As I’ve written before, I’m a fountain pen fanatic. I’m also the kind of guy who clings to things long past their “best used by” date.

However, this past year I began replacing my old pens–one of which creaks when I write and one of which is corroding–with new ones that I hope will last as long as my old ones. This has sent me to Kickstarter for a pen from Scotland and one from Arizona based Karas Kustoms, which is one part machine shop, one part pen maker. I also ordered one from Edison Pen Co., an Ohio pen maker I first saw on Etsy several years ago before they became much bigger and better.

My problem is, if I buy things from outside of Japan, customer service becomes an issue. Anything that goes wrong becomes an arduous and expensive process of mailing and remailing and postage and filling out customs forms. This has been an issue the past few days, but I got excellent results that are worth writing about.

I recently got a 2014 Glenmont from Edison Pens as part of a special group purchase the company arranges every year (and as my birthday present). Once I got it, I sat down to put ink in it and start using it.

I filled the converter with ink and attached it to the housing and started to push some ink into the nib. A few minutes later I had a lot of ink on my hands and none in the nib. I tried dunking the nib in the ink and drawing it into the pen. I ended up doing a lot of twisting but got no ink in the converter.

The converter didn’t seem to be sealing to the nib housing and whatever I did I ended up with ink on my fingers.

I contacted Brian Gray at Edison Pens and he responded quickly. He then had the unfortunate job of diagnosing a pen problem in Japan sight unseen. I followed his suggestions and then discovered a hole where no hole should have been and sent a picture of it. He realized they’d attached the housing for a different kind of pen and immediately shipped me the correct version.

The best part is, except for a short wait, it’s the same service I’d get if I still lived in the USA. Unfortunately, it’s got me thinking about what the 2015 limited edition will be…that said, I actually haven’t had a chance to write with my new pen yet, so maybe I’d better wait before thinking about 2015 too much.

Side Note: if you like classic fountain pens, I recommend you check out Edison Pen Co. If you like a more machined look and steam-punkish pens, check out the Karas Kustoms INK and the Namisu Nexus.