I am gutted.

fasttech logo

The popular online retailer Fasttech has closed down.

Hands up if you were a customer! At one point this place offered the widest range of devices, supplies and rebuildable consumables at a bargain price.

The downside was waiting a couple of weeks for delivery but I always used the mantra

“Do not buy what I cannot afford to lose”

which when it came to Fasttech served me well.

Over the years I bought all sorts from the site, not only vaping gear.

Plus they were regularly nominated in our Ecigclick awards – even winning Best Overall International Online Store in 2021.

Best Store international 2021

Anyway sadly the site is no more.

An announcement in the forum pages on December 5th 2022 stated that new tax regulations were causing huge issues for the company and they had investigated ways around this. Unfortunately these hurdles appeared to be too large to overcome and the site has closed.

The issues were the China “Consumption Tax” on e-cigarettes which was imposed 1st November 2022. All entities / individuals who produced, imported or distributed e-cigarettes were taxed. 36% tax was imposed on production or import and 11% on wholesale distribution.

I genuinely wish I had screen shot the forum posts announcing this – but I didn’t and the site is now unavailable. I was a member of the forum for years and it was often helpful – if you ignored some of the arguing!

fasttech site

Even their Facebook page has closed and the Twitter has not been updated since November.

Fasttech has been struggling in recent years with various legislation, including shipping items to countries with bans and different couriers refusing to transport vape gear.

In March 2022 Covid hit the Shenzhen area where one of Fasttechs warehouses were located and the whole city was shut down.

At the time they released this statement…

Dear Valued Customers,

FastTech’s warehouse is located in Shenzhen, China, where a 17-million people lockdown was announced within last night. A majority of FastTech’s staff are now confined to their homes by the Chinese government.

TL;DR Orders awaiting shipment will be delayed by 1 week. Customer service remains available throughout the lockdown. US warehouse products will ship next-day, as usual.

It felt to me that Fasttech never really recovered from this and all the restrictions placed on exporting to other countries and it did decline heavily.

While it is a blow, we still have the option of other stores. Have a look at some of our recommended online vape stores here.

Responses

Shell Ecigclick Photo
Michelle Jones

I am an engineer and Technical Author by trade. My journey in vaping began around 2016, in the days of Tornado tanks, Ego batteries and Variable Voltage. It took me a few years to fully quit smoking but I finally stopped in June 2019 and that is all thanks to vaping! 20mg Nicotine Salts are my hero! Oh and I am partial to a nice pod mod and Bubblegum e-liquid! I have reported on the latest news on Ecigclick since 2017 and love being part of this great team! My passion for Tobacco Harm Reduction has also led me to becoming a Trustee for the NNA (New Nicotine Alliance) aiding in Advocacy

I am an engineer and Technical Author by trade. My journey in vaping began around 2016, in the days of Tornado tanks, Ego batteries and Variable Voltage. It took me a few years to fully quit smoking but I finally stopped in June 2019 and that is all thanks to vaping! 20mg Nicotine Salts are my hero! Oh and I am partial to a nice pod mod and Bubblegum e-liquid! I have reported on the latest news on Ecigclick since 2017 and love being part of this great team! My passion for Tobacco Harm Reduction has also led me to becoming a Trustee for the NNA (New Nicotine Alliance) aiding in Advocacy

6 COMMENTS

  1. i made an order and the parcel is returned to them by the chinese customs.
    they didn’t reply me and can’t get a refund.
    i lost money.
    they are a scammers

  2. This is ridiculous! I got charged for something and didn’t even order this! Actually had to look this up and thanks for charging my account in 1-8-23!! So there is no ### to call and get this taken care of!!

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