As many of you know, I agonized over whether to buy an Arctic Summit Legend floor model. One one hand, I loved the tub, but I was concerned about the dealer being a little flakey and inexperienced, and he’d only had the dealership for one year. Well, obviously I went for it, and have had the tub for almost 2 months. I don’t regret the purchase at all, but it has been an interesting ride.
At the time of purchase, I asked him (as part of the purchase agreement) to replace all the jet nozzles because of the historic issue of the 2005 ones coming loose. He agreed. Well, 7 weeks into ownership, I still have NO new jets. He kept telling me that Arctic was not responding to him. I also have not received all the steps that were supposed to come with it. He seemed relatively unconcerned, but half-heartedly told me he’d work on it. He was also relatively useless helping me with water chemistry issues. Resolution: 3 days ago I wrote to a customer service rep for Arctic, explained my position and my frustration, and within a few hours had a response asking for my address so that he could ship all the parts to me. I have also had very quick, friendly and helpful water chem./filtration advice from another one of their reps. Tom, aka “Graybeard” was instrumental in getting me in touch with the right people.
I was probably patient for too long, and should have contacted Arctic directly a month ago, but I was trying to let my dealer do his job. The final motivation to go over his head (aside from my rapidly dissolving patience) was this: I walked in the store last weekend for a new filter. There were no Arctic tubs anywhere, but 6 Phoenix tubs sitting there! An employee I’d never met walked up to me, and misunderstood the intense gaze I was giving the tubs. “Those spas caught your eye, huh?”… “Only in that they are not Arctics” I said. “Last I heard, this was my Arctic dealership. What’s going on??” My dealer came out, and reassured me that he’d be available for all service needs, blah, blah, blah, but the price point of these other tubs was so much better, blah, blah, blah…….so now I really have no local support, but I have been so well supported by the Tahoe area dealer and through other reps via email that I am partially glad not to deal with him anymore. I asked him point-blank at the end of February if I could expect him to be with Arctic long term. Hmmmmm.
Message to get from all this?
1) Dealer support is as important as everyone says it is!!! but….
2) Ultimately I think support from the company supercedes dealer support (though both would be nice)
3) If, like me you take a risk buying from some one you are not 100% sure about, make that decision in an informed way, and make sure you are willing to do extra leg-work to get what you need. I went into this KNOWING that I might have problems, but I first made sure that I felt confident I’d have support elsewhere (the Tahoe dealer came down to install my ozone, and the “mothership” seemed supportive from the start). I wish things had gone differently, but I’m still very happy with what I purchased, feel like Arctic is doing its job, and I am REALLY curious about the details of why my dealer is no longer a dealer!
