My hot tub cover replacement troubles

[AAAAAAA]

I don't know what to do anymore.

I have a sundance Maxxus with the crappy 3 fold cover that is finished. I have been searching for a replacement as many I am sure have had to.

The dealer wants to much for another cheep ass 3 fold cover.

So I looked online, contacted j3cover.com and thecoverguy.com.
Twice I had to reinitiate email contact with J3 because they just wouldn't answer back.

The coverguy stoped answering when I asked them about specifics about their covers such as their raping thickness and so on.

So I looked for reviews online and I found many negative ones about thecoverguy but have found zilch for J3.

Decided to see what rhtubs could do (the previous 2 compagnies are in Canada (like me),rhtubs is american). This monday I get a reply (very fast) and I email them my address to get a shipping quote. They tell me they will get back to me with an exact shipping quote. I have not heard back since and i am sure I won't.

I am ready to buy, I have a budget of about 750 US but could go a bit more I suppose if I had to. I can't beleive how hard this is.

I am going to see my dealer tomorrow to see if they can't get a different type of cover then the cheep one that comes with the maxxus (They want 699$CND for it...rediculous).

Any advice, help?

[Shaamus]

The Maxxus is a tough one because it requires a special pattern and a 3-piece design and a lot of companies just don't want to deal with those covers.  Throw on top of that the fact that you're in Canada and it's going to be difficult for you.  Canadian spa cover manufacturers just haven't seen that spa very often to get the pattern and most of us in the US don't want to ship to Canada because of the customs brokerage issues.  It really adds to the shipping costs and that makes it hard for us to compete with our Canadian counterparts.  It's not like shipping a small package via UPS or the post office where the customs process is automated.  When you ship LTL, we have to agree with the customer on a broker and their bonded warehouse.  It's just a big time and cost investment for those of us that don't do enough business in Canada to justify what it takes.

Buying from your dealer may be your best option if you can't get the Canadian aftermarket manufacturers to get interested.  Sorry I don't have better news for you.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I don't believe I ever received an email with an address for an exact quote.

Also, as Mr. Shaamus mentioned, we'd need you to send us a pattern of the cover.

[AAAAAAA]

^ Well the first guy who answered is Andrew, and the second guy is Lupe who said he was going to get me a shipping quote confirming that he had received my address.

Andrew said that rhtubs has done many maxxus in many configs, so I am not sure why I would need to send a cut out...

So it would seem that none of the american covers are made in the US? If they were there would be no duties or taxes.

Well thanks for the bad but reality check news there shamus...

Seems like I might have to buy another cheep useless cover from the dealer... maybe I will just bild a roof over the hot tub so no elements can touch it, and of course make sure the cover is open when I put in some boost (Thanks to this site for that valuable info, to bad I didn't get that info before my cover was water logged).

[wmccall]

I'm happy with my cover from RH, its a year old now. Yours sounds like more of a challenge, but I found the measurement process easy to do.  As for it being made in Mexico, I'm for anything that keeps Mexicans in Mexico. (unless they emigrate via legal means)

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Bill, this Maxxus isn't really "measurable", as 1 or 2 sides have large curves to them. While we've done a number of covers for them, we've always relied on a template supplied by the customer. I'm not willing to risk someone elses template for a different customer...especially when the additional shipping costs are $300 to $500




If Lupe (a woman by the way  ) said she'll get back to you with a shipping quote, she will. It frequently takes a few days to to actually get back quotes from the different shipping companies we use, to get the best price.

[wmccall]

A template?  How do you do that, have someone paste together some sheets and trace it?

[AAAAAAA]

Dr Spa, I appreciate the email from Lupe saying that you are still waiting on the quote.

I have question... are all these sites yours?
www.rhtubs.com
www.extreme-spa-covers.com/
www.extremespacovers.com/

They all have an identical order form. One of them seems to want to attrack Canadian buyers as it says:Specifically designed for frigid Canadian winters, you wont find a better built spa cover!

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

WOW! You found all those? How??? The www.extreme-spa-covers.com/ was our original wholesale site....that I don't think has been updated in YEARS...and there's no order form.

www.extremespacovers.com/ is a site I've been occasionally playing with in an attempt to have a ONE PAGE web site containing any and all information a consumer might want about our spa covers....yet not completely overwhelm them with excessive information they don't want. I'm also working on making the ordering a little more clear and easier to understand (the order form, though initially similar in appearance,  is actually quite different than rhtubs.com). I've done NOTHING to promote this site and am quite surprised you found it, especially since there's NO links to the site and Google doesn't even know it exists.

