Pay Now Pray Now - prepayment

[tubbyB]

How many purchasers or dealers had to pay or require the entire pruchase price BEFORE the tub is delivered and installed?

At 4-6 weeks for delivery, I am worried about having to pay in full now and the various situations that could occur in the interim.

Any advice?

cheers

[sledjunkie]

In some cases (like mine) dealers will get a discount from the factory if the tub is paid for up front before putting it on the truck. My dealer got $400 off which he took off the price of my purchase. There are other things like point systems for shipping discounts, all sorts of incentives for dealers. When it comes down to it , there are all sorts of tricks to get the price down.

Did the dealer give you an incentive for paying up front?
Is he/she telling you to pay for it in full up front?

[Drewski]

Even if you can afford cash, put it on a CREDIT CARD.

This way, if bad things happen, you can walk away from it. There are numbers of posts on this forum from people who paid in full or paid a deposit and then NEVER saw a tub. Don't get TAKEN. And don't get suckered by someone who's "been in business for years" and assures you it "wouldn't happen" to them!

Good Luck!

Drewski

[tmknies1]

Unless there is a huge discount and you are completely comfortable with the dealer I would be hesitant to pay for something in full prior to receipt. What if the wrong color comes or the tub is damages and you decide to buy another make/model? Many of the dealers we spoke with accepted a down payment to order the tub with balance due at delivery. I also agree with Drewski regarding the credit card, you can dispute the charge with the cc company. If you pay with cash it will be up to you to fight and get the money back if you have to.

[drewstar]

I would not pay in full for the spa until delivery.  A deposit, say 5-20% maybe.  But never, never, never pay in full before delivery.

This puts you in a very tight spot and even if you put it on a cc and do have problems, it can take several months  to a year to get resolved.

What dealer is this?  

[wmccall]

. Don't get TAKEN. And don't get suckered by someone who's "been in business for years" and assures you it "wouldn't happen" to them!

 

My dealer is a good example of that.  The Dad still owned it when I bought, and they had been around more than 10 years.  I was asked to put 10% down and the rest on delivery.   A year after that, the Dad sold the business to his son, within another year, they were suddenly asking for 100% down and a few months later, the doors are locked, lights out, nobody's home.

[wetone]

How many purchasers or dealers had to pay or require the entire pruchase price BEFORE the tub is delivered and installed?

At 4-6 weeks for delivery, I am worried about having to pay in full now and the various situations that could occur in the interim.

Any advice?

cheers

It's not a custom order and therefore Max, $1000 deposit on C/C as you are ordering the spa with 4-6 weeks delivery. The transaction/sale is not completed till the spa is delivered. On delivery balance should be payable.

That's how most dealers in our area operate, including our all stores

[Chas]

I feel perfectly comfortable having some sort of balance due on delivery. It seems to keep us hustling, and seems to make the customer feel better. So generally we get about half down - paid via check - and the balance on delivery, also paid by check.

I write a check to Watkins the day I pick up the spas, and the whole order or most of the order of spas is usually in backyards before the factory cashes my check. I am lucky to be this close to the plant, of course, so I can go pick up as few as three tubs at a time if I have to.

We have done this long enough to know how to keep reserves for those times when we bring in a spa and the customer then calls to say they decided to redo the entire backyard and they won't need the tub for three months... Although in extreme cases they will sometimes offer to come in a pay the balance down some more.

If the customer asks to use a credit card (which costs me $165 on a $10,000 sale) I simply run it for the full amount up front, no questions asked.

[East_TX_Spa]

While most of my customers pay in full when we write up the contract, we will also order any spa they want with no money down.  If they back out, we'll sell it to someone else.  Longest anyone has ever had to wait for a spa is 3 weeks.  Had a lady come in Tuesday, paid in full for a Prodigy with her CC, and we delivered it the next day.

We've done it like this for 21 years and never had any problems (knock on pood).  Business is good.

Terminator

[The_real_Clown_Shoes]

Our company always has had a policy of paying in full before the tub is delivered, and I never have felt right about doing it.

Often times I will let people slide a few days so that we can be sure everything is in order before cashing the check.

[Vanguard]

I don't think I'd pay in full unless it was to be delivered within a day or two.  I can see the dealer's side of this as well as the consumer's.

However, I would not pay in full for one being ordered.  There are too many things that can go wrong in the interim.  The dealer is asking you to cover his cost and profit by paying in full.  If you are not ordering anything out of the ordinary, the dealer should still be able to sell it if you needed to back out.

I would be very wary of the dealer asking for full payment before he even orders the spa.