Beware the face of the e-cig scam.

[Wulfe]

HA I love this forum. So there i am sitting in my living room watching TV and i see this commercial pop up for Smoke Assist. They say $130 kit for free, call now, blah blah blah. So i am siting there vaping on my eGo thinking well this cant be right, lets see what ECF has to say and check out there site. Sure enough there site even says free. That is till i get to the bottom in fine print and in a faded color thats so blurry its almost unnoticeable.

TERMS & CONDITIONS:
When you order the Smoke Assist program you will be billed today 89.95 + 9.95= 99.90 for 20 cartridges in either Regular Flavor or Menthol Flavor and you will receive the e-cigarette for free.

To make hings worse i decide to go check out there FAQ on these things just to see exactly what i am getting if i was to buy in to this wonderfull scam of theirs.

What is a Cartridge?
The cartridge is the mouth piece and contains tobacco or menthol flavor and contains NO nicotine or harmful chemicals.

How long will the cartridge last?
Smoke Assist cartridge is equivalent to about 20 traditional cigarettes (a pack and 1/2 of traditional cigarettes).

But wait it gets better.

Is the Smoke Assist E-Cigarette cheaper than traditional cigarettes?
After your initial investment of the Smoke Assist E-Cigarette starter kit, most smokers will start to notice significant savings of up to 50-80 percent depending upon your customary usage. A single Smoke Assist cartridge is equivalent to approximately pack of 20 traditional cigarettes but cost less than 1/2 of the price of a pack and % of traditional cigarettes. In addition, it's a healthy alternative for people. It saves money when you pay $60 for a cartridge refill. If you smoke a pack a day, the cost of real tobacco cigarettes is $150 minimum (based on national average), so you are saving more than % the cost.

Which BTW i could not find anywhere on this site to place an order for refills. Nor how many cartridges come in a "refill".

But hey what kind of e-cig is this that i would be getting that has hese big COST SAVING cartidges.....

Well lets take a visual look at it.

HAH

So free means i pay you 100 bucks for some crappy cartridges with 0 nicotine and get some crappy out dated 401 for free!

Thanks again ECF for being there to make things right. IF IT SAYS ITS FREE ITS A SCAM!

 

[artt]

The worst part of these offers is the possibility that they will sour the person trying it, and then give up on the ecig idea.

 

[PoliticallyIncorrect]

The worst part of these offers is the possibility that they will sour the person trying it, and then give up on the ecig idea.

Yes, that's true. It's probably also true that these high-visibility slime balls are all that a lot of people looking in from the outside know of vaping and the vaping community.

 

[Vegastar]

I take time out of my days waiting for the bus to sit in the mall at the bench near the white cloud booth and talk to people about my KGO and why they should not spend 200 bucks on that crap. I keep business cards for my favorite vendors in my bag

 

[scriptjerk]

i am fortunate enough to for one, buy first time from a good but slightly overpriced retailer. (volcano). they are great, but it wasnt long before i found madvapes pertty much offered the same stuff and cheaper most the time. im a hobbyist, so naturally i went the way of mods. but i do agree, i almost went with blu cigs at first, and im very glad i didnt, it would have soured my opinion in general i think.

 

[Mindfield]

That is a very distinct possibility and quite unfortunate, because quite aside from the fact that this is an old, cheapo E-cig, the fact that there is no nicotine means there will be zero throat hit and probably taste like crap. So people will try it, feel like it's not much better than smoking a ball-point pen, and give up on it -- maybe even tell others how useless it is. And of course, feel like they wasted a good amount of money, which will just make them angry.

But then I also think that eventually, E-cigs will grow to be big enough to gain enough of their own visibility that scammy companies like Smoke Assist, Greensmoke or White Cloud won't be the only ones people hear about when considering trying E-cigs out.

 

[DLL9MM]

Same kit I ordered from deal xtreme for $8. 20 refills were $4
Interesting.

 

[jj2]

Unfortunately they are growing in numbers and so are their victims.

I think I spend more time these days telling others there are WAY better choices available and at a lot less money!

 

[KAC_fenris]

My first e-cigarette was like this... but it only cost around $16 (not really a good deal, but that was the cheapest at the time). It was total crap. Didn't last very long, was hard to puff and wasn't really satisfying.

My next e-cig was an eGo... worked really well before it died. Now I'm vaping on my Lightsabre mod.

