My experience with American Bath Group has been among the worst customer service nightmares I have ever endured.
I purchased my Daytona tub in 2014 by American Bath Group's Aquatic Bath subsidiary. I purchased it from Quality Bath, an online retailer. This was mistake number one since they were never any help either. I made the mistake of getting something with a two-year warranty. While still under warranty, I began having problems with the blower, and the warranty department sent out Bob's Plumbing, their then-warranty service people. Just a year or so later, I began having issues again, this time with the light and the motor. So, I called Bob's Plumbing because they were the official warranty people that had fixed it so it only made sense to call the people who may know how to work the tub. Bob's came out and, claimed they couldn't get the replacement motor. They didn't say why but I now know it is because they and Bob's Plumbing had a parting of ways. I did not know this at the time and Bob's Plumbing not only put in the wrong motor for the tub, but installed a button without asking me, rendering both the panel and the light useless other than for the air jets. So, after two years of battling it out off and on with Aquatic, someone there named Wendy Waggoner felt bad for me and sent me replacement parts. The tech she sent from Baton Rouge put it all in—and, of course, wired it wrong. I did not find this out until today when, upon opening up the panel on the side of the house to access the tub, I realized that while the heater, blower, and motor are each supposed to be in their own separate outlets, each with its own GFI, the tech they sent had wired it all incorrectly three years ago. At first, all that would happen is that the panel would start to go haywire less than a week after the tech installed the replacement parts that Wendy Waggoner sent. Then, there were times when the water jets would turn on while all I had running were the air jets, and no amount of pressing buttons would turn them off and I'd have to wait ten to twenty minutes to leave the tub lest the motor become damaged by the lower water level from my exiting the tub. One time, my husband had to cut a circuit breaker outside the house just so I could exit the tub after being trapped in it for two hours by the motor not turning off when I hadn't turned it on to begin with. Finally, the motor and blower stopped responding to the buttons at all, and the light would only occasionally work. I decided to subject myself to the crusade that is anything one deals with at American Bath Group though Wendy no longer seems to be there. I finally found someone named Shelee Banfield who was a district manager and seemed eager to help. I explained that I was out of warranty and that I just wanted to hire a tech to come but that the person in Baton Rouge no longer came out to New Orleans. When I told her that I was redoing a bathtub at our other home in Salem, Massachusetts, she suggested I buy an Aquatic Tub there, which nearly made me choke, but I told her we'd see how this all worked out. She kept putting me off for four months, telling me she was working on it. Finally, she said she'd discovered it was out of warranty and couldn't help me, but I had told her it was out of warranty from the beginning but was just interested in paying someone to come fix the tub! She then gave me a number that I've yet to get a call back from or even see that my texts have been "read." By this point, I'm just beyond irate that, even with newer equipment, this tub has been nothing but a lemon, and American Bath Group couldn't care less. I called them rather irate and demanding and now they won't even take my calls. I had gotten one of their equipment suppliers, CG-Air, to send me a replacement panel for $160 or so, but that didn't change anything. Today, I played electrician and opened the panel on the side of the house only to discover that the three units were not on their own separate electrical outlets so that is probably what caused the equipment to fail to begin with. After two hours of trying to fiddle with every wire there, I managed to hear a hum for a few moments but that was it.
Rarely do I ever give up in trying to get a company to do right by their product. I can't imagine ever treating a customer like this. To later find out that Dreamline is one of their brands, whose tub door I have also had nothing but problems with since, no matter how much you tighten it, it constantly slips. Clearly, this company is bad news.
It would appear that MTI tubs have a ten-year warranty, which almost certainly also means that their parts are much more solid and supported so, at this point, I am having one of their bathtubs put in to replace the one from American Bath Group that has been nothing but a nightmare.
My lessons from this? Do not ever buy a bathtub online from somewhere like Quality Bath. Do not EVER purchase any sort of jetted tub with less than a ten-year warranty. And in the name of your very sanity, do not ever buy anything from any of American Bath Group's subsidiaries.
