I've got one for you.
Last week I was getting hard up for juice. I'd been holding out on making a big order because I was waiting for Alien Visions to reopen their web orders (gotta have my Boba's). While Christmas shopping, I decided to pop by the e-cig kiosk in the mall to see if i could grab about 20 ml of something vapable to carry me over.
I'd noticed before that this kiosk sells eGo gear so I figured they'd have more than just pre-filled cartridges for some weird proprietary starter kit junk. Promising, right?
I walk up to encounter your clueless hourless employee. She'd obviously been trained on their products but was completely ignorant of the vaping world at large. Ok. What follows is our exchange.
Me: Hi, I'm wondering if you guys sell bottles of e-liquid.
Her: Yes, we do.
Me: Okay, what kinds do you have?
Her: We have everything (sure they do). What do you smoke? We have apple, peach, menthol, chocolate... Everything.
Me: Uh, usually VG-based tobacco flavors with 18 mg nicotine..
Her: We have tobacco flavor. (At this point I'm expecting your typical Dekang 555 or something similar.)
Me: Cool. What size bottles are you selling?
(She opens a drawer and produces what looks like a 10ml bottle of unmarked e-liquid.)
Her: This is the size of bottle that e-liquid comes in. This sells for $39.95 on it's own but is only $25.00 if you buy one of our starter kits.
(FORTY BUCKS FOR 10 ML OF SOME RANDOM CHINESE JUICE ARE YOU ******* KIDDING ME)
Me: Wow, ah, seriously? That price is for a 10 mil bottle?
Her: I have no idea. They're this size.
Me: Look, I know you're not setting these prices, but you should know that is outrageous.
Her: Uh, yeah, I have no idea. (A trend emerges.)
Me: I encourage you to Google this stuff since you're selling it to people. Just so you know - this (as I pick up the bottle) costs about five dollars. Not forty. That is an insane price. Your company is ripping people off who don't know any better. (She's looking kind of uncomfortable by now so I ease off.) I'm not going to buy this, but thanks for your time.
... And I leave.
I nearly lost my **** when she dropped that price.