Do you remember back in August when I caved in and finally ordered myself a personal ochre Malden? Well, it turns out the retailer is having problems getting them from Filofax. {I thought they had been discontinued, but maybe I was mistaken.} In any event, after about 5 or 6 emails from the retailer telling me that the shipment had been delayed again and again, I decided to just cancel the order. {The last email said they expected to have them by December 31.}

Now I know you’re probably thinking, “But Andrea, you don’t even use a paper planner anymore! Why on earth would you need another Filofax?” The truth is I don’t. I held onto the order for as long as I did because I didn’t want to miss out on an ochre Malden in the event I wanted to use it someday. {I really sound like a hoarder there. I promise I’m not.}

In the end, I got fed up and cancelled the order. Now I’m not saying that the retailer didn’t do nearly everything possible to keep me happy. I got regular updates from a real person. They even offered me free inserts in exchange for the delay if I were to keep the order. They were great. What wasn’t so great is the fact that their system charges your order is processed NOT when the item ships. That meant I was charged for the Filofax back in August but never received it. I told them that I’d be happy to keep the order open as long as I wasn’t charged until the item was actually available, but unfortunately their system did not allow for that. The fact that I was charged for an item and it seemed like I had no guarantee of even receiving it was what made me cancel the order in the end.

There’s still a part of me that wants an ochre Malden, but for now, it doesn’t look like it was meant to be.

Happy Friday everyone! I know I’m not the only one who has a bit of a love affair with the Malden line from Filofax. My first “nice” Filofax was a personal sized Malden in grey. I can tell why everyone loves these binders. They are fantastic. In fact, I loved my personal sized one so much I went ordered myself a pocket sized one in grey too. When neither of them “worked” for me I bought an A5 Malden in grey. I’d have to say the personal Malden and A5 Malden were probably two of the planners I’ve used the longest. The personal Malden was a GREAT wallet. The A5’s zip pocket made it super convenient to carry around extra pens which was a plus considering A5’s are already large. {Note to anyone considering an A5, at first it’s size won’t seem too bad. It has so much space, but eventually the size will probably get to you.}

So why am I in my Osterley if I love the Malden line so much?

Well… my personal Malden ended up with slight ring issues, but they were just bad enough to make me not want to use it. {Go figure! I find one I like, and it breaks in less than a year.} I had given away my other personal-sized binder, so a faulty Malden meant no more personal-sized binder. I emailed Pens and Leather who said I should contact Filofax because they were aware of recent ring issues. I emailed Filofax and got a return number, and then I started having second thoughts. “Was it really that bad?” “Could I live with the misaligned rings?” “What if I didn’t like the one I got as a replacement?” “This one and I have a history…” Eventually I settled on the fact that it bothered me to the point I wasn’t using it anyway so it’d be better to get one I could use.

In the meantime, I really wanted a personal binder, and being that it was Christmas time, I bought myself an Osterley. I like it so much that I haven’t wanted to move out, but I who knew, maybe that would change with a functioning Malden…

I took my time in returning my original Malden for fears the replacement would be worse. My replacement eventually arrived but it could hardly be considered a Malden in my opinion. It didn’t lie flat, and the leather was so bumpy. It was the exact opposite of everything I loved about the Malden line. Now I realize that all leather is slightly different, and I tried to accept it, but this was entirely different. I felt like I had gotten Finchley leather on a Malden. {Disclaimer: I’ve never touched a Finchley, but from pictures I imagine it’s got a bit more texture to it than the smooth Maldens.}

On top of the leather issues it had bad rings! I returned my binder with bad rings to be sent another binder with bad rings! All the rings lined up fine, so I didn’t initially notice. The real issue was that the rings themselves were not spaced properly, so the today rulers didn’t freely turn causing all the paper to get caught too. Being a person who flips open to pages using rulers, this was a big deal. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t all rulers. Only the black ones stuck. Certain colors were fine which leads me to believe that the hole spacing on the rulers may be slightly different depending on the color. {I have a few of each of the translucent, black, and brown ones, and a clear one.} Only the black ones stuck. I don’t use black rulers, anymore, but for $70 some dollars, I wanted to have an option to should I want to in the future.

I ended up contacting Filofax again. I just couldn’t get myself to like this one. I kept putting it back in the box trying to forget it. Their first suggestion was to not use black today rulers with it {duh…}, but the today ruler issue wasn’t the whole problem. This binder had the most un-grey-Malden-like leather ever, and it really bothered me. After explaining it was nothing like the Maldens I have which is kind of the reason I liked them, I got a new return number, and back in the box the replacement Malden went.

Eventually, I the replacement came. This is probably the floppiest Malden I’ve ever owned, but I do love it. The rings are nice. It’s incredibly smooth. It’s as perfect as a Malden can get, but I just still can’t bring myself to move back from the Osterley. I think it’s the two elasticized pen loops.

But the Malden saga isn’t over. I know the personal size works for me. I have a set up that works for me. Now I’m on the lookout for vintage pink and ochre Maldens in personal size. They’re hard to come by in the US, but I will get them both eventually. It’s just with all the ring problems {3 so far out of the 7 or so I’ve bought over the past 3 years – nearly half…} I’m just worried of spending more money only to get faulty binders.