FC Community,
After a decade of active operation in vaping industry, we had to make the hard decision to shut down the business and I understand the disappointment that it had caused. The timeline between the decision and stopping the operation was not planned ahead of time as we thought that we could survive financially to keep the doors open based on several promises which did not come to life. In summary, we could not pursue this business any longer and it had to happen fast due to the circumstances of the partners of Haze.
I see that numerous rumors are flying around how we collected money and never shipped products or how there is legal action against us through merchant banks etc. etc.
This is not true. We have shipped every item that we collected money for. The merchant processor bank also has a substantial amount of reserves which they collected from us throughout the years so there would be no logical reason for any financial institution to come after us. Yet, I see that the same person is trying really hard to spread rumors and rally people against us to open charge backs. I will not respond to this. As Haze, we paid every vendor, every factory, every individual that we owe a penny.
My intention for this final post on FC is to thank a handful of people who truly have supported us through out all these years. I wish that we could stay in business for many more years but political, financial and international circumstances made it impossible for us to keep going. We ran into disagreements with our overseas factory in China, raw material prices were increased dramatically on us for most parts from China. We tried switching factories which caused QC issues beyond our control and I can count many other reasons that led us to this at the end but we have been operating the entire Haze business with only 5 people only two of them being employees for the entire 2018. There are many people here who have met us in person or even worked for our company who can verify this for anybody who doubt it.
5 people worked day and night to ship every product, respond to every customer, service every need for the whole year. The same 5 people had to shut down the business in a very short period of time. So I am sorry to post this today.
What I am sad about is this: Years ago, we started this to make a real difference in portable vape market. We always thought that this community was mostly enthusiasts. We have been proud of being part of this community. At our good days, I personally sent out 800 hand written Christmas cards to our customers, to community members. At our good days, we paid living expenses of a member whom we never met in person who was in need. We paid thousands towards legal expenses of a member who got himself in trouble with law which we believed that it was not fair to him. We created programs who have helped thousands of veterans and low income patients. Most of these programs, we donated free units and accessories and tried our best to help the community.
Most customers raved about Haze customer service for a very long time because we always took the hit, no matter what the circumstance was. We stood behind our products and tried our best to make it right by every member, every customer.
We just come to a point that we could not afford anymore.
It is sad to see that all those members are so quite against all these rumors being spread, hate against Haze is being spread. I see that people whom received 2-3 free replacements from us, service from us and who have been using the product for the whole year, is proudly posting how they are trying to dispute the charges today.
Unfortunately, this is how small start ups are being supported in our country and this is how we are now being treated. I really thought that we built solid relationships. Really thought that we made some difference over the last 10 years and except for the last 12 months of struggle, I really did not think that we let anyone down.
I am pretty sure that nobody gives a damn to what I just typed up here and this will be my last public post on any platform and in this industry.