I've seen this chain do that very thing. Had I not known about this board, I would have a dna 30 clone that they advertise as Authentic.
B&M poor customer service.
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Principles? Not to mention its well below freezing outside so I wouldn't even make the trip if they quoted me some extremely outrageous price.
Am I wrong to think a "come find out for yourself" attitude is a douchy way to do business?
Guess I am lucky. We have a fb page for Vapers here and most of the people that run it own a shop or make custom mods. The other shop owners around the area get on and show new products or announce give aways or cloud comps or just get togethers. One even said come by and mention you are on the fb page and they would give you a free 30 ml bottle of their juice. Which is really good. I guess I got lucky and found a great fb page with great shops on it.
It depends. In this situation he did give a reason for not giving out the prices over the phone. Maybe they have had competition screw them over on pricing. I have seen this kind of stuff before in another industry. My friend owns a shop and his long time rivals keep calling asking for prices, and coming in to see what prices and items he carries and what his inventory looks like. When he stopped quoting his prices over the phone, that pretty much stopped these jerks from doing what they were doing.
He is willing to work with people on prices, but he did not want to waste his time on the phone with people who are want to know what he is charging before they hit that buy it now button on ebay or Amazon. If they were serious about wanting to buy what he had in his store, they would go in and check it out. And then he will work with them on getting the best price that was fair to both parties, if negotiations were required. Did it hurt his business? No, because his rivals went out of business for their "shady" practice.
i really doubt that.get a hold of your states attorney generals office.
that competition argument doesn't hold water in my experience.
its a sales ploy to get you in the door.
there really are laws governing the advertisement of alcohol and tobacco
product other than whats federally mandated. these vary from state to state.
regards
mike
All the fuss here plus leaving multiple negative reviews over a 5 pack of coils? Okey dokey.
Then why has my fiance who has done customer service for a chain that pushes more alcohol and tobacco then this B&M could imagine, never heard of this? She makes pretty big money training cashiers and customer service reps. She says no such law exists here.
Add the poor customer service with the fact that they try and pass off clones as originals, dillute juices and push mechs with shady batteries to beginners who have never used an eGo, let alone a mech mod, yes. Notice in my original post, I said the poor customer service experience was one of many things. Please don't respond to me like I'm some kind of ......
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Not giving out prices over the phone used to be more common with all types of business. The internet changed things a bit but I know people that were payed to go to various businesses and check on prices.
My local B&M is great. Nice atmosphere with friendly and knowledgeable staff.
I don't bother complaining about bad stores. They seem to fade on their own.
My local B&M is great. Nice atmosphere with friendly and knowledgeable staff.
I don't bother complaining about bad stores. They seem to fade on their own.
Although I am sure there are plenty of good B&M stores, I have only been in two and was less than impressed with both. As long as I receive the quality customer service I am getting from the vendors I deal with, there is no reason to look any further. Just based on prices alone, I prefer online shopping for most things. I am sorry you experienced this though and the one that you had spent so much money at. . . I would make it clear as to why they were losing your business. Just my 2¢. Good luck to you.
Its super Douchy! I kinda laugh... its a new industry and they can get away with it for now... I remember when computer stores were slapping together systems bought out of the computer shopper and selling them for insane prices, aaaaand you had to put up with rude sales people in computer shops... I remember leaving a computer store that abused me for years and buying an open box e-machine complete computer ( monitor, keyboard, mouse, cables... low end pentium ) for under 400$ at best buy. They wanted 1200$ just to upgrade my piece of crap computer with a new motherboard and hard drive and ram.... and the rude employees...
If walmart ever decides to sell anything better than a cig-a-like those stores are royally screwed!
I need to find a good B&M in Houston to visit to restore my faith that there are a few good ones.
Sorry but you don't win this one. Customer service is not letting people call store A, B & C and the caller then heading to the store that has the cheapest price. That's just lazy on behalf of the customer and the fastest way to derail sales ever on behalf of the B&M. If you want the convenience of a B&M you... actually have to go there.
Yet they derailed a sale here as well as future sales. I call on the price of things all the time and have for many years. Never have I been denied a price. Now all of a sudden, a price check is lazy?
Vaping B&M's are supposed to different for some reason? I wasn't even trying to compare prices. I bought an Atlantis from them the other day and was only curious as to how much heads cost in a B&M. They would have told be when I bought the thing four days ago but not over the phone, after the fact? All I was doing was following up on a product I bought from "them" to begin with.
vape shops are popping up because the average smoker is going to spend about a years worth of cigarettes buying stuff to convert to vape.
but sooner or later the sales are going to level off then eventually fall, then vape shops are going to start disappearing; then you either get your supplies at wallmart or order fancier stuff online.
