I know 2 people who bought Thermospas at a "show". I think they bought ones that were scratched and/or blemished. I know one of them paid about $3,000 for his and I think the other a little more. They bought them about 3 years ago.
One of them got an extended warranty, the other did not. I have tried to help the one without the warranty repair a problem (Maybe I'm becoming a Spa Tech too
) and the folks at Balboa were great!
Both love their tubs but both have had some issues - the one with the extended warranty has had a couple of service calls taken care of and the other had an ozonator failure and seems to think he has some kind of leak -> no warranty - no service help from Thermospa.
I also know a couple of people who tried to get Thermospas to come in, either no show and no call or the high pressure sales tactic.
Originally, I was thinking of going that route (going to a show) myself - $3,000 for a pretty well equipped tub is awfully cheap but after seeing what happened and reading about Thermospas I decided to buy from a dealer.