Water By Design

Water By Design advertises unbeatable service after the sale. My experience was the opposite. Last summer, I had a problem with the cover for my spa. Water By Design sold me both the spa and the cover. The spa cover became very heavy water logged. I called Water By Design to come out and inspect my cover. I called many times. It is curious but true that they rarely answered the phone at their store when I called. When I left messages, they rarely called me back. About 41 days after my first call, the owner finally came to my house and inspected the spa cover. Little happened after that. During the next 20 days, I made many calls to the store and to the owners personal cell number. I am a patient person but finally 61 days into the process I contacted the spa manufacturer. I heard back from the spa manufacturer that they had contacted Water By Design and learned that the spa cover was from a different manufacturer. I contacted that spa cover manufacturer, and eventually things began to happen. The new spa cover was finally delivered (direct from the manufacturer) about 82 days after I originally called Water By Design to ask them to inspect my spa cover. Meanwhile, another issue came up, regarding the spa cover lifter. Two days after the owner came out to inspect the spa cover, I decided to empty the water out of the spa and refill it to get ready for fall season use of the spa. When I lifted the spa cover, the spa cover lifter collapsed due to the weight of the water logged spa cover. I feared that the spa cover lifter was broken and I sent a picture of the collapsed spa cover lifter to the owners cell phone. Subsequently, I talked to someone at the office and expressed my concern that the lifter might be broken and in need of replacement. They said that it might be OK and that the technicians have them on the truck and they could decide when they install the spa cover if the spa cover lifter needed to be replaced. After the spa cover was delivered from the factory, I made arrangements to have Water By Design install the spa cover. A few days later, weeks after I had raised the issue that the cover lifter might need to be replaced, they finally looked at pictures I had sent and decided that the cover lifter did need to be replaced. They send me an invoice stating that the cover lifter would cost $369.75. They indicated that I had to pay before they would install it. I sent them a message indicating that since the cover lifter had broken two days after the owner came to inspect the spa cover, the owner being far more knowledgeable than me, a mere user of the spa should have warned me not to lift the cover until the cover was replaced because of the risk that the cover lifter would be damaged and that I felt that Water By Design should install a new cover lifter free of charge. They responded by firing me as a customer. Their exact words were I think that it is time for you to seek out another service provider. My being fired as a customer came approximately 88 days after my initial call to Water By Design. I was then able to find an online source for the same cover lifter that Water By Design proposed to install. While they sent an invoice for $369.75, I was able to purchase the same cover lifter for $109.95 (free shipping). If this is the kind of service that you want, I encourage you to purchase a spa from Water By Design. If you want a higher quality of after-sale service, I encourage you to purchase your spa elsewhere.