MAN oh man, has anyone been over to the GG or COV forums? Its all out lunacy. If anyone thinks that waiting since December sucks, Imagine spending hours and hours trying to buy an item and the site crashes.
THey are really upset and demanding Imeo find another vendor or boycott them. I just dont understand that sort of thinking. Im sure COV probably needs larger or more servers but that can be really costly for certain sales that only happen a couple days a year.
People dont realize that its worldwide, think of the thousands and thousands trying to sign in, view the same pages and trying to check out at the same time.
Im sure Bruce doesnt want to make people unhappy nor turn away business, but it just a sucky system. Pre-orders are the only way. Enough people complained that the pre-order was terrible and that paying up front and waiting sucked, but this is the outcome.
Im so glad that I dont really like GG PVs or Id never have one if it meant fighting and getting frustrated.
So just hug your ELAs if you have them or if you are waiting for yours, just know that you WILL get it, without the frenzy and disappointment.
Let me preface this by saying I do agree it is silly for things to get out of hand over mod.
At the same time, being in the industry, it isn't expensive to run a site that can easily support the load generated by large numbers of requests for a web store.
The real problem is:
1) These mod-makers are still figuring things out, so accurate ETAs generally do not exist.
2) People are spending money regardless as they feel the mods are worth it for whatever reasons be it exclusivity (many other mods seem to be this) or something else like quality and fit/finish (ELA being an example of this).
3) Many people don't know the technical side and rely on outside companies to help them find web store solutions, and many of these companies are unscrupulous and way oversold/are poorly written webapps.
Almost all of the ecig web stores frustrate me to no end; either people are DIYing to save a few bucks (this is silly, what is $1000 for an online store pulling that in every day?) or they are paying the wrong people because many online shops are horrible in design and site responsiveness.
As long as alternatives aren't provided by someone that compete, there is really no incentive for change. Why fix something that isn't broken? If the financials I've seen of retail locations are any indicator of what online shops are making, folks are making great money with insane markup/profit margins.
This is one reason I really like David's operation. His website is fairly useable, and he has been transparent about the issues getting the ELAs out the door. It sounds like there is a lot more work in assembly and final fitment than he anticipated, but instead of shipping substandard product he is hand fitting and finishing everything himself. That is obviously going to take some time, but I am grateful for it, even if it is irritating at the same time. I suspect the estimated times on David's next masterpiece will be more realistic. I hope so, because I imagine it will be on my shopping list. Hopefully things have been learned and future ETAs will be spot on!
I think the selling points David has going for him regarding quality, openness and honesty, attention to detail, and David's communication with everyone are what drives the community around his mods. There really is a great group of folks here posting, and it really stands out when compared to other mod forum threads.
PS - sure hope I get a shipping notice soon, I really am looking forward to the ELA and all of these pictures are driving me nuts! For those running pure mechanical with Kayfun and the ELA, what gauge Kanthal are you running, with how many wraps? I'm used to low ohm genesis coils on mech mods but I'm hearing with Kayfuns you want to go higher. Since it's noted often that David's mods are extremely good in conductivity, it may be even more important to wrap a higher ohm coil. Any insight would be highly appreciated.