Local vape shops. Sales vs Customer Service

[EsOne]

I remember when I first started vaping. I bought a little eGo kit from a local gas station for $30. Cheapest around.

Now, we have a few vape shops local (revolvercig.com, smokerevolt.com), but as a starter I wanted to test the waters with something cheap.

Eventually, I had learned (the hard way) that clearomizers are disposable. LOL. I had went into my local Smoke Revolt shop and bought their "Dart" branded disposable clearomizers for my 650mah eGo battery.

Still not knowing much at all about vaping, I got this clearmizer home, filled, and went to screw it on to my tank only to find that it didn't screw down all the way, and there was a nice gap between the 510 connection and the bottom of the tank. Kind of wobbly.

Thinking IT was defective, I returned it. While at the shop, I explained what was wrong. First thing to come out of their mouth was "you need one of OUR batteries."

Needless to say, I walked out of their shop that day with an overpriced 900mah battery, and a pyrex Vivi tank.

I do a some local juice trading and came across an ex-employee of said shop. She told me that all I had to do was take a small screwdriver and screw the contact pin in a little. The person at the shop knew this the whole time, but they are trained to "make sales." I was upsold because one of their smaller products was not working and they witheld the easy fix for it to make a sale.

I do not visit their shop anymore only to buy Vivi heads. I felt like I was another sale instead of being helped properly. I feel like everytime I go in there I am forcefed sales pitches of their overpriced rebranded stuff.


So... As a consumer of these goods, do you find yourself visiting local shops for parts or shop online more? Are all shops like this? Both of the local shops here have their own branded items sold at a huge upcharge.

I think I'd prefer a friendly customer service with the occasional educational sales pitch, not feeling like I am just another sale.

 

[Txaggiesaunt]

Our local B&M is awesome. I spend a lot of time in there visiting, as I was their very first customer. They sell name brand products, in house mixing of juices. When someone new to vaping comes in they help them choose a kit, usually a Kanger Evod kit for beginners. They have testers out for their juices (over 120 flavors). They then help them decide what nic strength and when the customer walks out he has already been shown how to fill and use it. So when they leave they are already vaping as they walk out to their car. They are all quiet knowledgeable. This is our only B&M for 2 towns 20 miles apart with over 200,000 people. I was in the DFW area a few weeks back and visited a couple of B&M's. One was pretty decent, the other one didn't know squat. I was helping people off to the side, because the guy there was giving them wrong info. If you are going to own one or run one, you should at least know what you are doing. Just my VAPE ON

 

[Susan W.]

I only shop online now. I did buy some juice at the local shops when I first started but it was way over priced. But I tend to buy everything online if I can. I pass by 5 vape shops driving to work so they are all over the place where I live.

 

[Recycled Roadkill]

Snip: When someone new to vaping comes in they help them choose a kit, usually a Kanger Evod kit for beginners. They then help them decide what nic strength and when the customer walks out he has already been shown how to fill and use it. So when they leave they are already vaping as they walk out to their car.

My experience exactly and wondering if it's the same shop.

 

[nuhrayoh]

I mostly shop online only because the most advanced stuff my b&m store has vv/vw mods and carto tanks. Personally i strictly use mech mods and rba/rda's however I do come in for juice. I send my smoker friends in their though to get them to stop smoking. However I think that what I am more concerned about when I walk into a shop is their knowledge of their products. I'm fine with limited selections if they at least have efficient knowledge of what they sell.

As for your situation, I have had so many situations like that. I'd say stick around this forum, ask around for advise, and then buy the products online. There are so many b&m stores that do not keep up with the newest products and sometimes fall behind in vaping technology.

 

[Evi|grin]

I thought the first shop i found was awesome until they would not tell me the PG/VG ratio of the juice and charged top dollar for replacement coils. They were also passing off some products as real Visions when Vision does not even offer that product.

Then i found two other B&Ms that had better hardware selection, much cheaper coils/cartos and far more informed sales staff.

 

[madqatter]

I do a some local juice trading and came across an ex-employee of said shop. She told me that all I had to do was take a small screwdriver and screw the contact pin in a little. The person at the shop knew this the whole time, but they are trained to "make sales." I was upsold because one of their smaller products was not working and they witheld the easy fix for it to make a sale.

That's awful.

As a consumer of these goods, do you find yourself visiting local shops for parts or shop online more? Are all shops like this? ...I think I'd prefer a friendly customer service with the occasional educational sales pitch, not feeling like I am just another sale.

