Delivery of Spa--How long does it take?

[dinaducky]

On average, how long did you have to wait to have your spa delivered from the time you ordered it?  I ordered a Marquis Epic on Dec. 12 and was told it would take 4-5 weeks so that puts me at getting the spa any day now.  I talked to my salesperson today and she can't give me a definite answer.  She said she called Marquis today and couldn't get a straight answer from them.  Does this sound right?  I don't mind waiting, but I don't like getting the run around.  Thanks for your input.

[socal]

first, this isnt an attempt at an excuse, just a possible reason to the delay in your situation.
the initial part of the "4-5weeks" could have been the dealer trying to get a couple of more units on the truck before ordering. this helps not only to keep freight costs down, but it also helps with getting a dedicated truck. what i mean by that is they would have an easier time getting a full truckload  as aposed to a LTL shippment. with LTL, a manufacturer trys to schedual mulitple stops for that 1 truck which isnt all that easy.
with that being said, it could be the case that a truck is being schedualed but trying as well to make a "full load". thats 1 draw back to having a manufacturer out of state. the dealer cant just will call it.

hope this blabbering has helped.

[jim97219]

I agree, that doesn't sound right.  There are two things to look at, the manufacturing side and the trucking side.  Trust me, if Marquis has your order in their plant, they know exactly what day your tub will be ready to ship.  It sounds like you might have to call Marquis to get the straight scoop on that side of it but give your dealer the chance to get you the answer.  It's a lot more work for the Marquis people to find your dealer's order when non-dealer people call.  It could also be a sticky situation for the Marquis people if your dealer has some credit problems; more on that further down.

The trucking side could be the problem.  I suspect that hot tubs don't move on a common carrier trucking company.  They may well move via a gyppo (sp?) trucking company that moves a full truckload from point A to point B.  They're a lot less money but you just can't call them up today and the truck will be there that afternoon.  They are arranged via a truck broker whose job it is to get that truck another load as soon as it's empty and with as few deadhead (empty) miles as possible between deliveries.  It may be that there really aren't any trucks currently in or near Independence, Oregon (where Marquis' factory is) willing to go to your area when their truckload is ready to go out.  It may also be that Marquis doesn't have a full truckload, say only a half of one, going to your area and the broker can't find a load to fill the rest of the truck.  

A third possibility could be that your dealer is having financial difficulties.  This is the one you should worry about.  If he hasn't paid for tubs already delivered to him, he may be on credit hold with Marquis.  He is then forced to wait until someone else buys a tub from him so he'll have enough cash to pay for those previously sold tubs and Marquis will then release new orders (yours) to manufacturing.  This is what happened to Dino; search this site for posts by Dino and Dinoguest.  I still feel bad for what happened to him.

My suggestions are to one, call the dealer and have them call Marquis to see when it's going to be ready to ship.  Don't ask when it's GOING to ship; you want to know when it WILL BE READY TO ship, i.e., when it's done being manufactured.  THEN find out when will it be shipping.  That part might be harder to figure out but not impossible.

Good luck!

Jim

[Brookenstein]

If I'm not mistaken, there are a handful of people who recently got new Epics (I'm thinking December) and they all took longer than they expected it to.  I have bad memory but I'm guessing maybe 6 weeks or so.  Even once they were told it was 'on the truck' it took a couple weeks.

[wmccall]

I actually like that they couldn't give a definite answer. Some salespeople will make promises for delivery and then make excuses when its late.  At least no answer is usually an honest answer.  Many factors are frequently involved as others will tell you.

[East_TX_Spa]

If a customer places an order with us (East Texas Spa) and we do not have the color they want in stock, 3 weeks is the longest anyone has ever had to wait.  It is usually only two weeks.  Seems like a lot of people have to wait an awfully long time to get their spas and I haven't heard a good reason why yet.

Times are changing and if you can't get the customer their product in a reasonable amount of time, someone else will.

Terminator

[salesdvl]

One of the reasons Hot Spring is so quick is that they dont offer a lot of options or a bunch of different colors.  They have more now than before but it allows them to make a bunch of spas and store them so that when a dealer calls they can just go to the pile and pull it and put it on a truck.  It is a great program.
the other end of the spectrum is a manufacturer that offers alot of options.  You cant build alot of inventory because you dont know what people are going to want.  Having said that, I know LA Spas was consistantly 10 days from "order entry" to "ready to ship".  2 weeks to make and a week on the road gave our dealers product in about 3 weeks.

[East_TX_Spa]

HotSpring also has this pretty unique capability:

I had a customer come in on Friday and wanted a Prodigy with a sand shell and espresso cabinet, a color combination that we don't offer.  We called Watkins, they built the spa and shipped it out on Monday.  The customer had the spa by the end of the week.  Unbelievable.

Terminator