Incoming Rant!! Long but I feel better now, lol

[Lethalp]

Thanks for your posts about my rant, I agree with u Scott, about some reviews being not fair to the vendor or blackmail, and I do ignore those. It's the ones where someone has done business for awhile and ends up leaving the vendor over a $2 part that originally should have came with his stuff that he ends up getting flamed for. Or the noob who has never ordered before who got on ecf and read some reviews about the latest hardware and bought it thinking they could get it to work only to be told by the vendor that " we have sold thousands of these with no complaints, so, u must be too dumb to figure out how to work it and sorry bout your luck" those make me mad. The "god complex"

And I agree with u to motox, it is a new industry, but is that an excuse? I am certainly no expert, but I would expect for a vendor to at the very least test their own products before they take money for them. Yes user error is always in play, I get that, and quality control is lacking. So why don't vendors go that extra mile to make sure when they sell something to someone it works so they will come back? No one is going to make money for very long if there is no repeat business.

[Sweeney Todd]

Everything you say about "Man I hope this hardware is going to work"... we vendors pray the same thing when our shipments get in.

Believe me, I would *love* to be able to sell more product for less money, but I have to eat!

[DaveP]

There will be people who love and people who hate just about anything made. The key is to read a LOT of reviews and comments about whatever you are looking at, before you buy.

People on ECF love Bobas Bounty juice. I've heard nothing but good comments about it. I finally decided to order some. When I got to the AV website, I noticed that it is an all VG juice! That won't vape well in my Boge carto, so I decided not to order. The BB lovers must be drippers.

Some people love the Provari. Others order it and say it's too big to carry out of the house. I guess that's why there's more variations on the ecig than you can count, with others on the way. Juices are very subjective. Some people liked bacon flavored juice in one thread, but most described it as puke city.

Take the reviews with a grain of salt. Maybe one day, the top 50 juices will be picked up for sale at the big box retailers and we can go in and feel comfortable that enough people loved them and that's why they are for sale everywhere.

Some like Coke. Some like Pepsi. Others drink fruit flavored soft drinks and would never think about cola. It's all preference and taste.

[CayCay]

I can see your frusteration. I also don't look into positive or negative reviews too much either. Like the famous saying "one mans trash is another mans treasure".
Most vendors I have ran into (even if they say they don't take returns on certain items) will still work something out with you if you are nice about it. Juice shouldn't be returned. If I bought a pack of marlboro reds and decided I hated them, they wouldn't let me exchange it. This industry is trial and error.
You will find your sweet spot, just have fun with it.

[ITPython]

Well from my experiences so far on this forum, is that this place is pretty fair and balanced. For example, over at the CPF (candlepowerforums) if you even make the smallest habit of saying anything even remotely bad/negative about a flashlight company or product, you will be perma banned by IP by a biased mod and will have no way to fight your case. Even if you follow every rule and are very careful with your wording, they will just flat out ban you and keep banning you with little to no explanation as to why except for some generalized term (like flaming, or trolling) that is simply used as an excuse. They even go as far to delete just about every post you ever made, despite how informative and helpful they are, merely for spite. And they get away with it. CPF is like a forum run by China.

So far the ECF seems a good and balanced place to let out your pros and cons about something. But I could be wrong and there may be people out there who think the ECF is as bad as my description of the CPF is.

All I can say is be careful, mods and admins are people like you and I, they have opinions and biases just like the rest of us. What matters most is how they enforce those mindsets. I know in the past certain claims made against certain vendors are deleted and set aside due to whatever controversy they contain, but I can only hope this place is fair enough that this isn't a regular occurrence.

[Sa Da Tay]

The most perfect vendor can still wind up with a negative review. The best hardware can break down. The ultimate carto/attie/tank/fill-in-the-blank won't make everyone perfectly blissful.

