Vendor #3 - Smokeless Image (Finally)
By this time I was pretty discouraged. Was just about ready to forget about it and just smoke my analogs. Since that last sample kit only cost me $20, I'd try one more. I was a bit more savvy by this time and I knew what I wanted.
Regular looking unit. Decent battery life. Cartomizers and not atomizers (why bother with atomizers?). The less parts I had to replace or use, the better. I was replacing a cigaretter, for Pete's sake, not a tinker toy set.
By this time I had found ECF in my wanderings. Lots of people. Seem to be knowledgeable. Came across a post that mentioned the Volt and Smokeless Image. It was positive. A good unit for noobs, it said. Okay, whatever. Came across another post that said pretty much the same thing. Fine. I'll check out the website.
First impressions of Smokeless Image website.
--Colorful. Hey, that's the first thing that catches the eye. Most of the other sites I checked out looked "dingy" and cluttered. They looked like badly run garage sales with stuff all over the place.
--Seemed to only sell one type of unit. You can either look at that as "lack of choices" or "Simplicity". After all the confusing shopping I'd already done, "Simplicity" was pretty damn appealing.
--What type of batt was this? 510, KR-whatever? Didn't know and the website wasn't telling (or I couldn't find it). I almost left SI behind because of that. The Smokeless Selects site was that way too. Don't tell you exactly what they're selling (hey, I have trust issues). Found myself grumbling at my computer. I already had two incompatible units and was hoping that the Volt might go with one of them. I think I eventually had to ask someone what the equipment was. Sure enough, it wasn't compatible with what I had.
Decision time.
The starter kit wasn't too expensive, so that was good. The longer batt was appealing too. I like the look, just like I liked the 510. A few of the reviews mentioned how good the customer service was, and that almost clinched it.
Know what tipped me over the edge? These subForums. If the product was lousy, you wouldn't want to set up a site for your customers to tell everyone how lousy your products are. The people in the SI forum were pretty nice and pretty dedicated to the Volt. Questions answered quickly and politely. Lots of people were helping out with the answers. (I was so new to ECF that I had to throw out some quick posts in the New Members Forum before I could even ask questions in the SI forum.)
I put in the order. While waiting for my order I started posting my usual nonsense around here and didn't get kicked out (yet), so that's a plus.
A few days later I got the kit with the tobacco sample pack. That was yesterday I got the stuff. Tried all the flavors in the pack and frankly, don't care much for any of them. However, I wasn't searching for flavors, I was looking for a hardware vendor that sold a unit I liked and would actually SHIP ME WHAT I ORDERED, DAMMIT! (Sorry, it's still a sensitive subject. lol). So far, SI has delivered (literally and figuatively). I haven't had a problem, but I believe that if I ever do, SI will take care of me. Hey, they sent me the unit I ordered and the flavors at 24mg that I wanted. Good start!
Cute side note: I opened the nice box when I got it in the mail (I left work early to come home and get it), I was going through the equipment. Found the batt and and immediately saw that it was a manual. First thought was, Crap!, even SI couldn't get my order right. I wanted an auto, dammit. Another vendor who can't simply deliver what I order. Then I thought "I DID order the auto battery, right?". Went through my emails and found the order. Sure enough, I'd ordered the manual batt by mistake. I'd had some practice with my 510 which had a manual batt so I was okay with it. Next batt is an auto! I want to vape, not play the flute!
See? It was a looong story, but it had a happy ending!
