Out of Stock

[Tommykcleveland]

Many of the vendors sites that I have been to are great sites and I have purchased from multiple vendors. The issue that I have is if an item is very popular and sells quick, why not carry more in stock? I am not going to be specific to vendors or products and this is in no way a bash against any good vendor. There are just specific items that I am looking for that seem to always be out of stock. Often I am looking for various items on a website and want to purchase from one of my regular suppliers. I cannot afford to pay for shipping for several orders so sometimes I purchase from a vendor that is not top of my list because they have all of the supplies I need at the time. This is my solution, and I know that a vendor cannot keep everything in stock at the same time. Just something to consider because if a vendor is consistently out of popular items I have no choice but to go elsewhere. I have honestly checked more than one site for an item and every time I check they are out. My point is simply please stock more of the popular items so that they are available on a basis. I'm speaking of smaller ticket items, not expensive ones that need to be limited for vendor constant efficiency. Some simple examples are; unfilled cartos, certain strengths of popular juices, certain resistance on attys. If I am looking for a specific resistance of atty I really don't want to change that, but it is a common one that everyone wants. Just my thoughts and opinions, I do appreciate the good vendors. In fact I regularly post either positive or negative experiences if they are significant.

 

[Disk4mat]

Often when I need more tank replacement cartos, I have to shop around to find them in stock. I have a vendor list that I visit in order until I hit one that has what I need. But it would be nice if the cheaper consumables were always available. But I dont know whats going on at the other end so I dont want to mis-judge any vendors.

I just wish I didnt see the "notify me" instead of the "add to cart"

 

[Tommykcleveland]

just an example, not to pick on what is normaly a good vendor, but today for example I checked madvapes for a bridegless addy. They had three different types but all out of stock. I also wanted replacements for the atomizer head for the kanger pro tank....once again all gone, then the cartridges that I usually get, out of stock. I have not recently found one site that has everything I am looking for at one time. Its not like I am looking for something odd, it is usually popular stuff. So if it is very popular, especially brand new like the Kanger Protank, they should stock more so that they have them available for all of their customers. If they know every month that a certain item always runs out then buy more to keep in stock! I also have a list of many trustable vendors, but I do not want to pay multiple shipping. Very frustrating. I wish I could find one site that is reliable, fast, good service and keeps extra stock of popular items. If you find one tell me. I just had to go to two sites to get a few common things today, neither had all 4 items so double shipping. Plus one vendor lost business to another and vice versa. Sorry this is just very frustrating for me because I purchase something every week atleast.

Often when I need more tank replacement cartos, I have to shop around to find them in stock. I have a vendor list that I visit in order until I hit one that has what I need. But it would be nice if the cheaper consumables were always available. But I dont know whats going on at the other end so I dont want to mis-judge any vendors.

I just wish I didnt see the "notify me" instead of the "add to cart"

 

[sonicdsl]

Moved to General E-Smoking Discussion

 

[Baditude]

There's many things that factor into the supply-demand part of the e-cig industry, and they are often not a supplier's fault.

The vast majority of items that we purchase from online vendors come from Chinese manufacturers and distributors. They have their own issues concerning production and parts availability, not to mention their business culture is far different from the rest of the world.

US vendors must estimate how popular a particular device will be to their customers and order an appropriate quantity. Many of these items will be first run products that may have manufacturing defects that may not be discovered until the first ones are put into use. Once word is out that said items have defects, people stop purchasing them and then the vendor is stuck with a warehouse full of inventory that he will never recover his losses. This is just one example.

China just recently celebrated a New Year where all their workers take off work for an extended period of time. Therefore production of products is suspended during this time and distributors have no products to move. Many of those experienced workers do not return to the factory after their New Year and choose to work at other jobs, so new factory workers need to be found and trained, which delays production. Worker retention can be a real issue in China.

