Ascent Vaporizer by DaVinci

Smknbud

Well-Known Member
yes, the taste is "multipass" times better than the pax and I tried it all, loosly, packed, half, full, flowers...
cotton is the way to go for me (yes, organic cotton) .......cold

Agree on the cotton. I've tried glass beads, flowers and jacks......they work, but the cotton is just easier with the same effect, for me at least. On top of that, cleaning is easier.

I'm done fuckin around with it till Davinci gets their spacer thingy released. :zzz:

Now off to enjoy some Medicine Man.
 

Nunavut Tripper

Well-Known Member
Agree on the cotton. I've tried glass beads, flowers and jacks......they work, but the cotton is just easier with the same effect, for me at least. On top of that, cleaning is easier.

I'm done fuckin around with it till Davinci gets their spacer thingy released. :zzz:

Now off to enjoy some Medicine Man.

I'm using one glass flower and two round glass screens on top of the load to hold it down.
This system works well but kinda mickey mouse with the screens that don't fit the opening.
I too am waiting for DaVinci or someone else to produce an oval glass spacer/screen that fits.

I don't hear too much complaining about faulty units lately....that's encouraging. Maybe I will get a few years out of mine before it dies.
 
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hwl83

Active Member
My faulty unit was an A11A batch or 1AA1 however its named.

Were the faulty ones mostly stealth ones? I'm going to ask for the croc skin replacement as I haven't heard anything go bad on them functionally or aethestically.
 
hwl83,

wags1

Well-Known Member
I guess I'm just lazy but I don't mess with flowers, screens, or anything else. I pack the chamber full, pack it pretty tight with my little finger and go. Every two vape sessions or so I give it a good stir and pack it down with my little finger. I keep doing that until the ABV looks dark brown to almost black. Then I empty the chamber and start over. Seems to work well for me. No muss no fuss and one full packed chamber seems to last a good long time. Seems more efficient than messing with a bunch of small loads. But then like I said, I'm pretty lazy...:D
 

hwl83

Active Member
So I'm pretty disappointed.

They were not willing to help me expedite a replacement unit by shipping it over night even though I paid 33 bucks to have it shipped initially.

I even offered to buy a new one with overnight shipping and ship the defective one back today with a tracking number and was denied.

To be honest if I could do it over again I probably wouldn't have bought this knowing what I know now.

Now I will be without a replacement for probably 2 weeks due to shipping it there, processing, and shipping it back. That's so lame on their part. Not willing to eat the shipment cost to replace something that died in less than a month when I paid to have it shipped early to me.
 

JCat

Well-Known Member
Accessory Maker
So I'm pretty disappointed.

They were not willing to help me expedite a replacement unit by shipping it over night even though I paid 33 bucks to have it shipped initially.

I even offered to buy a new one with overnight shipping and ship the defective one back today with a tracking number and was denied.

To be honest if I could do it over again I probably wouldn't have bought this knowing what I know now.

Now I will be without a replacement for probably 2 weeks due to shipping it there, processing, and shipping it back. That's so lame on their part. Not willing to eat the shipment cost to replace something that died in less than a month when I paid to have it shipped early to me.
Hmmm .... that does suck! Did you try escalating? Sometimes you have to go beyond the first person you talk to on the phone ...
 

OF

Well-Known Member
So I'm pretty disappointed.

Now I will be without a replacement for probably 2 weeks due to shipping it there, processing, and shipping it back. That's so lame on their part. Not willing to eat the shipment cost to replace something that died in less than a month when I paid to have it shipped early to me.

I'm sorry you're upset, and I can see at least some of this from your side I think, but I also see it from 'their' side (having been there a few times.....). Your purchase constitutes a legal contract, what were the terms spelled out for replacement? I think it was 'send it to us and we'll repair or replace it at our option'? Pretty standard. I'm sure you could get them to overnight the replacement (or repaired unit.....) to you, but the agreement was they get to look it over and decide what to do first?

I also get the 'I paid for express shipping the first time, they should "eat the shipment cost"'....but that's not realistic. They don't "eat" such costs, they spread them over the customer base like all 'cost of goods sold' issues. You wouldn't have to pay the extra, but each of us would have to pay a little more for our units. Personally, I'm glad that doesn't happen.

