Do Not Order "Free Trials"!!!

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Bozzlite

Ultra Member
ECF Veteran
Jul 31, 2010
1,889
777
Central Texas
Thanks for the post.. I really almost ordered a free trial. My riva is awesome!

Way to go BenD. I came this close to ordering one of those free trials. Then I read the small print right before I pressed the confirm order button.

I did a little research and wound up here at ECF. After a couple of weeks of reading the threads, ended up ordering an Ego starter kit from Cignot. Much less expensive and no monthly "subscription" to automatic shipments.

Haven't touched a cigarette in the last 9 months.

ECF Rocks!
 
Excellent post, I am new to vapeing. I am anticipating the arrival of my ali'i and trying to stay off of the anologs by using a cheap e-cig that I bought at a smoke shop. Problem is that the cartridges for the device cost 11.99 for five of them. The cartridges only last about three hours, and the quality of the vaper is week. About four months ago they where selling the same cartridges for 5.99 for five. They try to get you hooked and once they do they just rip you off.
 

TheHoochCow

Full Member
Apr 13, 2011
44
19
USA
Good post, I actually work in debit card fraud and I see this kinda crap daily. Some poor sucker falls for the "free trial give us your debit card number" B.S. and within 24 hours they have like 3+ charges for absurd amounts all from difrent merchant names on their account that they can not dispute because "they gave them their debit card number" and the merchants get extra shady as they do everything as a preauthorization to the account so even if you cancel your card they just run their pre authorization again and it charges directly to your account since authorizations are pending and as long as the merchant keeps em pending they can do damage after the life of your card is up. Honestly it should be illegal to require a credit or debit card number for a free trial of anything.
 

Sherri76

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Apr 9, 2011
91
18
Virginia
I came sooo close to ordering with a free trial offer. I was reading a news article on my phone and an ad for an e-cigarette caught my eye. I didn't even know what they were before I saw the ad. I've been a smoker for 17 years so I decided to give it a read, and it sounded interesting. After clicking on the ad, it took me to a "news" article about the experience of a journalist who was skeptical about the whole e-cig thing herself and it went through her week by week experience. I was like, hmmm only $4.95 and you get all this stuff for free?! Wow.

I didn't want to use my debit card, whenever I order from a company I know nothing about I prefer to use my credit card. That way, just in case they aren't reputable it won't take away from my actual funds and I've learned in the past that disputing a charge can take up to a month. I was actually entering my credit card information when I cleared out the box and decided to put the name of the company next to the word "scam" in google just for the heck of it before making the plunge. I normally do my homework before purchases like this anyway, don't know why I was so ready to jump into it. After doing that, and seeing all kinds of entries pop up in google, where people were subsequently getting charged $99 after two weeks and having difficulties getting their money back, I even looked up the reporter's name and the name of the news company because I was curious as to why in the world they say such great things about a company like that, and when zero entries related to the news website or even the reporter popped up, I realized that the whole news article was nothing but one big advertisement itself, that particular news company didn't even exist.

One good thing, at least all my google searching did bring me here to ECF. I still paid more than I should have with the first kit I did end up buying (I was so anxious to get started, I ordered the first starter kit that had a glowing review on another website) but I'm still very happy that I didn't fall into the free trial trap. :)
 

bonbon

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Mar 24, 2011
83
18
Texas
oops that didn't get placed right. im new to forums. sorry.
Whoever had the Carl Sagan avatar, i loved it.
I was one of the lucky ones. I started with a 'free trial' offer from our hometown newspaper website and it got here really fast and i was hooked instantly. But, it was only one battery and it only lasted an hour b4 having to charge so i sent that back and was able to stop the monthly shipments and all of that. Went back online and i found another starter kit with 2 batteries and a pcc, this is now a reputable company, btw, and had more problems with them than the free trial guys.
 

makny6

Full Member
Apr 14, 2011
5
0
Fishkill, NY
Ok, "free offer" or not, scam, or not, if you're thinking about ordering from a company that you're not familiar with, read all the fine print, reviews, and check the BBB online. Even if you're making a large purchase offline, its a good idea to do this.

Since people have mentioned direct e-cigs, I'd like to mention that this is not the same as e-cigsdirect. They actually have some of the products that people have mentioned that they use on here (such as Njoy). And, they have great customer service. I did have some problems...my cigs didn't charge the first week and I was sent a smaller bottle of e-nicotine than I was supposed to receive. Their solution was to send me both a new charger and a new battery so I was covered either way and to send me the correct size bottle of e-liquid and keep the other bottle no charge. I did end up switching to a mall kiosk one because I kept loosing the charger. The mall kiosk one cost 30 bucks and the charger is built into the case and came with 5 carts, which I haven't touched one and the others are still usable after a week. Refills are 10 bucks for 5 carts, which I think is about average??
 

fastfun

Moved On
Apr 17, 2011
1
0
So Cal
Well I wish I'd joined this forum BEFORE signing up for the free trial...and having to argue with the supplier about how many atomizers & cartridges they were billing me for, and oh by the way, completely sucked. Found better product at the local cig store, can buy what I want and how much of it, when I want to.....just like I have w/ analogs for 20+ years....
 
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