kits and noticed that Lee wasn't the only one that received the only two "defective" kits. It seems that I have a mixture of the shiny centerbands and some of the matte looking bands also and not only on the black ti but also on the gold ti ones also. Also never knowing what style of nib you're going to receive makes me not want to place another order until their kits become consistent again.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Guys, I spoke to Eric on the phone today and I did mention that there were quite a few of the "old style" kits that have recently been sold. You may want to give them a call about them.

As for the "defective" part, like I said... It was partly my fault because I do not make many of these kits and the one that was replaced was made in January. Now I have no idea when the change took place, in fact I may of gotten an "old kit" back then seeing as some of these old kits are still mixed in. I do like the old CB better, but the changes in the new style kit are enough to make up for it

On another note, it looks like I will be sending in my old pen to CSUSA in order for them to work on the plating failure per request from Eric. If it can help find the reason for the failure it will be worth it.