Only your perception of a 3 year old, thrown together, one line marketing phrase (that really was more of a joke...an inside joke. It was pretty funny at the time, eh Shaamus?),  is all the "attrack Canadian buyers" there is (with enough poking and proding I may be able to further explain, without violating any confidentiality of past wholesale customers).

It's interesting though. You think the line is too attract customers from Canada. My perception at the time of writing was that it emphasized the overall quality, durability and insulating properties of our covers..Boy, glad I didn't come up with "Specifically designed for frigid Antarctic winters, you wont find a better built spa cover!" 

And so you don't have to ask :-) http://www.hot-tub-spa-covers.com is also ours (and yes, there's another story about how it became to be  )

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Clear plastic, like a cheap painting drop cloth. Stretch it over the existing cover and trace the cover, is the easiest way

A template?  How do you do that, have someone paste together some sheets and trace it?

[Tom]

Only your perception of a 3 year old, thrown together, one line marketing phrase (that really was more of a joke...an inside joke. It was pretty funny at the time, eh Shaamus?),  is all the "attrack Canadian buyers" there is (with enough poking and proding I may be able to further explain, without violating any confidentiality of past wholesale customers).

Prod.  Prod. Poke.  POKE.  POKE.  POKE!

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

ok ok ok. So as ya'll know, we manufacture spa covers. Should hit 60,000+ this year. We make em for brick and mortar retail dealers (stores), internet dealers, spa manufacturers, and some of the good folks here. There was at one time a company that attributed a great part of their cover sales to a one line marketing phrase. Somewhat similar to the one I came up with, but quite deceiving in that it insinuated they were manufacturing the covers in Canada and they were designed for their Northern most conditions. We would even have potential customers asking how ours could be better than theirs, theirs being manufactured in Canada, for Canada's northern most conditions. The kicker was, we made the covers they were selling, made exactly to their specs (buy enough covers, and we'll make just about anything you specify, using the materials of your choice....there's a good chance though, OUR NAME will be NO WHERE on the cover :-)... To make it even worse, other than a spa manufacturer that's now out of business, the cover we made for them, MADE EXACTLY TO THEIR SPECS, was probably the lowest quality custom cover we ever put out the door.

Marketing *sigh* It absolutely flabbergasts me. If you tell people what you're selling is the "best", and you tell them enough, quite a few actually will strongly believe it (we've ALL seen that here with new spa customers).

Marketing 101 for print advertising says that if a potential consumer sees at least 3 ads for a company, they begin to think they know the company, and will start to trust it...Just for seeing 3 ads?

The line on my site, "designed for Canadian......", I never thought about it till now, but that line alone could make the site do well for someone doing a web search from Canada. It was in no way thought up for targeting customers in Canada, but, apparently someone has perceived it that way.

Perception....a lot of marketing is based on that. Say the truth, but say it in a way that makes the customer think. or believe, you're saying something else, to make your product sound even better than it really is.

Back on topic though.....Did Lupe get back to you yet with a shipping quote? I asked her about it for the few minutes I was in the office this morning, and she said she was still waiting to hear from the "preferred" shipping company.

[In Canada eh]

The line on my site, "designed for Canadian......", I never thought about it till now, but that line alone could make the site do well for someone doing a web search from Canada. It was in no way thought up for targeting customers in Canada, but, apparently someone has perceived it that way.

OK OK OK enough already!   I promise to get ahold of you guys when it's time for a cover


Better yet, why don't you set up a manufacturing facility here in town and really target all those Canadians.  You know "Canadian made Covers for Canadian Spas" and all that

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Have considered doing that, or something like that, in Europe. I don't think there's really enough potential business in Canada though to justify it (don't feel too bad, that's the same reason we're not looking at doing anything in Europe, for a while :-)

[AAAAAAA]

Lupe emailed me saying she was still waiting on the quote. That's whay I wrote earlier "Dr Spa, I appreciate the email from Lupe saying that you are still waiting on the quote."

I am sure if you were looking for something and the site said "made to withstand the exteeme californian heat" that it should be local to you or definitly marketed to you. (I think you live in California...).

So looking again at the coverguy's web site, I see there is no info on their warranty. At least J3 has some info, rhtubs also has the info.

Dr spa, I recall you saying that you knew the owners of thecoverguy.... perhaps you could send me a PM either reasuring me that they sell a decent product or a "stay away" type deal.