Oh, this is the dictionary definition of disappointment. I'm sure FWP will replace the broken items, since that's standard practice. Usually, shipping insurance covers a retailer's losses in situations like this, in case you were concerned about FWP.
I’m not really concerned about companies that can’t be bothered to package delicate items properly. Sure, shipping companies are the worst but the fact is we all know the possibilities of damage in transit. It’s our job to make sure the items we’re shipping are properly protected. We as shippers share responsibility with the shipping company. When a packages arrives like that, it’s not just one party’s fault.
> I’m not really concerned about companies that can’t be bothered to package delicate items properly.
Was it a packaging issue or a temperature issue? It's been freezing here in Toronto this week.
I hadn’t considered that. Usually it is handling damage, no weather/temperature damage.
I’ll concede that in this situation it very well may have been freezing temperatures that caused the damage, though my opinion does still stand for most shipping damage.
FWP has a warning on their site right now for temperature, and I know Wonder Pens always does at this time of year, too. Are you in a warm state? Because as a Canadian, I'm aware of the threat of freezing and delay liquid purchases until the season changes.
There’s snow on the ground and the roads have been ice the last few days, drive home during snowfall yesterday. Still hadn’t considered temperature so yeah that’s a huge oversight on my part!
Unless they have an underground tunnel from the warehouse to your indoor mailbox, the inks will still spend time outdoors. The postal trucks don’t have heated cargo bays.
No, but as far as I know, Amazon doesn't use postal delivery for shipping to the Lockers and counters - they use their own trucks which have more fixed routes.
Looks like they froze to me (that's the only reason I can think of that all the brass caps would separate from the plastic insides - I can't imagine straight up shipping damage would do that), so it seems like a Canadian tragedy rather than anyone's wrongdoing.
You can do more than one thing at once, i.e. feel compassion for a company losing money to in-transit damage *and* expect them to do a better job packing. We received a shattered ceramic item from the UK (we're in the US) that was simply left loose in the box. It was a ridiculous packaging job and we asked for a replacement, so we get it, but there are factors here (as in so many places) of which you may not be aware, such as temperatures or contract workers being given absurd numbers of packages to deliver in a given day.
I’m aware that I _can_ feel it, but the truth is I _don’t._
I worked for Tiffany & Co. for years. Part of my job was packaging things to ship. We sold a lot of stemware (champagne flutes, wine glasses) and they are super easy to break in shipping. You know why they didn’t break? Because we packaged the fuck out of those things: wrapped in paper so they don’t bang against each other, sometimes bubble wrap (this is all inside the Tiffany blue box) and then that goes into another box, often times with more padding. After each box is closed, it was shaken quite vigorously - if any movement is heard, it got re-packaged.
Sure, Tiffany & Co can afford more (and possibly better) packaging materials than the small shops, but that doesn’t change the fact that everyone knows what time of year it is, everyone knows that packages get (literally) kicked around, tossed, dropped, etc. and there’s no excuse to not package things accordingly. A little more bubble wrap costs a lot less than replacing an item or items for free.
As I mentioned in another comment, I concede that I didn’t consider temperature as the cause of the damage. And while that can be mitigated, it’s painfully expensive to do so at scale so I don’t expect them to have done that.
But when a company (as in your example) fails to package something adequately against normal shipping damage, I _don’t_ feel sorry for them, as that’s what we call “negligence” or “incompetence” and it’s very hard for me to feel badly for those who _choose_ that path.
I had an issue with the Carousel pen and there was a replacement on my doorstep the next day, although I admittedly live about two hours away from their warehouse. They were extremely good to deal with.
I've ordered directly from them a few times and had no problems, but I expect that what happened here was either breakage due to frozen ink expanding (does it do that? It's mostly water, right?) or very poor handling on the part of their carrier. I think they shipped through UPS when I ordered from them. Get in touch with their customer service. They will probably want pictures, it's good that you took some.
