UPDATE: So they overnighted me the pineapple juicy along with a second for my troubles. FWIW They made good on it. I actually ordered 10ml of flavor and they sent two 15ml bottles. I dont know what more i could possibly want reasonably. Thats definitely making amends and going out of their way to make it good. Thanks NR.
So ive ordered two DIY kits from Nicotine river and the first time was great. no issues, shipped in a timely fashion well packed etc etc. The second however had a few issues.
When i opened the shipment i noticed immediately that the pouch of flavors was wet inside. Then i found the pineapple juicy flavor straight up had a few chunks of the white plastic safety seal floating in it.
There was straight up plastic floating in the juice.
I immediately put in a ticket back in November about a day or so after i received the product and then asked about a status update about 10 days later since i never heard anything. I placed a second ticket with them referencing the first ticket and got a response on December 12th, had a back n forth conversation with info@nicotineriver where they asked for basically all the information i had already provided on the same ticket email thread they replied to. They promised to ship another out and i even told them no rush, things happen no biggie.
Now at this point all i wanted was another bottle of the pineapple juicy, hold the plastic. I wasnt looking for anything free and accidents happen so i was certainly not upset. Having to ask twice for a complete order without plastic floating in my juice irritated me but its not a big deal. Ignoring the request and making me ask a 3rd time kind of pisses me off.
I finally had to find their phone number and give them a call because as of today i hadn't heard another word. The person on the phone was somewhat courteous but was obviously a tad short on patience or wasn't really tryin to hear it as she cut me off a few times while i answered her questions. All of which could have been answered by looking at the exact same tickets i had already shared with her. Apparently their ticket system doesnt actually show them the pictures and apparently their email doesnt either as i had sent them in two different ways. and No, no one at any point told me they had issues receiving the pictures, i suppose they just figured id call again?
After expressing a bit of frustration at how difficult it had been to try and get with them to make it right, she said she would "see if maybe she could get me a 10% off" but honestly im not sure if im really interested.
TL;DR = Ordered things from Nic River middle of November. Got floating plastic in my juice. Sent two support tickets over the next month with no luck had to call and request for a 3rd time, a proper bottle of Pineapple juice. Buyer beware and check your order. God help you if you have an issue and dont expect them to be very worried about it. Personally if i ran a Vape juice supply business and a customer found plastic in their "food grade" products id probably bust ass to make it right but thats just me i guess.
https://imgur.com/OJ79sda https://imgur.com/M6ecXdt
I once provided the wrong address to Bull City and they sent it...I emailed them and asked if I had any recourse and they straight up resent the order at no cost to me. It took less than a day.
Just sayin.
Im not really sure what your sayin or implying tho..
I know it wasnt a mistaken address, as i had recieved the shipment just fine, just one of the bottles was jacked up. To be honest, If literally any explanation had been provided at all over the last 2.5 months I wouldnt have been upset.
My first ticket was ignored for 2 weeks and didnt get a response till i put in a second ticket. They replied and said they would ship another and then just didnt. I had to track them down a month later. My issue is with a total lack of response really, and a hollow "sorry i guess" vibe i get from it all.
I'm saying Bull City is awesome, sells all the same flavors , if not more flavors and has excellent customer service.
Also playing devils advocate here, i once got a gallon of VG from NR with the seal broken. I sent them an email very explicitly saying I wanted nothing replaced but I just wanted to let them know that there was possibly a batch issue.
Reply email was apologizing for the error and had tracking for a package with a new gallon of VG. Got it in 3 days CA to FL.
Side note: I love BCF and NR equally.
Playing Devil's Advocate . . .
If you're buying small "test run" bottles - you get more from NR than BC. For the majority of brands you get 10ml from BC and 15ml from NR - for the same price. For a few flavors, NR is actually cheaper and still gives you more.
Now im picking up what youre putting down lol and thank you.
Customer service is a HUGE deal for me as im willing to pay a little more if i feel i trust the company and or certain i will be treated well.
All sorts of companies make a thing, or sell a widget and things happen in commerce or shipping or manufacturing. Parts break, shipping gets crushed, etc etc. Shit happens. Knowing the company youre dealing with wont leave you in the lurches and will stand behind their products/service/whatever is priceless to me.
Yeah, reviews should be taken with a grain of salt. Lots of companies out there looking to tarnish competitor's reputations for a piece of the pie. Or to beef up their own; like that 5 star review by that "one guy".
