Shiz

Well-Known Member
Vaporgin. said:
...i just feel paranoid and almost feel betrayed that if my unit takes a turn for the worse..i have to then send in the broken one after receiving the new one or my warranty if voided?

...most or all people who are on this site have integrity and character and would not try to sell their old broken lb or give it away or anything...i could never even bring myself to take advantage of them like that.
In an enthusiastic community of early adopters like we have here on FC, a new vaporizer company might do well to replace a few units with no questions asked and not even ask for the old unit. That's exceptional service even for a semi closed off community like this. That's not realistic service for any company past the early stages.

Your integrity might be solid but you are naive if you really believe "most or all people who are on this site have integrity and character and would not try to sell their old broken lb or give it away or anything". :uhh: You might just be a super nice guy but there are probably people in this THREAD right now that would scam them several times for a free unit, let alone the whole site.

Do you really expect a company to operate on the honor system in the real world? Name some successful companies that replace your "broken" products FOR LIFE without you returning it at all?

Stu said:
It is especially intersting around page 10 or 11 when the lb is born. http://fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php?id=673&p=1
Thanks for that link. Reading it now and loving it. :tup:
This kind of balances out your bad post complaining about shipping costs on free lifetime replacements. :p
 
Shiz,

stuey

Well-Known Member
pakalolo said:
stuey said:
My objection to this is simply the cost of postage.

How often do you think you'll have to do this?

The thing is tiny. In a bubble envelope the total cost is probably around $3 max. You're getting a brand new device in return.

Paying the postage to return a warranty item is pretty common, and you still are getting the best warranty possible. I don't know about you, but $3 for that is not a big deal to me.

It dosent matter what the cost is.

Any cost is unacceptable.

I dont intend to pay anything if the fault is down to the construction of the LB.

People seem to loose perspective of what the warranty is.

It isn't a favour. The UK sale of goods act means that no seller of the LB could legally refuse issuing a replacement when the fault isnt down to user error.
 
stuey,

stuey

Well-Known Member
pakalolo said:
. Me, I consider all those amounts trivial compared to the value I'm getting

You are not getting value unless you broke the LB yourself.

If you buy something and it breaks in an unreasonable period of time (2 years is considered the benchmark) then any money you spend rectifying the problem is not value. That money increases the cost of ownership so in effect the LB is more expensive than the advertised price.

If you were told that in 2 years you may require 5 replacements and those all come to $7 then that puts an additional $35 onto the cost which is a 33% price hike.

Remember any UK seller is required to replace it! So why would I want to pay?
 
stuey,

Vicki

Herbal Alchemist
stuey said:
pakalolo said:
stuey said:
My objection to this is simply the cost of postage.

How often do you think you'll have to do this?

Paying the postage to return a warranty item is pretty common, and you still are getting the best warranty possible. I don't know about you, but $3 for that is not a big deal to me.

It dosent matter what the cost is.

Any cost is unacceptable.

I dont intend to pay anything if the fault is down to the construction


I don't know why you think paying for return postage is something new in regards to warranties. I have been doing a lot of shopping lately, and I have been reading the warranty information. On brands like Guess, Fossil, etc., (I could list a lot more) the consumer must pay for shipping and handling (there and back) for any warranty service. This is the norm with every warranty I have read so far, with every product I have purchased this year. Unless an extended warranty was purchased, and special arrangements apply.

I think Magic Flight has a great warranty. Lifetime, and they will even replace it if the user is an idiot and breaks it out of stupidity. I don't know any company that will do that. Please tell me if you do, because I'd really love to know! :D
 
Vicki,

george

Well-Known Member
Wow i can't understand what's so bad about sending back your product to claim the warranty...i think every single warranty i've used in my life has been this way. I broke a hockey stick, had to box it up and send it to em..whats the big deal with sending the tiny LB. :rolleyes:

@stuey- getting 5 replacements in 2 years is not likely, unless it's all user error :/ . Even if the MFLB was 33% more expensive, i wouldn't mind paying that price....as i'm sure others wouldn't either.
 
george,

caseball2051

Well-Known Member
If you are careful with your box, it wont break. Ive been gentle with my screen and have not had 1 issue. Ive had mine for 11 months now and gets used a few times a week.

