odd customer..........

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Thanks all.

I think that with the vast amount of info we provide on covers he, for some reason, expected there to be even more. Perhaps, he was just a lazy shopper  

[glfahlc]

My take on the conversation...He (the "doctor") was in fact the owner of brand x spa cover manufacturer, and became offended at the notion that you didn't know about his product, or didn't care enough to consider them competition, thus no need to research his product, hence the indignation.

yep, thats my take doc

[wmccall]

is it my responsibility, obligation, or even wise business practices, to know EVERY OTHER brand of cover out there?

If I didn't know you, at least a little as I think I do, and you did know everything about every brand and spoke bad of one brand, I would go back to what we say around here all the time, don't bad mouth the competition, its not a great sales tool.

[wmccall]

A few posts ago, Doc said -

He was rather irate and asked if I thought it was the customers responsibility to gather information and make the comparison.

If this guy needs an expert who has done all the research and wants someone to tell him all about it, give him this number -888-478-2224  

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

I may present the differences and explain the importance of each, but I never bad mouth a competitor! There's been a customer or two comparing products, and while ours may have been superior in many ways, the customer felt the competitor was superior in another. While I generally disagree with them, and attempt to explain why, typically the difference is irrelevant to the quality or life span of the product, I've always told them that if they feel that one feature is most important, they should buy the other product.

An example of this would be one low end cover manufacturer that's currently offering a 10 year warranty on their spa covers. Sounds good..... till you read the warranty. It only covers manufacturers defects. NOT "normal" wear and tear, normal degradation, or quality of materials. The cover is "NORMALLY" going to wear out in about 2 to 4 years. It wont be a warranty issue. On top of that, the consumer is responsible for packaging up and paying the shipping costs to and from the manufacturer. The warranty wont even be considered until the cover is shipped back to the manufacturer. The cost just to ship the cover back to the manufacturer for the average consumer, that doesn't have an account with discounts, from a shipping company, WILL exceed the cost of the cover. For me, this kind of sales gimmick falls below my personal line of ethics (for the moment anyway    ).

[wmccall]

You will have my business for another cover when the time comes, hopefully at least a year away and this time I'm going for the double plastic wrap.  (Still love the covermate 2 under the spa mount. )