Totally Disgusted With V4L

[juliery]

For about the last 9 months we have been buying tons of stuff from V4L even ordering hundreds of dollars of batteries and liquid at a time (when we were concerned about a possible ban in IL last March/April). So last summer I had gotten a PT from them as a freebie with a huge order, used it for about 4 weeks and it died. Had another one from somewhere else that died in like 3 weeks. So in November I ordered two PTs from V4L and I had written asking how long they should last, and explained what had happened with the others. So they told me, no worries, they have a 60 day warranty on hardware and even with heavy vaping (which I am a heavy user)one should last at least 3-4 months. Okay, fine....so the first PT dies in a week, so I contact them and a replacement with return envelope for the broken one is here the very next day. SO I am like, AWESOME. So in the meantime I had used the second PT I had gotten from them and continued to use it, and it was also dead in a week. So I called them, and say that I hadn't even had a chance to mail the first defective one back and now I have TWO defective PTs. So okay, I am going to put both broken ones in the return envelope, and I mailed it back that day. V4L is only about an hour away from where we live. So I sent it with tracking and delivery confirmation. So they were like NO PROBLEM at all....they had already packed two new PTs and they were being mailed that day, on a Monday. Well they got my package back in one day...Tuesday. So four days pass and I still don't have my replacement PTs.....so I email them because I am thinking possibly they got damaged in transit, or some other thing, or maybe something happened and they didn't go out when they had originally said. But normally I have things next day from them, two days at most. So they write back and say, yup, they were mailed that past Monday and I should have them any day. So FINALLY after EIGHT days I get them......and RIGHT away I knew they lied. First off, having bought several from them, I KNOW what they look like newly packaged, in a little clear bag, with cord to the side, neatly coiled with a tiny twist tie. So the one PT is in a totally crumbled up bag, with the cord just jammed into the bag. The other PT is in another crumbled bag and the cord is all wound around the PT EXACTLY how I HAD packaged mine when I sent them back. THEN the real kicker was that on the one PT, I had gotten a bit of hard setting epoxy glue on it, and in the process of trying to get it off gotten my fingerprint on it. So sure enough the one PT has my epoxy print still on it! Funny for a brand new replacement product that was mailed before they ever had that epoxy printed one in their possession. Hmmmm, gee, real mystery!

So I KNOW they somehow "fixed" the PTs.....EXCEPT they weren't fixed, they were both dead in two days. Don't get me wrong, IF they had said, hey send them back we can repair them, NO PROBLEM, I would have done it. It infuriates me to NO END that they said repeatedly that they had REPLACED the PTs and sent them out on this particular Monday and it took them EIGHT DAYS to travel 35 miles.....when they got back my PTs overnight, in less than 24 hours!! They did NOT replace the PTs as they said......they waited to get my broken ones back and then did whatever they did to get them working again....except it didn't work...they were dead even quicker than they had died in the first place. I just DO NOT understand why they would lie, and the way the stuff was packaged NO ONE would think it was new merchandise. The bags looked like they had been pulled out of a trash can. I cannot stand lying and particularly not when I am PAYING for something. Well, I can't stand lying period, but anyway.

I am done with them. We spent A LOT with them and I will NOT give them another penny. We had other issues, but never complained...mainly with them switching e liquid. I don't know what they did or whatever, but they had it all on the website exactly the same, but suddenly they changed some of the liquids....came in entirely different bottles, entirely different labels, but didn't taste the same. But whatever, it wasn't hideous, just not as good as it had been. I have heard from other people that this is a common complaint with them....they change the liquids but represent it as if it hasn't changed and then you suddenly have something different that you don't like. Anyway, I have told several people about this and none of them were surprised but several said I should share this experience. I am curious if anyone else has had similar problems with them. Anyway, I will not be buying anything from them again.

