Complaint Review: REC Warehouse

The problems I have experienced with this company are inexcusable, unprofessional and must be told to others who are thinking of doing business with this organization. All I can say is BUYER BEWARE.

My problems began right from the start. I ordered a Leisure Bay - Flores Spa/Hot Tub from them.

The first problem occurred when it was delivered. It was the wrong color. They corrected the situation and shipped me another. At least I did get what I ordered - finally.

They told me to properly have the spa installed, I would need to have a base constructed and charged me for the construction of the base in their initial invoice. The paperwork does not show the price they charged as the installation was included in their offer. I was told that after my spa was delivered that I would have to call their installer - Tony Guajarado and arrange a time for him to do the installation.

I did as instructed and the contractor came by and did the installation. The construction part included building a base, attaching a cover lift, and doing the electrical to the spa itself.

The installation was a two day process - First day, digging holes to set foundation poles and pouring concrete around them. Second Day, leveling and mounting foundation frame members to base poles, hooking up electricity.

During the process, I asked the contractor if he was licensed to do the hook-up and he told me that he was not. A little scary as it is a 60A 240V connection he was making. I'm not sure if he holds any general contractor credentials or not as Texas is very lax on General Contractor licensing.

The installation was completed; the contractor left and I then had to fill the spa.

On initially filling the spa, I noticed that the water level was not level in all corners. Being unfamiliar with a new spa, I didn't fill it with as much water as I probably should have to have it completely full. I didn't think too much about the problem then as I was primarily the only one using the spa, I got it under medical advice from my doctor who said I needed to do some excising in a pool or spa.

During the winter of 2006/2007, the spa was hardly used and sat covered for most of the "off season" months. In late spring and early summer, I started to use the spa again, primarily for excising. The water level was still lower that it should have been as the one corner to accommodate the corner that the water was the highest in.

Towards the end of the summer, I had friends over and we decided to all get into the spa. Now, with much more "body fill" in the spa, the water started to overflow in the corner where the water was the highest.

At this point I should have probably contacted REC Warehouse and appraise them of the situation. I am 100% disabled due to heart problems and at the same time started to have more medical issues that required 2 surgeries.

In February, 2008, I started to feel somewhat better and I contacted the General Manager at Rec Warehouse in Allen - Dwayne Weddell and he told me that he would have the installer get in touch with me so he could come out and look into the problem.

He came out, brought his level and said that the problem was not his as the base he built only showed it was off by 1/8th of an inch and that was "within tolerance'. The water line however, shows the difference from lowest corner to the highest corner to be off from 2" to 3". Tony said that wasn't his problem and if I needed to pursue the issue further I needed to get back in touch with Rec Warehouse as it was their problem. I told him I didn't feel he was right and I did in fact feel it was an installation problem and I might be forced to go to small claims court to rectify the problem. He then got very offensive, laughed, and told his crew (2 or 3 other workers that were with him) "lets go". Not another word was said and they went on.

I then called DeWayne Weddell at Rec Warehouse and he told me to take pictures and send them to him and he would try to intercede.

At about this time, my heart started to give me problems again and I had to have another heart operation and the process sort of when on "hold".

After months of recuperation, I got back on the situation, took pictures and went to the Rec Warehouse to deliver the photos to DeWayne in person. He told me that he was starting his lunch and would be "awhile" before he could talk and he went into his office. I waited about 45 minutes and had one of his employees go in and see if he was finished and DeWayne told the employee to go and tell me that he now was on the telephone and for me to go and send the pictures by Email. This I did - NO RESPONSE.

I waited a week or so and followed him by Email, and again, NO RESPONSE.

I finally decided to call him on the telephone. He was very defensive - told me this was not his problem as it a problem with the foundation (being made of wood and not concrete) that it was settling. Well, this cannot be the problem. First, the front of the spa (where the settling must be for the uneven water line to level shows) has no problem shows "0" settling as the contractor nailed the base to my existing deck that it is easy to see has no settling problems and is 100% level. The rear of the spa would have to have risen for the water to show as it does for this particular situation. I'm sure that this isn't the case as that would be against the law of physics.

At this point which was near the end of the conversation with DeWayne, I asked him to come out and look at the problem himself and see just what I was describing. He told me that he didn't make visits to customers locations and said he wasn't going to do any more and if I wanted to further have the situation looked at that I must again ask Tony to come back out that that I must "be reasonable" with Tony and pay him directly for any further work to solve the leveling problem.

I again told him that this was not a settling problem and was indeed an installation problem and my contract and payment for the Spa and the Installation was given directly to Rec Warehouse. No separate billing or arrangements were made with the installer other than the agreement with him as to the time he was to start the installation.

I am a State of Texas, Licensed Professional Home Inspector and understand problems of this nature.

One other issue - I had warranty work that needed to be done on the cabinet of the spa (one of the panels warped very badly) and was told I must pay a $100 trip charge for the work to be done. If I didn't want to pay that, they would send the part to the store location and I could pick the part up and do the work myself. WHAT A WAY TO HONOR A WRITTEN WARRANTY! I did this and corrected the problem myself. Again, inclosing; BUYER BEWARE in dealing with Rec Warehouse.

Edward
Wylie, Texas
U.S.A.

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