ATEX outdoor SPA / Post-Sales service

Business: A-Tex Family Fun Center

Address: 907 N. IH 35 Round Rock Texas

Phone: 512-451-8353

Email: Email User

When? Mid-year 2005

What? My spa was over its warranty period, and I needed

service from this company to help me get it working

again. The initial cost was approx. $6k and I had

paid A-Tex Family Fun Center cash the day I purchased

my Sunbelt, Shasta model outdoor spa.

On their first visit, they determined it was a

processor board which they said would be very hard to

get from the manufacturer based in Houston since they

had discontinued sales of the Sunbelt product line.

Sooooo.. I waited for about a month or more until I

stepped up my prodding of A-Tex so they'd give me a

better estimate of when I'd see my part. No answer.

Then I called Sunbelt directly, and they also had

no answer. These boards are about $360 per board, and

this would be the 2nd board(number 3) I needed in the history

of my ownership and care.

The technician that came out was not only flippant

in his replies, but so were everyone else on the staff

in the service group of A-Tex. And, this included the

the bad attitude of the owner as well. Sitting on a

$6k hot tub that was only 3+ years old with no hope

of a fix in site, I had a hard time keeping my calm.

The service manager even made a smart alec remark saying

that my tub was an OLD model, as if to say I should've

purchased another $6k+ tub of the new millenium?

The owner of A-Tex finally got one of his minions

to quiet me down; but only after the BBB was involved

with whom they claimed they were members. But this guy

must've been battling a cocaine addiction in the middle

of the summer because he couldn't keep his nose from

running while I talked to him on the phone.

My part finally came in, and I chose to install

the new board myself. I'm an electrical engineer during

the day, and I worked my was through the ranks from

being a technician too. I felt I could tackle the job

at hand. I DID on my first try. BUT, lo and behold, I

discovered that A-TEX's low-quality techs had installed

the 240volt supply line tabs to the board with one of the

mounting screws too long. It was less than 1/16" from

grounding itself to the chassis. The chassis in this

design is the same potential as ground; and was the

very reason that my hot tub blew out board number 2 and

3. I discovered this prior to restoring power to the

system and corrected it by shortening the length of the

mounting screw. There were even burn marks on the chassis

which was left from the previous shorted board; so it

didn't take rocket science to prove my theory.

I called the sniffler back at A-Tex to ask about

some sort of compensation on the price of the part since

it was clearly the work of their employees that caused

me to suffer financially for their screw ups. I never

heard back from them again. But, the tub continues to

function perfectly and hasn't blown another board since

I applied my fix to their sub-standard maintenance.

Oh, and before signing off, I left out the service mgr.

had refused to service my tub since I had given them such

a hard time about their dumb tech -- that same dumb tech

has since left their shop, and is now trashing another

company's products here in the Austin area. I know this

because another, reputable service company is going in

behind the work this clown has done and repairing the

damage done because the customers don't trust the sales

company to have decent service personnel. I'll never do

business with A-Tex again -- EVER... Guaranteed...

That's all folks!

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