So, the Chinese New Year threw a wrench into many US dealer's inventory. Add to that the FDA's deeming regulation that was supposed to occur last month, and many customers were stocking up on supplies in case the FDA decided to ban or limit e-cig equipment.

It can be difficult for vendors to plan ahead for what items will be popular with customers. Buy too much product and it may sit in the warehouse forever, or order too few and they have to post the "notify me" or "out of stock" notice. Some vendors seem to be able to plan better than others; some vendors may have more dependable distributors than others. Vendors may have limitations of the quantity or availabilty of certain items. Shipping across the world can literally take weeks, and delays in shipping from customs can further delay shipments.

As someone mentioned already, the wise customer has a long list of vendors to check for various items that they purchase frequently.

 

[Dvx67]

In addition to the issues with Chinese manufacturing, I think a big factor is how fast the industry is growing. It seems to be very rapid at this point.

 

[crxess]

I find it much easier to read a post in the normal forum font/format with paragraph breaks.

Later

 

[FinallyQuit]

I know a guy who stocks his home like it's a warehouse. He won't buy direct from the supplier in bulk, but he will keep adding items to his cart from an online store until there are none left. Wastes money but he won't listen. Save some for someone else!

Kinda like the couponers were buying out the entire stock of cereal at grocery stores, because they have the money and the coupons and expect to buy 100 boxes; the store had to impose a limit on how many boxes they could buy. They just left and came back and bought their limit over and over again!

What if our favorite online vendors had to limit how many cartos we could each buy so that everyone got a chance to get some? I would be kinda pi$$ed about it!

 

[ScottP]

Usually if one or two vendors are out of stock it is an ordering problem as in they are not ordering enough. If nearly every vendor is out of the same thing, this usually points to a supplier problem. We recently saw this around the Chinese New Year. Lots of merchants had problems restocking their inventory.

 

[Horselady154]

If there is more demand than there is supply, there are two ways to fix that. Either raise the prices, thereby reducing the demand, or increase the supply. In other words, this is a huge business opportunity for someone else to get into this industry. That is what it means when the demand outstrips the supply.

To put limits on what people can buy, or gripe about people who buy more than YOU think they need, is not the best way forward.

If we had any semblance of a free market, this problem would be quickly solved.

 

[generic mutant]

It's been mentioned that it's a rapid growth industry, but it's also very new.

There are a large number of small distributors competing for position, and with the pace of technical change they aren't going to want to invest in much stock which in a month's time will no longer be the new exciting shiny.

Like almost any industry, it'll eventually undergo a 'shake-out', leaving a smaller number of larger companies, who will buy things by the truck-full. Assuming it doesn't get killed by the regulators first, of course...

 

[Baditude]

Kinda like the couponers were buying out the entire stock of cereal at grocery stores, because they have the money and the coupons and expect to buy 100 boxes; the store had to impose a limit on how many boxes they could buy. They just left and came back and bought their limit over and over again!

What if our favorite online vendors had to limit how many cartos we could each buy so that everyone got a chance to get some? I would be kinda pi$$ed about it!

I use Ikenvape cartomizers in my cartotanks. These are notorious for being very popular and frequently being out of stock as the vendor Isaac is unable to get China to make an adequate quantity for him. I noticed the last time that I ordered he had imposed a 25 carto limit per item. So I promptly ordered 25 Platinums and 25 Fusions instead of the 50 Fusions I would have ordered.

 

[FinallyQuit]

I'm looking for good prices on Evod and Kanger T3 replacement heads. There's a place I've never heard of called "vaping me" out of Plano, TX. They have both in stock with limits [10 max on Evod and 5 max on T3] but the prices are fantastic. Don't know whether I'll bite, but they'll probably sell out of these items rather quickly. With the limits imposed more folks will have a chance to grab some up, but I really want to buy more than this at one time.

It's a question of how badly I want to give them my money vs. shopping for hours online to find a comparable price that allows the quantity I would like to get. Lots of folks would just buy as many as they can from the 1st place they find the item in stock, but I'm known to be tenacious!

