It finally happened!!!!!!!!!!!

[East_TX_Spa]

How to Take Care of the Customer
The East Texas Spa Way

1.  Sell a quality product

2.  Deliver that product undamaged

3.  Service the product for free under warranty

4.  Service the product for the life of the product for a reasonable fee

5.  If delivery is delayed for any reason (train wreck, hijacking, sasquatch attack), provide the customer with a loaner spa at no charge

6.  Don't nickel and dime the customer

7.  Reap the benefits of a great reputation for taking care of the customer

Terminator

[Summitman]

How to Take Care of the Customer
The East Texas Spa Way

1.  Sell a quality product

2.  Deliver that product undamaged

3.  Service the product for free under warranty

4.  Service the product for the life of the product for a reasonable fee

5.  If delivery is delayed for any reason (train wreck, highjacking, sasquatch attack), provide the customer with a loaner spa at no charge

6.  Don't nickel and dime the customer

7.  Reap the benefits of a great reputation for taking care of the customer

Terminator

Sounds like the GoArctic way of business!!!  If every dealer had these rules, this forum probably wouldnt be necessary!

[bohms]

Sounds like the GoArctic way of business!!!  If every dealer had these rules, this forum probably wouldnt be necessary!

I'm jealous - can you please send that list to my dealer?

[Summitman]

I'm jealous - can you please send that list to my dealer?

Whats interesting is I was brought into the pool and spa world working for a business that didnt value its customer relations.  I absolutely HATED answering the phone or helping a customer, because this dealer was so horrible at handling issues.  So I learned the hard way that its much easier to do things the right way, the first time.  Treating people with the respect that East Texas listed out, pays out so much more than charging small trip fees for warranty calls.  And hey, its actually a pleasure to answer the phone, or sit in the booth next to one of your customers at a local restaurant.  Its a great feeling, and I love being known in this neck of the woods as a fun place to work and fun place to do business.

[BubbaGump]

Bohms,
I am an Arctic Dealer but I do feel the same was as you and Bosco on some things. If you re-read my posts, I have said that it bothers me that he is getting service like that, and that he has a bad dealer. He should, and expect to get good service, but unfortunately that is not happening. But, imo, this isn’t a reflection on Arctic Spas, but the dealer that sold Bosco his Arctic Spa.

I must disagree with you somewhat here.  You are correct that the Dealer should never have delivered, or possibly even received, a damaged spa, but there seems to be confusion as to who owned the spa when the "derailment" happened.  If I got in a damaged shipment of cars from an accident like that I would refuse them.  We have purchased slightly damaged vehicles at a HUGE discount, we fix them in our body shop, and we sell them with full disclosure with a big discount..  Bottom line, it sounds like Arctic forced this dealer to take delivery of damaged product.

My question is at what point does Arctic step up and help him get this taken care of.  If we serviced our customers this way, I know we would lose our contract with our MFG.

Unfortunately, there are bad dealers out there that sell good spas. This story with Bosco is not a reflection as a company of Arctic Spas as whole. If it were, their BBB report would look like Thermospas. They wouldn’t be one of the fastest growing companies in Canada for the third straight year. They would be one of only eight spas in the world to be Spa Search certified for the last two years. I have sold Arctic Spas for seven years now, and they do things the right way.

So if I hire a bad employee, it is not a reflection of my company and or my hiring skills?  This just does not add up Kimbo.  I am sure that all MFG have poor dealers, its how the "Parent Company" handles the situation that determines the quality of the overall experience.  So far, it seems that Arctic is not doing it the "Right Way" as you claim...

[BubbaGump]

I meant to post this in this topic.

Please stop whining.  There are NO guarantees in life. Warranties are just a another tactic to help them make a sale....nothing more.
 
Sometimes you kick....sometimes you get kicked. Deal with it.
 
Stop blaming everyone, fix the problem and move on.  Poop happens and you just happened to be the one to step in it.
 
Just my opinion.
 
Smile...life is fun !!!!
 

Are you freakin kidding me?  A WARRANTY is a contract, not a way to close a sale.  A LEGALLY BINDING contract that can and should be honored.  

Poop happens, just deal with it???  Wow,,,  how many people poop on you?  And you dont care?

Working with someone seems to be what has happened here.  Our problem is that at some point you cannot "work" with them any more.  I do not see anything that is overly demanding here, in fact, I think he has gone out of his way to work with Arctic and his dealer to resolve the issues that have taken place.  

[Too Tense]

Again  Of course the dealer is responsible for receiving spas in excellent condition, and paying for the freight cost too there door.

But how long dose the manufacture allow a poor quality dealer to sell there product line before the damage is ireversible. For every one dissatisfied customer this results in 5 lost customer sales.

Is the dealers name on the product, or the manufactures. If the dealer fails to please the customer during the FACTORY WARRANTY who is customer going to blame, the manufacture for not controling their dealers. Nowhere does it say Dealers Warranty. Their are good dealers and bad dealers and great dealers. What makes a great dealer is going above and beyond for there customers. Manufactures cannot aford to have any bad dealers representing their product, or they will not survive no matter how good there product is. I have seen multi-billion dollar companies 100+ years old fail in a few year because  the upper management  lost  control of their dealers.

The only one that can legally say if it is under warranty or not is the manufacture by law. The dealer must get with the manufacture to determine what is and what is not covered under the factory warranty before telling the customer if it is covered or not.

So manufactures responsibly to the customer 65%  dealers 35%. Dealers can be replaced, but the manufactures in order to survive must contiinue to support that customer base at all cost. Manufactures can build the very finest product, but if there is a weak link in the support of that product then they are destined too fail, just simple business economics.

