vapviking
Old & In the Way
I want to inject the thread with a positive-experience story. Nothing personal, but it seems lately there's a bit of an echo chamber going on here with a handful of frequent posters. I don't mean to minimize the experiences these guys are having, but I do feel that reading the same complaint multiple times should be unnecessary -- as members we are specifically asked to avoid being redundant in our posts here.
I happen to agree that it sucks big-time to be dependent on HL these days, as everything is delayed, delayed, delayed, projections are missed, repairs take forever, emails aren't answered (in my case, all of my recent emails have been answered withing two days) but I tend to keep a very long view on the company and I'm still willing to ride out the storm. I really still think this is going to be a great long-term relationship between me and HL.
My two hoppers had a very long rest period while I was on a year-long break. One of the only good things about the break was the timing -- I largely missed the months' long re-vamp at Hopper Labs last winter, just wasn't affected because I had no needs during that time. When I did finally bust the Hoppers out a couple of months ago, one was working well but the other was showing signals of both bad back end and body; I knew it had to go to HL but also knew it could be (many?) months before I'd see it again.
Not liking the prospect of being "down to my last Grasshopper" my interest was piqued when a member posted about The Herb Cafe in Toronto having new-model Hoppers in stock, and further that they would have capability to handle warranty problems in Canada, so buyers would not necessarily have to depend on HL for service. Even though I'm in US, and intend to try to stay with HL for my service needs, the sheer fact that Herb Cafe had Hoppers in stock was enough to get met to act, since I had a vacation coming up and really wanted a backup hopper asap. So, this is the first Grasshopper (of 5) for which I'm paying full boat retail, but I rationalize that my average cost-per-hopper is still very low. The deal from The Herb Cafe, with a small discount code and free shipping policy, actually came out a few bucks less than direct purchase from HL would have been. And THC (clever name!) had them in stock.
I can report that my experience with THC was excellent in all regards. Got new Hopper in about a week, beautiful Green Ti model, and it is performing as one of the best Hoppers ever, so far. (S/N is GT0014xxx). Fast heat-up, very smooth temp dial, single clicks to 'on' after auto shut-off, and the charge blinking, after one quick red, waits about 10-15 seconds before the regular red blinking begins. I have yet to push the temp dial all the way up. It is performing at 3.5 just about the same as previous Hoppers have done at about 4.2. Fingers still crossed (always will be, I guess!), but this one looks like a keeper.
I happen to agree that it sucks big-time to be dependent on HL these days, as everything is delayed, delayed, delayed, projections are missed, repairs take forever, emails aren't answered (in my case, all of my recent emails have been answered withing two days) but I tend to keep a very long view on the company and I'm still willing to ride out the storm. I really still think this is going to be a great long-term relationship between me and HL.
My two hoppers had a very long rest period while I was on a year-long break. One of the only good things about the break was the timing -- I largely missed the months' long re-vamp at Hopper Labs last winter, just wasn't affected because I had no needs during that time. When I did finally bust the Hoppers out a couple of months ago, one was working well but the other was showing signals of both bad back end and body; I knew it had to go to HL but also knew it could be (many?) months before I'd see it again.
Not liking the prospect of being "down to my last Grasshopper" my interest was piqued when a member posted about The Herb Cafe in Toronto having new-model Hoppers in stock, and further that they would have capability to handle warranty problems in Canada, so buyers would not necessarily have to depend on HL for service. Even though I'm in US, and intend to try to stay with HL for my service needs, the sheer fact that Herb Cafe had Hoppers in stock was enough to get met to act, since I had a vacation coming up and really wanted a backup hopper asap. So, this is the first Grasshopper (of 5) for which I'm paying full boat retail, but I rationalize that my average cost-per-hopper is still very low. The deal from The Herb Cafe, with a small discount code and free shipping policy, actually came out a few bucks less than direct purchase from HL would have been. And THC (clever name!) had them in stock.
I can report that my experience with THC was excellent in all regards. Got new Hopper in about a week, beautiful Green Ti model, and it is performing as one of the best Hoppers ever, so far. (S/N is GT0014xxx). Fast heat-up, very smooth temp dial, single clicks to 'on' after auto shut-off, and the charge blinking, after one quick red, waits about 10-15 seconds before the regular red blinking begins. I have yet to push the temp dial all the way up. It is performing at 3.5 just about the same as previous Hoppers have done at about 4.2. Fingers still crossed (always will be, I guess!), but this one looks like a keeper.
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