An Apology from The Vaping Guru

[Mitz]

haha mint! link to your review? also share their whinging with us

I'll post again in the next couple days once this has been resolved and I've had confirmation that my review is posted permanently and not breaking any terms of service. It's temporarily been taken offline pending review but it'll be back online within a couple of days so I will post an update then. I've reworded the review to make sure I am in compliance so it's being vetted before being republished. I don't mind changing a word here or there. The English language is amazing and there's plenty of choices for words to convey the same meaning.

But this is apparently what they picked out and didn't like;

“they lied to me”
“It was untrue and a lie"
"I was also lied to"
"How can you trust a company that doesn't send your order, doesn't refund you and then lies about having already refunded you, ignores PayPal and then PayPal have to issue the refund themselves because the company totally ignores them"

Bunch of lying crybabies.

Shouldn't have tried ripping us all off should you, you dumb lying bastards. @TheVapingGuru.co.uk

 

[pocketsand]

Oh

 

[Furkz]

I'll post again in the next couple days once this has been resolved and I've had confirmation that my review is posted permanently and not breaking any terms of service. It's temporarily been taken offline pending review but it'll be back online within a couple of days so I will post an update then. I've reworded the review to make sure I am in compliance so it's being vetted before being republished. I don't mind changing a word here or there. The English language is amazing and there's plenty of choices for words to convey the same meaning.

But this is apparently what they picked out and didn't like;

“they lied to me”
“It was untrue and a lie"
"I was also lied to"
"How can you trust a company that doesn't send your order, doesn't refund you and then lies about having already refunded you, ignores PayPal and then PayPal have to issue the refund themselves because the company totally ignores them"

Bunch of lying crybabies.

Shouldn't have tried ripping us all off should you, you dumb lying bastards. @TheVapingGuru.co.uk

Are you trying to say that they lied to you

 

[Colonelboom]

It's really not surprising this has started happening more often in vaping. We've become an easy mark for this sort of low life theft. We are tight communities and are eager to make new vapers welcome and quite readily accept their tips on bargain suppliers.
We've become used to long waits between order and arrival of goods and pre ordering has become par for the course so if you add up the average pre order is around a month to six week's now, then you have the obligatory two week average delivery.
So all in all a company has a good two months of taking cash before it even has to start making polite excuses. You can then use a very small amount of your growing profits to buy some cheap bulk eliquid to post out to the customers that are on forum's to ensure another month of good grace.
That gives you a whole quarter of growing buisness and nothing but positive advertising before the questions start to be asked. The company can then cruise along on orders from cheap advertising and YouTube reviews by freebie hunters who you have supplied with a few cheap mods leaving them as happy as hell to sing your praises and defend your honour. After six months disappear, change your name and repeat.
I've come to the conclusion that unless I see a solid vouch by a trusted ape. My money goes to those I know. I'd rather spend an extra fiver and know I'm going to get my order.

Sadly it happens as a consequence where there is a high demand for lower than average prices and vaping really does seem to garner the interest in bargain hunters. I mean no offence to anyone in this regard but I see time and again on various vaping groups the frenzy created when a new vendor seemingly pops up from nowhere with loads of hype because they not only have the latest and greatest kit that people can't get elsewhere but at prices you just don't find in most stores.

Queue the mass feeding frenzy of customers all bagging their 'bargain' and almost like clockwork within a few weeks the complaints start regarding either delivery times, communication or warranty issues.

As an example, we don't supply all the latest kit from every manufacturer. Over the years we have cherry picked solid and reliable hardware and not bothered with things we felt were potential warranty issues waiting to happen, we stopped stocking SMOK box mods a while ago as a direct result of what we found to be low quality control and cheap builds that we were unhappy recommending to customers - similarly I hated the early Wismec releaux models for a number of reasons but still bough the Gen3 samples to try them and instantly fell in love due to the changes the made. We have also never had pre-orders on anything we sold and instead went down the route of ensuring that anything on the site was available in the shop that meant items could be shipped upon receipt of payment and to keep customers hopefully not only happy but impressed by turnaround times.

