Discontinued The Grasshopper

vapviking

vapviking

Old & In the Way
Copacetic said:
Wow, that's a lovely offer KTM!
FC and it's members are the best, and I'm delighted to be at the party :party:
All my batteries are beyond use now, so I'm gonna take you up on your offer!
I'll PM you.

please, ladies and gentlemen, a toast!
To ktmstick:
:clap::cheers::clap::cheers::clap:
Click to expand...
As someone said in the Mighty thread the other day, "Trust the Forum." FC is actually wonderful global community, and lots of us, I'm sure, appreciate that @ktmstick is coming to your aid.

About the shipping thing, prefaced that my anecdote is all U.S. based; Yesterday I wrote to HL telling them to cancel my SS Case order. The order also had a PFE just sitting on it and I told them to cancel or continue that part of the order at their discretion. It had seemed odd to me that they had not sent the PFE earlier, since shipping costs are accrued on a per-item basis, but whatever...

As mentioned, I got immediate reply saying that the order was revised, my Paypal would be credited and they also said the PFE would ship same day (yesterday). That email response was part of a regular interaction via support and as such was not called a "shipping notice" any of the standard headings.
I got email 2 a.m. today (Boulder time, I believe, who cares at this point!) titled 'Shipping Confirmation' that includes tracking information saying USPS had the item in the Denver facility and I'd get it by Saturday.

I really hope (and believe) that your order will get straightened out and that you get your items. So far, it seems you have upper hand in that HL has not produced any shipping confirmation and as such cannot demonstrate that it did ship to you. Though frustrating, it needs someone to put in the time to untangle the mess, and time seems to be in limited supply at the ol' Lab these days.

I'm just posting my story as small testimony to illustrate a small step in the right direction. My impression is that they are still not proceeding in fully orderly fashion, rather they're, "putting out the fires at their feet."
 
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Copacetic

Copacetic

Somewhere North of The Wall
Yeah, I concur.
If they haven't either supplied me with tracking or at least an email reply (or delivered goods!) in a couple weeks I'll proceed with PP dispute.
In the event that I get a refund and the goods then turn up, I'll happily pay again as I'm not angling for freebies here ( although I may well take @ktmstick up on his awesome offer!).

Perhaps a PP dispute would motivate GHL to send the tracking #, but I'm conscious of the possibility that they're stamping on fires like you say, so I'm gonna delay that action for yet another couple of weeks.

I'm definitely not up for just sitting on my hands forever though (not suggesting that's what you're advising btw).
Gotta draw a line somewhere :|

If I can't get batteries from GHL then I need my money back so I can try to get them elsewhere.
 
elykpeace

elykpeace

exVASted
Had the electric blue been ready to ship I would grabbed one. Awesome color but sometime may ( could be 2018 or 2019 ) wasn't helping me out despite the 25% off .. I feel like it's a loan
 
Baron23

Baron23

Well-Known Member
To review the bidding, I have had a Ti Bronze that worked wonderfully for about 18 months. Not bragging, but I never had any of the issues that some others have had with hot back ends, etc. But, it finally went to fast cop lights so back to HL it went.

They acknowledge receipt of the unit 1 Mar but based on when it was shipped, I believe it may have gotten there a day or so earlier

I have kept the board apprised of my somewhat frustrating communications with HL on this RMA and just received an update from them. Partial history for context with latest reply from HL below.

12 Mar from Olivia:
Hi "Baron23",
I apologize for the delays. Due to our recent lab upgrade, we have quite the service queue built up. I would guess it will be at least a few weeks here.
Kind regards,
Olivia

Three weeks later on 6 Apr from me:
Hi Olivia - so, my RMA'd GH has been back in Hopper's hands since 1 Mar, per your acknowledgement of receipt in this issue history.

That's five weeks for a repair?

I am aware of Hopper's in-sourcing efforts and the interruption to repair and new assembly.
But really, five weeks and nothing so far. I would dearly like my GH back in working order sometime soon.

