freedomsmokeusa---take it as you want.....

[the vaporizer]

So i ordered some liquid due to them having a good sale running and got a pleasant e-mail from Pam with a question because ordered a splash of zen garden in one of my tobacco juices and she wanted to know which one...so then i said

"Not sure LOL...I thought it was just a small 1ml bottle for me to add if i
wanted...i didnt know it was added by you Umm...You can just leave it out i guess? I dont want to add it to one and then not know what the real flavor of that liquid is....Ya know? I hope your company ships by priority!!! Let me know if you dont so I can make other arrangements! Im almost out of juice here...AHH..But thanks for the email! Your help is greatly appreciated and I cant wait to try your stuff out! Have a great day...tomorrow...lol its pretty early/late where im at!
Thanks,

Richard




So then Pam said:
"We send out priority, so you should get it pretty quickly
Pam


very nice and friendly pam seems

I responded:

Awesome! Will it be going out today? If it does can you please send me the tracking number when you get a moment..Thanks so much!"



Now this is where the "not so good customer service comes in"


David says
"goes out monday, we are buried in orders bro so taking time to send a track number I can't guarantee, you will get it in 1-2 days
David"


Then i say,
"David,
Ok monday sounds fine..How long would it take to e mail me the tracking
number? 20 seconds?

Anyway, I wont expect it but customers usually feel much happier and secure about their purchase when they can track the progress...FYI...Can I at least find the tracking information on your website if I check my account/order information?

Thanks,

Richard



Then i get this which was a little disappointing because i thought i was very friendly and understanding!


david says,

hey bro we do over 200 orders a day. it is me, pam and 7 kids, if you need me to go back out there, dig out your order and find the tracking number so be it. Reading books to my kids is highly overrated anyways. I will go do it right now
David


so i said,

Thats all you had to say from the beginning! how about....
"Ya no problem rich, il get you that tracking number on monday when it goes out!"

would have been fine!

NOT- "its the weekend and im reading to my kids but you must be more improtant so il get up from reading to my kid and go dig through 200 orders to find yours right now because you obviously must be more important that my children!"




Then he said,

"I walked away from dinner with my wife and kids to find out what was up with your order.. you ordered at 8pm last night. today is sunday. I will make sure you personally receive a tracking number once you order comes across my table. In the mean time. it is the weekend bro. are you serious?
David"








Needless to say...I think Pam is very nice and this doesnt pertain to her but I think the customer service from David was far under par with what i find acceptable. I dont ask vendors to do backflips for me but i expect a little bit or respect and appreciation for me giving them my business....I wasnt asking him to send my ordder out on the weekend...i dont think i was mean or demanding...i thought i was being very nice actually until he started to imply that i was cutting into his time with his kids and making him miss dinner with his family...I think that is pretty .....ty of someone to do to a customer because they asked for a tracking number...and i didnt even demand it...i said "whenever you get a moment" as in...take your time...no rush...but i just thought others might like to know...




HAPPY VAPING!!!

 

[harpo]

You're not the first to say this about David. I've heard from several others he has a short fuse.

 

[the vaporizer]

really....hmmm....i dont even know what i said that ...... him off...but to treat a customer like that for no reason not very cool

 

[o4_srt]

You're not the first to say this about David. I've heard from several others he has a short fuse.

however, being a weekend, you are lucky to get a response. I wouldn't expect a response from any vendor on the weekend. I can understand where both parties are coming from, and if I were in David's shoes, I probable would not have responded until monday.

I'm sure you will get your order just fine, I have never had a problem with them.

 

[Mr.Self_Destruct]

Personally if I was him i wouldn't have answered your email until monday morning. i would've responded to anything sent to me on sat, but sunday, i wouldn't even check the email and wouldn't expect it from anyone else.

 

[the vaporizer]

I would have rather got no response at all then the one i received....I dont care if it doesnt go out till monday...i dont care if i dont get a tracking number...its the way he made me feel for asking for one! I would have much rather him not responded at all then imply that i am pulling him away from his kids and family dinners!

 

[MXBNW]

Never had nothing but good from Both Dave and Pam. You must have just hit him on a bad day.

 

[the vaporizer]

i guess so man...i really wanted to try their stuff too...ive heard good things and the deal was pretty sweet too.....im a big fan of tobacco juice too and they have a lot of flavors!

 

[VapnChief]

You're not the first to say this about David. I've heard from several others he has a short fuse.

Gotta agree with you and the OP, I too received a not so pleasant response email from David where I had a simple question.

Also I gotta say, the whole idea of choosing whether to answer a question just because it was a weekend directly reflects on a company's success or failure of return customers.

 

[100thMonkey]

Just on balance...

I haven't dealt with them as yet, but I have to say it is pretty amazing to compare CS in the e-cig community with CS most other places in the universe. Most of the time I get a totally personal response. In your case, maybe it was too personal. Just sayin.

 

[Satharra]

Well, I suppose this was bound to happen sometime. Everyone has different expectations and such particularly in today's digital world.

