PORT ORANGE, Fla. – Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is reviewing complaints against a Volusia County company that sells used hot tubs on Facebook Marketplace and other online classified sites, an agency spokesperson told News 6.
At least eight customers have filed formal complaints with Moody’s office claiming the company, Revive Spas and More, delivered defective hot tubs or sold units containing parts that were older than advertised.
Additional consumers have contacted News 6 with similar allegations.
Dylan Placker, the owner of Revive Spas, is barred from selling hot tubs in Oklahoma for the next decade and must pay more than $33,000 in restitution to 14 customers there after Oklahoma’s attorney general sued Placker and his wife for deceptive trade practices.
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Placker, who moved to Port Orange and opened Revive Spas last year, insists most of his new Florida customers are satisfied with their purchases.
“[I] have a few unhappy customers,” Placker told News 6. “I’m just one guy running this big business by myself.”
Jaimy Piccirilli claims the used hot tub he purchased from Revive Spas for $2,000 never worked and that Placker has failed to honor a warranty.
[INSIDER EXTRA: See the judgment against Dylan Placker barring his business from operating in Oklahoma]
“It’s very aggravating,” Piccirilli said. “I would hope [Florida’s attorney general] would get involved because this type of stuff just isn’t right.”
According to Piccirilli, Placker and a co-worker delivered the used hot tub to the customer’s Jacksonville home in November but quickly left before it could be tested.
“My wife and I looked at the hot tub, turned around, and they were gone,” Piccirilli said. “Within 30 seconds they were gone and out of sight.”
After discovering the hot tub’s water pump was a different horsepower and voltage than he expected, Piccirilli said he filled the tub with water but could not get it to operate properly.
“About half the jets didn’t work and the pump made a lot of noise,” Piccirilli said. “The [control panel] did not display anything. It was just backlit.”
Although the invoice provided by Revive Spas promises a one-year warranty on all electrical components, Piccirilli said Placker has failed to show up at his home on multiple occasions to make repairs.
“[Placker] promised me that he would come take the hot tub and give me my money back,” Piccirilli said. “We set up a time and a day. He never showed.”
Piccirilli, who is now attempting to repair the hot tub himself, said he has spent about $1,000 on new parts.
Placker said he offered to reimburse Piccirilli $500, but the customer claims he has not received any money yet.
Piccirilli filed a consumer complaint with Florida’s attorney general in November, state records show.
“The complaints our office received are currently under active review and we cannot comment further at this time,” a spokesperson for Moody told News 6 in response to questions about Revive Spas.
Moody’s counterpart in Oklahoma filed a lawsuit against Placker last year, accusing the hot tub salesman of violating that state’s consumer protection law.
The Oklahoma attorney general later reached a settlement with Placker and his wife, court records show. Under the agreement, the Plackers are prohibited from advertising and selling hot tubs in Oklahoma for ten years.
The Plackers must also pay $33,260 in restitution to consumers in that state and were required to remove defective hot tubs from several customers’ homes by Jan. 1.
“You can’t trust them. You can’t trust a word they say,” former Oklahoma customer Keith Mathis said. “I hope [Florida prosecutors] take them to court and sue the pants off them. I have no mercy for them anymore.”
Mathis said the defective hot tub he purchased for $2,800 remains at his family’s Oklahoma home despite the deadline for the Plackers to remove it.
“The Plackers are in violation of the consent judgment as of Jan. 1,” said a spokesperson for the Oklahoma attorney general’s office. “We will give them an opportunity to cure the violation. But if they are unable or unwilling to do so, we intend to pursue the remedies available under the consent judgment and the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act.”
Placker has been making restitution payments in monthly installments, the Oklahoma attorney general’s office confirmed.
But Mathis is concerned Placker may be reimbursing his former Oklahoma consumers at the expense of his new Florida customers.
“He’s taking advantage of folks there to get the money to pay for the debt that he owes here,” Mathis said.
“That’s dumb,” Placker said in response to Mathis’s concerns. “I’ve been doing a very good job double, triple, quadruple-checking what goes out my doors.”
In recent Facebook Marketplace advertisements, Placker has posted dated videos that appear to show the hot tubs he’s selling are in working order.
Although Placker claims to have a similar video showing Piccirilli’s hot tub in operation, he declined to share the video with News 6 and Piccirilli said he has not received a copy.
“When somebody willingly tries to screw somebody out of their hard-earned money, I have a real problem with that,” Piccirilli said.
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