I wrote to Faber-Castell in hope of finding some information or possible assistance with a vintage discontinued writing instrument. I didn’t want to dive right into my issue upfront, so I asked a general question. “Does Faber Castell provide any service or parts for discontinued writing instruments? For instance, if I have a fault with my alphamatic mechanical pencil, can Faber Castell help me?”
Their response:
The instrument you referenced is an older Art & Graphic one, discontinued for which spare parts were not available or manufactured; it also was not distributed in the U.S., so we would be unable to service it unfortunately. In general, there is a 2 year limited warranty for manufactures defect on Premium Writing (Design, Graf von Faber-Castell) products. Discontinued instruments could only be repaired if parts were available or manufactured for it.
So… wow. The alphamatic was never distributed in the USA?
Anyway, if they can’t help with the alphamatic, I’m certain they can’t assist with an alpha-ball (the matched ballpoint).
Funny thing is, there was someone on Reddit who’d mentioned having an issue with their discontinued Faber Castell pencil and the company provided a replacement part. I can’t recall what it was… but it was supposed to be discontinued. Maybe they contacted the European office?
I got a similar response from Pentel, when i asked about replacement parts for a PG2003. They essentially said they keep spares for 2 or 3 years after a model is discontinued; after that, you’re on your own.
I had a “lottery moment” with Pentel once upon a time. It was a rare, wonderful experience that is hard to come by. And I can thank the guy who ran the “My Supply Room” blog for that. In his post about having acquired his PSD5 back in 2014, he said he wrote to Pentel to ask about the replacing of an eraser cap. A nice woman at Pentel named Ginger Goode was all too happy to provide him a replacement cap, as they luckily still had some left over. The PSD5 had been discontinued for some time.
Well, the eraser cap on one of my PSD5’s had a nasty dent in it, so I thought maybe I could get it replaced. I wrote to Pentel with high spirits… only to find a response that informed me Ginger Goode was no longer with Pentel and that they had no more eraser caps left to send. Bust!
[ brag]
OK, so where’s the “lottery win” you may ask? The Pentel rep politely asked me if I would be interested in other parts. Ummmm… what? YES! As it turns out, there was a small drawer containing a few leftover PSD5 parts and apparently had been forgotten. She was more than happy to just send them to me so they could completely close out the PSD5 parts inventory. Well, what do you know, eh? I got two nose cones with grips, man. And extra couple of chromed lead indicator rings! I couldn’t believe it. And she didn’t want any payment for shipping. She just sent them in a little manila envelope.
[ /brag]
I doubt I’ll ever get that lucky again. But if a PSD5 or PWP15 ever turns up with a nasty cosmetically challenged front end, I can restore it back to original beauty.