For the record, I do not work for nor am I paid by FreedomSmokeUSA. I don't expect anything from them or from the OP as a result of this post. In fact, most likely I'll get flamed but that's fine too. I've got wide shoulders and have probably taken much worse.

First, I agree with the OP that responses could have been better from David. I've received some short email from him - not short in the sense of temper but short in the sense of 1-2 words. I'd suspect that he gets a ton of email everyday. That is certainly no excuse but I think his responses do need to be taken in context. It is Sunday evening. Personally, were I him, I just wouldn't respond. However, I know that it often takes people a really long time to allow themselves to separate personal from professional time.

Second, I think the response of the OP about the tracking number - specifically, where he asked "How long would it take to e mail me the tracking number? 20 seconds?" and then proceeded to critique the business probably hit a nerve with David. Again, not excusable but David has recognized in posts that they are getting a ton of orders and are short-staffed. I'm sure that we all believe that each of these juice businesses has a staff of 10 or more people and a computer network that instantly assigns tracking numbers but many do not. They're working from pretty simplistic databases and much of what is done involves footwork not necessarily keystrokes. We expect them to be run like our local McDonalds when they're more like your local greasy spoon.

I do think there was fault here on both sides but I have to admit that I expected more from David and I suspect he'll be along shortly to apologize. (Honestly, I don't know you from Adam so I have no expectations as to your behavior.) It sounds like a frantic, hectic day at work but the problem is work is also pervading his home and family life. That's got to be frustrating.

Imagine if your boss demanded that you be instantly accessible all your waking hours. In many cases, that's what we're expecting out of these juice dealers. Remember, too, that much of the power of voice inflection is lost in the keystroke. It's hard to read from your original response to Pam as to whether you were expressing anger and frustration or not.

Regardless, flame on. People are human. They lose their cool. You happened to catch the brunt of it this evening but I'm not sure what purpose this thread will serve other than to, potentially, garner an apology from David. Hopefully he'll be able to provide more staff for the weekends soon so that he can enjoy time with his family too. Such is the life of a small business owner.

 

[Satharra]

Just on balance...

I haven't dealt with them as yet, but I have to say it is pretty amazing to compare CS in the e-cig community with CS most other places in the universe. Most of the time I get a totally personal response. In your case, maybe it was too personal. Just sayin.

I've emailed with both David and Pam and had nothing but good experiences. When they're busy, the email gets noticeably shorter but only in the sense of fewer characters typed (not meaner in nature). From what I understand, the majority have also had great experiences.

I'm certain this is a limited occurrence. Heck, I doubt anyone here would want to catch me on one of my bad days. Just ask my husband! Or better yet, ask the people at Bank of America that stole my $1.50.

 

[DonnaDo]

I also dealt with both David and Pam during their recent 60 ml for $16 sale. I found that my experience was quite different from the one that you described.

First, I was not clear about how to enter the 60 ml order so that I got what I wanted and they got paid properly. I called the 1-800 number (I think that i was at approximately 8 pm here so it would have been around supper time in Arizona) and I received a return phone call from David in approximately 15-20 minutes. He was cordial, friendly and patient despite the fact that I was asking a question that was answered in his original post about the special. The problem was that I had gotten too excited about the special and skipped a few lines in the post.

Secondly, once the order was shipped via USPS, I received an email automatically (a click n ship notification) that provided me with the tracking number. I'm wondering why the process didn't go that way with your shipping.

Thirdly, I emailed once and received a prompt response from Pam.

Finally, I ordered late on a Thursday night and the eliquid was in my mailbox on Monday afternoon.

Did you ever receive your eliquid from them? If so I think that you would have to agree that theirs is some of the best! If not, or if you didn't order from them....you don't know what you're missing!

 

[USinchains]

I don't really see too big of a deal here. He was making a good point when he said you ordered at 8pm last night. today is sunday. I even read some sarcastic humor in his response near the "overrated" part, while I think your "20 seconds" comment was a little .....y. Perhaps he was too but I think his mistake was responding to you on the weekend, I run a business and we don't do a thing on sunday, just like every other biz in town. I don't get responses until the next business day from anywhere else either.
If you read his responses in a cool reserved tone, sounds like he was just being real with you, can't blame a man for getting annoyed once in awhile, he needs to take a day off. Not sure if you're aware but usps tracking is practically useless most of the time.

In hindsight, I guess it was definitely not the professional response one would expect from a company, but in reality he is just some guy with his wife, right? His overall track record is what really matters, we really don't need corporate taking over anytime soon.

 

[VaporMadness]

Regardless, flame on. People are human. They lose their cool. You happened to catch the brunt of it this evening but I'm not sure what purpose this thread will serve other than to, potentially, garner an apology from David. Hopefully he'll be able to provide more staff for the weekends soon so that he can enjoy time with his family too. Such is the life of a small business owner.

Yes indeed.

