Good buy Chris - Long time costomer LOST!
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Sorry you feel that way. We hate to lose you as a customer, but we can't provide free shipping on every order.
I didn't ask for free - I asked for first class. I just ordered from VaporKings (another ECF Dealer). Was charged less then half your shipping fee. USPS 1st Class Bubble Pack (2-5 Days) $2.25
If there really is a demand for this then we will certainly look into it. However, we consider tracking and delivery confirmation a necessity and pride ourselves on our quick shipping times. First Class mail negates both of those (unless you pay extra for delivery confirmaton). Not to mention that it would only be available for extremely small orders such as cartridges or caps when we try to promote larger orders through our pricing strategy. I guess I really need someone to sell me on this idea, because it doesn't seem fit our company's image. Looking forward to hearing your feedback.
Considering what I used to spend on cigarettes I don't worry about a $6.00 shipping fee.
I have no complaints about the present shipping options. All my orders have been processed, shipped, and delivered in a more than satisfactory time frame. As it is, I have never placed a really small order, so I reserve comment on that. I'm okay as it is.
I view MFS as an e-liquid supplier that stocks some other convenience items used for vaping. IOW, I would guess that better than 90% of the items shipped from MFS requires the $5.95 registered mail box to house big items like bottles, etc. I know I have never received anything from MFS that didn't require a box.
The OP placed an order for the smallest of items, a package (or two) of silicon caps that sell for $1.50-ish. I'm willing to bet that is an unusual situation for MFS. It seems they handled the order in the same way they handle most of their orders and wanted to bill the OP for the box.
I don't think it's unreasonable for any vendor to keep padded envelopes on hand for small orders and charge the customer accordingly. Many vendors do this routinely. I know of one vendor who sells an array of items including drip tips. The drip tips ship in a padded envelope while his cost of shipping is the same cost to the customer -- that is first class and about $1.
Again, I think this is an unusual case for MFS. I would give them the benefit of the doubt in future cases.
The OP placed an order for the smallest of items, a package (or two) of silicon caps that sell for $1.50-ish. I'm willing to bet that is an unusual situation for MFS. It seems they handled the order in the same way they handle most of their orders and wanted to bill the OP for the box.
I don't think it's unreasonable for any vendor to keep padded envelopes on hand for small orders and charge the customer accordingly. Many vendors do this routinely. I know of one vendor who sells an array of items including drip tips. The drip tips ship in a padded envelope while his cost of shipping is the same cost to the customer -- that is first class and about $1.
Again, I think this is an unusual case for MFS. I would give them the benefit of the doubt in future cases.
Personally all of my orders have been for liquid in 120ml bottles or larger so I can't see benefiting from it myself. However, I do see the point of others that it would a nice option if you ordering just an atty or caps or whatever.
However, you need to protect yourself as a retailer as well, with no tracking or confirmation involved if someone says "I didnt get it" there is no way to prove it either way. As an online retailer myself (not ecig related), I know this debate well. If you lay down some basic ground rules in the TOS to the effect of, if you order with this option and the package is not received you will only get a 50% refund if you request it since there is no way to prove you didn't get and no way to prove I sent it. Personally, I take a picture of every box that leaves our shop so that the name & address & order number & postage are clearly visible, but I am very certain you generate a LOT more sales than we do which would make this a huge pain for you. Not to mention I am not truly sure how much protection this really affords me.
EDIT: And a side note here, $5.95 is cheap! Again coming from an online retailer perspective, Chris is most likely eating a lot of shipping charges for us. Thanks Chris!!!
However, you need to protect yourself as a retailer as well, with no tracking or confirmation involved if someone says "I didnt get it" there is no way to prove it either way. As an online retailer myself (not ecig related), I know this debate well. If you lay down some basic ground rules in the TOS to the effect of, if you order with this option and the package is not received you will only get a 50% refund if you request it since there is no way to prove you didn't get and no way to prove I sent it. Personally, I take a picture of every box that leaves our shop so that the name & address & order number & postage are clearly visible, but I am very certain you generate a LOT more sales than we do which would make this a huge pain for you. Not to mention I am not truly sure how much protection this really affords me.
