Best Time To Buy?

[Willis]

Have been researching spas and got to thinking about the fact that we are nearing the end of the year. Are spa prices like car prices where there maybe some reductions in 06 models because 07s are coming in? Or is there a particular time of the year that is usually the best time to buy?

Thanks

[Pathfinder]

Now!! get your tub before XMAS. Pricing should be really good right now

[Davidny]

Yes, get the spa now, this way you can get more snowflakes on your tongue for Winter... If you wait after xmas you'll miss out on snowflakes and high prices :-)

[spa guy]

hey willis...go to the dealer in you area with the LARGEST inventory. Dealers that stock alot of tubs will be having year end clearance sales this time of year, which very may well be the only no b.s. sale of the year. You may be limited in color choices but you should get a better deal. If a dealer has to "special order" you tub, the discounts cannot be as deep. good luck

[Dr. Spa]

HEY! Lookie there. Remove the garbage, BS, lies, sales pitches and off topic crap and ya actually wind up with the thread that's informative, polite, educational, respectful, and of value to the internet community.

[Guzz]

HEY! Lookie there. Remove the garbage, BS, lies, sales pitches and off topic crap and ya actually wind up with the thread that's informative, polite, educational, respectful, and of value to the internet community.

What happened to free speach? You are making this forum boring.

[Dr. Spa]

Free speach is alive and well! Any you're more than welcome to created your own soap box, climb on top, and say anyhting you want.............. This though, is not your soap box.

What happened to free speach? You are making this forum boring.

[jmendoza17]

So, is there a good time to buy?

[Guzz]

So, is there a good time to buy?

Yes, now is a good time to buy. Dealers are looking to sell their 06 floor models for the incoming 07's. Spa prices increase every year when the new models come out. I have been selling spas for 8 years and 2007 is the biggest price increase I have seen.

[Takedown]

Now is a great time to buy, right before the 07 models come out, dealers will be looking to move their stock and I'm sure the manufacturers probably want to move their remaining 06 product as well.

My local dealer actually offered me an 07 model at a discounted 06 price just by putting down a $100 fully refundable deposit. Ask your local dealers if they will guarantee the 06 price on an 07 model, you might get lucky too!

[Jim_The_Jim]

Now is a great time to buy, right before the 07 models come out, dealers will be looking to move their stock and I'm sure the manufacturers probably want to move their remaining 06 product as well.

My local dealer actually offered me an 07 model at a discounted 06 price just by putting down a $100 fully refundable deposit. Ask your local dealers if they will guarantee the 06 price on an 07 model, you might get lucky too!

It sounds like the salesman was not too good. The $100 "fully refundable" deposit almost certainly guarantees a sale. For $100 are you going to go shopping any farther? It is one of the oldest sales techniques. If they can't get you today solidly, then when you come back they have a second shot at you, and only after you have been ground down and forced to listen to the pitch, then they will give back your money. You will probably have to talk to the salesman and the store manager for at least two hours to get that refund. It may simply be a lot of nice sales pitches, but you will have to hear them for the $100.

Ain't I a "bubble buster". How do you know what the street price of the spa really is? Did the sales man show you any factory invoice? Speaking of which I saw the quickest editing of a factory invoice and copied so quick you would not believe it. The editing was nearly perfect. By the way the factory invoice prices went up about $1200 so it looked like it was a $200 deal. And of course the invoice never left the hands of the salesman who showed it. (Then burned it.)

I may have not "seen it all" but at 58 I have seen a lot of it. Sales B.S.

The most important time to buy is when you are totally satisfied in your research of the market and that is normally after at least a month or two of homework and going shopping. Some of our buyers have taken over a year because they are seasoned shoppers who have been taken before.

[Stevie]

"The most important time to buy is when you are totally satisfied in your research of the market and that is normally after at least a month or two of homework and going shopping." Jim the Jim the Jim the Jim

This was the only line in all of that, that made any sense.

I'm sure there's a detailed "story" that substanciates much of that BS that you heard first hand and was told to you by someone who heard it from their uncle Peter but it isn't required...

[jmendoza17]

Yes, now is a good time to buy. Dealers are looking to sell their 06 floor models for the incoming 07's. Spa prices increase every year when the new models come out. I have been selling spas for 8 years and 2007 is the biggest price increase I have seen.

Thanks for a good tip.

[Jim_The_Jim]

"The most important time to buy is when you are totally satisfied in your research of the market and that is normally after at least a month or two of homework and going shopping." Jim the Jim the Jim the Jim

This was the only line in all of that, that made any sense.

I'm sure there's a detailed "story" that substanciates much of that BS that you heard first hand and was told to you by someone who heard it from their uncle Peter but it isn't required...

