Advice needed

[Trenden]

I’ve had a frustrating experience with my dealer and I’m looking for some advice.   I purchased a Coleman tub six months ago and it was delivered without the ozone feature, which I paid for.  I called the dealer right away and they acknowledged the mistake and agreed to send someone right out… but that never happened.  I called again two weeks later and he apologized again and said he’d send someone out the very next day… but they never came.  This scenario has repeated itself for six months now.  It’s downright bizarre!  There’s no dispute that they owe it to me and they’re always friendly and apologetic but they just never actually FIX the problem.  I’ve honestly never dealt with such a strange and frankly idiotic company.  Any suggestions?  What would you do?

[hottbpete]

Send them a certified letter.  Include all your documentation and let them know that if it is not fixed with 30 days, you will sue them in small claims court.  Find out from another dealer how much it will cost to have them do the job.

Sounds rough.....but TS on them.  It will catch their attention.

Also file a report with the local BBB  they will call and haraass them too.

Everyone may think that this is overboard, but I say a best defense is a GREAT offense.

.............OK I live in St Louis and we presently have no offense.....

[Jacuzzi Jim]

Have you made a personal visit yet and get in someones face? Its easy to tell you what you want to hear over the phone and not deliver?

[East_TX_Spa]

That is completely unacceptable and borderline criminal.  It sounds like the dealer is either crooked or financially insolvent and unable to acquire parts from the manufacturer.  They are possibly not going to be in business much longer so act fast!

This is the kind of dealer that gives the industry a bad name.

Terminator

[solo]

I would do the following:

1.  Send a certified letter to the dealer requesting ther problem be resolved by  a certain date (say 1 week).

2.  Go down to the dealer and speak to them face to face and make an appointment to have it fixed.  See if he will put it in writing.

3.  If he fails this time, report him to better business bureau and call the Manufacturer of the tub.  Rerport the whole incident to the company that makes the tub.  See what they will do.

If all of the above gets nothing, you will need to go extreme on him.  If you have a friend who is a lawyer, have that friend send the dealer a letter.  Picket his store scaring customers away.  You get the picture.  I seriously doubt you would need to get to this point.  

[Flyonthewall]

[size=14]you are a more patient person than me.  i wouldnt waste any more time on the dealer.  there is no denying there is a problem there.  call the parent company.  i got the # of the web.  it is 800-835-3278.  coleman is owned by the jarden corp.  a normal m.o. of a spa manufacturer would be to contact the dealer to get their side of the story.  if they can't get the dealer to resolve it they would get it done themselves.  they don't want it to go any further up the corporate ladder.  good luck.[/size]

[hottubdan]

How did you pay for the spa?  If you paid by credit card or financed it, you have leverage.  Dispute the charges until you are satisfied.

Oh my gosh...we have dealers giving good consumer advice.  That's not right.  We dealers should say to send the spa back and buy one of our brand.

[Vanguard]

[size=14]you are a more patient person than me.  i wouldnt waste any more time on the dealer.  there is no denying there is a problem there.  call the parent company.  i got the # of the web.  it is 800-835-3278.  coleman is owned by the jarden corp.  a normal m.o. of a spa manufacturer would be to contact the dealer to get their side of the story.  if they can't get the dealer to resolve it they would get it done themselves.  they don't want it to go any further up the corporate ladder.  good luck.[/size]

Flyonthewall:
Your info is incorrect.  MAAX Spas builds Coleman spas under a naming license - that is all.  The Coleman company does not produce or sell spas.  

Trenden
I went onto the Coleman Spas website and found only a dealer locator phone number.  800-926-5362

Most likely, you won't get much relief from MAAX.  Your best bet is to do what others have said and get tough with your dealer.

[Flyonthewall]

Wow, my bad.  what a dolt i am to assume a major company putting a name on a product wouldn't have a hand in quality control.  still i would call them anyways.  if you bag on the right person they will come up with a phone number for you.

[Trenden]

UPDATE:

After submitting a complaint with the Better Business Bureau AND with the manufacturer who called the dealer for me to file a customer complaint I’m finally getting some action.  When I arrived home from work Monday there was a voice mail message from a spa technician saying he would be at my house “first thing” Wednesday morning.  

He left his cell number and when I called him yesterday to confirm the time the first thing he said was, “I hear you’re a really grouchy customer.”  Amazing!  I’ve been waiting for them to install this thing for SIX MONTHS and that’s the first thing he says to me!  Also, I found out the "first thing in the morning actually means NOON.  Oh well, I was pretty polite and just hope he shows up today so I can put this behind me.  We love the hot tub.  Heaven forbid I should ever have a warranty claim and have to work with these people again…

[wmccall]

 It sounds like the dealer is either crooked or financially insolvent and unable to acquire parts from the manufacturer.  They are possibly not going to be in business much longer so act fast!

This is the kind of dealer that gives the industry a bad name.

Terminator

This is what I was thinking, because this is what happened to my dealer and their customers. They had a long decent reputation when I bought, but they declined and in the last few months they were open they acted a lot like this.   I would start taking to Coleman and find out if they have anything to say.  They might say its a dealer matter, but who know.

[wmccall]

UPDATE:

the first thing he said was, “I hear you’re a really grouchy customer.”  

If I owned a business and one of my service techs said that, I'd speak to him about that.

[Trenden]

The spa tech showed up today and installed my ozone, finally after a six month wait!  Fantastic!  “See those little bubbles?” he said, “That’s how you can tell that it’s working.”  “Well great!” I said,  “Thanks for your help!”  

Well, after he left I decided to pop the side panel off and take a look.  Yep, there was my ozonator, mounted inside.  Curiously, it says on the side that it’s a Balboa UV Ozone Generator.  Strange, since I was told that Coleman’s “CleanZone system uses a Delta Elektra Aquamatic ozone generator.  A quick Google search reveals the Balboa unit I got is an after-market add-on that runs about $69.  Did I get ripped off?

Popping open the electrical box and a quick look at the electrical schematic (yes, I’m an engineer geek) revealed that my helpful spa tech plugged the ozone generator into the wrong slot on the circuit board.  On top of that he wired it for 220 volts.  Yes, the SPA runs on 220V but the schematic shows the ozone generator needs to be wired at 120V.  That thing wasn’t doing anything the way he had it hooked up!  Visible bubbles obviously don’t prove anything.  All that was happening was the venture was pulling air through a dead UV ozone unit and pushing them out the jet.

It took me about an hour to wire the thing correctly because he had cut that pesky wire used for 120 volt application so I had to do some fancy splicing.  Once I did that the thing fired to life.  I could tell because I could see UV light.  Now I have ozone!  …though I don’t know if this Balboa unit is as good as the OEM unit my Coleman was supposed to come with.  I've read here that UV generators aren't as effective.  

[East_TX_Spa]

Sir, they are ripping you off and they are incompetent as well.

Call Coleman/Maax immediately and register your complaint.  The dealer is up to no good.

Terminator

[Vanguard]

If you were sold one thing and then given another, you surely have a viable complaint.  You are correct, UV ozone is not as good as CD Chip or CD Cell.  UV puts out less ozone than the other two.

Do you know if the one you were supposed to get is UV or CD?  I see nothing in the name of the generator that indicates what kind it is.

I wish you well.  It sounds like you have a dealer who is not holding up their end of the deal.  I'd keep on them and keep on the BBB.  Unfortunately, if they go out of business, you are out of luck with them and only have the manufacturer to lean on.  And, they didn't sell you the spa or ozone.