What are the dangers of purchasing a hot tub online?

Impulse peril

When it comes to high-ticket items, such as hot tubs, you must be wary of being tempted into the peril of an impulse purchase. As fraud experts have warned, thousands of online consumers are being lured into the clutches of ‘net bandits’.

Cyber security experts are issuing warnings about the current high prevalence of fraudulent online activities and the boom in scams, which are parting unsuspecting consumers with their hard-earned cash. Sophisticated identity thefts and online fraud is rife and that is why our banks and financial services are providing additional specialist marketing campaigns to highlight the problem to online consumers.

There will always be unscrupulous suppliers who will exploit your desire to achieve a quick hot tub purchasing fix. Without caution and thorough checks, your cash could end up in the pockets of a fraudulent operation that has no intention of supplying you with a quality hot tub or your preferred choice of hot tub model in your desired and agreed timescale.

Once you have conducted the required research and taken as many pre-digital purchasing precautions as possible, a credit card payment can provide you with greater protection.

Shady ‘grey’ hot tub imports

WhatSpa? has collected evidence of less-than-reputable traders hiding behind the facia of anonymous registered offices and glossy websites with constant fictitious sale offers, whilst peddling shoddy ‘grey imports’ that turn out to be poor quality and highly dangerous in some cases.

There is now confirmed evidence that some of the ‘grey’ hot tub imports that are available in the UK market are generally only lasting one or two years at the maximum simply because, although they appear great in the websites, the model has been manufactured very cheaply within unorthodox production conditions that are not industry standard. By utilising poor materials and unrecognisable fittings, pumps or heaters that cannot be replaced it ensures you are left with a worthless piece of junk in your garden due to the fact that a professional hot tub engineer has no reasonable capacity to rectify any faults.

From the moment that you hand over your hard-earned cash, products like this are literally devoid of value and will even cost you money to cut up and take away when they finally stop working and have no way of being fixed safely.

If you cannot identify the provenance of a hot tub model from the website of a trader and trace it to a trusted manufacturer of good repute, it’s advisable to do more research and ask vital questions about where it was manufactured, what quality assurance standards have been observed in its production, and what are the length of the warranties for the various elements of the hot tub.

Poor quality hot tubs will always prove costly to your bank balance or health in the short and long-term. So, before you click any purchase buttons you should be totally assured that the hot tub meets strict manufacturing credentials that leading brands are adhering to.

False promises

Even if you are not worried about the safety of your bank account and savings then you should certainly be aiming to avoid dangers to your health and that of your loved ones from poor quality online hot tubs. For many years we have highlighted the advice from professional WhatSpa? Approved hot tub dealers that have gathered their own evidence of life-threatening incidents caused by consumers placing too much faith in an online supplier.

Always aim to ensure that you are totally confidence in the hot tub manufacturing process that your product has been put through. If a hot tub offer seems ‘too good to be true’ then the alarm bells should be ringing in your head. Incredibly low costs from poor manufacturing facilities can allow suppliers of these hot tubs to promote remarkably cheap prices.

To unsuspecting consumers these offers can be extremely tempting. Generally, if you are inclined to take purchasing gambles to achieve a ‘bargain’ you will be lured in by these ‘web shop wonder deals’ and potentially land yourself in deep water debt. If you have conducted the correct WhatSpa? advocated product and supplier research it should prevent you from making a costly purchasing mistake and joining the thousands of consumers who have become victims of hot tub purchasing fraud this year.

Without conducting hot tub market research and taking as many digital purchasing precautions as possible it may mean that you may never gain the ultimate satisfaction of a top quality hot tub hydrotherapy product, because you have been tempted away from the services and hot tub models supplied by professional WhatSpa? Approved dealers.

Never click on a purchase without checking customer feedback. Treat glowing testimonials placed on a company’s website or social media pages with an element of scepticism as they can be unauthentic or edited, and any negative feedback from complaining customers can easily be removed from social media feeds. WhatSpa? has even seen reports of disgruntled customers being ‘blocked’ from social media pages to prevent them from adding feedback that the company believes is potentially damaging, even though the complaints are valid.

Seek out reputable third party review websites, such as Trustpilot, Reviews.co.uk and Feefo. These provide reviews, and star ratings that are unable to be edited or deleted by the supplier. If a hot tub supplier is registered with any of these platforms, they will generally display their star rating on their website, but you can also search their database by visiting the rating company’s websites.

If you want to avoid these online hot tub purchasing worries, then they will be easily eliminated by consulting a WhatSpa? Approved dealer. You can find the latest hot tub reviews and approved suppliers in our latest edition of WhatSpa?.

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