Problems With Orders From Ft

So I've seen some of the posts about Fasttech being overwhelmingly slow. Placed 2 seperate orders from 3F and was shocked to see that they both arrived at LAX and cleared customs in 2 days. Problem is that now they are stuck in Compton, CA and have not moved . One package there for five days and the other for only a day.

17Track shows last three events as "Received ", "Encoded" and finally "DN Send". USPS tracking shows "Label created awaiting package".

Anybody know what this means and when I should expect some movement again and the hand off to USPS.

Kind of frustrating knowing my goodies are an 8 hour drive away and just sitting in a pile somewhere lol! VAPETEASE!  

I've placed a couple orders with Fasttech over the last couple weeks. I just found 2 fraudulent charges on my credit card from "Elite Souvenir." All I can find on them is they're an Indonesian shop, which I've obviously never even heard of. So all I can really trace it to is my fasttech purchases.

I know tons of people order there with no issues, but if I don't get an assuring answer from the Chase fraud crew, I might have to just assume that's where this problem derived from. Scary! Now I should be sleeping for work in 5 hours, but I need a drink!  

I've had it with Fasttech.
I order $13 complete with shipping and 2 days latter they claim a shipping upgrade changed it to $16 because they made a mistake plus some items not in stock.
So I cancel the order, receive store credit and order again. Then 2 days later one item not is stock is holding up the order again while every other item is ready to ship.
So I cancel the $1.55 not in stock item and a few days later the order is $16 again and another item is out of stock. This is over a month just trying to get the order straight and waiting for replies.
I told them to keep the $1.55 they didn't give me credit for and ship it whatever way they want.
No more!  

I just received my first order from the US. They only ship via USPS so I had no choice of carrier. I ordered the Big Dripper V2 from Grand Vapor Station. It cost $65 and shipping was $35. USPS ships here and passed over to Phlippine Post which passes thru the greedy customs guys here. They opened the package and they insisted that it was some kind of turbo add on for a race car and taxed me 6000 pesos, that is about $136. More than what I paid for my atty and shipping combined. That is 15% of what they think the value of the item is. I really tried to argue and explain to them what it was but they wouldn't even believe what wsa printed in the Invoice. They lay their argument on the banner that says "Don't Drip and Drive" on the box and from there concluded that it was some kind of exotic and expensive car part. After customs I was charged VAT, Value Added Tax, of 4000 pesos, that's about $90. My atty ended up costing me around $300. The funny thing is based on their computation the atty is worth more than $1000.  

Just last Saturday I placed an order on Health Cabin and was able to pay via PayPal. However, last night I placed another order for items that were out of stock on Saturday. I placed my order, received the email confirmation, and info. that my order was pending payment, which has been usual since probably January. (There had always been instructions given then...about how to sort of "get around" PayPal's vape policy and still pay that way). I went back to HC to pull up my order and pay for it that same way, but found only Western Union as a payment option now. So, I contacted Support at HC. I just got the following email from them about paying for my order.

"Thank you for you big supports to HealthCabin.
Unfortunately, out of PayPal new policy to vaping related websites, we have to remove PayPal from our site now. You can see many vaping sites have removed PayPal about 1-3 months ago.

Now, we are sourcing new payment options and we will put them online in coming 2-3 weeks.

Right now, there are 2 options to process the payment:
1. Pay with Western Union, you can pay online or visit WU banks locally.
Check their website for more info: https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/home.html

2. Pay with deposit. For this option, you may send us money via bank wire transfer. We require minimum $200USD per transaction. Once payment received, we will add them to your account deposit, and you can use them to pay for future orders. We will show all detailed info about your deposit updates and happy to send you a receipt with our company official seal.

Let me know your thoughts, thank you."

I responded and definitely let him/her know my thoughts about it.

So, our options are steadily dwindling even more.  

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section, they do not seem to have an active ECF thread anymore. Please move if necessary.

This thread is not to smear them, but to ask if any current customers know what's going on with them.

I know they are still in business because they have a 2019 holiday sale posted on their home page.

Problem is, I placed an order on 12/2 (Cyber Monday) and my order is still in "pending" status.

I contacted them via contact form 2 days ago and no response yet.

Are they usually this slow and unresponsive? Or did they suffer a tragedy/loss?

I ordered from several vendors that day (US and China) & all have shipped within 48 hours. All the US orders have been long since delivered by now. In fact, I am fixing on getting an order from china delivered sometime this week as it has already been released by US customs. lol

I have never experienced such a long wait for shipping from any US vape vendor so I'm a little concerned. I don't like my money being tied up with vendors who say they have X in stock, but don't. Not saying this is the case with RockyMountainVapor, but I don't really know.

I see they are no longer an ECF supplier, so that is a bit disconcerting. I'm certain they used to be at one point.  

Thanks to @440BB for starting the first thread, but it got out of hand and was closed.

But this is an important topic and I believe we should have an active thread about it as it is still currently underway. And as events unfold (and possibly change) we should be discussing it.

Lets try this again without so much emotion and political beliefs such that it changes the thread's topic and deters other from participation. And maybe "reptilian shape shifters" might be better-off discussed on some other forum or in the "Outside" section of ECF.

And remember, this is a shipping ban, nothing to do with the FDA deeming regulations - there's a thread for that.

Effective dates for the following major carriers...

FedEx - March 1, 2021
DHL - March 1, 2021 (unclear)
UPS - April 5, 2021
USPS - after March 22, on the date the final rule is published, no later than April 26, 2021. There seems to be some major conflict among what various sources believe as to when this effective date will occur. However, it is for sure, as @440BB stated in the original thread, after March 22 and no later than April 26.