As an aside, you'd probably be shocked at the number of 'defective' units that come back that aren't. It's just the way things work out. I've been involved in several Customer Support roles and this is a common thread. One place had as standard procedure to send all returns back to QA for another inspection. Over 40% passed as 'new' (meaning proper function and no cosmetic issues, in California it can't be sold again as new but can be returned). I'm not saying this is the case here, but just that CS is more than having someone say their unit is broken and sending them a new one. Done properly 'root cause analysis' of each failure is fed back into QA to try to drive failures to zero.

Sorry to ramble, and also again sorry you need service (fairly rare I think). Hopefully you have a back up vape to fall back on.....this is a lousy excuse to revert to blazing. Looks like you've missed Thanksgiving but if you don't dally too much you should be sitting pretty for Christmas.

Good luck with it.

OF
 

Hexi

Well-Known Member
As an aside, you'd probably be shocked at the number of 'defective' units that come back that aren't. It's just the way things work out. I've been involved in several Customer Support roles and this is a common thread. One place had as standard procedure to send all returns back to QA for another inspection. Over 40% passed as 'new' (meaning proper function and no cosmetic issues, in California it can't be sold again as new but can be returned). I'm not saying this is the case here, but just that CS is more than having someone say their unit is broken and sending them a new one. Done properly 'root cause analysis' of each failure is fed back into QA to try to drive failures to zero.

That's a good piece of info to think about, but just because QA can't find the cause or reproduce the error does not prove that there was no error. In fact, I often find that defects which are hard to reproduce (in the software world) often lead us to search and find some unknown deeper problem, either with the software or more likely, a gap in the QA process/procedure.

Having a huge customer base, it is super expensive and challenging to deal with errors that are hard to reproduce. I've actually pushed for some changes to the process so that we don't waste time just closing out tickets because we couldn't reproduce the error, but instead using those instances as data points to study and do a true RCA.

Which is one of the reasons I would probably lose my mind in a hard goods mfg business. At least with software I can dream up scenarios for possible causes to the defects, + we have baselines etc... with hard goods, at least from my experience, half the time you can't even rely on the engineering drawings because the engineers often don't update them or version control them!
 

OF

Well-Known Member
@OF you always have tha overall most well rounded answer coming from every angle. You never under think circumstances and always go for tha whole story rather than not. You're very respectable

Wow! Thank you very much. For sure that's the goal, but I can't agree with the 'you always....' part. A good goal, though. Very kind of you to notice, it's very nice to be appreciated.

That's a good piece of info to think about, but just because QA can't find the cause or reproduce the error does not prove that there was no error. In fact, I often find that defects which are hard to reproduce (in the software world) often lead us to search and find some unknown deeper problem, either with the software or more likely, a gap in the QA process/procedure.

Excellent point. Works much better for hardware than software if you asked me. "Don't worry, we'll fix that in software" has got to be right behind 'if you like your plan, you can keep your plan'........

In the case above the main product was an analog box that hooked to marine radars and output video. It was easy to verify that the 3 input signals (trigger, head mark and video in) were properly processed in both polarities and correct amplitude by test fixture. A solid go/no go test that basically never failed. It was almost always an installation/configuration/commissioning problem in the cases that returned 'just fine'. Occasionally operator error or training. Like with the software side, you have to run each to ground if you want Quality Assurance (as opposed to QC or Inspection).

Fun world, I'm a hardware guy at heart. At the mercy of software in digital systems (many's the time I got the ticket signed off by going to a prior revision of software). Give me a hard failure to tie down every time over 'I wonder how it ended up trying to execute it's date code....'. Love it.

You know how many programers it takes to change a light bulb, right? None, that's a hardware problem.

Has it been considered that the same QC going out might be the same QC for RMA's coming in?

Always an issue if you're into QA as opposed to QC. Inspectors are human, so the problems are human and need system solutions to offset that.

In most cases I know of RMAs don't got to QA or any inspection (which is why the place discussed above is the exception). Normally returns are handled in an entirely different channel to production. Classically the department head reports to the Old Man (company president), like Sales, Production, Accounting and so on. It's considered a danger sign for Customer Service to be part of Production or Sales (where they often are found). For sure QA belongs on it's own branch of the corporate tree. The point is, normally Field Returns are separate and not subject to the same inspections going out and with that one exception never coming back in the way it was played when I was in that game.

The wisdom of that is exactly what you whimsically suggest. You want a set of fresh eyes and hands on the problem. The 'don't ask the same question over and over expecting a different answer' thing.

It's not easy to do right, for sure. Although I understand it often seems like 'how can those idiots send it out without a power cord'.

