First of all, I'm sorry that this is so long.
I have made several small purchases over the darknet. I have attempted several more than that. Before I go into detail, the basic question is this -- am I being sort of an asshole for expecting the dark net to function similar to licit sellers, or have I just had a bad run of luck?
I can get a little verbose at times, so here's the short version:
Several months ago, after copious research and deliberation, I decided to order a gram of wax off the dark net. Order seemed to go smoothly -- ordered on a thursday, shipped on friday, got to me on monday. Like others have described, the feeling was sort of unreal. I was so enthusiastic that about a week later I placed an order for another gram of a supposedly higher quality wax. Shortly after doing so, I started seeing warnings here and on reddit that the first batch of wax was tainted and unsafe for consumption. I was bummed, but I figured that since I had another order still in processing with the same vendor, I'd ask for the replacement to be sent with my new order.
No response. This second order was actually the best experience I've had so far -- it was stuck in "processing" for 8 days, but once it finally shipped it arrived quickly and was good quality. I continued to communicate with the vendor about a replacement for the original bad batch, and despite many assurances that he would or already had shipped it, I've never seen any sign of it. I don't really have any ill will toward the guy, but I get the impression that he is forgetful and disorganized, although well intentioned.
Anyhow, after this I decided to move to evolution in hopes of finding someone with a little more professionalism. I found a very solid looking vendor and placed an order. 24 hours later the sale was declined and I was sent a PGP message encrypted with the wrong code.
Not knowing what went wrong, I moved to Agora hoping that the third market would be the charm. I placed an order with a vendor that had ~70 transactions and a stellar reputation on other markets. He immediately responded with a request to finalize early. I was very hesitant, but at this point I just wanted to be done with it, so I FE'd followed by a note saying, "Please don't be rude and steal all my money now. :)"
I should have gone with my gut, because 5 days later after no activity, the actual vendor showed up on the Agora forums demanding that they freeze his account and saying that a hacker had taken it over.
One positive was that 72 hours after putting the scammer in vacation mode Agora refunded my $50 in btc. I wasn't expecting this since I had never made a successful purchase in their marketplace and could easily have been a shill for the scammer. That was pretty cool.
Anyhow, with my refunded BTC, I placed ANOTHER order on agora, making sure the vendor had a stellar reputation and no requirement to FE. I actually liked this vendor quite a bit, as they got the order out very fast and responded to inquiries quickly. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the product that I believe was out of their control. Basically, the packaging made it appear full when in fact it was about 2/3 empty. I sincerely believe that the vendor didn't know this, but honestly I am just sick of having to try to bargain and explain things like this.
I decided to just leave it alone and place one final order. The vendor on Evo who had declined my order sent a new message with an explanation that they had learned that the batch of wax was tainted and they'd canceled all orders on it until it was sorted out. They also sent me a link for a discount. Overall I'm very impressed by this and everything I've read about the vendors leads me to think they are stand up people...
BUT... The reason I decided to try with them one last time is because they "guarantee" all shipments to go out within 48 hours and seemed to have good customer service. I placed the order late Tuesday night, which just so happened to be the last time that the vendor signed in to Evo. It's now past the mailing deadline on Friday and still no sign.
I get that darknet vendors don't have automated distribution centers like amazon and I understand that they have to operate differently due to security, but am I being unreasonable by hoping that ONE vendor I find will ship a good product quickly?
I'm sorry for making this so long -- I partly just wanted to vent about the experience since this isn't the sort of thing that I can really talk about anywhere else. Any tips for a wax vendor that will send a gram of high quality stuff within 48 hours of placing an order?
You are just unlucky. I've made 50ish orders (although to be fair, not recently), starting off on SR1 and I have never been scammed or had shitty product. The biggest problem I've had has been delivery times because the vendor decided to just disappear to catch up on orders. He didn't message anyone or post on the forums to say that's what he was doing. It took a fortnight which wasn't really the issue, it was the anxiety/paranoia his lack of communication caused.
Research matters, sure. Checking out vendors on here and on the forums is useful in stopping stuff like what's happened to you. However, some of it is just pure luck.
FE'ing divides this sub and so feel free to ignore me, but don't do it. I never have. I may be overly neurotic but no vendor is "trusted" to me. It doesn't matter if I have 10 previous transactions; I will acknowledge that things have gone well previously and may choose them over someone I haven't used before but I do not trust them because I figure today could be the day they decide to pull an exit scam. A lot of the high profile exit scams have been pulled by popular, respected and well known vendors. Look up Tony76 from SR1. For me, it isn't so much about the money - I am fortunate that losing it and having to re purchase wouldn't cause me any hardship - but I don't want my name and address in the hands of a scammer and a thief nor the anxiety of waiting for a package that isn't coming. So I don't FE. Ever. If they require it, I look elsewhere. I'd rather pay the £5 or whatever more for the relative safety of escrow.
I am also a little wary of very large vendors. No disrespect to them but they are more likely to be on LE's radar than a middle of the road one and I am somewhat cynical about how many vendors keep addresses. While I was only buying personal use amounts and LE is likely to have very little interest in me, I still don't want them coming across my name and address if that vendor gets busted. While a list of names doesn't prove anything, I'd rather err on the side of caution. As I said, I am probably overly neurotic.