QFT. The difference between a good and potentially disreputable vendor is how they respond to the claims presented by customers, and that's what I find most valuable from reading the "negative" section more than the actual claims themselves. I've seen completely valid, rational-sounding complaints be responded to in petty, unprofessional, adversarial ways by vendors; and THAT is what will steer me away from a vendor. Even if the original customer complaint is seemingly irrational and full of hostility, a vendor should be able to rise above that and not respond in a similar fashion. It's really business/customer service 101 and as someone mentioned already on here, if you don't have a skin thick enough to remain civil yourself then you should get out of the business.

[stretchpants]

Here's my 2 cents. I hope This will help.
!-Buy a Provari
2-Try Copper Creek Juices
3-Win a Lava Tank.
No more disappointing hardware,juice, or leaking tanks.Best CS ever.
All you will have to do is fill your tank.

[ScottinSoCal]

if you don't have a skin thick enough to remain civil yourself then you should get out of the business.

Oh yeah, and this - in a nutshell - is why I'd never be successful in customer service. Someone I know used to manage a resort in Santa Barbara. He told me about a guest who stayed 2 weeks, ran up a bill well over $20,000 (yup, 5 zeroes) and on checkout wanted the entire bill comp'd because a light was burned out in her vanity mirror. One of those Hollywood-style that has a couple dozen lights all the way around it. She said seeing that light burned out ruined her whole experience. No, she didn't call Housekeeping and tell anyone about it - she shouldn't have had to. They should have noticed it themselves.

Now, see, my response to that would have been to laugh and say "You've got to be f---ing kidding me." His response was to apologize and deduct 10% off her bill and give her his phone number so she could call and arrange her next stay directly through him, and he'd make sure her whole stay was flawless. She did, and he did, and she's probably still a customer there. So, all in all, his response was the best one.

[Lethalp]

Nice to see a vendor on this thread, thank u Sweeney Todd. So, vendors can post here, i would love to hear from more of them. I know Sweeney is fairly new, anyone else have any comments? Maybe i am missing something. I never said I didn't want u to eat, on the contrary I do want u to eat. I wanna eat too.

I am not talking about aimlessly searching for the cheapest price and just buying something without researching it, not at all. I do exactly the opposite, I reaserch till my eyes bleed, because I have to!

Ok for the moment because don't have a dedicated hardware vendor here is how I decided on "new" hardware
1) search threads
2) search vendor sites
3) read reviews and decided if I will buy
4) look at positive and negative reviews of vendor ( this is important to me, I don't want issues if there is a problem)
5) wait for a code or a sale, because after all the last thing I want to do is add insult to injury by paying full price plus shipping on something that might not work.

Does that make me difficult??

Now on the stuff I use all the time it's sometimes just as hard, for instance I buy LR dc 1.5 to 1.8 cartos right now they are my choice to vape. The regular non sale price of these boggles my mind.

U can pay as high as $12.99 for 5, plus shipping
Or as low as. $6.99 for 5 with free shipping.

And I have seen every price in between, do vendors look at other vendors prices? Why so much variance? Now, who do u think I am going to buy from? I got kids to feed to, lol

Again I am not trying to be negative, I enjoy vaping so so very much and my experience with vendors has for the most part either been very positive, non descript, or well, um how do I put this delicately, I got screwed. Vaping has made me a totally different person, I look at life in a different way. I explore things alot more than I have before, I mean when I smoked, the best I was ever going to get we're those once a yr $1 off coupons! Lol vaping has turned me into a hunter, gatherer, info junky. Lol I certainly don't need anything else to keep my hands busy, that's for sure! honestly, and not that I have the desire to, I don't have time to smoke! If I started smoking again it would mess up my whole routine!

Like I said I really don't want to come off as a whiny butt, I have generally been very supportive of the vendors on this forum, and will continue to be. I just look forward to the day when things even out a bit. When quality control reigns supreme, and products work 80% of the time, and pricing evens out, so that every time I purchase I dont have to wonder if I missed a better deal someplace else. Rant finished

[Lethalp]

Btw motox
Who are your vendors?