Whatever you do, don't go Blu

[warrenao]

I really, really wish I'd known, before I started buying their product, just how miserable my experience with Blu would be. Here's just part of my saga.

The other day I noticed that an order I had placed had yet to ship, and contacted Blu for an online chat regarding the problem. I received no redress of grievance; there was no attempt made to expedite shipping, and I was told my purchase could not be refunded because the order was in 'processing'. It hadn't shipped, mind you, but I'd been billed, and there was no known ETA for shipping. Just, and I quote the online service rep I got in chat, 'hopefully this week'. That was on the 23rd of this month (July).


On the following morning, July 24th, Blu posted to their Facebook page, saying there was a foul-up in shipping an unknown number of customer orders. There was no hard ETA given on delivery. The original post may be seen here:


https://www.facebook.com/blucigs/posts/10151700200908592


This is what was posted:


--


Recently, we upgraded our order processing system here at blu eCigs to better serve our customers. Unfortunately, upon implementation we encountered some technical issues which inhibited our ability to fill some orders as quickly as we hoped. In addition, the glitches prevented us from cancelling orders which we previously invoiced.

Rest assured that we are working overtime to ship all open orders as fast as possible. That said, we anticipate that some of you may experience a brief delay given this unforeseeable disruption . We apologize for the inconvenience and will do everything we can to remedy this situation as soon as possible.


--


The thread of replies was predictable, and Blu's handling of the matter was rather poor - a constant flow of excuse-making without offering real satisfaction to customers, claims that it 'normally' took 24-48 hours to ship, claims that 'nothing' could be done, and general irrelevancies about the problem.


Among the posts was a comment by me, criticizing Blu's handling of the PR backlash, which I had the foresight to copy and paste last night (7/24) when I posted it:


--


Number me among the affected.

Here's a strategy you might want to adopt in customer relations: Don't tell us that it 'normally' takes 24-48 hours to ship an order, when we're going to be waiting an unknown amount of time to get the items we ordered and paid for. How long it 'normally' takes is irrelevant.

While you're at it, upgrade everyone's shipping to ASAP - FedEx if necessary - without offering excuses as to why it can't be done. Just bloody well do it.

As it is you're passing off the 'inconvenience' of your upgrade to your customers, and that is a profoundly stupid thing to do.


--


That comment received a snotty reply from Blu, an hour or so after which it was deleted and my account banned from posting further to the Blu page.


See the screenshot on my Facebook page for proof that Blu did in fact reply to me, and has since deleted the comment:


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=611872625504670&set=a.371011736257428.91047.100000458153698


This is absolutely unconscionable service. I would strongly recommend against buying Blu products at any time in the future. While they have an undeniable amount of elan, the glossy black batteries and blue tips do not make up for bad order handling and atrocious customer service.

 

[raqball]

Do yourself a favor and dump Blu..

They are junk IMHO.. Get an eGo kit or something like that to start off with and then upgrade as you become more experienced in vaping.

My .02

 

[vicflo]

ive done quite a few people a favor by getting them cheap ego kits. ive heard more stories of people trying blucigs, not liking it and going back to analogs than people who actually like them. The bad part is the ones that went back to smoking think that blucigs are how all vaping is.

FWIW some of the cartos arent all that bad.

 

[Eighttrucktires]

Reminds me of my favorite post:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...es/84896-blu-bashing-101-course-overview.html

 

[lthomas]

Sorry to hear about the bad experience. Take it from me ... do not go with Thunder-Vapes either. My girlfriend and I were duped out of a large order from them. It has been several weeks since we placed the order and payed via PayPal and we still haven't received it. The guy who runs the web site is named Ali and he will no longer return our emails on the issue.

 

[Bill's Magic Vapor]

Never tried the Blu, but I do like their commercials, and I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I'm comfortable agreeing with you about the Blu, and admonishing all would-be Blu users to cease and desist. Hopefully, that helps. Vape On Brother!

 

[flbutterfly1]

Warrenao, I was also part of that fiasco. I was charged twice , complained on that post of theirs and they took care of it this morn sort of we will see when my refund finally gets here. I ordered and the product was in stock they shipped it. Then a second order of which I did not make but was charged for was out of stock. So they could not cancel it ( my ...) but anyways. When I called on Monday I got the same run around blah blah can't cancel ... ever and then when I .....ed on a public forum they thought the need to SHOW good cs even though I know it is a show it seems I may have got it taken care of. But if something hasn't shipped why could it not be cancelled? They sure could charge my card though. And I complained that my last order back in may my cc info was stolen and I know it was their cc processor was unsecured. I have many other e cigs but I just like their vanilla cartos and reuse them. So I wish they were cheaper here in the gas station so I wouldn't even have to other with the online foolishness that they keep handing us. You would think that I would have learned my lesson by now after 3 years with them.

 

[warrenao]

Thanks for the followups, all! (I especially liked the link to Blu-bashing 101).

We're going on 9 days and they still haven't shipped my last order, but that's all right - because I was incentivized to look around a bit, as a result of which two things have happened:

1. I switched to eGo-style vaping; and
2. I located a great local source of juice and advice in the form of a smoke shop. That might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but this is a very small town. Their selection is actually about as broad as is their selection of 'tobacco' water pipes. And they have a hell of a lot of 'tobacco' water pipes.

