The Grasshopper

Anybody know what extra costs may be incurred if a Hopper is bought in Canada and shipped to US?
Taxes? Customs Duty? Would a lot of extra time be needed for such delivery?

 

I've never had stuff from Canada with hidden costs. Maybe I'm just lucky. Shipping time might be a couple extra days but I wouldn't expect a long wait.

 

So I thought this was a great idea. A much lesser evil to having one unit fail and being sent away for however long they need to repair


“


By the request of users, we have now made the body of the device available as a spare part. You can order spares directly from the accessories page or by clicking here. You will get 5% any accessory order placed in the next 48 hours with code "NWB5" Hopper availability is limited while we get caught up on orders and warranties but we do have a few HT units remaining. Find them here.

The newly available Hopper Spare Body. “

 

It's sad they have to do that.

 

Are these guys selling things they are yet to produce once again. Concept is ok but this is more hidden preorder bullshit.

 

Completely agree. This is pretty much confirmation that they still can’t get a reliable hopper

Also back end fails too. So it would suck if your back end failed

 

Unbelievable...why would I buy a spare part if I have a lifetime warranty? Shouldn’t hopper labs be using those spare parts to remedy the RMAs? This just furthers the notion that they are just stalling and stonewalling everyone with broken pens. If I buy the part, I can get it right away or else I gotta wait 6 months for them to process my RMA?

Lol, buy American my ass. Made in China is looking pretty good to me.

 

This is probably to satisfy RMAs who prefer a working hopper fast. The RMAs are majority of comentors and probably affecting sales the most. All new Hopper sold since May had good feedbacks at least from what I’ve read and those were few like 4-5)

 

Just because they are for sale doesn't mean they will shp them to you in a timely fashion. Says 5-7 I'm guessing business days. Which is getting your body presold to you and then I'm sure it ships with your fixed hopper. Are they sending the hoppers to China to get fixed? That would make more sense why it is taking FOREVER to twist on a new body/back end and send it out next day... They need money


Edit: not a whole lot of love on that post about the update..

 

BUT ITS THE FRIGGIN’ BACKEND I ALESYS HAVE PROBLEMS WITH!!!

 

Everyone’s shooting the messenger lol. I gave the post a like for sharing the info. I had actually already read the email.

When I saw the email I optimistically thought it might have some good news about increasing production and reliability. It’s disappointing to see that the pace of production has not increased much if at all. They told us again that they will increase this pace so we will have to see what next month’s email says.

As for reliability, the fact they are starting to offer spare bodies makes me think they have not improved enough and it almost makes it look like Hopper Labs doesn’t have faith in their own product.

I find the concept strange and confusing. If production is backed up, where are the extra bodies coming from? If they are selling newly assembled bodies then there’s going to be fewer RMAs going out every week. And if I have a spare body do I still need to send the entire Grasshopper in to be serviced, to “make sure it has all the latest components”, or will they start letting us send parts in again like they used to? Just a couple of months ago in one of the updates they made a point to say that you have to send the entire device in for an RMA except for special circumstances.

If you still have to send in the whole hopper then the extra body is not going to do you much good. Yeah, it’ll get you hopping again in the short term but you will eventually be hopperless while your RMA processes.

 

@JoeMama for 45 to engrave and 50 for a new backend that puts you at 95 for a new backend!! Lifetime warranty
@Vapor_Eyes just having fun




Takes a lifetime to warranty they meant to say

 

If it’s a $250 device, and the body is $80, that’s a $170 backend. I guess that’s only if we’re talking titanium, though.

That “special hi-tech space-age 3D printed heater element” is pretty darn cheap to make, I guess.

I honestly don’t get why people want a spare heater... it says “if you travel...”. WTF does traveling have to do with needing a spare body??

 

A lot.
Was on vacation till last thursday, wednesday my hopper died...straight to blue error.
Lucky me I had my second hopper with me, just because of fails like this...
So everything was okay.