EDIT: And a side note here, $5.95 is cheap! Again coming from an online retailer perspective, Chris is most likely eating a lot of shipping charges for us. Thanks Chris!!!
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I have used first class and never lost a package. BUT I do like the tracking of the larger packages. How much would it cost for first class with tracking? I am willing to bet that there are more people that need just a few things that don't order because of the shipping. I personally like finding vendors that offer a cheaper option to those that only need a few things it make me think they are progressive and customer oriented. Even if it were $2.50-$3 that is better than almost $6.
Personally I do like the first class option, for small items. I'm very active in the PIF area, and #0 - #000 bubble mailers are used all the time for smaller things. A couple ounces total in a bubble mailer runs about $2, including tracking (I use Paypal for generating shipping labels, tracking is mandatory, costs $0.19). Maybe add $1, as previously mentioned, to cover the bubble mailer and the couple minutes to use an alternate mechanism, that would still let you offer an option at about $3 instead of $6. Not much margin on small things, sure, but if it helps a customer view you as a one-stop shop there's a likely payback in revisits.
The way EgoT caps leak I was ordering 20 at a time - VaporKings sent them 1st class - Came in 2 days - NB at all!
Your poll is silly - I am the costumer - I am always right!
Your poll is silly - I am the costumer - I am always right!
I don't think the poll is silly and the customer is not always right. I work with the public and they are getting harder to get along with every year. People have this attitude of entitlement.
I'm a sucker for venders that offer free shipping. I often find myself making a $30 order and then see they offer free shipping on $55+, which makes me add another $25 in purchases. (This happens more than I care to admit!) I assume the free shipping is absorbed somewhere in the pricing. That said, I don't blame venders that don't offer free shipping on large orders. Just saying it can be a big incentive for some of us.
I think that it would seem very reasonable to offer various shipping options. Imagine this you order 250 ML nic and 250 ML of vg/pg one week and have a great exp. Then next week you have 4 cartos blow out because of whatever reason and the great prior exp with nic you want to order a 5 pack of cartos because you are in between paydays. Tell ya what I am not paying 5 bucks for a pack of cartos when madvapes sells them to me for 2 bucks or less for the shipping
MFS is one of my two main vendors. But I also have gone to others for a small order of caps, etc., due to the shipping cost. To offer a lesser cost for a smaller order would seem more reasonable.
I usually wait for your sales and make a large enough order to beat the shipping.
Occasionally, I might want just one more ego battery, or a five pack of cartos.
A USPS discount service for 'established customers' might be something to consider.
Not a big deal for me, but many vapers wait until their last battery dies then stress over
the total cost of getting just one battery.
Think about the folks that bought ciggies, a pack at a time. Middle of the night trip to the 7-11 for one pack
Occasionally, I might want just one more ego battery, or a five pack of cartos.
A USPS discount service for 'established customers' might be something to consider.
Not a big deal for me, but many vapers wait until their last battery dies then stress over
the total cost of getting just one battery.
Think about the folks that bought ciggies, a pack at a time. Middle of the night trip to the 7-11 for one pack
I'll openly admit it's been many, many years since I have worked on both sides of this proverbial fence; however, it has not been so long ago that I cannot "see,", no pun intended, the isuses on both sides. That having been said, perhaps there is some way I can offer a little insight on the business end of the fence.
One of the biggest expenses for small companies today, as well as what generally pulls them under, is the cost of overhead in general along with shipping costs when providing product versus services. Even the post office is raising rates in order to allow them to remain in competition with delivery services such as UPS, Fed Ex, and Airborne Express along with the up & comer DHL albeit DHL tends to deliver to businesses more frequently than residential customers but when I was working out of my home as a medical transcriptionist, I used DHL services quite frequently because it was the top carrier of the companies I ordered from on a regular basis.
