tl;dr: BCV puts up with a lot of crap from me as a customer, eats cost of two orders lost by USPS, comes out looking like muddafuggin heroes...
Okay, I feel a long post coming, but this should speak volumes to Drew, Robert, and anyone else on the BCV crew, and why they've captured 100% of my DIY budget to date and probably going forward...
I placed a big order in early December, my first foray into DIY - everything came through right on time, and I had a blast, surprisingly mixing mostly vapeable juices for my wife and I right off the bat.
Even though I'd just bought like 40-something flavors, BCV was sold out of everything but little 15ml nic samples when I ordered - cutting down to 3mg I was still able to stretch these a long way, but ended up running low after a few weeks. Around the end of the year I placed an order for more nic, and a bunch more flavors to get up to the $75 free shipping mark.
While the first order shipped lightning-quick, I had nothing after a week and change on the second. Getting antsy as I mixed up the last of my nic into a base, I checked USPS, which for some reason claimed they'd delivered my order to my secure office building (I don't take packages at home, living in a highly transient beach town where mail gets swiped left and right).
When I e-mailed Drew, he graciously offered to have Robert help me open a dispute with USPS regarding the missing package, which we still hoped would turn up at some point. Because I still needed more nic, I placed a separate order for a big bottle (now back in stock), and waited.
And waited. And waited. More than a week later, the package was still showing as having been scanned into, but not out of, a USPS facility in Greensboro, NC, near the Bull City offices. By this time it was apparent my big flavor order, which also supposedly contained a bottle of nic, wasn't going to materialize.
At this point, Robert helped me recreate the order as close as he could, given fluctuating stock and some of my items now having sold out. I was told I'd have to pay for the order again, and that I'd get a credit back once the USPS dispute was settled. I didn't hit the minimum for free shipping, but he was kind enough to pick up the tab on this box anyway.
New problem: somehow the nic order (now for a 3rd bottle) had gotten left off - I got back in touch to re-order (and in the meantime went and bought a small bottle of nic locally, which served to illustrate just how good the VapersTek nicotine is, as I hadn't mixed with anything else previously). Instead of charging me for the bottle and maybe waiving shipping for the mistake (which is all I'd have thought would be fair to ask), Bull City instead picked up the whole tab, and sent the bottle out UPS.
Fast forward another week and change - the second (third?) flavor shipment arrives, everything sealed and in good shape like before. The UPS nic comes in. And, remarkably, the individual nic bottle I'd ordered and paid for magically shows up in my mailbox, almost a month after it shipped out!
At this point I've been going back and forth with Robert who, since he originally helped me open the claim for the first lost package, has now become the USPS point man and I'm unable to convince USPS to add my contact info to the file after hours of frustrating phone calls to their customer service line (I can only imagine how much time Robert's wasted on this from his end). His claim is denied, and I'm asked to produce a written affidavit that the shipment was never received (the postal creature swears in an internal interview that he handed it to me) for an appeal.
So far as I know this appeal is still going. But nonetheless, Drew reached out a few days ago to say that even though they don't think they're going to win the postal battle (my money would go back to BCV if so, since they insured the package upon shipping), that he's going to issue a store credit equal to the value of the lost package, even if he's not able to recoup the money himself, even though we all agree nothing was done wrong on his end, and even though I offer to pay for the second nic shipment he's not taking my money for it.
So I just placed my third (fourth?) big order with Bull City. I think I'm going to be stocked up on goodies for the foreseeable future, but once I start running low or decide to branch out and try some new flavors (if I keep lurking that damned FA thread it's gonna happen sooner than later!), @Roundhouse and company have firmly established themselves as my #1 go-to for putting up with all this crap when they really shouldn't have had to do so. I can't recommend them enough.
Okay, I feel a long post coming, but this should speak volumes to Drew, Robert, and anyone else on the BCV crew, and why they've captured 100% of my DIY budget to date and probably going forward...
I placed a big order in early December, my first foray into DIY - everything came through right on time, and I had a blast, surprisingly mixing mostly vapeable juices for my wife and I right off the bat.
Even though I'd just bought like 40-something flavors, BCV was sold out of everything but little 15ml nic samples when I ordered - cutting down to 3mg I was still able to stretch these a long way, but ended up running low after a few weeks. Around the end of the year I placed an order for more nic, and a bunch more flavors to get up to the $75 free shipping mark.
While the first order shipped lightning-quick, I had nothing after a week and change on the second. Getting antsy as I mixed up the last of my nic into a base, I checked USPS, which for some reason claimed they'd delivered my order to my secure office building (I don't take packages at home, living in a highly transient beach town where mail gets swiped left and right).
When I e-mailed Drew, he graciously offered to have Robert help me open a dispute with USPS regarding the missing package, which we still hoped would turn up at some point. Because I still needed more nic, I placed a separate order for a big bottle (now back in stock), and waited.
And waited. And waited. More than a week later, the package was still showing as having been scanned into, but not out of, a USPS facility in Greensboro, NC, near the Bull City offices. By this time it was apparent my big flavor order, which also supposedly contained a bottle of nic, wasn't going to materialize.
At this point, Robert helped me recreate the order as close as he could, given fluctuating stock and some of my items now having sold out. I was told I'd have to pay for the order again, and that I'd get a credit back once the USPS dispute was settled. I didn't hit the minimum for free shipping, but he was kind enough to pick up the tab on this box anyway.
New problem: somehow the nic order (now for a 3rd bottle) had gotten left off - I got back in touch to re-order (and in the meantime went and bought a small bottle of nic locally, which served to illustrate just how good the VapersTek nicotine is, as I hadn't mixed with anything else previously). Instead of charging me for the bottle and maybe waiving shipping for the mistake (which is all I'd have thought would be fair to ask), Bull City instead picked up the whole tab, and sent the bottle out UPS.
Fast forward another week and change - the second (third?) flavor shipment arrives, everything sealed and in good shape like before. The UPS nic comes in. And, remarkably, the individual nic bottle I'd ordered and paid for magically shows up in my mailbox, almost a month after it shipped out!
At this point I've been going back and forth with Robert who, since he originally helped me open the claim for the first lost package, has now become the USPS point man and I'm unable to convince USPS to add my contact info to the file after hours of frustrating phone calls to their customer service line (I can only imagine how much time Robert's wasted on this from his end). His claim is denied, and I'm asked to produce a written affidavit that the shipment was never received (the postal creature swears in an internal interview that he handed it to me) for an appeal.
So far as I know this appeal is still going. But nonetheless, Drew reached out a few days ago to say that even though they don't think they're going to win the postal battle (my money would go back to BCV if so, since they insured the package upon shipping), that he's going to issue a store credit equal to the value of the lost package, even if he's not able to recoup the money himself, even though we all agree nothing was done wrong on his end, and even though I offer to pay for the second nic shipment he's not taking my money for it.
So I just placed my third (fourth?) big order with Bull City. I think I'm going to be stocked up on goodies for the foreseeable future, but once I start running low or decide to branch out and try some new flavors (if I keep lurking that damned FA thread it's gonna happen sooner than later!), @Roundhouse and company have firmly established themselves as my #1 go-to for putting up with all this crap when they really shouldn't have had to do so. I can't recommend them enough.
