To repair or replace? Manufacturers spend unnecessary money replacing parts on warranty that could be fixed in the field. Why aren't more technicians trained to handle the situation?

Pool & Spa News, June 6, 2003 by Mitch Kaplan

Spa service for warranty work--you gotta love it; you gotta hate it. Love it because completing it quickly and efficiently builds great customer relations and consumer confidence. Hate it? Because it seems like everyone loses money on the deal.

Spa manufacturers are increasingly aware, and wary, of situations in which parts on warranty fail to be fixed in the field, but rather, are automatically returned to the factory. The problem lies in the computerization and modular nature of today's spas, they say.

That makes it all too easy for service techs to skip fully analyzing a problem when it arises. Instead, they tend to simply remove a part, such as a PC board or topside control, and return it to the factory. One spa maker reports that as much as half the product being returned for warranty claims as recently as two years ago was not faulty. It would be far better for field techs to more accurately determine just what can be fixed rather than returned, say manufacturers.

Field reality

The situation puts service departments at both retail stores and factories on the horns of a dilemma: How can they properly serve the customer without incurring unnecessary costs?

It's not just a physical problem; sometimes, it's also perceptual. Too often, retailers are looking for warranty calls to be profit centers. And they are not, say the spa makers.

Warranty calls are, in essence, an important element of customer service that helps to nurture a loyal clientele and increase business through word-of-mouth referrals. In fact, from the retailers' viewpoint, such visits frequently are seen as loss leaders.

"In my area, our labor rate's so high that doing warranty work is a losing proposition," says Ian Fyfe of Harbor Hot Tubs in Sag Harbor, N.Y. "Labor is a $90-an-hour cost, plus we get 100-percent markup on parts. On warranty work, we're lucky to get $50 an hour plus no markup on parts. It's lost money doing warranty work. But we look at it as a cost of doing business to keep our customers happy. We support our manufacturers because they support us."

Despite that, service operations can and must differentiate between situations that are fixable in the field, and those that aren't. Chris Secard says the policy at A-Tex Family Fun Centers in Austin, Texas, is to be "real sensitive to what's being sent back" because an enormous amount of money is required to stock all the parts needed to cover everything that might go wrong.

"We're at the mercy of the manufacturer when a spa is down and we're waiting for replacement parts," Secard adds. "Things like pumps can be fixed in the field. We follow the guidelines that are given by manufacturers. Most we deal with are good. They say, 'If it gets to [a certain] point, then replace it.'"

Still, retailers such as Carolina H20 owner Joe Potz in Shallotte, N.C., say that many manufacturers actually encourage parts replacement rather than making infield repairs. "From the company's perspective, if we find a problem with a pump motor, they just tell us to replace the motor and send it back, and they send it back to the supplier," Potz says. "A lot of times, we know it's a bearing gone bad. Instead of taking it to a local shop and getting a new bearing for $15, we send it back."

Technology and technicians

Indeed, the very nature of spa construction today lends itself to parts replacement. Ten years ago, spas depended on mechanics and electricians for operation. Today, it's all about electronics.

"Most of the newer spas have PC board controls in them," says Bob Davis, president of Aqua Pros Pools & Spas in Lynchburg, Va. "That makes servicing a hot tub in the field pretty much self-diagnosing with a multimeter and a look at the display. With proper training, the tech should know what steps to take to troubleshoot the system."

But there's more to making a service call than just trading components, especially when a piece of equipment is still under warranty. Manufacturers' service personnel think field techs should be able to analyze the situation intelligently. It's a look-before-you-leap kind of thing.

Misdiagnosis may be the major culprit on unnecessary warranty returns, according to manufacturers and retailers.

"There are probably a lot of guys who don't have the training and just swap parts out," says Terry Estep, service manager at The Spa Brokers, based in metro Denver and a Pool & Spa News 100 company. "And that could be a misdiagnosis, like a pressure switch or a sensor going bad as opposed to a circuit-board problem."

Industry veterans chalk such misdiagnoses up to a couple of things: an overall scarcity of good technicians and lack of proper tech training. In addition, some say the turnover rate among service techs makes continuity and proper training even harder. "Techs are hard to find," says George Reinbold, owner of Bubbles Plus Spas in Interlochen and Saginaw, Mich. "They're not like auto mechanics."

Davis concurs: "There's no pool of trained spa technicians out there, not in schools or colleges. That's why it's difficult to find technicians. We find capable guys and then we train them."