Not the same with all of my vapes ... I'll hit 75-100% off device costs in warranty shipping costs in 1st year for the 2 of my Hoppers. For my other vapes (2xEVO, Crafty, Mighty, Solo), I think the last time I had an issue was w/ my Crafty 3 years ago which Storz & Bickel quickly took care of; apart from that I've built spare battery packs for my Crafty (better, more powerful) proactively as my Crafty was only starting to slow down. So for my other 5 vapes I've had in rotation for the last few years, my expense is <$25 ... for my 2 GH's in <8 months it's >$200.
GH is looking at 100% / year to maintain, and my other 5 vapes combined are at ~0.4% cost per year ... so GH is roughly 200 times more expensive to own from a service/support perspective if you are International (even next door) ... to put it further into perspective ... if they only came with a 1 year warranty, and they lasted that 1 year before I had to buy another one outright, it would be less expensive ownership (as one has to remember that with that 100% / year to maintain it is spending half of that year in transit ... so in reality it is 200% / year to maintain). If I owned Grasshoppers that were 100% reliable for 6 months, and disposable, after which you would simply by another, I would break even with my current situation.
yeah that paints are particularly bad picture, and it sucks that you've gone through all this.
It sucks mostly, for all us users, because they did such a bad job taking care of you.
Whilst simultaneously making semi-official statements regarding return postage etc. you've been taken on this mad, frustrating and expensive journey..
Very poor form.
Now, as bad as that genuinely is, it is fair to call it a fringe case and basically a worst case scenario.
As worst cases go, it seems at least you have not experienced them from S&B or CloudEVO.
There's no way I've spent my hardware costs on service postage for the hopper. Far from it, but not as far as 0.4%...
Though the Sub is going to cost me about 833.3% my hardware price (28% retail).... so it's a bizarre market to make comparisons like that.
No argument that the GH involves greater service fees than desirable or than other (inferior?) options, my hoppers are pretty well due to go back, but I'm actually happy for them to, as every time I've received them back they've gotten me and my herb enjoyably baked.
It's been like getting a brand new vape a couple of times a year.
That's where you've had continual issues, and honestly fuck HL for dragging you through the mud trying to get to where you rightly should be.
BUT, you could have built a case up with their communications making statements that weren't held true for you.
And that's not to say it's your fault, it shouldn't even be expected from you at all, but it could have saved you a decent amount of money which would change your situation greatly (perhaps the time-frame was just off).
Good on you for sticking with it, and you have every right to call HL out for being pathetic over their customer service... but I don't think it's necessarily fair to say (obviously it's true to your case here) that the upkeep is 100% RRP (225-350 USD) per year, even when 'next door', as that wouldn't fit average models.
From the US, postage has been quoted at 3-7USD.
Postage from the other side of the planet, at least Aus, is about 14USD (4-6% RRP) I can send multiple units for that cost, but it's the same for a single one.
Really expensive postage is out of the middle east, or western Asia.
But it's far cheaper than the penalties for getting caught with it!
Even with my average of 2-3 services annually, that's not even a Q of bud, which won't last long if I have anything to do with it, so the costs are relatively affordable. What I mean by pay to play, refers to the vaping dynamic inescapably - the initial cost is high, the ongoing cost of using herb is high (generally cheaper than smoking, but substantial for a daily user). I have to spend a lot to break a hopper, and I love doing it.
Getting a DOA unit should be sorted out at the businesses expense, if I'm ever in the situation I'll be demanding a return satchel and quoting their public statements.
Their reddit overview refers to replacements quite often, and from quite a while ago (no recent activity), but here is the key phrase made 4 months ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GrassHoppe...products_reliability_goals/diwe11k/?context=3
If you Hopper has issues within the first two weeks of getting it back we will cover shipping costs both ways.
It's not the easiest way to sort it out, but we are well within our rights as consumers to push them to follow their word.
Doing this, there's no way you could spend, or expect others to spend, multiple hundreds of dollars on services unless you are extremely unlucky and persistently.
And if that's the case, you could quote them here
https://www.reddit.com/r/GrassHopperVape/comments/6ikgyh/i_spoke_too_soon/dj7cmcj/?context=3
Please PM us. We are happy to provide full replacements for units that have gone bad that quickly after warranty. This is part of our effort to eradicate problems for users that are having these repeated failures.
I just don't understand why they never conceded to actually help you properly...