High Desert Vapes - Defective or wrong product issue : Vwls

[Vwls]

Company name

High Desert Vapes​

Date of your initial complaint to the supplier.

24 August 2013​

How did you contact the supplier

Email​

Ticket number (if you were issued one)

Order# 16649​

General nature of complaint

Defective or wrong product​

Briefly describe your problem or issue

Do not order drip tips (or anything else probably) from High Desert Vapes; they don't advertise their merchandise as it actually is, and they won't fully refund you (or even give you full store credit) once you realize you've received something different than their advertised product. Basically, you order thinking you'll be receiving what's in the website photo, receive something else, and get stuck with it. In the photos below, the advertised item is on the right, and what I received, on the left.

As you can see, I was trying to buy a collection of glass drip tips that go with my aqua green and blue theme (you can see more of my aqua stuff in the "Show us your girly, pretty, decorated, pink!" thread.) What I received would have gone great with a yellow collection, but it totally misses the mark with my mine.

I wrote to John Ruiz, who I believe is the owner of High Desert Vapes and told him what had happened. I was super polite and respectful. I even sent him these photos after he requested them. Craziness ensued though; after seeing the photos, which clearly show the color issue, he refused to let me return the tips unless I was willing to eat 25% of the cost! He insisted he sent what was advertised, and wouldn't even take them back for store credit!

Now it could also be that the owner of this company is color blind. Not kidding - that might be the issue. Some people actually can't see the difference between yellow and green, yellow and blue, or blue and green. Maybe when he looked at my photos, he saw the same tips on each side! But the bottom line is, they just do bad business and don't take care of their customers. I’d still be open to a resolution, but short of that, I wanted to warn fellow ECF vapers about ordering with this company. A shame, because they make pretty things.​

 

[Vwls]

Not sure why, but some people just don't get that when you take care of your customers, they come back and buy much, much more, and they tell all their friends as well. There is no greater advertising opportunity than great customer service. It's how you invest in the future of your company.

But sadly, this company will not take responsibility for the fact that their site photos are a totally different product than what they ship out.

Now it could be that the photos on their website are shot in a unique light against a black background that makes the tips appear to be a color they are not... But if that's the case, they should realize that the tips are never going to look like that in real life in normal lighting conditions.

Or (and this is more likely), they just send out tips that look nothing like the photos because all their tips come out different every batch. I don't mind slight variation - I understand this is hand made stuff... but a totally different color isn't acceptable.

 

[Brewtus]

This review is the classic example of "I didn't get my way, now I am going to write a bad review".

First of all, of the 3 drip tips depicted, the only one that was produced in a batch (meaning there was more than 1 made of that style/color scheme) was the first one shown in the review. I admit each of these was ever so slightly different than the picture because they were made in a batch and like all hand made things will have a small variance. But even looking at the picture you can see they were incredibly close.

However, the 2 other drip tips shown were one of a kind tips, meaning the tips we showed on our site are the same one's we send out. In this case I am 100% sure we sent the correct items. Our tip pictures were shot up-close with a good Canon T1 camera, on a black background and the flash on. The photo's were not altered in any way. Whereas the pictures shown from the customer were clearly blurry (out of focus), on a lighter but multi-colored background. They were not shot at the same angles, or on the same background color so of course they are going to look totally different. The skinny blue tip with the bump on it is the perfect example, my picture shows the bump, the customers picture shows the back side of that same tip.
--Why aren't you showing them from the same angle if your trying to prove that we don't send what we advertise? Seems very misleading to me.

Fumed (looks yellow in direct light) glass products are known as the "Color Changers" in the pyrex world and those who have purchased other pyrex products are familiar with this type coloring, it is very common in the industry. The color change occurs when the product is placed on a dark background....if you've ever gone into a store that sells fumed pyrex products,notice they always set it on a black background when your viewing it---this is to show the color it will change to.

The customer did initiate communication in a nice manner, and we replied in a nice manner. After reviewing the issue, and double checking the stocks I verified that we sent the correct products and explained to the customer that we do not accept returns unless a mistake was made or the product is defective. In this case, it was simply a matter of the customer didn't like the products and wanted to return them. As noted in our return policy we do not accept returns for this reason among others.

I even went as far as to break the policy and accept a return for partial store credit (75%). After the solution was reinforced in a reply to the customer, this review appeared and they did not reply after it was realized that we do not give in to customer demands.

In my experience, customers who promise to be loyal customers never are, and often have their own agenda. The loyal customers know who they are (AS DO WE) and they do not try and flaunt it or make demands upon us. I have a lot of experience in selling different products online, and any vendor will confirm that you get people who want nothing more than to take advantage of a business, it happens daily. While I agree that customer word of mouth advertising is wonderful, I am not willing to just give in to demands because someone cannot accept responsibility for their purchase. This is not a try it before your buy it industry. There are health concerns that must be considered with these products and we cannot accept back used products for re-sale. It would not be fair to our customers and could pose potential health issues if we did.

I believe this review should be removed on the grounds that clearly this is a retaliatory post designed to give false information about my products and not a review at all. Obviously the product is going to look different in different lighting situations due to the color of the glass, angle of the shot, background, flash---it was designed to.

*A simple google search on "Fumed glass" will show some wonderful examples of this type of glass and all the various colors it can assume.