Remember how fast this industry is growing, and where V4L was just 6 months ago. The opinions expressed by some of the posters we consider "outsiders" (or as I like to call them, "the others") may be legitimate based on their past experience, but may not reflect the current state of V4L product performance. Most of us give one vendor just one and only chance, and rarely consider returning to update your initial impressions. A lot of early vapors resorted to extensive mods to improve the PV performance to suit personal expectations. Since I switched to V4L in January, they have made substantial improvements of their own in just 4 short months. V4L's strong desire and commitment to improve their product line and superior customer service is what really separates this company from the rest.
For those of you here equal to or longer than me, chime in to augment or contradict my following observations:
CARTOMIZERS
- New premium design heats smoothly, can be reused numerous times, and produces exceptional vapor.
- Old design was ok, but had issues with air flow and uneven heating, vapor production was criticized routinely by 510 fans.
- Premium prefilled carts have good consistency, and are available in more flavors and strength options than any other vendor I have found. As time goes on, V4L is steadily improving all of them - even the weird flavors that I would not normally consider.
JUICE
- I don't know of any company with V4L's variety and quality of juice, and the new formulations produce more vapor, TH, and taste than what was available just 3 short months ago - this is born out from my experience filling older non-premium carts with new premium juice as well.
- Older juice stock was a little bit hit or miss with the flavors and consistency, and definitely did not have as much vapor.
- As with cartos, the selection of available strengths and VG options are impressive to say the least.
BATTERIES
- Battery performance has improved substantially, hardware improvements and manufacturing consistency is just now reaching optimization. While older designs were ok and the Li Ion performance kept V4L batteries on a level above most others, they were inconsistent and had varied performance problems - especially with the autos vacuum switch, the cheap button switch on the manuals, and air flow / carto mating inconsistencies. Those days are gone; what they are selling now is hands down better than anything they have ever produced.
ACCESSORIES
- The PT's have also improved, but the PCC could use an update - especially to accommodate the different length batteries (as many threads have spoken to). The cases, chargers, adapters, etc will all follow the course of supply and demand, as the market will determine. This is an area that I believe is a justifiably low priority for V4L, but I think we will see a wider selection and increased product offerings in this area once the PV product line and manufacturing / quality control reach steady state equilibrium.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
- The one thing that hasn't changed in my 5 months of experience with V4L. Despite the occasional legitimate complaints we see show up here (not counting the general whining or clearly user error complaints), I have never had one mistake with an order, have received responses to order related questions on a Sunday afternoon, routinely get free products with each and every order, and have achieved a comfort level / confidence in V4L that I cannot say I have experienced with any other company I buy anything else from (outside of the PV realm included). I have had to return one older auto battery due to a vacuum switch problem, but overall, product consistency has been very good - not perfect mind you, but well within reasonable expectations.
I am not trying to sound like a fanboy, and certainly have no kickback here, but I can't imagine "moving on"; I'm here to stay as long as they can continue to distribute their product. In regard to one OP referring to us as sheep, or a cult, I could care less. Realize that all of the people on this forum, every one of us, is an ADDICT. Our personalities are well stereotyped, and we share many of the same traits and anxieties. PV's have provided us a new lease on life, given us back our self-esteem, and allow us to feel accepted in society after years of derision and black listing. V4L just happens to be the best source to accommodate our needs in this vastly improved journey through life. I feel I have a personal relationship with them, because they provide something very personal to me - an outlook for a better and longer, healthier life.
Thanks to all of you for your many enjoyable and helpful discussions, my best to each and every one of you. Thanks for listening, and have a great day.
