cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/927840

[Image description: A white fountain pen with a silver clip on the cap and a silver zebra stripe band around the middle lies on a blue dotted grid desk pad.]

I impulse bought a Pilot Metropolitan (F) about a month ago and have had the worst experience so far. First it took 3 days of experimenting (squeezing the cartridge, flushing, cleaning, shaking, incessant scribbling) to get it to write at all. Then I noticed the nib was a bit off-center in the feed so I aligned it and it wrote pretty well for a while. This morning I grabbed it to take some notes and it won’t start, even after a flush with water and re-seating the cartridge. This isn’t my first fountain pen (not even my first Pilot!) but I’m really disappointed because the Metro seems to be such a popular recommendation as a solid, inexpensive starter pen. Did I get a dud?

  • @quaEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    This is definitely a painful experience. Will you be able to swap it out with the seller? The Metropolitan is a pen that just has to work out of the box without any tinkering.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      I got it on Amazon so I requested a return after some more experimenting, it really wasn’t worth the effort. A shame but at least I know I tried my best to get it working!

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      2•9 months ago

      I wouldn’t recommend it based on this experience. My other Pilot pens have been a real treat to use (Kakuno, Petit, Explorer) but the Metropolitan was a huge disappointment 😕

  • @MeanEYEEnglish
    1•9 months ago

    Sounds like a dud. I’ve bought number of MRs and never had such issue. That said, I never buy japanese fine nibs. They are too thin for me.