Brace yourself friends, this is the story of how I ended up with 2 TWSBIs when I bought only 1 (TD;DR at the bottom).
April 15, my birthday. I thought I'd treat myself to a new fountain pen. I've been really into demonstrators lately, and I just wasn't quite ready to drop $100+ on a pen having only picked up the hobby ... at the beginning of April.
I could not resist the TWSBI Diamond 580 RB. It called to me. My family and I immigrated from Taiwan to Canada 12 years ago and the very Taiwanese colour scheme enticed me, the white sun on blue sky on the cap pulled me in.
The next day I got the notification that it has shipped from California. It would be here on Friday (I ordered Wednesday). Yay, despite the $22 shipping from FedEx at least it would be here really fast :)
On Friday, I checked the tracking, strange, it was in Texas. On Monday, I checked the tracking number. It was still in Texas. So I decided to give FedEx a call. I had never used them before, so maybe it was something that happened occasionally. The woman told that in fact it was weird, and they would open an investigation, essentially saying that it was lost and they would call me back when they located it.
I sent an email to Phillip Wang to let him know what's going on. He gave them a call and they told him everything was fine and it was on its way. Weird, why did they tell us different things? Phillip Wang thought the same thing. He called them back. Apparently the first person was talking out of their donkey and it was in fact lost. At this point he refunded half of my shipping as an act of customer service, but told me to rest assured, it would be here as soon as they find it. Thanks Phillip, this eased my wallet's pain a little bit.
I got a call later that night asking for a description of the item. Man, it sure is hard to describe a package I've never seen before.... and trying to explain what a fountain pen is over the phone is the only thing that is more fun !
So this was Monday, and we decided to give them until the end of the week to find it before we try to find an alternative solution. On Thursday, I received a call from FedEx. Huzzah! they found my package! The lady told me it would be pulled and shipped out that day. It'll be here either tomorrow or Monday. YAY I'M SO EXCITED FOR MY PEN AND IT BETTER BE WORTH IT.
Monday came and went. I gave FedEx another call. The man took 10 minutes to read the giant file attached to this tracking number. He concluded that while the package had been found, it was never sent out. Not to worry, it'll be sent out soon. Man, I sure love the word soon. It tells me everything I need to know. I emailed my regular correspondent Phillip to let him know that my package was still not here yet :( He gave them a call too. FedEx assured him that it would be shipped out and it should get to me the next day (Tuesday). But he also said if we don't hear anything by noon the next day, we'll try resending. Whoohoo something to look forward to on a Tuesday!
I get a phone call that night with a new tracking number. Sounds good, I'll be looking forward to it! An hour later, I decided to check on the tracking number. There is 2 packages by the same number. How odd. One is going to Brasil. Well, that's probably not it. One was delivered at 9am to Gardena, CA. Well, neither of them are anywhere near Ottawa, Canada. I decided to wait until morning, maybe the tracking just hasn't updated yet.
Tuesday morning. Oh look, FedEx is calling me again. I'm starting to recognize this number by memory. Same woman who gave me the new tracking number. Ah, maybe she's going to tell me she gave me the wrong tracking number.
"Yes, hello. I am following along with the tracking number. It says here that your package has been returned to sender. It was delivered and signed for in Gardena, California at 9 am yesterday."
She provide me an address. I look up the address. It was TWSBI's address. I sent my buddy Phil another email. He confirmed that the person who signed for it was indeed one of his workers. He concurred that this was indeed "too crazy". He decided to send me a new package and include some "goodies".
Sigh, all right, at least I'll get it in the end. I really appreciate whatever I can get at this point.
Skip forward, it's Thursday. Attempted delivery. Oh darn, the closest pick up station is in the middle of nowhere. So today, I scaled the side of the highway and found the FedEx location next to the airport. But yes! I FINALLY have my Taiwanese coloured pen :))
I ripped open the FedEx package. What. There are 2 TWSBI boxes in here. I opened one. Wait. This isn't blue and red. Wait. This was purple. This was a very shiny purple.
Apparently, what "goodies" mean to Phillip Wang is not a spare nib or some ink samples.
So, now I have two TWSBIs and I think I'm going to be avoiding FedEx for a while. Kudos to Phillip Wang and TWSBI for dealing with my stream of emails. I would say stay in touch, but I think they'll be glad to be shot of me for a while. In the end, all I can say is: AMAZING customer service.
TD;DR FedEx lost my package, found it, told me it was coming, returned it to sender instead. Phillip Wang told me was resending and including "goodies". I open the package to discover the purple diamond 580.