Nik...how can you make such statements?! Quite frankly, labeling every vendor as self taught, irresponsible, greedy, and dishonest is patently ignorant!! The vast majority of vendors are professional, educated, and care for their customers with an earnest interest in supporting the reputation of the industry, and not just their profits at any cost. Even your take and accusations of 'sheer incompetence' on the maker of your disgusting 'first nic juice' are foolish...what exactly are they based on when by your own account you have absolutely no experience or reference?! You yourself said it was the "one bottle of nic juice that (you) had actually tried"! Come on...
Lets keep in mind this uproar is over ONE issue and all facts are not known yet. And to go one step further, we are all human and mistakes can happen...and that does not automatically equal greed, dishonesty, and poor decision making...and even if it proved to be the case it most certainly does not reflect on all internet vendors. Thankfully nobody was hurt and ultimately it may further overall awareness and quality control so long as we do not let hysteria reign. Its irresponsible to take one vendor issue and paint a broad stroke and we most certainly cant allow fear and ignorance to destroy an industry that is saving lives every day!! Nic may be poison in mass quantity and could kill you, but lung cancer will kill you. If you dont vape nic liquids, good for you, but for of the tens of thousands that do, and even more that will, instead of smoking cigarettes that absolutely will kill you, I say thank you to the many quality vendors that supply it.
Umm ..Greenmountain vapor did you read my post, or did you see a few trigger words and react?? .. First off, who did I label as being anything??? And where in my post did I say that ALL VENDORS are greedy and dishonest?
I spoke of Choice, Trust and Responsibility and/or the POTENTIAL lack thereof in an unregulated industry .... PERIOD! Secondly, as the owner of a successful, 4 year strong internet retail business (completely unrelated to vaping), I know a few things about shady suppliers, and customers for that matter, so I hate to break it you but they do exist in alarming numbers :S. Running any commercial retail business is a cooperative relationship of trust and responsibility between manufacturer/distributor, retail supplier, and customer. And if there is a break in any one of the cooperative links, then the whole chain breaks down... that is the reality of doing business in this world.
I happen to be a trustworthy vendor, but that does not mean that those with whom I do business with are always going to be trustworthy. I have dealt with manufacturers that were up to no good from the start, as well as some who were quite trustworthy in the beginning, until supply and demand got the better of their conscience ... it's called the Real World .. remember that thing some refer to as the knowledge of Good and Evil, and how you are here to not only discern one from the other, but also to decide which one you want to be, and the whole host of people, places, and things that support/co-create that experience with you, and at times in spite of you ??? ... Yeah, that!
Do accidents and mistakes happen? Yes, unfortunately they do, and it is MY responsibility to make sure someone else's mistake doesn't happen to me .. that was the point of my post. If you choose to trust vendors you do not personally know, in this unregulated industry with buying, mixing/preparing, and supplying your nicotine ejuice, then more power to you, and I genuinely hope that you, nor anyone else ever has to suffer a potentially fatal mistake of a trusted vendor.
Lastly, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but WE ARE NOT ALL HUMAN. This is a world populated with Flesh and Blood Beings who have the POTENTIAL TO BECOME HUMAN if one should so choose. The collective state of this World presently reflects that many have not made such a choice ... And if you have believed anything different, then it is you who are Ignorant.
Clearly I am a participant, and supporter of the vaping community however, I am not a supporter of the unregulated preparation and use of known poisons ... and that is a choice I made in KNOWLEDGE, not Ignorance, and thankfully it only took "one nasty bottle of nic juice" to cause me to RE-THINK this whole thing. So you see, another way to view this whole BE debacle is as a WAKE UP CALL. To wake up to the fact that while many have given up the 4,000 chemicals and tar of analog cigarette, you have opted instead to continue the unregulated use of a known and potentially fatal poison ... now does that make sense? Didn't we already make this mistake with cigarettes?
The Road to Hell was paved with Good Intentions
