Hello all 
We would like to again revisit our original mission statement that was scribbled on a piece of paper and still sits on my desk daily. The other night a loyal customer brought to my attention a thread here : Kickbass Vapor Peppermint IC, Hummingbird, etc... we ask that you please not respond or feed into the negativity, as attention, good and sometimes even bad, as evidenced by this post causes overwhelming ordering, we also never wanted to be involved in any type of "fanclub"
I no longer look at any other threads on here A) due to time and B) I've found while ECF has some of the most genuine and caring individuals (<99%), there are times when a few bad apples either being pushed by competition or jealously have a tendency to just want to be hurtful (>1%) and I don't feel I have ever done anything to warrant that. In fact I've helped other vendors get started in this market and always felt there was "room for everyone"
I've stated many times that KBV was not out to get rich quick, maximize profits, nor have customers order only to wait weeks in the event we may be backed up. We realize KBV took a unique approach and frankly thought, and believe that, many find it refreshing in this environment. We made a promise to you all that we would not hire outside mixers that would not take the same pride and care in our product that we do, one that every day for going on a year we can say we've kept.
We can also say that NO ONE under any circumstances has done without if they have contacted us. KBV has also done much "behind the scenes" to continue to pay it forward and will continue to do so. Starting next week we will offer a "lot" of bottles that were either mixed in advance of payment in good faith and not paid for or they were mixed to the wrong specs and caught during final check and packaging, the proceeds from that will go to a woman's shelter/recovery home to which I'll outline in another thread and hope to do that weekly or bi-weekly with the option on paying through the site or other means.
KBV started supplying for a group of people that requested we do so as they believed we could offer a better product than they could buy anywhere and ended up growing rapidly. We went from a simple ordering thread and processing 1/2 dozen orders a day using paypal to bringing a site that offered the option to use credit cards for those that preferred it for their convenience, that brought about many challenges, the the 1st of which is that it's becoming near impossible to get anyone to process e-cigs using credit cards, in addition to the extra fees they charge due to the "high risk" label on e-cigs also requires substantial amounts of money to back those accounts in escrow holdings. The next of which was a huge influx of new customers. With merchant accounts also come security issues which was the reason for the upgrade, to stay current with cart software security. We also had to reach out to our merchant account yet again and make another substantial financial commitment to continue to process more volume, thus the recent down time.
Now you may ask how other vendors seemingly don't have those issues? Well Authorize.net was the leader in e-cig CC processing, about the time we applied through them I was told "Authorize.net is discontinuing processing e-cigs and will gradually be closing existing accounts." Their TOS now states that they indeed do not and IDK if some are "grandfathered" in or not, I cannot answer that question. There are also new vendors that have prior pressing history in other ventures which is allowing them to find processing.
We don't complain and we feel blessed beyond our expectations both in terms of the relationships we've made here with people and with the amount of business we do, along with the fact that in this economy we are managing to make enough to provide for our family while many are jobless. Our goal as stated over and over was never about becoming the biggest, most popular e-liquid vendor, nor was it about making a very comfortable living in a few short years, which obviously the possibility exists. Our goal was to provide the best possible product at the best possible price while being a customer friendly vendor. In that regard, and in our our overall goal we feel extremely successful. Only in the rare case of an oversight has a quick reply not been given when contact attempt was made, and again we have always found a way to squeeze in an order or even send without payment an order to someone in need.
I guess from the other side there may exist a perception that this is some sort of hobby or something we do at our leisure, nothing could be further from the truth. I spent years coaching my both son's Basketball teams and being involved in other sports/hobbies with them, all of which had to be sacrificed to get to the point we are now. When the store is closed we are usually working extra hours on top of what we already consider to be extreme. The 1st 7 months consisted of mostly 7 day 70 or more hour weeks, through streamlining we reached a point where maybe we we able to take a day a week off in month 8, and in month 9 we had managed to not work weekends by working 3 nights a week mixing.
The last thing I want is this post to come across as complaining or ungrateful, I've stated how grateful we feel we are to be in this position, it is more intended to shred some light on our side of things, what we deal with on a daily basis and the fact that sometimes a simple PM or email to orders@kickbassvapor.com can allow you to place an order while the store is down. WE feel we owe it to our customers to keep the promise we made and to us that comes 1st, as I feel a person is only as good as their word and to this point we can say we've kept our word which means more to us than fancy cars and big houses.
This post again was not intended for anything other than to restate our mission statement and shred some light on the position we are in, if you feel the need to support it you are welcome to "like" it as I have my "likes" disabled so they don't interfere or lead me to believe I have PMs when I don't but as far as discussion we've stated our position for the last time here, and that is we will do our best to provide for everyone we can and work as much as we possibly can in an attempt to do just that.
