Some Background On Pillbox38 (UK) and (USA) and Tecc.Business Structure/History

[pillbox38]

I wanted to clarify some points on the structure of my Pillbox38 (Totally Wicked Business) this week it has become obvious to me that some Forum members were under the impression that the business was not solely owned and managed by myself.  I believe its Fair to be open about myself, my business and the structure of my business’s as they currently stand.


Currently I have either full ownership of (pillbox 38 UK, Pillbox38 USA) or majority shareholding (TECC) in all the companies I post about.

The original business was and in my mind still is “Pillbox38” This started about 5- 6 years ago as a small E.Bay business were I sold old comic annuals and assorted bits I picked up at auctions. At the time it was nothing more than pocket money as I was working in a self employed basis as a salesman selling subscriptions for a monthly magazine. I was also at this time just starting a 3-year BSC (hons) degree in Homeopathic Medicine at UCLAN in Preston.

Once on this course I started buying then selling on E.Bay Homeopathic remedies and importing Homeopathic Books from India and Retailing these. I did this for about a year then started adding the odd electrical product MP3 watches, Pen Drives Etc.

The Memory stick business started to do pretty well so I tapered of Homeopathic books and focused on these, I also sold Chinese medicine Herbal cigarettes.

I still sold the Magazine two days a week, studied 3 and spent the rest of my time searching for ways to grow the Pillbox38 business. I recognised that till the degree was complete I would have to hold it at a manageable point till I had graduated. I jacked the sales job in 3 years ago in the last year at university , my ebay business was turning enough over to live off by then.


Once I had finished at university I continue running Pillbox38 from home importing and Re-Selling Memory Sticks. I also got involved trading shares and this proved to be pretty costly. By December 2007. The memory card market was drying up, I had not bothered sourcing new products and had wasted all my profit on stocks and shares. Due to a bad batch or in fact a couple of bad batches of memory sticks I was getting multiple returns, lots of pay pal claims and pay pal froze my account and E.Bay temporarily suspended my account.

This was in January 2008 or 14 months ago, I had a couple of thousand pounds in the bank, nothing to sell and an E.Bay reputation to regain and put right. So I started searching for something else to sell. I had as I previously mentioned sold Chinese Herbal Medicine Cigarettes, as a heavy smoker myself i knew all to well the obsession to stop and that smokers like myself would pay to try alternative methods out. Bear in mind up to now I had never heard of the Electronic cigarette.

My buying leads on Ali Baba for quit smoking products got some replies, but the one that interested me was one from my still main supplier who offered me an E.Cig, or in fact various E.Cigs.

I checked to see if anyone else on E. bay was selling these and at the time there was a single other seller.. Her feedback showed me they sold, so I invested most of my rent money for the next two months in 20 pen style kits and 1000 Reg high and 1000 Reg med carts.

And so my Electronic Cigarette business was born, remember I had never used, or seen used an Electronic Cigarette before. I got my first order, tried one, thought wow these are great and started selling them. Re-investing the money adding minis, then super kits, accessories and flavoured carts. By April 2008 I was the biggest seller on E.bay and a customer contacted me asking would I like a website designing. We talked, agreed, and the Electronic Cigarette Company was conceived.

 Steve is now a director of TECC and runs the Website. My Partner at the Time Kate for various reasons had to set the business up, i.e. LTD Company, open the bank accounts etc. TECC rented an office with capital supplied by Pillbox38 and we used its stock. We opened for business on the 1-06-2008.

Just the two of us. I continued to run Ebay and pillbox and market TECC, we borrowed nothing and still now owe nothing. All we have done is re-invest and work hard. We had our first Mini kits re-packaged last July and I started looking for re-sellers. Pillbox38 was still doing well on EBAy and around September time I decided I wanted to create a website for the business.

 I had been scouring fluid sellers and by chance got a bottle of  American Red Tobacco sent to me to sample. I was hooked, I knew this was A Grade juice and I ordered my first wicked juice. My first Label was a yellow one and there are only 500 of these bottles in existence (ive saved ten):0)


The name Wicked came to me as I sat thinking what I could call it, I remember saying to Kate hey this Stuff is Wicked..And there it was "Totally Wicked- E.Smoking liquid".

I registered 4 domains. Got the Design fly, Abes company to build me a website and paid them to re design the logo.

5th October Wicked went live, I had already posted on the ECF for anyone interested in running a USA Wicked Business before the UK one opened.. Patti replied, I liked her, she was not full of s..t and told her if she was still interested when it was time I would contact her.

You know the rest.

