ur_too_crazy Posted May 10, 2010 Report Share Posted May 10, 2010 Hello all, I`ve been lurking for a while without posting (just enjoying all the great information on this site) Now I need your help. I own a Four Winds Spa, purchased a little less than two years ago. While changing the water I noticed a crack and a delamination on one of the seats. According to my dealer, it cannot be repaired and the whole spa needs to be replaced under warranty. The dealer mentioned that he no longer deals with four winds and that my spa would be replaced with a comparable model from either LA spas or IST (Innovative Spa technologies). I have heard of LA Spas before, but not IST. Does anyone have info on this company? I tried a search on this site and google and cannot come up with any reviews or opinions. When I bought my spa the first time around (Four Winds) I went into it blindly and not well informed....I don`t want to make the same mistake this time. Any opinion would be very much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerimiahR Posted May 11, 2010 Report Share Posted May 11, 2010 Is your dealer providing a warranty to you? If not, I don't see how another brand/manufacturer is going to provide a free replacement as a warranty deal. Did this dealer talk numbers with you at all? (i.e. cost to you) If the Four Winds Spa is under warranty, it should be replaced by Four Winds with another Four Winds spa. I'm not a fan of LA Spas, and I'm not familiar with IST. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spatech (the unreal one) Posted May 11, 2010 Report Share Posted May 11, 2010 Is your dealer providing a warranty to you? If not, I don't see how another brand/manufacturer is going to provide a free replacement as a warranty deal. Did this dealer talk numbers with you at all? (i.e. cost to you) If the Four Winds Spa is under warranty, it should be replaced by Four Winds with another Four Winds spa. I'm not a fan of LA Spas, and I'm not familiar with IST. Four Winds and LA may be similar but I also scratch my head on this. If the Four Winds is covered under warranty then four Winds would be supplying the replacement spa. Something is missing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djousma Posted May 11, 2010 Report Share Posted May 11, 2010 You can find info on IST here. I own the IS600 model and am extremely pleased with it. Not fancy designs, but practical. They have a lot of good features and comparibly lower prices. 2Yr warranty. Mine has the Gecko spa pack, and my electric bill went down dramatically compared to the 10 year old Great Lakes Spa it replaced. I do not work for them, or any dealer, but they are made here in West Michigan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart A Posted May 11, 2010 Report Share Posted May 11, 2010 I'm not a fan of LA Spas That's because you are a Hotspring dealer Anyway back to topic, I do find the dealers offer a bit odd though, I would of thought that Four Winds would of taken care of this especially as the spa is less than two yars old. Having said that I have owned a LA Spa Heet for just over three years now and we are all still very happy with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ur_too_crazy Posted May 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 Thank you for all your replies. The issue seems to be that the spa manufacturer and the dealer seem to be in a conflict. I noticed that my spa dealer does not carry the Four Winds line at all anymore. This conflict appears to be financially related, therefore the manufacturer will not ship the dealer any more spas (even to satisfy a warranty claim). Four winds does not seem to have any other dealers in my area and according to them I'm obliged to go through my dealer for warranty claims. This headache has been going on for the past month and does not seem like its going to end any time soon. The manufacturer promises to contact dealer to move the process along and never gets back to me. Anyone considering buying a Four Winds Spa ...BEWARE... Since they built the spa, they should making arrangements to respect the warranty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ur_too_crazy Posted May 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2010 You can find info on IST here. I own the IS600 model and am extremely pleased with it. Not fancy designs, but practical. They have a lot of good features and comparibly lower prices. 2Yr warranty. Mine has the Gecko spa pack, and my electric bill went down dramatically compared to the 10 year old Great Lakes Spa it replaced. I do not work for them, or any dealer, but they are made here in West Michigan. Thanks for the info on IST. They seem to be very well designed. I like the idea of the one piece casement that's not made of wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cqlfly Posted May 27, 2010 Report Share Posted May 27, 2010 You can find info on IST here. I own the IS600 model and am extremely pleased with it. Not fancy designs, but practical. They have a lot of good features and comparibly lower prices. 