Can you give me any idea at all of your back log and clearance rate so that I may anticipate when my GH will come back to me?

Thank you
"Baron23"

After no reply, I then sent the following two weeks later on 19 Apr
Come on, Hopper Labs. We are now up to 7 weeks with my RMA GH being in your hands and no update on when to expect it back...if ever.

I have to say, guys, that you are getting a LOT of actually well deserved bad press for continuing to run sales for new units when you have not yet been able to clear your new GH and RMA backlog (which is ridiculously long) and all the while having little to no communications with your customers on the status of their orders/RMA.

You should at least be able to provide me with an estimated return date based on your knowledge of your current RMA clearance and shipping rates. I really don't think that's too much to ask.

You have a great device when it works but Hopper as a company has generated an awful reputation for its business practices for just these reasons.

Any word you can give me...perhaps even a reply telling me to go to hell? Something?

Reply received from Hopper today from Drew (new CS person?)
I apologize for the delay in responses to your issue. We have just made personnel changes and restructuring of our customer support services and strive to vastly improve our response time to customers.

I apologize for the continued delay, thank you for your patience. We are equally prioritizing our warranty request and outstanding Grasshopper order queues. Our warranty request queue is currently servicing Grasshoppers that arrived in mid-November. So judging by your place in line and the rate of Hoppers going out, it could be a month or two more. We are working to improve our output rate, but we are just getting the ball rolling after our production upgrades to bring you a more reliable Hopper. I apologize for the inconvenience, thank you again for your patience.

Sincerely,
Hopper Labs

So, they are still working RMA's from NOV!!! That's about a current six month backlog of RMA repair queue. Wow. If it does indeed take another month or two to receive it back (which is far from assured), then total turn around would be 3-4 months which is astounding.

Yeah, I get it that they tore the place apart to make improvements but still rather think they waited too long to make these fixes, they put out too many GH's with reliability issues for too long and hence all of the failed units in for RMA, and the company has too long of a history of inordinate delays and "fixing" things ("oh, we got this THIS time" sigh). Allowing a six month backlog of RMAs to be created just really sucks.

On the upside, however, a very good friend had an almost new Ti Bronze that he lent me long term until mine gets back. It works wonderfully and if anything it runs slightly cooler than my OG GH. I'm glad to have it as I continue to try to separate my love of the device from my very real frustration with the company that makes it.

P.S. - posted this reply to Drew today in my RMA ticket:

Hello Drew - thank you for answering my inquiry. I believe a little timely communications like this with your customers will go a long away to reassuring them as they wait for their devices.

I get it but hope you at GH also get that this ends up being a 3-4 month turn around for a vape RMA (and that's only if your one-two month estimate to clear the back log is accurate).

Its hard to see how HL can see this as being at all reasonable.

I look forward to getting my unit back...sometime.

Cheers
 
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MonsterWithoutBorders

MonsterWithoutBorders

Philosophim
Baron23 said:
@slcbdco - I'm not tagging you to give you a hard time at all. I understand you have become friends with these guys at Hopper and I do understand how that can influence one's view of things. But I believe you have told us that you live right down the road from them and visit them. If so, and if you are willing, please tell them that they are FUCKING UP CS BY THE NUMBERS and are really running out of runway to improve their reputation within the community. Many of us, at this late point in time with the extensive history that's there to be read by anyone, just can no longer give credence to a damn thing they say anymore.

BASIC FUNDAMENTAL OF CS = at the very least, acknowledge your customer communications with a response....even if its just a "I will need to get back to you on that".
Click to expand...
Unfortunately. BAA.
 
MonsterWithoutBorders,
MonkeyTime

MonkeyTime

Well-Known Member
Baron23 said:
To review the bidding, I have had a Ti Bronze that worked wonderfully for about 18 months. Not bragging, but I never had any of the issues that some others have had with hot back ends, etc. But, it finally went to fast cop lights so back to HL it went.

