Electronic cigarettes are a smoke-free and convenient alternative to smoking tobacco. When compared “puff for puff” with conventional cigarettes, they are also impressively inexpensive, sometimes costing as little as a fifth of what you’d pay for a comparable number of traditional cigarettes. To get started, however, you do need to make an initial outlay that is significantly more than you’d pay for a packet of ordinary cigarettes. With some starter kits costing as much as £60 or £70, low-cost deals, coupon codes and especially free trial offers are very tempting. But where can you find free electronic cigarettes, and are they worth your time? More importantly, how free is “free”?
Trials offering a free electronic cigarette are not hard to find. Eschew sites with names like “GreatFreeE-CigaretteOffers”, since these tend to be web-spam. A quick glance will show you that such a site doesn’t generally have current information on actual offers. Any links will usually take you to internal pages or advertising sites.
Instead, look for offers via social media. Electronic cigarette vendors typically have Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and profiles on other social media platforms; you can often find free trials and discounts via these. Another source of information on free trials are the better e-cigarette review blogs; these are particularly helpful, as they will often have feedback from other customers. Money-saving and budgeting pages and sites offering coupons and special offers may also carry free trials.
A well-run free sample or free trial offer from a reputable e-cigarette manufacturer can be a good way to experience the difference between conventional smoking and vapour cigarettes without the risk. That said, there are a few red flags that you should watch out for; sometimes a free electronic cigarette can end up costing more than you’d expect.
The first thing to check is whether the offer is for a free sample item that you get to keep, or for a trial item that you’ll need to return. Many e-cigarette companies offer one of their disposable e-cigarettes as a free sample, while a re-usable model may need to be returned if you find you don’t like it.
If you’ll need to return the e-cigarette, check to see how long the trial period is. If it’s a relatively short period (14 days is quite common, for example), make sure that the estimated shipping time will allow for you to return it. If the offer doesn’t specify a shipping time, you should probably look elsewhere.
Check the details of the returns procedure. This should be fairly simple, but some companies will have a rather more involved process. If people have to call a premium rate phone number, for example, or a number that’s only available for a few hours a day, returning the product may be much more complicated. Some people will be discouraged enough to change their minds and keep the unit instead.
Another important question to ask is this: what happens if you keep the e-cigarette after the end of the trial period? In some cases, you’ll only lose the price of a basic unit — say, £10 or £15. If the trial is for a more expensive model, you could find yourself paying £60 and up to keep a kit that you don’t want. Some disgruntled customers have also complained that they were billed for the price of a high-end unit, while the kit they actually received to try out was cheap and basic.
In addition to the cost of shipping and handling, some offers specify a re-shelving fee for returned products: this can be another £10 on top of your existing costs. When considering a free offer, compare the cost of shipping, handling and re-shelving with the cost of simply buying a similar product from a local store, or from another vendor. You can typically find the most basic kits (consisting of a battery, cartomiser and charger) for under £10. While these are not the most luxurious way to enjoy vaping, they offer reasonable value for money. It may be that you could actually spend more on a free electronic cigarette than you would on a budget model at the standard price.
In short, you should ideally try to find a no-strings-attached offer where the sample item doesn’t need to be returned. If you do decide to plump for a trial item that you’ll have to return if you’re not satisfied, you should make sure there are no undue obstacles to your returning it well before the deadline.
Additionally, it’s a good idea to do a little basic research before you send off for a free e-cigarette. The vaping culture is a talkative one, and people are generally glad to recommend a free trial if they’ve had a positive experience themselves.
