MASTER, HERE WE GO AGAIN

[spa_dr.]

Here is the latest on master spas.





Angry consumers are boiling mad -- at a local hot tub company.  They tell us the company promised them thousands of dollars in rebates -- but never delivered.  Some of the customers contacted Call 4 Action after losing thousands of dollars.

It's supposed to be a place to unwind.  But when Mike Moran uses his hot tub -- he also thinks about the bad experience he had when he bought it - from Master Spas.  He says the company misled him.

Kari Wellhausen thought she was getting the deal of a lifetime with her hot tub.  But in the end, it was no deal at all.  She says she lost $6000.  And she calls it a scam.

Master spas has a store in Waukesha -- but they do a lot of business at Summerfest -- and here at the state fair. In fact they've got their name on the fair's cream puff pavillion -- where people line up for the legendary treats. It's here that Master Spas sold people on a deal that was not very sweet.

Mike Moran was at the fair -- when he spotted the master spas display.  He says the sales people told him if he bought the hot tub -- he could get a huge rebate down the road.  "Yes in fact on our contract it said $8000 36 month rebate," Moran shows us.

He says the sales people told him all he had to do was turn in some paperwork - three years after the purchase date -- and he would get 8-thousand dollars back -- on the $9600 tub.

Kari Wellhausen got a similar pitch.   She was told she could get the entire $6000 purchase price refunded 3 years later.  "I certainly was skeptical - and I asked them over and over again if it was really true - that it would really work," she recalls.

This rebate program wasn't run by Master Spas - but by a company they contracted with -- called the Consumer's Trust. And the rebate included a long list of hoops you have to jump through to collect the money

But Mike and Kari filled out the paperwork,  and submitted the rebate forms three years later.

They even had to send in certified copies of their birth certificates - and their bank statements!  Still -- Consumer's Trust turned them down -- saying they had failed to follow every step of the instructions-- and refused to pay out on the rebate.

"I feel a little foolish - but it was stated on my receipt that it was a voucher for the full amount and I would get it back in 3 years - and I believed them."

So did many other customers - at Master Spas and other companies that offered rebates from consumer's trust.  Online discussion boards are filled with similar stories - from across the country.  And dozens of people in Wisconsin have complained to the state about Consumer's Trust.

Nationwide there may be more than 70,000 people who were involved in this particular scheme.

In fact the Wisconsin Attorney General's office is considering legal action against Consumers Trust -- and the State of Missouri has already sued Consumers Trust.

State officials believe the consumer's trust rebate program was designed to be so difficult - hardly anyone would ever get their money back.

"I think this practice was unconscionable - we think they violated Wisconsin law."

And it gets worse. Consumers Trust declared bankruptcy last year - making it even harder for consumers to collect. Investigators in Missouri believe the people who ran consumers trust took the rebate money -- and funneled it into overseas bank accounts.

Angry customers now have to go to bankruptcy court in New York - to try to recover from Consumers Trust.  Lawyers for the company did not return our calls.

Meanwhile - some have turned their anger toward Master Spas - for offering the rebate program in the first place.

"So Master Spas is telling you we're not responsible for this it's not our problem" we said.
"Exactly - and I don't feel that that is true - I feel they were the ones that hired this company to do their promotion."

So went to the State Fair - where Master Spas was supposed to be holding a weekend sale.

We said, "We've been contacted by some customers who are very unhappy about a rebate program you've been offering. "
They said they don't know anything about that.  One employee told us he didn't know how to reach the owner.

His name is Craig Hueffner - he refers to himself as "Craig the spaman".  We went looking for him at his store -- to ask him why he won't help his customers.  Eventually we caught up with him by e-mail -- but he refered us to his lawyer.  Neither of them would talk to us on camera.

The attorney claims master spas delivered on it's end of the bargain - by providing a hot tub. On the phone the lawyer told me - they got a quality product.

But for angry customers who feel they were duped -- the whole experience -- leaves them steamed.

We talked with the Wisconsin Attorney General's office and they're still considering legal action against consumers trust.

The customers we talked to would also like to see action against Master Spas.

For that to happen - consumers will have to convince the attorney general's office that master spas was directly responsible for misleading them.

[East_TX_Spa]

What a completely morally bankrupt organization.  Any person that would involve themselves in any way in this scam is nothing but a degenerate at every level.

The idiot consumers let their greed get in the way of their common sense, of which they were obviously in short supply.

Terminator

[wmccall]

You appear to be quoting a news story?  Is this recent, or a rehash?

