Sorry you feel that way Bill, is it the part about not properly putting the pen togather?? I did not post this to be condescending, but to clarify where the issue is.
It's common practice to use a "press block" to support the coupler on any pen with threads like this and damage while putting it togather, or down the road should be obvious. I just would like to see a poll of where the failure seems to be. I personaly think the plastic threads is a poor design that is not needed. If the majority who reply use the pens and never break them, then I will assume that it's just me.
My addition to include the customer pens is for curosity. If no one has ever had one returned, but say 50 people use them and have broken them, what do you think the "normal user" fail rate would be? It's been said by others that for every one return, you may have 100 that you never know about. I would rather not have 99 people with broken pens and never tell me. Case in point, I just sold one of these to a repeat customer who told me that he lost his old pen, but "it's ok because the plating was wearing pretty badly" (10k cigar)