If you are that concerned, if MF asks you to send it in, which they said isnt always the case, take a picture and then take your screen out to avoid any issues with shipping the unit

unfortunately, nto everyone is honest. There are people out there that are maliciously out for themselves. That is unfortunate for the people that arent.
 
caseball2051,

vape4health

Well-Known Member
I 100% understand MF , they dont want units the are broke to be sold as a good box . Then you get someone on here talking about the lb being a piece of shit because it dosnt work right but dont say its from a friend and the friend has a brand new warrenty replacement . :2c:
 
vape4health,

max

Out to lunch
stuey said:
It dosent matter what the cost is.

Any cost is unacceptable.

I dont intend to pay anything if the fault is down to the construction of the LB.

People seem to loose perspective of what the warranty is.

It isn't a favour. The UK sale of goods act means that no seller of the LB could legally refuse issuing a replacement when the fault isnt down to user error.
You're not obligated to return the defective LB. You just won't get continuing warranty coverage. And the vast majority of manufacturers require the owner to bear the cost of returning the product for repair or replacement.

As for perspective on warranties, yours doesn't seem to be in the real world. What other company offers a brand new replacement for a unit that the owner screws up? I think you'll find that other warranties are limited, in that there are conditions under which they don't have to honor the warranty. And even if the problem is a manufacturer defect, the product has to be returned to the factory or an authorized service center for repair or replacement. In many cases the replacement is an identical but refurbished product, not a brand new one.

Your Sale of Goods Act isn't binding on the manufacturer, just the seller. When Oglesby & Butler sells the iolite outside of the UK, resellers aren't obligated to deal with customers in the same way as UK resellers.

As for a 2 year warranty being a benchmark, I don't know where you get that. Warranty periods vary, with a lot of products only having 90 days, and one year is much more common than two. Very few manufacturers offer a lifetime warranty, and when they do it's usually for a product that's almost impervious to failure due to defect or breakdown. They certainly don't cover customer abuse, as MF does.

We're not going to get off on a tangent here concerning what is or isn't a good warranty. MF has the best warranty in the vaporizer world, and you'd be hard pressed to find any product that even equals it.
 
max,

chucku

Charles Urbane
Stuey,

If you are so concerned with shipping costs, buy your lb from a UK brick and mortar shop (where it will almost certainly be more expensive, btw what is the VAT on a lb?), keep your receipt and bring it back to point of purchase when necessary.
 
chucku,

Stu

Maconheiro
Staff member
Shiz said:
Stu wrote:

It is especially intersting around page 10 or 11 when the lb is born. http://fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php?id=673&p=1

Thanks for that link. Reading it now and loving it. thumb
This kind of balances out your bad post complaining about shipping costs on free lifetime replacements. tongue

I think you're confusing me with Stuey. I never complained about that.

:peace:
 
Stu,

JDSupreme

Head of Pot
wow I'd gladly spend a few bucks to send the lb if need be....

cmon people don't be cheap about postage (and dont give me that "principal" shit). we should all be kissing MF's ass for even offering as great of a warranty as their great product. Leave the return address off if you're all vaked and paranoid.

Thanks again MF for an incredible product, warranty, and customer service!!!!!!
 
JDSupreme,

Canarka

Well-Known Member
Ordered my MFLB and Space Case grinder the other day. Should be here early next week.

Finally can get rid of the bubbler plaguing my portable life!
 
Canarka,

magicflight

Manufacturer
Manufacturer
stuey said:
pakalolo said:
stuey said:
My objection to this is simply the cost of postage.

How often do you think you'll have to do this?

The thing is tiny. In a bubble envelope the total cost is probably around $3 max. You're getting a brand new device in return.

Paying the postage to return a warranty item is pretty common, and you still are getting the best warranty possible. I don't know about you, but $3 for that is not a big deal to me.

It dosent matter what the cost is.

Any cost is unacceptable.

I dont intend to pay anything if the fault is down to the construction of the LB.

People seem to loose perspective of what the warranty is.

