Diary of a first time E-cig buyer.

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prawdaeh

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ECF Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
134
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Chattanooga, TN
I do not want to advertise products, give a review of something that hasn't arrived yet or that i didn't give a chance to test, but relate my experience of buying my first e-cig... if nothing else I hope maybe I'll save at least one person the hassle, concerns, and "Oh man i messed up" moments.

Unlike walking into a store and saying "give me a pack of marlboro reds" you will be faced with products saying they are better than any other e-cig out there - overpriced mini's with non-refillable cartridges that only take their brand of cartridge. You could run into total knock offs of really popular companies that may or may not be deemed unsafe to use and created with cheaper parts. You could find a totally legit company and still be unsure whether they're selling the real thing.

My personal experience...don't jump the gun...i almost bought a product i would've most likely ended up being extremely disappointed with and paid wayyyyy too much for. As a matter of fact I had already made the purchase with the credit card before I found a youtube review of someone who got the same product and when it arrived in the mail they were completely unsatisfied and angered that it wasnt going to cut it for getting rid of cigarettes...and i thought "Im going to be that mad when it shows up." I'm not going to say who but this particular company did NOT clearly state their order cancelation policy for orders that had not shipped. I knew i could return the box but not the nicotine cartridges that came with it which would have cost me money...they made that much plain as day their return policy.

Thankfully upon contacting customer service they informed me that yes they were able to cancel an order and refund in full before their product had shipped. I immediately began to do more and more research on which E-cig was going to be the one for me. For me the positive reviews of the 510, and eGo/tornado made my mind. I went to a website and ordered a Joye eGo starter kit, 4 bottles of 24mg e-juice, and 3 extra atomizers. You would have thought spending 6 hours researching would have been enough, HOWEVER - I was wrong. It wasn't until after this purchase was already shipped in the mail (i'm still waiting on it..shipped 2 days ago) that I stumbled upon the possibility of there being Knock-offs on the market that the companies of the genuine artifict can't determine is any more or less safe than their product. I researched ways to identify knockoffs and the only 2 things i saw were labels of "Bigfoot" and ripping the e-cigs apart and looking at pictures of the original's hardware. I thought "That's an expensive experiment." And continued to consider other possibilities.

I went to Joyetech's website and looked at a description of the Joye eGo...on their website it lists 2 680mah batteries...the one i ordered came with 2 650mah batteries...and myself not knowing the full extent of the technology of battery power - this threw up a red flag in my mind. I began to panic.

My first thought was to email the online retailer and ask if he could give me any proof that he was indeed selling genuine Joye products. Then i remembered seeing claims of forged QC certificates.

Thankfully Joyetech has a customer service contact e-mail and that was my final decision. I emailed Joytech asking if there was any way they could verify my retailer was indeed selling the real thing, and they did fairly promptly. 1-2 days for a response and it was very short and sweet explaining they worked with one of their distributors which im sure they aren't allowed to disclose the name of.

It turns out my retailer is legit, and this makes me feel more confident...now if only he didn't ship through USPS..that could be the deal breaker.

Again it is NOT my intention to promote Joye, i did tons of forum reading and put some hours into watching reviews on youtube. Ultimately these products just sounded like what would work for me.

My advice to any new e-cig buyer is - do your research on what products are available and which you think will work for you. THERE ARE TONS OUT THERE. They don't all produce the same result. My personal want was for it to feel like smoking more than anything (aside from getting my nicotine without actual smoke/combustion)...and thats what i based my research and decision on.

Also read up - there are plenty of retailers suggested in these forums as well as many others across the internet. Chances are if there are good things said by more than a few people about a company you might be ok buying there. If you've found a website you'd like to try - don't hestitate to write the manufacturer of the product you are interested in buying from them and make sure that it's the genuine product. (write the manufacturer...not the retailer...the manufacturer's want to make sure you're buying their product not only for the $$$, but because they know more about it's levels of safety than they do of the knock-offs..)

I hope these tips are useful to any of you guys going through the same experience I've gone through in the past few days... I personally hope vaping takes over my smoking habit...and if this little gadget is going to save lives I want it to be as easy as possible for people to get.

Now that that's over...Joye eGo - please hurry up and get here...my lungs can't wait to meet you.
 
