N Joy Starter Kit

Update: NJOY brand of electronic cigarettes are no longer distributed on the Internet from what I understand.  At least not from Ecommerce America, who represented NJOY in the USA and who was my contact for a while when I put up the review a long, long time ago.

June 23rd, 2011:

I received this email in my inbox, announcing a HUGE NJOY sale:

Orders up to $100 will get 10% off with coupon code NJOY10.
Orders over $100 will get 15% off with coupon code NJOY15.
Orders over $200 will get 20% off with coupon code NJOY20.

Then, there was an email from the person who ran the marketing and distribution for NJOY in the USA stating that they had “consolidated their online presence” and they were not offering NJOY products through any marketing platform.

Here is an excerpt….
Recently NJOY has made a policy decision which is to
consolidate their online presence. As a result that means
that we will no longer be allowed to offer NJOY products.

Huh?

The email followed up and stated that a new brand was available for purchase through this same contact, called “Metro electronic cigarettes.”  Okay, this got really confusing, I thought.  It sounds like a distribution deal/exclusive partnership gone bad.  Not my business, I guess.

Then, it got weirder.  Check out this email I got in July of 2011…..

Hi,

It was recently brought to our attention by NJOY’s legal team that your site http://www.bestecigarettesreview.com/njoy-electronic-cigarettes/ is unlawfully using their trademark, as well violating the terms and conditions of our affiliate program.

As we have stated in recent emails we sent out to our affiliates, we are no longer selling NJOY products and any continued use of their trademark, NJOY, is a violation of trademark laws. You must remove any references to NJOY immediately or face further action from NJOY.

We do realize that this was probably an innocent oversight, however it’s a serious matter which needs immediate attention.

Please let me know once all references to NJOY has been removed from the aforementioned web page as well as any others you might own or control.

Okay, first off, I’m not an affiliate of this program.  In fact, I have emails backing that up.  Second, where is freedom of speech?  If I want to talk about Coca Cola, I can tell everyone about Coca Cola.  To say I am violating trademark law is absurd, and shows how haywire this whole situation is.  I’ve been around the block in business long enough to know what I can and can’t say in blog posts.  Trademark violation for saying their name on a blog?  Okay so I guess every blog in the world that mentions a product that is trademarked is violating trademark law, right?

Anyways, I never really liked their product anyways – wasn’t among the top e cigs in my book, so I won’t spend any more time on this and am very, very confused as to what is going on with this brand and their distributor.

SMH  (Shakin’ my head for all of you who don’t know the Twitter abbreviation.)