General > Beating a dead horse
MASTER, HERE WE GO AGAIN
spa_dr.:
Here is the latest on master spas.
Angry consumers are boiling mad -- at a local hot tub company. They tell us the company promised them thousands of dollars in rebates -- but never delivered. Some of the customers contacted Call 4 Action after losing thousands of dollars.
It's supposed to be a place to unwind. But when Mike Moran uses his hot tub -- he also thinks about the bad experience he had when he bought it - from Master Spas. He says the company misled him.
Kari Wellhausen thought she was getting the deal of a lifetime with her hot tub. But in the end, it was no deal at all. She says she lost $6000. And she calls it a scam.
Master spas has a store in Waukesha -- but they do a lot of business at Summerfest -- and here at the state fair. In fact they've got their name on the fair's cream puff pavillion -- where people line up for the legendary treats. It's here that Master Spas sold people on a deal that was not very sweet.
Mike Moran was at the fair -- when he spotted the master spas display. He says the sales people told him if he bought the hot tub -- he could get a huge rebate down the road. "Yes in fact on our contract it said $8000 36 month rebate," Moran shows us.
He says the sales people told him all he had to do was turn in some paperwork - three years after the purchase date -- and he would get 8-thousand dollars back -- on the $9600 tub.
Kari Wellhausen got a similar pitch. She was told she could get the entire $6000 purchase price refunded 3 years later. "I certainly was skeptical - and I asked them over and over again if it was really true - that it would really work," she recalls.
This rebate program wasn't run by Master Spas - but by a company they contracted with -- called the Consumer's Trust. And the rebate included a long list of hoops you have to jump through to collect the money
But Mike and Kari filled out the paperwork, and submitted the rebate forms three years later.
They even had to send in certified copies of their birth certificates - and their bank statements! Still -- Consumer's Trust turned them down -- saying they had failed to follow every step of the instructions-- and refused to pay out on the rebate.
"I feel a little foolish - but it was stated on my receipt that it was a voucher for the full amount and I would get it back in 3 years - and I believed them."
So did many other customers - at Master Spas and other companies that offered rebates from consumer's trust. Online discussion boards are filled with similar stories - from across the country. And dozens of people in Wisconsin have complained to the state about Consumer's Trust.
Nationwide there may be more than 70,000 people who were involved in this particular scheme.
In fact the Wisconsin Attorney General's office is considering legal action against Consumers Trust -- and the State of Missouri has already sued Consumers Trust.
State officials believe the consumer's trust rebate program was designed to be so difficult - hardly anyone would ever get their money back.
"I think this practice was unconscionable - we think they violated Wisconsin law."
And it gets worse. Consumers Trust declared bankruptcy last year - making it even harder for consumers to collect. Investigators in Missouri believe the people who ran consumers trust took the rebate money -- and funneled it into overseas bank accounts.
Angry customers now have to go to bankruptcy court in New York - to try to recover from Consumers Trust. Lawyers for the company did not return our calls.
Meanwhile - some have turned their anger toward Master Spas - for offering the rebate program in the first place.
"So Master Spas is telling you we're not responsible for this it's not our problem" we said.
"Exactly - and I don't feel that that is true - I feel they were the ones that hired this company to do their promotion."
So went to the State Fair - where Master Spas was supposed to be holding a weekend sale.
We said, "We've been contacted by some customers who are very unhappy about a rebate program you've been offering. "
They said they don't know anything about that. One employee told us he didn't know how to reach the owner.
His name is Craig Hueffner - he refers to himself as "Craig the spaman". We went looking for him at his store -- to ask him why he won't help his customers. Eventually we caught up with him by e-mail -- but he refered us to his lawyer. Neither of them would talk to us on camera.
The attorney claims master spas delivered on it's end of the bargain - by providing a hot tub. On the phone the lawyer told me - they got a quality product.
But for angry customers who feel they were duped -- the whole experience -- leaves them steamed.
We talked with the Wisconsin Attorney General's office and they're still considering legal action against consumers trust.
The customers we talked to would also like to see action against Master Spas.
For that to happen - consumers will have to convince the attorney general's office that master spas was directly responsible for misleading them.
East_TX_Spa:
What a completely morally bankrupt organization. Any person that would involve themselves in any way in this scam is nothing but a degenerate at every level.
The idiot consumers let their greed get in the way of their common sense, of which they were obviously in short supply.
Terminator
wmccall:
You appear to be quoting a news story? Is this recent, or a rehash?
Brewman:
--- Quote ---
The idiot consumers let their greed get in the way of their common sense, of which they were obviously in short supply.
Terminator
--- End quote ---
Bullseye!!! The whole concept is so far fetched that it's difficult to believe anyone would fall for it. Not that it excuses the scammers, but really.....
Do the freakin math!! It's a classic pyramid scheme at the very least.
Dr. Spa™ Ret.:
Looks like a news story from 4/28/2006 (search google using the first sentance of the article).
--- Quote ---You appear to be quoting a news story? Is this recent, or a rehash?
--- End quote ---
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version