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firefox335

Super Member
ECF Veteran
May 31, 2010
614
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There is a big learning curve out there. I've heard stories of people going through 5 or more different models before finding one that worked for them. Thankfully, I only had to try 2 models before I found one that fit me. While I highly recommend vapor4life, I know that they are not for everyone. And I tell people that while this is the model that I recommend, I urge them to come to ECF and check out the forum. This place is really helpful with all of the topics. Does it need to look like a cigarette? Do you want clouds of vapor? More interested in overall flavor or throat hit? Once you can answer those questions yourself, finding the right model by reading and doing research will save you money and hours of frustration.
 

Nomoreash

Vaping Master
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Verified Member
Aug 9, 2010
3,261
931
Chattanooga, TN
Hey prawdaeh and welcome. Glad you did the research, got everything corrected in time and gained enough info to put yourself in the right direction. This forum is awesome and we're lucky to have it. My interest was peaked in e-cigs when a co-work came in with a Blu and saying how wonderful it is. I'm not bashing and I know it works for alot of people but after my interested was peaked I started researching and found out quickly it wasn't going to be for me. The Ego is a great choice from everything I've read and seen. Hope everything goes well for you moving on.

BTW nice to see a neighbor here. Maybe we can put together a Chattanooga Club haha.
 

prawdaeh

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
134
40
Chattanooga, TN
why we are chattanoogans aren't we? thanks for the welcome. and hey that might be an idea. Hopefully mine will be in the mail today. And hopefully it does the job for me and within a few weeks friends of mine will see how happy i am with it and the trendof e-smoking will go crazy here. I know alot of smokers.

But..i could just be getting my hopes up! But i've heard way more good about this than I have any nicotine patch/gum/inhaler.
 

shanagan

Ultra Member
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Jul 14, 2010
1,238
72
Texas
Great advice. Though it certainly feels like it sometimes, you can never have too much information.

Now, just a bit of advice for you. When you get your ego, it'll probably be mostly charged, so you can jump right in on one battery while you fully charge the other. Your kit will most likely come with pre-filled carts. Since you've got juice coming too, if you don't have any empty carts in your kit, go ahead and pull the filler out of a cart and wash it out if you need to. Take the atty off and blow all traces of primer out of that sucker. Just put your mouth over the open end and blow into a paper towel until you can't get any more liquid out, then reattach. Drip about 3 drops of whichever juice smells best to you into the atty, put your cart & cone back on, and yeah, be ready to be kind of blown away.

FWIW, my husband and I share an eGo kit. I rec'd it in the mail and have had one drag of an analog since and absolutely ZERO cravings for one. (I smoked almost a PAD of marl. reds.) He (a pad + whatever I didn't smoke - we smoked 2 PAD between us) smoked about 4 cigs the first day, then 2, then 1 here and there and has been analog free for a week and two days. The trick is finding your juice. The flavors I thought I'd love? Meh. Some of my true favorites now? The ones I thought were "weird."

You aren't just getting your hopes up blindly. There are tons of us that have found this to be the only viable alternative to smoking (1700+ have answered a poll in the forum - out of those that answered, 82% have quit analogs completely. That's over 1400 people). It feeds all parts of the addiction without the nasty stuff that most of us have come to hate (feeding big tobacco, being penalized tax-wise & ostracized almost everywhere, the smell in our clothes/hair/car/home, etc etc).

Also, it's ok to get psyched - these things are COOL.

Good luck - can't wait to read your initial reactions!
 

maclean

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Aug 8, 2010
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italy
Shanagan,

Great post! Very inspiring.

I'm waiting on an eGo + juice arriving too. I started with a 510, but it's not cutting it for me and I'm back on the analogs. (The pre-filled carts and juice I got with it are lousy).

I'm hopeful that the eGo will be the one that gets me off analogs. Good to hear it worked for you and hubby.

mac
 

shanagan

Ultra Member
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Jul 14, 2010
1,238
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Shanagan,

Great post! Very inspiring.

I'm waiting on an eGo + juice arriving too. I started with a 510, but it's not cutting it for me and I'm back on the analogs. (The pre-filled carts and juice I got with it are lousy).

I'm hopeful that the eGo will be the one that gets me off analogs. Good to hear it worked for you and hubby.

mac

Fingers crossed for you! You want to know something funny? I've been driving this train, so to speak. My husband was all "I dunno about this, Shan." That turned into "Great, now you've made my marlboro's taste TERRIBLE." Finally we're at "Hey, did that juice get delivered yet??" and "write down the name of the website for ____ at work. He wants to buy a couple."

