Most helpful client reviews
14 of 16 persons found the following review helpful.
Drys out at the drop of a hat
By Andy Chen
Have to agree with the former reviewer. These Montblanc refills run out at the drop of a hat. I have both the black and blue versions and both of them have run out after 3 days or so of use. At firstborn I thought it was just clogged with paper debris or an air bubble, but after assorted minutes of trying, the ink just will not flow again.
These refills come with a little plastic end cap on them. I think you might need to store the refills (even the ones you are using in a pen) with the caps on in order to stop this arid out problemm but that’s a ridiculously impractical solution. You might as well buy a cheap ballpoint pen.
18 of 24 persons found the following review helpful.
Low end refill- the perfective picture of a rip-off!
By Reverend Aaron
Summary: If your MB refills suck, don’t worry! It’s how they are. Don’t assume they’re counterfeits- I think that’s just brand mythology, at least in real merchandising outlets in the US. However, if you are more than willing to give them another go at less than full cost, call Mont Blanc and they must be capable to arrange something. If not, take them back to the store from which you got them.
I’m a fountain pen guy, but everyone has to journeying back to the dark side once and a while while filling out a form. For a long time, I’d just held a Parker Jotter w/ a Parker Gel refill in my bag just in case, and it was serviceable, though it did suffer from running out very speedily as well as random arid outs that no amount of spit or hot water could fetch it out of. That said, it worked- though you did end up wasting a bit of cash on the Parker brand. They make nice fountain pens, and made nicer ones in their hayday, but their Gel pens… meh. So, out looking for a new rollerball or gelpen to be my just-in-case pen I was convinced by a friend to try out a Mont Blanc. We went to a local pen shop and I tried out a great deal of of the higher end FPs- I’d only employed a lot of of the sub-$500 MB FPs; and in their world, that’s cheap- as well as their ball pens. My friend spoke well of the MB rollerball refills- and the clerk, not surprisingly, raved with regards to them. Neither genuinely used them, so I suspect a rather simple minded attachment to brand or image.
Much to the chagrin of the clerk, I decisive to play it safe and just buy a pack of the MB refills, using a great deal of hackish engineering science to shoe-horn the refill into a very secure screw-top Esterbrook that was rather nibless. At first, I was beauteous pleased with myself- not only did I have what was supposed to be the finest writing refill on the planet (according to the clerk and MB), I managed to make it take place in a much classier pen than any progressed MB could aspire to be.
In the end, the rollerball fared much worse than the medium-quality Parker Gel refills did. I don’t recognise how many times they run out- I never managed to get past 3 days before it dried out. The original one lasted two days, and in the second one I borrowed a friend’s Starwalker Fineliner and had it go three days. To round out the experience, the refills suffered from chronic skipping that wasn’t helped by all of the random suggestions I got.
I’d read a bunch when it comes to “counterfeit” refills, and in the interest of science got a MB rep’s phone number from the pen shop- they sent out a new pack of 2 refills for a little fee, which is beauteous lame but understandable. With these, I managed only 3 days again, with each refill being split into being employed in the Estie and the MB to see if there was a difference.
In the end, MB makes a lot of over-priced plastic doo-hickeys. I’m sure it’s a good way to buy galore cred around the country club, but as far as writing utensils go they’re gorgeous third tier. I didn’t suppose much from a rollerball refill in general, but for refills that cost $5 each I expected something rather a bit better than the Parker or generics I ordinarily use. In fact, I got worse.
For the $12.50 I expended on the firstborn refills and the S/H fee I salaried later, I could’ve just purchased a bottle of Noodler’s Ink, or better yet, purchased one of those fountain pen ink refillable rollerball pens and skipped over re-learning the lesson that “Mont Blanc is not one thing but jewelry for dandies, not severe pens for humans who write.” Live and learn!
2 of 2 humans found the following review helpful.
Writes well, but short lived.
By T. Hughes
The reviews here are somewhat agreeably diverting to read. The nature of all rollerballs (Mont Blanc included) is that they use more ink than a ballpoint and consequently won’t last long, in particular if you do much writing. The medium points have even shorter lives than the fine points, again, because there is more ink used. That said, no other pen has the feel and smoothness of a Mont Blanc. I’ve employed plastic rollerballs like a Pilot or Zebra that aren’t long-lived either–they may last a little longer than the MB, but that’s because the entire barrel of the pen may store ink. Also doesn’t have the prized little “snow peak” on the end.
Genuine Mont Blanc refills are packaged with a hologram on the box. I can’t speak to knock-offs, because I’ve never purchased them. If the short life of a rollerball refill doesn’t work for you, you may consider a ballpoint.
Bottom line is this: Complaining when it comes to buying a refill for a $400 pen is like buying a Mercedes and complaining regarding the cost of the service or the 93 octane fuel. If you want cheap, go get yourself a $0.99 Bic and write for 6 months…and drive a Kia while you’re at it, not a BMW. You can’t have champaign taste and a Busch Light pocketbook; that goes for cars AND pens. (And most everything else)
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