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It's been crazy, can't keep inventory in-stock, I have approx. 125-150 spas/swim spas on order currently
I hope you’re handling the delivery process better than our guy! Quote from: BullFrogSpasMN on June 12, 2020, 03:29:01 pmIt's been crazy, can't keep inventory in-stock, I have approx. 125-150 spas/swim spas on order currently
We really felt the pain. Moved into a new house and always planned to get one for the summer, but apparently the rest of the country decided to take their summer vacation money to do their backyard. By the time we actually went to start looking, there were barely even floor models left anywhere, and 8-12 week waits. We’d find one via phone/email with local dealers that was “okay” (not even really what we wanted), and it would sell before we could go check it out.Finally found a Wellis tub dealer that said they could get us one (much higher end model than we originally wanted) in about 4 weeks.Happily, after our ~4 week wait, delivery was scheduled for yesterday. Really been struggling to get ahold of the dealer, but finally got a text Wednesday night that we were first on the delivery for yesterday with a 9-12 window. 12:30 comes around and no sign of anyone. After multiple calls and texts, the delivery guy finally got back to me that our tub wasn’t on the truck that came earlier in the week. He said “oh, I thought someone told you”. He then said he’d figure out where ours is, and get back to me soon. I am totally jammed at work, so after a few hours of not hearing anything, my wife went down to the showroom. The Salesperson goes “oh, yeah we found it. It’s here now. The delivery guy will call you tonight to reschedule delivery”. Of course we didn’t hear from him, and tried calling/texting a couple times later in the evening. Called again this morning and asked them to call us back ASAP because our electrician is scheduled to come do the wiring. Of course again didn’t hear anything for a few hours and so the wife went down again. Apparently they’ve sold so many tubs they can’t keep up, their delivery team is way behind “because of the weather” (it’s rained like once in the last month, so that’s bull!), and he’s so sorry, but we’re in the same position as dozens of other customer and they’re doing the best they can. Lucky us...
Quote from: Pcola77 on June 12, 2020, 04:15:45 pmWe really felt the pain. Moved into a new house and always planned to get one for the summer, but apparently the rest of the country decided to take their summer vacation money to do their backyard. By the time we actually went to start looking, there were barely even floor models left anywhere, and 8-12 week waits. We’d find one via phone/email with local dealers that was “okay” (not even really what we wanted), and it would sell before we could go check it out.Finally found a Wellis tub dealer that said they could get us one (much higher end model than we originally wanted) in about 4 weeks.Happily, after our ~4 week wait, delivery was scheduled for yesterday. Really been struggling to get ahold of the dealer, but finally got a text Wednesday night that we were first on the delivery for yesterday with a 9-12 window. 12:30 comes around and no sign of anyone. After multiple calls and texts, the delivery guy finally got back to me that our tub wasn’t on the truck that came earlier in the week. He said “oh, I thought someone told you”. He then said he’d figure out where ours is, and get back to me soon. I am totally jammed at work, so after a few hours of not hearing anything, my wife went down to the showroom. The Salesperson goes “oh, yeah we found it. It’s here now. The delivery guy will call you tonight to reschedule delivery”. Of course we didn’t hear from him, and tried calling/texting a couple times later in the evening. Called again this morning and asked them to call us back ASAP because our electrician is scheduled to come do the wiring. Of course again didn’t hear anything for a few hours and so the wife went down again. Apparently they’ve sold so many tubs they can’t keep up, their delivery team is way behind “because of the weather” (it’s rained like once in the last month, so that’s bull!), and he’s so sorry, but we’re in the same position as dozens of other customer and they’re doing the best they can. Lucky us...Wow! I literally had nearly the exact same experience today. Wellis spa... Missed delivery window... No communication until I followed up... The reason I was given was that somehow the order 'didn't come in'. But, I find that hard to believe since they gave me my delivery window just over a week ago. My dealer seems to be trying to make it right and was very apologetic and I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. That doesn't change the fact that I lost much of a day of work. I wonder if the high demand is causing these spas to get diverted to grey/black market sellers in some way or another. The dealers are then stuck trying to solve the issue with their customers.
What I have found is that the customers in my factory showroom that seem to have a difficult time understanding this are frankly the customers I am happy to pass on and not take their money: if you're difficult during a pandemic, how are you when we get back to some semblance of normal?
I work for a manufacturer. I'd like to share a different point of view in the interest of transparency and to inform and educate...We also have to rely on other suppliers. Nobody makes their own acrylic, pumps, cabinets, etc. We have to go off the word of suppliers and in turn notify dealers. Not all suppliers have the right answers, regardless of intent. Thus - if a cabinet supplier says "ETA is X" then we do our best to factor that in to production and ship dates. If the supplier simply doesn't ship materials, or ship partial orders, we can only do what we can with what we get.So just like dealers, we too have to take what information is given to us and then figure out how to answer those purchasing from us. To add an extra wrinkle - we have to also note that we have multiple suppliers that we depend on to for materials to produce spas. Not only is the demand higher than it has ever been (by far) for hot tubs, we have to operate under the presumption that all materials will come in and we will have everything we need to produce a spa, and make a judgement call as to simply trying to figure out what a proper ETA is based simply on the volume of orders. And then - What if one supplier comes light or not at all with materials?How would you give out ETAs to dealers? Not as easy as it looks. And as everyone inside the industry knows - this is the most amount of orders we have ever seen. Ever. By far. They're coming in faster than they can be processed. We are all working off of good faith and good intentions. And overwhelmed as we all are, we do our best but sometimes mistakes are made, or calls aren't placed, or dates are missed. But that is indeed Covid-19, and most people again understand that we are all overworked, doing our best, and it's just a hot tub and not something that anyone ever should be angry about.What I have found is that the customers in my factory showroom that seem to have a difficult time understanding this are frankly the customers I am happy to pass on and not take their money: if you're difficult during a pandemic, how are you when we get back to some semblance of normal? I hope this hope this helps with perspective and transparency. Good luck out there.