Here it is! The all new, easier to fill-out, simple to understand, 777 Pen Repair service form! The last version had some issues, making it hard for my clients to fill out when they were going to send me a pen. The last thing I want is for you all, as my clients, to have trouble sending me pens/nibs to work on. So, I've made a new form that I think you all will like. :)
For those who are new to the use of a repair-form - Here's what it is:
This form is for you to fill out when you send me pens for repair. You might be wondering "Why the trouble of having to do this? - It's rather simply actually. What happened a few months ago is what drove me to make this form. I was wasting time, time that could be spent repairing your pens, on getting contact information, calculating shipping-insurance prices, and getting information via email. I decided that I needed to cut this wasted time out, to be both efficient and economical. This form provides me with your name, email, shipping info, pens/nibs that you're sending, and what repairs you want done to them. It saves me the trouble of asking for this information via email. Overall, it makes me process your pens quicker, thus allowing you to enjoy them sooner!
This new form, which can be found here, is super-easy to fill out. You can use the computer keyboard to fill it out! Just open it up in your web-browser, fill it out with the keyboard, and then hit the print button on the little pop-up toolbar (in the bottom right corner). It's as simple as that! This eliminates you having to hand-write everything, and me having trouble reading peoples handwriting. :)
I hope this new improvement will be useful, convenient, and helpful for you. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, and suggestions for this new form. I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a comment and give me your thoughts!
Regards,
777 - Tyler Dahl
Hi Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI hate to bring this up, but in truth - any attempt at pen repair/restoration by a third-party (You) comes with a risk to the Owner that the pen may not survive the process. With other words; what someone sends in for repair/restoration may actually come back in worse condition.
Perhaps there are others reading here (Lawyers) that can provide some Disclaimer Language to include with the form. Words like "reasonable care" and "We will not undertake these efforts without your prior approval" in the case where you have a difficult "patient" should (IMO) be included with the form.
It is up to you. I never see a "repair failure" disclaimer on other Pen-Meister Web sites. I think the community of Pen Professionals prefer to see the object of repair/restoration first then interact with the Customer on a case by case basis. But IMO not stating up-front that repair/restore attempts may actually not work out for the better is misleading.
On a slightly different topic, I would recommend you always keep a photographic before-and-after record of your work. Not just for the Blog, but to protect yourself.
The vast majority of fountain pen enthusiasts and lawyer out there are honest good people. But it only takes a couple of bad "apples" to set you up for a "fall" if you don't protect yourself.
Like I said, I hate to bring this up... David in Jakarta
Actually, it's an interesting topic. I'm glad you brought it up!
ReplyDeleteThe thing is - the chances of a pen coming out ruined is rare, though possible. I think this is why we get business-insurance. :)
I personally think that having tons of disclaimers does two negative things to a business:
1) Makes it seem very corporate and not friendly. I like to sound like a person to my customers, not an entity.
2) It makes it seem like the professional who's posting the disclaimers is not confident in himself. It makes it seem like he's expecting an error to occur, and is therefore letting you know that he's not responsible...
These are my personal reasons for not adding disclaimers. Others may have other reasons, but those are mine. :)
On the photo subject. It would be nice to have photos of every bodies pens - before and after, but honestly I'm not that concerned about lawsuit type-stuff. These are pens, and I'm not dealing with millions of $$. Taking photos of each pen that comes into my shop costs me time. I don't have a very good camera set-up, and I depend on good sunlight for my pictures. Thus, if I have a week of rain, I would have to delay shipping out a customers pen while waiting for the rain to clear so I can get a good photo. This would be solved by getting a better camera and set-up, but that costs money. The more money I spend on equipment, the more I have to charge to pay for it. And I try hard to keep my prices low. :)
This is a good subject for discussion though. I thank you for bringing it up, as it got me thinking about some stuff I normally don't consider.
Best Regards,
777 - Tyler Dahl