any body got a magic wand?

[lakeside]

  after what we thaught was a thorough search  we purchased a spa that we were pretty excited about from a local dealer. the only thing we werent excited about was the 4-6 wk delivery wait. they said they would rush it and would try to deliver in 4 wks. well after a few dissapointing phone calls it ended up being 7 wks. so we were anxious and excited when they said ok its here we can deliver it tomorrow, (this is where it gets bad) when they delivered the spa they did not set it in place correctly and the delivery crew slid (yes i said slid) the spa about 4-5 ft across our 12 weeks new, colored, stamped concrete leaving it gouged and scarred badly in several places. while i was having a heart attack they unwrapped the spa and after much discussion about what they were going to do about our concrete we discoverd that this was not even our spa, it was the right color but it was the wrong interior shell and the wrong outside panel(the slats went the wrong way) (that was really not a big deal) but wrong none the less. so now we have badly scarred custom concrete and they had to take the spa back because it was not the right one at all. the spa store has agreed to repair the concrete, however our concrete contractor said the damage can not be repaired. we would have to tear it out and re-pour the whole section, or just live with it. both are terrible solutions. we just want our spa, and our concrete back the way it was a week ago. any way the company sent a rep out to look at the damage and he agreed it was bad and they needed to make some monitary compensation and said theyd get back to us that day, that was tues its friday night no word yet we are totally at a loss as to what to do? cancel our spa, go ahead with the spa, wait to see what they do about our concrete, etc. what should we expect from them? idont know whats fair at this point? any suggestions are appreciated also if any one knows if there is a way to fix the concrete damage those thaughts are appreciated as well.

[Vinny]

I find it odd though that a spa damaged concrete, though I'm not too familiar with stamped concrete. Concrete typically has control cracks in it to stop the concrete from cracking where you don't want it to.

Is it possible to replace a section?

The dealer should have insurance to cover the damage. I would insist that the dealer get in touch with THEIR insurance and get the ball rolling to get your concrete repaired. Take pictures and get enough evidence "just in case".

When I was building my deck, the lumber yard lost the load as they were unloading and destroyed one of my garage doors - they had to replace both of them since the style wasn't available any more.

As far as the spa - it really comes down to how comfortable you feel with this dealer. Accidents happen but it's how they deal with them that indicates what type of customer service they have!

Good Luck!

[mxw128]

It sounds like the delivery crew was a bit irresponsible.  I'd say you have to have them replace the section of concrete.  We have been looking into stamped concrete and I can see how it would be a royal pain, but you gotta live with it so IMHO I think you have to get them to fix their mistake.  My dealer just delivered my spa today and they did a decent job at making sure they left things the way they found them.  They used a combination of wheels, dollies and good old strong backs, so the job could've been done without the damage you experienced.

[Bodyaches]

Cancel the order. To many dealers out there to put up with that BS. Sue for the patio damage.
I myself am tired of the BS dealers deliveries and Mfgs perform and hope that they will go unobserved.

Dick

[bosco0633]

ok I have stamp as well with aggrigate.  
Is your stamp already sealed?  When they brought my tub in they scratched it as well.  I just washed it down a bit and re sealed it with some high gloss.  This made it 100 times better.  If you look hard enough you can still see the scratches but it looks really good.

As for your tub, I would say work something out with your dealer.  They deffinitely owe you something for pain and suffering.  I would stick with them though, why sever ties with someone that you got by the private parts.  Seriously, if you think about it, you are at an advantage over any consumer right now because the dealer is looking to make you go away peacefully.  

If I were you, dont let the ball drop in their court like you are doing.  I would be all over them, calling every day and questioning them until I got an answer.  I think if you do not become more persistant than you will see them dragging their heels for a long time.

If you really have to, tell them that you have retained counsel and are prepared to go through court proceedings for compensation for the damage that the company did to your property.  

Dont back down, stay strong and honestly be as aggressive as you can right now.  I know you dealers may think this is harsh, but you also know that if it was your store they wouldnt have to be doing this because you would have already worked something out.

Just my thoughts.  I have always been good at getting what I need.  I find that it is all in your approach.

[tony]

Your patio should be repaired to its original condition and of course you should get the spa you want.  You are going to live with these for a long time.  You don't want to get sick every time you are soaking in your spa and look at your scratched patio.  This is a cut and dry situation where the dealer's delivery crew did damage and they or their insurance company should pay.  You may want to contact your insurance advisor for direction.  It may be better for you to collect from your homeowners insurance and let them go after the dealer for restitution.

