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I tend to do a mixture of both when it comes to my vaping purchases. I love to support local vendors, IF the staff is knowledgeable and willing to help out. There is only one shop in my town and luckily the staff there is really good. As for keeping up with the latest and greatest in-store when it comes to hardware, if it is a smaller shop then it may become cost prohibitive to keep stocking a new revision every other month. Just my $0.02
Hi there. I'm from the Toledo area as well. When Smoke Revolt was over on Tremainsville, the owner was pretty much always there. Awesome customer service. Since they've moved, I haven't seen him and I notice that the customer service has gone downhill a little. I don't go in there as much any more, but they are very close to me which is nice in a pinch. Revolver rocks!
There's also nice place over on Mccord and Bancroft. I don't remember the name as I don't go to that part of town often, but I stopped in there once.
I get all my diy supplies at my local vape shop, they're good people. Never try to upsell you and are knowledgeable about the products.
I stumbled on my personal favorite B&M (which also has a online store) with the vape store finder website. They sell the same products at the same prices in house. Their pricing is so good, i have not used an online vendor yet. I get better juice and coil pricing than i see on many of the popular online vendors plus i get great face to face customer service.
I just checked one highly recommended sight that was mentioned in this topic and compared pricing on both MVPs My B&M sells them for less. He sells the Kanger coils for less. Most of the other stuff i glanced over is nearly as cheap even with tax.
My biggest complaint with online is your info is far from private and i nearly always see a spam increase in my email after i "register" to buy at an online vendor. When i use an online vendor i try to use ones with a toll free number and call in an order. This is very helpful when an item is listed in stock but in reality it is not. The website had not updated yet and im not paying phone fees to find out if an item is actually in stock. I can call a local vendor and get a definite answer and ask them to hold it until i arrive. Plus i can use cash to further enhance privacy.
Im not saying all online shops are bad, I have several i use in the firearms/reloading industry and sooner or later im sure i will use one of the more popular vendors on ECF. Some of them have items you can not buy anywhere else and they offer some top quality products.
I just checked one highly recommended sight that was mentioned in this topic and compared pricing on both MVPs My B&M sells them for less. He sells the Kanger coils for less. Most of the other stuff i glanced over is nearly as cheap even with tax.
My biggest complaint with online is your info is far from private and i nearly always see a spam increase in my email after i "register" to buy at an online vendor. When i use an online vendor i try to use ones with a toll free number and call in an order. This is very helpful when an item is listed in stock but in reality it is not. The website had not updated yet and im not paying phone fees to find out if an item is actually in stock. I can call a local vendor and get a definite answer and ask them to hold it until i arrive. Plus i can use cash to further enhance privacy.
Im not saying all online shops are bad, I have several i use in the firearms/reloading industry and sooner or later im sure i will use one of the more popular vendors on ECF. Some of them have items you can not buy anywhere else and they offer some top quality products.
I've only been to a couple local shops but both have been outstanding. Prices are very competitive with online shops. I rather buy local and have yet to buy any vaping supplies online. Each shop has different selections on juice and mods, which is nice. One shop has probably 75 flavors or so give or take, the other one only has maybe 30 flavors and they are top notch and they have a reward points system which keeps me coming back. The staff at both seem very knowledgeable and can answer all my questions. There are more stores in my area that I have not checked out yet, i'm sure i'll run into one that is not that great as you find that in any retail store if you get out enough. Luckily i've found 2 great shops that so far have everything I need.
Years ago when Vendors first got into the Ecig biz it was based on a passion. Slowly that's evolved and, quite naturally, many are now run first and foremost as a business. Myself I mainly buy online with a disposable CC or through PayPal but still occasionally pickup stuff from my local Vendor. Don't even bother to order online and pick up (cheaper) cuz he provides a valuable service by way of selling via a number of B&Ms.
Not a fan of Revolver either. Juice is mediocre and overpriced, as is their "branded" mods. They're a celebrity endorsed chain shop as far as I am concerned.
I guess I'm biased because I credit them with my success with ecigs. They've always been very good to me and I'm in love with their vanilla.
I'll admit that I don't frequent them as often because I get most stuff online. But the first day I went to Revolver and wanted to buy an ecig, instead of selling me one, they sent me home with a free disposable to see if I might like it. Then when they were having severe problems with their Ion batteries, they gave me a free upgrade to any other model I wanted (thank god I chose the Talon).
I don't know if their customer service is still as good, but they've always kept me happy. I know they're not the cheapest, but they'll always be kind of special to me.
I've never had a problem with Revolvers CS. And, I could see why you'd want to stay loyal to them, as they sold you the product that made you quit analogs (congrats, btw).
If someone didn't care how much items were or had a good amount of disposable income for rebranded items now, instead of waiting for shipments, dealing with CC transactions/paypal, etc, I would recommend Revolver over Revolt for ecigs in Toledo.
Since you're local and if you ever have some juice you don't like and want to trade, just PM me. I usually always have some juices I could trade up for flavors I haven't tried ^__^
If anyone happens to live in the Lehigh valley area of Pennsylvania a new B&M shop just opened up in Bethlehem. The owners are very nice and helpful. They don't have too many kits yet or mods but their juices are great!