Currently I'm using a mix of two flavors: 'Desert Ship' (a Camel taste-alike) and 'Tiramisu' (which is exactly what it sounds like). The blend is very pleasant and, at 18mg of nicotine, it gets me nicely up without making me feel god-awful.

At $30 for a starter kit, I was probably a damned fool not to do more research before I went electronic. But I've been off analog cigarettes for years, subsisting on nic lozenges and cigars - ha, no inhaling - and I really did miss the other aspects of smoking. Well, I've done learned a bit of my lesson.

The plastic clearomizer that came with the kit cracked after a day, though - hooray for QA in manufacturing - so I decided to stop being a cheep bastid and picked up something with a little more staying power, a tank like this one:

http://www.dhgate.com/product/kanger-pyrex-clearomizer-pro-tank-changeable/164761079.html

Most fun of all, my wife is now vaping as well as of this weekend, though with a 0mg flavored juice. She's never smoked; she just likes the puffs and the flavor.

So I guess it all worked out.

 

[Uncle Willie]

Companies sometimes have a problem for one reason or another .. are they to be condemned for such a problem .. ?? Because, if so, the bulk of places we do business with regularly would be ..

And, if BLU gets one person, just one person, off analogs, then kudos to BLU ..

 

[RudeBoy007]

It's really frustrating while you are waiting for an order to come in the mail. In a way it's like Christmas, but you don't know what day it might be. It hurts to be dinked around by this company that has the upper hand over your order, telling you that it can't be cancelled and basically telling you you've been burned for now. My guess is that you are going to have some animosity after what you have been put through by Blu that will take away from the satisfaction of finally receiving your stuff. I like that your wife actually started vaping on 0 mg juice. I like to blow smoke rings, I think that's a major part of my own habit, blowing smoke. I like those Kanger Protank style tanks, or any tank that has the wick/coil head in the bottom of it, not up top like all these CE3s that are totally flooding the market right now. The Ismoka mega or mini BCC tank is really good in my opinion. I've found that I hate top coil tanks when compared to the bottom coil ones. Don't let one company's treatment send you away from vaping. I've been vaping 6 months now and I've learned so much more than I ever imagined when I first started, it's been a lot more than putting down one habit and picking up another.

 

[stevegmu]

Wow, they had a computer glitch; now they are a terrible vendor. FastTech orders take a week or 2 to get, from what I hear, yet they are the darling of ECF. People experience CC fraud from shady vendors, yet continue to buy from them. Interesting...
I'm not saying BLU makes a great product, but many of us started with BLU and would have probably not quit smoking, had it not been for their introduction to e-nic.

 

[Orb Skewer]

Thanks for the followups, all! (I especially liked the link to Blu-bashing 101).

as a result of which two things have happened:

1. I switched to eGo-style vaping; and
2. I located a great local source of juice and advice in the form of a smoke shop. That might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but this is a very small town. Their selection is actually about as broad as is their selection of 'tobacco' water pipes. And they have a hell of a lot of 'tobacco' water pipes.



So I guess it all worked out.

Learning the hard way will stick in your throat for a while-
But every cloud (pun) has a silver lining
Welcome to 'vaping'

 

[3JH3]

Seeing Blu ads is what got me curious about ecigs in the first place. Saw a few ads and ended up here looking for info. So in that perspective, I think they're the ones really out there marketing the industry to a mass audience. My two cents. I don't know that I'll buy their product, but I am thankful they lead me to the point that I am at.

 

[warrenao]

Companies sometimes have a problem for one reason or another .. are they to be condemned for such a problem .. ?? Because, if so, the bulk of places we do business with regularly would be ..

And, if BLU gets one person, just one person, off analogs, then kudos to BLU ..

A fair point, but I'm not sure you read the whole history of what I'd had to contend with. The shipping delays alone are exasperating - as I mentioned it's been nine days and still no sign of anything being sent - but their behavior on their Facebook page when they were faced with (appropriate) customer backlash was unconscionable. Note that I am not the only person whose posts were pulled down (I saw other comments there which have since disappeared), and of course there is no way to index how many others were banned.

I agree that to the extent Blu gets people off of regular cigarettes, they're doing a service. However, there are better alternatives out there. I did do some checking before I went with them initially, but had I come across a post like the one I started this thread with, you can be quite sure I'd've gone a different route - specifically, the path I'm on now. It's less annoying and much more flexible.

That said, there are plenty of reasons to like what Blu is doing, even if their way of going about it is less than ideal.

 

[chillwill]

The flavors that Blu offers are of good quality - but these are available from Johnson Creek's web site. If you are looking for an affordable option that you realistically will be able to stay away from cigs with, I recommend looking into an Ego-type model - specifically, the EVOD by Kangertech, which you can find for around $40 USD. It's what I'm currently using and is way better than my experiences with Blu or with the Joyetech 510-T, which is sort-of the Cadillac of the Blu-type model.