In my years of working both in-house for commercial companies as well as on my own with personal correspondences, I found that the USPS can be less reliable without a tracking order option. A prime example is when I write up thank you notes or send hand-written letters to friends and family. When writing by hand, I always use one of a few dozen different nibs for the various dip pens I own or I use one of the glass dip pens that were hand made in Italy and were gifts from friends who went to Italy on vacation. It is not as easy to write using the glass pens because the nib-section does not have the capacity to change nib sizes causing some of the less-than-perfectly made pens pick up too much ink. It is why a blotter is necessary but any dip pen worth it's weight should pick up the right amount of ink needed to write at least 1-1/2 to 2 lines before requiring another dip into the ink well. This is where my other pens tend to come in handy. There is little need for a blotter as long as I allow the ink to dry before folding it over into an envelope shape or inserting it into a matching envelope where I apply my wax seal on the back using a wicked wax to make the sealing area before pressing the chop I own into the wax to form the Lotus Blossom from an antigue Tibetan seal I have the great fortune to own. Now bear in mind, the post office doesn't care that the ink is scented or that it takes me 10x longer to write out this letter by hand or that I have to be extraordinarily careful because I cannot see the parchment paper I am writing on or the fact I spent some 20mins folding it just so to ensure it is in the shape of an envelope that is approved by the USPS or that I had to wait for the ink to dry to either fold it or to place it within a matching envelope. They don't care that I spent extra time or care to ensure the wax dripping on the back is in the perfect cylindrical shape or I had to wait for the wax to cool to a specific temperature before pressing down with my antigue seal; they don't care that I added a silver or gold dusting (usually gold) to highlight the seal to the point where it shows all the intricate designs of the Lotus Blossom. All they care about is running as many envelopes through their machines as possible so I have to pay a few dollars exra to have my specific letter hand-stamped rather than run through a machine and even more so, HOPE whoever is running the machine will find the sticky note I applied along with the notation the postal worker applied stating that this piece was paid for and requires a separate "hand-stamping" because the wax on the back with my seal is NOT the wax used by the "cheap" glue gun options.
The wax I use is rather expensive and generally only used when the letters I write have some major significance attributed to it. The wax's pigmented color is only created and sold in something like two places in the world; although, I do have store I purchase it from on a regular basis because the wax is not only made from a special and rare pigment but it is also blessed before it is packaged and sent out to the few buyers who use it. I use other wicked waxes for other letters but this one in particular is something I use for special occasions or letters of significant meaning or a significant occurrance that has special meaning. It is worth it to me to pay the extra to have these letters hand stamped rather than risking the destruction of the letter if placed in a production machine to mark it for the USPS rather than hand-stamping. I letters with my seal imprinted on them a couple dozen times a year and the ones with the special wax only go out a few times a year but imagine if I had to send them out by the hundreds each month every month? It is not cheap for me to send out what I do now but I would be in the extra-poor house if I had to send out these by the hundreds or more each month, every month, of every year. It's costly and time-consuming.
In the infamous words of my first accounting professor, "Businesses are in business to make money." Even businesses as great My Freedom Smokes has to make a profit. Chris, his family, his employees, the famlies of his employees, they all have to earn enough to make a living. I cannot hold this against them. They have to eat, pay mortgages, cover utility bills, fuel, and buy stock in which they need to sale in order to stay in business. It is all apart of being in business. Imagine where we would be without the e-liquids and amazing customer service MFS offers? I vaped e-liquids from other companies and let me tell you, they don't come close to the flavors of MFS!
Now, on the other hand as a consumer, I would like the option of ordering small items like empty bottles, an atomizer or two, a cartomizer or two, or other small items like these would be nice to order at a lower price in the yellow bubbled envelopes and that is something MFS can do in the future, that is great; however, I cannot purposefully put this man out of business because it's the only store/company that actually cares about the e-liquids they make, new flavors they create, customer input, and customer care that MFS shows us.