They acknowledge receipt of the unit 1 Mar but based on when it was shipped, I believe it may have gotten there a day or so earlier

I have kept the board apprised of my somewhat frustrating communications with HL on this RMA and just received an update from them. Partial history for context with latest reply from HL below.

12 Mar from Olivia:
Hi "Baron23",
I apologize for the delays. Due to our recent lab upgrade, we have quite the service queue built up. I would guess it will be at least a few weeks here.
Kind regards,
Olivia

Three weeks later on 6 Apr from me:
Hi Olivia - so, my RMA'd GH has been back in Hopper's hands since 1 Mar, per your acknowledgement of receipt in this issue history.

That's five weeks for a repair?

I am aware of Hopper's in-sourcing efforts and the interruption to repair and new assembly.
But really, five weeks and nothing so far. I would dearly like my GH back in working order sometime soon.

Can you give me any idea at all of your back log and clearance rate so that I may anticipate when my GH will come back to me?

Thank you
"Baron23"

After no reply, I then sent the following two weeks later on 19 Apr
Come on, Hopper Labs. We are now up to 7 weeks with my RMA GH being in your hands and no update on when to expect it back...if ever.

I have to say, guys, that you are getting a LOT of actually well deserved bad press for continuing to run sales for new units when you have not yet been able to clear your new GH and RMA backlog (which is ridiculously long) and all the while having little to no communications with your customers on the status of their orders/RMA.

You should at least be able to provide me with an estimated return date based on your knowledge of your current RMA clearance and shipping rates. I really don't think that's too much to ask.

You have a great device when it works but Hopper as a company has generated an awful reputation for its business practices for just these reasons.

Any word you can give me...perhaps even a reply telling me to go to hell? Something?

Reply received from Hopper today from Drew (new CS person?)
I apologize for the delay in responses to your issue. We have just made personnel changes and restructuring of our customer support services and strive to vastly improve our response time to customers.

I apologize for the continued delay, thank you for your patience. We are equally prioritizing our warranty request and outstanding Grasshopper order queues. Our warranty request queue is currently servicing Grasshoppers that arrived in mid-November. So judging by your place in line and the rate of Hoppers going out, it could be a month or two more. We are working to improve our output rate, but we are just getting the ball rolling after our production upgrades to bring you a more reliable Hopper. I apologize for the inconvenience, thank you again for your patience.

Sincerely,
Hopper Labs

So, they are still working RMA's from NOV!!! That's about a current six month backlog of RMA repair queue. Wow. If it does indeed take another month or two to receive it back (which is far from assured), then total turn around would be 3-4 months which is astounding.

Yeah, I get it that they tore the place apart to make improvements but still rather think they waited too long to make these fixes, they put out too many GH's with reliability issues for too long and hence all of the failed units in for RMA, and the company has too long of a history of inordinate delays and "fixing" things ("oh, we got this THIS time" sigh). Allowing a six month backlog of RMAs to be created just really sucks.

On the upside, however, a very good friend had an almost new Ti Bronze that he lent me long term until mine gets back. It works wonderfully and if anything it runs slightly cooler than my OG GH. I'm glad to have it as I continue to try to separate my love of the device from my very real frustration with the company that makes it.

P.S. - posted this reply to Drew today in my RMA ticket:

Hello Drew - thank you for answering my inquiry. I believe a little timely communications like this with your customers will go a long away to reassuring them as they wait for their devices.

I get it but hope you at GH also get that this ends up being a 3-4 month turn around for a vape RMA (and that's only if your one-two month estimate to clear the back log is accurate).

Its hard to see how HL can see this as being at all reasonable.

I look forward to getting my unit back...sometime.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Can I ask when they told you they were still working on Nov RMA's? Mine arrived there Dec 1st or 4th, but wasn't checked in or acknowledged until the 19th.

