Surge in demand for hot tubs, swim spas and pools due to COVID-19

[swilly1000]

Even though it makes sense in mind sight.....how crazy and unpredictable was that?

[BullFrogSpasMN]

It's been crazy, can't keep inventory in-stock, I have approx. 125-150 spas/swim spas on order currently

[Pcola77]

We really felt the pain. Moved into a new house and always planned to get one for the summer, but apparently the rest of the country decided to take their summer vacation money to do their backyard. By the time we actually went to start looking, there were barely even floor models left anywhere, and 8-12 week waits. We’d find one via phone/email with local dealers that was “okay” (not even really what we wanted), and it would sell before we could go check it out.

Finally found a Wellis tub dealer that said they could get us one (much higher end model than we originally wanted) in about 4 weeks.

Happily, after our ~4 week wait, delivery was scheduled for yesterday. Really been struggling to get ahold of the dealer, but finally got a text Wednesday night that we were first on the delivery for yesterday with a 9-12 window. 12:30 comes around and no sign of anyone.  After multiple calls and texts, the delivery guy finally got back to me that our tub wasn’t on the truck that came earlier in the week. He said “oh, I thought someone told you”. He then said he’d figure out where ours is, and get back to me soon.  I am totally jammed at work, so after a few hours of not hearing anything, my wife went down to the showroom.  The Salesperson goes “oh, yeah we found it. It’s here now. The delivery guy will call you tonight to reschedule delivery”.  Of course we didn’t hear from him, and tried calling/texting a couple times later in the evening.  Called again this morning and asked them to call us back ASAP because our electrician is scheduled to come do the wiring. Of course again didn’t hear anything for a few hours and so the wife went down again. Apparently they’ve sold so many tubs they can’t keep up, their delivery team is way behind “because of the weather” (it’s rained like once in the last month, so that’s bull!), and he’s so sorry, but we’re in the same position as dozens of other customer and they’re doing the best they can.

Lucky us...

[Pcola77]

I hope you’re handling the delivery process better than our guy!   

It's been crazy, can't keep inventory in-stock, I have approx. 125-150 spas/swim spas on order currently

[BullFrogSpasMN]

I hope you’re handling the delivery process better than our guy!   

It's been crazy, can't keep inventory in-stock, I have approx. 125-150 spas/swim spas on order currently

I've always operated by 1 rule that I never deviate from...TELL THE TRUTH lol I've found as long as I do that I never find myself in sticky situations like the one you posted.  With that said I myself have had cases of spas that were already recently on order where a date was given and now due to Covid it has been extended but rare situations like this come down to again telling the truth and communicating with your customer immediately and again found 99% of people to be completely reasonable and understanding knowing this is a situation out of our control.

[Pcola77]

Good way to do business. Don’t feel like I’m getting the same... But finger crossed we have it this time next week and can reschedule the electrician!

[CanadianSpaTech]

Manufacturers are giving dealers 5-6-7 month wait times for new stock (and no guarantee for that timeline). So some dealers are giving people whatever they have...floor models, repaired returns that 2016 spa that is sitting on the top shelf in the warehouse...whatever they can come up with because everything on the floor is sold and they have no hope of getting stock for months. I have heard one manufacturer will not be taking new orders until next year. They are 5000 spas behind. Imagine you are a dealer selling that brand with no hope of new stock for the remainder of the year. As i predicted at the start of all this covid...things will be fine for 2-3 months then stock will run out the supply chain will break down and the retail side will have a tough go of it.. I see stores now that would dump used.trade in spas because they didn't have the floor space for them and only wanted to sell new spas...well they are not going to the dump now and repairing and flipping used spas might be the only way they survive.

Covers...can't get them Retailers are delivering spas without covers or with whatever odd colour the have left on the shelf.

Retailers were complaining about the shutdown...A few saw the writing on the wall but the majority are in for a rough ride and many won't survive.

Just my opinion

[psumurph]

We really felt the pain. Moved into a new house and always planned to get one for the summer, but apparently the rest of the country decided to take their summer vacation money to do their backyard. By the time we actually went to start looking, there were barely even floor models left anywhere, and 8-12 week waits. We’d find one via phone/email with local dealers that was “okay” (not even really what we wanted), and it would sell before we could go check it out.