 

I don't know. Spare bodies seem like a good idea when ignoring the production bottleneck and my own RMAs. I am enjoying having three front ends for one hopper, a second body would be nice to have too. Just to store fresh chambers or indeed to take travelling for some peace of mind... Though a whole unit is better again. If I didn't already have 3 units I'd be quite happy to pick up a spare body, and I think its a good option for those that don't have surplus units to do so.

The lead time for getting anything HL has always been longer than they quote and longer than anyone would like. The pricing structure is interesting too. There is less assembly work with the body than the back end, they pick and place PCBs in house, print their own heaters and import tubes to hold it together. Making circuit boards and laser sintering metals isn't exactly cheap, but considering the size and their previous batch potential, 90 per Ti piece isn't that cheap, but it's pretty good value.

Sure it sucks that they can't produce the fantasy of thousands of units made per week, but it really doesn't suck nearly as much when you get to selfishly appreciate having a working one. If throughput is approaching a 50% increase from the last few months, that's solid but slow progress I'm happy about. I was recently quoted about a month til they get to either of my RMAs, which were processed in November last year. It'll be a 10-12 month ordeal in total before I see them again. I still look forward to getting them back, as still nothing compares. It's really not hard to endure some necessary bullshit, I actually have a use case for this device that nothing else can offer, not only am I waiting on HL, I'm waiting on every other portable manufacturer to deliver too. HL might not be miraculously fast, or even on time, but they're better and quicker than anything else happening. It's a shame the general consumer isn't savvy to the fact.

They don't need excuses, it's not hard to understand. Everyone else needs excuses as to why they can't produce something similar. The reasoning is the failure rate and complexity. Take it or leave it, there's only one applicable option

 

It’s been almost two weeks since they told me my hopper was ready to be shipped back but dead silence since then and no sign of the hopper. Yet I keep getting these newsletters LOL.

 

What's the best scoop for loading the GH? Delta3D? Pax loading scoop?

If you got a whole unit in parts; spare front end, engraved and new front end, PFE, all in SS that's $205 before postage.
It's still technically cheaper to get a boxed SS GH, as it has the $40 charger, $7 battery, $1 sticker
But it is cheaper to get parts, a couple of batteries and an Xtar MC2 than it is getting a boxed unit and the PFE...
I wonder how warranty would work without a box serial etc.

 

This is my time to begin in GH's RMA's since I can't get the abv I want… so I got in touch with HL and payed the 45$ fees to get the warranty transferred to me. After they asked me to register my unit, done it but the website told me this unit was already Registered…. yes it is cause the previous owner do it, I presume, I hope the warranty transfer works even if previous owner Registered the unit….

 

I can't speak to the pax scoop (haven't tried it), but I LOVE the mini scoop and poke from @Ratchett . That scoop was designed for the gh so that its width matches the gh oven. In use it requires more than one scoop to fill the oven and works great with one of @Ratchett's gh stands.

 

I've the scoop and poke from Ratchett myself and like it a lot but the Pax loading tool from NewVape is still better suited to the GH. As it'd have been made for it - perfect fit! Very recommanded especially for unloading the GH. The round shape perfectly fits into the herb chamber of the GH - one turn and the chamber is clean.

 

When I transferred a warranty (last week) I emailed them the serial number on the back end and they added it to my account.

 

So let’s say Grasshoppers finally become reliable. I know it’s hard to imagine, but for the sake of argument let’s say they have fixed 99.9% of the problems six months from now. What do you do with your spare body then? It would be like having a spare engine for your Honda. If you had an extra hopper at least you could use it with a claisen, share it in group settings, or sell it.

 

when i sold my gh I had to write (as the seller) an e- mail to hopper labs that I sold my gh....

 

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Plus, it's handy having a couple of herb chambers when there's a couple of strains on offer. Or even just in general. I miss having multiple hoppers.

Especially as my Tubo X is .... doing hopper like bullshit. Can't win all the time. Vaping with performance devices just leads to issues, as much as any industrial processing could.

My hopper is 8 weeks in service so far, and it hasn't skipped a beat. At this point there is the start of noticeable discoloration in the chamber.. nothing major but it'll be interesting to see how it holds up from now on