Cal Spas Reviews

good is a 5 year warranty from a company who won't honor it?

back-order and the cracks in the shell have not been fixed.

In July 1997 I purchased a Cal Spas swim spa from what I was told was a Cal Spas factory owned store in Atlanta, Ga. The spa was to be delivered 2 weeks later upon my completion of a concrete pad. The pad was completed on time and the spa was delivered, but this particular spa has a separate equipment package, which was promised to be delivered later, which it was, but I was to have a LP gas heater for the spa and this was backordered.

During this time I was told that Cal Spas had sold the store to a dealer but that I would still receive service from that dealer. This dealer furnished me with a temporary LP gas heater to use while my heater was backordered. This heater was too small for the spa and was a standing pilot as opposed to the electronic ignition heater I was to have received.

I called the dealer weekly about the status of the correct heater and was told for over 6 months that the heater was still on backorder, then I had a pump bearing to fail and the dealer told me that he didn't have time to send someone out for at least 30 days, but if I could bring the motor to him he would exchange it, which he did and I did the removal and installation myself.

The ozoniator never worked and the dealer promised to repair it when he brought out the correct heater. In July 1998 something in the control panel failed and the spa completely shut down. I called the dealer for assistance and he promised to send someone out within a week, but they never showed up, I repeatedly called the dealer to no avail.

At that time I called the engineering dept. at Cal Spas and they told me to call Balboa Equipment, who manufactured the control panel, and see if they could diagnose the problem. The people at Balboa did diagnose the problem, which was a failed transformer. I called the dealer and told him I had found out the problem and he told me he would order the transformer and it should be in within 2 weeks.

Again I waited, calling every week or two until late into the fall of 1998. I then called the dealer and told him that there was a hard freeze predicted that night and that since the spa did not work I could not run it to keep it from freezing, so what should I do. The dealer told me not to worry about it, that if the spa was damaged by freezing that it was Cal Spas fault and they would replace or repair and damage.

Needless to say the spa froze and was extensively damaged and about this same time the dealer went out of business and I still didn't have my heater, and the spa still does not run, and I had freeze damage. The people at Cal Spas refused to return my calls and only responded to one of my letters stating that freeze damage was my responsibility, but they did not even address the heater they owed me and their failure to repair the defects that the warranty should have covered.

They finally sent a repairman to my home to look at the spa and he said it was a total loss, and he also told me that the dealer I had been dealing with had went bankrupt and that the reason that I had not received any repair parts from that dealer is that particular dealer had not been paying Cal Spas for parts and they had stopped shipping parts to him.

When I accepted delivery of the spa, I had paid a down payment of $2,000.00 with the balance of about $7,000.00 to be financed, with the financing to be arranged by Cal Spas. At this time Cal Spas has not asked for the balance to be paid, but what I am wanting is for Cal Spas to refund my down payment of $2,000.00 and pick up the spa. It is nothing but an eyesore and a breeding ground for mosquitos.

We purchased a Cal Spas model 3000 hot tub with ozonator from StoveStop and Spas in Spearfish, SD. We had the tub for two and a half years when it developed a leak.

We called the StoveStop and Spas people who sent a service tech out. He sent us a bill for an hour of work and travel but said he had spent TWO hours looking for the leak and had not found it. The leak continued (about 6 inches of water a day) and I found the leak in five minutes. It was the hose going from the ozonator to the pool.

I called back the service personnel who came and fixed the hose and replaced the ozonator check valve. The unit worked well, but since the water had repeatedly sunk below minimums, the primary motor was burned out and was making noise.

The repair guy (Scott) came back and replaced the motor but he also silicone glued the ozonator to the floor of the tub on the metal footplate of the motors. A couple of days later, the tub began shutting down the breaker. Scott again returned and said the ozonator had gotten water in it and was shot and he would replace it for $295.

We had always been told not to put the ozonator on the ground and hence had always kept it on a piece of foam on the elevated tubing. When I asked Scott why he had glued the piece to the ground on the foot of the motor mount (which gets too hot to touch when the motor is running and is on the GROUND where all the splash water goes), he said he didn't want it to vibrate and make noise.

When I asked him how he expected it to stay dry on the ground and told him we had been told to always keep it elevated, he said he would come replace it. Two days ago he came and replaced the unit and yesterday left a message on my machine asking me to split the cost with him and he wouldn't charge me a service or installation charge. I called the hot line number on the ozonator and spoke with a rep there. She told me that the electronics had a lifetime guarantee and the bulb had a one year warranty.

She also said they recommended keeping the unit as far from water as possible, confirming what we had been told before about the unit and what we had been practicing before Scott glued it to the ground.

In August of 1997 I purchased a spa from Cal Spas. It came with a 5 year warranty on the electric components, pumps, jets, valves, levers, and other spa components against malfunction, leaking,or defects in materials or workmanship.

The WARRANTY PERFORMANCE: section states; "To obtain service,contact the Factory Authorized Service Agent in your area, there will be no charge for parts, labor or the freight costs for parts necessary to repair the spa. In some cases, reasonable repairman travel charges may be assessed if you live beyond the normal servicing area for the Factory Authorized Service Agent."

I live only 12 miles from this agent. In august of 1998 I called the Agent with an overheating problem. He came out the next day and fixed it, but charged me a 70 dollar travel fee. Then on November 30th I called about a noisy pump. He came out and replaced one pump, and changed the seal in the other as he noticed it was leaking. He commented to me that the seals used in the pumps weren't very good, but were 3 dollars cheaper than a seal with a lifetime warranty.

About a week later, the Agent called me and said that CalSpas would not honor the warranty, claiming "chemical abuse." This made me very angry, because I watch my chemicals very closely, follow my maintenance schedule religiously, buy my chemicals from the Agent, who also checked my water and said it was fine.

After I relayed this information to CalSpas, they changed their story and said it was due due a leaking seal (which should be covered under the warranty), causing water to leak onto the motor. They claim I should have noticed the leak and had it repaired. Their should be no reason for me to remove the panel where the pumps and motors are housed. Further more, it would be natural to see water around a spa due to many things,such as washing out the filter, spa use, hosing off my patio on which the spa sits, to name a few. Also, every concrete patio I have ever seen has a slight amount of fall to it so rain water runs away the house.

I am now expected to reimburse the Agent for the parts he installed, plus the freight, on top of the 70 dollars I already paid him for travelling a whopping 12 miles. The total would be over 300 dollars. The Agent says if I don't pay it, he will refuse to do any work on my spa unless it is paid for in advance. I paid a lot of money for this spa with a 5 year warranty on all the working components. I feel I am being mistreated, undeservedly and would appreciate anything you can do to help me. This whole ordeal has placed a lot of stress me and my family. If CalSpas is not going to honor their warranty I will probably have to sell the spa.

Should I file a small claims lawsuit?

ConsumerAffairs.Com referred this complaint to an experienced trial lawyer, who replied:

I think he should file a small claims suit. he doesn't need a lawyer. But. he will need evidence that the problems he is having are covered by the warranty. Right now, only defendant knows what's wrong with the unit. Hence, he might have to have an independent repairman to look at it to see if what is wrong with it is actually covered by the warranty. Defendant will certainly say it is not.