Finally found a Wellis tub dealer that said they could get us one (much higher end model than we originally wanted) in about 4 weeks.

Happily, after our ~4 week wait, delivery was scheduled for yesterday. Really been struggling to get ahold of the dealer, but finally got a text Wednesday night that we were first on the delivery for yesterday with a 9-12 window. 12:30 comes around and no sign of anyone.  After multiple calls and texts, the delivery guy finally got back to me that our tub wasn’t on the truck that came earlier in the week. He said “oh, I thought someone told you”. He then said he’d figure out where ours is, and get back to me soon.  I am totally jammed at work, so after a few hours of not hearing anything, my wife went down to the showroom.  The Salesperson goes “oh, yeah we found it. It’s here now. The delivery guy will call you tonight to reschedule delivery”.  Of course we didn’t hear from him, and tried calling/texting a couple times later in the evening.  Called again this morning and asked them to call us back ASAP because our electrician is scheduled to come do the wiring. Of course again didn’t hear anything for a few hours and so the wife went down again. Apparently they’ve sold so many tubs they can’t keep up, their delivery team is way behind “because of the weather” (it’s rained like once in the last month, so that’s bull!), and he’s so sorry, but we’re in the same position as dozens of other customer and they’re doing the best they can.

Lucky us...

Wow!  I literally had nearly the exact same experience today.  Wellis spa...   Missed delivery window...   No communication until I followed up...   

The reason I was given was that somehow the order 'didn't come in'.  But, I find that hard to believe since they gave me my delivery window just over a week ago. 

My dealer seems to be trying to make it right and was very apologetic and I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.  That doesn't change the fact that I lost much of a day of work. 

I wonder if the high demand is causing these spas to get diverted to grey/black market sellers in some way or another.  The dealers are then stuck trying to solve the issue with their customers. 

[Spatech_tuo]

We really felt the pain. Moved into a new house and always planned to get one for the summer, but apparently the rest of the country decided to take their summer vacation money to do their backyard. By the time we actually went to start looking, there were barely even floor models left anywhere, and 8-12 week waits. We’d find one via phone/email with local dealers that was “okay” (not even really what we wanted), and it would sell before we could go check it out.

Finally found a Wellis tub dealer that said they could get us one (much higher end model than we originally wanted) in about 4 weeks.

Happily, after our ~4 week wait, delivery was scheduled for yesterday. Really been struggling to get ahold of the dealer, but finally got a text Wednesday night that we were first on the delivery for yesterday with a 9-12 window. 12:30 comes around and no sign of anyone.  After multiple calls and texts, the delivery guy finally got back to me that our tub wasn’t on the truck that came earlier in the week. He said “oh, I thought someone told you”. He then said he’d figure out where ours is, and get back to me soon.  I am totally jammed at work, so after a few hours of not hearing anything, my wife went down to the showroom.  The Salesperson goes “oh, yeah we found it. It’s here now. The delivery guy will call you tonight to reschedule delivery”.  Of course we didn’t hear from him, and tried calling/texting a couple times later in the evening.  Called again this morning and asked them to call us back ASAP because our electrician is scheduled to come do the wiring. Of course again didn’t hear anything for a few hours and so the wife went down again. Apparently they’ve sold so many tubs they can’t keep up, their delivery team is way behind “because of the weather” (it’s rained like once in the last month, so that’s bull!), and he’s so sorry, but we’re in the same position as dozens of other customer and they’re doing the best they can.

Lucky us...

Wow!  I literally had nearly the exact same experience today.  Wellis spa...   Missed delivery window...   No communication until I followed up...   

The reason I was given was that somehow the order 'didn't come in'.  But, I find that hard to believe since they gave me my delivery window just over a week ago. 

My dealer seems to be trying to make it right and was very apologetic and I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.  That doesn't change the fact that I lost much of a day of work. 

I wonder if the high demand is causing these spas to get diverted to grey/black market sellers in some way or another.  The dealers are then stuck trying to solve the issue with their customers.

The dealers in both of these situations may be getting the runaround from the manufacturer on this (giving them the benefit of the doubt) where they've been promised delivery on a certain quantity of spas on a certain date but instead got left empty handed. HOWEVER, that does NOT give them to right to in turn then give you the runaround as well and most dealers aren't like this. I'm not sure who Wellis is or what kind of dealers they are attracting but a good dealer keeps the customer up to date with the latest info (good or bad), this isn't an issue of a grey/black market.