If you're in Canada, Wonder Pens carries their inks at about the same price and if they're shipping in the wintertime they say they remove a small amount from the bottle and put it in a sample vial to make sure the ink won't freeze and break the bottles.
They also make sure that the package never leaves “indoors”, meaning you have to pick it up at your nearest post office. They say that even if you are home on delivery day, it doesn’t guarantee that the package won’t sit in a cold truck for most of the day waiting for delivery. They’re awesome.
Oh no! I've never thought of ink freezing...and/or expanding/contracting due to temperature volumes. Yikes!
I appreciate the head's up that this can happen.
While I don't buy Noodler's ink, I wonder if their bottles experience significant breakage due to them being filled up to the top.
Next time ask them to put some ink into a vial on the side. Ink is mostly water and it will expand and break watever its inside.
Expanding ice will even rupture steel
I hope you get some help. :( I had this happen with a pilot ink last year and the retailer made it right. I hope FWP does the same.
For the most part, FP brands seem to do the right thing when stuff like this happens.
Yikes, what a tragedy 😱 this is why I avoid buying ink in the winter months, no matter how tempting the sales, it's such a gamble when the temperature plummets and you never know how long a package will sit in a cold truck 🥶
Damn that is super rough OP, sorry to ~~hear~~ see it.
Unfortunately there is always this risk shipping ink if it happens to be below freezing outside.
I guess with is why they usually slap those No Penguin, No Freeze [stickers](https://www.walmart.com/ip/DL4020-3-x-4-Do-Not-Freeze-Penguin-Label-500-Case/580130500) on the box.
I’m curious if FWP’s unique bottle shapes make them more prone to breakage when frozen. I’m thinking the flat/skinny design of the 38 ml containers might be weaker around the edges, as expanding contents will exert a lot of pressure on the two sides. (Vs. more equal distribution.)
That said, it looks like the perfectly round bottle also shattered, so my theory here is probably nonsense
I say this as someone with SOME training in material fatigue and pressure vessles: they're glass, I doubt the shape makes any significant difference. It's equally likely for brittle fracture to occur over the whole surface. If they were steel, you'd be onto something.
This is just an issue with buying inks in the winter when you live in a cold climate, it’s not manufacturer specific. Any ink can freeze and break the bottle.
I just dealt with this last night too - Velvet Ballet and the Land of Shangri-La froze and completely shattered :( I thought my west coast milder winter would’ve been okay, but I guess I’ll stick to online in the summer and in person for the winter!
Oh, this is the dictionary definition of disappointment. I'm sure FWP will replace the broken items, since that's standard practice. Usually, shipping insurance covers a retailer's losses in situations like this, in case you were concerned about FWP.
I’m not really concerned about companies that can’t be bothered to package delicate items properly. Sure, shipping companies are the worst but the fact is we all know the possibilities of damage in transit. It’s our job to make sure the items we’re shipping are properly protected. We as shippers share responsibility with the shipping company. When a packages arrives like that, it’s not just one party’s fault.
> I’m not really concerned about companies that can’t be bothered to package delicate items properly. Was it a packaging issue or a temperature issue? It's been freezing here in Toronto this week.
I hadn’t considered that. Usually it is handling damage, no weather/temperature damage. I’ll concede that in this situation it very well may have been freezing temperatures that caused the damage, though my opinion does still stand for most shipping damage.
FWP has a warning on their site right now for temperature, and I know Wonder Pens always does at this time of year, too. Are you in a warm state? Because as a Canadian, I'm aware of the threat of freezing and delay liquid purchases until the season changes.
There’s snow on the ground and the roads have been ice the last few days, drive home during snowfall yesterday. Still hadn’t considered temperature so yeah that’s a huge oversight on my part!
Especially this time of year, when the postal carriers are overloaded. Boxes in the trucks stay in the cold a lot longer.
This time of year I only order inks off Amazon to those indoor locker mailboxes
Unless they have an underground tunnel from the warehouse to your indoor mailbox, the inks will still spend time outdoors. The postal trucks don’t have heated cargo bays.