2Yr warranty. Mine has the Gecko spa pack, and my electric bill went down dramatically compared to the 10 year old Great Lakes Spa it replaced. I do not work for them, or any dealer, but they are made here in West Michigan. Thanks for the info on IST. They seem to be very well designed. I like the idea of the one piece casement that's not made of wood. We are a big spa manufacturer in china my email is :jackiechu_cn@yahoo.com skype:cqlfly msn:cqlfly@msn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spa God Posted July 6, 2010 Report Share Posted July 6, 2010 Wow that sucks! Four winds had an issue with the bonding agent last year I had a couple customers here that had the same problem but Four winds replaced it no questions asked, and paid me to remove the old one and install the new one, and I know the customers here I serviced dealt direct with the factory because their dealer was out of business. There is more to this than meets the eye, most manufacturers sell spas that have issues and seconds to discount dealers as seconds in "as is" condition with no warranty, the dealer could if he were dishonest fix it and sell it as a first... This would explain why the factory won't touch it. I have worked on a few here and they are solid well built spas with a good component list, they are a bit expensive but well built... drop me a private message with the serial number, I dealt with the factory a few times and can get the unit checked out and get the real story for you. If it was as I suspect a second you might have recourse through the courts with the dealer... or if it isn't through the factory... It goes right back to what is said on this site again and again... The dealer makes the difference more than the brand does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ur_too_crazy Posted July 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2010 It`s funny that you replied to this thread today. In fact we just received our new spa yesterday, had it hooked up today and filled it with water. The new spa we chose is an IST VX600. We actually had a choice between a few IST and L.A. spas models, but had no choice but to go with the IST. We chose the IST because we could not go bigger than 84x84 inches. It has been exactly 2 months since I first noticed the crack....so the whole process did take longer than expected. I got shuffled between so many people that my head is still spinning....but alas our dealer came through for us and was able to replace our spa with what seems to be a comparable model with similar size and features (it may even be superior to our Four Winds but that remains to be seen) I`m not sure who to blame in this whole ordeal, but Four Winds really dropped the ball on this one. I wanted my spa replaced with the exact same one I had purchased originally (mainly due to the space constraints and the fact that I actually liked it) and that four winds respect their warranty obligations. They failed to do this and every time I called to speak to the manager, he promised to call the dealer and work things out (never happened). At one point (this was while I was waiting for "authorization" for a new spa from my dealer) I asked Four Winds to just ship me a new spa and pick up the old one. They told me that I would have to get my own customs broker to handle this for me......BS. At the end of the day, the spa cracked because of a defect in workmanship. Four Winds should have taken responsibility and stood by their product. A lot of people on these forums like to beat down on Costco`s spas but I can assure you that Costco would never jerk anybody around like Four Winds did to me. I would have loved to have gotten my product refunded and start over from scratch. So far the new spa seems like a decent product. I plan to post a more complete review (from a non spa expert) after I have experienced it more. I have been hard pressed to find reviews on IST spas (which now seems to go by the name SpaTec???) So far the casement seems to be very sturdy (one piece plastic) so it shouldn`t rot. There seems to be less jets than in the four winds, but more seem to be adjustable. The spa pack seems similar to the other (Balboa VS). The one downside that I have seen so far is the control panel which in trying to be simplistic...is too complicated. It wouldn`t have broken the bank too much to put in a panel with an up and down key to control the temperature setting instead of having to repeatedly push the 1 temp key. The fact that IST cannot be contacted by phone (website has only email option) is not impressive at all. I`ll keep posting with my experience with my new IST VX600 spa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spa God Posted July 7, 2010 Report Share Posted July 7, 2010 Glad to hear your sorted. but one thing struck me... you said I asked Four Winds to just ship me a new spa and pick up the old one. They told me that I would have to get my own customs broker to handle this for me......BS. The US manufacturer can not arrange the customs clearance... it might be BS but its government BS not the manufacturers... Sounds like Four winds agreed to replace the unit regardless of the retailer... The dealer clearly has the responsibility of arranging the broker and if they won't then you have to, there is no other option... why would your local dealer not do this for you??? Sounds exactly like what happened with the customer here, I had my agent arrange customs and four winds replaced the spa... can't see the fault here, as far as I know they had almost 200 spas fail due to a new bonding resin and as far as my research has gone every single spa was replaced no questions asked... If your dealer gave you a spa I will bet dollars to donuts that he got refunded by Fourwinds... or as you gessed they owed them money :-) Just for giggles give me the serial number of the old spa, I got these guys down on my short list for a second supplier and want to know what happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djousma Posted July 8, 2010 Report Share Posted July 8, 2010 <snip> The fact that IST cannot be contacted by phone (website has only email option) is not impressive at all. I`ll keep posting with my experience with my new IST VX600 spa. I'm pretty sure this is their addr info: Innovative Spa Tech Inc 315 Garden Avenue, Holland, MI 49424-9602 616-393-4915 (Service) I'm from the area, and that is the general location of their headquarters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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