Thank you all,
Sincerely
KBV
We would like to again revisit our original mission statement that was scribbled on a piece of paper and still sits on my desk daily. The other night a loyal customer brought to my attention a thread here : Kickbass Vapor Peppermint IC, Hummingbird, etc... we ask that you please not respond or feed into the negativity, as attention, good and sometimes even bad, as evidenced by this post causes overwhelming ordering, we also never wanted to be involved in any type of "fanclub"
I no longer look at any other threads on here A) due to time and B) I've found while ECF has some of the most genuine and caring individuals (<99%), there are times when a few bad apples either being pushed by competition or jealously have a tendency to just want to be hurtful (>1%) and I don't feel I have ever done anything to warrant that. In fact I've helped other vendors get started in this market and always felt there was "room for everyone"
I've stated many times that KBV was not out to get rich quick, maximize profits, nor have customers order only to wait weeks in the event we may be backed up. We realize KBV took a unique approach and frankly thought, and believe that, many find it refreshing in this environment. We made a promise to you all that we would not hire outside mixers that would not take the same pride and care in our product that we do, one that every day for going on a year we can say we've kept.
We can also say that NO ONE under any circumstances has done without if they have contacted us. KBV has also done much "behind the scenes" to continue to pay it forward and will continue to do so. Starting next week we will offer a "lot" of bottles that were either mixed in advance of payment in good faith and not paid for or they were mixed to the wrong specs and caught during final check and packaging, the proceeds from that will go to a woman's shelter/recovery home to which I'll outline in another thread and hope to do that weekly or bi-weekly with the option on paying through the site or other means.
KBV started supplying for a group of people that requested we do so as they believed we could offer a better product than they could buy anywhere and ended up growing rapidly. We went from a simple ordering thread and processing 1/2 dozen orders a day using paypal to bringing a site that offered the option to use credit cards for those that preferred it for their convenience, that brought about many challenges, the the 1st of which is that it's becoming near impossible to get anyone to process e-cigs using credit cards, in addition to the extra fees they charge due to the "high risk" label on e-cigs also requires substantial amounts of money to back those accounts in escrow holdings. The next of which was a huge influx of new customers. With merchant accounts also come security issues which was the reason for the upgrade, to stay current with cart software security. We also had to reach out to our merchant account yet again and make another substantial financial commitment to continue to process more volume, thus the recent down time.
Now you may ask how other vendors seemingly don't have those issues? Well Authorize.net was the leader in e-cig CC processing, about the time we applied through them I was told "Authorize.net is discontinuing processing e-cigs and will gradually be closing existing accounts." Their TOS now states that they indeed do not and IDK if some are "grandfathered" in or not, I cannot answer that question. There are also new vendors that have prior pressing history in other ventures which is allowing them to find processing.
We don't complain and we feel blessed beyond our expectations both in terms of the relationships we've made here with people and with the amount of business we do, along with the fact that in this economy we are managing to make enough to provide for our family while many are jobless
. Our goal as stated over and over was never about becoming the biggest, most popular e-liquid vendor, nor was it about making a very comfortable living in a few short years, which obviously the possibility exists. Our goal was to provide the best possible product at the best possible price while being a customer friendly vendor. In that regard, and in our our overall goal we feel extremely successful. Only in the rare case of an oversight has a quick reply not been given when contact attempt was made, and again we have always found a way to squeeze in an order or even send without payment an order to someone in need.I guess from the other side there may exist a perception that this is some sort of hobby or something we do at our leisure, nothing could be further from the truth. I spent years coaching my both son's Basketball teams and being involved in other sports/hobbies with them, all of which had to be sacrificed to get to the point we are now. When the store is closed we are usually working extra hours on top of what we already consider to be extreme. The 1st 7 months consisted of mostly 7 day 70 or more hour weeks, through streamlining we reached a point where maybe we we able to take a day a week off in month 8, and in month 9 we had managed to not work weekends by working 3 nights a week mixing.
The last thing I want is this post to come across as complaining or ungrateful, I've stated how grateful we feel we are to be in this position, it is more intended to shred some light on our side of things, what we deal with on a daily basis and the fact that sometimes a simple PM or email to orders@kickbassvapor.com can allow you to place an order while the store is down. WE feel we owe it to our customers to keep the promise we made and to us that comes 1st, as I feel a person is only as good as their word and to this point we can say we've kept our word which means more to us than fancy cars and big houses.
This post again was not intended for anything other than to restate our mission statement and shred some light on the position we are in, if you feel the need to support it you are welcome to "like" it as I have my "likes" disabled so they don't interfere or lead me to believe I have PMs when I don't but as far as discussion we've stated our position for the last time here, and that is we will do our best to provide for everyone we can and work as much as we possibly can in an attempt to do just that.
Thank you all,
Sincerely
KBV
I "liked" Bonnie 