The downside to that of course is that there is always a monetary outlay in advance to stock up and invariably once the fad over that particular device dumbs down you end up with with devalued stock that has to be sold on a lower margin than intended. Shops that operate in this way are usually never the absolute cheapest price you will find online (although competitive of course) but in most cases you get what you pay for - stock on the shelves, next day delivery and a service to backup your hard earned purchase.

In my personal opinion, it's NEVER OK to wait 6 weeks for a product unless specifically stated prior to purchase it will be that long. It's NEVER OK to avoid talking to customers when you/they have issues. WE are in a service and support industry where the products we sell need to have an open line of communication so people not understanding any of the multitude of settings or user experience options you find across all brands can be assured of how to operate their devices.

There is an old addage that time is money, it's very much the case in retail as those that don't try the stack em high and sell em cheap model incorporate a slight price bump so they can include their time to ensure that customer service levels remain high - and that time does cost a little money.

 

[eyeball kid]

Sadly it happens as a consequence where there is a high demand for lower than average prices and vaping really does seem to garner the interest in bargain hunters. I mean no offence to anyone in this regard but I see time and again on various vaping groups the frenzy created when a new vendor seemingly pops up from nowhere with loads of hype because they not only have the latest and greatest kit that people can't get elsewhere but at prices you just don't find in most stores.

Queue the mass feeding frenzy of customers all bagging their 'bargain' and almost like clockwork within a few weeks the complaints start regarding either delivery times, communication or warranty issues.

As an example, we don't supply all the latest kit from every manufacturer. Over the years we have cherry picked solid and reliable hardware and not bothered with things we felt were potential warranty issues waiting to happen, we stopped stocking SMOK box mods a while ago as a direct result of what we found to be low quality control and cheap builds that we were unhappy recommending to customers - similarly I hated the early Wismec releaux models for a number of reasons but still bough the Gen3 samples to try them and instantly fell in love due to the changes the made. We have also never had pre-orders on anything we sold and instead went down the route of ensuring that anything on the site was available in the shop that meant items could be shipped upon receipt of payment and to keep customers hopefully not only happy but impressed by turnaround times.

The downside to that of course is that there is always a monetary outlay in advance to stock up and invariably once the fad over that particular device dumbs down you end up with with devalued stock that has to be sold on a lower margin than intended. Shops that operate in this way are usually never the absolute cheapest price you will find online (although competitive of course) but in most cases you get what you pay for - stock on the shelves, next day delivery and a service to backup your hard earned purchase.

In my personal opinion, it's NEVER OK to wait 6 weeks for a product unless specifically stated prior to purchase it will be that long. It's NEVER OK to avoid talking to customers when you/they have issues. WE are in a service and support industry where the products we sell need to have an open line of communication so people not understanding any of the multitude of settings or user experience options you find across all brands can be assured of how to operate their devices.

There is an old addage that time is money, it's very much the case in retail as those that don't try the stack em high and sell em cheap model incorporate a slight price bump so they can include their time to ensure that customer service levels remain high - and that time does cost a little money.

Well put mate. Hence why you've been around as long as you have. Hence your rep is impeccable. Hence why you make good juice. Hence why you got such a glowing review for your new range by dw1985 and finally hence why I will be buying some on pay day.
It's a simple plan. Sell quality gear you would be happy to use yourself at a reasonable price, be consistently reliable and the customer base will grow.

 

[Addixxtion]

Sadly it happens as a consequence where there is a high demand for lower than average prices and vaping really does seem to garner the interest in bargain hunters. I mean no offence to anyone in this regard but I see time and again on various vaping groups the frenzy created when a new vendor seemingly pops up from nowhere with loads of hype because they not only have the latest and greatest kit that people can't get elsewhere but at prices you just don't find in most stores.

Queue the mass feeding frenzy of customers all bagging their 'bargain' and almost like clockwork within a few weeks the complaints start regarding either delivery times, communication or warranty issues.

