One thing's for sure, change is inevitable.

[ArdentHope]

I've ordered from V4L off and on for more than 2 yrs. and have noticed a lot of changes. My recent order is no exception. In times gone by, you wouldn't find many liquids more than a couple months old when they got to you, I just received one that was created on 10/25/10 expires 10/24/12 (and is missing about 3-4 mls). I know it isn't expired but I remember when stock was newer/full when it shipped to you. Another thing, shipping - bottles of liquid thrown into a shipping envelope (no tape on the caps or protection from leaks) wasn't good form way back when.

Get angry if you will, I'm not attacking V4L, I'm just stating what my experience has been with V4L over the last couple of years.

[Cyrus Vap]

Well, you have my sympathy.

And apparently something else has changed, we censor threads we don't like. Hope you fare better than I.

[ArdentHope]

Yeah, I see that your thread has been closed. Sad that you couldn't respond to Steve publicly.

Maybe V4L has been hardened by just being in business. I remember when the picker signed your pick slip - now there is a printed number - B2C24. Who's that? Sounds like robot code. Another thing I remember was that correspondence between V4L and it's customers had a softer, more friendly tone. Now it seems to be all business. Just take a look at the back of a pick slip for an example of that. It's the little things that made shopping with V4L satisfying for me, I guess those days have been forced into the digital pages of history.

[Whistles]

Its so weird... I was just in there and they were incredible. Until the last couple of orders I have had no issues with mispicks... and that is over the course of a year, I wonder whats going on.... Please V4L I love you guys to death and will always be a diehard customer but take notice to what we are saying... I have seen the shop you guys do a great job... I understand the hardware issues... but it gets trying when we have to pay shipping back over and over to get something right.

Love you guys to death... but these two had some valid concerns... I was kind of saddened to see a thread closed up so quickly... even if it could of been dealt with in a PM. Others are watching and have the same questions... It isn't a negative thing to have a Constructive thread to address concerns from customers.

[Cyrus Vap]

I was kind of saddened to see a thread closed up so quickly... even if it could of been dealt with in a PM

it could have, but...

Others are watching and have the same questions... It isn't a negative thing to have a Constructive thread to address concerns from customers

this is past the point where one can go on having a private exchange with the awesome people on staff like Robert, Gabe, etc, who always make things right. that's no the point anymore. It affects everyone, and its too frequent.

And I'm tired of seeing people with valid concerns or questions chased off the forum by a tantrum-like response or censored in some other way.

[ShankUO]

I love seeing this. I have been sitting back and watching since they changed to their "more profit" business tactics. I've had so many issues with their shipments to me being wrong it's sickening. Granted, they do end up fixing the problem, however I shouldn't have to go through that as a consumer time and time again. Now I see people with valid points posting on the forum and having it censored. If you are not a fanboy/girl, or get freebies to test and put all positive reviews, you're chopped liver. I didn't complain as much when the orders were incorrect when we were paying reasonable prices for their stuff, but now they they jack all their prices, i.e Ego kits (lolz @56bucks for stripped ego2 kit) It's hard not to.

[EleanorR]

I love seeing this. I have been sitting back and watching since they changed to their "more profit" business tactics. I've had so many issues with their shipments to me being wrong it's sickening. Granted, they do end up fixing the problem, however I shouldn't have to go through that as a consumer time and time again. Now I see people with valid points posting on the forum and having it censored. If you are not a fanboy/girl, or get freebies to test and put all positive reviews, you're chopped liver. I didn't complain as much when the orders were incorrect when we were paying reasonable prices for their stuff, but now they they jack all their prices, i.e Ego kits (lolz @56bucks for stripped ego2 kit) It's hard not to.

Well, technically speaking, the prices were always "jacked" (except for Wow and Premium juice), including the risible shipping rates; it's just that we could always get deep discount codes until recently, and often combine those with free shipping codes. Not anymore.

They did finally lower the (absurd) USA juice line prices from $20/30ml to the more market average of $15/30ml; some day I expect they will have to do the same with the VTs.

In the meantime, a potential consumer has to consider both the high prices and the crazy shipping fees before making an order. Even with the occasional (and small) discount code, and without the ability to combine codes any longer, it's usually not worth it to make any small-to-medium size orders. Too bad for V4L.

After the first of this year, I too noticed a high rate of "mispicks" on my orders but didn't bother correcting them (I can't afford, either financially or time and energy-wise, the hassle of sending stuff back via the post office). I also miss the sense of personalization and accountability that seeing the name of my "picker" on the invoice used to give me. Oh well.

[Whistles]

notice the stunning silence again...? This thread was made at 12:45 and you can't tell me they havn't even looked in here... I have seen reps post on the board in other threads.

I'm starting to wonder if they are overwelmed?

[EleanorR]

Nah. The decisions have been made, and if we don't like the new regime, we can go pound sand.

As a number of us have already decided to do.

I will still make the occasional order of colored blanks, and (when my copious collection of) batteries begin to seriously dwindle, I may replace some of my KD XLs; but for now I'm good on everything, including the 4 V4L juices that I love (of course, juices are the easiest thing to replace, if necessary -- I know, I've been practicing juice-a-thons the past 8 months or so).

[TheBlueAdept]

I'm certain I've come off as a fanboy more than once here, as I've been systematically happy with V4L's service over the last 2 years I've ordered with them.. Having said that, yes I've noticed an increase in mistakes in the last year. Perhaps parts of the business (in filling) aren't properly scaling up yet with an increase in their volume? Hard to know from the outside, but I can see how its' annoying. I haven't done any analysis on how many of my orders have been wrong, but I could count them on a single hand, and they were all dealt with promptly and courteously, including one order that had to reship twice. This never cost me anything but additional wait times, and I was more than happy with their response.

I've never had a case where I needed to return an item to them, so I can appreciate how that might differ if they didn't offer return postage.. but I thought I read that they do?? I'm therefore confused about comments to that regard. Perhaps I misunderstood other comments I've read on this.

Either way, just trying to offer a slightly different perspective. I can certainly see though from many others' comments that their experiences may be different from mine, which I fully respect and am not disparaging or disagreeing with.