If Wellis did not deliver the expected spas to the dealer (in this current atmosphere that can happen though they should know before they even open the truck doors) they in turn should immediately let you know, that's the least they can do and its not difficult.

[The Wizard of Spas]

I work for a manufacturer.  I'd like to share a different point of view in the interest of transparency and to inform and educate...

We also have to rely on other suppliers.  Nobody makes their own acrylic, pumps, cabinets, etc.  We have to go off the word of suppliers and in turn notify dealers.  Not all suppliers have the right answers, regardless of intent. Thus - if a cabinet supplier says "ETA is X" then we do our best to factor that in to production and ship dates.  If the supplier simply doesn't ship materials, or ship partial orders, we can only do what we can with what we get.

So just like dealers, we too have to take what information is given to us and then figure out how to answer those purchasing from us. 

To add an extra wrinkle - we have to also note that we have multiple suppliers that we depend on to for materials to produce spas.  Not only is the demand higher than it has ever been (by far) for hot tubs, we have to operate under the presumption that all materials will come in and we will have everything we need to produce a spa, and make a judgement call as to simply trying to figure out what a proper ETA is based simply on the volume of orders.  And then - What if one supplier comes light or not at all with materials?

How would you give out ETAs to dealers?  Not as easy as it looks. 

And as everyone inside the industry knows - this is the most amount of orders we have ever seen.  Ever.  By far. They're coming in faster than they can be processed.

We are all working off of good faith and good intentions.  And overwhelmed as we all are, we do our best but sometimes mistakes are made, or calls aren't placed, or dates are missed.  But that is indeed Covid-19, and most people again understand that we are all overworked, doing our best, and it's just a hot tub and not something that anyone ever should be angry about.

What I have found is that the customers in my factory showroom that seem to have a difficult time understanding this are frankly the customers I am happy to pass on and not take their money:  if you're difficult during a pandemic, how are you when we get back to some semblance of normal? 

I hope this hope this helps with perspective and transparency.  Good luck out there.

[d00nut]

What I have found is that the customers in my factory showroom that seem to have a difficult time understanding this are frankly the customers I am happy to pass on and not take their money:  if you're difficult during a pandemic, how are you when we get back to some semblance of normal? 

Amen!

preach it

[BullFrogSpasMN]

I work for a manufacturer.  I'd like to share a different point of view in the interest of transparency and to inform and educate...

We also have to rely on other suppliers.  Nobody makes their own acrylic, pumps, cabinets, etc.  We have to go off the word of suppliers and in turn notify dealers.  Not all suppliers have the right answers, regardless of intent. Thus - if a cabinet supplier says "ETA is X" then we do our best to factor that in to production and ship dates.  If the supplier simply doesn't ship materials, or ship partial orders, we can only do what we can with what we get.

So just like dealers, we too have to take what information is given to us and then figure out how to answer those purchasing from us. 

To add an extra wrinkle - we have to also note that we have multiple suppliers that we depend on to for materials to produce spas.  Not only is the demand higher than it has ever been (by far) for hot tubs, we have to operate under the presumption that all materials will come in and we will have everything we need to produce a spa, and make a judgement call as to simply trying to figure out what a proper ETA is based simply on the volume of orders.  And then - What if one supplier comes light or not at all with materials?

How would you give out ETAs to dealers?  Not as easy as it looks. 

And as everyone inside the industry knows - this is the most amount of orders we have ever seen.  Ever.  By far. They're coming in faster than they can be processed.

We are all working off of good faith and good intentions.  And overwhelmed as we all are, we do our best but sometimes mistakes are made, or calls aren't placed, or dates are missed.  But that is indeed Covid-19, and most people again understand that we are all overworked, doing our best, and it's just a hot tub and not something that anyone ever should be angry about.

What I have found is that the customers in my factory showroom that seem to have a difficult time understanding this are frankly the customers I am happy to pass on and not take their money:  if you're difficult during a pandemic, how are you when we get back to some semblance of normal? 

I hope this hope this helps with perspective and transparency.  Good luck out there.

So where's my (2) truckloads? hehe ;-)