I figure it's maybe a 5 to 10 year thing for b&m's.
Anyway, I don't consider 'poor customer service' to be the same as 'poor customer service over the phone' for a b&m.
The whole point of a b&m is the physical presence.
but sooner or later the sales are going to level off then eventually fall, then vape shops are going to start disappearing; then you either get your supplies at wallmart or order fancier stuff online.
I figure it's maybe a 5 to 10 year thing for b&m's.
Anyway, I don't consider 'poor customer service' to be the same as 'poor customer service over the phone' for a b&m.
The whole point of a b&m is the physical presence.
Yeah! If you want to compare prices you need to go online to sites like ebay, amazon, hotwire, priceline, travelocity, orbitz, yahoo shopping...
The customer is always right. If I call to see if something is in stock its so I dont have to drive all that way for no reason. The customer has the right to ask what they are charging for said item. The B&M has the right to not tell a consumer I suppose. When did we as consumers ever let retailers think it was ok to just treat us however.
I have called online stores and had the guy mixing the juice talk my ear off... I mean really describe flavors and tell me to put this or that in the comments for a free sample. I dont expect that at every B&M, they have other customers to attend to... The people here complaining about how they are being treated by B&M have a legit reason for complaining. We want to be treated with a little respect, we know they cant just charge online prices but we are tired of being Gouged!
I am sure there are good B&M shops around... but how many smart consumers on this forum have just given up on even bothering anymore. How many smokers could have quit with a little patience from a decent neighborhood B&M?
Some places (and this is nothing unique to ecigs) will tell you a price over the phone, but if you go to the store and buy, they charge a lower price that what they would say over the phone.
It's more a thing with small shops, not large stores or chain stores where everything is pricetagged and maybe even advertised online.
It's more a thing with small shops, not large stores or chain stores where everything is pricetagged and maybe even advertised online.
I'm becoming more and more convinced that the "average vaping consumer" would be much happier if all vape shops were replaced with an aisle full of Kanger and Aspire products at the local Walmart.
What a bummer.
What a bummer.
Believe me, I know how it feels. I'm not in exactly prime vaping territory and was so happy when a B&M opened in my area. They are seriously the most lousy store operators I've ever encountered. They're incredibly rude, unprofessional and really act like they are providing me with a favor by selling juice for $9 for 10ml and its made on the dusty desk in the back of the shop. I was excited to be able to support the gaping community in my neighborhood, but now a days the vaping community is more of a .... showing competition than it is about quitting smoking. Its sad.
The closest actual vape shop is 14 miles. There are several, from that point on. I walk gladly drive10 miles further to get to the store that checked stock and price for me before I started burning gas.
Maybe I could have saved a buck two-ninety-eight at the first store, if they wanted my business they should have shown that when I took the time to call them and offer my business.
I call stores all the time and request stock status on cigarettes for my wife.
FWIW local stores here have no issues with giving prices over the phone.
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Maybe I could have saved a buck two-ninety-eight at the first store, if they wanted my business they should have shown that when I took the time to call them and offer my business.
I call stores all the time and request stock status on cigarettes for my wife.
FWIW local stores here have no issues with giving prices over the phone.
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
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Exactly, I operated my own buisness doing computer repairs ( at very reasonable prices ) and web design. I treated every caller as a potential customer. My price was my price and that was the information they called for and that was exactly the information I gave them. I am sure some shopped around looking for a cheaper deal on a starter website, some even admitted that they tried other web designers. I treated them with respect and honesty. For subscription based websites I was willing to take less up front if they were going to continue to use me to update their site. I worked hard for that repeat buisness.
I had clients that got offers from other firms to take over and do it cheaper and I invited them to give them a try and that I would always be available if they werent satisfied.
You would be suprised how much of a premium price you can charge when you take care of your customer and treat them fairly. The 2 B&M shops that are close to where I live and where I fly out for work lost my buisness. They didnt loose my buisness because I am cheap and can get stuff cheaper online. They lost my buisness because of selling things for 3 and 4 times what they pay for them, way above industry standard prices, they have horrible customer service and because they refused to return a VW mod that had a bad charging port, never worked at all, even though they told me I had 30 days to return it when I bought it... ( For 3 times the fasttech price by the way )... i didnt even want a refund, just an exchange for a different mod that I felt might be more reliable.
Any B&M stores in Houston worth visiting? I am all ears... I just got a 500$ safety bonus going to be spent on tattoos or vape gear... but from what I have seen of B&M stores so far, I would rather flush it down the toilet than to subsidize some jack-tard running another 300% mark up establishment and underpaying his employees to the point that they could care less.
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