 

[FinallyQuit]

I use Ikenvape cartomizers in my cartotanks. These are notorious for being very popular and frequently being out of stock as the vendor Isaac is unable to get China to make an adequate quantity for him. I noticed the last time that I ordered he had imposed a 25 carto limit per item. So I promptly ordered 25 Platinums and 25 Fusions instead of the 50 Fusions I would have ordered.

Sorry off topic: Could you compare and contrast these to the smoktech cartos [all I've had experience with before I gave up!] do they sound like sucking air through a straw? I have to find some better option!

 

[generic mutant]

...but I'm known to be tenacious!

Which is probably why it took you so long to quit.

(Belated) congratulations though.

[I'm still working on it...]

 

[MsComptrtchr]

I'm looking for good prices on Evod and Kanger T3 replacement heads. There's a place I've never heard of called "vaping me" out of Plano, TX. They have both in stock with limits [10 max on Evod and 5 max on T3] but the prices are fantastic. Don't know whether I'll bite, but they'll probably sell out of these items rather quickly. With the limits imposed more folks will have a chance to grab some up, but I really want to buy more than this at one time.

Dunno about the price, but I recently ordered and received very quickly some EVOD heads and clearos from cravinvapes.com based on somebody else's post here. I didn't even spend time comparing prices - I was so annoyed that my local store was constantly out of them. I used the coupon code "ECF" (I think that was it) and got 10% off. I like their site - easy to navigate. Shaun was nice in his email and of course, I got a free sample ("grasshopper" - not sure if I will use it or not, but hey, free.) Easy peasy.

 

[FinallyQuit]

Which is probably why it took you so long to quit.

(Belated) congratulations though.

[I'm still working on it...]

Psst! I'm still working on it too. I finally quit, then I get pi$$ed off and go buy a pack, then quit again, rinse and repeat. I have a new motto, I'm a work in progress!

 

[FinallyQuit]

Dunno about the price, but I recently ordered and received very quickly some EVOD heads and clearos from cravinvapes.com based on somebody else's post here. I didn't even spend time comparing prices - I was so annoyed that my local store was constantly out of them. I used the coupon code "ECF" (I think that was it) and got 10% off. I like their site - easy to navigate. Shaun was nice in his email and of course, I got a free sample ("grasshopper" - not sure if I will use it or not, but hey, free.) Easy peasy.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll check them out.

 

[Baditude]

Sorry off topic: Could you compare and contrast these to the smoktech cartos [all I've had experience with before I gave up!] do they sound like sucking air through a straw? I have to find some better option!

Sorry to the OP for my reply off topic.

The Ikenvape cartos are just built to a higher standard of parts materials and manufacturing consistancy. Out of over 50 IKV cartos that I've purchased, I've only had one DOA. The casing appears to be heavier, the filler is different (as in better), and the airflow is about medium. I've found them to have a cleaner taste with flavors, and to generally last about 1 - 2 tankfuls longer than the Smokteks.

I do have to admit, though, the last couple of IKV cartos I've used have not lasted as long as usual. They developed a stiff draw and then stopped working completely after only a couple of tankfuls.

I've found the Platinum and 510 Fusions to be essentially the same in my cartotank experience. The Plats ohm at 2.5 and the Fusions at 3.0.

 

[Dvx67]

Eventually, supply will catch up with demand. I see this as still somewhat of an underground industry. Sure we see shortages and a lot of demand, but compared to other industries, this is just not very well known and suppliers have not come out in full force. It is still in its infancy. I work for an automotive parts manufacturer and supplier. We purchase components from China, as well as Mexico and other countries. Once they see the potential, suppliers in these countries will go all in to compete for business. This industry just isn't that big yet. But it is getting there! Who knows what might happen in the next few years if our govt doesn't get in the way.