The highly anticipated Zamplebox arrived with the mail today and I wasted no time cracking into its contents. Before I dive into the center of my thoughts on this, I just have to say that the shipping time was insanely fast. I signed up for my plan on Monday afternoon, and my box arrived shortly after 4pm today. Unreal that the USPS can move that fast even with priority. (No offense to any postal workers reading this!)
PACKAGING
Zamplebox is a simple postal box with the branded sticker on the bottom. To me, and this is totally beside the point, but the company as a whole could use some better branding. Green vapor, like actual green vapor and not he liquid itself (ala Pluid) just doesn't seem like the mental connection I would want to make. Toxic crusader comes to mind as well as a host of other nasty gasses from popular culture. That bit aside, the pouch that the liquids make their journey in is a nice touch. Again, this is an image thing, but it would be a smart idea to brand and coordinate the color of these bags in the future. As people trade away liquids, offering a handy pouch with your logo on it is great advertising.
JUICES
As I opened the pouch I got a super strong whif of Pineapple and Saspirilla. I got very nervous as I reached in to retrieve the first bottle as neither of those flavors, ESPECIALLY combined, appeal to me at all. However, the luck of the draw was what intrigued me to try this out, so I proceeded with the utmost trepidation. Let the juice roulette begin! Just as I thought... the first bottle I pulled was 503's Saspirilla. A very handsome bottle and dripper, that I will most certainly be trading away. Following that were 2 more selections destined for the PIF thread immediately. Of the remaining selections, one was something I was actually wanting to try (score!) and another was something I was about to re-order but in a lower nic level (double score!). The final selection was something I would never select based on it's description, but the smell from the bottle is absolutely fantastic. This one is the toy surprise at the bottom of the box I was hoping to find. The big concern most folks have voiced so far was the random assortment of nic levels. I'd say the average was about 18mg throughout the box. I'm a 6-12mg guy, so I'll be going through the samples I'll keep at a fairly slow rate. All in all I'd say the box was about 50% keepers, which is a bit of a letdown. If they can develop a profile system that allows users to specify a nic level, I'd certainly drip a few of the "meh" sounding flavors just to see what they were like.
COUPONS
I'll preface this section by saying I know these vendors didn't have to include an offer of any kind. I'm also a firm believer in paying a fair price for quality product. That being said, the impression that I got from the Zamplebox signup page was that the "offers" were part of the exclusive deal you'd receive with your account. I don't know much about most of the vendors that included coupons, but they seem pretty limited. Mt Baker's "offer" was the same deal they give everyone who orders from them. Again, this isn't a complaint about the vendors per-se, but a thought about how Zamplebox sells them as a benefit include with your plan. Hopefully they can make this more interesting as time goes by, otherwise I wouldn't even tout this as a selling point.
OVERALL
I'm basing all of my opinions on the fact that this service is brand spanking new and there are certainly kinks to be worked out. I think the concept is fantastic and a very economical way to try new liquids. Heck, one of the vendors is from the Philippines and quick web search reveals no easy way of procuring their product here in the US. The potential for Zamplebox to bring selections from all over the globe (with some quality control measures assured) could be monumental.
I'm going to stick it out a few months to see hows things iron out. I noticed today that they've already added Nicquid as a new vendor for next month. There could be a dozen more vendors on board in a few months time, making this a really exciting service to have. As long as they can iron our out a nic preference system soon, I'll continue on. If not, it could be the one thing that sinks the whole concept.