I prefer not to buy vape stuff at B&M's. They generally don't offer a decent price/value/service experience. I've only been to one good shop in the Chicago area, cigtechs, and they make the Tatroe mods. I buy their Tatroe stuff there since I save on shipping but their juice is B&M store priced. For 2 30ml bottles of their juice, I can get 2 120ml bottles online. Also, most stores don't honor web pricing in the store. Frankly, I find that ridiculous if a customer is willing to spend their time driving to the store and that way the store saves money and time spent packing and shipping.
I'm fortunate to have several very good B&Ms in the area.
Everyone here has been a great help, but my local guys taught me how to fill cartos (did the first ones for me), refill carto tanks, change coils, wind coils, etc.
So yeah, I go to the B&Ms as often as my schedule will allow and just hang out, buy some juice and usually a tank or a couple of clearos, heads, or whatever. At one shop where the manager is a musician and biker much like myself, we shoot the breeze about gigging and riding. At another, the owner is an avid vaper and has been in the business for years, hanging out with him is an education on a whole 'nother level. Another one that has all kinds of high end mods lets me take them apart and play with 'em.
Oh, and they ALL let you sample as much as you want. Turned out that flavors that sounded like they'd be great didn't fit my taste pallette very well, and flavors I would have never ordered on line turned out to be some of my favorites.
Do B&Ms charge more than some on line options? Yeah. Most have more overhead per sale, obviously. But the value added, IMHO exceeds the slight markup.
Everyone here has been a great help, but my local guys taught me how to fill cartos (did the first ones for me), refill carto tanks, change coils, wind coils, etc.
So yeah, I go to the B&Ms as often as my schedule will allow and just hang out, buy some juice and usually a tank or a couple of clearos, heads, or whatever. At one shop where the manager is a musician and biker much like myself, we shoot the breeze about gigging and riding. At another, the owner is an avid vaper and has been in the business for years, hanging out with him is an education on a whole 'nother level. Another one that has all kinds of high end mods lets me take them apart and play with 'em.
Oh, and they ALL let you sample as much as you want. Turned out that flavors that sounded like they'd be great didn't fit my taste pallette very well, and flavors I would have never ordered on line turned out to be some of my favorites.
Do B&Ms charge more than some on line options? Yeah. Most have more overhead per sale, obviously. But the value added, IMHO exceeds the slight markup.
I do both now. I've had the good and bad sides of this topic. I started with a big shop near my old job, just to find out everything was over priced and outdated. (After my purchase and no refunds enforced.) Needless to say I don't go there anymore.
I've found two shops much closer to home, but they can be hit or miss as well, it just depends on the staffs knowledge in the end.
One place has two people who work there, and one is always trying to learn and keep up with the trends and advances. The other just wants you to leave his store quickly with a lot of money going his way. I walked in with my Zmax, and he wouldn't stop trying to get me to upgrade to the Provari until I finally left. I tend to only go back to them to grab a small bottle of a juice I'm curious about but don't want to get in 30ml before I've had a day or two to vape it. But, now that I've learned a lot more from where I started I usually just end up talking to the younger one and keeping him up to date on RDAs and the like. He's trying to get the owner to grab a few Igo-W's and supplies because how much he liked mine last time haha.
The other store is almost the same but there's a guy there who is 100% into this. He is a reddit regular on the topic, and travels to attend vape meets. Fixed my first few coils for me, even mixed me custom juice with more VG. Those are the people who should be selling this stuff. (Sorry, overly long post. But, totally on topic.)
I've found two shops much closer to home, but they can be hit or miss as well, it just depends on the staffs knowledge in the end.
One place has two people who work there, and one is always trying to learn and keep up with the trends and advances. The other just wants you to leave his store quickly with a lot of money going his way. I walked in with my Zmax, and he wouldn't stop trying to get me to upgrade to the Provari until I finally left. I tend to only go back to them to grab a small bottle of a juice I'm curious about but don't want to get in 30ml before I've had a day or two to vape it. But, now that I've learned a lot more from where I started I usually just end up talking to the younger one and keeping him up to date on RDAs and the like. He's trying to get the owner to grab a few Igo-W's and supplies because how much he liked mine last time haha.
The other store is almost the same but there's a guy there who is 100% into this. He is a reddit regular on the topic, and travels to attend vape meets. Fixed my first few coils for me, even mixed me custom juice with more VG. Those are the people who should be selling this stuff. (Sorry, overly long post. But, totally on topic.)
My local B&M is awesome! I went in with a setup that I got from another vendor (online) and it was not working properly with most of my tanks. I thought that they were just not compatible with it. The employee at the shop took it from me looked at it, then he got out some tools to adjust it for me and fixed my problem! I was so grateful. He could have easily sold me another tank but instead he helped my fix what was wrong with it. Awesome customer service!! I am lucky to have such a great vendor close to me! Yay Vegas!!
I do about 99% of my purchasing online, because I like having such a huge variety of options.
However, I recently discovered a fantastic b&m not too far from where I live and I expect to become a regular customer. The owner is very knowledgeable and helpful, and being able to try something before you buy it, or get advice on how to use a new device is priceless and worth the 20 minute drive to the shop.
However, I recently discovered a fantastic b&m not too far from where I live and I expect to become a regular customer. The owner is very knowledgeable and helpful, and being able to try something before you buy it, or get advice on how to use a new device is priceless and worth the 20 minute drive to the shop.
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