forthegreen
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December 16, 2018
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1
First Review:
December 16, 2018
Latest Review:
December 16, 2018
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Disclaimer: I just joined this forum, this is my first time reviewing a MOM, and I have dealt with 3 different MOMs on 5 separate occasions including this one.
Mom Name: Hillside Pharms/HSPharms/HSP/thenewhsp
Overall rating: 5/10
Sign up: 10/10. Initially I had to provide my ...ID scan through the signup page on their website, and my membership was approved the same day, so very fast. NOTE: I have been signed up with them since July 2018 and this is my third order from them. I will be reviewing them as a whole based on all my experiences with them, but I will only be reviewing the specific products from my most recent order (late Nov. 2018).
Ordering & Pricing: 8/10. Ordering from HSP is just like any other MOM, select strain and amount, add to cart, check out, then send money transfer within 24 hours to secure order, so quite straightforward and standard. Normally they send the order same day as they accept the transfer, but on my most recent order (Black Friday) they accepted the money the day of but only sent me the ’your order is complete’ email on the following Monday (cyber Monday), as they were probably quite busy.
Pricing is varied, generally price doesn’t seem to correlate with quality at HSP, as I often get their cheaper offerings and am as satisfied as with their top tier stuff. For this most recent order I got 30% off for black Friday, so everything came out to a very reasonable price. I find their prices in general to be too high for my budget, but with their sales and discount codes you can get some great quality for cheap fairly regularly.
Communication: 3/10. Not great. The only time I have had to contact them was for this most recent order, and they were less than responsive and prompt. They only have an email address, no phone and no instant messaging, so it’s tough to get a hold of them. Their website says they respond within max. 24 business hours, but they do not always honor that commitment in my experience. Allow me to explain: first I emailed them on Friday Nov. 30 telling them that based on CP tracking my order was sitting in the Castlegar P.O. since Monday. I asked them to have CP send the package back to HSP (yes this is a thing they can do, it is in the Mail regulations act, section Undeliverable & Returned mail, subsection 9) and then send it to me via a private courier (UPS, Fedex, etc.), and of course I was willing to assume the fees. I told them I did not want to have my stuff sitting in the mail for 3 weeks as that may affect freshness and taste. They replied with a generic ’it’s out of our hands please be patient’ email within a few hours and refused to even entertain my request and gave no reason why. They ended the email by saying that if by Monday (this was Friday) it hasn’t moved they would contact CP and start a service ticket. So I emailed them again on Monday and waited until Friday with no reply from them, so that Friday I emailed them again asking why they left me in the lurch like that. They replied within minutes saying they had a lot of emails and they didn’t leave me in the lurch, but CP did (they obviously didn’t get that I was referring to their non-reply to my email) and said they created a service ticket for me. Fast forward to almost 2 weeks later, I finally received my order on Nov. 12, tried 3 of the 6 strains I ordered, and the next day emailed them to complain about the terrible quality of all 3. That was Thursday Nov. 13 and by 24 business hours later around 4pm ET Nov. 14 still no reply, so I resent my email from the day previous and until now no reply. Note that 4pm ET is 1pm their time so they had plenty of time to reply before the weekend if they had been so inclined. I wanted to give them a chance to fix the issue before writing this review, but by not replying I feel like they’re saying they don’t care that I waited almost 3 weeks for terrible product (I will explain below) and now still don’t have anything palatable to smoke/vape. After all that money and waiting, I ended up having to buy from my local guy yesterday, and now have over $200 of overpriced hay from HSP in my cupboard.
Packaging: 7/10. Each strain packaged in cheap zip bags that smell of harsh plastic, those are vacuum sealed, the whole thing placed in a brown box and the box put in a bubble mailer. I know most MOMs use those cheap zip bags, but that still doesn’t make them a good choice for storing such expensive and delicate products IMO. It’s like if you bought a mink coat (fur is murder) and the store put it in a grocery bag for you to take home. Note that I am convinced that 3 weeks in those bags partially contributed to the terrible flavor of all the strains I received, as the samples (stored in different type of bags) both tasted fine.
Products: No photos, sorry my camera is garbage and I don’t want to misrepresent the visual appeal of these strains.