[lakeside]

"I find it odd though that a spa damaged concrete, though I'm not too familiar with stamped concrete. Concrete typically has control cracks in it to stop the concrete from cracking where you don't want it to. "

wow thanks for all the info, the concrete was not cracked it is gouged. there are bolts on the bottom of the spa that secure the bottom material to it, thats what did the damage when they slid the spa. how long did it take for them to agree to fix your garage doors?

[Vinny]

"I find it odd though that a spa damaged concrete, though I'm not too familiar with stamped concrete. Concrete typically has control cracks in it to stop the concrete from cracking where you don't want it to. "

wow thanks for all the info, the concrete was not cracked it is gouged. there are bolts on the bottom of the spa that secure the bottom material to it, thats what did the damage when they slid the spa. how long did it take for them to agree to fix your garage doors?

When I was mentioning the control cracks, I was thinking that the contractor can replace just that section. I didn't realize that tubs had bolts on the base - that explains it!

They called me immediately - I WAS IMPRESSED and they told me it was their problem. It took about 4 weeks total to have the insurance agree and have the door company come out and repair.

[cappykat]

Geez louise....I just continue to get a wealth of information from this forum.

Don't back down.  I would want my concrete, stamped concrete, whatever I have that was perfect before it was damaged--FIXED...PERIOD!!  Either demand that they fix it or cancel the order.  

[lakeside]

ok I have stamp as well with aggrigate.  
Is your stamp already sealed?  When they brought my tub in they scratched it as well.  I just washed it down a bit and re sealed it with some high gloss.  This made it 100 times better.  If you look hard enough you can still see the scratches but it looks really good.

As for your tub, I would say work something out with your dealer.  They deffinitely owe you something for pain and suffering.  I would stick with them though, why sever ties with someone that you got by the private parts.  Seriously, if you think about it, you are at an advantage over any consumer right now because the dealer is looking to make you go away peacefully.  

If I were you, dont let the ball drop in their court like you are doing.  I would be all over them, calling every day and questioning them until I got an answer.  I think if you do not become more persistant than you will see them dragging their heels for a long time.

If you really have to, tell them that you have retained counsel and are prepared to go through court proceedings for compensation for the damage that the company did to your property.  

Dont back down, stay strong and honestly be as aggressive as you can right now.  I know you dealers may think this is harsh, but you also know that if it was your store they wouldnt have to be doing this because you would have already worked something out.

Just my thoughts.  I have always been good at getting what I need.  I find that it is all in your approach.

YES we sealed our concrete with a high gloss sealer all ready (quite pricy that stuff) i am glad to hear your sealer made the scratches lighter we were worried that it would actually enhance them once it soaked in to the porous concrete.

i know that it is out of the question from a mental standpoint to actually replace the concrete, becaus any one who has done a back yard from jungle to beautiful knows the pain we've endured getting it ready for this moment. to even fathom the idea of having equipment back there tearing it up and the process of re-doing it gives me hives.

since there is no magic wand that will fix our patio we have decided we have to live with it. but we dont think this makes the dealer less reponsible for compensating us what it would cost if we were going to actually replace it does it?(that however would exceed the cost of the spa) (we live in san diego anything to do with housing, landscaping or remodeling is through the roof.)

the owner of the store was going over ideas of how we could cover all of them up with wrap around stairs or a bar or something (at their cost) wich really isnt in line with our landscape plans, but none of this was. So I keep getting this sinking feeling they are going to offer us some here go away we'll give you 10%off deal or something, esp since they havent called back yet. and i though i get sick every time i look at my patio i still feel guilty like i shouldnt expect too much from them or i'll be like those sue happy people i allways bad mouth.

so would any of you setlle for this cover up? and pay full price for the spa? is that fair? or letting them off easy?

then theres the ou oh did we buy the right spa question we looked befor the county fair came and then went to the fair and looked at all the diaplays 2 or 3 times gathering info on all of them then we did the big no no and baught one. the dealer was local so we figured no big deal we know where to find them. its a phoenix spa, sterling series sedona model we paid 8200. for it that includes pretty much everything except a tv. any way was reading about spas and now we are a little worried, even if the dealer makes good on all this our spa may be broken more than it works. and we didnt wet test, maybe this is our chance to cancel with out paying there 25%cancellation fee, take what they offer us for the damage, and start the spa search over? hmm any ideas?

[lakeside]

When I was mentioning the control cracks, I was thinking that the contractor can replace just that section. I didn't realize that tubs had bolts on the base - that explains it!