It isn't a favour. The UK sale of goods act means that no seller of the LB could legally refuse issuing a replacement when the fault isnt down to user error.

Hi,

Couple points people might want to keep in mind: 1) The physical and social universe in which we live has certain hard limits built into it -- these must be accounted for with various inherent and unavoidable trade-offs in the realization of ANY design, whether it be for a Box or a Business. 2) It is therefore a simple fact that it is truly impossible with any such pattern to satisfy everyone, in every single way, every single time.

Stuey: I disagree your implication that the "problems" you mention are the result of faulty design or manufacture of the Box, rather than of faulty technique or unreasonable expectations on the part of the user. Some trade-offs have been made. You might not like them, but then if it were not you, it would be someone else.

After having been in this business for a while, it has been our continuing and unambiguous observation that (on average) at least more than three (3) warranty units are issued for clear and obvious cases of user error -- failing to read and follow the directions -- for every one that is issued because there might be some doubt on our part as to whether the unit sold is faulty. We are currently collecting replaced boxes because we are interested to determine (we theorize) if the proportion is actually closer to 8 to 1 -- something we cannot do without hard data.

Naturally, we have and have continued to trust people -- and for the large majority, this works out just fine. However, such trust is NOT a substitute for our own direct observation and need to remain responsive to changing circumstances. There can be little doubt that an examination of returned units in our lab is going to produce far more reliable statistical measurements then attempting to rely on any amount of indistinctly remembered user reporting of "what actually happened" with the Box (even if discounting the known unreliability of short term memory!).

In addition, it is a clear and widely accepted fact that in any sociological situation that incentives matter. Accordingly, we are interested and motivated to ensure that people have the right incentives to do the right and honorable thing, rather than for us to be unconsciously offering tacit encouragement for a small minority to act unethically. Please accept my apology if you happen to find our efforts to remain ethically responsible to be morally offensive. (Not everyone reading this is going to be expected to understand the clear difference between ethics and morality and the absolute priority of one over the other).

Furthermore, we do acknowledge that international shipping is more expensive, and as a result, we tend to ask for returns from international customers far less frequently, as a general rule, than we do for domestic orders. However, this is not to say that in the future, such returns might eventually be collected by a distributor or other company representative in your country of origin. One thing at least should at least be clear: We will retain the absolute and sovereign right to do what is necessary to remain sustainable in business, so that we can continue to offer this product to those who want it.

Our lifetime warranty is offered, in part, because we knew going into this that there would be always be some people would misunderstand, misuse, and abuse/damage their Box, despite any/all attempts on our part to provide proper education and instruction (including and especially prior to purchase). With the introduction of ANY new product this is an inherent fact, and it is best to reasonably accept it without judgment or prejudice (as we have already done). Everyone has different skills and abilities and it is best to simply accept that as a fact of life. Therefore, early on we decided as a company that we would take that risk and assume that most people are reasonable and honorable. We maintain a proportion of our capacity to build warranty units (ie, at a total loss on our part). So far, this has mostly been working out (with a few noticeable exceptions). We have no intention of changing our policies in this respect.

Lastly: Given our unconditional action of having already accepted a of significant loss of profitability on offering you 3X as much product for the price of 1 unit, it seems rather ironic that you would then respond by immediately deeming our choices completely and unconditionally "unacceptable". How loving is that? I find it hard to apologize to you for any possible manufacturing error or omission on behalf of the Company when it seems so likely that your intolerant opinions are more likely to be motivated by guilt than by fact. If I were to offer to pay the total shipping charges for you to return to our lab those two units you have already deemed "unusable", would you also find that also unacceptable? While such action would definitely move this discussion out of the realm of opinion and into the realm of measurable fact, I am sure that there could be offered any number of reasons given for why those previously replaced units could not be returned to us -- and any such reasons would be of little interest.

-- Magic-Flight
 
magicflight,

Beezleb

Well-Known Member
These are not cheaply made/fragile devices but you also cant be he-man with it either on the screen. I will not say he does or does not have warranty issues but I can say with confidence peoples reports on the MFLB do not support such view points that it is reasonable for someone to have a warranty replacement.

