As one who has been a "salesman" for the past 35+ years, I have learned you can never be "over-educated" on your product. So, I prefer to KNOW I am selling a product that has less than half of one percent of rhodium. Now, if YOU want to call that "rhodium-plated", more power to you.
I don't.
If you run into an educated buyer who knows the cost of rhodium and you are selling a pen for $100, claiming it to be rhodium plated, he will, most probably, suspect you know very little about your product. I prefer not to put myself in that position.
You may do as you wish.
So hypothetically speaking, if you happen to purchase some kits from Craft Supply to resell and they are sold as rhodium plated do you white out the rhodium plated part and pencil in "shiny white metal" ? Or does the rhodium plating in the Craft Supply kits contain enough rhodium to qualify as real rhodium to satisfy an educated buyer should the need arise?
I have often said, NEVER say NEVER, but this is an exception!
When I sold at shows, I NEVER showed a prospective customer a KIT!!!
So, the education they got on the plating was all verbal--I did not have printed descriptions, since I sometimes doubted the information I had been provided by the "manufacturer". My "selling strategy" did not rely on telling the customer what the makeup was, but rather on emphasizing the "lifetime repair" that I would provide for "normal use".
When we now sell component sets to penmakers, we have used the description from our supplier (CSUSA), since there are SOME people who try to imply that we are having those made by a "cut rate" supplier, rather than CSUSA (where we actually purchase the kits so labelled). So, we use their terminology to avoid confusion.
As to the original question, I can say I have sold thousands of pens at the retail level (shows). I have had a couple 10Kt gold returned for wear. That is the ONLY case I can remember where wear was a factor. (I have had MORE returned, complaining that the rollerball was faulty because the customer LOST the SPRING).
But, I also purchased ALL my "non-slimlines" from Berea or CSUSA--or their resellers. So, I knew what I was buying.
The market has changed, many more sources and many more levels of quality are available now.