[Brewman]

The idiot consumers let their greed get in the way of their common sense, of which they were obviously in short supply.

Terminator

Bullseye!!!  The whole concept is so far fetched that it's difficult to believe anyone would fall for it.  Not that it excuses the scammers, but really.....
Do the freakin math!!  It's a classic pyramid scheme at the very least.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Looks like a news story from 4/28/2006 (search google using the first sentance of the article).

You appear to be quoting a news story?  Is this recent, or a rehash?

[spa_dr.]

www.todaystmj4.com/_content/news/special/story_2411.asp - 32k

Here is the address for the video of the report

[Spatech_tuo]

What a completely morally bankrupt organization.  Any person that would involve themselves in any way in this scam is nothing but a degenerate at every level.

The idiot consumers let their greed get in the way of their common sense, of which they were obviously in short supply.

Terminator

Agree but point #2 is that Master Spas MUST have known what the end result would be. They chose to get in bed with this sleezy act and now they want to say they had nothing to do with it. They took the shortsighted "anything to make a sale" approach which helps up front but can kill you in the long run. They deserve the bad press they get for this.

[spa_dr.]

Bullseye!!!  The whole concept is so far fetched that it's difficult to believe anyone would fall for it.  Not that it excuses the scammers, but really.....
 Do the freakin math!!  It's a classic pyramid scheme at the very least.

 

they were selling spas not pyramids. you should go to whatsthebestpyramid.com.  Just like any scam it involved gaining the confidence of the consumer.

[tmknies1]

If Master had a deal or partnership with Consumers Trust than Master has to have some liability. It does seem far fetched that anyone would fall for this but if the dealer was promoting the rebate I could see consumers falling for it. I am surprised some Attorney General has not gotten involved.

[wmccall]

If Master had a deal or partnership with Consumers Trust than Master has to have some liability. It does seem far fetched that anyone would fall for this but if the dealer was promoting the rebate I could see consumers falling for it. I am surprised some Attorney General has not gotten involved.

The two times I have heard of this practice and Master Spa it has been a dealer in Wisconsin.  I know my local Masterspa dealer has never done anything like that. Does this go on elsewhere? Or are we talking one renegade dealer?

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

I'ts actually been done in many different industries....... Replacement windows is one that comes to mind.,

[windsurfdog]

The subject line for this thread is so very appropriate.....apparently, this horse will never die.

Don Henley got it right:
"People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry"

I posted this thread about MS last week and, even though it was an example of how MS addressed a jet warranty issue, an issue which was well discussed on this forum, only 1 poster other than myself responded:

MS jet warranty example

Yet, as soon as someone dredges up the old Consumer's Trust crap (and, indeed, it is crap) or someone recycles the old MS spa show crap, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a poster.

And who is this spa_dr. with 34 posts who decided he'd post this without revealing the source?  Troll comes to mind......

wmccall, please relegate this to the forum in which it belongs.

So, to quote Don Henley yet again:
"We all know that crap is king
Give us dirty laundry"

[spa_dr.]

I am a 9 yr. spa vet.I was the service tech for a MS dealer as well as many other brands. just because I don't spend all my time responding to post doesn't mean I don't know what I'm talking about. And by the way, any good dealer is going to take care of a jet. MS gave a new jet but would not reimburse labor on a jet. Am I expected to drive 20 miles and fix a spa without compensation? Now you may be OK with replacing the jet yourself but some customers are not. These customers get very angry and who is to blame? They usually yell at me. I will tell you from first hand experience that a satisfied MS customer in my area is a rare thing. I have serviced a lot of spas and IMO master is almost a quality brand they rate right up there with low end hydro and the"super high end" haven. who the hell are you to ask for moderation on my post?

[spa_dr.]

And who is this spa_dr. with 34 posts who decided he'd post this without revealing the source?  


next time read the whole thread before you rant.

[East_TX_Spa]

Windsurfdog, I understand you are happy with your spa and you should be as it is doing everything you want it to do.  But, surely you cannot defend this type of criminal behavior on the part of Master Spa.

If HotSpring ever foisted this type of scam upon it's dealers (and I'm sure they never would), we would drop them in a heartbeat and I would be first in line to say that they are the scum of the earth.

That is complete and udder chicanery that they have entered into, dancing with the devil, so to speak.  They deserve every single solitary detrimental remark they receive on this and every other forum until they do the right thing and reimburse their victims.

Terminator