In fact, I am unsure if I have seen many reports of issues "I" would think that was a warranty issue but was more user error. Sure crap happens but in my belief multiple warranty claim is potentially suspicious.
 
Beezleb,

Mflb78

Well-Known Member
First post here, long time reader but never got to register until just now...which I kinda kick myself for because I might have been eligible for the beta version of the power unit... :(

Anyway..! This is a good forum, lots of helpful advice and nice people, I have read most of the thread, although its been a while since I last checked this thread....so, I was wondering about a little something and hopefully someone has an answer.

I have two MFLBS, one I messed the screen up by...I guess trying to break up the contents of the box further while being in the trench itself...? I have had it for about 4 months or a bit more, but with the use and my dumb move at the end of its use....the screen got butched. :rolleyes:

Anyway, the lid itself was very loose too. I think because I might have opened too far? It got to the point where, it would wooble abit if I moved the lid too much. It was kind of getting me paranoid about it affecting how the box operated. This was before the screen got fucked up though...

My question is, if the lid is easy to nudge to whatever side, can that affect the performance of the box? I felt it was too loose...and on my new MFLB, I saw the difference quite a lot. Its not that loose at all, although I recently had to open it a bit wider cuzz some contents got stuck in the air flow compartment thingy...the new one seems to be fine, a bit more loose now but still good.

It seems to seal fine and theres no open space between the box and the lid, but it has me worried that it could eventually get too loose and affect the performance of the box...is that a possiblity or am I being too paranoid about it? I mean, I guess the lid would slide easier with more use, but do I have to be really careful when sliding it or can I just relax, slide it open, clean stuff around the air compartment thingy....or should I just not bother with that?

Also, how delicate is the screen really? After the the screen of the last mflb, I am getting very paranoid with the new one...due to habit I barely crumbled down some contents while being on the trench and stopped myself before doing some harm...I think its looking normal and have been using the brush after that...still...it gets on my nerves that I might have touched it more then I should. Nah...its looking fine.

I think. Heh...

Anyway, as for the reason that I got two MFLBS...well, I needed more batteries, a space case grinder and I really wanted to have the newest mflb with the upgrades, the possibility of a sweeter looking wood on it, as well as getting that tube thing along with it.

So, I said, fuck it, and bought the whole combo from vapeworld again...yeah, I didnt use the warranty, cuzz I figured if i was gonna get a new box, I might as well get the space case grinder that I needed and more batteries.

The international shipping would get to me and I didnt want to get into the hassle of the warranty stuff, although apperantly its as smooth as it can be, but it would be more shipping costs...another thing that contributed to me buying a new one is that I cant wait to see what, well, if any, new upgrades are done on the box in the future.

I could then use the warranty from the old box whenever I am gonna travel and thus get a new, shiny, improved and also completely clean box I could take with me for use on whatever place I end going and leave it there for future use with whoever I might know.

Umm...I think I might have got carried away there with my first post...lol.

Anyway, cheers on the awesomeness of the magic flights provided by the launch box...! :brow:
 
Mflb78,

wthanna

Well-Known Member
The only thing that should be done "in the trench" should be vaporization. If further grinding of your herb is necessary, you should dump the abv into your hand or onto another surface, regrind, replace in the trench, and vaporize. I believe trying to grind herb in the trench with fingers is what is causing screen damage for some users.
 
wthanna,

magicflight

Manufacturer
Manufacturer
Mflb78 said:
... I messed the screen up by... trying to break up the contents of the box further while being in the trench itself...

Hi,

Welcome to the forum!

In general, attempting to breakup any material when the Box is loaded is not a good idea, as it is very likely to damage the screen (eventually). If you need to regrind, the recommended action is to dump or brush the contents into your palm (or grinder if you have one) to convert to powder and then sprinkle it back into the Box (do not press or pack!). However, if you have already damaged the screen in this way (ie, if the unit is no longer unusable) and have not already done so, I suggest that you send in a warranty request.

Mflb78 said:
My question is, if the lid is easy to nudge to whatever side, can that affect the performance of the box?

