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Hot Tub
Sales
Tricks used on the
Public.
copyright 1999 through 2021 The Spa Specialist Inc.
Hot Tub
Tips
Published on
the web by
The Spa
Specialist Inc.
Copyright, The Spa
Specialist
inc. You may download this for
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part of this document.
Sales
Techniques
used to victimize consumers
Have you ever spent
time with
a sales person and felt dirty after you leave, but you
can't quite
figure out what was going on, or what was it about that
guy made you
feel like you were being used by them? Well, don't
feel
alone. There are plenty of slick sales tricks used
today to get
you to buy.
Implications:
"The
forming of a conclusion from premises rather than
explicit information
provided in a passage."
When something is
"implied" it
means that it may or may not be true, but it leads
you, the consumer to
believe things that are simply not true. It is a
way of lying,
without really blatant lies.
"I don't want my kids soaking in
yukky
water." This is from a major manufacturer's
sales
representative. This company uses the ridiculous %100 no bypass
filtering that
doesn't even follow the basic health rules of the ANSI
or UL for the amounts of water filtered daily.
The "implication" is that other spas allow your kids to
soak in
disgusting water. This is really funny, considering
that most of
the complaints we get about those spas is directly related
to the
amount of crap in the spa water, because
of the poor filtering.
These are the spas that sell the most chemicals to keep
them cleaner.
There is on thing for sure about this company, they do
have a lot of
spas sold and they have the most "suckers" who own
them. When I
tell people who have purchased these cheaply made and
overpriced spas
they normally will get angry with me. Years later, they
will send me an
apology for the information, because these spas operate
exactly as I
tell people.
"Only our spas are rated for use
by the Arthritis Foundation."
This
was told to me by a woman with
arthritis who
was about to buy one of their spas, based upon the
salesman's false
implications. This company places
the Arthritis
Foundation logo on advertising, "implying" an
endorsement. There is
no endorsement, and there is never any, but it is
"implied" by just
being on the page of advertising.
Inferences:
"In
pragmatics (linguistics), implication is the
relationship between two
statements where the truth of one suggests the truth of
the other,
but--distinguishing implication from entailment--does
not require it.
For example, the sentence Mary had a baby and got
married strongly
suggests that Mary had the baby before the wedding, but
the sentence
would still be strictly true even if Mary had her baby
after she got
married. ..."
Much of my remarks are about one company that is rabid
with
nonsense. These are the people with the most money
and the least
ethics. They place some sort of advertising about an
outside test, by a
"prestigious" testing company.
The implication is that all of their spas are energy
efficient, but in the test they use a 120V spa with a
1500 Watt heater,
while most of their spas are 240V with 6000 watt water
heater.
The inference is that if this spa that is basically not
usable in most
states in winter, has a low electric consumption then
the rest of the
spas in the "pack" will be similar in energy use.
And i a comparison test against our Haven Spas in
Netherlands shows we are 30% less energy use for a 100
Gallons more size of spa with actual use by humans in
our spa testing area; where people come to try out spas.
The tests, by these not so ethical people, are
ambiguous, to say the least; because it does not
compare their spas against better designed spas and the
test spa is
never used by people, so the normal use of the jet pumps
to clean up
the water is not part of the test. No ozone
running to save 60
watts to 120 watts. There is no wind in the test,
and the test is
of absolutely no practical value, except to concoct more
sales
inferences that are basically lies. They put the "spa"
in a room with no wind and it is never used by anyone.
Spa Industry's
Reliance upon
your ignorance:
If there is one thing that spa stores rely on, more
than any
other thing, it is the spa shopper's ignorance when it
comes to hot
tubs and spas. Don't feel guilty because you don't
know much
about spas, you need to learn before you shop.
Here is a true story that happened in Denver.
I was in the store one day, when one of my employees
called
and told me to turn on the radio to the Tom Martino,
consumer advocate
program.
There was a fellow on the phone with Tom, who had gone
shopping at a spa store and was thrown out of the store
for asking
questions. He asked about the insulation, pumps,
controls,
heater, shell construction and all the stuff that an
educated consumer
should be asking. The sales person could not
handle those
questions, so he got the store manager to come and talk
with this
shopper. The store manager threw the shopper out
of the store,
because he thought he was a spy for another spa store.
I almost busted a gut laughing because the fellow had
read our web site
the night before he went shopping.
The sales man was caught looking inside the shopper's
car,
apparently, looking for evidence of this guys
association with the spa
industry. I guess they were looking for spa parts,
pool and spa
trade magazines or something.
If you want to be taken for a ride by a spa company,
then go
into the store blind and see how well you come out on
the deal?
The bare minimum information you need is the "Shopping
List" I publish. I recommend the "How
Spas
Are Made Book."
Building
Obligation and Guilt to buy:
One of the techniques of a spa company from out in New
England is to
teach all sorts of techniques to build "obligation" in the
prospect to
purchase. You may, literally, feel guilty if you
don't buy.
The advertising says to call for a free "site inspection"
for a
spa. When you call for any information on prices,
they will not
tell you. If you call for the
appointment for a "site
inspection" they will insist that all of the "decision
makers" be there
when the "site inspector" comes.
What happens according to my information is the site
inspector is a
highly trained, high pressure sales person. They
start out with
spending an hour or so, doing a job that takes me 5
minutes. They
take out the tape measure and write a bunch of notes while
the "qualify
you" as a buyer. This "work" will tend to create a
false sense of
obligation . The longer you let them stay, the more
you are
obligated to buy. It is psychological
garbage. You
will not ever hear a price until they are ready to "close"
you.
These methods are used and are particularly effective on
regular nice
people. The commissions are very heavy and some of
the stories I
have heard make me want to disassociate myself from the
spa
industry. A lot of what goes on makes me feel that
way.
Chemical Free Spas:
I have a problem with this statement, because, we
offer
the most ecologically friendly non-halogen based methods
of caring for
spas, but it is not "chemical free". The only spas that are
chemically free are
empty. The "implication" is that there is
no care or work
involved in owing a spa. If you love your spa, you will
love taking care of it.
The sales person is taught to avoid any form of words that
will result
in the shopper balking at purchasing, even if it is
something that the
shopper needs to know about before they buy.
They are
taught to quickly answer with a short statement
like, "I'll get
into that later. It is easy." Then they go
onto another
part of the sales pitch and never ever discuss the spa
care and
maintenance the owners have to do again.
So, they imply that there is no work involved and they
avoid the
subject like the plague.
There are a lot more of these tricks played on
consumers.
Please read all of the articles on this site and read the
book,
How
Spas are Made. It will make you a smart
spa shopper.
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