Discontinued VapeXhale Cloud

[colinm_au]

Trick or Treat? It is nearing the end of October so it is time for the Monkey to come out of the cave and make an announcement or two. First, we plan on launching later this week and will be fulfilling orders (starting Oct 31) based on this order:

Fanatics
Early Birds

Fanboys

Trade-Ins

Pre-orders

We are taking extra pre-cautions to ensure that each unit is properly assembled, quality tested, and packaged. I know that after reading this, everyone will be extremely excited to know when their expected ship date is. I ask you guys to take it easy on the support channel for a few reasons:

1. Everyone, including myself, will be a part of the assembling, testing, and fulfillment. This will ensure that more units go out as quickly as possible while not neglecting any of the important steps on the way.

2. We won’t know the answer anyways. A lot of our release schedule will be predicated on how each outgoing batch is received. We learned from our first launch not to send everything out at once because if there is an issue, all of them will have to come back. If each outgoing batch comes back with no problems, each subsequent batch can be a larger amount.

I know many of you might be asking, what was the Beta testing period about then? Well, to be honest, we’ve had our fair share of issues in the past and we know that this is the most CRITICAL time in the history of this company. We need to execute this portion of our business as flawlessly as possible so please bear with us over the next few weeks.

We are extremely excited to finally get the Cloud EVO into the hands of the FC forum and look forward to your feedback. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

I would have hoped that trade-ins might have ranked earlier than fanboys as we have supported the company from the start by buying our original units. With 2 dead VXC+ units the trade-in offer is pretty meaningless for me - a $50 saving after writing off 2 $500 units that lasted 2 and 3 months respectively.
Yes, I spent $1300 for a few months of vaping - I stumped up another $500 and have been without a cloud for 4 months and now it feels like I am going to be waiting behind a long list of fanatics,early birds and fanboys..... But I am also a fashionista - so at least I will have hoodie and T-shirt !!!

Sorry SM but it is very very very disappointing ... From my perspective!

 

[tranceporter]

I've been checking this thread several times a day since July and I am stoked that an Evo will be in my hands in a few weeks. I remember showing friends a video of the OG Cloud over 2 years ago and pledged I would own a Cloud one day. I cannot wait for that very first ELB!

 

[stonemonkey55]

I would have hoped that trade-ins might have ranked earlier than fanboys as we have supported the company from the start by buying our original units. With 2 dead VXC+ units the trade-in offer is pretty meaningless for me - a $50 saving after writing off 2 $500 units that lasted 2 and 3 months respectively.
Yes, I spent $1300 for a few months of vaping - I stumped up another $500 and have been without a cloud for 4 months and now it feels like I am going to be waiting behind a long list of fanatics,early birds and fanboys.

Sorry SM but it is very very very disappointing ... From my perspective!

Sorry to disappoint YOU but if the order was any different, we would get the same amount of complaints from (fill in the blank) group. It is that simple. Just to put in perspective, most Fanatics, Early Birds, Fanboys, are already existing VapeXhale customers as well. There is no decision we could have made without disappointing someone. Carry on.

 

[Dr. Plutonious]

I would have hoped that trade-ins might have ranked earlier than fanboys as we have supported the company from the start by buying our original units. With 2 dead VXC+ units the trade-in offer is pretty meaningless for me - a $50 saving after writing off 2 $500 units that lasted 2 and 3 months respectively.
Yes, I spent $1300 for a few months of vaping - I stumped up another $500 and have been without a cloud for 4 months and now it feels like I am going to be waiting behind a long list of fanatics,early birds and fanboys..... But I am also a fashionista - so at least I will have hoodie and T-shirt !!!

Sorry SM but it is very very very disappointing ... From my perspective!

If it helps...the campaign says there are only 29 of us fanboys. I don't think we will slow down the process much.

 

[colinm_au]

Sorry to disappoint YOU but if the order was any different, we would get the same amount of complaints from (fill in the blank) group. It is that simple.

I would have thought that after fanatics the order would be dictated by date of Contributions ... Seems fair to all - especially ME as I was an early contributor!

