I was a naive Thermo Spa customer for the past 15 years. I am a handicap male who suffers from chronic back pain as a result of an amputation of my left arm in an automobile accident.

As a result of my job, I had closed up my spa for 4 years while I was involved in business's away from home.

Two years ago, I contacted Thermo Spa to restart my spa. I contacted the

Ct factory to send a tech to my home to get my tub up running.

That was my first mistake, The tech informed me that even though my tub had been in storage for most of it's life, my tub was no longer worth fixing based solely on it's age, not condition. He stated the life of my

tub, which was a Park Ave, was between 8 - 10 years tops. Funny, that never came up when I purchased the tub from them? Anyway, my tub had been used for less then 4 years since I bought it. He went on to further explain to me that it I was throwing my money away if I pursuit fixingthe tub.

Thankfully, I listen to my wife and insisted he at least look at the

tub. I filled the tub with water over his insistence that the tub would have leaks all over, which it did not. The tech then proceeded to inspect my tub and informed me that the tub needed a new pc board. How he arrived at this decision, I will never know, but being naieve, I assumed that he

knew what he was talking about, since he told both my wife and me, that he as Thermo Spa's best tech and that he was very familiar with my problem.

Over the next 2 years, this same tech came to our home with 5 separate pc boards, which he installed in my tub and claimed all of them were defective and that my tub was junk. The tech sole response was to junk

my tub and upgrade to a new one.

Finally, on his last visit, the tech informed me that he had the very last board from Balboa and that if this board was defective, there was nothing I could do but scrapthe tub.

The tech installed the board and informed me that it also was defective and he had gone over and above with me and that now there was nothing left to do but scrapthe tub. He left the pc board in my tub since the pc board was defective.

He contacted his boss, Reese, who explained again, that my tub was

"old and obsolete" and that as a "good" customer, my tub was worth $1500.00 as a trade in toward a new $18, 000.00 spa. He then proceeded to set up and appointment to have his salesman come to my house to sign a contract for the new tub.

Now comes the kicker.

My wife suggested that I should contact a local spa dealer to check my tub just to verify Thermo Spa, so I contacted Surfside Pool, a local

spa dealer in Fitchburg Ma.

There tech showed up within 2 days of my contacting them and within

15 minutes of viewing my tub, diagnosed that the pc board that Thermo Spa had installed was installed incorrectly. Now remember, this was installed by not only a trained and certified factory technician, but by the "best installer Thermo Spa has". Surfside's tech then proceeded to reconnect the pc board and within 30 minutes, my tub was up and working.

This was after 2 years of having Thermo Spa's

tech, working on this tub and having an empty tub in my home. Surfside's tech then looked at the board and contacted Balboa, the maker of the board, and found out that the upgrade to my controller that I had paid Thermo Spa for, was in fact, done completely wrong and would violate the warranty on my tub.

Since the pc board is such a basic install, In my opinion, there is only 2 possible explanations for this experience.

1 - that Thermo Spa hires completely inexperience help and refuses to train them...unlikely..

2 - Thermo Spa's technicians are instructed to create problems in older tubs to increase sales in new tubs... far more likely

Either way, I am seeking a legal remedy for this situation and I can only advise others to stay away from Thermo Spa...

Today is Feb. 17, 2010 and Thermospa charged my credit card on Jan. 12, 2010 for a replacement pump that they ordered for us on Jan. 8 and we still have not received it. Yesterday when my husband called to find out where the pump is their customer service rep. told my husband that it's only been a month or that maybe we should winterize our spa. In the middle of the Winter!!! Did she just get off a boat? I think I'm going to call Richard Blumenthal at the CT State Attorney's office because I don't think a business can charge your credit card until the product has shipped. This is not our first problem with their customer service dept. I would recommend buying a spa from a smaller outfit that can handle any problems that come up in a timely manner.