Vivo Triple Gel Ink Pen Review

Gel and Roller Ball Pens — 29 March 2010

The Amazon.com Top Selling Vivo Tripel Gel Ink Pen

The Amazon.com Top Selling Vivo Triple Gel Ink Pen

In a previous post, I listed out the top Gel Ink Pens based on sales at Amazon.com, and I was surprised by some of the entries, as were you from some of the comments that were left. When I wrote that post, I had already picked up some of the Vivo Triple Gel Ink Pens in black since I had never heard of or tried them, and they were a top seller on Amazon.

The Vivo Triple Gel Ink Pen, standard looking body and grip

The design of the Vivo Triple Gel Ink pen is pretty simple, nothing flashy, but certainly does its job. The grip is comfortable, and works as expected at making the writing experience comfortable and easy as well. The clip is a little on the short and stubby side compared to what I am used to, however that is a fairly minor issue compared to my other issue with the pen.

Although the pen claims to be “check safe” and fade proof and water proof, I really don’t think Ill ever bother finding gout about either of those. Unfortunately, the pen writes so poorly that I cant imagine using it long enough to want to write on anything important with it. The writing sample can be seen below, this is after a good deal of writing with it where it did nothing but skip and leave weak lines behind.

Vivo Triple Gel Writing Sample

Overall, I was just really disappointed with this pen, especially with its high ranking on Amazon. I have no idea how it got 3 votes of 5 stars unless I just got really unlucky and got two bad pens in the pack. I cant imagine that this pen continues to stay on top of the list if my experience is the normal for this pen, and I would actually expect a lot of complaints and returns for Amazon to deal with. There are plenty of other gel ink pens out there that can be had that wont be a total waste of your money like these Vivo brand pens were for me.

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About Author

OfficeSupplyGeek

http://www.penaddict.com dowdyism

The Triple Gel doesn’t write very good at all, but they make a liquid ink pen called the Vx that does a much better job in that department.
Alex

I was going to pick up a pack of these, and I am very glad that I did not. Thanks for the warning.
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@dowdyism – Maybe Ill have to look at the Triple Gel, thanks for the heads up!

@Alex – No problem, glad I could help ya avoid the bad experience and wasted money.
http://www.goVivo.net Rich Brett

I’m with Vivo. Just saw your Triple Gel review – ouch! We get lots of positive feedback on this item so I’m perplexed.
Package image you included looks odd. Normally, ink column roughly meets bottom of clip on an unused pen. Both pens, still new in package, show very low ink columns. I have a hunch & it would also impact writing quality.

Gel pens have shorter shelf life than other pens. Producers such as Vivo & Sanford use pigmented ink & secure a small ball of wax on tip to maintain freshness. If the wax is missing or compromised, evaporation (shows as ‘low’ ink column) not only shortens life but can seriously impact writing quality. I’m pretty sure this is the culprit. It’s possible for wax to occasionally be missing or not solidly affixed, no one is perfect, but I’ve never seen a pack that looks like yours. I’d like to send you a box of (6) 2-pks unopened for you to try. It’s a good product, that’s why Amazon shows positive feedback.
All the best, Rich
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@Rich Brett – Thanks so much for taking the time to explain what the problem could have been. I’d be happy to take you up on the offer to re-review the pens. I sent you an email as well, if you don’t see it, please check your spam folder, I know that sometimes my emails get filtered to people spam folders automatically.