As an example, we don't supply all the latest kit from every manufacturer. Over the years we have cherry picked solid and reliable hardware and not bothered with things we felt were potential warranty issues waiting to happen, we stopped stocking SMOK box mods a while ago as a direct result of what we found to be low quality control and cheap builds that we were unhappy recommending to customers - similarly I hated the early Wismec releaux models for a number of reasons but still bough the Gen3 samples to try them and instantly fell in love due to the changes the made. We have also never had pre-orders on anything we sold and instead went down the route of ensuring that anything on the site was available in the shop that meant items could be shipped upon receipt of payment and to keep customers hopefully not only happy but impressed by turnaround times.

The downside to that of course is that there is always a monetary outlay in advance to stock up and invariably once the fad over that particular device dumbs down you end up with with devalued stock that has to be sold on a lower margin than intended. Shops that operate in this way are usually never the absolute cheapest price you will find online (although competitive of course) but in most cases you get what you pay for - stock on the shelves, next day delivery and a service to backup your hard earned purchase.

In my personal opinion, it's NEVER OK to wait 6 weeks for a product unless specifically stated prior to purchase it will be that long. It's NEVER OK to avoid talking to customers when you/they have issues. WE are in a service and support industry where the products we sell need to have an open line of communication so people not understanding any of the multitude of settings or user experience options you find across all brands can be assured of how to operate their devices.

There is an old addage that time is money, it's very much the case in retail as those that don't try the stack em high and sell em cheap model incorporate a slight price bump so they can include their time to ensure that customer service levels remain high - and that time does cost a little money.

I must say I've not heard of you before, but after reading your reply, I will certainly check you out and make a purchase if necessary.

We need more vendors like you in this community [emoji106]

 

[Colonelboom]

Well put mate. Hence why you've been around as long as you have. Hence your rep is impeccable. Hence why you make good juice. Hence why you got such a glowing review for your new range by dw1985 and finally hence why I will be buying some on pay day.
It's a simple plan. Sell quality gear you would be happy to use yourself at a reasonable price, be consistently reliable and the customer base will grow.

Thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated.

Unfortunately though, despite being here for the last 4.5 years I am considering closing PlumeBlu as a retail shop to just concentrate on the juice lines and it's pretty much due to the market being flooded by fly by night vendors - most of which may offer products a quid cheaper than us but without the service being in place to back it all up. As pretty much the polar opposite to this it's hard to compete on price when it seems that a vast majority of vapers are solely interested in getting things as cheap as they possibly can.

Things are still up in the air but as I said we don't stock each and every product that hits the market but those we feel are deserving due to quality, longevity or innovation so are more known for our juice lines anyway.

@Addixxtion , thanks. We have been a vendor here since 2013 and were once very active members but over the last couple of years have stepped back a bit from the forums.

 

[eyeball kid]

Thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated.

Unfortunately though, despite being here for the last 4.5 years I am considering closing PlumeBlu as a retail shop to just concentrate on the juice lines and it's pretty much due to the market being flooded by fly by night vendors - most of which may offer products a quid cheaper than us but without the service being in place to back it all up. As pretty much the polar opposite to this it's hard to compete on price when it seems that a vast majority of vapers are solely interested in getting things as cheap as they possibly can.

Things are still up in the air but as I said we don't stock each and every product that hits the market but those we feel are deserving due to quality, longevity or innovation so are more known for our juice lines anyway.

@Addixxtion , thanks. We have been a vendor here since 2013 and were once very active members but over the last couple of years have stepped back a bit from the forums.

And isn't that a little sad. Funny I used to order vermilion river from you but it wasn't until last year's raffle that I got to taste your own eliquid range and was blown away. So much so daughter no 2 got me some more for Christmas.
Well as long as you keep blending I shall be a return customer.

 

[eyeball kid]

Creamy digestive and custard doughnut have me written all over them.

 

[Colonelboom]

Creamy digestive and custard doughnut have me written all over them.

Did you try Ambrosia yet? If not, that and Cookie Dough ice Cream ought to be on your list if those other two grab your interest