Whenever I place an order from MFS, I do what I can to hold off ordering until I know I can place an order for a couple bottles of e-liquids but that is not always the case because I try to buy as much as I can while there are coupons and then there is the matter of my sole or rather primary income being disability income. I have to order when I have the money and I am sure I have it to spare. This is where the coupon codes come in handy. I hold back as much as I can for as long as I can, short any emergency need for what I've saved, then I use that to place as large of an order as possible when the coupons come around.
At the end of the day, I know how hard it is to keep a business going and it's even more difficult today than it was some 12 years ago when I worked for myself on a larger scale as a medican transcriptionist where I worked as a contractor for a large Mt company who contracted work from a large teaching hospital. We live in a recession that took some 8yrs to come about and our economy will not recover in 2-4 years. It will take a minimum, and that's only with every congressional leader we have working together, to pull this off in 10 years but until we bring back the jobs from overseas and start producing here in the USA along with charging companies who are based in the USA higher tariffs when they send work overseas then bring it back for us to buy here as consumers, we are going to stay in a recession. We aren't making money until we start producing something. Chris at MFS is producing something. MFS is fulfilling a need and at the same time providing a service b/c MFS blends their own flavors. They don't simply buy what's available overseas. They make our customized flavors with the options as to how much nicotine, how much flavoring, how much PG/VG and what size we want to buy IN THEIR STORE! THIS IN AN OF ITSELF IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AND FOR ONE, I AM PROUD OF CHRIS, HIS EMPLOYEES, & THE BUSINESS IN GENERAL FOR DOING THIS FOR US!
Again, it's a step in the right direction and other companies can learn more than a few things by following his lead.
Short of a loss of quality of MFS e-liquids, I will remain a customer for as long as I am humanly and financially able so, that's all I have to say on the subject; consider it my
worth.
Paise
One of the biggest expenses for small companies today, as well as what generally pulls them under, is the cost of overhead in general along with shipping costs when providing product versus services. Even the post office is raising rates in order to allow them to remain in competition with delivery services such as UPS, Fed Ex, and Airborne Express along with the up & comer DHL albeit DHL tends to deliver to businesses more frequently than residential customers but when I was working out of my home as a medical transcriptionist, I used DHL services quite frequently because it was the top carrier of the companies I ordered from on a regular basis.
In my years of working both in-house for commercial companies as well as on my own with personal correspondences, I found that the USPS can be less reliable without a tracking order option. A prime example is when I write up thank you notes or send hand-written letters to friends and family. When writing by hand, I always use one of a few dozen different nibs for the various dip pens I own or I use one of the glass dip pens that were hand made in Italy and were gifts from friends who went to Italy on vacation. It is not as easy to write using the glass pens because the nib-section does not have the capacity to change nib sizes causing some of the less-than-perfectly made pens pick up too much ink. It is why a blotter is necessary but any dip pen worth it's weight should pick up the right amount of ink needed to write at least 1-1/2 to 2 lines before requiring another dip into the ink well. This is where my other pens tend to come in handy. There is little need for a blotter as long as I allow the ink to dry before folding it over into an envelope shape or inserting it into a matching envelope where I apply my wax seal on the back using a wicked wax to make the sealing area before pressing the chop I own into the wax to form the Lotus Blossom from an antigue Tibetan seal I have the great fortune to own. Now bear in mind, the post office doesn't care that the ink is scented or that it takes me 10x longer to write out this letter by hand or that I have to be extraordinarily careful because I cannot see the parchment paper I am writing on or the fact I spent some 20mins folding it just so to ensure it is in the shape of an envelope that is approved by the USPS or that I had to wait for the ink to dry to either fold it or to place it within a matching envelope. They don't care that I spent extra time or care to ensure the wax dripping on the back is in the perfect cylindrical shape or I had to wait for the wax to cool to a specific temperature before pressing down with my antigue seal; they don't care that I added a silver or gold dusting (usually gold) to highlight the seal to the point where it shows all the intricate designs of the Lotus Blossom. All they care about is running as many envelopes through their machines as possible so I have to pay a few dollars exra to have my specific letter hand-stamped rather than run through a machine and even more so, HOPE whoever is running the machine will find the sticky note I applied along with the notation the postal worker applied stating that this piece was paid for and requires a separate "hand-stamping" because the wax on the back with my seal is NOT the wax used by the "cheap" glue gun options.
