Glassblowersdirect.com - Affordable quality glass

chimpybits

Well-Known Member
That's another thing that stings, I bought a downstem ($36), a custom mouthpiece ($20), 18mm male to 14mm male adapter ($14), and that custom Water Pipe Adapter all for this bubbler, :doh:.
Of course yeah I recall. You've helped me too with all this. If you've (admittedly understandably) given up on this bub, I'll offer you basically full $ for the wpa and the downstem (and possibly some of the other stuff). I don't want to drop too much in this bub, but want this stuff; you've sunk money on it and need some recouped $.

You're point about middle of the road price point is sensible and that drove my purchase of this, my first, glass piece. And perhaps sixtysix too.
 

MrNorml

Well-Known Member
Well it appears like my honeymoon with my GBD bubbler has come to an end, :( :cry:





I came home from the store to discover this. She was only 59 days old and went in her sleep.

I figured it up @ $170 for 59 days of use, it cost me $2.88 a day to "rent" this bubbler, ugh that's steep.

Looks exactly like the crack on jambandphan's.

So I can no longer endorse this bubbler. I hope others don't run into this issue.

Was the bubbler still usable or did water leak out of the crack?
Bummer. Well, when it worked you probably enjoyed it. But that rent is a bit steep ...
 
MrNorml,

Tweak

T\/\/34|<
It's usable but it leaks, :ugh:. I'm afraid to use it as it seamed like the crack was spreading.

I just feel crappy that I've suggested this bubbler to others and they might run into the same issue down the road. I'm just fortunate to have a back-up piece of glass to use, others might not be.
 
Tweak,

sixtysix

Well-Known Member
Apparently Sam will not be refunding my money because I waited till I was home to ship it back to him and "its been over a month". He is also denying that there is a crack in it, and saying it was used (it was filled with water). Really bummed out that I'm now out $165 plus the $15 it cost me to ship it back. Unfortunately I waited to long and now can't file a claim with paypal. Hopefully Sam fixes this issue.

I know its not a big crack but here's a picture. My phone don't depict it very well but there definitely is a hairline crack there.

im2nt4.jpg
 
sixtysix,

sixtysix

Well-Known Member
This was supposed to be my daily driver. I have a Vapir that I use frequently but this was supposed to be my first piece of "nice" glass.. I'm in school and moneys tight so I went with this one.... I wish I would have just saved up for Levs piece originally.
 
sixtysix,

Tweak

T\/\/34|<
Damn I'm sorry to hear that sixtysix.

Will he send it back to you for an additional 15$?

That is shady.
 
Tweak,

BigDaddyVapor

@BigDogJunction
This was supposed to be my daily driver. I have a Vapir that I use frequently but this was supposed to be my first piece of "nice" glass.. I'm in school and moneys tight so I went with this one.... I wish I would have just saved up for Levs piece originally.

Well, don't go beating yourself up over that. There's a lot of people that missed out on that one. I would really like to have the PV one also. But, because I bought this bubbler, I won't be able to get that one, unless the stars align right, when they release it.

I have a lot of nice glass now. But, I went thru so many broken pieces, bad purchases, just throwing money away on junk. People here, kept warning me, I kept going. Hundreds of dollars, flushed down the toilet repeatedly. I could have bought TWO Mobius bubblers, with all the money I've wasted on stuff, I knew wasn't good.

Now congratulate yourself on the difference and ditch the regret.

You bought something, that you had every reason to believe, was a good buy and HQ glass. You had people telling you that. You saw cool pics and videos. You weren't suckered, or naive. You were unlucky.
 

sixtysix

Well-Known Member
I got off the phone was Sam a bit ago and he said he would send me a new piece without the logo to replace the one that I had received. I'm happy with the conclusion. It was a lot easier to talk to him on the phone than through email and I can understand where he's coming from more. I'll update this later on.
 

BigDaddyVapor

@BigDogJunction
Hey! That's great to hear! Props to Sam, for hearing you out and doing the right thing. You to, for taking it a step further.

