Schwiggiddy:
I started vaping almost a year ago, but was so discouraged due to the way I was treated, I stopped.
They suggested a "beginner" eGO kit and some "beginner" juice. The thing started leaking after 2 weeks and the juice was horrible. I went back, instead of selling me a new tank, they tried to get me to buy a new, better kit for over $100. They told me that it would take time to get used to the juice and sold me another horrible juice. Never asked me what I liked. And I was so new to all this, I just didn't know any better. Anyway, I threw everything in the trash and quit.
My local cig store started selling ecigs and juice. The lady there answered my questions, I did a little research, found this site, went back and bought another eGo and some good juice and now I am one happy lady.
Glad to hear you finally had a good B&M experience! Our store has a full sample bar, and any time somebody buys a new flavor we always encourage them to sample it first. I am always reluctant to let a customer out the door with a juice s/he has never tasted.
Now we do often recommend Innokin 1100 mah (very similar to Ego) or Evod 900 as starters, and a basic CE4. But we often tell customers that there are other less disposable options available, and usually show them 1 or 2 (Iclear16, T3S) before they almost always say, "No no I'll start with this disposable to see if I like it." Same with the APVs, we let 'em look if they want, but the price tag usually scares them away before we get to the "now this is a bit more advanced" part of the conversation.
In my town, a lot of our new vapers are over 50, so we do try to keep it simple for them. But I have one retired lady, she's at least 70, that only wants to use Vivi Nova because for her, it's easiest to fill. We've even given her needle-tip caps but she still only wants to use the Vivis. We also carry a few RBAs for the more experienced vapers.
We always fill the first topper for customers to show them how it's done, and we try to give them as much knowledge as possible to get them started. Sometimes other customers have to wait while we're taking our time with new customers, but they know that when it's their turn, they will get the same excellent, personal customer service. Hell I used a Innokin 1100 for months before I only recently got my first VV regulated mod, so I often can say, "Hey this is the exact setup I'm using and it has worked for me for months." I'm always sad to hear that not every store is run a well as ours. It's a credit to our owner I suppose, a 40-year smoker who switched to vaping and quit smoking in 2 days. We carry no smoking products, no tobacco, no head shop stuff. We're strictly a Vape shop.