They've yet to respond to any messages, so I've pretty much given up on them. It's always more of the same, and I've had my fill.

I'm already past the 4 month mark...
 
Cheesequake

Cheesequake

Free Men Don't Ask
Baron23 said:
Today
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I was told the same today. I don't believe they're even working on warranties currently. Or if they are they're doing half a hopper per day.
Tiny88 said:
You might want to have a spare butane vape as back up... nothing to break down.
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Except for the 10 lighters in a row that stop igniting randomly for no real reason. :p


Edit: Holy fuck they're "hoping to be caught up in "the next few months." :o:uhoh:
Thats pretty scary seeing as how "two more weeks" can mean as long as "six more months" to hopper labs....
Drew from HL said:
I apologize but it is hard to give a good estimation of when it will be ready due to the variability of the batch sizes of units coming out, but we are hoping to be caught up in the next few months.
Click to expand...
 
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nonbeliever

nonbeliever

Well-Known Member
Cheesequake said:
I was told the same today. I don't believe they're even working on warranties currently. Or if they are they're doing half a hopper per day.

Except for the 10 lighters in a row that stop igniting randomly for no real reason. :p


Edit: Holy fuck they're "hoping to be caught up in "the next few months." :o:uhoh:
Thats pretty scary seeing as how "two more weeks" can mean as long as "six more months" to hopper labs....
Click to expand...

Since the key to their delivering is their heater batch sizes, their variable batch size either means 1) they can’t produce very many at a time, 2) they have a high failure rate before and/or after assembly, 3) they have that many units in their RMA queue, or 4) all of the above

I actually find it almost insulting that they think it is OK. It’s certainly is mind boggling.
 
Hogni

Hogni

Honi soit qui mal y pense
Why should they change their mind? This behaviour was ok for them since the beginning. In this way they are pretty straight. Perhaps they really have a chaotic time management. Perhaps they just give a fuck about customers feelings and expectations.
 
S

snaffle

Well-Known Member
Cheesequake said:
Holy fuck they're "hoping to be caught up in "the next few months." :o:uhoh:
Thats pretty scary seeing as how "two more weeks" can mean as long as "six more months" to hopper labs....
Click to expand...

OK, I know I'm more of an optimist than most on this thread, but I honestly read this as a good sign. I think they're seeing that their unrealistic "2 more weeks" estimates did a lot more harm than good, and now they have a new policy of trying to be realistic. This could be the case as they now have a new CS team, and seemingly Trevor has also been pitching in on the CS side of things lately. A couple of months to clear the backlog they've developed sounds like what I'd expect at this point, frankly.

Of course, time will tell. And the fact that I don't have a hopper in jail with HL undoubtedly helps my sunnier disposition :)

I'm just catching up with FC threads, and saw the person in the vapcap thread complain that 1 week after ordering in the 4/20 sale he hadn't received his vapcap yet. Here's hoping he gets on the GH train; if he can find things to enjoy complaining about in Dynavap's service, boy would he have fun with a hopper :)
 
TheWhisper

TheWhisper

Well-Known Member
Hogni said:
...don't forget import taxes over 20 € (+19% on purchase + shipment)!

Good news. After making trouble they sent my new ti (bought at beg of March during the 40% sale) and it shall arrive today at my US adressee. Allegedly they put a leather sleeve into the package as a goodie for delay.
Click to expand...

Are they seriously sending you a new Hopper that was purchased in March, while I still haven't received the one I ordered in December?

I give GHL a lot of leniency, but that is beyond the pale. Now I'm pissed.

EDIT: Sent them an email expressing my outrage.
 