So, Stevie, how many time have you used the $100 refundable deposit sales tactic? It works doesn't it?

[Stevie]

So, Stevie, how many time have you used the $100 refundable deposit sales tactic? It works doesn't it?

To be honest my friend...NEVER. I use to always ask for $500. On an $8000 spa, $500 is nothing to hold a spa that someone found some real value in but wanted to take their due dilligence in researching their options first. I would never pressure someone into a "today only" price or "buy it today or loose it" but if we had only one spa in inventory and the prospects wanted that one, I would certainly hold it for them and make sure it's exactly what they wanted.

You could try and put a negative spin on that but the reality is that it is there for the consumer and costs them nothing to hold a spa until they themselves are 110% sure that this is the one for them. I'll do whatever I need to to make sure they are getting what they want without pressure tactics to do so. They really appreciate that and it's just good business.

Above that, we always gave our customers a 30 day guarantee. If they were unhappy in ANY way, we would refund their entire purchase, no questions asked. I think you'll find any quality retailer will do the same. An unhappy customer can design websites full of ugly info and really make a company look bad! You agree Jim? I would rather not allow things to go that far. An unhappy customer doesn't help anyone and we operated our business on a 50-60% referral bases so service was paramount!

Steve

[Jim_The_Jim]

To be honest my friend...NEVER. I use to always ask for $500. On an $8000 spa, $500 is nothing to hold a spa that someone found some real value in but wanted to take their due dilligence in researching their options first. I would never pressure someone into a "today only" price or "buy it today or loose it" but if we had only one spa in inventory and the prospects wanted that one, I would certainly hold it for them and make sure it's exactly what they wanted.

You could try and put a negative spin on that but the reality is that it is there for the consumer and costs them nothing to hold a spa until they themselves are 110% sure that this is the one for them. I'll do whatever I need to to make sure they are getting what they want without pressure tactics to do so. They really appreciate that and it's just good business.

Above that, we always gave our customers a 30 day guarantee. If they were unhappy in ANY way, we would refund their entire purchase, no questions asked. I think you'll find any quality retailer will do the same. An unhappy customer can design websites full of ugly info and really make a company look bad! You agree Jim? I would rather not allow things to go that far. An unhappy customer doesn't help anyone and we operated our business on a 50-60% referral bases so service was paramount!

Steve

Yes, and that idiot who lost his chance to own one of the best spas ever made, did get all his money back and we took back the spa in less than 30 days. So, what was you point? There are stories of pissed off Beachcomber spa customers on many places. We had two customers who tried to steal from us, and I refused to let them do it.

When someone is trying to scam me, I will not back down, because if I do then I am teaching him that it is OK to screw people, because I am afraid of his threats. I would rather have a website put up by a scam artist than to let the guy screw me to "save face" or some other term. It is unethcial for a merchant to let someone screw them, even when it might hurt the company. That is how strong my belief in God is. I stand on my convictions of honesty and integrity and anybody who is involved with me, better do the same, including customers.

Smart people have read his crap and can see right through it. Blind people such as yourself are not able to see the scam, because of your hate for me. You need to get rid of the hate, and start over. Why not try to find God while you are at it.

[Jim_The_Jim]

Also, I have never used that method. The smallest deposit I take is 25% down and then in four weeks we take another 25% down for half down. The spas are paid for before the truck leaves.

I don't understand the weak sales closes on a product that is so good. Most customers have done their homework and have talked with many of our exisiting customers. When they call to order there is no issues ever about our payment policies.

To use a deposit to hold a spa is a weak way to close for a weak sales person.

Story time:

Back in the first year of my business, I contacted my friend who had many years of spa sales because I was having a dry spell on the closes. He told me that if I was having a hard time selling to try the low $100 refundable deposit thing or to go out and shop the competition and see just how lame they are and get my confidence back up.

I said the heck with the $100 deal, because it seemed unethical and weak to me, so I hired a professional to go and shop the competition and ask a series of questions, he tape recorded the sales pitches of 6 dealers around my area.

After that I had no problems with sales. When I saw how lame these guys were and how lame their products were, it was easy to get my confidence back. We had a fantastic sales year that year. My "closing" rate was 90%. If they came in they learned about spas and I let them go and shop the competition. Then they returned to buy from us. We still do the same thing today. We never ask for a close nor do we get weak deposits.

[Trigger]

Yes, and that idiot who lost his chance to own one of the best spas ever made, did get all his money back and we took back the spa in less than 30 days. So, what was you point? There are stories of pissed off Beachcomber spa customers on many places. We had two customers who tried to steal from us, and I refused to let them do it.

