Have Ya'll Seen This?

[Bonibelle]

Ha Rich, I just saw your retraction...I see a career in politics in your future...

[autoplay]

domain register info

Registrant:
CHT
137 Davenport Drive
Lynchburg, Virginia 24501
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: POOLANDSPARATINGS.COM
Created on: 13-Jun-06
Expires on: 13-Jun-09
Last Updated on: 19-May-07

Administrative Contact:
Smith, Andrew allthestrangehours@charter.net
CHT
137 Davenport Drive
Lynchburg, Virginia 24501
United States
4342318901 Fax --

Technical Contact:
Smith, Andrew allthestrangehours@charter.net
CHT
137 Davenport Drive
Lynchburg, Virginia 24501
United States
4342318901 Fax --

That's where the server originates. There's a boatload of em in Virginia. AOL for example,bases proxies in that state. As Doc stated,that tells little/nuttin.

[Richs100]

Ha Rich, I just saw your retraction...I see a career in politics in your future...

I thought that would make up for my earlier 'off the top' comments!  

[Tom]

http://www.poolandsparatings.com/spas.html

I haven't ever seen this published.  I'm sorry if it's a dupe.

The big shocker to me was Dimension 1's rating of a 6 for the shell.  I think the shell's great...evidently someone doesn't like it. :-?

Anyone know the criteria for any of this?

Terminator

According to the site administrator, the ratings are based on "independent surveys... our ratings are the result of our own extensive research by interviewing consumers, dealers, and taking compiled information from the better business bureaus.... Our ratings are simply our opinion after researching each of these companies."

One of our owners directed me to contact them and suggest that they might like to reconsider their ratings.  I wrote, "We are interested in knowing how many of our customers you've interviewed (and how you found them), and how many of our international dealers you've spoken with..... We wonder if you'd be willing to share with us your findings on our company and dealers?  We're curious to know where we stand, and how your data compares with our own extensive customer survey data and independent, third-party research."

The reply:

Hey Tom, I understand what you are saying, we get emails like yours daily, it would be impossible for our rating system to please everyone, as we treated each company with the exact same research, and thats as fair as we can be. Our ratings cant be bought like poolandspa.com, we actually do research, not charge bogus fees for 5 stars. We review this stuff every January, and Ill be glad to log your data you gave me and take it into account then. Thanks,

Jeff Reece
Poolandsparatings.com

In a later communication, I managed to tick the guy off when I wrote:

Got a few minutes to look further.  I checked the BBB search engine at http://search.bbb.org/advanced.html which turned up 16 of our 132 North American dealers (I wonder where the rest are?).  In all of that 16, I found a total of 4 complaints, all resolved.  Of those 4, none were within the last 12 months.  That's 4/16 or .25 per dealer.

By comparison, Caldera Spa had 25 complaints for 9 dealers (don't know where the rest of theirs are either!).  That's 25/9 or 2.8 per dealer, over 10 TIMES AS MANY AS OURS.   Granted, they're  bigger than we are, and can expect more complaints, but based on the data I could find, it's not at all clear why should they get a 10 and we not?

To give you another instance, you have Cal Spas rated 10 for insulation.  But in an independent scientific study conducted by the Alberta Research Council, a Cal Spas Atlantic was rated the absolute worst for energy efficiency of the models tested.

Jeff obviously didn't appreciate my questions, for he wrote:   Artic [sic] spas just didnt measure up to some of the larger companies like Caldera and Jacuzzi.  Maybe you should spend more time figuring out how to please your customers rather than emailing independent non-funded research websites

Never did get the answers to my questions, though.   :-/  

And  though I can't find my original screen shot, it doesn't look like anything has changed in two years...

[104 degrees]

Jeff obviously didn't appreciate my questions, for he wrote:    Maybe you should spend more time figuring out how to please your customers rather than emailing independent non-funded research websites

This looks true.

john 104 degrees

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

And  though I can't find my original screen shot, it doesn't look like anything has changed in two years...

I have a copy of the page from Dec 15, 2006, and it's exactly the same as it is now.

[104 degrees]

I have a copy of the page from Dec 15, 2006, and it's exactly the same as it is now.

Alot more complaints now??

[Mendocino101]

Its simply more of the same type of arrogance that many people have in many industry's, that they think they are more clever and brighter than most everyone else and that they will post anything and try and make it look credible to help them push their own agenda or in this case sell more spas. It is an insult to all as they basically show respect for no one. I have a dealer on the other side of the freeway who has signs posted "Store Closing" but it is not closing and I actually had a customer who defended their actions, for me personally I would be insulted that someone would think they could take my dollars in what I think is a very underhanded way.

[Richs100]

I think it's New York City that has a law that limits the time period that a store can stay open after announcing a "going out of business sale.  I understand the law was in response to stores that would announce such a sale that lasted several years and never close.   Not a bad idea.

[The_real_Clown_Shoes]

Master Spas rated higher than a Marquis???

What a bogus website.

[The_real_Clown_Shoes]

Oooh, a PDC spa is a perfect 10!

[webboy]

According to the site administrator, the ratings are based on "independent surveys... our ratings are the result of our own extensive research by interviewing consumers, dealers, and taking compiled information from the better business bureaus.... Our ratings are simply our opinion after researching each of these companies."

One of our owners directed me to contact them and suggest that they might like to reconsider their ratings.  I wrote, "We are interested in knowing how many of our customers you've interviewed (and how you found them), and how many of our international dealers you've spoken with..... We wonder if you'd be willing to share with us your findings on our company and dealers?  We're curious to know where we stand, and how your data compares with our own extensive customer survey data and independent, third-party research."

The reply:

Hey Tom, I understand what you are saying, we get emails like yours daily, it would be impossible for our rating system to please everyone, as we treated each company with the exact same research, and thats as fair as we can be. Our ratings cant be bought like poolandspa.com, we actually do research, not charge bogus fees for 5 stars. We review this stuff every January, and Ill be glad to log your data you gave me and take it into account then. Thanks,

Jeff Reece
Poolandsparatings.com

In a later communication, I managed to tick the guy off when I wrote:

Got a few minutes to look further.  I checked the BBB search engine at http://search.bbb.org/advanced.html which turned up 16 of our 132 North American dealers (I wonder where the rest are?).  In all of that 16, I found a total of 4 complaints, all resolved.  Of those 4, none were within the last 12 months.  That's 4/16 or .25 per dealer.

By comparison, Caldera Spa had 25 complaints for 9 dealers (don't know where the rest of theirs are either!).  That's 25/9 or 2.8 per dealer, over 10 TIMES AS MANY AS OURS.   Granted, they're  bigger than we are, and can expect more complaints, but based on the data I could find, it's not at all clear why should they get a 10 and we not?

To give you another instance, you have Cal Spas rated 10 for insulation.  But in an independent scientific study conducted by the Alberta Research Council, a Cal Spas Atlantic was rated the absolute worst for energy efficiency of the models tested.

Jeff obviously didn't appreciate my questions, for he wrote:   Artic [sic] spas just didnt measure up to some of the larger companies like Caldera and Jacuzzi.  Maybe you should spend more time figuring out how to please your customers rather than emailing independent non-funded research websites

Never did get the answers to my questions, though.   :-/  

And  though I can't find my original screen shot, it doesn't look like anything has changed in two years...

Tom, your my hero!

Anybody want to help me start a website, I promise to give you the highest rating possible for a few bucks, and don't worry, I will do all the research