| WHAT
THE
COMPETITION THINKS OF THE SPA SPECIALIST AND HAVEN SPAS. (or Why The Competition is Angry with us.) |
| Haven
Spas
came out of my personal frustration with the
inadequacies of
engineering in the spa industry, especially in the
spas that are
selling in high volumes for extreme profits.
I like spas, and have been using them for over 35
years. Designing them and building them for
24 years. Because these Southern California(update2009-2019, most are made in Mexico by illiterate people getting very low wages, or by illegal aliens in So CA.) designed spas are so profitable for the factory and the dealers, obviously I have created some serious enemies with my writings and the excellent fine reputation and quality of the Haven Spas. Our reputation is impeccable, untarnished by the results of our spas in the homes of our customers. The best way to defeat the competitors is to have a better product and sell it for less and that is exactly what we have done. By taking the economic "food chain" and reducing it from $2000 per spa in advertising, marketing and sales commissions, we have created a way to give you a better spa for less. We don't employ expensive marketing methods and we deliver direct from Colorado*. (*Update, now direct from Holland where are factory is now located, from the Rotterdam port.) We have a short food chain, so the money goes into higher quality, better service and lower prices. But, because you missed out on our USA factory, you will have to pay tariffs, and shipping to get your new Haven Spa. Even with the extra cost of shipping, you are still getting twice the value for your money. And I am not kidding when I say that your new Haven Spa will pay for the difference in ownership, by the fact that just the electricity savings alone will pay the 3000 difference over 10 years, so basically you get a free spa equivalent for the savings in electric consumption. Yes electricity for most spas in 10 years is over $7800 in Colorado to $18,000 bucks in Vermont. When I began my career in the spa industry, I started in a "fix em all" service center in Denver Colorado. At that time it was the largest single repair center in Colorado. Even though I have education enough to make a heck of a lot more money, I liked working with spas. I also have much scientific training and and engineering background. When I would see these "high end"(NOT!) spas in the field, I could see there was something seriously wrong with the spa industry. The pumps breaking down constantly and the filtering was awful. We would do the same repairs on the same spas, sometimes every three to four months. These products were cheaply made and being sold for outrageous prices. I commonly call these products, "dog dishes", "money pits" and "gross crap" because if you go in the grocery store in the pet section, you will see the same basic technology. Cheap plastic formed into a bowel. In the case of spas they are then stuffed with foam to keep them from falling down under the load of water. In modern spas the use of full foam is so antiquated and nothing but an insult to American ingenuity. Since these spas are more costly to use and own, but much cheaper to build, they are being touted as "the best". It you take the time to read and get an education from our materials, you will learn all the "in's and outs" of spas and how they are built. You will also know more than the spa sales people. I have had our shoppers go to other stores and be thrown out (actual spa shoppers ready to buy) because the salesman believed they were other spa professionals shopping them. They asked all the sorts of questions only a spa professional would ask, so naturally they threw them out of the store. One time a fellow shopper even went on a call in radio program and complained to a "consumer advocate report" guy "Tom Martino" show in Denver, that they were "thrown out of a hot tub store for asking questions." I had the show on in my store at the time, and I just smiled and laughed a bit. These shoppers had read my website and one had actually been to my store, and later bought a spa from me. Not only are these old designs poorly made, but they are a terrible design for cold weather climates. They have low horsepower or wasteful of the pump horsepower and weak jets and they are still being sold for upwards of $9,000-15,000 (I still can't believe anyone with a brain would not look around before spending that kind of money. I sincerely doubt the intelligence of spa buyers if they wasted money like that today with all the information out there. ) These companies use selling techniques that work, like phony awards (that they pay for) and sales pitches that are nothing but embellishments, inferences and implications, (basically, lies and nonsense). Since I am a "nuts and bolts" sort of person, I understand what is being done to the public on these 35, plus, year old designs that are basically a rip off in today's market. Since I believe in truth in advertising, the only "weapon" I have against these unethical spa companies is the truth and education for consumers. I don't believe in fancy logos and putting lies on anything that I have any part in. I actually believe that a company does not have to use all the sales hype and nonsense to make a living. Maybe that is silly, since that means I will never be extremely monetarily rich, but I sleep well in knowing that we do business in a just and honest way. Seriously, I don't know how other spa companies can stand themselves. As an engineer I could never sell the crap they