 

[Wulfe]

I take time out of my days waiting for the bus to sit in the mall at the bench near the white cloud booth and talk to people about my KGO and why they should not spend 200 bucks on that crap. I keep business cards for my favorite vendors in my bag

Indeed, i go out of my way to vape in public now. Just so i can spread the facts about vaping. I love it when people get offended thinking i am smoking and then i tell them all about the e-cig and how much healthier it is. I also don't hesitate to tell people if its free its a scam and point them to these forums and some good vendors to consider.

 

[hairball]

It was an ad like the one you posted the turned me away 3 years ago. After seeing the fine print, I didn't do any research to see what else was out there so it was my loss in the end. However, there is still a good side to the advertising but I hope people don't fall for stuff like this. That's where it helps IMO...getting people to do some more research.

 

[mafig]

well if U did not know better..any e-cig at a price is worth it,even its much overprice..look at this advert in Malaysia..RM $80(US $1 is rm$3) after 70% discount..hope the buyer/smoker can seek help in ECF..as i posted a message for them to come and join us in ECF..regards mafig ps i also started on those,paying Rm $140 appro $46,since than have bought online 510-T & EGO-T..a lot cheaper and better

 

[Wulfe]

Have to say i am thankful my first vape was on a standard eGo. I only paid $40 and got a kit that included the eGo, charger and 5 Djarum Black flavored cartos. I had since then won in a free auction community a kit that included 3 401 batteries, 2 401 atty's, 5 cartridges, and a wall charger for the 401's. Two of the ecig brands were from a known scamming company, Health-E-Cigarettes, and the third "bonus" was from randy's which is more known for there development on rolling papers with a wire built in. Now I would have never bought these outright from the original companies (well maybe randy's) but i can say they were not that bad. The flavor of the cartridges was not awfull and even though i will end up having to get a adapter for these to make them into 501's i still will use them as a casual backup any day when my eGo is charging or i do not wish to carry it publicly to say a quick run to the store or bar. The only real detourant these companies offer as opposed to a real vendor is guarantee and support of there products which is the biggest reason i would encourage anyone to never give these scammers the time of day. Besides there hefty prices and on occasion like SA inferior product.

 

[MickeyRat]

Most of us, me included started with a crappy mall kit or something similar. For me, it was enough to make me look for something better but, I really have to wonder how many people try one once and get turned off forever.

 

[Fazed]

I was lucky I guess. I got turned on to vaping by a coworker who had been doing it a while, and had made the usual cheap kit mistakes and steered me away from them. Pointed me to this forum and said read! He also let me vape on one of his Egos to try it for a day to see if it was something i wanted to switch to. I ordered my UltraMax the next day. Haven't had an analog since April. Now I'm doing my part to educate my analog addicted friends and family. I've helped a couple of coworkers, and my dad into vaping and so far, everyone has stuck with it.


Sent via cellular communication device...

 

[Anya]

I'd never heard of ecigs until I found a mall kiosk and got succered into buying one of their pricy kits ($127!). I only wish I'd found ECF first! On the bright side though, that ecig, which now lies in the bottom of my desk drawer, helped me cut down on analogs to the point where I eventually quit 5 months ago.

 

[nash77]

it's just like anything else, if it's too good to be true, it usually is. anyone that thinks you get anything for free without reading the fine print is setting themselves up for a giant headache

 

[Wulfe]

It is good to see so many people here not end up discouraged from being sucked in to these scams. I am also glad you found your way here to get the real facts about vaping.

 

[SnakeFarm]

I got a mini-batt analog look alike at the mall for 150 with a pack of pre-loaded cartos.

My experience went something like...

See a guy at work rocking a big batt Volcano on a lanyard, ask him about it, hear the word "e-juice" for the first time.

Few days later...
Decide to quit smoking, for good this time. No, dammit, I really mean it.

Few days later...
Decide that e-cigs are not really smoking and head for the mall, shell out ~$150 for two slim batts and a pack of prefilled cartomizers

Few Days Later...
realize that the cartomizers are dead, search online for cartomizer refills and find ECF (yay!)
learn that cartomizers can be re-filled, that head-shops sometimes sell bottles of e-juice, go to head-shop on lunch break

Few days Later...
Start reading EVERYTHING on ECF, first post, advized to get Riva 510 kit from Liberty Flights for $30 bucks

Few days later...
Receive Kit, happy camper.