My e-Cigarette Experiences…

Posts Tagged ‘shipping’

I just received an email from Blu President, Jason Healy, addressed to their affiliate network, advising that orders for Blu products will not be taken between the 7th of July and the 21st of July.  It is their hope that slowing down the incoming orders from their rapidly expanding affiliate network will ease some of the pressures around supplying their customers, and get things back on track for their shipping department.  So I will be taking down the banners on my sites for now, and putting them back online on the 21st to support this action, and stand by for word that my order has been shipped.  As I’ve said before, I do have some faith in this little company and now see that they are taking a solid action which will most certainly lower their incoming orders, meaning lower revenue.  This is, to me anyway, a VERY interesting move as it proves that they are seriously making efforts to fulfill the orders, and they ARE aware of what I’ve been saying all along…  even the best products will fail if you can’t ship the product.  If you too are waiting, this is a positive move and one that I hope will have the desired impact and get them all caught up.

More to come I’m sure… and Bravo Jason!

njw

PS:  I just hit the website to check my order status and I’m SHOCKED!  They’ve stopped taking orders COMPLETELY until the 21st so that they will be able to catch up!  You can read the message from Jason on the Blu Site.

It seems that the backlog situation is one that might haunt Blu for a while.  With the combination of their unique product, excellent reviews so far, and widespread marketing/affiliate campaign, they have reached a point where they are delivering over a thousand orders a day, while receiving closer to TWO thousand orders daily.  I’m told that they are working on things in shipping to be able to meet the much higher than anticipated demand, and certainly hope that they are able to do so quickly.  When I contacted customer support yesterday to check on things, it took a full hour to get a CSR on the online chat, so I know they are busy down there.  And from the chatter online about them, there are quite a large number of people that are hoping, like me, to receive their product in time.  So…  When I receive my starter kit, and if I’m completely thrilled with the format, flavour, experience overall and so forth, I’ll be making sure that I order to have a full month supply (or more) on-hand at all times to ensure that any delays are not going to be a factor in my enjoyment.  And, if you’re thinking about placing an order and also live here in Canada, I’d recommend that you consider the same planning.  When you place your order for your starter pack, be sure to include at least an extra 25 cartridges in your order.  The start pack ships with 25, but I ordered 50 to ensure that I have a good starting supply.  Once I know that Blu is the right product for me, I’ll be ordering to keep 50 or more cartridges on-hand, and at least two spare atomizers and two spare batteries.  Again, the starter pack come with 1 spare of each, so I’ll be likely to order 1 of each to ensure that I am fully covered.

I feel that this new company will quickly have to learn how to meet the shipping demands, and hope that the owners are near resolving this matter already.  From the sounds of things, they’ll have the volume to support a better delivery system, and will need to spend some money to ensure that they will continue to make money at all.  After all, smokers are a hard lot to please, and if we run out of our e-cigs and have to go elsewhere, we’re not that likely to come back.  But I have faith… they seem to be smart in their product offering, their pricing and their marketing… so I’m hopeful that they are also smart about growing up and meeting the demand they’ve created.  My order should be shipping later this week, so it’s getting closer, and I’m looking forward to my kit arriving.  And from what I’ve read, it should be worth the wait.  Of course… we won’t know that for sure until I get the kit, but stay tuned as things unfold here, and you’ll know the results as soon as it happens.

Cheers!

when I was told by the friendly CSR at Blu the other day that my order was delayed, I understood that to mean they were out of stock.  It’s starting to look like this may have been a misinterpretation of the message.  I’m now hearing that they are fine as far as stock is concerned, but SHORT ON MANPOWER to fulfill all of the orders they’ve received.  I guess their product, guarantee, pricing, low shipping costs (free in the US) and widespread marketing campaign (including affiliate programs) is causing them some issues with volume that goes well above their initial expectations.  Well…  I say good for them for doing so well so quickly, but also warn them that this rapid burst of popularity can cause as many or more problems if they can’t solve the problem quickly.  So I’ll keep you posted as I learn more about the situation, and I’ll continue to wait with great anticipation for my product to be shipped.  Stay tuned!

It seems that the word on the street is true, and the folks at Blu are having problems getting supplies.  The official word I received from their support chat this morning is that the shipping department are working on the problems, and hope to have things sorted out so that they can fulfill current orders within two weeks, and that future delays will be minimized.  It sounds an awful lot like the same story all over the e-cig market in North America.  The rapid rise in demand combined with import troubles will make the smooth flow of materials an on-going problem in my estimation.  I certainly hope that there will be a more stable and reliable supply of product in the very near future, but I most certainly would recommend that once you have your orders in, you plan for up to a month supply on hand so you’re not forced to return to tobacco due to lack of supply for your e-cigs.  Stay tuned…  I’ll be updating regularly.