I've been hearing and seeing V4L all over the place. They are well respected from what I've seen and easily considered "mainstream".
While I've been confused by the whole vapor king thing and who's who when it comes to the company or the product, at this point, realizing that everybody gets their stuff from basically the same sweat shop in China I could care less what they call it or how they brand it. I care about how well and how long it works and how fast it gets to me. Value for Money. That's my brand.
This review is not an admonition or in any way intended to dissuade anyone from purchasing from V4L, nor is it an endorsement of any kind.
It is simply my personal experience and should not be construed as giving advice, either legal, medical, personal or societal in any way.
All scores are based on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being "Will never purchase again" and 5 being "this vendor should be the only one in business!". I never give 5's. Nobody is that great.
Items ordered and being Reviewed:
1 Chrome KR808 Battery
2 Purple KR808 batteries
Pre-filled KR808 cartos in Cranberry
Pre-filled KR808 cartos in Strawberry & Strawberry Cinnamon Cream
Packaging: 2
Batteries were put into a standard vendor string bag with no internal protection. This caused the batteries to rub on one another and leave visible signs of the trip to our vaping center.
USPS further exacerbated the poor packaging by all but destroying the paper envelope it was sent in. (USPS lack of proper care does not reflect on V4L's rating here)
Recommend:
Put each battery in its own plastic sleeve or otherwise protect the batteries from rubbing all over each other during transit. I do not wish to pay $16.95 which is already above industry standard, to receive batteries that look used from the trip. Other vendors in the majority have far better packaging options.
Battery Performance Quality: 4
Everything comes from the same place so not much surprise here. If they work, they work. So far so good.
*EDIT* Batter button sucks. Random misconnection. Works, but others work better and more consistently
Recommend:
Nothing so far.
Battery Aesthetic Quality: 3
Not impressed folks. The paint job is ok, but the ash cap looks like they cut it right out of a die machine and didn't bother to smooth off the die marks. The LED is off center and .... ugly in a tungsten white. The push button is a faux gold to match the V4L logo but the plastic quality is so cheap I'd expect it to come out of a bubble gum machine. The V4L stamped logo is a loser too. Too much going on here and it was not properly centered above the button. If you're going to do it, and charge this much for it, then do it right or eliminate it completely.
Recommend:
Change vendors or do some QC.
See "packaging" too.
Pre-filled Flavor Quality: 1
Flavor reviewing is not very quantifiable becuase it is way too subjective. Keep that in mind when I say that compared to ..., these pre-filled cartos taste worse. Flavors sampled
Strawberry, Strawberry Cinnamon Cream, Cranberry. Never again.
They threw in 4 or so samples, I will review those and add that when I do, but I am not looking forward to it. No flavor reminiscent of the intended one and an overall crap taste.
That's 3 for 3 and I don't waste money on more.
Recommend:
Short of firing the mixologist, I don't know. I do know that this area is so subjective that I can't beat it up too much, but JUST DAMN people, this stuff tastes like fidos ....
Shipping: 2
Ordered on a Friday, it was shipped on a Monday, then it took 3 days to get here. That's normally a 4 because it's pretty standard in most vendors, however, in the e-cig world, it's far more standard to ship out same day or over the weekend. So I have to go with my overall experience here. ALL my other vendors that have gotten orders on a Friday have either shipped same day or next day. Again, remember that this is based on my experience. I would not expect a vendor to ship on a Friday night or Saturday, but since more than 6 that I've experienced have, then it becomes an expectation of industry. So take this rating with a grain of salt.
Recommend:
Nothing, this is a per vendor decision that can be judged but not criticized.
I will not give V4L an overall rating at this time. That would guarantee I'd never go back. I've sampled WAY too few things with them to have a truly objective review going on here. So I will leave this as unfinished and add to it. Once I feel there is enough of a comprehensive cross section of experiences, then I will go for the overall rating bit.
While I've been confused by the whole vapor king thing and who's who when it comes to the company or the product, at this point, realizing that everybody gets their stuff from basically the same sweat shop in China I could care less what they call it or how they brand it. I care about how well and how long it works and how fast it gets to me. Value for Money. That's my brand.
This review is not an admonition or in any way intended to dissuade anyone from purchasing from V4L, nor is it an endorsement of any kind.
It is simply my personal experience and should not be construed as giving advice, either legal, medical, personal or societal in any way.
All scores are based on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being "Will never purchase again" and 5 being "this vendor should be the only one in business!". I never give 5's. Nobody is that great.
Items ordered and being Reviewed:
1 Chrome KR808 Battery
2 Purple KR808 batteries
Pre-filled KR808 cartos in Cranberry
Pre-filled KR808 cartos in Strawberry & Strawberry Cinnamon Cream
Packaging: 2
Batteries were put into a standard vendor string bag with no internal protection. This caused the batteries to rub on one another and leave visible signs of the trip to our vaping center.
USPS further exacerbated the poor packaging by all but destroying the paper envelope it was sent in. (USPS lack of proper care does not reflect on V4L's rating here)
Recommend:
Put each battery in its own plastic sleeve or otherwise protect the batteries from rubbing all over each other during transit. I do not wish to pay $16.95 which is already above industry standard, to receive batteries that look used from the trip. Other vendors in the majority have far better packaging options.
Battery Performance Quality: 4
Everything comes from the same place so not much surprise here. If they work, they work. So far so good.
*EDIT* Batter button sucks. Random misconnection. Works, but others work better and more consistently
Recommend:
Nothing so far.
Battery Aesthetic Quality: 3
Not impressed folks. The paint job is ok, but the ash cap looks like they cut it right out of a die machine and didn't bother to smooth off the die marks. The LED is off center and .... ugly in a tungsten white. The push button is a faux gold to match the V4L logo but the plastic quality is so cheap I'd expect it to come out of a bubble gum machine. The V4L stamped logo is a loser too. Too much going on here and it was not properly centered above the button. If you're going to do it, and charge this much for it, then do it right or eliminate it completely.
Recommend:
Change vendors or do some QC.
See "packaging" too.
Pre-filled Flavor Quality: 1
Flavor reviewing is not very quantifiable becuase it is way too subjective. Keep that in mind when I say that compared to ..., these pre-filled cartos taste worse. Flavors sampled
Strawberry, Strawberry Cinnamon Cream, Cranberry. Never again.
They threw in 4 or so samples, I will review those and add that when I do, but I am not looking forward to it. No flavor reminiscent of the intended one and an overall crap taste.
That's 3 for 3 and I don't waste money on more.
Recommend:
Short of firing the mixologist, I don't know. I do know that this area is so subjective that I can't beat it up too much, but JUST DAMN people, this stuff tastes like fidos ....
Shipping: 2
Ordered on a Friday, it was shipped on a Monday, then it took 3 days to get here. That's normally a 4 because it's pretty standard in most vendors, however, in the e-cig world, it's far more standard to ship out same day or over the weekend. So I have to go with my overall experience here. ALL my other vendors that have gotten orders on a Friday have either shipped same day or next day. Again, remember that this is based on my experience. I would not expect a vendor to ship on a Friday night or Saturday, but since more than 6 that I've experienced have, then it becomes an expectation of industry. So take this rating with a grain of salt.
Recommend:
Nothing, this is a per vendor decision that can be judged but not criticized.
I will not give V4L an overall rating at this time. That would guarantee I'd never go back. I've sampled WAY too few things with them to have a truly objective review going on here. So I will leave this as unfinished and add to it. Once I feel there is enough of a comprehensive cross section of experiences, then I will go for the overall rating bit.