Yes,you've caught me, a paid Bull City shill.
I just like Bull City for flavors.
I've actually been getting my nic from NR because Nude Nicotine's customer service sucks so hard.
I ordered my first DIY kit from them a few years ago on Black Friday. Shipping was delayed like, 2 days & they comped me the entire order with apologies (without provocation). I have never ordered supplies from anyone else.
I just want to show the other side of the coin here.
a few years ago, phew. Damn how their CS has changed if they refunded your order after a 2 day delay back then. I just waited almost 2 weeks (order during the sale on the 28th of Dec.) for mine to finally be sent out YESTERDAY. Someone in a similar situation said they just threw in 2 bottles of some shitty flavors as a courtesy for the trouble.
Pretty sure they're giving away shitty flavors to get rid of them. Everyone seems to be getting some.
Yeah I'm not gonna defend nic river's handling of the matter as it should have been replaced in timely manner. However you are kinda of making a mountain out of a molehill here. A piece of the plastic cap broke off during bottling process hence the leakage. The same plastic that your concentrate is currently sitting in. It's in no way contaminated else every bottle you have would be. It'll never make it out of the tip. Should they replace it sure but certainly not something to lose your shit over.
If im honest agree 100% about everything.
But the bottom line here is if youre buying a consumeable product and turns out a shipment has an issue, the customer shouldnt need to put in 2 tickets with pictures and then finally track down a person via a long distance phone call to make it right.
I feel you, but its not like im calling for a boycott. Just stating that if you do have an issue, you may have some issues getting it resolved and will have to be very patient.
I also wonder if the safety seal is the same food grade plastic that the bottle is in.
In most industries that seal wouldnt be considered the vessel that the liquid is sold or held in so i would not be surprised if it didnt HAVE to make the same BPA free or whatever food grade certifications the container does.
I have no idea if its the same manufacturer tmaking the safety seals as the bottle.
Not tryin to negate your point, again, my issue was really response time moreso than the actual plastic bit. So i agree its probably not a big deal but id bet you a dollar its not the same plastic at all that the bottles made out of.
The tip, cap and seal are all the same plastic. Unless they've changed which by your photos they haven't they are all chubby gorilla bottles.
I put in an order a week ago and have yet to receive any tracking info. I've been buying from them for about 2 years now with no issues so far. It would be nice for some kind of acknowledgement if there is an issue, otherwise I'm just hoping it shows up tomorrow or soon and I just didn't get the tracking sent to me...
If they are still experiencing issues due to the fires, then I am not currently aware of it.
They are slammed from the big sale they did in between two holidays.
It says so right on the front page of their site. A buddy of mine placed an order roughy 24 hours before me. My order number was 500 after his...within 24hours...
Give it some time.
The last digits in the order number? I'm 856 - order placed the 2nd.
Did you not see the big print on their front page that says "Please expect shipping delays due to holidays and sales"?
I did not, their homepage is so big on my Chromebook all I remember seeing is the top of their logo graphic. And I typically spend all my time in the search function when I'm there. I would have caught it on the payment/shipping page.
Thanks for the heads up though.
Shipping delays normally do not equate to more than a week longer though with most of the vendors I deal with ... even during sales. Also, my normal vendor at least has an idea or when things may ship ... NR does not have any idea when asked. To many of us that is rather important so that we do not run out of supplies.
Did they ship your order? I've been waiting for 10 days and still no tracking or anything
No, I got an email asking if I received it a few days ago that I'm going to respond to now, and still no tracking yet.
Edit: It was just a survey if I did receive the order to review... Just a link to the main website if I didn't. So I guess I'll continue to wait.
Fuck man, really? Today was day 8 for me and I'm getting antsy. Hard up for money so decided to get my first kit for diy and spent what I had with them. I'm thinking it could be another week now. What the fuck.
My first order from Nic River was November 15th. If I recall correctly they had a message on their website stating that they were having warehousing issues due to the fires but were still operational. I received my order quickly & on time, though I'm not very far from them.