What about at least prioritizing the trade-ins based on whether a support ticket has been raised for a dead Cloud? Whilst not everyone with a dead Cloud may have raised a support ticket - I only bothered with the first ... At least scarce EVO's may reach those most in need (desperate) sooner !

 

[lscalzo]

I wonder how many units they will be producing per batch?

 

[Dr. Plutonious]

I for one am interested to see how this plays out. The campaign numbers didn't really lend to a "pyramid" type set up so it's hard to even guess at how Vapexhale is going to go about assembly.

I'll go ahead and list out the numbers of the groups so people have an idea of how many EVOs need to be produced for each group.

Fanatics (I'll include 'Family Members' too here since there is apparently only one) - 18

Early Birds - 94

Fanboy (one of 'em being me )- 29

Trade In -132

Pre-Order - ???

I would suspect that the Early birds are what are going to take most of the time initially, since they will have a lot of units to assemble as well as a lot of hydratubes to package up.



Also, side note. I was looking at the fanatic's custom hydra tube and it is really incrdible. I get this is a limited edition thing but, would it be possible to create another, more standard, tube like that down the road?

EDIT: @Fame Is A Vapor was kind enough to point out the reality of those numbers...sorry guys. Thought I could help.

 

[Fame Is A Vapor]

I for one am interested to see how this plays out. The campaign numbers didn't really lend to a "pyramid" type set up so it's hard to even guess at how Vapexhale is going to go about assembly.

I'll go ahead and list out the numbers of the groups so people have an idea of how many EVOs need to be produced for each group.

Fanatics (I'll include 'Family Members' too here since there is apparently only one) - 18

Early Birds - 94

Fanboy (one of 'em being me )- 29

Trade In -132

Pre-Order - ???

Unfortunately, I'm afraid those numbers just aren't anywhere near accurate @Dr. Plutonious . A lot of those "people" are actually just multiple contributions by the same person, as he/she upgraded her IGG package from one group to another...ie., from Early Bird to Fanatic. Only VXL knows the real numbers...

 

[Dr. Plutonious]

Unfortunately, I'm afraid those numbers just aren't anywhere near accurate @Dr. Plutonious . A lot of those "people" are actually just multiple contributions by the same person, as he/she upgraded her IGG package from one group to another...ie., from Early Bird to Fanatic. Only VXL knows the real numbers...

Oh really?

Damn. Thought I was helping

Maybe that's a good thing though because there are fewer people than thought?

 

[colinm_au]

Have any units been beta tested internationally ? I may know someone willing to volunteer !!!

 

[oldiebutgoodie]

. . . I'll go ahead and list out the numbers of the groups so people have an idea of how many EVOs need to be produced for each group.

Fanatics (I'll include 'Family Members' too here since there is apparently only one) - 18

Early Birds - 94

Fanboy (one of 'em being me )- 29

Trade In -132

Pre-Order - ???

The numbers on the indiegogo page are not accurate, and haven't been from the start (I don't know why). I don't feel at liberty at disclosing any particular number, but I can tell you that for example there are many more Fanatics.

There have been a number of posts about how much anticipation has built up; understandable. Just let me suggest that this not turn into a tidal wave looking more like desperation and frustration. (Just a general comment w/no one in mind.)

The monkey has the situation, er, in hand. Let's let VXL do its roll-out as planned.

 

[Rusty778]

It seems that there would indeed be many more fanatics and other contributors. Not taking into account of course people recontributing and such.

Family - 1 : $5,000

Fanatics - 17 : $17,000

Early Birds - 94 : $47,000

Fanboys - 29 : $10,150

Trade-ins - 132 : $33,000

Fashionistas - 7 : $700

Taste Testers - 1 : $25

Honorable Mention- 5 :$25

-----------------------------------

Total funders having claimed a tier: 286

Total funders overall: 341

Difference: 55

Total Funds raised by claimed funders: $112,900

Funds Raised by whole campaign: $143,016

Difference: $30,116

Meanwhile I wait in the pre-order group, just looking forward to the Fanatic's coming reviews!