They called me immediately - I WAS IMPRESSED and they told me it was their problem. It took about 4 weeks total to have the insurance agree and have the door company come out and repair.

oh yeah we have control cracks/joint lines but the patio is divided into 4 8x8 squares all colored and stamped with a 12" border around each square that is not stamped they managed to scratch in all 4 squares over the joint lines and everything. even though the spa will cover some of these in the middle, there are some really deep jagged ones that are 3 feet away form the outside border of where we planned to set the spa down on any side.

so it took about 4 wks huh? well they called us and came out right away initially but now i think they are freaken out because its worse than they thaught. which i dont understand if they are putting it through insurance. oh... unless maybe they were going to try to get away without filing a claim?? at first.

[lakeside]

ok I have stamp as well with aggrigate.  
Is your stamp already sealed?  When they brought my tub in they scratched it as well.  I just washed it down a bit and re sealed it with some high gloss.  This made it 100 times better.  If you look hard enough you can still see the scratches but it looks really good.

As for your tub, I would say work something out with your dealer.  They deffinitely owe you something for pain and suffering.  I would stick with them though, why sever ties with someone that you got by the private parts.  Seriously, if you think about it, you are at an advantage over any consumer right now because the dealer is looking to make you go away peacefully.  

If I were you, dont let the ball drop in their court like you are doing.  I would be all over them, calling every day and questioning them until I got an answer.  I think if you do not become more persistant than you will see them dragging their heels for a long time.

If you really have to, tell them that you have retained counsel and are prepared to go through court proceedings for compensation for the damage that the company did to your property.  

Dont back down, stay strong and honestly be as aggressive as you can right now.  I know you dealers may think this is harsh, but you also know that if it was your store they wouldnt have to be doing this because you would have already worked something out.

Just my thoughts.  I have always been good at getting what I need.  I find that it is all in your approach.

oh yeah i forgot the most important question did you pursue the spa company for the damage to your patio when they scratched it? if so how did it go?

[Vinny]

If it makes you feel better to know about others ...

As I was building my screen room, we had a few mishaps. I am building a deck with composite lumber and one of the mishaps is we dropped a 4' x 17' roof panel. It scarred my new decking and dented up the panel - even broke through the aluminum skin. As we were putting the panels together, we were chalking them to seal the seam - it started to pour on us - sky went from blue to black in a half an hour. The chalk started running down onto my new deck and even though I was washing it off at 5 PM, 7 PM, 9 PM and 5 AM it still ran during the day and hardened up in some areas.

I was POed at everything but that was 3 weeks ago. Today it bothers me somewhat but what can I do. My deck is still nice and even though I have "scars" on the deck and screen room it doesn't stop it's performance.

I would still pursue this with your dealer but hopefully my story helps a little to know your not alone!

[totallyreel]

have u considered capping the concrete with slate or possibly a 1 inch brick paver would probably be a far superior floor to the stamping and a lot less work and cost than demoing existing slaband repouring

[lakeside]

If it makes you feel better to know about others ...

As I was building my screen room, we had a few mishaps. I am building a deck with composite lumber and one of the mishaps is we dropped a 4' x 17' roof panel. It scarred my new decking and dented up the panel - even broke through the aluminum skin. As we were putting the panels together, we were chalking them to seal the seam - it started to pour on us - sky went from blue to black in a half an hour. The chalk started running down onto my new deck and even though I was washing it off at 5 PM, 7 PM, 9 PM and 5 AM it still ran during the day and hardened up in some areas.

I was POed at everything but that was 3 weeks ago. Today it bothers me somewhat but what can I do. My deck is still nice and even though I have "scars" on the deck and screen room it doesn't stop it's performance.

I would still pursue this with your dealer but hopefully my story helps a little to know your not alone!

thank you for sharing your story, I'm sorry to hear about your deck, i dont know if its worse when we cause the damage ourselves or when someone else does.

we had other mishaps too during our rennovation we were tearing down our old patio where our new family room is now, and the first day of demo one of the aluminum sheets or posts or something came crashing through our living room window 10ftx4ft what a way to start a project no big deal obviously but it had us goin for a moment "i hope this isnt an indication of how this project is gonna go" well one small water line, 2 phone lines and one damaged patio later i am very glad that we are almost done and i really really cant wait to unwind in our new spa if we ever get it. hahaha

this is all part of the joy of home ownership (and i am glad that i do own my home) but it seems they should've known better, they deliver spas every day, we dont remodel every day. any way i'm just trying to figure out whats fair and move on.

i guess i go back to my old motto : what affect is this going to have on my life in 5 years? thats how i pick my battles.