[Prouddad]

For about the last 9 months we have been buying tons of stuff from V4L even ordering hundreds of dollars of batteries and liquid at a time (when we were concerned about a possible ban in IL last March/April). So last summer I had gotten a PT from them as a freebie with a huge order, used it for about 4 weeks and it died. Had another one from somewhere else that died in like 3 weeks. So in November I ordered two PTs from V4L and I had written asking how long they should last, and explained what had happened with the others. So they told me, no worries, they have a 60 day warranty on hardware and even with heavy vaping (which I am a heavy user)one should last at least 3-4 months. Kay, fine....so the first PT dies in a week, so I contact them and a replacement with return envelope for the broken one is here the very next day. SO I am like, AWESOME. So in the meantime I had used the second PT I had gotten from them and continued to use it, and it was also dead in a week. So I called them, and say that I hadn't even had a chance to mail the first defective one back and now I have TWO defective PTs. So Kay, I am going to put both broken ones in the return envelope, and I mailed it back that day. V4L is only about an hour away from where we live. So I sent it with tracking and delivery confirmation. So they were like NO PROBLEM at all....they had already packed two new PTs and they were being mailed that day, on a Monday. Well they got my package back in one day...Tuesday. So four days pass and I still don't have my replacement PTs.....so I email them because I am thinking possibly they got damaged in transit, or some other thing, or maybe something happened and they didn't go out when they had originally said. But normally I have things next day from them, two days at most. So they write back and say, yup, they were mailed that past Monday and I should have them any day. So FINALLY after EIGHT days I get them......and RIGHT away I knew they lied. First off, having bought several from them, I KNOW what they look like newly packaged, in a little clear bag, with cord to the side, neatly coiled with a tiny twist tie. So the one PT is in a totally crumbled up bag, with the cord just jammed into the bag. The other PT is in another crumbled bag and the cord is all wound around the PT EXACTLY how I HAD packaged mine when I sent them back. THEN the real kicker was that on the one PT, I had gotten a bit of hard setting epoxy glue on it, and in the process of trying to get it off gotten my fingerprint on it. So sure enough the one PT has my epoxy print still on it! Funny for a brand new replacement product that was mailed before they ever had that epoxy printed one in their possession. Hmmmm, gee, real mystery!

So I KNOW they somehow "fixed" the PTs.....EXCEPT they weren't fixed, they were both dead in two days. Don't get me wrong, IF they had said, hey send them back we can repair them, NO PROBLEM, I would have done it. It infuriates me to NO END that they said repeatedly that they had REPLACED the PTs and sent them out on this particular Monday and it took them EIGHT DAYS to travel 35 miles.....when they got back my PTs overnight, in less than 24 hours!! They did NOT replace the PTs as they said......they waited to get my broken ones back and then did whatever they did to get them working again....except it didn't work...they were dead even quicker than they had died in the first place. I just DO NOT understand why they would lie, and the way the stuff was packaged NO ONE would think it was new merchandise. The bags looked like they had been pulled out of a trash can. I cannot stand lying and particularly not when I am PAYING for something. Well, I can't stand lying period, but anyway.

I am done with them. We spent A LOT with them and I will NOT give them another penny. We had other issues, but never complained...mainly with them switching e liquid. I don't know what they did or whatever, but they had it all on the website exactly the same, but suddenly they changed some of the liquids....came in entirely different bottles, entirely different labels, but didn't taste the same. But whatever, it wasn't hideous, just not as good as it had been. I have heard from other people that this is a common complaint with them....they change the liquids but represent it as if it hasn't changed and then you suddenly have something different that you don't like. Anyway, I have told several people about this and none of them were surprised but several said I should share this experience. I am curious if anyone else has had similar problems with them. Anyway, I will not be buying anything from them again.

I am very sorry to here you had trouble with v4l. I order from them and never had a problem but that doesn't mean I wont. It's good to here what happen to you so other people can keep a eye on them. But for the PT four have broken on me also 2 from V4L and 2 from Madvapes they where all 510 in a matter of 7 weeks. If there is someone out there that loves a certain PT I would love to here from them. What a shady move on there part and agree with you on not ordering from V4L anymore after spending all that money. Good luck with everything and hope your future orders from others are better.

