Post on reddit saying S&B isn't RMA'ing for Error 4 any more.
"it appears that they are no longer offering RMA replacements for Venty devices with the "Error 4" issue. Instead, they mentioned that all affected devices will be fixed soon through an upcoming update."
Yeah, I saw that. At least one other person in the thread is in the same boat and it seems to be accurate.
Again, never buying S&B. This is a company that
used to have good customer service. But having to do repeated replacements on a device that clearly should never have launched is terrible customer service. The fact that you have to send your device in first when they
know the devices are bricked and you are just left without your $500 purchase for a week every single time the faulty thing breaks is terrible customer service. Not honoring the shipping policy in the warranty as a default and making customers request S&B pay for the shipping that they have
already agreed to for RMA claims is terrible customer service. Not responding to any of the very real criticisms in any meaningful way with any kind of public PR approach and instead just sending people who have already bought your device updates about their faulty devices and then continuing to sell it with no warning is terrible customer service.
I understand that people think that having a robust RMA process is good customer service (although I would argue it is far inferior to just, ya know, having working products that cost half a grand). But the thing is
the RMA process is no longer robust. Everything I have mentioned has been seen over and over again. Customer service sends canned responses instead of actually solving the issue with an RMA. And now,
the Venty is no longer eligible for warranty for the massive, repeated error that hundreds or thousands of users are having. There
is no RMA process for the Venty's most common issue. That is not robust, and is probably illegal in the EU, but S&B clearly does not care.
And the fact that they can't even put a time on it. In that post, the user was waiting for over a week, meaning this is
not a fix that warranted shutting off RMAs which take roughly a week. Even if it comes tomorrow, it will have meant that
users had a worse experience than what was stated in company policy as allowable.
Honestly, any goodwill I had toward S&B from my friends with 20-year-old volcanoes has entirely vanished. I will not be buying any new S&B products until I see some
major changes in customer service and accountability. Hell, I won't even be buying any used devices, because I have absolutely zero faith that S&B will honor their warranties or will actually fix them if there are problems since they have shown such blatant disregard for their own policies and support. To those who got hoodwinked into buying this brick, I am so sorry, and I hope there is some recourse for you in the future, since right now S&B isn't allowing returns even for defective products. I know, I know, "when it works, it is the best electric vape on the market!" But a device with even a 5 or 10% chance of becoming a paperweight doesn't seem like
anyone can actually reasonably claim that it is a reliable device.