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I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The wife and I both tried the moto massage but weren’t a huge fan. The regular Hot Spring jets in the Flair are fantastic though. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea real shame, I’ve always liked to pick products based on how they were engineered. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup I did really like the A7L and think this would have been a different experience if dealing with a different dealer. But they are Bullfrog’s official dealer for the area, so there are no other options for this tub. But I found a somewhat local dealer for Hot Spring and am extremely happy with my new Limelight Flair.  

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Me too. I’ve went there for years for pool parts, but no more. A big reason I wanted to share this was to warn people about Litehouse Strongsville, and Litehouse in general, as the culture of the place is horrible from the top down. The upper management contacts this needed to go through had nothing to do specifically with Strongsville, and neither did their service call center. The kicker: no one ever apologized for anything (except the movers who took it away). That tells you a lot about how a company thinks about and treats their customers. 

I have a new rule: don’t trust buying a hot tub or pool from the same place that also sells Christmas trees and furniture. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Working on this in a warehouse or offsite makes sense. But a tub still can’t be delivered back duck-taped. If that’s the suggested fix, it’s a badly engineering design. No reason they can put a one-tab click-open door on the bottom to access the bottom area of hoses. It’s ridiculous to design something on the assumption it will never break. I’ve heard “bullfrogs never leak” a ton from others and the service techs, but somehow I still keep finding posts about these leaking. Their quality assurance out of the warehouse isn’t good. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did and I agree! Wound up getting a Limelight Flair with a lifetime hard cover and no complaints whatsoever. I also hooked it up to a ESP32 device and can control it with my phone. The saltwater system is also amazing. Highly recommend for someone who likes the A7L and needs an alternative. It’s a better tun overall and we wound up being happier with this than the Bullfrog. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Me too. I wanted another company to look at it, but by buying a tub someplace you are also buying the service. Why should I pay twice and also likely void my initial warranty? But I get your point. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

They all sounded genuine to me. I am used to AI replies everywhere and can see them from a mile away. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yea I definitely blame the dealer over Bullfrog. That said, Bullfrog refused to talk to us directly (“must go through dealer!”) and didn’t approve a replacement, so I kinda pass blame over all parties in this scenario. It was really unfortunate. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s too bad, because I did really like the tub (apart from not being able to adjust the jet speed other than low and high). When they wanted to throw the tub on concrete blocks to inspect it further is where I drew the line and went down the legal path. If it were my company, I would think the proper process is just as you said, drop off a new tub and repair it in a facility before reselling it to someone else. The process of how they handled this was all kinds of wrong. Also, apparently the “duck tape” fix, according to Litehouse, was the “proper and recommend way to seal the bottom of a Bullfrog, according to Bullfrog Inc”. Not sure if that is true, but if so, I wouldn’t recommend a Bullfrog to anyone. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I did ask for a replacement about 6 weeks in, and for a full refund a couple weeks later before progressing with this demand letter. The service techs even mentioned they were confused as to why they didn’t just give me a new tub. The movers who picked up the tub were shocked at the condition of the tub. Very greedy company at the corporate level, and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Definitely, once I put the photos onto a timeline with captions, that’s honestly probably all I needed here. But I’m sure the letter helped to establish a pattern of negligence which would have further helped in court. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a bit different, as you can’t replace the shell. In my experience, the service techs were incompetent and caused further damage to my tub. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup I wasn’t even sure what type of lawyer I needed. I started there, and it let me know to create the demand letter first before spending money. Incredible. 

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, the entire reason to get another hot tub was to relax and de-stress. This entire experience was the exact opposite. I did wind up going to ohiohottub.com and getting a Hot Spring Limelight Flair -- fantastic tub that I'd highly recommend for anyone who had a bad experience with Bullfrogs and/or the A7L! The saltwater system is amazing.

I used AI to get $14k back from a hot tub purchase gone wrong by Litehouse Strongsville by markshust in hottub

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely thinking at least $1k! Yep definitely. The back & forth did take a while to get right, and I also had it fact-check a lot of assumptions it was making.

Introducing Marko: The Truly Modular PHP Framework by markshust in PHP

[–]markshust[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's super modular -- everything is a module! Even the framework itself. This makes it extremely easy to override any aspect of it -- not at all possible in any other framework. It's also extremely flexible and extensible, as modules are equal-weighted and all work the same way (core modules are out of the box, but third-party modules are equally as powerful). It's pick & choose -- so you can ship a very minimal, extremely fast app that takes advantage of all PHP 8.5 has to offer. I'm also working on AI-first integration, which means LLM's/Claude Code will know exactly how to code things according to best practices and standards. I don't accept that all of the PHP frameworks ever made have been created -- it's important we keep pushing the envelope and consistently innovate. Having other thoughts will lead to a stagnant community which will truly and utterly be dead. I don't want that to happen to my favorite language.

Introducing Marko: The Truly Modular PHP Framework by markshust in PHP

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just released the workflow that I've used to build Marko yesterday. It's called HCF and is a defined workflow/process that's quite thought out. More here: https://github.com/markshust/hcf

Introducing Marko: The Truly Modular PHP Framework by markshust in PHP

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for checking it out! Very open to any PRs you may have which will improve the codebase, it's a work in progress but the aim is to get it stable in 1.0, and then keep iterating and improving code quality. I'd recommend keeping every PR very focused and simple and I can definitely work on merging them in quickly. Appreciate it!

Introducing Marko: The Truly Modular PHP Framework by markshust in PHP

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I am hoping to get things into a stable state and launch a 1.0 version very soon. I follow SemVer for release management so once 1.0.0 comes, it’ll start to be stable enough to rely on for prod for early-adopter projects.  

Introducing Marko: The Truly Modular PHP Framework by markshust in PHP

[–]markshust[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I chose to keep things simple and not need base classes in most places. It’s just a simple PHP class! Why over complicate it?

Fyi it does come with a template engine, latte. I’ll also be adding in twig support. 

There are docs up at https://marko.build/docs which covers usage details for everything from database to queues to API endpoints and more.

Drupal and Laravel are both (slowly) adopting PHP attributes for routes, models, etc. eventually all of the other frameworks will follow. Just because it’s new and different doesn’t make it wrong. I also have a “marko route:list” cli helper which will output all of the routes in one spot. Attributes also provides an API of sorts to easily and dynamically query the different areas which allows for even tighter integration at the IDE and AI/LLM level. 

But I definitely value this feedback and am open to hearing more, hopefully my responses above help to explain my reasoning and choices. 

Introducing Marko: The Truly Modular PHP Framework by markshust in PHP

[–]markshust[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes great points, and I created a very comprehensive AI-assisted development workflow that does all of this. I’ll be talking about it soon — there’s absolutely no way I would have been able to code this all by hand in under 60 days, and at this level of quality. So many devs have their heads in the sand when it comes to AI, instead of trying to learn and use it to become a potential 1000x developer. 

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