****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
The company included a nice business card requesting that if I, the customer, am completely satisfied with the product, to leave 5 stars. If not, they asked that I should contact them directly through Amazon to resolve any issues I'm having. Well, I'm glad to say that they earned their 5 stars. These refills are great. And at such a bargain price too!I have a bunch of pens. My name pseudonym on Amazon is "Pen Fanatic" (look at the author of this post to see for yourself). What got me into fine writing instruments were Cross pens I owned when I was still in elementary school - a gift from my mother after achieving such high marks on certain nationwide exams in reading and math. Unfortunately we lost them when we moved, and it wasn't till years later when I was in college that my younger brother bought me another Cross pen with my name engraved that I got back into writing with Cross pens.But to my disappointment, they are now made in China, and while the refills from competitors are improving (e.g., Waterman, Parker, etc.), Cross refills write like cheap BIC pens, perhaps only slightly better. As someone used to writing with fountain pens and high end rollerballs, I can't stand writing with refills so crappy. It got to the point that I switched to Parker and Waterman for my ballpoint needs (Montblanc and Sheaffer I feel are on the same boat as Cross with those 1980s ink recipes).So the other day I decided to shop around for 'alternative' brands for Cross pens, and found this set from Pen Savings, and to be honest, I'm very happy. They do come with a feeling of some feedback of sorts (not scratchy though), almost like writing with a fine point, but the lines come out medium, consistent, and pretty dark. In fact, I would compare this to the Schmidt Easy Flow 9000 refills - some of the most sought after ballpoint refills for Parker-style pens. It's not quite as fancy as the Schmidt, but it's the only thing I can compare the refill to when it comes to that smooth-feedback that this refill gives.Bottom line - from someone who has had a lot of exposure to pens of all sorts, these refills are a steal, and they're by far superior to the modern Cross refills out there that are made in China. What's interesting is that there are Chinese brands that make ballpoints that take Cross refills, and some of these have Cross-styled refills that write superior to Cross ballpoints too - maybe Cross better find the makers of those refills and license their products from them. Because ever since Cross went to China, their pen quality has been a hit or miss, and their refill quality is more often a miss than a hit.