Probably not -- the lid is much less important performance wise than how well you grind the load prior to putting it in the Box.

Mflb78 said:
Also, how delicate is the screen really?

It is very delicate -- and it needs to be so to operate correctly. We provide a brush and recommend that people never apply direct pressure to the screen using anything else. Make sure your material is ground prior to loading, and then just sprinkle it in. When you are finished, simply dump, brush, or blow on screen to clear. As long as you are consistent with being careful in this way, your screen should last many years with no trouble.

-- Magic-Flight
 
magicflight,

Progress

'Socratic Existentialist, MD'
I am glad that all of that stuff about the warranty seems to be resolved.

IIRC, Magic Flight said from the beginning that the box may be required to be returned (after all it is 'repair' or 'replace'). However, so many people reported just having to send pictures and their serial number that it seemed to be a guaranteed process.

I find it understandable that they request that someone send their launch box for testing when it is inexplicably malfunctioning or when a replacement box (which I imagine is inspected more closely before shipping) is broken. This would help with quality assurance, and help some who are having difficulty using and maintaining their launchbox without damaging it get input into what they may be doing to damage it. I, myself, am amazed that they will even keep replacing them.

Why not have customers break the lid off of their LB and/or poke out their screen with a key for the pic when redeeming the warranty? (just to prevent the rare, scheming individual from being allowed to be even a mild pain for MF).
 
Progress,

stuey

Well-Known Member
magicflight said:
Stuey: I disagree your implication that the "problems" you mention are the result of faulty design or manufacture of the Box, rather than of faulty technique or unreasonable expectations on the part of the user. Some trade-offs have been made. You might not like them, but then if it were not you, it would be someone else.

If that is the case, then why did you change the design to include an O ring in the bowl?

Surely this was added because there was a problem.
 
stuey,

stuey

Well-Known Member
magicflight said:
Lastly: Given our unconditional action of having already accepted a of significant loss of profitability on offering you 3X as much product for the price of 1 unit, it seems rather ironic that you would then respond by immediately deeming our choices completely and unconditionally "unacceptable".

-- Magic-Flight

If they worked as intended there would be no need to replace anything.

Stop and think for a second, you arent doing anyone any favours, you are simply replacing units that are faulty. If they didnt go wrong you would never need to replace them.

So sending out 3 replacements implies that the LB do not stand up to reasonable usage.

I think somewhere along the line you have stopped viewing the replacement policy as what it is.. which is you correcting faulty LBs and instead you are viewing it as some kind of good will gesture.
 
stuey,

stuey

Well-Known Member
magicflight said:
If I were to offer to pay the total shipping charges for you to return to our lab those two units you have already deemed "unusable", would you also find that also unacceptable?

-- Magic-Flight

No I certainly wouldn't object to that.

My objection isnt returning the LB its paying for the return.
 
stuey,

stuey

Well-Known Member
magicflight said:
Mflb78 said:
Also, how delicate is the screen really?

It is very delicate -- and it needs to be so to operate correctly. We provide a brush and recommend that people never apply direct pressure to the screen using anything else. Make sure your material is ground prior to loading, and then just sprinkle it in. When you are finished, simply dump, brush, or blow on screen to clear. As long as you are consistent with being careful in this way, your screen should last many years with no trouble.

-- Magic-Flight

Both of my boxes had problems with the screen. I have never touched the screen with anything but the brush. Thats why I think there is some kind of design flaw.

Other than this, I am very happy with the LB.. but I do think there is an issue with the screen and I do envisage future replacments as a result of this.

Maybe I have just been unlucky. I am on my 3rd box and this one dosent seem to be showing any screen issues (the other two began showing problems within a week or so.. I can only assume that thats down to it not being used and thus not heating up and cooling down a few times).
 
stuey,

champ3185

Well-Known Member
I am sure I echo most ppl here when I say MF as company has excellent business ethics. In fact I would say that they are the best company I have ever dealt with.. They didn't have to offer a lifetime warranty, but they did. I don't believe that they would offer that if they felt that the lb has a poor design or had issues in regards to durability.

champ
 
champ3185,
Top Bottom