Manufactures are only as good as there dealer network, dealers are only as good as how they take care of there customers. This is why you see poor manufactured products succeed they have a very strong dealer network  with poor customer support. They close there doors and reopen under a new name selling the same crap.

I have never ever seen anything like this before trying to purchase a big ticket quality item. I always like to support the underdog. Yes I have found some very good dealers out their, but there spas did not fit. Every time I thought I found the right spa there was a dark shadow lurkig in the back ground. I am running out of quality spas to consider. I have gone back to look at many spas at least 3 times before droping them from my list, each time I find something new that I dislike. Each visit I find more missing features that are very important to my wife and myself. I have loged at least 1500 miles looking at all these spas, and many hours on the internet so I can say without a doubt  that I have done my home work. I thought I had found my perfect spa until last night when a dealer e-mailed me the BBB report on the Spa Company. Now I am back to square one. I have waited this long so looking for a few more weeks is no big deal to make the correct choice.

Sorry for the long winded post and type O's

[BubbaGump]

Other than changing the jets Tom, arctic has done nothing for me.  New managers, new policies all this stuff, who cares.  I have been misinformed, and I feel that I have been left alone.  So for these reasons, I sit here very upset with pour quality service and lack of a solid warranty.

Again, I love my tub, I love owning an arctic tub, I have been a believer before the rest of the industry and members of this forum truely accepted Arctic Spa as a leading manufacturer.  I havent been on this board for sometime, and the only thing that I really see is more arctic dealers on this forum.  

I have sent my local store many people in to purchase an arctic spa, and will continue to recommend, but they will all know just how crappy the local service has been.  In my line of work Tom, one individual screws up, the hole department wears thier mistake, so I truely feel that your company should take a look at local service policies a little more than what is taking place.

Wow, I am not bashing here, but you would still recomend this to your friends?  

[Tom]

It looks like you have all been having a good time with this.  

I spoke this morning with the service rep for Bosco's dealer.  Mary really impressed me-- she knew all about the situation, had read the thread, and had spoken with Bosco.  "He's was polite and friendly when he called us."  

A service appointment has been scheduled for Monday Aug. 18.  I don't think that four business days is a bad turnaround. I asked Mary to have the tech examine the cover and consider it for a warranty claim.   I have also put a note on my calendar to follow up with both the service dept. and Bosco next week to learn the outcome of the service call.

I checked with Bosco and he can't recall the specific error code, so we'll have to let that one go.  I'll round up a set of tech manuals for all our spa packs and make sure that both Mary and I have copies so that kind of situation shouldn't come up again.

As for the train derailment, I did ask our shipping manager about that.  Apparently there have been several derailments over the past few years, but to the best of his knowledge our product has never been involved.   Mary also checked at her end, and states that "Our tubs were never involved in a train derailment. They were however DELAYED in getting here because there was a derailment."

[BubbaGump]

Bosco - I feel like the minority here but I agree with you 100%.  Seems like most people in this thread are either Arctic dealers or own stock in Arctic.  You're dealer is horrible and Arctic doesn't feel the need to stand behind their product or correct your dealers wrongdoings.
Wet in Chi Town must be smoking something good.  "Work together"?!!!!  Peace dude!    
Bosco you have every right to expect top notch service from a supposed top notch company.
I think this post hits a nerve with me b/c my Artesian dealer is beyond HORRIBLE!!!  Artesian headquarters tells me that they can't make my dealer call me back or make them come out and fix my tub.  WHAT???!!!!  I was dumbfounded.  Anyway, my problem is fixed now but that type of customer service doesn't sit well with me......not after buying a 10K item.
Keep pressing on Bosco don't let these people make you out to be the crazy one to expect good service after spending so much money.  

Amen!!!  Sad that you have to raise this much cain to get it fixed, and it seems that several high up types in Arctic have been aware of this for some time.  

[Too Tense]

It took all this for Arctic Spas to finely response, I fined this absolutey petty with lame on there part. These are small repair issues that should have been taken care of through a third partly repair person too satisfy Bosco then bill back their dealer.

There seem to be a lot of Arctic dealers on here defending Arctic Spas the company , but at the same I don't see Arctic trying too put out this fire very quickly. This is not the kind of free advertising I would want for my company.

Looking at Bosco old post is not the proper answer to solving his problems. I feel he was extremely fair to Arctic by not posting negative remarks. But in all fairness he did contact Arctic direct and got the heave hoe. Bosco made it quite clear that he was having problems with his dealer and Arctic responded by telling him to get with his dealer, that they could not do anything for him. This is very poor customer service on both Arctic Spas and there dealer. How many other P.O. customers does this  one dealer have that Arctic Spas is ignoring.

Yes its ture that Arctic is not the only one out there doing this to the customers, is  this an acceptable answer. No. If they want to be the leader in their industry then they need set the example for everyone else to follow. Leaders lead followers fall and fail.

[Tom]

I don't see Arctic trying too put out this fire very quickly.

I first heard about Bosco's post on August 14, 2008 at 11:09:53 MDT and reported at 10:12 MDT today.  Just over 23 hours.

[Water Boy]

Nice work Tom. Keep up the good work!!

[Too Tense]

Tom

This is why Arctic will never make it to number one, because of remarks like that.

[bohms]

I first heard about Bosco's post on August 14, 2008 at 11:09:53 MDT and "finally" reported at 11:12 MDT today.  Just over 24 hours.  That's too long?

Tom - I think he's talking about the previous issues about the cover and the other warranty issues where Bosco contacted you in the past.  At least that's what I think he meant.