In June of 2000, I purchased a Super Custom Fallsburg spa from Jim Arjuna, owner of The Spa Specialist. This was a huge mistake. While I was fully refunded the $9K for the spa, Jim continues to harass me about this, some four years after the original transaction.
Apparently, I am not alone; in 2002, another gentleman, Andy, went through a very similar experience.
I've put together these web pages to document both my experience and Andy's, as well as contributions from other people and various posts on public message boards. My hope is that these will help inform the potential spa buyer, and hopefully prevent anyone from experiencing what Andy and I did at the hands of Jim Arjuna.
Andy's story and the pictures are part of a larger expose on Haven spas, done by some other people on the Web. I've included a complete copy.
My story (short version):
- I bought a Super Custom Fallsburg spa from him for $9,389.30 with half down;
- Among other initial problems the heater was broken;
- Repair of the heater was handled very poorly and took over two weeks from the delivery date (which wasn't in four weeks as promised);
- I didn't feel I was getting my $9K worth, so I asked for some consideration for all the trouble;
- Jim disagrees, but we never settle on a price;
- It turns out my spa was plumbed with a diverter valve, thus wasn't even a Super Custom Fallsburg that Jim made himself; Jim concedes that sometimes things "start out sort of messed up then get worse" and offers to build me a brand new one;
- I'm feeling taken advantage of and have no faith that the second time will be better than the first, so I make a counter offer;
- Jim flies off the handle;
- I end the transaction, call MasterCard to refund my money (which they do). Jim eventually has someone pick up the spa after ~2 weeks.
- I post a journal of these events in Sept. of 2000
- Jim goes on the warpath, calling me crazy and a thief. He keeps this up for the next four years.
Andy's story (short version):
- Andy purchased a refurbished Super Custom Fallsburg in June of 2002;
- The spa was dropped while being unloaded from the truck at Andy's house;
- There were a number of other problems, including a set of extra filters that were not delivered;
- After three months of not having the spa fixed, Andy requested a refund of his money;
- Jim responded a with a bit of hostility;
- Four months later in December the credit card company informed Andy it found in his favor
- Jim finally had the spa picked up and removed in February, although he continued to press for getting Andy to pay for the delivery costs;
- Jim continued on the warpath, claiming that Andy "is under investigation for defrauding several companies in his area as well as ours."
These are just two bad experiences about The Spa Specialist. While it is possible that these are the only two, the degree of problems along with the obviously poor customer service should make one consider very, very strongly whether or not to do business with Jim Arjuna. As they say, Caveat Emptor.