They screwed me up bad a month or so ago. I had using them solely for my small diy business for over 3 years, they were my go to vendor, never had any issues. Skip to November I place a $400 order and it doesn’t leave the warehouse for 2 weeks! I sent them several emails w/ no response. Finally got them on the phone and for 3 days, every day she promised me it would go out for sure that day, and it didn’t. Figured it was an anomaly and I would give them a break. Order gets here and it’s literally just vg, none of the nic or flavors I ordered. It takes me several days after them not responding to my emails to get them on the phone. Finally do and they say they’re sorry, and it will be sent out that day (the replacement). A week later and still no shipping notice! They finally did get the whole order to me after 2 months! I talked to a manager on the phone eventually. Told him I looked it up and I had spent over $3,000 w/ them over the last few years and them doing that to a loyal customer was unacceptable. From now I I buy my flavors at bull city and my nic and vg from wizard labs. I don’t know what happened to nic river but the whole company has totally tanked
i ordered from NR once, after only having used BCF prior. everything arrived and was as it was supposed to be or so i thought. unfortunately it wasn't until a month or so after recieving the order (large order w/ many flavors) that i got around to tasting the 4oz FA Strawberry. i had been using an older 4oz i had previously bought from BCF. wouldn't you know the flavor was NOT FA Strawberry. it had to be mislabeled b/c it didn't seem like a flavor had gone bad. but this was a 18 dollar bottle of juice mind you. none the less, i've since regretted not trying to at least contact them and explain my situation. i was afraid of how it'd look and assumed they'd think i was just trying to get something for free. reading this though, it sounds like i saved myself a headache. every order following i've returned to BCF and i've yet to have an issue with them. for what it's worth i'm not trying to bash nic river, it was just a crap situation and probably a simple mistake on their part. just sharing my only experience with NR.
I received an order today from BullCityFlavors where there was juice inside the ziploc bag they'd used. The leak didn't seem to be out of any of my ordered bottles. Yet one of the caps on the TFA 10 mL doesn't mate with the threads. So it makes a person wonder for all vendors, how much of a rush are they in to get orders out? They can't even wipe the bottles down before putting in a ziploc? Or to at least visually inspect them a little?
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Hope you get your flavor concentrate without much more hoopla.
A lot of times that happens from expansion during shipment where it leaks out into the bag past a cross-threaded lid. That happens a good bit to me with my coatings I have delivered.
I ordered my first batch of diy supplies from nicotine river over the new years rush and while I did have leakage in the plastic with my pg/vg bottles, there were no signs of actual leakage. Looked like someone just poured some in the package. I did email them about it just for a heads up for them(it couldve been on the shipping but who knows). My bottles are fine though and no signs of leakage anywhere,however they did say that if the bottles did leak down the line, they would replace them free of charge. I'm happy though.
They've been having troubles for a bit now. Between the fires and chaos that is that area, they've been struggling a little. Most of my recent orders have been wrong in some fashion but they always make it right. Some times it takes a few tries but they always get there. This last one cost them quite a bit but they didn't flinch before sending a(nother) replacement order. This time it's about 25 pounds that they OVERNIGHTED. I bet that shipping cost outpaced my order total. It's been frustrating but their insistence on correcting errors (and low prices) has kept me buying from them.
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The main difference with me is that they are always super quick to respond.
Not trying to make excuses for NR, but . . .
Are you aware that NicRiver is located in Thousand Oaks CA? If that name sounds familiar, it's because it's been in the news a lot recently. Mass shootings and runaway fires might have rattled their cage a bit and led to less than stellar customer service.
well thats fair if im honest, but communication is key. Again, if things are going on that impact your business, if it were me, id be vocal about that in response to issues that might crop up.
But i probably wouldnt largely just ignore it or not offer up any apologies. Id probably put my best Customer voice on and put some sort of effort into making sure the customer isnt thinking im indifferent.
Using a throwaway account for this. This isn't the first time theres been plastic in nicotine river products. I had plastic chunks in my nicotine about a year ago. This was NOT a piece of plastic that broke off from the cap. These were in 5 gallon pails. I contacted them and the response was pretty unbelievable. They said they cant do anything about it and cant ensure this wont happen again in the future!! The only thing i could think of is the mixing blade chips off the plastic from the side of the container. Either way, it is unacceptable to have shards of plastic in your liquid. And for them to be aware of it and not have a solution for it moving forward was shocking.
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We only notice the visibly big ones. if this is common practice, one could assume there are times where the plastic is in the liquid that go unnoticed. Never recommended them again after that.
Why a throwaway?
Hmmm so the real question after a post like that, is this just an industry thing? Is it rather common for any vendor due to how they package or produce these chemicals/liquids?
Shipping practices and Customer service may be sloppy but i dont want to hold it against them if its something that has a likelihood of happening anywhere else its sold.