When someone is trying to scam me, I will not back down, because if I do then I am teaching him that it is OK to screw people, because I am afraid of his threats. I would rather have a website put up by a scam artist than to let the guy screw me to "save face" or some other term. It is unethcial for a merchant to let someone screw them, even when it might hurt the company. That is how strong my belief in God is. I stand on my convictions of honesty and integrity and anybody who is involved with me, better do the same,including customers.

Smart people have read his crap and can see right through it. Blind people such as yourself are not able to see the scam, because of your hate for me. You need to get rid of the hate, and start over. Why not try to find God while you are at it.

You are so full of it, I bet your eyes are brown.

Cone on, Jim, you just can't admit you screwed the pooch with those customers.

ANY ONE, or rather, any RESONABLE person who reads the accounts of Erick and Andy can plainly see that you screwed it up, and after MONTHS of dicking with you, when it got to be too much of a pain to do business with you, they told you to come pick up the defective, 2nd rate product. Sure, after seeing first hand what a true piece of crap your tub was, they gave you the option of a steep discount or to come pick up the POS spa. It was your choice. There was no scam. You are delusional.

You dance around and claim they were trying to scam you. IFyou honestly belive that, then you truely do have some issues with perceiving reality. The fact that you can't simply say you screwed it up, appologize and move on, is causing you more harm than good.

But then again, you were always one to cut your own nose.

[Brulan1]

You are so full of it, I bet your eyes are brown.

Cone on, Jim, you just can't admit you screwed the pooch with those customers.

ANY ONE, or rather, any RESONABLE person who reads the accounts of Erick and Andy can plainly see that you screwed it up, and after MONTHS of dicking with you, when it got to be too much of a pain to do business with you, they told you to come pick up the defective, 2nd rate product. Sure, after seeing first hand what a true piece of crap your tub was, they gave you the option of a steep discount or to come pick up the POS spa. It was your choice. There was no scam. You are delusional.

You dance around and claim they were trying to scam you. IFyou honestly belive that, then you truely do have some issues with perceiving reality. The fact that you can't simply say you screwed it up, appologize and move on, is causing you more harm than good.

But then again, you were always one to cut your own nose.

Why take offense? He is just venting.

[Trigger]

Why take offense? He is just venting.

Because every day he post some more self masabatory crap and tell us he doesn't lie. Yet they're so obvious. I do it more for causual new users who may come by and read his posts, and are not familliar with his B.S, perhaps they'll take 2 minutes to reseach this huslter and google him, check the BBB, read his past posts here, as well as other open forums so they can learn all about him.

[Brulan1]

Because every day he post some more self masabatory crap and tell us he doesn't lie. Yet they're so obvious. I do it more for causual new users who may come by and read his posts, and are not familliar with his B.S, perhaps they'll take 2 minutes to reseach this huslter and google him, check the BBB, read his past posts here, as well as other open forums so they can learn all about him.

If you ignore jim, he will have nothing to feed off of. His posts will expire.

[Jim_The_Jim]

Because every day he post some more self masabatory crap and tell us he doesn't lie. Yet they're so obvious. I do it more for causual new users who may come by and read his posts, and are not familliar with his B.S, perhaps they'll take 2 minutes to reseach this huslter and google him, check the BBB, read his past posts here, as well as other open forums so they can learn all about him.

Trigger, I pray that you get a grip on all of your hate.

The Andy story was where this guy tried the credit card scam on me to get me to give him a brand new SCF in trade for a used spa that he bought fully knowing it was used.

I don't know where the "used spa factories are". So, we offerd to trade him for a new spa for the same price that he paid for the used one. I don't know of any company that generous with a used spa buyer.

I told him if he wanted a new SCF he would have to pay the differece of about 2500 to get the new one and we would take back the used one.

Why are you so full of hate?

[Takedown]

It sounds like the salesman was not too good. The $100 "fully refundable" deposit almost certainly guarantees a sale. For $100 are you going to go shopping any farther? It is one of the oldest sales techniques. If they can't get you today solidly, then when you come back they have a second shot at you, and only after you have been ground down and forced to listen to the pitch, then they will give back your money. You will probably have to talk to the salesman and the store manager for at least two hours to get that refund. It may simply be a lot of nice sales pitches, but you will have to hear them for the $100.

Jim,

You mistaken me for some easily convinced uninformed consumer who believes everything a salesman tells me. You also make the assumption that the sales person I worked with was not good, when in fact he was probably the best sales man I have dealt with when buying a high ticket item such as a car or large screen tv.

