I'm not foolish enough to think that e-cigs are flat out healthy, but I do think they are probably the lesser of two evils. With e-cigs you inhale water vapor instead of smoke. Compare mentally to sitting in a steam bath or sitting in the smoke path from a campfire. Obviously steam is less nasty.
Yes, either way (analog cigarette or e-cig) one is still introducing chemicals to their bodies, and quitting entirely is the best option of all; but, I do believe e-cigs are likely to be a good path to quitting, or at least a somewhat better option.
If one wanted to use e-cigs to quit, they could buy them in decreasing amounts of nicotine until they got to the point where they were vaping on a nicotine free e-cig in a manner similar to using the patch without having the struggle of breaking the hand/mouth habit that often causes quitting smokers to eat more and gain weight.
If one really had no true desire to quit smoking, but wanted an option with no second hand smoke or smoke smell on themselves, e-cigs are again a reasonable option. I probably fit in this category. I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I do smoke. It's "my vice". But, I hate how it makes my house smell, and I hate that it bothers other people with the smoke and smell.
In August of 2012 I caved, and after reading online reviews of several brands, I decided to buy a Blu disposable and I actually really liked it. The flavor was mostly regular cigarette, with just a hint of something sweet like maybe mocha. It had a sufficient amount of nicotine that I didn't die for a regular cigarette while I was using it. That one disposable lasted me about two days, and I was pleased enough with it to feel it was worth buying the Blu Rechargeable Kit and 4 packs of cartridges.
In September 2012 I did just that, and forked out $108 for it all. I was so excited to get it. I had such high hopes based on how much I loved the disposable one.Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed pretty quickly.
About half the cartridges didn't work properly and crackled and popped and spit droplets of the "juice" into my mouth and then ran out much faster than they were supposed to.
The "pack" wouldn't charge the batteries most of the time (I think it didn't apply enough pressure on the battery to maintain sufficient contact with the charger.) which left me with only the usb charging option.
Worst of all, they didn't taste the same as the disposable. They still had the traditional tobacco flavor, but none of that "hint of sweet" that had caused me to buy Blu over other brands.
I called customer service with my complaints, expecting to be able to exchange my obviously faulty products, and was given what I felt was a brush off. Regarding the bad cartridges, I was sent ONE replacement pack. Mind you, at least half of my 4 packs were no good. Regarding the pack itself not charging the batteries, I was told "don't move it around so much" even though I had been charging and storing it flat on a table. Can't really move around less than that, right? It's not like I had it in my pocket while doing aerobics. As for the flavor difference, I was told it was simply that the cartridges didn't come in as strong a nicotine content as the disposable, but was otherwise the same, and if I didn't like it I should just buy disposables instead. I think not. I seriously doubt nicotine tastes like mocha cappuccino, and I would not be buying a $10 disposable every two days when I normally pay $20 a carton for regular "analog" cigarettes.
I felt awful about the money I spent, especially given that it was a LOT more than I spend on regular cigarettes for a month, so I waded through as many cartridges as I could manage to get to work before giving up and going back to regular cigarettes. I didn't buy any more because I felt the customer service and the product were poor.
Fast forward two years, and in September 2014, I recieved an email from Blucigs offering me special pricing on a pre-purchase of the new Blu Plus+. It claimed to be better than the previous products and to have fixed a lot of the old faults. That got me to thinking about the reasons why I had tried to switch in the first place, and to how much I had liked the disposable one, and I couldn't help but wonder if they really HAD fixed it. I dragged out my old pack that still had 4 unused cartridges (2 regular and 2 java jolt) and charged it up to see how I felt about shelling out more money for a possibly improved product.
I couldn't get the pack to charge the batteries again, and used the usb charger. By now, the batteries had gone completely bad, and wouldn't hold a charge at all. They went from fully charged to dead in two puffs. I had only used them for about a month. I gave up and ignored further emails until...
On October 6th, BluCigs posted an article on their Facebook page about their great customer service. I couldn't resist replying that my experience had been anything but stellar. Surprisingly, I was replied to very quickly by the author of the actual article, Jonathan. He apologized for the service I had received, and offered to make it up to me and asked me to message him.
In Private message, he offered me a Premium 100 kit and 5 packs of cartridges in any flavor I wanted AND that I would be sent the Blu Plus+ upon it's release to try to win me back as a customer. I offered to return the Kit I had and the few remaining cartridges but he said that wasn't necessary. The next day Blu Cigs called me to verify my age and address and said my Premium 100 Kit would ship in 1-2 days and I would get an email with confirmation and tracking.
I never got that email, but my package came on October 14th.
I knew as soon as I saw the package in my mailbox that something was wrong. The package was flat. It was supposed to have a kit in it similar to my original one. That certainly wouldn't fit in a flat package. I took pictures of the package and what I found when I opened it. I was right. The 5 packs of cartridges were there, but no kit. Just a lone battery in a saran baggie. This is not helpful. How am I supposed to charge it? I certainly can't use this.
Back to customer support I went. This time I used their CS chat on their website and told them what had happened with my delivery. I offered to return it or to provide the photos I had taken. The rep could not fix the issue because the shipping order and packing slip both said the kit was in there. He told me a supervisor would call me back.
It turned out the person that called me back at 5pm was the one that had verified my address, and he didn't seem quite as friendly this time. I explained what had happened, and that the packing slip said the kit was in there but that only a battery was in there instead. I offered to return the entire package. I offered to message or email the pictures if he wanted immediate evidence. He told me that he had considered having me send the pictures, but that he "supposed he wouldn't after all". That's about as close to saying you think I am a liar trying to scam a bunch of free stuff as possible, without actually saying it. Gee, thanks, guy. I'm not the one who started this whole thing trying to win back a customer, Blu was.
He ended up telling me they would ship the kit in 1-2 days, and that I would get a confirmation email. I, again, never got that email, but I did get the tracking number after I requested it from a customer service person on Oct. 19. The package arrived on October 20th. This time the kit was in it.This series of problems with Blu caused me to decide to begin a search for a different e-cig company while I waited to see if they "fixed" the problem enough to win me back as a customer, or if I would be going elsewhere permanently.
That journey, and the conclusion to this one, will be found in later posts. Hope you'll join me!!
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