So the Structure of the businesses (sorry it took me this long to get here, if your still reading well done) I own fully both Wicked Uk and Usa.

Wicked Uk. Staff= Myself, Alex Admin and Pa,Louise (Alex P/T assistant) Mark and Brett Store room and Packers.  Ancillary = Abe who runs the Design Fly, They host and have helped market TW.

Wicked Usa= Patti, Operations Manager, Amanda (admin), Gina Warehouse manager and Nikki packer, Store lady etc.

TECC= Directors. Myself, Katie Welch and Steve Jardine.
Office Staff= Gillian, Donna, Stacey and Kathy (PT)

Warehouse and packing. David, Joe and Michael.


That is the current Format of the businesses. I want to thank all of my customers for believing in me, my products my staff and my customer services we are nothing Business wise without you.

I am honestly very, very Proud of all my Businesses and everyone who is involved with us. I felt rightly or wrongly that it was time to let anyone who was interested really know who they are dealing with.

We are based in Blackburn in Lancashire, I was born here and it’s a great place to operate from..

[ritalee76]

That is a great story! 

Thanks for sharing and now we all know  

Hard work and dedication does pay off!

[exogenesis]

Interesting background info, thanks.

The personal touch & obvious keen interest adds a lot of 'feel' to the usual impersonal buying on-line.

Looks like you've got a great team there, keep up the good work !

Here's hoping you can endure any future 'difficulties', as you've proven you can already!

[Goffski]

Damn, i chucked my yellow bottle away...

[matt uk]

Does that mean I've got 3 "limited edition collectables"? 

[pillbox38]

Matt>>>I think so.. This is the original First Edition Wicked, only in 20ml bottles and 500 made, sold only on ebay before the Wicked site was built.

<img src="http://www.MyEasyPics.com/is.php?i=561880&img=pic_2_tw.jpg" border="0">

[moog]

Same gold top droppers...I did like them

[Chrissie]

I've also got 3 of those first 500 yellow label Wicked bottles  2 of them are looking pretty grotty though as I've used the empty bottles for cutting juice with glycerine 

Bought my first e-cig, a Super mini, from you Pillbox, last July, & my next e-cigs, 2 mini's last October. Although since Christmas I have been mainly using my SD, all 3 e-cigs I bought from you & all parts, except from one battery, are still in working order 

A very belated thank you Jason 

[Mungo]

i appreciate the story of your business and hope it prospers in the future. i'm sure it will.

[Fox3]

Gee, I feel depraved err I mean deprived, I got one of the black tops with the full wrap label .  No collectables for me :-(

But seriously, good show and an attitude that will insure success.

Ordered a 901 today but waiting to see if juice shows up for the USA site before I get desperate and order from UK :-).

[Amaris]

Good story Pill!!!! When I grow up I wanna be like you!  LOL

[analog2digital]

I think that story says a lot about the company and the people behind it.  Goes in hand with, and explains the excellent customer service we receive.  I especially like the fact that you have a forum for your products and customers.

You seem to emphasize quality and service, and it shows.  Plus, your company has a nice 'personal' touch to it!

Thank you, and congratulations on your success and continued success.

[Ammar]

A Great story of success! hope it continues for you......what is next,that is the question?

[JohnBoy]

That was a good read and thanks for being so open... You and your team provide an excellent service and with the forum as an add on it just adds another dimension to e-smoking... You deserve every success and I really hope legislation does not kill off such a great business and community.

[Robert Brussels]

In these hard economic times, thanks Jason for your refreshing and inspiring "parcours". Your success story will surely be an inspiration for many. As for me, I will surely continue to stay with TECC and Pillbox because IMHO it is just the best in the field. Cheers and the best of luck in all your endeavours.

[Sumratio]

Great story Pillbox, I hope you survive the hammer that Big Brother is going to swing at you.  Thanks for having the juice tested for percent of nicotine we need more active testing like this, a very wise decision.  Keep up the good work and good luck.

[FloridaBill]

AWESOME!!!!

FloridaBill

[rustylug]

Good for you Jason.
And a good story and way to start up.

I got one of those yellow btls in Bannana flavour from you months ago ....Lol .... Damm wish i kept it now for auction in years to come hee hee hee.

Man i wish you al the best.

Ecigs set the president for smokers....Lets see if they follow.

[Kmikell1971(Kenn)]

I find the story very touching to know our supplier cares for his customer when in todays world you go to a supermarket and nobody can tell you anything about there own products or where to find them in the store the just point and say i think over there. They all seem to busy to help the person responsable for there success and income! Jason your comendable and keep up the good work and the USA team i buy from is great!!!

