My Love for Moleskine & The Tragedy of Paper Quality Issues
The Moleskine notebooks I have used through the years hold some of the most precious personal moments for me. From daily entries, creative journaling, and topics of interest I studied. Moleskine notebooks inspired me to be more thoughtful about what I was putting down on paper. Thinking back on how the brand has influenced my life, I’m not sure I would have had the experience of exploring my own thoughts as much as I did without that first “fancy” notebook.
Unfortunately, the quality of the paper has been difficult to predict for almost as long as I have been using them.
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This wasn’t a great issue for me at first. I didn’t buy many of the notebooks until years later. About 10 years ago or so, I would get the occasional notebook with paper that felt different and wasn’t holding up as well to my felt, gel, and fountain pens. They were still usable, but the downgrade in paper quality was apparent. Looking at the last 6 years the paper quality and quality control within the Moleskine company itself has proven to be completely lacking. My orders directly from the company were rarely correct. ( I’d say 1 out of every 10 may have been what I had actually ordered.) I would receive the wrong product, incorrect monogramming, a badly damaged product, or no product at all! I kept thinking it was a temporary issue and they would address it.
It was an order where I didn’t receive a notebook I had ordered that was the last straw for me. (It is important to mention that up until this point, customer service had always made the mistakes as right as they could. No fuss, no hoops to jump through. And I actually did not report every issue. Sometimes I just rolled with it.) I had reached out to the company saying the notebook never shipped. They responded with wanting me to fill out a postal service “lost in shipping” form. This was incorrect as the item had never shipped! I was uncomfortable with the situation and strongly voiced it to the company. That order was never made right. That was it for me!
Moleskine Notebook YouTube Channel Playlist
I went from ordering A LOT of Moleskine notebooks to just buying a couple a year. I used to give them as gifts and used them for every project. I probably buy less than 10 a year now. I still use the plain paper notebooks in the softcover XL size as well as a few random others.
When I need a Moleskine notebook now I order from Ebay or Amazon to have the guarantee that I will receive what I ordered, or it will be made right.
I’m still on the hunt for a replacement notebook! Let me know your favorite in the comments below.
