RogerGarrett
Member
So much of the time we have difficulty when we purchase an item or two from a company and the company takes forever to resolve the mixup (which it often is) - or worse - they simply ignore the customer. Not so today.
Some of you may recall Chris Kotterman's terrific group buy last spring/summer (well - he's done a few, and I can't really remember which month it was - I can barely remember which year it is half the time
). I purchased several items - including 5 cigar pen kits in the black titanium plating. I have had great luck with these very attractive pen kits (they sell like hotcakes), and Chris' group buy helped me grab a few more to add to my ever increasing boxes of inventory (from which my 16 year old routinely steals to make a pen for himself or friends - but that will be the next posting!).
When the five pen kits arrived, I checked the parts through the bag (not real closely) to be sure everything was there and that they were indeed cigar kits, and I tossed them in my bin for cigar kits and moved on to other projects.
Flash forward to this past November - and I was getting ready for the annual high school band crafts show for which I have pens, birdhouse ornaments, and musical instrument reed cases. Great show - I cleared over $1200 profit in 5 hours this year. But....I digress.
I sell a lot of cigar pens at this particular event, and, when I went to make the black titanium kit - it was a combination of black titanium with gold accents (I'm assuming titanium gold). The decorative band at the nib, the center band that grabs the lower barrel and twists, and the top cap were all black titanium. The rest of the visible parts were gold - the nib, the clip, and......? I checked the website, and CSUSA only showed all black titanium plating for this particular pen kit. I shrugged my shoulders and made four of the five pens with amboyna burl. The finished pen was stunning to say the least. The black ti and gold combination with AB wood was really attractive in all ways. Each of these pens sold within the first hour of the show.
I ran into a problem with assembly - and that is that the black ti seems to be ever so slightly thicker a plating than the gold. This made for a very, very, VERY tight fit of top and bottom pen parts. [B)] I eventually had to remove the nib and twist parts of the lower barrel part, use a jam chuck approach to spin the part on the lathe while using 400 grit then 600 grit sandpaper to remove material from the lower barrel part. Eventually, I was able to get a "normal" fit with a smooth function from the pen - but it took quite a bit of extra work.
My reason for posting?
I contacted Chris about the issue when I had a new order from one of those customers who purchased the pen at the show. They wondered about the black ti and the gold combination. So - I went to the CSUSA website and it came up ALL BLACK TI - with no gold accents. I was puzzled, so I emailed Chris with all the information about plating and tight fit. He forwarded the information to CSUSA and Lynda Glade, Customer Service Manager at CSUSA wrote back:
"Thanks for your email, that is the way the kit should look the black with the gold on it. I am glad they turned out great after your hard work. Always good to hear from you. Happy Holidays."
Both Chris and I were puzzled - and we guessed perhaps that she had misunderstood the email. So - I called Lynda today, and after several minutes of searching the website, she understood my question. It turns out that CSUSA does NOT sell a combo kit - and she was as puzzled as we were. Her thinking is that, because the kits come pre-packaged and ready to ship, they were sent combined parts incorrectly.
She is sending me five cigar pen kits in black ti - no charge.
What a company. I told her I was impressed. She said she wants to keep us happy - that we bring a lot of business her way. I'm glad to keep doing that.
Best wishes,
Roger Garrett
Some of you may recall Chris Kotterman's terrific group buy last spring/summer (well - he's done a few, and I can't really remember which month it was - I can barely remember which year it is half the time
). I purchased several items - including 5 cigar pen kits in the black titanium plating. I have had great luck with these very attractive pen kits (they sell like hotcakes), and Chris' group buy helped me grab a few more to add to my ever increasing boxes of inventory (from which my 16 year old routinely steals to make a pen for himself or friends - but that will be the next posting!). When the five pen kits arrived, I checked the parts through the bag (not real closely) to be sure everything was there and that they were indeed cigar kits, and I tossed them in my bin for cigar kits and moved on to other projects.
Flash forward to this past November - and I was getting ready for the annual high school band crafts show for which I have pens, birdhouse ornaments, and musical instrument reed cases. Great show - I cleared over $1200 profit in 5 hours this year. But....I digress.
I sell a lot of cigar pens at this particular event, and, when I went to make the black titanium kit - it was a combination of black titanium with gold accents (I'm assuming titanium gold). The decorative band at the nib, the center band that grabs the lower barrel and twists, and the top cap were all black titanium. The rest of the visible parts were gold - the nib, the clip, and......? I checked the website, and CSUSA only showed all black titanium plating for this particular pen kit. I shrugged my shoulders and made four of the five pens with amboyna burl. The finished pen was stunning to say the least. The black ti and gold combination with AB wood was really attractive in all ways. Each of these pens sold within the first hour of the show.
I ran into a problem with assembly - and that is that the black ti seems to be ever so slightly thicker a plating than the gold. This made for a very, very, VERY tight fit of top and bottom pen parts. [B)] I eventually had to remove the nib and twist parts of the lower barrel part, use a jam chuck approach to spin the part on the lathe while using 400 grit then 600 grit sandpaper to remove material from the lower barrel part. Eventually, I was able to get a "normal" fit with a smooth function from the pen - but it took quite a bit of extra work.
My reason for posting?
I contacted Chris about the issue when I had a new order from one of those customers who purchased the pen at the show. They wondered about the black ti and the gold combination. So - I went to the CSUSA website and it came up ALL BLACK TI - with no gold accents. I was puzzled, so I emailed Chris with all the information about plating and tight fit. He forwarded the information to CSUSA and Lynda Glade, Customer Service Manager at CSUSA wrote back:
"Thanks for your email, that is the way the kit should look the black with the gold on it. I am glad they turned out great after your hard work. Always good to hear from you. Happy Holidays."
Both Chris and I were puzzled - and we guessed perhaps that she had misunderstood the email. So - I called Lynda today, and after several minutes of searching the website, she understood my question. It turns out that CSUSA does NOT sell a combo kit - and she was as puzzled as we were. Her thinking is that, because the kits come pre-packaged and ready to ship, they were sent combined parts incorrectly.
She is sending me five cigar pen kits in black ti - no charge.
What a company. I told her I was impressed. She said she wants to keep us happy - that we bring a lot of business her way. I'm glad to keep doing that.
Best wishes,
Roger Garrett