 

[warrenao]

Sorry to hear about the bad experience. Take it from me ... do not go with Thunder-Vapes either. My girlfriend and I were duped out of a large order from them. It has been several weeks since we placed the order and payed via PayPal and we still haven't received it. The guy who runs the web site is named Ali and he will no longer return our emails on the issue.

Wow, PayPal? As far as I know they won't work with anyone selling tobacco or tobacco-like products. They must not know what 'Thunder-Vapes' is peddling.

I discovered a company called Vulcan Vape last week because of this whole Blu thing - I went to Johnson Creek (because I like their juice, and they're making Blu's stuff) and looked over their list of vendors that use their products. That was how I found Vulcan. Their customer support was very pleasing, and their prices seem reasonable, and they have a real-world brick-and-mortar presence:

Vulcan Vape

I've also found a local vendor that I can go to with questions or problems, and of course to stock up on more juice.

 

[Uncle Willie]

A fair point, but I'm not sure you read the whole history of what I'd had to contend with. The shipping delays alone are exasperating - as I mentioned it's been nine days and still no sign of anything being sent - but their behavior on their Facebook page when they were faced with (appropriate) customer backlash was unconscionable. Note that I am not the only person whose posts were pulled down (I saw other comments there which have since disappeared), and of course there is no way to index how many others were banned.

I agree that to the extent Blu gets people off of regular cigarettes, they're doing a service. However, there are better alternatives out there. I did do some checking before I went with them initially, but had I come across a post like the one I started this thread with, you can be quite sure I'd've gone a different route - specifically, the path I'm on now. It's less annoying and much more flexible.

That said, there are plenty of reasons to like what Blu is doing, even if their way of going about it is less than ideal.

I did read the entire post .. it's not uncommon for any Company to pull FB posts ..

I started on a NJOY .. $120.00 for the kit several years ago .. and back then it was much, much worse than what BLU has now ..

As with you, the NJOY eventually led me to ECF and much better alternatives .. and I am thankful for that ..

 

[3JH3]

Yeah I don't agree with a lot of business' social media practices. It is one of the most intuitive ways to receive customer feedback and yet they just cover it up instead of learning. If most would leave up the negative reviews and reply to them with meaningful and updated responses I think they would get more business that way.

 

[warrenao]

Yeah I don't agree with a lot of business' social media practices. It is one of the most intuitive ways to receive customer feedback and yet they just cover it up instead of learning. If most would leave up the negative reviews and reply to them with meaningful and updated responses I think they would get more business that way.

And now begins the thread drift. There's only one right way to handle something like what's happened with Blu's cockup, and that is to let your social media people know what's happening before it turns into an explosion - and empower them to do something more than ignore, reply with sarcasm, and ban.

It's likely that Blu's social media group were feeling extremely embattled. They had reason to feel that way. Given what I do for my Day Job, I have some insight into how these things can happen, and I've got a feeling that there were no preparatory meetings among management, marketing, and social media, and no strategies in place for dealing with the furor. That left social media without guidance in a high-stress situation. They didn't even have the fallback that their phone support staff has - putting a caller in direct contact with management.

Ideally they'll learn from that and adopt more effective models in the future. What I wrote in the preceding two paragraphs was more or less what I sent to one of their management team in email last week, because even if they did piss me off, it doesn't hurt to point out useful ways they can respond to problems in the future.

As it was at the time, their replies to legitimate complaints were not helpful, there was no useful attempt to ameliorate the effects of their ordering and fulfillment problems, and they did in fact attempt to censor commentary in a public forum. That works only to the extent that posters do not keep a record of what was going on, and do not make an effort to get the word out by other means.

 

[Penn]

A fair point, but I'm not sure you read the whole history of what I'd had to contend with. The shipping delays alone are exasperating - as I mentioned it's been nine days and still no sign of anything being sent - but their behavior on their Facebook page when they were faced with (appropriate) customer backlash was unconscionable. Note that I am not the only person whose posts were pulled down (I saw other comments there which have since disappeared), and of course there is no way to index how many others were banned.

I agree that to the extent Blu gets people off of regular cigarettes, they're doing a service. However, there are better alternatives out there. I did do some checking before I went with them initially, but had I come across a post like the one I started this thread with, you can be quite sure I'd've gone a different route - specifically, the path I'm on now. It's less annoying and much more flexible.

That said, there are plenty of reasons to like what Blu is doing, even if their way of going about it is less than ideal.

The only thing I see you saying up to this point that I agree with is pointing out they should up the shipping for free. I am familiar with the logistics of warehousing and distribution and have seen upgrades to the process go smooth and go awry. These things happen. How can they give an adequate answer if they don't even know the answer to when things will ship or arrive?

The facebook page is theirs to administrate. Why would they leave a posts that just blasts them for an experience that they acknowledge was their mistake? You, and others, are just rubbing that in but it doesn't improve your situation or theirs. I am also familiar with customer service and sometimes the only thing that will result from a customer interaction is the customer gets to vent at the expense of the representative who has no control over the situation. If you want to vent to someone who can help, call the corporate office directly.


ETA - I see your response to another person when I was typing this. I wish I'd known that you allegedly have that work experience, I would have known you just wanted to vent and not learn something yourself.