make and sell. That was the reason for our Haven Spas. I could not find a decent spa that I could sell, with a clean conscience, ,knowing what I know about engineering and the cost of manufacturing. The only way I know of to combat the hype and nonsense used in spa advertising is to teach about spas and how spas are made. I teach people to find value, by educating themselves. This is not rocket science. And there are some decent spa companies, but very few. Only two spa companies have actually improved. One sued me for telling the world what crap they made, and the other contacted me about the horrible constant warranty problems they had with their plumbing. Both have improved from reading my information. The other major spa brands, are still crap and in most cases worse than before. You have to realize that what we make is SO SUPERIOR that by the "theory of relativity" in comparison, others are total junk and crap that is, apparently, designed to fall apart FAST. And put the owners on first name basis with the local repair guy. My son does spa repair, and he owns his home, has now three BMW's (he likes BMW) and a couple of motor bikes, ATV's. and spend the winter mostly skiing. He told me that "You don't need to make your spas so much better than the rest." He said we could actually "degrade our efforts and save money and still be far better than the other crap he repairs constantly." SO: Because I am so outspoken against cheap, poorly designed products, and dangerous products, I am much maligned by the spa industry. They make their living by selling at huge profits, because the spa shoppers have no clue what they are buying. I have been targeted by some really strange people in the spa industry, who are trying to ruin my good name and the name of the Haven Spas. You need to understand that I, as a spa industry "insider" and "whistle blower", who turned in the largest hot tub company for violations of several UL and ANSI safety standards and they started houses on fire. I have broken the taboo of educating consumers and that has cost spa companies a huge amount of money. They have put together a fictitious web site (which is now down for the forth time 2004) and in it is not one single example of a dissatisfied Haven owner (There are none.). They even have fictitious, supposedly Haven owners posting complaints. I have all the records of all the Haven spa owners and none of them have posted anything on that site. One of my customers, a mechanical engineer from NH posted a positive comment about Haven Spas and his post was immediately removed. If you believe any of the garbage from that site, I feel that you do not know what is going on. "What's the Best" is the name of the latest pile of feces" They have posted posts that are totally made up by some of these spa professionals. The anti Haven site is full of lies and nonsense. Basically, it shows the clearly evil condition of people in this industry. It is all done by spa professionals and scam artists and spa owners who's egos are attached to these poor values. They have many posts that were supposedly made by me, that I never authored. I don't know who was impersonating me, but they went to great lengths to make out that I am a "bad guy". Since they can't make a better spa, the only weapon they have is lies and assaults on my character, the same stuff that is in their advertising and the same lies the sales people use. They use the consumer's fear of purchasing any high ticket item as a weapon against us, while we are one of the few ethical spa companies who don't view our customers as dollar bills. I am writing this at the request of some of my customers to help you to understand that a lot of money is involved by these people selling cheaply made products to the public. It is to their advantage to get rid of both me and the Haven Spas. (We have still been averaging more sales than most any spa supplier in the country Aug. 3 2003). My book "How Spas Are Made" is considered to be "evil" to them because it hits them directly in their wallets, by educating the public on spas. Our whole web site is dedicated to educating people on spas. I get many email letters from all over the world, thanking me for my work and my common sense approach to spas. And some of them bought from me and shipped their spa from the USA to their homes, in Scotland, England, Netherlands, Hawaii, and other places. Now our spas are made in the Netherlands as of 2009. The "How Spas Are Made" book was mostly written long before I was ever selling spas and long before the Haven Spas ever existed. I used to hand out 8.5 x 11 copies of the articles to spa shoppers back when I worked in service. I did it to customers who's spas were falling apart and costing them a fortune to repair. I wanted them to realize and learn what a good spa is supposed to look like. I am an insider in the spa industry, exposing the utter nonsense and deception being used to sell spas at outrageous prices and profits to ordinary people, just like you and me. I see this deception as a bad thing, both for consumers and the spa industry. We have been working as hard as possible to offset their lies used in advertising and sales presentations by educating on all topics relating to spas. We don't expect to even get 10% of the sales with this approach, because many people do not have the opportunity to find our site before they buy. I don't know who these people are that have created these disgusting web sites and other lies, and I have contacted a lawyer to find out what can be