I think the shops I have visited (several now, in different towns around the DC area) are a mix. Some are selling overpriced junk, some are selling good merch at reasonable prices. Some put on the purchase pressure, others are laid back and don't mind you looking at and handling anything you like without buying anything. I plan to return only to the places where the people have treated me well.

So far, I haven't bought any equipment from a store that I haven't researched elsewhere ahead of time and done some price comparison on. There are times I might be willing to pay a little more to have something in my hand right away, but I'm going to know how much and weigh that cost carefully.

 

[RubyRoo]

Ummmmm, it REALLY depends on the shop. Some stores will rip you off with their overpriced rebranded stuff, and some shops sell name brand tanks, egos, mech mods, rebuildables, gourmet juices and will only sell you the best stuff. If you have experienced poor quality gear and service, don't go there anymore. If you are lucky enough to have a good B&M in your town, or close to you, it's worth it to spend you cash there. Do your research, look at reviews and know what you want before you go in. I think that it's important to support local businesses if they offer what you are looking for. Just my !

 

[MrStik]

I do not trust the combination of badly secured personal information of websites and the piss poor track record of the USPS. I consider the extra couple bucks for my juice to be "rush delivery" as I can drip and vape it as I am paying for it.

 

[Txaggiesaunt]

My experience exactly and wondering if it's the same shop.

Well I am in Odessa. If you came thru here, then it is the same shop. The only shop here

 

[nova_did_it]

I do a mix of both B&M and online. My local B&M started me out with an EVOD starter kit some juice and taught me how to fill and use my equipment. Priceless if you ask me, since I'm a visual person when learning. It was really invaluable in helping me choose liquids I liked since I got to sample all of them. I don't mind paying the higher prices since I do know they also have overhead that an online store may not have. That being said, I do tend to use online a lot as well to get hardware that my local store does not carry and also online juices that I have grown to really like. I will say however, there are some local juices that I get that I love as well.

 

[Nermal]

Are you a registered supplier, Patrick? If not, it might be best to check out the forum rules.

 

[Baby Luigi]

I only shop online... I don't even know if there are some local shops are where I live.

 

[darkgear]

Been to 7 shops in the last 3 days. It's a mixed bag. Some are just there to make the sale. Some don't even know what they are talking about, just there to make sales. A few shops are great. The guys that work there know their stuff and are willing to help. Even going as far to recommend other B&Ms that might carry what I'm looking for.

In Honolulu, Thumbs up for 808Vapor and 808Smokes.

 

[Huckleberried]

I order my juices from a guy that's local, then discovered he sells some of his to a nice, little, new vape shop in town. Dropped in there one day to check it out and he happened to be there dropping off orders. I was in the presence of the master! (bows to juice master) The staff is friendly as can be (remembered me the 2nd time in), seems pretty knowledgeable and they also have a nice selection of their own juices and gear. Seems that every time I go there, every 1-2 weeks, they have more and more. Of the very few places here in town, this one shines and I'm so glad to have stumbled upon them...... thanks to a post I read here.

It's nice to have even a small place to go. Online ordering (other than from my juice master) is my back up.

 

[Rictic]

I order my juices from a guy that's local, then discovered he sells some of his to a nice, little, new vape shop in town. Dropped in there one day to check it out and he happened to be there dropping off orders. I was in the presence of the master! (bows to juice master) The staff is friendly as can be (remembered me the 2nd time in), seems pretty knowledgeable and they also have a nice selection of their own juices and gear. Seems that every time I go there, every 1-2 weeks, they have more and more. Of the very few places here in town, this one shines and I'm so glad to have stumbled upon them...... thanks to a post I read here.

It's nice to have even a small place to go. Online ordering (other than from my juice master) is my back up.

Man what a real treat.

The prominent ones down here in Miami are the Vapor Shark shops. There's one close to my abode, and I remember sending an aunt there when she asked me about ecigs to try and quit smoking. I knew she wouldn't be the type to do very much research online. She really doesn't have the time to listen to me go too in depth about mods and atties and whatnot, plus she wouldn't want to spend much on vaping anyway, so I figured a B&M would do just fine for her.

Well, since I started getting really into vaping I've always ordered stuff online and compared reviews and prices. Out of curiosity I went into one of the vapor shark stores..... Yikes.