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Hogni

Hogni

Honi soit qui mal y pense
It was reported here that some orders are going faster after asking for state of delivery. That's what I did the days. And immediately I got a shipment notification. And in deed my package arrived yesterday at my US adressee. But now I've to wait for my US courier in June...
Maybe it's just because I ordered a Ti and they are faster available than the SS - who knows.
 
jerseydvd

jerseydvd

Well-Known Member
Got this response yesterday when i asked what’s up:
Drew (Hopper Labs) April 26, 2018, 7:36 a.m.
Hi David, Sorry for the slow response to your requests. Your device is currently in line for a new chamber assembly which should happen within the next 2-3 weeks. This is solely based on your position in the service line. We apologize for the long delay during this time as we work to upgrade every Hopper that comes in for service to the newest set of components.
 
TheWhisper

TheWhisper

Well-Known Member
TheWhisper said:
Are they seriously sending you a new Hopper that was purchased in March, while I still haven't received the one I ordered in December?

I give GHL a lot of leniency, but that is beyond the pale. Now I'm pissed.

EDIT: Sent them an email expressing my outrage.
Click to expand...

I got a reply within an hour stating that my Hopper would be shipping within 1-2 days. The squeaky wheel gets the Hopper...
 
vapviking

vapviking

Old & In the Way
TheWhisper said:
I got a reply within an hour stating that my Hopper would be shipping within 1-2 days. The squeaky wheel gets the Hopper...
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Well played. Best of luck!

"Orders and repairs are filled in the order we receive them, unless someone writes in and gooses us."
(I know that you said you waited an eternity, so this is not directed at you...)
 
H

Hawk

Well-Known Member
If you take everything that has happened within the last year between members experience and Hopper Labs email, responses, sales and new products we can come to these conclusions:

1) They are hurting for money.
- They are having sales to get more money even though they can't push out hoppers fast enough
- They are selling new products that don't even exist yet to get more money
- They are not coming out with products that they have announced and have already sold.

2) They have lied about the percentage of failed hoppers.
- Some people are told that it may take months for their RMA'd hopper to be returned because of the back log. This could only mean that the percentage of failed hoppers is very large. Not the small percentage that they insisted was the case.
- we know just by this thread that there are incredibly few people who never had an issue with their hopper. There is no reason not to believe that FC members are an anomaly and that people outside this forum have better experience with the hopper.

3) They still have not made available products that were sold to us during the backing campaign
- I ordered a SS case during the campaign. NO EXCUSE for this product not to exist 4 years later. Its an f'ing case for gods sake! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to design one and have China knock thousands off in a matter of weeks.

4) They do not care about their existing customers at all
- New customers are getting hoppers before the existing customers getting their RMA'd devices back. We are the ones that supported this company and had to deal with multiple RMA's. If they truly cared they would stop production of new hoppers, deal with the backlog of RMA's.

5) We are all f'ing idiots thinking that anything is going to change. This is the third time they promised us they fixed their issues with the heater. Seriously 4 years and they still can't get things right.
 
Cheesequake

Cheesequake

Free Men Don't Ask
snaffle said:
OK, I know I'm more of an optimist than most on this thread, but I honestly read this as a good sign. I think they're seeing that their unrealistic "2 more weeks" estimates did a lot more harm than good, and now they have a new policy of trying to be realistic. This could be the case as they now have a new CS team, and seemingly Trevor has also been pitching in on the CS side of things lately. A couple of months to clear the backlog they've developed sounds like what I'd expect at this point, frankly.

Of course, time will tell. And the fact that I don't have a hopper in jail with HL undoubtedly helps my sunnier disposition :)

I'm just catching up with FC threads, and saw the person in the vapcap thread complain that 1 week after ordering in the 4/20 sale he hadn't received his vapcap yet. Here's hoping he gets on the GH train; if he can find things to enjoy complaining about in Dynavap's service, boy would he have fun with a hopper :)
Click to expand...
After multiple years watching this company and months and months of waiting for change, I don't know why anyone would think now of all times is the time they change and start giving reliable dates.

But I've got a bridge to sell you real cheap if you're interested. Only 300 dollars. It'll be ready in about two weeks.
 
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