Newbie's First Order - The Smokeless Shop

[smooth-ring]

Hi folks!

Just found this forum about a week ago. Spent about 15 hours reading all I could to get enough info to take the ecig plunge! Eventually, had my choices narrowed down to three and then I saw a video review about the "Ultimate Starter Kit" from The Smokeless Shop.

I've been smokin' small cigars (AVG Grenadier 'Mini's') and yes, I inhale. Quite honestly, my thought was I needed something a bit more substantial than a 901 that would be closer to the performance of an analog cigar. But I was intrigued by the offer. Starting out from scratch, this seemed like a very complete package to get going with and worse case, if I needed something else I could add to it.

I visited the Smokeless Shop site and filled out their contact page asking them to call me, as I had some questions. (I noticed that their site said if you wanted to talk to someone fill out the page and someone would call. Actually, this was a huge point for me. Most other sites I saw didn't seem to want to be bothered with talking. But I had questions so I wanted to talk to a real person.) Thinking I'd hear back in a few days (maybe), I went about my business.

Within the hour, I got a call from Katy from The Smokeless Shop! Surprised? Yeah, you could say that. After explaining that I had virtually NO idea of what I was needed or what I needed, all I knew was that I wanted to take the plunge and make the migration from analogs to digitals. Katy graciously spent nearly 1/2 hour asking me questions about my smoking habits, my interest in ecigs, etc and gave me quite a bit of information. She answered ALL of my questions and I felt I had enough info to make an informed choice.

I told her I had no idea what to do as far as "juice", and since I felt she had an understanding of my tastes, I told her to just pick something out that she thought I'd like. (Turns out, it was a good selection for me!)

Long story short, within 48 hours of placing my order, I had my package in hand! Yeah...48 hours! (Granted, turns out I'm less than a couple hundred miles from her, but still...I thought that was pretty amazing.) Plus, shortly after placing my order, I got an email telling me my order had been mailed! Nice touch...

The kit is EVERYTHING you see on her page...a BUNCH of stuff!

3 Batteries
2 Attys
USB Charger
Wall Charger
10 blank carts
Box of 5 filled carts
Syringe
Mixing bottle (Holiday "special")
Kick (I opted for 10 ml bottle. Katy picked out Tobacco Road. Seems like a great choice. Again, I "don't know what I don't know", but seems to do the trick so far!)
plastic carrying case
Leather carrying case (VERY nice!)

When I received the package, a friend of mine (happens to be a non-smoker) was there and was watching as I was going through everything. When I opened the leather case, my friend thought it was a carrying case for a digital CAMERA..and asked me to order her one! (Yeah...it's THAT nice!) I told her it wasn't a camera case, it was for my "new ecigs". She wanted one anyway!

Here's something I discovered about this case that I personally like. there's a slot on the outside of the case, and I realized it's easier to keep my ecig in there so I don't have to dig around in the bag...very convenient!

Anyway, everything seems to work fine. Batts were charged, and I fired it up. That was two days ago...haven't picked up an analog cigar since!!!!!! That alone is worth the price of the kit to me.

This...is very cool! No withdrawals, and lots of "smoke". After two days, I don't miss the analogs (or the coughing, ashes, etc.) Making the transition was simple...I'm sure being ready to "quit" analogs was important to this end.

Katy told me the taste will be VERY different from analog cigars but give it a couple days to get use to. (Turns out this was also excellent advise. The heads-up gave me an idea of what to expect.

Still getting use to how all this works. When/how to top off, charge batts, etc. but I'm sure that will all come from time and experience, just like most things. Although I probably only know enough to be dangerous, I've got this bad-boy "fired" up and throwin' off about as much "smoke" as my analog cigs did and I'm havin' a great time. So, I must not be doing too bad.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for a VERY complete kit with great quality items, I'd definitely recommend picking up the "Ultimate Starter Kit". And the price really puts this over the edge...very, very good value, especially when comparing to other kits on the market.

And for other newbies, no question about it. I love having three batteries. I'm still getting familiar with how often to charge, etc. Having three allows me to always have at least one charged and ready to go. You'll need three...trust me on this one. This will save you a lot of aggravation.

As far as customer service, Katy couldn't possibly do any better...really. And I'm sue there are other great products out there, but I haven't seen anything that is as complete as this package. If you're looking for a kit to get started with, this is a "no-brainer" - you'll love it.

Smooth-Smoke