Edit: Needed to double check that math...

 

[weedemon]

just read the indigogo email and things are looking great! pumped for the evo to arrive. great job guys!

lol colinm do you now?

Nice help Dr Plu, even if those numbers are not 100% it still helps form a picture of what it all looks like so thank you for that.

also, I am one of those who fucked up the numbers. I donated 250 to get my dead ticker upgraded, but then threw in another 250 to just buy the 500 level for that sweet bent neck piece. (I think i ordered the circ style) my reasoning for this was I still wanted to get my old ticker fixed. this is best of both worlds for me I hope. I get an evo in the 2nd tier of the shipping process, and then if they can fix my old ticker I will get that back too.

gotta say though and I am a lil afraid to post this thought online as I don't wanna start a Mary Poppins style, "the banks out of money!?!" rampage... but here goes. I'm worried that the old clouds will never get fixed.

but i'll just have to wait and see. either way gonna be super pumped to use the evo I bought one of those cases as well to keep it safer for travels this time.

 

[Silver420Surfer]

Congratulations to the whole team at VapeXhale!! This is great news for the whole VapeXhale community!! Sounds like they have a solid blueprint for release. Like it or not, I doubt there will be a deviation from it.

Impressed the thread has remained pretty civil for so long. Hang on, we're almost there.

 

[gigaurora]

I just got the greatest idea ! does anyone remember being young and your parents got you to play the quiet game, first one to talk loses?

Well lets play the EVO game !! First one to ask about the evo release date (especially opening support tickets) loses.

staaaaaaarrrtttiiiiiiiiinnnnngggg NOW

 

[John Lewus]

SM's order seems perfectly logical to me. It is in order of who contributed the higher dollar amount for this campaign. I did not see the Nimbus family member mentioned. I guess he does not get one. Poor guy. If I were him I would COMPLAIN IN ALL CAPS AND BOLD WITH SOME EXCLAMATIONS TO REINFORCE HOW UPSET HE IS!!!

 

[Hexi]

Dudes and ladies... small controlled batch releases FTW! We don't want a Red Ring of Death XBOX situation on our hands.

Take a gander at the Ascent release thread and see the evidence right there. If their original release had been smaller, more tightly controlled batches, perhaps that would have went differently (less QC issues)?

Congrats to the VXL guys! Good luck with the ship/pack portion. Thanks for the updates.

 

[Deadshort480]

So, I want to open a support ticket on the day the EVO is realeased. When's the release date?

 

[t00fatt]

It's unfortunate the shipment order is not going by when one made a contribution, contrary to what was previously stated, and instead by how much one contributed. In most cases this is understandable and quite reasonable. However, it seems in this case to be quite unfortunate for those who's cloud died while still under warranty and were allowed to "trade in" their clouds for an EVO at the cost of additional money and waiting for release (I'm not sure which hurt more). What happened with the cloud what was out of VXL's control, and I appreciate the way they handled the difficult situation. But EVO shipment order is in their control, and I think not making those with dead clouds (still under warranty) a high priority is not only a mistake, but not inline with VXL's own business practices up until this point. So perhaps this is precisely what is already happening, and only those affected actually know. I really do hope that is the case...

I myself only got in at the "trade in" level, but my cloud is still going strong. So I have no problem waiting for those who donated more to get their Evos first, my concern is only for the cloudless...

 

[weedemon]

I think you summarized that perfectly man.

 

[Hexi]

We are only talking about days/weeks difference here. I also don't see any guarantees on my perk about when I would get shipped to, especially compared to other contributors.

By telling people the plan, and being transparent, they have opened themselves up to criticism more than if they just kept quiet and told people that the units would be sent out based on logistics-

They also explained the huge risk they took with honoring busted OGs... They could have just shut down, and rebooted as a new company.

I would also suggest we look at some other crowdfunded stuff for comparison, kickstarter for example is a dystopia of broken promises, 'never-launches' and cancelled projects.