Here's a little info about myself Jim, since you seem to assume a lot of things to bolster yourself as the greatest spa designer/salesman/consumer advocate ever to live. I've been researching spas for about 6 months now, since I put down a deposit on a home earlier this year. My research included this forum, another very useful spa forum, all of the manufacturers websites, magazines, asking friends, going to no less then 7 dealers as well as wet testing the models I was interested in. Perhaps you are starting to get the picture Jim, when I'm looking to buy something I research it until I'm blue in the face to make sure I'm informed as well as to make sure I get a good deal.

Ain't I a "bubble buster". How do you know what the street price of the spa really is? Did the sales man show you any factory invoice? Speaking of which I saw the quickest editing of a factory invoice and copied so quick you would not believe it. The editing was nearly perfect. By the way the factory invoice prices went up about $1200 so it looked like it was a $200 deal. And of course the invoice never left the hands of the salesman who showed it. (Then burned it.)

I may have not "seen it all" but at 58 I have seen a lot of it. Sales B.S.

You are not a bubble buster, don't try to knock down what I believe is a good deal. I'm an educated consumer that isn't easily fooled by a salesman. How do I know the street price? By going to many dealers, by looking at what others have purchased the same spa for in the past and comparing features/prices between different brands. And if you think I went into the dealer and put down $100 the first day you are dead wrong. My wife and I visited the dealer on a weekend, the sales person was very helpful explaining anything and everything about the spas we were interested in. He spent about an hour with us while we took a look at each of the spas. He let us know about their current pricing, and the $100 deposit to lock a price in. He never once said we had to put the deposit down that day, in fact he said we could do it between now and the end of the year to get the best price. He wasn't trying to trick us into putting $100 down so we'd come back. We left the store to think about what we had seen there. The following weekend I then went to 6 other dealers (wet testing when I saw something I liked), one of which was a second store of the first dealer I visited. The second store which was 40 miles away had the same pricing, and again the sales person did not pressure me at all. He even said to check out the store closer to where I lived, he figured I'd be more likely to buy there anyways. After visiting all of those dealers I came to the conclusion that the first tubs we saw were what I was looking for and the only thing left would be to determine if I decided on the lounger or not. I then went back into the first dealer and setup an appointment to wet test. I wet tested the following week, spent about an hour at the dealer and decided the tub with the lounger was the one I wanted. Again the sales person did not try to pressure me, he was a complete gentleman the whole way through and was very knowledgeable about his product and the business. Last weekend I dropped by and put in the deposit, received an invoice with what I'll be getting, as well as an agreement that I can receive my $100 back at any time. To top it all off the dealer has 3 stores in Southern California, and have been in the business for over 20 years. They have been at this location for 9.5 years and will be signing another 10 year lease this year. They've got a great product and the service to back it up. They are a service center for the brand I purchased and stock those parts in house, most issues are fixed within 48 hours. They don't need some hook to get people to buy from them or to pressure their customers, but they do offer the $100 deposit for those that are not quite ready to buy, but would like to guarantee the price. This was perfect for me since I can't take ownership of a spa without a house.

I've got a locked price for an 07 model, whenever I would like to take delivery next year, and it's anywhere between $500-$2000 less then what others here and on the other forum have paid for the same spa. I didn't need to see factory invoices because I had done the research. This particular dealer had their everyday price listed (in line with what others have paid here) on the spas and the sales person let me know about the sale going on through the end of this year, (1500 off their largest model, 1200 off the rest of the top of the line models, $800 off their mid range line), with steps, lifter, chemicals, delivery and hookup. Not only is this price less then what others here have paid it is also going to be less then next years price when prices are bound to rise due to increased costs of building the spas. And guess what if for some reason the prices go down, or there is a better sale I get the lowest price. I also can decide at anytime this isn't the spa for me and walk away.

The most important time to buy is when you are totally satisfied in your research of the market and that is normally after at least a month or two of homework and going shopping. Some of our buyers have taken over a year because they are seasoned shoppers who have been taken before.

Now Jim, why couldn't you have just posted that and left it alone? Why did you have to try to attack a valid business/sales person/sales technique? There's bad people in every business Jim, we have to be aware of them, but boldly saying that dealers that have a $100 refundable deposit policy are not good salesman and that their customers will be pressured into hearing more sales speeches to get their money back is just wrong.

Here's something for you to chew on Jim, I've read a lot of your posts, and they scream to someone new here that you are trying way to hard to "tell" everyone that you and your product are the best and that if someone doesn't do things the way you do then they are wrong. In fact, very rarely do you post without bringing up how you do things or how your product is better. You are a salesman Jim, that's great, but you don't have to remind us with every post on the "right" way to do things. Frankly, if your tubs were for sale in my area I would not even give them a chance, because I'm so turned off by the way you respond to posts and your holier then thou attitude. Jim, you really should re-evaluate your tactics here, because they appear to me and many others here as just another sales technique by a not so good sales person.

-Ron