We went to Valley Pools, Performance Pool and Spa in Burnsville, Leisure Time in Apple Valley, Minnesota Hot Tubs in Lakeville, and Hot Springs in Plymouth. My opinions of each are as follows. Each store we went to we informed the salesperson that we were just starting our research and weren't sure when we would be buying.
Valley Pools (Marquis Brand) - The lady we talked to was nice, but she didn't see terribly interested in selling us a hot tub. She answered our questions with as little information as possible. She seemed knowledgeable, but it was hard to tell given the way she treated us.
Performance Pool and Spa (Sundance) - They were knowledgeable and pretty helpful. They sent us home with some materials and encouraged wet testing.
Leisure Time (Don't Remember the brand) - We may as well have been at a used car lot. I stopped listening about 2 minutes after stepping in the door.
Minnesota Hot Tubs (Bullfrog) - We had a really good experience here. On our first visit we got some pricing information and the sales guy was really nice and helpful. After our wet test we asked about pricing again and the sales guy (same one as before) turned into a used car salesman. The price we were quoted before went up, so we left.
Hot Springs (Hot Spring) - This was by far our best experience. We worked with Eric (TwinCitiesHotSpring on here) and were very happy. We ended up buying our tub from Eric and the entire process was excellent. I would recommend at least paying Eric a visit. Here is a related post I made a while ago:
http://www.whatsthebest-hottub.com/forum/index.php/topic,18632.msg189618.html#msg189618
