FAQ

FAQs
Here you'll find answers to some of the questions we are asked most frequently. If your query isn't answered here, please do get in touch with us.

Q: Who are you and why should I trust you with my money?
A: That’s a fair question. We are a group of smokers with more than 10 years of experience in the cigarette trade .
***Above all, you don’t have to trust us

Q: What payment methods do you offer?
A: We only accept bank transfers and bitcoin payments. We used to accept credit cards in the past, however this has always led to our bank accounts getting blocked.

Q: Why don’t you accept credit cards or PayPal?
A: PayPal together with the credit card networks don’t allow tobacco vendors to use their payment channels.

Q: What is Bitcoin?
A: Bitcoin is a digital currency in which transactions can be performed without the need for a central bank. It is a way to break free, a way for you to pay us without asking anyone’s permission. If this is your first time hearing about Bitcoin, here’s a short introductory video:




Sounds awesome, right? Here’s how to get started and you can buy Bitcoin from one of these services we’ve put together for you.

Q: How do I get Bitcoin?
A: Thankfully, there are plenty of services selling Bitcoin – we’ve mentioned a few in our short guide. If, at any point, there’s a problem or you’re simply confused, please do not think twice before contacting us and we’ll do our best to help you out!

Q: What countries do you ship to and how much does shipping cost?
A: We ship everywhere in the world, well maybe except North Korea! If your order amount is less than $100, we charge a $5 low order fee. Order over $200 Free shipping.

Q: How long does it take for my order to arrive?
A: Shipping times range from 3 to 35 days, depending on the destination country. To most countries, delivery shouldn’t take longer than 2 weeks from the day of the dispatch. We’re still trying to wrap our heads around how the postal system works as we had packages delivered to the USA in 3 days straight, and sometimes it would take 35 days to deliver to France. We guess it’s fair to say that the delivery time is a bit random, and to our great regret, there’s nothing we can do about it.

Q: Help, I’m running out of smokes, can you ship faster?
A: To our great regret, we cannot offer faster shipping – UPS, FedEx and other express couriers refuse to touch tobacco products. We use Express Mail Service (EMS) and generally urge smokers to place a “refill” order no later than 4 weeks before the current supply runs out. This calculation accounts for possible shipping delays and should keep you out of trouble.

Q: Do you ship to PO boxes?
A: Yes, we do. Please keep in mind that shipments have to be signed upon pick-up/delivery.

Q: What does the package look like, is it discreet?
A: It’s a neat white padded cardboard parcel from Moldova that looks like a packaged book, with nothing that mentions tobacco on the outside.

Q: Can I use a fake name for delivery?
A: We strongly advise against it because you won’t be able to retrieve your package from the post office (if they hold it for you) with your ID and the shipment will then be lost.

Q: Do I need to sign for my shipment?
A: Our packages will not, in most cases, require your signature, but it ultimately depends on your local postie. What we know for certain is that in case you’re not at home at the time of delivery and the package doesn’t fit through the parcel door chute, you will need a valid ID to pick it up from your local post office. This is also why we do not recommend using fictitious names when ordering.

Q: Are the cigarettes sold on your website genuine? Where are they produced?
A: We bet you’re asking this because of our low prices (we’ve dwelled into that in our answer to the next question). Yes, they are 100% original, sealed and produced by their respective trademark owners in their own factories across Europe. All the cigarettes sold on our website are produced either in Ukraine, Greece, Portugal or Moldova, depending on the brand, and we are buying them directly from the big wholesalers, skipping the middlemen. We also pay all the duty excise taxes locally, so all of them have genuine excise stamps on the packs which you can verify. Please bear in mind that the warning messages on the packs may differ from the ones presented and will most likely be in Romanian or Ukrainian language.

Q: How come your prices are so low? The same exact brands cost twice/three times more expensive if I buy them locally.
A: It’s because we purchase and send them from poorly developed, Eastern European countries where cigarettes cost a fraction of the price you’re used to pay in the West. There are still huge discrepancies in the standard of living across this world’s countries and as long as this discrepancy persists (as long as you guys keep on borrowing), an arbitrage opportunity will exist and will be exploited. It is also useful to understand who is setting the cigarette prices in the West.

Q: What does “non-FSC” mean?
A: To put it simply, non-FSC cigarettes are simply “old-school” smokes with no fire retardants added to paper during the manufacturing process. Fire safe cigarettes are designed to extinguish more quickly than non-FSC cigarettes if ignored, with the downside of having to inhale whole new classes of funky chemicals (there are no findings published on the long term health effects on humans of inhaling them yet). Some consumers in the United States claim finding a noticeable difference in the taste of FSC cigarettes from non-FSC cigarettes, comparing it to a copper or metallic taste.
***The cigarettes we sell have less funky chemicals in them and burn faster. Be careful when putting them off, but otherwise enjoy the clean, crisp taste of our tobacco! You can’t really get it locally.

Q: Am I breaking the law by buying cigarettes from you?
A: That is a very common misconception, but buying cigarettes online and receiving them by post is perfectly legal. If you still feel funky about this, feel free to research this topic on your own and if you find a law that stops you from purchasing cigarettes online, please do let us know.

Q: This all sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?
A: It does sound pretty damn good indeed, but it’s true – there’s a very real economic arbitrage opportunity we’re currently exploiting. Cigarettes are really quite cheap in Eastern Europe and we simply give you access to those prices, minus our cut (hey, it’s a lot of work).

Q: Will I have to pay excise duty?
A: The short answer is no. The long one sounds like this: it really depends on where you’re ordering from. There are countries like the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and France that didn’t ever (for the past 6 years) ask our customers to pay any sort of tax, even in those rare cases when customs officials manually inspected the contents of the parcels. In other countries like the UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, an excise duty is sometimes applied. From our experience however, this doesn’t happen more often than about 10% of the time. The truth is that the mail volume is big enough for it to be impractical to scan and verify the contents of each and every incoming parcel, so only a few end up being looked at closely. The funny thing is that in some countries (e.g. Australia & New Zealand), the money that you pay us together with the requested tax will still end up costing less than buying the same cigarettes locally – and only about 10% get inspected in the first place!

Q: Will you refund me in case I am asked to pay the excise duty?
A: We don’t do that, and for a good reason. Well, two actually. First, we don’t want to create an incentive to cheat – seizure notification letters are being ‘photoshoped’ and are in the wild already. Secondly, we want to avoid funding the refunds through an increase in overall prices – we’d much rather keep our prices as low as we can and share the (albeit rather small) seizure risk with our customers. In most countries (as explained in the answer above), this risk is either inexistent, very low or harmless (the final price still stays below the local market price).

***If you happen to live in a country with tough customs and your package gets stopped and you’re unhappy about having to pay tax, you most surely have the legal right to refuse the parcel and have it sent back to us. We resend all the incoming mail right back to the customer, free of charge.

Q: Will you refund/resend lost orders?
A: Such is the nature of the online tobacco industry that we can only resend your order free of charge in case it’s returned to us or if you can prove it actually has been lost. If you are a repeat customer, please get in touch and we will consider making an exception.

Q: Do you offer wholesale discounts?
A: You bet? more 20 cartons, contact us for a coupon code :)

Q: I like how you find your ways around a flawed system. Can I help?
A: Whoah, did we tell you that we love you? You can help us out big time by spreading the word about our little business, both online and offline. Namaste!