Know what i mean?
I'd prefer this kind of thing go in the Vendor Review thread (Nic River is coincidentally the next one in the queue to be posted). But I'm curious what everyone else thinks.
Please reply to this comment or do the upvote (agree) downvote (disagree) thing, but I can't really count them, so a comment would be more helpful :)
Nic river has had troubles since the fire in California when they had to evacuate the warehouse. I do agree we should keep each other posted upon what vendors can be trusted, who is having trouble filling orders, who is having bad customer service. To be honest post like these has saved me a lot of money
Should be put into the Vendor Review. These putting vendors on blast on the front page may make someone feel a little better, but in the long run doesn't help others get the full picture when looking at the linked review. Post in the appropriate section people.
Just my .02.....
I figure you mean to comment in response to you. Is that right?
I do feel like we are a community and should maintain tabs on trusted vendors. I also don’t feel comfortable with these kinds of posts in general. I’ve had a horrible experience before with an online vendor and didn’t post about it. I called the company and was on hold for 5hrs until I got someone.
A question about people’s experiences would go in a vendor’s thread. A question about what’s going on with nicriver? Maybe weekly questions. A rant about a bad experience? Perfect for yelp.
Edit: love the tag btw
Welp i read the sidebar before i posted but i never thought to look for a vendor review thread. my Bad.
Not a problem at all. Only started refreshing the vendor review threads a few weeks ago and you wouldn’t have had one to post this in (yet)
I was just using the opportunity to see how people felt about reviews (or complaints) like this. Your post is fine and I’m glad you took the time to share your experience.
No one is asking the real question so I will do it:
OP why the hell did you order Pineapple Juicy in the first place?
LOL. I actually like it. I made a Glass Caribbean punch clone and use it for that. I also use it for a pretty good Naked Lava Flow clone. I think its Lava flow. Its the pineapple strawberry coconut jam.
Last order from them I had issues with - an incorrect flavor and bottles missing caps. Excusable mistakes, no problem. Sent 3 emails to customer service over the course of a week or two with 0 response. Been meaning to follow up with them and find out what's going on... Kind of annoyed my emails seem to have went ignored
I just got an excuse/explanation email from Nic River(you probably did too)...so it's safe to say it's not just you.
Well I said from the start i wasnt out for blood, just kinda miffed that i got what i felt was the run around. So I did get an email but it was a notification that they had shipped my order.
it would appear Nic River did not just send me a bottle of Pineapple juicy by mail like i asked, they resent my ENTIRE order OVERNIGHT* (they didnt it was just an automated email) The email has the entire Kit and the additional bottle of juice i ordered.
Im beginning to think one of the other posters here was probably right. There has been some serious situations in their own backyard being as they are out of Thousand oaks and so far all the folks in this thread have said their issues have all been in the same timeline.
I will update this thread if i get home today and have an entire 55 dollar order waiting for me instead of the 2 dollar bottle of flavor. UPDATE: they sent me a 15ml bottle of Pineaplple even tho i orderd a 10ml and sent two for my troubles. Just to be clear they tripled what i was missing and overnighted it to me. I cant really ask for anything more than that. They definitely made good on the small mistake.
i just placed an order with nic river last night now im reading all these review from two months ago where people had waited weeks or even a month in some cases for a order any recent orders from them?
So i wouldnt hold it against them. a Redditor pointed out they are in Thousand oaks Cali and they had a really hard time a while back. I believe there were serious storms causing flooding and there was a terrible mass shooting event.
They struggled for a few weeks possibly even a month but as far as i know they did everything they could to make it right with everyone.
They took care of me, made it right and im not going to hesitate to give them another shot when i need to place another order.
I placed my first DIY order from nicriver (just gonna start dabbling in this stuff with 0 nicotine because i don't trust myself with it also want to quit nicotine this might help)
So I place order on Sunday 1/6 at 5pm I see the banner for expect delays and think we'll shit should be atleast proccessed by Friday right?
Nope still no information considering canceling my order for a refund and going to a different vendor. I'd also like to note i already got extra cotton, labels, and a scale from a different website that's just sitting here waiting on this order.
Did your order ship already? I've been waiting for 10 days and still no tracking or anything
Nope I'm on day 9 with no tracking or anything. I emailed them asking for an update and alternatively if my order won't ship soon to cancel it and refund me I'll find another vendor.