Also, I'm waiting for a janty usb-passthrough battery to be shipped, and it is killing me. There's no better/worse feeling than waiting!
 

prawdaeh

Senior Member
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Aug 12, 2010
134
40
Chattanooga, TN
Fingers crossed for you! You want to know something funny? I've been driving this train, so to speak. My husband was all "I dunno about this, Shan." That turned into "Great, now you've made my marlboro's taste TERRIBLE." Finally we're at "Hey, did that juice get delivered yet??" and "write down the name of the website for ____ at work. He wants to buy a couple."

Also, I'm waiting for a janty usb-passthrough battery to be shipped, and it is killing me. There's no better/worse feeling than waiting!


lol @ Great, now you've made my marlboro's taste TERRIBLE." That is what I am hoping for. UNFORTUNATELY for me somehow when I ordered my eGo i think the shipping address copied the city part of the billing address...and even though i had the correct zip code, and there's only 1 street in my town with the name of this street - it went to that city's post office. I can only blame myself for not noticing that before completing my order, however despite my best efforts I can't schedule a pickup as it's being sent back to a local sorting facility. I just hope that it goes to the right post office this time and not back to the same place in some neverending loop...

if not for that i'd be puffing on my eGo right now!

and thank you very much for the positive feedback and advice. It only makes me wish it were here already and I've felt like that since I've ordered it. I will DEFINATELY keep you updated on my initial reactions of it once it's finally here. Hopefully tomorrow or *sigh* saturday.

Thanks for another story of the e-cigarettes success. As many people as possible should speak out about how this is helping them if it really is doing good for them. I've tried the patch, gum, nicotrol inhaler, cold turkey, smokeless tobacco (snus) and ultimately go back to the thing that makes me wake up coughing every morning. So I'm really excited about the prospect of the e-cigarette. I can't wait.

thank you again Shanagan.
 

prawdaeh

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
134
40
Chattanooga, TN
Great post in the start of topic. Thanks a lot!!!

Glad to have been able to share this. it really was an experience. If only I had put this much effort into schoolwork! *Note to self - invent the addictive school sluppies and paper. perhaps people will feel the *NEED* to study more.

NicoPen and NicoPaper! Designed for the mother that wants their child to succeed regardless of the cost! Are you a school text book supplier? Try our Nicobook to keep those kids coming back for that sweet relief of education!
 
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awesmazing

Full Member
Aug 12, 2010
5
0
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jersey
Couldn't agree more. I totally jumped the gun on my first purchase and ended up with a blucig... Very disappointing. Needless to say I upgraded ASAP and suckered a buddy of mine into buyin the blu off me, I consider myself lucky haha. Definitely do you're research ahead of time, I personally recommend Vaportokers. Awesome customer support and, in my opinion, a great product to boot. Good luck to all you new guys!
 

Nobodyatall

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Aug 7, 2010
179
0
Phoenix
+1 OP. Good advice!

I found out the hard way that the local smoke shops are only in it for the money w/o any real knowledge to back it up and found that there are indeed some shaky enterprises on the web, sometimes without any actual real world location to referrence or false addresses given! (Found the latter here in PHX!)

Who to trust? Who to trust?

The endorsements on this site are the best resource I can imagine.
 

prawdaeh

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Aug 12, 2010
134
40
Chattanooga, TN
I thought I'd update via this thread because it's so useful. My e-cig is at the p.o.! the right one this time!! Soooo hopefully this means i'll see it when the mailperson arrives.

I am eagerly awaiting..i almost wish i could go back to sleep just so i'd wake up and find it on my porch.

So hopefully i'll be able to share my first impression with you guys soon!
 

Jammin

Super Member
ECF Veteran
Sep 16, 2010
572
174
Washington DC
Glad to have been able to share this. it really was an experience. If only I had put this much effort into schoolwork! *Note to self - invent the addictive school sluppies and paper. perhaps people will feel the *NEED* to study more.

NicoPen and NicoPaper! Designed for the mother that wants their child to succeed regardless of the cost! Are you a school text book supplier? Try our Nicobook to keep those kids coming back for that sweet relief of education!

Honestly with everything I have read here it is pretty commonplace to even not be happy with your first e-cigarette purchase even AFTER doing research. I did all my research and got the joye 510 but after a week and a half i realized i'd rather have a bigger battery.

It's almost a given for many people, even those who research, to not be entirely happy with waht they first purchase for one big reason - what works for some isn't going to be the best for another. We all have our own habits and nuances that are unique to us and usually it is trial and error that leads us to the best product.

I dont feel bad at all buying a joye 510 first even though i plan to buy an eGo or something with a bigger battery. Its all a part of the experience. Sure you might be out a few bucks but to me its still very much worth it.

Hope you like your eGo!
 
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