[Hanna]

Thanks for the information, now I don't have to be so concerned if I end up on the USA site or the UK site.  I prefer to support America when possible and for some reason I kept ending up on the UK site rather than the US one, and not realize it until I went to check out and notice the symbol was not a $ sign;/  OOPS:)  Right now though that can make you feel good about the money you are spending....that is if you don't notice the symbol is the wrong one:)

I also want to say that I can attest to the fact that customer service is the absolute BEST!

[d0gtired]

Thanks for the info... RESPECT! (wish i had the bottle to start a company)

Keep up the outstanding work... the product, the sales and the delivery are FAULTLESS (its so easy dealing with you.. which makes a change in todays world)

D0gtired.
(UK, Liverpool)

[VaperSedai]

Great story. I've heard great things about the company. I started vaping a mere two weeks ago and am ashamed to say I did very little research before ordering my first e-cig, not from your company. Not real happy with the product, especially now that I have seen whats out there. Also did not know I would go through my suppllies so quickly. Ordered the Titan Tech with PCC from you a couple  of days ago, along with a 30 ml bottle of TW cola flavored juice. I paid extra for priority shipping because I am not enjoying these analogs I been having to use in the mean time.    I truley hope my goodies arrive today as I am so looking forward to trying your stuff.    Also wanted to ask....When the FDA is done with all this BS do you have any plans on opening any retail stores? Sure would come in handy when we are out of supplies! 

[thetuck]

I've been vaping since this past summer. I started buying from a local (no refillables) and that guy got scared out of business with all the political bs going on here. I decided to try refilling, got a sample juice pack from a competitor, and some blank carts from yet another competitor. Then I tried Totally WIcked.

With all my research, I've found that TW is not only high quality, but have the consistently best prices and fastest service. After my first order, I asked for some business cards with my second order. Since then, I've been giving out TW cards to people who see me vaping and inquire. I think you guys need to come up with a more generic card, and put a few into every order shipment (it's hard to remember "totallywicked-eliquid") so people can give them out.

Hoping you guys go from success to success!

[nickdutch]

yeah, nice to know a bit of history about the person and people behind the business. good story of success!

but jason, how about combining the two? im positive that an e-cig with a built in usb drive would be a winner! 

(remember where you heard it 1st people!)

It is brilliant to see the story of TW and how it developed from an ebay shop. A great British business success story and only over a short period of time.

My impression would be that instead of USB passthroughs, it would be good to have mains transformer operated ecigs that one can use in any room, such as the housewife in the kitchen cooking the Sunday or Christmas dinner, also battery packs that take regular AA batteries (normal or rechargeable) and can have any atomizer (801, 901, 510 etc) screwed in to them.

C'mon, Christmas is coming make us some nice stocking fillers LOL

NickDutch

[Ralph]

Mains to usb adapters are readily available in cheap import shops.
Do you want Li-ion AA packs or NiMh? Regular AA cells are 1.2 volt Li-ion are 3.7 .

[scyllabub]

Thanks for the TW/TECC biog, Jason, and well done!

scylla

[wheelofdelight]

Jason and the whole TW team,

Thank you Jason for sharing the background of how TECC and TW UK and TW US came to be today!  As small and growing business owners ourselves we understand the great value of you sharing your experiences to come to the point at which you are at today in the business.  Your forthrightness with the business structure also helps all of your clientelle to understand who they are having immediate contact with and even the individuals picking the orders that are placed and office staff assisting with prepping files and accounts for shipments.  Overall, the personal touch that has been placed with you sharing this forum and the sincerity shown in your videos shows your intent, perseverence, and knowledge of how valuable your customers and products are to those customers.   We have to say that if you ever wish to have a business expansion through the midwest, uppermidwest,and western regions feel free to contact us as we are both big believers in this product.  

We thank you and your entire team for all of your efforts, perseverence and quality of service and products,
Debby and Shawn  

[jerusalem]

I am so glad everything worked out for you.  I am so glad I found you.  When I first started to look for e-cigs, I was afraid of your web site because of the Red Devil and the name.  After many disappointment with other companies, I decided to look into your site.   I have not been sorry.  Even though I was sent the kit for England instead of America and had to order American charger from USA,  I sill love your company.  God Bless, stay well and thank you for sticking to it.  Jerusalem

[drone]

Very inspirational story.

Long may your success continue.

[mtollon]

Thanks that was awesome especially as you are onwe of my hero's !
Thank You for TW Sir UROCK !!!