The wax I use is rather expensive and generally only used when the letters I write have some major significance attributed to it. The wax's pigmented color is only created and sold in something like two places in the world; although, I do have store I purchase it from on a regular basis because the wax is not only made from a special and rare pigment but it is also blessed before it is packaged and sent out to the few buyers who use it. I use other wicked waxes for other letters but this one in particular is something I use for special occasions or letters of significant meaning or a significant occurrance that has special meaning. It is worth it to me to pay the extra to have these letters hand stamped rather than risking the destruction of the letter if placed in a production machine to mark it for the USPS rather than hand-stamping. I letters with my seal imprinted on them a couple dozen times a year and the ones with the special wax only go out a few times a year but imagine if I had to send them out by the hundreds each month every month? It is not cheap for me to send out what I do now but I would be in the extra-poor house if I had to send out these by the hundreds or more each month, every month, of every year. It's costly and time-consuming.
In the infamous words of my first accounting professor, "Businesses are in business to make money." Even businesses as great My Freedom Smokes has to make a profit. Chris, his family, his employees, the famlies of his employees, they all have to earn enough to make a living. I cannot hold this against them. They have to eat, pay mortgages, cover utility bills, fuel, and buy stock in which they need to sale in order to stay in business. It is all apart of being in business. Imagine where we would be without the e-liquids and amazing customer service MFS offers? I vaped e-liquids from other companies and let me tell you, they don't come close to the flavors of MFS!
Now, on the other hand as a consumer, I would like the option of ordering small items like empty bottles, an atomizer or two, a cartomizer or two, or other small items like these would be nice to order at a lower price in the yellow bubbled envelopes and that is something MFS can do in the future, that is great; however, I cannot purposefully put this man out of business because it's the only store/company that actually cares about the e-liquids they make, new flavors they create, customer input, and customer care that MFS shows us.
Whenever I place an order from MFS, I do what I can to hold off ordering until I know I can place an order for a couple bottles of e-liquids but that is not always the case because I try to buy as much as I can while there are coupons and then there is the matter of my sole or rather primary income being disability income. I have to order when I have the money and I am sure I have it to spare. This is where the coupon codes come in handy. I hold back as much as I can for as long as I can, short any emergency need for what I've saved, then I use that to place as large of an order as possible when the coupons come around.
At the end of the day, I know how hard it is to keep a business going and it's even more difficult today than it was some 12 years ago when I worked for myself on a larger scale as a medican transcriptionist where I worked as a contractor for a large Mt company who contracted work from a large teaching hospital. We live in a recession that took some 8yrs to come about and our economy will not recover in 2-4 years. It will take a minimum, and that's only with every congressional leader we have working together, to pull this off in 10 years but until we bring back the jobs from overseas and start producing here in the USA along with charging companies who are based in the USA higher tariffs when they send work overseas then bring it back for us to buy here as consumers, we are going to stay in a recession. We aren't making money until we start producing something. Chris at MFS is producing something. MFS is fulfilling a need and at the same time providing a service b/c MFS blends their own flavors. They don't simply buy what's available overseas. They make our customized flavors with the options as to how much nicotine, how much flavoring, how much PG/VG and what size we want to buy IN THEIR STORE! THIS IN AN OF ITSELF IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AND FOR ONE, I AM PROUD OF CHRIS, HIS EMPLOYEES, & THE BUSINESS IN GENERAL FOR DOING THIS FOR US!
Again, it's a step in the right direction and other companies can learn more than a few things by following his lead.
Short of a loss of quality of MFS e-liquids, I will remain a customer for as long as I am humanly and financially able so, that's all I have to say on the subject; consider it my
worth.Paise
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