See, the thing is, vendors usually know when they're ripping us, the customer, off. I talk to enough vendors to know. I've had some vendors say the most dishonest things, and I've had some vendors to say, "We had so many problems out of that line - problems that we sat down and tried our best to fix using the craziest of methods - so we had to stop selling them." That's the type of vendor that can be respected. The vendors that continue selling off brand broken Fasttech junk are the ones that know what they're doing and it's not that they can't stay in business, it's simple greed, and the manipulation of people who are desperate to quit smoking. These vendors know that we are a needy customer fanbase and they know we'll pay or do anything for a good vape.
However, if there is any small truth to the notion that vendors can't do refunds and exchanges because business issues, then quite frankly, the shop doesn't need to be in business. At most, I garuntee at most, that as long as a shop takes their time to educate a customer on proper technique, and ensures not to sell clones, that the shop would probably spend... at most... maybe $200 on returns. I doubt it, maybe more like $100. Vaping gear does not cost a vendor very much, usually about 1/4th the cost of whatever the selling price is, if not less.
That type of money is nothing compared to what these shops are making. For one, to pay for rent, the shops would probably have to pull in anywhere from $1,000-2,000. For each employee to earn at least $7.25, they have to make triple that amount. Sure, that can sound like a big number, but for shops that have a monopoly in a town, where there's literally 4 customers inside the shop at all times of the day buying Protanks and who knows what else (the local shop in my town is like that), the trust me, these people are making the money. I've had yard sales that make more than $2,000 over a span of a couple weeks...
So if businesses can't set aside a budget and a quality standard to ensure that refunds are a low occurence, and that they have a safe budget to operate under when they happen, then they know nothing about business and shouldn't be shopped at - chances are, they have such poor business models that they'll end up selling you clones and off-brands and poor juice batches and everything else. They just don't have the pride or intelligence to treat their customers any other way. It doesn't matter what object is classified to them as a "health product" and "can't be returned." How many times has McDonald's refused to return an order because the person took a bite out their sandwich and realized it had mustard on it? Never.
Hygiene is not important to returns, nor is it any type of law or standard that any legal system will recognize. It doesn't matter if you slobber all over a television, you can lick on it, hump it, whatever, and if the television is broken out of the box, the store doesn't have any proof or counter-proof that they didn't sell it to you that way, and they have to return it - even for stores that try to have stuck up policies, the customer always wins in court because policies don't make a wazoo worth of difference. There are fraud laws, and those laws tend to be pretty clear.
With the world of vaping, especially in larger towns, there can dozens of shops running, but you really have to look at it this way - out of all those shops, not all of them are doing it because they want to give vapers more opportunities and better products. If there's already a few shops open in the areas that they need to be, then the rest of the shops are opening up because they see a new trend on the market, appealing to an addictive fanbase, and they simply want in on the action without knowing the market and knowing the goods. It's like every Chinese buffet that opens because they originally think the Asian market will support them, and it ends up being far from true. So they'll charge ridiculous prices for horrible food.
In my opinion, another way to tell a good shop is simply a shop that has a team of rebuilder experts. These are the guys that know the market, know the goods, partake in ECF, share techniques, have probably been in the vaping world for years now, and have already formed opinions on what works and what doesn't. It doesn't always mean they're honest, but you can bet that they won't be the guys to tell a customer, "Oh, this CE5 is absolutely perfect, I've never had one taste dry or burnt, fill it up any day and have a perfect vape." The rebuilder vendors I talk to are quite a bit more rough around the edges than that. They know the tastes they should be getting, they know the products, and they do have honesty enough to say what they believe works and what doesn't.
Luckily, there's a shop here fixing to open up like that, and the guys over the phone sound fantastic. They offered to drill out any RDA I get, they make sure to stock all sorts of wicking material, they seem to have a nice little selection of RDA's, and on the phone, they sounded a little confused about the extensive problems I've gotten (all while being honest that they've encountered the same issues, just at a lower ratio), but they seemed dedicated to helping me get the best experience I could, as that's what they were all after even in their own lives. If you have employees who simply take a 0mg toot on a little CE5 every now and then just for customer appearances, then chances are, they're not really dedicated to vaping and really have no clue the issues we face - all it takes is an owner telling them "It's always the customer's fault." and they believe it, giving a bad attitude on top of policies they may or may not be able to change.
At the end of the day, not every person who wants to open a vaping shop can start a successful business. While I believe everyone should be able to follow their own American dream, the reality of competition in an industry will always exist. If your business has too much competition in the field that you can't make your customers happy, or if you don't have enough customer flow, then you have to think up and try new ways to market your business, and there are tremendous ways one can market a business without spending much money:
- Vape meets and educational courses hosted in the store
- Speaking to crowds about the positives of vaping
- Handing out business cards
- Free online websites
- Selling rare products that not many other vendors do.
- Using office space to combine aspects of business with another - a great example would be a vaping shop that had the shop in the front, and possibly a small smoothie and snack bar in the back where customers can sit and chat in private about their purchases, or even request to try sample juices while they sit.
- Simply offering a professional range of items where customers don't have to travel back and forth for the stuff they need.
People can be really creative, and if you're running a good business, people will simply turn up, and spread the good word even in a competative market. No one really looks at how old a vaping shop is; if you go in there, if you're always greeted with a smile, if you're always given a refund or exchange if the employee can't fix your issue, if you always get reliable gear, people will come. They'll have a bad experience with another shop that can't keep up with that service, and they'll move to yours.
