Moleskine Monday: Quality Control Responsiveness

Have you ever had to take advantage of Moleskine’s warranty? Here’s someone who tried to but didn’t have a great experience:

[In every Moleskine, there] is always a little promo sheet that includes their warranty. Basically, it says if there is “a defect of any kind” (quote from the sheet), just send them a digital photo and “Quality Control #” and they will replace it. So when the binding on one I am currently carrying broke apart, that’s what I did. And got no reply. So, wrote again, and sent another photo.

That was 6 months ago. [As of July 2011]

Still waiting for a reply…

I’ve only had to contact Moleskine about a quality issue once, when I bought a squared notebook with very dark lines. (See here and here.) Within a couple of days they’d replied to say that this was not a defect but rather a design choice. It wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear, but turnaround time was very good. Has anyone else had good or bad experiences to report about how their customer service people handle complaints?

Read more at Moleskine Notebook “Warranty”???. (FYI, this is from the “Blade Forums,” which some corporate networks may block because it’s “weapons-related.”)

7 thoughts on “Moleskine Monday: Quality Control Responsiveness”

  1. This was also my experience — it took me almost a year to get a response at all, and when I did it was essentially to tell me that the instructions in that insert are inaccurate and that issues have to be reported through a different channel. I went through the “right” channels, got as far as being assured I was going to be sent a replacement, but the replacement never did come and further correspondence with them was ignored.

    I have not purchased another Moleskine since, their farce of a replacement policy was sufficient to end my 10~ years of always carrying their notebooks. There are plenty of alternative companies out there with a lot less baseless hype and better customer support.

    Doane Paper makes fantastic everyday carry notebooks; Poppin.com is a good source for Moleskine- style notebooks and they have exceptional support/service.

  2. I have found Moleskine to be lousy for Fountain Pen use. That and the poor quality of the product as of lately has caused me to switch to Leuchtturm notebooks. Better quality and they are fountain pen friendly. I’ve given away most of my unused Moleskines and I won’t be buying any more unless they seriously fix the production quality control.

  3. I have not bought any Moleskine product for about 4 years now. It seemed to me that the quality had really slipped, plus I now refuse to buy anything from China. Not always possible anymore, but with notebooks there are plenty of options. I have gone to Rhodia dot grid webbies and Rite in the Rain.

  4. I am so discouraged to hear these experiences. I just want to let everyone know that even if Moleskine is not helpful in responding to problems, as a Moleskine dealer, we do stand behind the products and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

    If you purchase your notebook from Jenni Bick Bookbinding or Moleskine and More, we will be glad to replace a defective notebook, even if the corporate offices are not helpful. And we’ll respond quickly, too. Promise!

  5. Well, my experience of customer service is pretty good actually. I too complained about the differences in shades/colors of the lines. And they too responded that it was not a defect but by design. However, they offer to send me a new one, which I said no to since it’s not a defect.

    Here is the email response I got from them, less than a week after I sent in my complaint.

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    thanks for your email.
    Moleskine production is a combination of automated and handmade manufacturing, and the output may therefore contain small flaws and differences, typical of handmade production.
    In this case It is not a mistake; in the past we were using the lighter color and then we changed to a darker, because some people with sight problem complained that they could not see the ruled/squared of the notebooks.
    But now we are reconsidering to make that lighter.
    Please apologies for the delay in answering you back.
    I’ll proceed to send a new one.
    Thanks and kind regards

  6. Every company has stories of great and bad customer service. I had only a good experience with moleskine. It happened twice: I bought a sketchbook and the first page a the interior cover were glued together a little, and in the second one there was glue binding the very first pages together at the top of the pages. Both times, I took pictures and wrote directly to Moleskine, saying I loved their products but there were some defauts in my latest purchase. They responded a week or so later and offered their appologies and a replacement notebook (that I got both times) through express mail directly from Italy.
    I am using Moleskine less and less because a friend of mine is bookbinding my sketchbooks with the best paper I could ever ask for, a little heavy and takes watercolor wonderfully. I don’t like the watercolor moleskines because of the format (I work in portrait, not landscape) and the texture of the paper, and doing watercolor in a moleskine sketchbook is a real pain (a few years ago it wasn’t easy but doable, now it’s simply not).

  7. I am struggling with Moleskine right now! They seem to have no appreciation of customer care at all. I ordered a diary from them on Dec. 20th which has not arrived. FedEx say it is lost. Moleskine say contact Fedex, FedEx say contact Moleskine. Usual story except it isn’t, as mostly nowadays one gets an immediate reply and resolution to problems encountered ordering online. Moleskine have ignored my increasingly frustrated emails, I have tried to talk to them on their chat line, also fruitless. They just need to send me my diary! What will thAt cost them, it’s cost me £20!

    Very, very poor customer care. Extremely disappointed.

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