BTW I'm usually a pessimist so I can't really explain why I'm trying to pump up everyone's tires on this issue

 

[John Lewus]

That is a good point but lots of people contributed at various levels to up their perk. Two trade ins = 1 Early Bird. It would take someone from VXC to go through hundreds of entries and contact each person who is a trade in to find out if their cloud really is broken. Some people will lie just to get earlier in the queue. Then you are going to have Fanatics, Early Birds, and others complain that they were unfairly put in line behind someone else.

Would you rather VXC work on getting the Evo right and shipped out or have them devote some resources to creating a potential logistical nightmare to ship EVO's to users of broken clouds first (and those or trade ins that lied to get earlier in the queue) all while pissing off people who contributed at higher perks level that feel they should be first?

If I were VXC I would stick with the original plan. It is logistically easy to manage. It is what they already stated was their course of action. It is reasonably fair to the majority of people.

Now given all that I have a working cloud and am an early bird and have no problem moving to the back of the Indigogo queue (not pre-orders) just so those with broken clouds can get theirs earlier. I don't think this would be easy for VXC to manage but if someone from VXC wants they can PM me to get my order info to move further back in the queue.

 

[Fame Is A Vapor]

I think I'd certainly feel the way you guys do, were I in your shoes. But I've never owned a Cloud, so I don't yet know what I'm missing. But from this forum I can tell it's a BFD!

I would just add this for your consideration, though....

1) I think it's safe to say that a good majority of Fanatics, Early Birds, etc., are also 'trade-ins' like you, but have opted for a different perk level.

2) VXL is constrained a bit by the limited edition Fanatic run, which probably requires all Fanatic enclosures be made in a single batch. So shipping those out first makes sense. As SM alluded to, this is also a final test run of sorts, that allows them to make sure there are no bugs in the process, and lets them ramp up production more quickly, and without any units having to be sent back.

3) Within each of the groups that SM specified for shipment priority, I think VXL may very well ship in order of when contributions were made.

4) As Hexi just reiterated, VXL could have just closed shop and rebooted as something else entirely, it was within their rights given what they've endured, but instead they've done their best to make options available to those wishing to be 'made whole', or upgraded.

EDIT: John Lewus just kinda made my point here. I gotta type faster. I'll just add this in conclusion: All the time that VXL would spend tracking down who legitimately has a broken cloud and therefore goes to the front of the line, is time that is taken away from production. Remember, this is only a 5-man crew right now. They've been getting so much done, are finally gonna have all the materials in for production....man, let them get it done the way they think is fairest and fastest. (But that's easy for me to say I guess, I'm a fanatic...)

 

[Purpl3_Haz3]

It's pretty clear that everyone wants to be first... "I paid first," "I paid most," "I don't even have a working unit to tide me over..." etc, etc...

But, we also know that no one wants to be the person who gets sent one of the first units, only to have it fail the next day.

This roll out is all about minimizing down time/cost/repairs, etc.

There is no one group that they could pick, that IMO would be more fair than another, especially in the eyes of those in a less than first shipment group.

I can totally get where every group comes from, in that they all have valid enough reasons to want to be first. BUUUUUT, when it comes down to it, as others have stated, the difference between the first IGG shipment and the last, will probably be quite minimal if things work out as planned. I know most of us here know from experience, last time with the OG, that if we all receive our units within 1 to 2 months of each other, that will be a much smaller gap than the first time around!

I would much rather sit silently, and not advocate for my particular group of contributors to get their units shipped first, and just let things go!

Finally, there are negatives (potentially) to getting the first of the first: Shipping issues, hardware failure, etc. So, what you loose in time with your new EVO (a few weeks at most maybe, while waiting for those in front of you in line) you gain in certainty that your unit will be rock solid.


I mean come on, we're just reaching the end of October, and being told that they WILL be shipping units out soon. How can we really be any more picky? We've already asked enough...haven't we?

 

[Czechyourhead]

I'd much rather wait initially, than wait for a repair. Rather wait, than worry about cleaning out a unit for shipping. I'm as impatient as the next person (maybe a little more), but again, would rather wait longer to receive it functioning properly the first time.