hot springs, tiger river, or bullfrog

[flajoker]

hottub man, I'm not a employee now or never have been in the hottub trade. All I did was pass along tub cost. If you read my post, you will also see I just paid 7400 dollars for a envoy.
Dealer cost is a little under 5000. So the 50 percent markup I paid is really not very much if you are buying from a brick and mortar store.
If you knew wholesale pricing on everything you bought, you would find closer to 100 percent or better on everything.
I don't know of anything you could buy for a 20 percent markup (1000.00) in this case, and be of quality or legal.
All I did was answer a question, not ment to upset anyone or offend.
If anyone offered to sell me a hottub for 20% over cost and they had a ligit buisiness, either they have to sell alot of tubs or they won't be open in 6 months. They would have to show me proven track record, or I know I will be left fending for myself when their gone.
The dealer I bought from has sold HS for about 15 years and also sells pools. They have also had the doors open for abot 20 something years.
There is many things that go into pricing of anything you buy.
Everyone knows if you buy at the mall it cost more than Walmart. If you buy from any type of store in the mall perimeter it will cost more than if that same sstore is a mile away. Location,location,location a lot of the time is a direct reflection to the cost. We have another brand of tubs about 40 miles from here that is in some of highest real estate around here. Not going to pay the markup on their name brand tubs, just so I can say I bought it at... in the blah blah center. I have no interest in their swanky store and prices.
Then again I don't have a lot of interest in Walmart and keeping the sweat shops of Taiwan and China employed. But that is another subject.
Again let me say I did not or have any reason to offend any dealers,salesmen,owners or techs in the hottub industry.
Jack

[flajoker]

Now after reading my own post, could someone teach me to spell and write correctly

[Mendocino101]

Flajoker....

Check with someone at a local high school or college....by the way I am not tying to be a smart a$$....you do not calculate mark up using the formula you did...very simply if you sell something for say $100.00 and raw cost is $50.00 than you have made a 50% profit not 100% as you sugesst..take $100.00 selling price less cost $50.00 you have a 50% mark up..also that is gross profit and no where close to net.....for simple math if your spas cost was 5000.00 to the dealer and than they sold to you for 7500.00 they made a gross profit of 25% which in reality very very few business would survive off......when you factor in all the other costs involved....as an example the most basic costs of freight to the dealer and than delivery to you is probably close to 500.00....now your dealer is down to 20% and there is so much more to add....it seems like you got a great deal....congratulations....

[lynnette]

Hi,  We also live in Michigan and purchased a Tiger River Caspian for $7100 in July this year.  I did a lot of research on spas.  Tiger River has a great warranity and fully insulated which is important here in Michigan. (5 degrees this morning)  Our electric bill was about $20 higher than last year, that includes changing the water. (Took a long time to heat water since tap water was so cold).  I recommend going with the Tiger River since Watkins has been around for a long time and I have not read of them not standing behind the warranity on this form.  Good Luck your going to love your spa.  Lynnette

[wrobo]

TLC,

I too visited Lifestyles in Utica, MI.  I was interested in the Grandee, and they were very high relative to prices that I have seen people report on this board.  Go back and see another salesperson and you might get a different and higher price.

If you do not mind taking an hour ride again, you might be interested in visiting a place called Tradewinds.  They sell Caldera.  The owner is very low key, and seems to be competitive with price (once again relative to what others have posted here).  I bought my Niagara from him, with no regrets.

Two other dealers that are within 15 minutes of Tradewinds are a Sundance Dealer as well as a Marquis dealer.  All treated me fairly well.  If you are interested in their names/locations, I would be happy to help.

Jeff

[tlc]

 Jeff,
Thanks for your advice, Taking the 45 min drive is no big deal ever heard of nino salvagio's? I go there often!! Where is tradewinds located?? I'll try to look them up online. Thanks for the advice. Also I just got a name of a guy who sells hs out of his house. Old employee of dealer he also services them. Maybe I can get that tub for a grand over whoesale after all!!!
TLC

[flajoker]

Ok I said it all wrong...it was late.  

[wrobo]

TLC,

Yes I have heard of Nino Salvagio's (sp?).  I live about 5-6 miles from it.

Just go to the Caldera, Sundance, and Marquis main site.  Look for the dealer locator option.  That will get you to the respective dealers.  If you are looking for a zip code for this area, try 48313.

Jeff

[tlc]

Ok everyone we wet tested the bullfrog the other day. It was nice. On the Jetpaks we only tried 3 different ones. Liking only one of the three. We have several questions for the dealer. Unfortunatly we can't wet test the hot springs until the guy gets his 05 tubs! We are headed up north this weekend and Petoskey has a hs dealer. Hopefully my husband can wet test up there. While bullfrog is still fresh in our minds! If all goes well we should be able to make up our minds by next week. Bullfrog has several jetpaks with different water flow thru the jets. On the one we tested, 35gallons/min ,30 gallons/min and 22 gallons /min. the 35 was good but in the model we are looking to buy one has 56 gal/min,58gal/min,42gal/min,&46gal/min.  Which is more than we tested. Hopefully the pumps will support those ratio's all at once.  I guess we need to wet test again because they can just change jetpaks while we sit there! Anyway it was a nice tub for all those who are wondering. I'll let you know how it compares to HS!
TLC

[wmccall]

Thanks for updating us.

[stuart]

You probably wouldn't notice a lot of difference in quality in years 1-4 but in years 4-8 there would be no comparison, the Bullfrog would start to have jet pack failures and the connectors will fail.

The other issue you will deal with is a collection of debris and bacteria behind the packs in the void of where the plumbing is. In addition to this I believe that your plumbing for each jet pack is in the water in that void so again, as debris and contaminates collect in that mess it is hard to clean out. Chances are you will never change the pack after the first month unless it fails and then you will with you had one of the other brands simply for replacement cost, Bullfrog will not give you a credit on a pack that is “chemically damaged” and chances of that happening are pretty high!

[wmccall]

You probably wouldn't notice a lot of difference in quality in years 1-4 but in years 4-8 there would be no comparison, the Bullfrog would start to have jet pack failures and the connectors will fail.

Understanding the logic of your posts, how long has Bullfrog been making spas?  Maybe the spa packs are made wtih Microban  

There is a debatable subject that hasn't come up in months.

[stuart]

The PVC for the plumbing on the jet packs is not made of MicroBan....

As far as how long they have been doing this, I'm not sure but I believe less than 6 years....

[wetone]

The other issue you will deal with is a collection of debris and bacteria behind the packs in the void of where the plumbing is.

There is a Bullfrog owner that has posted on other boards about the build up behind the jet packs... just like ya say. There is no water movement behind and around the jet packs which can cause a build up of all sorts of smelly stuff.

[Mendocino101]

I like the idea of Bullfrog but as it has been said many times before...If it were the best way to go someone else would have copied it....I think they are an OK spa but the idea of the jet pac I think is a nice selling tool and a great thought... but offer little practical use....and  as Stuart points out the build up behind the pac is just simply not a good thing...