Frankie’s Incense Haze: 3/10. Ordered a half. In my previous order with HSP I got this too and it was fire, but this time not at all. Appearance: Looks good, bright green long sativa buds, fluffy yet dense, good sized. Taste & smell: strongly smells and tastes of wet hay. No terpene profile to speak of (I only vaporize flowers, so terpenes are the most important thing for me), just very muted taste. Also very harsh on the throat. Buzz: not great, nowhere like the fist batch I got, some euphoria and then overwhelming sleepiness (and this is a sativa), no nuance. Note that I feel the whole point of ordering a strain is to see if you like it so you can potentially order it again, but if a strain is wildly different from one batch to another, then that becomes impossible and it’s always a crap shoot like the first time you order a new strain. Also, I think it is a MOMs responsibility to inform clients when batches are significantly inferior to previous ones to help us make informed decisions and help MOMs avoid complaints and refund requests backing up their CS people.
Grape God: 4/10. Ordered a quarter. Appearance: Very dense nugs, very pale in color, good sized nugs, lots of trichomes on this one. Taste & smell: Smells good, but again tastes like wet hay. The amazing blueberry aroma you get from smelling the buds is nowhere to be found once you vaporize this stuff, it just tastes muted and bland. Again, very little terpene flavors on the inhale/exhale, mostly hay. Buzz: OK, but ultimately unrefined, just hits you in the face and then you become sleepy, gave me a headache.
Lemon Sour Diesel: 5/10. Ordered a quarter.This is one of the better ones, but only because of the decent buzz. Appearance: Nice medium-dense nugs, dark green and lots of brown pistils (hairs), telltale sativa calyxes throughout, decent trichome coverage. Taste & smell: wet hay aroma from smelling the fresh buds, and wet hay flavor when vaporized. Honestly really unpleasant taste, no lemon or diesel aromas to speak of, again no terpene profile, just hay. Buzz: nice and euphoric, less of a smack in the face as the others, but it does also make me sleepy.
Sour Widow: 5/10. Ordered a quarter. Appearance: Quite dry and fluffy, large sized buds, lots of bright orange pistils but low on trichomes, produced very little vapor. Taste & smell: Buds don’t really smell like weed, tastes a little less like hay than the others but still not a very pleasant taste, no discernible terpenes present when vaporized. Buzz: very relaxing, a little euphoria at the beginning then a very CBD-like body relaxation envelops you.
Conspiracy Kush: 6/10. Ordered a quarter. This is the best one based on taste and buzz. Appearance: Somewhat dry, very light in color with purple green and brown mixed in, all popcorn sized buds, lots of pistils and trichomes. Taste & smell: Buds smell like hay like the others, but when vaporized the strain’s strong kushy terpene profile manages to peak thru the hay taste somewhat. Buzz: pleasant indica body buzz with euphoria too, not too sedative either.
Samples: 1g of Do-si-dos: 8/10. Small-ish nugs, quite dry and fluffy, lots of bright orange pistils, great GSC-esque flavor, complex terpene profile, good buzz but kind of an Indica downer (just my pref. I’m more a Sativa person). 1g of Frost bomb #6: 8/10. One large bud, caked in trichomes, light color, very dense nugs, terpene profile OK but not very complex, decent sativa leaning buzz (head rush, euphoria) with very little crash/sleepiness. Both samples tasted good and were IMO representative of the quality HSP is known for. The only reason I didn’t score them higher is their dryness and just preference really (but they’re free samples so I’m not complaining).
Incentive for customers: None from HSP. My incentive for leaving this review is so that possibly HSP could see it and take ownership of what is in my opinion low quality product that they saw fit to sell me, because emailing them directly has proven unsuccessful. Also, to inform the community to help you all make an informed decision when choosing where to order from and/or what to order.
Notes: It sucks that this review has to be overall negative, as I really would have wanted to write a better review for HSP. Like I said, the other 2 times their stuff was great, they basically introduced me to craft quality products, which is why it’s so disappointing that they A. Sold me this substandard stuff, and B. Have been difficult to communicate with, which has lead to my dissatisfaction with them. If they had sold me this stuff, but then been prompt in fixing the issue by providing me what I paid for (good quality product) or even responsive to my complaints in the least, then my review would have been overall positive, but here we are. Basically, HSP is normally great, but they have really let me down, and for me unless they fix this I will never shop with them again. There are plenty of other craft level suppliers out there for me to try if they aren’t up to the task of keeping their customers happy.
Sorry for the long review, it was a lot to unpack.
*Edit: In an effort to salvage the hay tasting and smelling product I got from HSP I immediately put all of them in separate mason jars and have been opening the jars just a crack for about 45 minutes every day in an effort to air them out and maybe cure them more. As a result, the Grape God tastes a bit better and to a lesser extent the Lemon Sour Diesel, but the others show no noticeable signs of improving and they’re all significantly dryer now of course.
