High Desert Vapes - Other issue : Sovran

[Sovran]

Company name

High Desert Vapes​

Date of your initial complaint to the supplier.

19 May 2013​

How did you contact the supplier

Website ticket system​

Ticket number (if you were issued one)

8713​

General nature of complaint

Other​

Briefly describe your problem or issue

I loved HDV. They have the flavorings that I like and were prompt in filling orders. This last order however was the exception. On May 14 I ordered 4-30 ml bottles of blackberry flavor and 1- 10 ml bottle of blueberry to try out. I dont know if they were out of 30 ml bottles or what, that was never explained to me. I received 3- 30 ml bottles, 3- 10 ml bottles of blackberry and 1 10 ml bottle of blueberry along with an unknown complimentary sample. The problem was that one on the 10 ml bottles of blackberry had not been tightened and I lost 1/2 of the bottle. I contacted them and they refused responsibility. the following is the email messages that have been sent and received. The gap in dates to one of my replies is due to being out of town.

Replies from the supplier in question have been removed as posting the contents of conversations without the other involved party's permission is against the rules. -Staff

May 17
Order Number: 8713
Hi I just received my juice order and could smell juice from the package. after opening I found one of the 10 ml bottles of blackberry about 1/2 empty, The lid wasnt on tight. Luckily I only ordered 2 flavors and it is evident by color which is which. The spilled juice has made the labels unreadable. My questions are, can I get some kinda of credit towards my next purchase for the spilled juice? What flavor is the sample? I cant tell by smell because the bottle now smells like blackberry.

Joe

May 20

Hi John, The order arrived intact so shipping insurance seems like a poor argument. The issue was that the cap was not tightened on one of the bottles, causing it to leak during transit. I am not asking for replacement of the order. A small credit applied to my next purchase was all that I asked for. I had heard on ECF about superior customer service that HDV offers and that is why I began buying from you, This is the only problem I have had with several orders and was hoping to see some of that customer service I have heard about.

May 23

John,


Why should I purchase shipping insurance for a manufacturing defect? YOU mixed and bottled the product. The shipper was not at fault for YOU leaving the cap loose. Evidently YOU were in a hurry. YOU shipped 3-10 ml bottles instead of the 1 additional 30 ml bottle that was ordered. YOU increased the chance of leaking bottles. I do not equate "superior customer service" by giving away store credit. I equate "superior customer service" by righting the mistake that YOU made by simply not tightening all the caps. I dont understand why you insist on being blameless unless you feel the postal farie got into your sealed package and through your taped bubble wrap and sealed ziploc to mischievously loosen the top on 1 bottle.

Once again, I am not asking for free stuff, I am asking for you to right your mistake. Do you want your leaking bottle back? Its kinda pointless with RM shipping. DO you want the pics with date stamps that I took when I opened the package? I would be more than happy to send those to you as proof. It seems I am trying to work with you to correct this but you only have one answer.

May 24

You are not even making sense now. How can a full bottle be sent back when it was half empty when it arrived? Dont you worry about the bottle or the credit. I have tried dealing with you in a professional manner and it seems to have gone no where. What I will do is post this entire message stream in negative reviews forum of ECF.

End copied message stream

Well there you have it. Make your own decisions, but as a vendor of various products in the past, unless the package didnt arrive or the packaging was torn, you cant blame the shipper. This was not my first order with HDV. My first order contained over 20 different flavors when I first got into DIY juice. All previous shipments were intact, yet for some reason John decided that 1 small mistake on his part was not worth repeat business with this customer.
​

 

[Brewtus]

A package does not have be torn to be damaged during shipping, what if that one bottle was squished a little too much? Or the cap for the bottle was crushed and caused it to leak? Or any number of infinite scenarios that are beyond our control after the order ships out.

I think the point here is that we don't know what happened to the package and that is why we offer shipping insurance as it covers both parties in the event of an issue.

I believe this review should be removed, it chalks up to an event that beyond our control and was handled professionally and appropriately based on our established policies and procedures, that were agreed on by the customer at checkout.

 

[Sovran]

I disagree with you Brewtus. It was not an event beyond your control. The cap was loose, while no part of the package was damaged, not even a bubble popped on the bubble wrap. The cap was less than .002" out of round, which was compared to the other caps and new caps from other bottles I have. There were no stress marks on the cap or bottle from rough handling. The threads were intact on both bottle and cap, they had not been slipped or cross threaded. I tested on your bottles and my bottles how tight a cap needed to be without leaking and found they all sealed well before the threads bottom out. I tightened your leaking bottle, placed it on its side then laid a 10 lb weight on it. 24 hours later no leak. I have been trained in failure analysis for cause of failure and resulting damage which is used on a daily basis in my career. The bottom line is you could have prevented this failure by properly tightening the bottle, or prevented negative feedback by owning your mistake. So in both of the above it was well withing your control to prevent.