Juul promotional mailer rant

For starters I am noting that the only experience I have with pod devices are the bunch of Caliburns I bought for my daughters and son-in-law to try to use to get off cigarettes. I also took one hit off a Vuse (once/puke) .I have tried a hit off of one just once (I make them Winstin/Smokey Blue’s recipe and send it up north from FL).

*I have never tried a Juul although thought I was fairly read on these things (I watch a lot of reviews on YouTube).

So, I received about 8 mailers in the last 6 months from Juul and threw some of the coupons in my car. Upon going to gas up today (fucking $4.20/gallon) I said, what the hey and took a coupon for .99cents for a Juul into the convenience store.

When the guy rang it up and mentioned the total (I wasn’t even listening), I gave him the manufacturers coupon and he told me that they do not take them. I had some errands to run and stopped at a diff store / same story. Now I was on mission…

Finally at the fifth shop ( a 711), I purchased a (device) - somehow they charged me $1.69 (which doesn’t add up to .99+tax, but by this point I wasn’t going to argue.

So perhaps I am slow, but I expected there to be at least one freaking pod in the device? There wasn’t and knowing what I do about Juul there is no fucking way I was going to pay for a two pack or buy a 4/pack with $10 off. *they should give you the device if they want you to try the product.

I emailed Juul and told them nobody takes their coupons and that they should tell people they are going to need to buy pods along with the device to try the product. The wrote me back and told me that they were unaware of the promotion altogether??? (I have like 8 of the fliers/ they sent them to my addy for my x-wife, my deceased parents, and my adult son, besides myself. Here is the email I sent them back:

***“What do you mean they are not active? You sent ma a flyer with info regarding a $50K contest (which I entered) and attached to it were some apparently worthless coupons one for .99 plus tax for a device (that nowhere mentions you need a pack of pods to even use it), and another coupon for $10 off a pack of pods.
***The problem is that all of the shops you have on your locater for me to see where the product is sold, do not accept the coupons. They are good until July.
***I think there is something really off with your promotional department, at least the communication lines are crossed with customer service? I could send you photos of the coupons and mailer if you like?
***In any event, I was looking forward to trying the product, but unless you send me a working device including a pod, it doesn’t look like I am. I am not really interested in spending $30ish dollars to try Juul. You do realize the company has terrible press right now?”

End of rant / I will prolly never try a Juul and won’t be missing anything I am fairly certain!

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I can’t help with the rest, but I can help explain how $1.69 does actually add up to $0.99 plus tax. A lot of places, when they have a promotion like that actually charge you the tax on the full price of the item before the coupon. I have no idea how much a Juul device cost, but let’s say $10. That coupon is gonna take $9.01 off your total, however, you were still buying a $10 item, so your being charged tax on it. Hence $0.99 plus tax on the original price equals $1.69. I know, I know, that was totally not the point of your whole rant. But look on the bright side, even if it was only for a few minutes at least I got your mind off things and you were annoyed with me for explaining the stupid tax thing instead of Juul for being totally incompetent, lol :woman_shrugging:t3:

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Thanks, makes perfect sense!

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Update (if anyone cares) received the following reply from Juul today:

*We hope you are enjoying your week. Thank you for taking your time and reply with this information. In this case, we have routed your concern to a specialist team. We will be following up with some updated as soon the case has been reviewed to be able to provide you the best resolution possible. Usually, this process can take up to 4 business days.
Thank you for your understanding and patience on this matter, We really appreciate it. *

I’m not expecting much; the podless device is residing in my car’s glovebox, probably for a long time.

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@HVPGH I actually appreciate the follow up. Many times, we only get the BIG BADDA BOOM, but no follow up. I appreciate it.

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Follow up - they sent me a "we’re working on it email, followed by a “please photo the coupons and send it to us”. I got that email about three days ago - I wasn’t in a rush to copy them and send them back as it seemed unworthwhile (I’m kind of over Juul at this time).

Today I received the following email from them:
“We hope you are enjoying your week. We have not heard from you in a while, so we will go ahead and close this case, but feel free to reach us back if you have any further question, or you need assistance.”

I deleted it and then decided to write them back:

"I haven’t had a chance to photograph your promotional coupons, the ones that you sent me quintuplets of. I don’t really see a point as clearly you know which promotion I referred to, but were just dragging this out to close the case. I have posted of the whole experience on an avid vape forum with thousands of members.

I guess this is the customer service to be expected from a big tobacco held interest, especially now since you have lobbied to eliminate all competition.

Sending out coupons that are knowingly useless is deceptive marketing at it’s finest. "

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can’t wait for their response. CS now days is bs.

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