Mom Name: Hillside Pharms/HSPharms/HSP/thenewhsp
Overall rating: 5/10
Sign up: 10/10. Initially I had to provide my ...ID scan through the signup page on their website, and my membership was approved the same day, so very fast. NOTE: I have been signed up with them since July 2018 and this is my third order from them. I will be reviewing them as a whole based on all my experiences with them, but I will only be reviewing the specific products from my most recent order (late Nov. 2018).
Ordering & Pricing: 8/10. Ordering from HSP is just like any other MOM, select strain and amount, add to cart, check out, then send money transfer within 24 hours to secure order, so quite straightforward and standard. Normally they send the order same day as they accept the transfer, but on my most recent order (Black Friday) they accepted the money the day of but only sent me the ’your order is complete’ email on the following Monday (cyber Monday), as they were probably quite busy.
Pricing is varied, generally price doesn’t seem to correlate with quality at HSP, as I often get their cheaper offerings and am as satisfied as with their top tier stuff. For this most recent order I got 30% off for black Friday, so everything came out to a very reasonable price. I find their prices in general to be too high for my budget, but with their sales and discount codes you can get some great quality for cheap fairly regularly.
Communication: 3/10. Not great. The only time I have had to contact them was for this most recent order, and they were less than responsive and prompt. They only have an email address, no phone and no instant messaging, so it’s tough to get a hold of them. Their website says they respond within max. 24 business hours, but they do not always honor that commitment in my experience. Allow me to explain: first I emailed them on Friday Nov. 30 telling them that based on CP tracking my order was sitting in the Castlegar P.O. since Monday. I asked them to have CP send the package back to HSP (yes this is a thing they can do, it is in the Mail regulations act, section Undeliverable & Returned mail, subsection 9) and then send it to me via a private courier (UPS, Fedex, etc.), and of course I was willing to assume the fees. I told them I did not want to have my stuff sitting in the mail for 3 weeks as that may affect freshness and taste. They replied with a generic ’it’s out of our hands please be patient’ email within a few hours and refused to even entertain my request and gave no reason why. They ended the email by saying that if by Monday (this was Friday) it hasn’t moved they would contact CP and start a service ticket. So I emailed them again on Monday and waited until Friday with no reply from them, so that Friday I emailed them again asking why they left me in the lurch like that. They replied within minutes saying they had a lot of emails and they didn’t leave me in the lurch, but CP did (they obviously didn’t get that I was referring to their non-reply to my email) and said they created a service ticket for me. Fast forward to almost 2 weeks later, I finally received my order on Nov. 12, tried 3 of the 6 strains I ordered, and the next day emailed them to complain about the terrible quality of all 3. That was Thursday Nov. 13 and by 24 business hours later around 4pm ET Nov. 14 still no reply, so I resent my email from the day previous and until now no reply. Note that 4pm ET is 1pm their time so they had plenty of time to reply before the weekend if they had been so inclined. I wanted to give them a chance to fix the issue before writing this review, but by not replying I feel like they’re saying they don’t care that I waited almost 3 weeks for terrible product (I will explain below) and now still don’t have anything palatable to smoke/vape. After all that money and waiting, I ended up having to buy from my local guy yesterday, and now have over $200 of overpriced hay from HSP in my cupboard.
Packaging: 7/10. Each strain packaged in cheap zip bags that smell of harsh plastic, those are vacuum sealed, the whole thing placed in a brown box and the box put in a bubble mailer. I know most MOMs use those cheap zip bags, but that still doesn’t make them a good choice for storing such expensive and delicate products IMO. It’s like if you bought a mink coat (fur is murder) and the store put it in a grocery bag for you to take home. Note that I am convinced that 3 weeks in those bags partially contributed to the terrible flavor of all the strains I received, as the samples (stored in different type of bags) both tasted fine.
Products: No photos, sorry my camera is garbage and I don’t want to misrepresent the visual appeal of these strains.
