Stew, Ray at the factory has been great to work with for me. My dealer has no service department, and the problems I have had ( jet bearings, sticky neck jets, rubber long 90 between pump and heater) have all been easy 10 minute fixes. And he has sent everything I have needed ups.
When the bearings went bad in one of my jet faces he sent me a whole set of jets for the entire tub, when the neck jets got hard to turn he sent me the tool to loosen them and new jets, when the long 90 that was rubber started to leak he sent me the redesigned hard PVC 90 with new gaskets out the same day (even though I built one and installed it). So I have got no complaints as far as service. Now I understand that not all people can do the service them selfs and the dealer has provisions for that, but I prefer to do my own service as I can do it faster and I get to learn the tub for the future. But my factory support has been outstanding. 3 years old 4200 bucks.