Montblanc Starwalker Fountain Pen 25608

I am pen collector with more than 100 pens in my personal collection; many by Mont Blanc. My wife bought me this pen as a gift. The primary issue with this pen is the poorly made plastic threads and their inability to hold up to "standard" use. When you contact Mont Blanc, they tell you this is "Simply normal wear and tear" and they will happily "Rebuild" the pen for $175. This occurs under normal careful use in less than 1 year. So if you buy this pen you are sigining up for $550.00 plus a charge of $175 every year plus the headache of managing a device that may fail at anytime.On the positive side the idea is fantastic. It is a heavy pen with great balance. The pen cap screws onto the back during writing so will not fall off or damage the body during use.For the price there are hundreds of pens better quality and with proven track records of performance. Since receiving this pen and its issues over the past 5 years I have spoken to the company 4 times with no resolution. It is now non-functional sitting in my display case where it will stay for life. Yes they market their pens to outlive their owners. This is just frankly not the case with this new line. Their quality has fallen and their service appears to be following.

Great looking pen, beautiful to use but bad craftsmanship with its cap thread insert. Second time in 2 1/2 years I have had it back to dealer to fix. First under warranty, second for a fee of AUD265. Do yourselves a favour, buy it if you want - but don't use it as it will sit gathering dust either way. Mont Blanc, never again!

Background you can skipI am sure that the collectors of fountain pens will buy this particular 'rubber and steel' model regardless of a somewhat-negative review. Since they are unlikely to use the fountain pen daily it is not going to matter much. I myself, however, bought this pen 3 years ago as a treat for a year well done.Given the price and my ownership of 'lesser' fountain pens from Parker and Waterman and Namiki, expected an instrument that would hold up well, if used daily. Here is where this pen fails...Under daily useThe problem is not with the flow of ink or the tip, no complaints there. I used this fountain pen with Noodler's Ink with no problems and the flow was smooth and bold, just the way I liked it. If falls apart on the cap, actually: the thread on the inside of the cap is plastic, whereas the thread on the pen is metal. Where plastic and metal meet plastic will wear out. So if you put the cap on and you tighten it like any other pen, you will find that over time, the cap no longer screws on.I reached out to Mont Blanc and they consider this normal wear and tear from use and since it takes about 3 years of daily use to get like this you are SOL. The MB Boutique would charge me a hefty 175$ for repair. This is simply outrageous for a pen that is supposed to outlive its owner and become something you can hand down to your children and so on.I have other fountain pens, some I have used for over 10 years before I bought this one, at around 200$ and none of them have exhibited this type of issue. I find it poor design to use plastic thread in a pen of this price. I am sure there will be MB fans out there aggravated for what I am saying here but believe me: I want this pen to be great and to last.In summary:PROS- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I think it to be beautiful- Rubber feels great in hand and keeps a firm grip- Good flow of ink and somewhat bolder than comparable tips I have used, which I like- Heavy, which I like for my writing- Well balancedCONS- Plastic thread in cap wears out FAST!! Repair is expensive- Similar pens from other brands (same price range) are better built, in my case Parker, Waterman and NamikiI gave it 3 stars since , if you are aware of the thread issue, you can be careful and avoid thread wear as much as possible (but not entirely).

Love the design, but hate the fact that Mont Blanc cannot make a pen suitable for daily use. The cap thread wear problem is not something incidental as the shopkeeper told me it was a well known problem and Mont blanc refuses to acknowledge the problem as a design flaw

Liking a pen and liking customer service and quality control are two very different things. Received the pen as a gift and did not work from day one, the ink did not flow! After a Herculean struggle about why this was not my fault, the issue was resolved. This is after multiple calls to customer service which began immediately with the accusation that I did not use Mont Blanc ink. OK, I told the rep that I could use no other ink since this is the only MB pen that only takes cartridges. I was then told that maybe the ink cartridges were too old. I paused and then thought about ink, checked the box of ink cartridges and found that there was no expiration date on the box. To the point, MB customer service is the proverbial pits. I did not expect this from a brand that is trying to establish itself a "luxury brand."No complaints about the pen, nib, balance. and design. SoI won't purchase another MB pen because who wants to spend that amount of money and have a subconscious fear that if something goes wrong on MB's part I shall find myself wishing I had purchased an Omas pen among others who understand the concept of luxury marketing.