Long as I'm prattling on, one more fun idea......a single field return can kill the profit from a pile of good ones. The risks are great, companies can easily reach a tipping point and self destruct if the wrong sort of oops slips though. Recoveries like what we just saw with Ascent are not givens, it's the mark of an exceptional outfit that can respond like it seems DV has. Handled differently they might easily have ended up on the rocks.

OF
 

hwl83

Active Member
Hmmm .... that does suck! Did you try escalating? Sometimes you have to go beyond the first person you talk to on the phone ...
I did escalate. To give credit, the first girl thought it might be possible and went to ask her manager who denied it.

I then asked to speak to her manager who denied it as well.
 

hwl83

Active Member
Problem is I'm not the only one with my problem. Someone else here has the same issue and I'm sure there are more out there.

I also work as an engineer for a electronics hardware manufacturer. We would not hesitate to send back a replacement over nighted free of charge. We value our customers wishes and work hard to appease them if we are at fault.

In this case I have a defective unit that's less than a month old. I didn't think my demands were that unreasonable, especially since I asked to buy another one overnighted to me while shipping mine back for a refund.

In my world how good your product is isn't actually based on performance but on perception. Having faulty units out and not appeasing the customer base is just bad business. It would be one thing if this was a mature product and defect rates were low but as you can see so far they aren't exactly 6 sigma.
 

HighMtnSkier

Waiting for winter
Hey everyone,

My Stealth 1AA1 Ascent won't power on even when plugged in. So there a known issues with them?

I've been trying to get in contact with Da Vinci, but nobody ever answers the phone. I tried to email them and no reply yet.
 
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flavadave109

New Member
Hey guys, brand new member here. I figured I'd let you know what's going on with my ascent situation. I got my unit direct from davinci on the 12th of this month, and it was everything I could have ever hoped for. It worked great! On the fourth night, I went to charge it, and it was totally unresponsive. It still had about 40 percent battery, but once the battery wad drained, my unit was totally dead. I tested the adapter, which was good, which means my unit was defective. No longer able to charge. I sent my unit back, and my replacement is supposed to ship out to me tomorrow. Anyone else have something similar happen?
 
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mmenzie

My friends call me "Menz"
Hey guys, brand new member here. I figured I'd let you know what's going on with my ascent situation. I got my unit direct from davinci on the 12th of this month, and it was everything I could have ever hoped for. It worked great! On the fourth night, I went to charge it, and it was totally unresponsive. It still had about 40 percent battery, but once the battery wad drained, my unit was totally dead. I tested the adapter, which was good, which means my unit was defective. No longer able to charge. I sent my unit back, and my replacement is supposed to ship out to me tomorrow. Anyone else have something similar happen?

perhaps the guy one post up from yours?
 
mmenzie,

HighMtnSkier

Waiting for winter
So that's 3 guys with the same problem in the last 3 days plus another guy from a while back.

Was everyone's a stealth?
Mine is a stealth. I ordered mine on 10/18, and received it on 10/22. It worked flawlessly for over a month before the problems happened.

I finally got in touch with Da Vinvi tonight and a RMA was issued. I'll send it back tomorrow and follow up in this thread as needed.

It's a really nice vape and it's been a pretty fun month.:brow:
 
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wags1

Well-Known Member
I would be somewhat careful drawing any conclusions about overall issues with the newest batches of Ascent's from the number of folks posting here with problems. Keep in mind that the nature of this forum is that it is a "self selected" population. Drawing statistical inferences from any "self selected" population is usually problematic. Not saying there are no problems and I certainly am not minimizing the impact on the individuals that are experiencing problems. Just cautioning that to draw any conclusions as to the extent of the problems from the number of posts here from folks having problems would probably not produce an accurate picture.
 

RD

"Hawaii Home Grown"
@Davinci_vaporizer
Damn! After having my second Ascent for more than a month, (Have been posting regularly) it will not heat up unless plugged in. It just shows room temp. when unplugged. It appears to be usable when plugged in but haven't tried enough with the problem to see if it will keep up with and/or recharge.
I really was hoping for the best but will be requesting an RMA in the morning. Such a pity, as I truly love it. Mine also a stealth 1AA1.
 
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Most electronics failing usually have some kind of information in common (trust me I'm a Xbox scener) - looks like the stealths could be affected by qc. Or these could be the old recalled ascents that were refurbished. Who knows.
 
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