American Bath Group, LLC Reviews
My experience with American Bath Group has been among the worst customer service nightmares I have ever endured.
I purchased my Daytona tub in 2014 by American Bath Group's Aquatic Bath subsidiary. I purchased it from Quality Bath, an online retailer. This was mistake number one since they were never any help either. I made the mistake of getting something with a two-year warranty. While still under warranty, I began having problems with the blower, and the warranty department sent out Bob's Plumbing, their then-warranty service people. Just a year or so later, I began having issues again, this time with the light and the motor. So, I called Bob's Plumbing because they were the official warranty people that had fixed it so it only made sense to call the people who may know how to work the tub. Bob's came out and, claimed they couldn't get the replacement motor. They didn't say why but I now know it is because they and Bob's Plumbing had a parting of ways. I did not know this at the time and Bob's Plumbing not only put in the wrong motor for the tub, but installed a button without asking me, rendering both the panel and the light useless other than for the air jets. So, after two years of battling it out off and on with Aquatic, someone there named Wendy Waggoner felt bad for me and sent me replacement parts. The tech she sent from Baton Rouge put it all in—and, of course, wired it wrong. I did not find this out until today when, upon opening up the panel on the side of the house to access the tub, I realized that while the heater, blower, and motor are each supposed to be in their own separate outlets, each with its own GFI, the tech they sent had wired it all incorrectly three years ago. At first, all that would happen is that the panel would start to go haywire less than a week after the tech installed the replacement parts that Wendy Waggoner sent. Then, there were times when the water jets would turn on while all I had running were the air jets, and no amount of pressing buttons would turn them off and I'd have to wait ten to twenty minutes to leave the tub lest the motor become damaged by the lower water level from my exiting the tub. One time, my husband had to cut a circuit breaker outside the house just so I could exit the tub after being trapped in it for two hours by the motor not turning off when I hadn't turned it on to begin with. Finally, the motor and blower stopped responding to the buttons at all, and the light would only occasionally work. I decided to subject myself to the crusade that is anything one deals with at American Bath Group though Wendy no longer seems to be there. I finally found someone named Shelee Banfield who was a district manager and seemed eager to help. I explained that I was out of warranty and that I just wanted to hire a tech to come but that the person in Baton Rouge no longer came out to New Orleans. When I told her that I was redoing a bathtub at our other home in Salem, Massachusetts, she suggested I buy an Aquatic Tub there, which nearly made me choke, but I told her we'd see how this all worked out. She kept putting me off for four months, telling me she was working on it. Finally, she said she'd discovered it was out of warranty and couldn't help me, but I had told her it was out of warranty from the beginning but was just interested in paying someone to come fix the tub! She then gave me a number that I've yet to get a call back from or even see that my texts have been "read." By this point, I'm just beyond irate that, even with newer equipment, this tub has been nothing but a lemon, and American Bath Group couldn't care less. I called them rather irate and demanding and now they won't even take my calls. I had gotten one of their equipment suppliers, CG-Air, to send me a replacement panel for $160 or so, but that didn't change anything. Today, I played electrician and opened the panel on the side of the house only to discover that the three units were not on their own separate electrical outlets so that is probably what caused the equipment to fail to begin with. After two hours of trying to fiddle with every wire there, I managed to hear a hum for a few moments but that was it.
Rarely do I ever give up in trying to get a company to do right by their product. I can't imagine ever treating a customer like this. To later find out that Dreamline is one of their brands, whose tub door I have also had nothing but problems with since, no matter how much you tighten it, it constantly slips. Clearly, this company is bad news.
It would appear that MTI tubs have a ten-year warranty, which almost certainly also means that their parts are much more solid and supported so, at this point, I am having one of their bathtubs put in to replace the one from American Bath Group that has been nothing but a nightmare.
My lessons from this? Do not ever buy a bathtub online from somewhere like Quality Bath. Do not EVER purchase any sort of jetted tub with less than a ten-year warranty. And in the name of your very sanity, do not ever buy anything from any of American Bath Group's subsidiaries.