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Product Description
Legend has it that the two fir trees in the Rhodia logo symbolize the two founding brothers, who came from a family of paper merchants and established the Verilhac Paper Mills in the French Alps. Named for the Rhone river that runs near Lyon, France where the company was founded in 1932, Rhodia's notepads are known for their high quality and orange covers and have developed quite a following among fountain pen enthusiasts Read More
Wow - NOT a great deal! These pads are $8.97 at ipenstore ( http://www.ipenstore.com/rhodia-dot-pad-8-1-4-x-11-3-4/), so six pads would be $53.82 and free shipping, since the order would be over $50.
Even by MD's own description, this is decidedly not a great deal. MD states that MRSP is $54 ($9/pad) and touts its price as $42, which is actually $53 when you include MD's exorbitant $9 shipping charge. So you save a dollar for the dubious privilege of waiting weeks, instead of days, to receive your order.
I acknowledge that there are some genuinely good deals at MD - I've joined five drops in the last couple of months.
But, as usual, MD omits its shipping charges from its pricing on the product description page. It gets tedious to keep asking MD to be honest and transparent with us - their own customers - by including the actual cost, including shipping, on the product description page. But, if MD had had included it there, even they would have recognized that it's ludicrous to expect their customers to go through the uncertainty and delay of an MD purchase to save just one buck.
Well. it's ludicrous unless you're making a hefty profit on the outrageous shipping fee.
NovanglianI do not disagree, but clicking a button is far from tedious. Also, shipping does cost money, real money. Cheap rates can only be negotiated if a company has a ton of volume (like Amazon). Otherwise, most firms are paying like 90% of list rates. Look that up. They are basically in line with what Mass Drop charges.
SkipPpI'm not complaining about their shipping costs, in themselves; I'm irritated that MD doesn't simply provide the full price informationon the description page. And, when pertinent, I'll point out when the same product is available from a different source , at virtually the same price, without the uncertainty and long delay of a drop. We all understand that MD re-ships all the products they bought in bulk. So, before offering a product, they should clearly give more thought to whether their shipping costs makes their resulting price point, including shipping, competitive (much less a bargain) when compared with other easily accessible sources.
Admittedly, clicking a button is not tedious compared to genuinely laborious drudgery. But it is tedious to be compelled to do something completely unnecessary, especially when it would take no effort for MD could provide us - their own customers - with the full cost information on the description page. Having to click through to the join drop page is also tedious because MD takes that as permission to send you multiple pestering emails asking if you're still interested in the drop. So, first they make it unnecessarily inconvenient for me to get the full price of the item, then they use this inconvenience that they created as an excuse for cluttering my inbox intrusive marketing. This not good good customer service - it's obnoxious.
I'm just wondering, what exactly makes these notepads so great?
I realise that I must not be the target demographic for these because I fail to see how a simple notepad is worth $9/ea (@ msrp), particularly when I could pick-up a 12-pack of notepads for $6 total down the street.
brycied00dYou are paying for high quality paper that will not feather, bleed through, or show through even with the heaviest wet ink pens. These are designed to be used with fountain pen and other wet inks, and will highlight the sheen and shading if the ink has those properties. Rhodia paper is also very smooth and well suited to handle the nibs on fountain pens. Your typical office notepad paper will do none of this, and will likely be unusable with pens using wet inks.
I really appreciate the comments from @vrillusions@robert.harris@Behike54, thanks!
Feedback like this helps to create drops that will appeal to the most members, which can be difficult with an item like this that's offered in a number of sizes, colors, and paper types.
Sometimes we're able to offer many options within a single drop, and sometimes the only way that we're able to offer the best price is by reducing the number of variables.
Keep watching the site for more styles of Rhodia products if this drop goes well, and thanks again for participating.
robert.harristhose orange NBs are butt-ugly, IMHO. The white is a pleasant alternative and it's nice they choose the 80th annies as opposed to the orange. That said, I would buy as many # 18 dot-pads in black as I could afford.
I honestly don't know that I would trust any Rhodia group buys right now. The previous group buy (https://www.massdrop.com/buy/rhodia-dot-grid-bundle) which ended over a month ago has not been shipped out to a single participant, although supposedly Massdrop received the shipment on 3/9. Not only that but Massdrop has failed to update members of the drop despite promising an update more than a week ago. Whether this was caused by issues on Rhodia's end or Massdrop's, I currently wouldn't advise joining any Rhodia related drop.
Hey @Aquaria -- I'm sorry about this one. We've had a really smooth experience with shipments from this vendor until just recently, and we have been working with them to make sure that all the quantities offered on Massdrop are available and ship together in the future.
While some things are beyond our control, others are not - like providing updates. Sounds like missed the mark here. Our Buying team and Customer Support team are working to have better visibility into what updates are provided here in Discussions vs. in group and individual emails.
Your frustration here is totally valid, and I apologize that we couldn't do more to finish fulfilling your other Rhodia order sooner. I have been following the situation, and I believe our Logistics and Support teams made special arrangements to get more stock to finish the last order when we learned that the next availability through regular ordering would be far longer than even this has taken.
I know that doesn't make them show up any sooner, but I wanted you to know that we've been listening and doing everything we can to solve this instance and improve things in the future. Thanks for your patience, please do let us know if your package does not arrive by the 24th.
The vendor is currently preparing the order with the missing units for shipment. Based on current estimates these units should be shipping to our warehouse early next week. As soon as this occurs we will make sure to update the group with the estimated date of arrival at our warehouse.
As stated before we understand that the added wait time is undesirable. If you would prefer a refund please contact Community Support using the “Contact Support” button in your transactions page (http://massdrop.com/transactions).
Thanks for your patience and expect an update from us on 2/22 or sooner if something comes up.
elimelendezAny updates on getting the missing notebooks to the people who were shorted last time?
EDIT: apparently you have to specifically request that they send you the rest of your missing order.
Yep, the previous international shipping prices were not calculated correctly, and we've fixed them to lessen the price a little. Unfortunately though, since these notepads are still pretty heavy altogether the shipping outside of the U.S. is still costly.
LizThanks for the correction!
Massdrop prices (and shipping) are pretty good on most things anyway, even with our exchange rate getting stupid. Sadly, paper is in its own category. ;)
Update for the group. It looks like there was a slight confusion due to the similarity between different variations of the product. Some of you may have gotten the wrong type of Rhodia Staplebound Notebook. Not to worry as we are already on it and have placed another order for the correct notebooks.
At this time we are offering the group the following remedy.
Kindly reach out to Massdrop support by navigating to your transaction page and hitting the contact support button next to your order. Let our team know what incorrect items you received and we will get those shipped to you as soon as we can. Please keep the incorrect items as a small token of our appreciation for the inconvenience. As a side note if you have already contacted customer support, you do not need to contact them again.
Rest assured that we will be working our hardest to get this issue resolved for you in a quick and timely manner.
elimelendezThank you. While I wouldn't mind mailing back the wrong notepads, I'm also happy to put them to use or find a friend who will. I imagine this error is embarrassing, the solution is an expensive one for Massdrop. I was impressed by the quick replies by Support. Thank you, guys!