Edited January 22, 2011 by jeffb

[juliery]

It just irked me because of the lying. I never had any issue with them before that HOWEVER, I know they have grown tremendously in the past year, so who knows, sometimes that is bad if someone is unprepared for it. The old, you can't be great in every area. BUT that does not excuse flat out lying. We ordered EVERYTHING from them with the except of one juice. But EVERY month we spent at least $200 with them between the two of us. It REALLY made me mad. I am currently on week three of a manual PT from cigeasy. I will be sure to let you know when it dies. So far it is better than the ones from V4L. ALSO it was cheaper....for 19.95 you get the PT PLUS a 5 pack of cartos, any flavor you want, and nic level. SO really not a bad price given that V4L unless they have a 25%+ is more. I had it from CA in two days from time of order. So fast shipping. So we shall see how long this one lasts. The thing is that if you aren't going to REPLACE something, DO NOT say you will and then DON"T SAY you did. Before they arrived when it was taking so long I told my husband, how much you wanna bet they are trying to fix the broken ones and they are sending them back. I mean there was no real reason that it would take that long UNLESS the package had been damaged during transit, which it was not. It was perfectly fine and intact in every way. The moment I saw them I knew my suspicions were correct and the fingerprint pretty much clinched that. How many purple auto PTs you think are out there with an epoxy fingerprint???? You really couldn't see it unless you knew it was there, and I didn't want to risk totally scratching it up and having it look like crap by trying to remove it (not that anyone sees it besides us, but still) so I bet they had NO clue it was there. It was sort of an identifying mark. The blatant lying is what really upset me. We had screwed up orders where they sent wrong juice, or left out items we ordered and I would call them and never had ANY PROBLEM with them immediately rectifying the issue. So prior to this we always thought their customer service was excellent and in fact, because my husband is a professional musician and plays in clubs all the time we have piles of their business cards because invariably smokers in clubs were always asking him about his ecig because he used it openly. Or when I was at the show, I too used mine. A couple people we met that we then saw at subsequent shows would then have theirs, so we got them quite a bit of business.

I too would LOVE to hear from ANYONE who has a PT that has lasted like even 3 mos...I could live with that life span. But a couple weeks or even less is ridiculous. I am not willing to pay $20 a week for any PT, although I do LOVE it. But come on, THAT alone is half the cost of what I was paying for a carton of smokes in IN. (we are in IL but only 15ish miles from the IN border where the taxes aren't so insane).

[Burn]

What did they say when you asked them about the 2 "replacements"?

[juliery]

I was so infuriated I didn't contact them at all. They both re-died within a day each of use. I KNOW what they did, and during those eight days when I wrote them to check on what the hell was taking so long they still stuck to that they had been mailed on that monday and "should arrive any day".....on top of it, when they wrote that they couldn't even have been mailed yet AT THAT TIME because it was 4 more days before I got them. It does not take any 4 days for ANYTHING to travel 35 miles, even if it had been mailed first class....they were mailed priority, which is two day delivery from most anywhere in the 48 contiguous states. They flat out lied to me, I know it, and I figure if they lied repeatedly before I even got them back, they would just continue to do so I and frankly I was afraid of making an *** out of myself with what I would have said. So I figure the best way to "punish" them is to take my business elsewhere, which we already have. We ordered like $75 in numerous small bottles of juice to find stuff to replace what we had been buying with them. I ordered another e cig kit (bigger batts) from someone else, and have 2 mods ordered. So they can kiss that nearly $500 goodbye that THEY could have had. I am STILL so infuriated I could spit fire....if I could spit fire, LOL. My husband and I were kind of calculating things and he thinks it is more in the 2 grand range we had spent with them. Well they won't see anymore....there are enough other places to go with suppliers who don't lie. AND AGAIN, I would have had NO problem if they had wanted to at least try to repair them....IF they can be successfully repaired I have NO problem whatsoever with that. However, if that is possible, they didn't do a good job of it, that is pretty obvious. It isn't like we are new users doing anything we shouldn't do to them. I know how to use a PT, I don't keep any kind of liquids, drinks, etc in the area of my laptop...I use it on a lapdesk that gets jostled around so never do I have any drinks or anything on here while using my PT. UGH the whole thing irritates me.

Plus I have my PT from cig easy which has had NO problems and I am going to order another from them. They are a better price anyway, and 3 weeks almost, no problems....that's better than ANY of the PTs I ever had from V4L.