Vapor 4 life (V4L) First purchase review

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Sardonic

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From my BLOG:

Vapor 4 Life (V4L) First Purchase



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.
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.
 

keyzygirl

ECF Guru
ECF Veteran
Aug 10, 2009
18,309
5,844
Key West,Fl.
Well in the year that Ive been using V4L,I like the batts,The Xlongs work and last wonderfully.Ive used a bunch of prefilled and found the flavors that I prefer.I get alot of refills out of them.I buy juice from other vendors sometimes for refilling.All in all a pretty great experience and a wonderful company.I guess it just depends who you ask.
 

Sardonic

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I do my own filling too, I prefer it. I just try to test whatever i can get my hands on so I don't have to rely on someone else to give me my opinion. I'm with you on the fact that most pre-fills don't taste as I would expect them too. The subjective nature of flavor dictates that to a universal law. Thank you for reading and commenting!

"JUST DAMN people, this stuff tastes like fidos ...."

This is why I stick to juice and blanks. I have yet to try a prefilled that didn't taste like fido's ... after a flea bath! I do use their blank KR8 cool carts tho and like them...never tried their juice. Sorry you had a bad experience with them :(
 
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Sardonic

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ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Definitely depends on who you ask. Also note that I'm not bashing this vendor, I will purchase again for a more objective review. This is not a "don't buy here" rant at all. I also don't consider it a bad experience, I consider an experience. If it proves to show itself in a consecutive series of like events, then I may be more inclined to be less forgiving. I believe you have to try something to have an opinion on it, like you have, and I also believe that my money spent on a product buys me the right to have said opinion but I don't want to come across as having a negative attitude against this vendor,not with only one purchase under my belt. That's important that people understand when reading this, it's just the way this purchase went, that's all. :)
Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

Well in the year that Ive been using V4L,I like the batts,The Xlongs work and last wonderfully.Ive used a bunch of prefilled and found the flavors that I prefer.I get alot of refills out of them.I buy juice from other vendors sometimes for refilling.All in all a pretty great experience and a wonderful company.I guess it just depends who you ask.
 

murtcepS

Unregistered Supplier
ECF Veteran
Jan 6, 2010
962
988
Michigan
Hey Sardonic,hope that 901 kit is treating you well.

I started with V4L back in December,and I have no problem bashing them. They have ZERO quality control! If you're not getting air flow,they tell you to trim the lable away from the vents on the carto. If the carto doesn't screw on the battery right,they tell you to sand,or steel wool the inside of the carto threads. As for their liquid tasting like fidos azz....I think it's more like fidos azz drenched in perfume,then covered with flowers....but the azz is still the dominate flavor.

If you happen to order 150 blanks that have defective threads customer service gives you the run-around until you finally give up. All while they saying they will take care of you in the V4L sub-forum. It seems small problems like replacing a battery get taken care of quickly. $200 orders...not so much.
 

Sardonic

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
LOVE the kit, my biggest problem is keeping it away from my GF!

As for your experience, damn, makes mine insignificant. When I spend a couple of hundred bucks on something like this stuff, I better damn well get a quality product and they better be jumping through hoops to satisfy me. I know what the wholesale cost of this junk is, and batteries don't cost anywhere near 15 bucks. You just have to go to Royal Smokers to figure that out.
Any info is good info, it helps keep people in check and shows them what the people expect. Thanks for sharing!!


Hey Sardonic,hope that 901 kit is treating you well.

I started with V4L back in December,and I have no problem bashing them. They have ZERO quality control! If you're not getting air flow,they tell you to trim the lable away from the vents on the carto. If the carto doesn't screw on the battery right,they tell you to sand,or steel wool the inside of the carto threads. As for their liquid tasting like fidos azz....I think it's more like fidos azz drenched in perfume,then covered with flowers....but the azz is still the dominate flavor.

If you happen to order 150 blanks that have defective threads customer service gives you the run-around until you finally give up. All while they saying they will take care of you in the V4L sub-forum. It seems small problems like replacing a battery get taken care of quickly. $200 orders...not so much.
 
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