Frankie’s Incense Haze: 3/10. Ordered a half. In my previous order with HSP I got this too and it was fire, but this time not at all. Appearance: Looks good, bright green long sativa buds, fluffy yet dense, good sized. Taste & smell: strongly smells and tastes of wet hay. No terpene profile to speak of (I only vaporize flowers, so terpenes are the most important thing for me), just very muted taste. Also very harsh on the throat. Buzz: not great, nowhere like the fist batch I got, some euphoria and then overwhelming sleepiness (and this is a sativa), no nuance. Note that I feel the whole point of ordering a strain is to see if you like it so you can potentially order it again, but if a strain is wildly different from one batch to another, then that becomes impossible and it’s always a crap shoot like the first time you order a new strain. Also, I think it is a MOMs responsibility to inform clients when batches are significantly inferior to previous ones to help us make informed decisions and help MOMs avoid complaints and refund requests backing up their CS people.
Grape God: 4/10. Ordered a quarter. Appearance: Very dense nugs, very pale in color, good sized nugs, lots of trichomes on this one. Taste & smell: Smells good, but again tastes like wet hay. The amazing blueberry aroma you get from smelling the buds is nowhere to be found once you vaporize this stuff, it just tastes muted and bland. Again, very little terpene flavors on the inhale/exhale, mostly hay. Buzz: OK, but ultimately unrefined, just hits you in the face and then you become sleepy, gave me a headache.
Lemon Sour Diesel: 5/10. Ordered a quarter.This is one of the better ones, but only because of the decent buzz. Appearance: Nice medium-dense nugs, dark green and lots of brown pistils (hairs), telltale sativa calyxes throughout, decent trichome coverage. Taste & smell: wet hay aroma from smelling the fresh buds, and wet hay flavor when vaporized. Honestly really unpleasant taste, no lemon or diesel aromas to speak of, again no terpene profile, just hay. Buzz: nice and euphoric, less of a smack in the face as the others, but it does also make me sleepy.
Sour Widow: 5/10. Ordered a quarter. Appearance: Quite dry and fluffy, large sized buds, lots of bright orange pistils but low on trichomes, produced very little vapor. Taste & smell: Buds don’t really smell like weed, tastes a little less like hay than the others but still not a very pleasant taste, no discernible terpenes present when vaporized. Buzz: very relaxing, a little euphoria at the beginning then a very CBD-like body relaxation envelops you.
Conspiracy Kush: 6/10. Ordered a quarter. This is the best one based on taste and buzz. Appearance: Somewhat dry, very light in color with purple green and brown mixed in, all popcorn sized buds, lots of pistils and trichomes. Taste & smell: Buds smell like hay like the others, but when vaporized the strain’s strong kushy terpene profile manages to peak thru the hay taste somewhat. Buzz: pleasant indica body buzz with euphoria too, not too sedative either.
Samples: 1g of Do-si-dos: 8/10. Small-ish nugs, quite dry and fluffy, lots of bright orange pistils, great GSC-esque flavor, complex terpene profile, good buzz but kind of an Indica downer (just my pref. I’m more a Sativa person). 1g of Frost bomb #6: 8/10. One large bud, caked in trichomes, light color, very dense nugs, terpene profile OK but not very complex, decent sativa leaning buzz (head rush, euphoria) with very little crash/sleepiness. Both samples tasted good and were IMO representative of the quality HSP is known for. The only reason I didn’t score them higher is their dryness and just preference really (but they’re free samples so I’m not complaining).
Incentive for customers: None from HSP. My incentive for leaving this review is so that possibly HSP could see it and take ownership of what is in my opinion low quality product that they saw fit to sell me, because emailing them directly has proven unsuccessful. Also, to inform the community to help you all make an informed decision when choosing where to order from and/or what to order.
Notes: It sucks that this review has to be overall negative, as I really would have wanted to write a better review for HSP. Like I said, the other 2 times their stuff was great, they basically introduced me to craft quality products, which is why it’s so disappointing that they A. Sold me this substandard stuff, and B. Have been difficult to communicate with, which has lead to my dissatisfaction with them. If they had sold me this stuff, but then been prompt in fixing the issue by providing me what I paid for (good quality product) or even responsive to my complaints in the least, then my review would have been overall positive, but here we are. Basically, HSP is normally great, but they have really let me down, and for me unless they fix this I will never shop with them again. There are plenty of other craft level suppliers out there for me to try if they aren’t up to the task of keeping their customers happy.
Sorry for the long review, it was a lot to unpack.
*Edit: In an effort to salvage the hay tasting and smelling product I got from HSP I immediately put all of them in separate mason jars and have been opening the jars just a crack for about 45 minutes every day in an effort to air them out and maybe cure them more. As a result, the Grape God tastes a bit better and to a lesser extent the Lemon Sour Diesel, but the others show no noticeable signs of improving and they’re all significantly dryer now of course.
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