Ego batteries, not even twists, were way overpriced. I think to this day they're still pushing their rebranded Vivi novas, and they don't even have evods or protanks or any variety really. Plus they tried to sell me a $20 Vivi nova, no replacement coils at all. Cheap little disposable dripping atties were priced at around $10 each, which is passable, except when I asked for one the poor guy didn't know what I was talking about and I almost had to go behind the counter to grab them myself.

Even one of the employees, when he saw my mods, admitted the owner wasn't very open at all to new ideas/devices and was pretty stubborn about it. They did have a single Provari, priced and displayed like a rare bottle of 30 year Scotch behind a liquor store counter.

From what I've observed from uninformed friends that are getting into vaping and starting at local B&Ms, most here are similar in their overpriced and outdated merchandise. It would be nice to have a B&M down here with variety that caters to new vapers and experienced vapers alike. If anyone knows of one....


Sent from my hand-computer using Tapatalk 2

 

[Vapeaddikt]

I remember when I first started vaping. I bought a little eGo kit from a local gas station for $30. Cheapest around.

Now, we have a few vape shops local (revolvercig.com, smokerevolt.com), but as a starter I wanted to test the waters with something cheap.

Eventually, I had learned (the hard way) that clearomizers are disposable. LOL. I had went into my local Smoke Revolt shop and bought their "Dart" branded disposable clearomizers for my 650mah eGo battery.

Still not knowing much at all about vaping, I got this clearmizer home, filled, and went to screw it on to my tank only to find that it didn't screw down all the way, and there was a nice gap between the 510 connection and the bottom of the tank. Kind of wobbly.

Thinking IT was defective, I returned it. While at the shop, I explained what was wrong. First thing to come out of their mouth was "you need one of OUR batteries."

Needless to say, I walked out of their shop that day with an overpriced 900mah battery, and a pyrex Vivi tank.

I do a some local juice trading and came across an ex-employee of said shop. She told me that all I had to do was take a small screwdriver and screw the contact pin in a little. The person at the shop knew this the whole time, but they are trained to "make sales." I was upsold because one of their smaller products was not working and they witheld the easy fix for it to make a sale.

I do not visit their shop anymore only to buy Vivi heads. I felt like I was another sale instead of being helped properly. I feel like everytime I go in there I am forcefed sales pitches of their overpriced rebranded stuff.


So... As a consumer of these goods, do you find yourself visiting local shops for parts or shop online more? Are all shops like this? Both of the local shops here have their own branded items sold at a huge upcharge.

I think I'd prefer a friendly customer service with the occasional educational sales pitch, not feeling like I am just another sale.

Walking into any business without any knowledge prior to going into it is going into a battlefield unarmed.

Unfortunately we'd love to believe that people want to have what's best for us at heart but in the end most businesses push their sales reps and even bonus them for pushing out certain products whether it be real estate listings, cars, commercial property, anything.

Your best defense is having knowledge prior.

When I wanna test any place, applicant, potential business partner ect, I ask questions I know the answers to, and play dumb to see where their actual intent lies prior to committing to doing business.

There are still several good legitimate people out there who will actually do what they should when selling you items which is to make fair, ethically sound recommendations for what you need vs what they need. It just takes some testing of the waters to identify the ones out there.

 

[Barbara21]

Unfortunately I only have one vape shop within an hour ride and it's not what I would call a 'good' one. Maybe 30 different generic juices ('watermelon', 'mint', 'tobacco', etc.) at $6.99/10mL. No sampling. A few basic egos (black only), a vamo (black), a couple of mech clones (also black)...well, you get the idea.

 

[Baditude]

To the original poster, I see you are in Ohio. AltSmoke is a reputable online vendor who has expanded their business to three storefronts in Ohio, with plans for further expansion in the future. They have a large selection of vape gear and over 100 juice flavors from several e-liquid manufacturers that you can sample in store prior to making a selection. Their staff are all experienced vapors and are never hard-sell.

So no, not all vape shops are like you experienced. I have a feeling that the less reputable shops will eventually get weeded out and be forced to close should they continue their business habits and word of mouth spreads out. Unfortunately, in the meantime, some potential vapors will become disenchanted by them and believe that vaping will not help them quit smoking.

 

[Vicshalls]

I have not been back to my store since I ha e been on here. I have learned so much. I need to go back and talk to them some more to see what they really do know. They are nice though. Surprisingly they did not even try and sell me a set with two batteries to start with. Wish they had though cause I know better now. Had no idea how much I would vape and what the time frame was on a battery. Had to go back and get a bigger battery just to get through the day and have not bought two more on line since they were cheaper.