I ordered a bunch of small samples from FreedomSmoke when they had a big sale a couple of weeks ago. The coupon code for the sale got turned off minutes before I placed my order on a Sunday night (i think), this was shortly after 9pm pacific time. I posted to the subforum that the code didn't work for me. (I had been posting in the forum on Saturday chit chatting about what to order given the sale). David immediately posted a response in the subforum to go ahead and place the order and he'd take care to get the sale price right for me. So I did. I placed the order and in my package a few short days later came the difference in cash.

I had a couple of email exchanges with Pam and David that were all fine and good. My initial contact was with Pam when inquiring about how to how get the sale price right. She said something to the effect of David having to take care of whatever special arrangements he had made with me, but stated more nicely than that. And he certainly did! I was very happy with how I was treated by both Pam and David.

I'm vaping their Wyatt Earp flavor now and digging it. You need to let that one settle a bit to know what it truly tastes like. Initially it was somewhat perfume'y and turned me off. But now that it's settled, I like it quite a lot. The Shade is long gone already, I didn't give that one time to settle even.

 

[son et lumiere]

David and Pam are great. They answered you honestly and didnt run and hide behind a bush and not respond. I feel of a more face to face reaction with them as I do oppsed to other vendors. Like Bert said I wouldnt have responded til Monday but he went out of his way. This is what normal people do. If you expect a company to bend over backwards and jump through huge hoops for you good luck finding a vendor that will do that. David has already bended over backwards for me once making my wyatt earpp all 100% VG and accepting a return. You wont be able to match this level of customer service from anyone else I garuntee you.

 

[mauisun]

What is not being explained here is that I did respond to Richard:
Hi Richard,
Pam here. Seems like there was a bunch of miscommunicating all around here.
Your order will go out tomorrow. Have a good night,
Pam
And then again:
Don't worry, we're all set. You will receive a tracking number when your
order is processed at the post office.
Pam

Needless to say, there was morefrom the client, but I absolutely refuse to be petty. The order was placed late Saturday night and less than 24 hours later we were asked for a tracking number. The order had not been processed yet as it was Sunday. Could it have been handled better? Probably by BOTH individuals.

He is getting his order, it will be sent out asap and he will then receive a tracking number. I think it is time to put this to rest.
Pam

 

[mauisun]

lol that's my Pamela making midnight posts. she actually stayed up until 0315 when it was my turn to get up and get to work.
We have hired extra help to make labels, label bottles etc. Pamela and I still do the brunt of the work.
I have actually been in business since 1982 where I had my first camera shop in a 5 star hotel on maui. Imagine some of the customers demands in that place eh?
Yeah it was sunday evening, and perhaps I got a bit miffed with someone who was definitely being demanding, but in the end I simply let the customer know that perhaps he would better off purchasing from another vendor and I would be happy to give a full refund.
Anyone in business can tell you, you will never be able to satisfy 100% of all the people all the time.
Somone here posted they had heard from others that I have a short fuse. That is more suprising to me then any other post here. With 7 kids you just don't have a short fuse. I feel my patience is infinitely better then most folks.
Alot of what it comes down to is we want to make sure folks get a personal response to any questions as quickly as possible. And yes we run 24/7 7 days a week.
Looks folks, as you can all imagine, alot of stuff was left out in the quotes from the original poster here.
The click-n-ship program sends an out responose with your tracking number the moment it gets entered. original order was 8pm on saturday night. emails to me wanting to know where the tracking number is etc. started right at dinner time Sunday night. Suffice to say the order was not processed yet and was not slated to be processed until Monday.
We did work in the office from 8am sunday until 5pm. and the kids helped alot and we all had a good time catching up on who's getting good grades, who's dating whom etc.
Suffice to say, I am pleasant 99% of the time and anyone who knows me knows I will do anything to help someone out as long as they are just as nice in return.
I was properly scolded by Pam for letting this one slip through the cracks. carry on...

 

[DaveP]

I'm just about to place my first order with FS USA and ran across this thread. I've heard nothing but good things about you guys. I agree that it's perfectly fine not to respond on the weekend and catch up on that kind of thing on Monday morning. Everyone needs a day off from stress and you should take it.

I'm sure that it's a blessing and a curse to be so successful. It sounds like you are going through growing pains and you will evolve and pass on to the next phase of growth and adjustment. I'm going to take this thread with a grain of salt, place an order, and see what happens.

Good luck and congratulations on your reputation on this board. The issue posted here is most likely not business as usual. I have had my emails taken out of context, also. I'm sure yours was, too.

 

[mauisun]

thanks DaveP I appreciate that. We are opening up a storefront/vape lounge in 3 weeks. We are hiring the proper people that are close personal friends ot help run it. The problem with taking the weekend off is so many orders buildup it would take days to catch up so we do what we can interspersed with trips to the mall for the girls, trips to the park for the littler ones and lunch away from all for Pamela and I.
Definitely some growing pains but we are adjusting. I sincerely hope anyone wanting to try us for the first time just goes ahead and does it.
the toll free number is always there, anyone wanting to just talk I am always here. well except for those 4 hours when I sleep then Pamela is always here