done. The problem with the Internet is that it is very difficult to shut down these sites. First of all we have to subpoena the owners of the server to give us the names of the site owner. Then we have to start an out of state law suit, that can cost over $50,000, just for the first payment to a lawyer, and we are not assured of any results. The Internet has created a whole new level of the freedom of speech rulings and libel and slander. So much evil and so much good. That is because the Internet is so huge and it is very difficult to find an shut them down. However, libel, defamation, is still against the law. This anti Haven site has been on five different servers and each time I have contacted the server owners they have shut it down. Once the server owner realizes that it is a lie made up by pool and spa professionals, they shut it down. One of the latest sites, that was on the tripod network, is now shut down as well. After sending the owners one more letter and several letters from our wonderful customers the tripod site is now turned off. The sleazy spa professionals have been e-mailing this to people across the country. This is illegal, but why should I even think they have any ethics, just look at the products they sell and the types of people who would do such evil. I really feel sorry for their customers. That is the original reason for me making spas. Empathy and concern for how these crap spas are ruining the industry. This internet attack site has been a viscous attempt to stop me from exposing their hot tub scams that are legally done to the spa shoppers. It is greed and there is no other word for it. They make so much money on these cheap spas that it is a sin (300 to 500% profits above the cost to build them, including all the overhead.) However, the public doesn't know anything about spas and spa construction, until I started my work and started writing my book. Before I started my writings and continued writings, many people never considered that full foam, tiny circ pumps and cheap shells, types of jet pups, were even an issue. They never bothered to look any farther, because the "salesman" told them it was the "best spa". Now shoppers all across the US and the world, are gaining knowledge against these advertising companies. If you don't know what you are buying, why are you buying? That is a question that has puzzled me for a long time. There are many very good spa companies in this world, but the ones with all the money are not "nice". They use any tactic they can to keep selling and keep the public from being educated. The actions of these spa professionals are a perfect example. The sword of the internet works both ways. So, I was advised to start writing more and more on the nature of the spa industry. I have several articles based upon the ANSI standard, UL, and the standards of spa and hot tub design in the manuals for building hot tubs and spas. These bad companies seem to think that they can do any thing they want, say anything and build spas in any way they want, taking any shortcut they can get away with. They do this because they have a team of lawyers working for them. The National Spa And Pool Institute is a disgusting joke. They have all these great ideas and have a lot of knowledge available, but they issue awards based upon who gives the institute the most money. They actually gave an award to Hot Spring spas for a plastic cabinet that one of the Hot Spring suppliers invented and made. They never police the members to see if they are following the pool and spa building manuals for safety. They have been sued and forced into bankruptcy, more than once, because of what their members have done, while at the same time have no control over whether or not the pools and spas are made correctly. I dropped my membership with the NSPI as soon as that ridiculous "greased palm" award was given to one of the most rip off spa companies on earth. (Update, since then the NSPI was sued out of existence for not policing the industry and supporting companies who made swimming pools that kill people. It has been replaced, with the same people, to a new corporation. ) Just so you know the spa industry is totally unregulated, except that the equipment must be ETL or UL tested to get a building permit. That leaves the door wide open for anybody to give spa building a try. In some ways that is good, but for the most part it is not, considering all the junky spas out there. So, if you are led to the sites run by these unethical people or get email from these guys with some "information" that is dedicated to ruining our wonderful reputation, then I hope you will take the time to find out the truth from our real customers, who are willing to talk with you on the phone. I have never offered any money to our customers to support us. They are glad to do it because they really appreciate what we do and they love their Haven Spa. Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope that my works and writings will help to change the spa industry and produce better products. That was my intention from the beginning. I actually thought that the spa industry would improve, but it has not, it just gets worse every day. And if the people in the USA want to buy crap, I won't stop them. As one of my friends said. "If you want oats that have already been processed by the bull, we don't have them. We only sell fresh oats."  James Arjuna "The obvious is not obvious until it becomes obvious." The Spa Specialist Return Read what our Haven Customers have to say Click HERE |