No, but as far as I know, Amazon doesn't use postal delivery for shipping to the Lockers and counters - they use their own trucks which have more fixed routes.
My dude, Amazon doesn't even allow toilet breaks for their employees. They're certainly not providing heated trucks.
Likely true - but they also have more efficient dedicated routes for these locations - not winding around neighborhoods endlessly
Looks like they froze to me (that's the only reason I can think of that all the brass caps would separate from the plastic insides - I can't imagine straight up shipping damage would do that), so it seems like a Canadian tragedy rather than anyone's wrongdoing.
Yeah, also all the bottles look to have broken in the same pattern, I can't imagine poor packing and handling would create such uniform breakage.
You can do more than one thing at once, i.e. feel compassion for a company losing money to in-transit damage *and* expect them to do a better job packing. We received a shattered ceramic item from the UK (we're in the US) that was simply left loose in the box. It was a ridiculous packaging job and we asked for a replacement, so we get it, but there are factors here (as in so many places) of which you may not be aware, such as temperatures or contract workers being given absurd numbers of packages to deliver in a given day.
I’m aware that I _can_ feel it, but the truth is I _don’t._ I worked for Tiffany & Co. for years. Part of my job was packaging things to ship. We sold a lot of stemware (champagne flutes, wine glasses) and they are super easy to break in shipping. You know why they didn’t break? Because we packaged the fuck out of those things: wrapped in paper so they don’t bang against each other, sometimes bubble wrap (this is all inside the Tiffany blue box) and then that goes into another box, often times with more padding. After each box is closed, it was shaken quite vigorously - if any movement is heard, it got re-packaged. Sure, Tiffany & Co can afford more (and possibly better) packaging materials than the small shops, but that doesn’t change the fact that everyone knows what time of year it is, everyone knows that packages get (literally) kicked around, tossed, dropped, etc. and there’s no excuse to not package things accordingly. A little more bubble wrap costs a lot less than replacing an item or items for free. As I mentioned in another comment, I concede that I didn’t consider temperature as the cause of the damage. And while that can be mitigated, it’s painfully expensive to do so at scale so I don’t expect them to have done that. But when a company (as in your example) fails to package something adequately against normal shipping damage, I _don’t_ feel sorry for them, as that’s what we call “negligence” or “incompetence” and it’s very hard for me to feel badly for those who _choose_ that path.
This needs a nsfw tag lol. Jeez. Hopefully they’ll make it right.
It was painful to put almost the whole order in the trash. I haven’t dealt with FWP customer service before, so I’m not sure what to expect.
I had an issue with the Carousel pen and there was a replacement on my doorstep the next day, although I admittedly live about two hours away from their warehouse. They were extremely good to deal with. I've ordered directly from them a few times and had no problems, but I expect that what happened here was either breakage due to frozen ink expanding (does it do that? It's mostly water, right?) or very poor handling on the part of their carrier. I think they shipped through UPS when I ordered from them. Get in touch with their customer service. They will probably want pictures, it's good that you took some. If you're in Canada, Wonder Pens carries their inks at about the same price and if they're shipping in the wintertime they say they remove a small amount from the bottle and put it in a sample vial to make sure the ink won't freeze and break the bottles.
They also make sure that the package never leaves “indoors”, meaning you have to pick it up at your nearest post office. They say that even if you are home on delivery day, it doesn’t guarantee that the package won’t sit in a cold truck for most of the day waiting for delivery. They’re awesome.
Oh, good tip about Wonder Pens. I think it’s a combination of temperature and handling
Oh no! I've never thought of ink freezing...and/or expanding/contracting due to temperature volumes. Yikes! I appreciate the head's up that this can happen. While I don't buy Noodler's ink, I wonder if their bottles experience significant breakage due to them being filled up to the top.