Maybe you should try calling, Tweak?
 
BigDaddyVapor,
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wootze

Well-Known Member
I got off the phone was Sam a bit ago and he said he would send me a new piece without the logo to replace the one that I had received. I'm happy with the conclusion. It was a lot easier to talk to him on the phone than through email and I can understand where he's coming from more. I'll update this later on.

Please follow up on the update
 
wootze,
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Adobewan

Well-Known Member
Reading these latest developments, the bottom fell out of my faith in Sam.
Taking care of Sixtysix, glad to hear it. What about Tweak?
If he's left flapping, I'd have difficulty buying from or recommending buying from Sam again and would actively advice against it. I understand the fragile nature of glass, but with six(?) occurrences, if the CS isn't behind the piece, especially when someone invests in the accessories as well, it becomes too much of a gamble.
Tweak, if you haven't already, I second BDV's suggestion of calling Sam and giving him the opportunity to make it right with you.
Good luck and keep us posted.
The eyes of the forum are watching.
 

Tweak

T\/\/34|<
Tweak, if you haven't already, I second BDV's suggestion of calling Sam and giving him the opportunity to make it right with you.

I would if I thought it would help. I really don't feel like being let down again.

Like I told BDV, after Sam refused to replace my bubbler I couldn't even visit FC without getting sick thinking about it. I'm finally to the point where I'm ready to cut my losses just so I don't have to deal with this ordeal anymore.

As I mentioned before, it started with a jacked up looking free downstem. Who sends a final product out like this?
dsc4078z.jpg


Making me pay California taxes because "in Cally, we have to collect sales tax for doing business in Cally(even online)". After I pointed out that the law states "If you do not have a presence in a particular state, you are not required to collect sales taxes." I do not live in Cally.

Then telling me that my bubbler would ship in 3 to 4 days and then receiving it 15 days later.

I suffer from anxiety, part of the reason I medicate, just typing this up has stirred up unwanted emotions. I need some vapes now, /end:rant:
 

BigDaddyVapor

@BigDogJunction
How does someone make that downstem, set it in the "good" bin, then how does it end up in a package and arriving at your door step?

That thing is grotesque.
 
BigDaddyVapor,

Adobewan

Well-Known Member
I would if I thought it would help. I really don't feel like being let down again.
I suffer from anxiety, part of the reason I medicate, just typing this up has stirred up unwanted emotions. I need some vapes now, /end:rant:

Understandable, sorry Tweak. It's really not on you, it's on Sam.
We're an eclectic bunch, but I suspect word will spread, Sam will lose customers.

Are you in this for the long haul Sam? If so, I urge you to reconsider your position. I'm sure it's awful to be faced with the issues regarding your bubbler, but I love mine, as does everyone I've shared it with. It would be a shame to lose a good craftsman just because of a misunderstanding. Hope you can find it in your heart to see this as a temporary bump in the road.
For Tweak, but for your business as well.
Peace
 
Adobewan,
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Ive been lurking this for a while now and seeing all the problems people have had has lead me to the conclusion that GBD is not very good. Ive bumped my other glass in the sink before to the point my heart drops and i think its cracked, however never a crack or ding, (knock on wood). Im sure others like me, who remain anonymous because they dont write in the thread feel the same. GDB has a huge potential of clients, its not only the active members watching, its the rest of the web too. This is my favorite forum and the information shared is highly educational and helps many of us make choose what to buy.

I was thinking of buying a piece but after seeing the negative feedback of the glass itself and customer service it was a deal breaker. From my observations it seems to me that anyone with a problem has to go a long way, get rejected by sam through emails, post it on the forums and then finally there is an offer to somehow 'try' and fix the problem. Why does sixtysix have to post on the forum before sam fixes it, if sam had already seen the piece first hand. All in all it seems a bit shady.

