Haha, that is crazy... ...V4L, man. Holy hell. I had a couple of their splatter batteries that I used to take out on my bike rides because I kept popping the whole top button assembly off of my spinners when I took those. I thought I was the only dummy buying 808's back in the day. I think I still have a couple of those V4L's and Volts.
I'm surprised yours still work. I remember popping my V4L shit like crazy. They were always failing while charging because their chargers were garbage and so was their short protection in the batteries, apparently. One of them actually fucking vented on me. Can't tell you how many bitchy e-mails they got from me... ...or how many free replacements didn't make it a week. Didn't stay with that company for very long lol.
Volt is better if you really wanna get locked-in with one of those weird 808 brands. Which reminds me, what is up with 808-exclusive brands? I remember it being like the betamax or the HD-DVD of connection types a few years ago. Most people had long since switched to 510's (at least, by the time ego batteries were the thing to have they had,) but somehow those 808 guys were staying in business. People fucking loved Volt back in the day. Probably still do.
The 808 connectors? Don't know what to tell you there. But I totally agree with you. I still have a few Cartos with 808. There's even a pic I posted of the old tech I still own, somewhere in here.
I gave V4L a truckload of money, in the beginning. I can't say it was wasted, because the ex managed to quit. But I failed so hard :/
I bought my very first Mod and Tank from them as well, it "kinda" worked. But the juice selection really wasn't that helpful. So that was a fail too.
I gave up for a couple of years after all that. But a friend introduced me to one of the newer mods and tanks. And I've been vaping since.
My entire family was like, "Here we go again" when the first box of goodies arrived
But they've been really supportive since they realized I had finally found something that worked.