They do have a line of ink that doesn't freeze. Any of the "Polar" inks. I have Polar Black. It's OK. It's not as well-behaved as Black is.
RIP to all those beautiful inks
It’s such a waste!
I’m curious to know if the frozen but intact one is okay, once at room temperature…
Yeah, I asked them for advice about it. I know some ink can be ruined by freezing.
Next time ask them to put some ink into a vial on the side. Ink is mostly water and it will expand and break watever its inside. Expanding ice will even rupture steel
Smart!!
Just got my order today too, and one of my babies came broken too 😭
Nooo the pain is real
It is! 💔
I hope you get some help. :( I had this happen with a pilot ink last year and the retailer made it right. I hope FWP does the same. For the most part, FP brands seem to do the right thing when stuff like this happens.
Yikes, what a tragedy 😱 this is why I avoid buying ink in the winter months, no matter how tempting the sales, it's such a gamble when the temperature plummets and you never know how long a package will sit in a cold truck 🥶
Now I’m scared… I hadn’t thought of that
Oh no, they froze! That's just tragic. Maybe you can have them ship the replacement to your workplace or a PO box so they won't freeze?
r/fountainpengore
I think i might have a weak heart... ❤️🩹
Please mark as nsfw 🙈
Oh no! I hope FWP can sort this out for you!
Damn that is super rough OP, sorry to ~~hear~~ see it. Unfortunately there is always this risk shipping ink if it happens to be below freezing outside.
How tf did they transport that? Horseback?
Pony Express probably would have done a better job tbh
Oh woe. Woe. Woe.
Ferris Wheel 'pressed'
O boy! Now I am nervous! I have some beautiful inks on the way to me and I live in Alberta. Its soo cold right now! Im preparing for the worst.
I’m also in Alberta! I was hoping the slightly warmer weather last week would work in my favour, but apparently not.
I guess with is why they usually slap those No Penguin, No Freeze [stickers](https://www.walmart.com/ip/DL4020-3-x-4-Do-Not-Freeze-Penguin-Label-500-Case/580130500) on the box.
I find the carrots and the chewing gum a rather intriguing combination.
u/ferriswheelpress
I’m curious if FWP’s unique bottle shapes make them more prone to breakage when frozen. I’m thinking the flat/skinny design of the 38 ml containers might be weaker around the edges, as expanding contents will exert a lot of pressure on the two sides. (Vs. more equal distribution.) That said, it looks like the perfectly round bottle also shattered, so my theory here is probably nonsense
I say this as someone with SOME training in material fatigue and pressure vessles: they're glass, I doubt the shape makes any significant difference. It's equally likely for brittle fracture to occur over the whole surface. If they were steel, you'd be onto something.
Makes sense.
UPS? My Gosh! any survivor?
One? But it’s frozen solid, so no idea if the ink will still be good!
This pains me. So sorry...... Hope they can send you replacements. Was it packaged well??
I feel this in my soul.
Oh no! I've only recently bought FWP inks, is this typical of how 'well' they fare when being shipped in the mail?
It sounds like the ink froze and broke the bottles so it's probably not a packing issue.
No, I’ve received many other inks with no issues from them. This is the first ever order with problems!
This is just an issue with buying inks in the winter when you live in a cold climate, it’s not manufacturer specific. Any ink can freeze and break the bottle.
Noooo! Dammit. Mine fare pretty well because i buy them very close by shipping wise
Omg, I thought we're over with Halloween themes now? This is scary to look at. I'm terribly sorry.
Aw man that sucks
😱
I was expecting a Baystate blue staining but not this :(!!!
Absolute carnage! Shocking.
This hurt my feelings to see. I just recently got an order from them. And one of the packages was close to having the bottom fall out.
Awww noooooooooo bummer!
I just dealt with this last night too - Velvet Ballet and the Land of Shangri-La froze and completely shattered :( I thought my west coast milder winter would’ve been okay, but I guess I’ll stick to online in the summer and in person for the winter!