Note that all carriers accept USPS are not actually disallowed by law from transporting vape supplies, they volunteered not to, most likely for a combination of reasons - requirements are strict and probably not profitable (but politics most likely plays a role, too).

Here is a link to the legislation that was passed that made this shipping ban possible.
Text - S.1253 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act
Notice that all vape is being banned for shipment by USPS as it states "any other substance", not just nicotine vape.

All online retailers that have sent notice about this seem to be saying they will refuse to take new orders after March 22. The dates each retailer has set range from March 23 to March 27 from what I have seen, so time is running out fast to order supplies online.

There is talk by some of the larger retailers that they have secured a new carrier that will be focusing on major urban areas. It remains to be seen if it will fly and if it will be a viable solution.

After this, barring some other major nail in the coffin, where B&M stores cannot get inventory, the only way to get anything will be in a local B&M storefront, where selection will be limited and priced high, and it will be rare to find nic base stocked for DIY.

As @440BB said in the original thread... "Time is near to get creative or be fully stocked up!".

But we are getting too close now that you don't have much, if any, time to make an informed decision on what hardware to buy and stocks are running out. As far as atomizers go, rebuildable atomizers WILL be your salvation as we enter into the vapocalypse.

But if you have enough gear and/or if money is tight, you should focus on nicotine base so you can DIY your own juice, unless you prefer store bought juice and are willing to vape whatever your local vape shop has in stock at any given moment. A list of nicotine base and glass bottle suppliers can be found here...
List of US Retailers Still Shipping 100mg Nicotine Base | E-Cigarette Forum

Please keep in mind that person to person (consumer to consumer aka C2C) shipments are still allowed but the current postal regulations severely restrict it. A summary of the C2C tobacco products postal regulations (well actually, only cigarettes and smokeless tobacco) (as I understand them) are as follows, but this could possibly change.

- Total package weight must be no more than 10 oz.

- Must be shipped using face-to-face service. In other words, must present package to postal worker at USPS counter. No pickups allowed. Proof of age and identity of sender must be verified with govt issued photo ID.

- Must be sent with "Express Mail" (I take this to mean Priority Express? - expensive, minimum $25 but more if Adult 21+ Signature service is required to be purchased - not clear on that. You will be paying retail rates since you have to buy this postage at the post office, so it might even be closer to $30+ all tolled just to ship one small package).

- Shipping label must bear real, full names of both shipper and recipient.

- Outside of package must be labeled with wording "PERMITTED TOBACCO MAILING – DELIVER ONLY TO AGE-VERIFIED ADULT OF LEGAL AGE"

- USPS will not deliver package to recipient. Package will be held at local post office for pickup and successful pickup will require proof of age and identity of recipient, verified with govt issued photo ID. Recipient must sign PS Form 3849.

- One person cannot mail more than 10 such shipments a 30-day period (meaning, you will likely be put in a database in order to track your identity and how many C2C tobacco product shipments you made in the last 30-days, which is why you have to ship it via a trip to the post office).

DMM Revision: Treatment of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco as Nonmailable Matter​
 

Usually when I need help with something vape-related -- perhaps trying to locate an out of production part, or even an issue with a vendor about a product I purchased I've not had much success dealing directly with vendors and I ultimately turn to the forum for help. I've even had some very nice members send me parts.

Most vendors will request a video --it seems that is their new thing -like they all got together with each other and said, "Let's make them send a video and hopefully they will go away" and I find it absolutely ridiculous. Geekvape, whose products I really like comes to mind.

Anyhow I made a few orders from Sourcemore recently and I have been happy with the service and orders. I've ordered a few mods and miscellaneous parts. They even included small related to my order freebies with my order which I thought was a nice touch.

On one of the orders I ordered a different panel for my Jackaroo mod. There was a sale and I ordered the G10 Green Anaconda panel -- a really nice one. I ended up receiving an American Eagle panel.

Nice panel but not what I ordered. I'm reasonable and I like it and will keep it so I was just going to go and order the Green Anaconda again and leave a note to make sure they ship the correct one. Well - they were out of stock (hence, why they probably sent a different one) and the price is more than double of what I originally paid so I wrote to them and attached a copy of the order.

They responded promptly and asked me to send a pic. I sent a few pics of the box showing American eagle and the panel. Received a nice note apologizing and they let me know they would send me the correct one. I was willing to pay for it because I am keeping the other one and I told them so. I would have been satisfied if they would have just honored the sale price from the original order.

This morning I received a brief email note again apologizing and they sent me a tracking number. Great service and I have already placed another good-sized order with them.

I am a fairly regular "orderer" and all I ask is that vendors make it right if there is an issue. And when I find a vendor that does just that I am loyal to them.  

Every once in a while you come across a company that you know is in it for the long haul, a company that goes above and beyond in everything they do.

I made two orders over the past week and have been completely thrilled at how they handed it. Keep reading...

Occationally I get creative on the "special instructions" section of the order forms. This time, I was blown away with how they responded.





TACO WIZARDS TOO!!!


Here is some of what I really ordered...all packed incredibly well, and i mean incredibly well. I have done online sales for many many years, even I was impressed with how much effort and care was taken in packaging. Nicotine was wrapped in 3 separate bags, then encased in bubble wrap.





 

Something is up with USPS lately. Ive never had any problem with them until lately. Right now I have a few packages stuck in transit and way past there delivery date. Just thought I would let everyone know.

If this is not the right place for this just move it but I think this needs to be front and center cause vape mail is important.