the worst (and most costly) launch ever in the history of vapes

Jill NYC

Portable Hoarder
I’m with you @Mr. Me2 - from afar, the Evoke has to be the worst of the ones mentioned so far.
At least with the Grasshopper, Tera & Ghost, there are many people who use and love their purchases even if they had to return it several times.
Is there a single person that actually loves and uses the Evoke?
 

Vaporific

All who wander are not lost...
While my vaping experience is limited and relatively young, I went through (and survived) the Grasshopper launch; I have a pre-order Titanium unit that took over a year to receive since plopping down money on it. It took nearly a year and half AFTER receiving my Hopper to get a leather sleeve that was promised to me for all the pre-order delays and whatnot. Given the myriad launch delays due to supply chain and technical manufacturing and assembly issues, and countless of people on this site on the Hopper thread reporting problems with it (and there a many too whose units work flawlessly) and their bumbling customer service or mostly lack thereof, my vote is for Hopper Labs for worst.

As for cost, I couldn't say nor do I have any knowledge about any of these companies' operational costs let alone revenue streams. I doubt Hopper Labs is profitable at this point with all the RMAs and scrambling to make additional accessories after-the-fact (e.g. PFE, case - which is still not available!, and new battery charger; I own none of these nor would I spend more money with them except for new batteries - however mine is in RMA purgatory for the first time as of last month). And yes, I had my frontend replaced twice before this warranty service which further bolsters my point.

Great thread BTW! Cheers!
 
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Mr. Whitewall

Well-Known Member
Oh, absolutely! Nothing wrong with either. In fact, I have set up my very own crowdfunding venture :evil: so you can all now directly contribute to my Italian holidays with unlimited GIANT pizzas.

...Hey, at least I'm not trying to sell you anything. you just directly give into my BS money scheme. :)
 

StonerSloth

cui bono?
Fuck guys, on one hand I am disappointed to see a shit-talking thread inspired by my commentary, as that is not really my style at all. Yes - I am a pretty direct and call-it-like-I-see-it-kinda guy, but I am not one to start a thread to bash manufacturers who are working hard to design and sell the products we love while simultaneously creating jobs and etc etc etc. In short, I have lots and lots of love for all vape manufacturers including Boundless who inspired this thread and I do not mean any disrespect by acknowledging the horrible launch of the Tera.

However, since this thread has already been created, I guess I may as well chime in while I am five beers deep and several bowls through the Fierce and a Bocote Underdog.

I design industrial equipment and oversee its manufacture for a living. I have a general but vague understanding of how difficult it is to release a product to consumer market as there are a ton more challenges than are faced in a typical industrial product design process. Once you add in the fact that some consider these devices medical devices and some people who consume cannabis in excess develop crazy viewpoints that defy logic and defend them to the death, you realize that launching a new vaporizer is a fucking minefield.

That said - there is nothing more expensive than designing and releasing a brand new product to market and then having to buy back the entire lot in full. It would have been cheaper and easier for boundless to cut their losses at this point and abandon the Tera entirely - but of course this would have been a short term strategy only which would probably have hurt hem in the long run. Anyway of course I am happy to see that they decided to stand behind their product and solve the problem in the right way but of course again there were some hiccups and they had to do it all over again. I can't say how much this cost them, but I can say that it was very very very expensive and they probably made absolutely no money on the first several thousand Tera sales.

In the other corner, we have the Grasshopper - a beautiful, functional, ostensibly 'safe' made-in-USA vape which has a mean time between failures of about half a gram and a lifetime warranty. This is also a very very expensive formula that I would not like to be a part of at all. Yes, this launch was very bad but really the fatal flaw will be the unreliable wire-free design coupled with the lifetime warranty.

I do not really consider Loto Labs Evoke to be a contender in the most expensivist launch race, as taking peoples' money in advance and then never releasing a product is probably very profitable.
 

Mr. Whitewall

Well-Known Member
Well, technically they did release something, I'm not being entirely fair, sorry thought most people here knew the story more or less by now :p...
The main issue is that many people who have one reported it looks like a mock-up of what it should have been on pics; it only works for oils (marginally well, I must concede) but its a PITA to clean and manipulate and battery life is bad, from what I read on the thread, if I remember well.

The real let down though is that it seems to have no capability whatsoever for herbs, which makes many people feel cheated and feeling it was badly designed altogether, from what I gather.

All this whilst the developing team were just posting IG pictures of themselves on expensive promotional tours to "exotic" places, taking years to release, etc, etc, which made contributors and pre-orders very angry, with reason.
 
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sixstringsmash

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking a few years back to when the "vapezilla" was super hyped and everyone thought it was going to be the next best thing, being touted as the volcano killer(This was back in 2008 or so when the Volcano was still considered the crown king of the vape world). Apparently they had a really great model that performed super well that they brought out to shows and the like to demo it, and naturally got people really excited for it.

Well when the thing finally released, this super nice vape everyone thought they were getting and spending $500 on was completely different than what had been hyped. The thing was completely redesigned with cheaper and crappier parts, and was basically just a real piece of shit, albeit a real expensive piece of shit.
 
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