@tweak: my heart goes out to you, feel better and move on, I would cut my loses as well. I'm sure that in the future you will find a quality piece that satisfies you and more.
 

placetime

Well-Known Member
FWIW, the GBD FC Bubbler I received has had no problems with cracking or any other problems. On mine, the mouthpiece joint--where a few people had their's crack (not sure how many people posted that sort of thing here)--hasn't fallen apart and it definitely doesn't leak. I do have to say, though, that I didn't find the stock mouthpiece to be very comfortable, so I have used a short piece of silicon tubing for a mouthpiece pretty much since day one. I'm not sure if that has made any difference or not in terms of stress/cracking on that joint, but for me, it works great. :-)

I'm really sorry to hear that anyone has had any issues with Sam or the GBD bubblers--especially because I'm largely responsible for getting Sam interested in creating an FC Bubbler. I hope that most of the people who bought one are satisfied with their purchase from Sam.

One thing I think we should all remember is that we don't have any idea (as far as I can tell) how many FC bubblers Sam sold, so we have no idea what the rate of problems is. Lev limited his FC Bubbler run to 100 pieces and sold out almost immediately. Sam let people place orders for weeks. Because of that, my assumption is that Sam sold hundreds of the GBD FC bubblers (though I have no proof to support that assumption). If that's the case, then I'd think that the number of problems reported on FC are a very small percentage. But like I said, unless Sam gives one of us the sales/problems numbers, we have no way of knowing what percentage of the bubblers had problems. Could be a major issue, or could be a very very small number of the total.

I'm not trying to stir up trouble or defend Sam or anything--just giving my :2c:
:peace:
 

BigDaddyVapor

@BigDogJunction
When the sale was going on, I was paying attention to invoice numbers. He didn't sell close to 100. Probably closer to 50, or less.

And I don't think, at least I know for my part... anyone holds you responsible for any issues. It was a good idea and good deal to setup. Like you, I haven't had any problems with mine (except keeping it clean). So I'm happy with it, though very careful. Started using it w/o the extra downstem and I think I actually like it more, this way.

What I would like to see/know, is how many blowers are working for GBD and if all the problems are related to a single blower? I'm still betting on that being the case.
 
BigDaddyVapor,
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Malloy1

New Member
Does anyone know if the showerhead Beaker on there worth buying or will it crack in a months or two use
 
Malloy1,

Frederick McGuire

Aggressively Loungey
One thing I think we should all remember is that we don't have any idea (as far as I can tell) how many FC bubblers Sam sold, so we have no idea what the rate of problems is. Lev limited his FC Bubbler run to 100 pieces and sold out almost immediately. Sam let people place orders for weeks. Because of that, my assumption is that Sam sold hundreds of the GBD FC bubblers (though I have no proof to support that assumption)...
Just my :2c:, but the Lev FC Lattice bub is a whole 'nother level of glassware.
He was selling a piece that looked like it could easily sell for $300-400 (I believe the regular price is $250ish, don't quote me on that though) for $159,
While Sam was selling a piece that looked to be closer to $200ish for $100-140.
(Those initial figures are just what I'd estimate the regular prices would be from looking at pics of the bubs.)

When I saw the deal on the lattice, my internal GAS monologue said "Jump the fuck on that deal, MAKE IT HAPPEN"
When I saw this bub, it said "Hmm, this looks like a nice piece, you want it... Oh, no intl shipping, never mind..."

Like I said, just my :2c: (and just to be clear, I still kinda want one :lol:)
 

chimpybits

Well-Known Member
Also wanted to reiterate what Stu has said. Mine too has been clean and solid (though like BDV I'm careful). I too am sympathetic to the suck-age of breakage and thankful not to have experienced any.

Since getting this, my first piece, I've been exclusively vape-bonging it and liking it very much.

The dewaar and detachable mp make for easy versatility. I haven't yet taken advantage of this as I've been using it in stock form, but still I can look forward to other setups.

I do enjoy the ritual of ending a sess by removing the ds and mp and laying out on a mat with the bub as well as enjoying connecting it all together as part of my session prep. If I'm not changing the water for the next session, then it seems better to remove these to better allow the bub's condensation to evaporate. This seems cleaner, but I don't know.

Anyway, a happy GBD customer here.
 
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