Pools & Spas Service, Inc. - less than satisfied after seven years and spending in excess of $20,000 …. When we moved into our new house in November 2006, which at the time was only three years old with a two year old pool, the previous owner’s had already moved out and the house sat vacant for a year during which time the pool chemicals had not been properly balanced nor was the pool properly winterized which just sets the stage for the parody of errors and problems that followed. When we moved into the house we realized that we wanted a professional pool company to service our pool every week, check and balance the chemicals, clean the pool and handle all the pool issues so that all we had to worry about was swimming in the pool, so we hired Pools & Spas Service, Inc. to handle the opening, closing, weekly service and any other repairs that would be needed; and then the problems began: PROBLEM #1 - the pool heater - when opened the pool in the spring of 2007 the original heater was already destroyed and required being replaced. We discussed with Pools & Spas installing a new nickel core heater since the guarantee was longer and would outlast a cooper core heat exchanger. The new heater was installed and we believed it was the more expensive nickel core unit. Since there were so many repairs that had to made to not only the house but also the pool we never realized that we had paid less for the heater than we expected, hence they had sold and installed a standard cooper core heater. PROBLEM #2 - the security cover - we had the severe winter storms that brought in huge snow fall which caused the original security cover to cave in. We had Pools & Spas order a new custom fit security cover which was done in the Summer of 2009, it was fitted, checked and removed for storage until that winter. An employee put it into its storage bag and then dragged it over our paver patio to the storage bin and in doing so ripped a whole in the summer storage bag, luckily there was no damage to the cover and a new summer storage was provided to replace one that was ripped. PROBLEM #3 - the spa pump motor - the year after the winter storms our spa motor froze up and would not start, a Pools & Spas technician recommended the replacement motor and installed it. It was so loud that that it was actually annoying to sit in the yard with the motor running. Now, we could argue that since Pools & Spas handled and had been handling all our pool services, including winterizing everything, that they did not properly winterize the spa motor which could have caused it to freeze up, but that would be difficult to prove, so just went along and chalked up another large repair bill. PROBLEM #4 - the pool heater, again - the next season our pool heater went again, when the technician showed up, who is the brother of the owner and and is an excellent technician, the first comment he made when he walked into our yard was that we had to replace the spa pump motor with a quiet variable sped motor, he was both shocked and embarrassed to find out that we had just had it replaced by Pools & Spas. The pool heater which was only two years old was shot, again Pools & Spas was handling all the services including balancing the water, yet within two years the heater was destroyed. Assuming we had the nickel core heater, I just assumed it was covered under warranty only to find out that they sold and installed the cooper core heater which was no fault of ours, Pools & Spas had ordered and installed the wrong heater. Again, we could have made another issue that since they handled the balancing of the chemicals as well as all the winterization we could have blamed it on them for not having handled things properly, but we agreed to yet another repair and moved on. PROBLEM #5 - the spa pump motor, again - this time we elected to replace the loud, noisy and obnoxious spa motor with a quieter variable sped motor. Again, we could have made a big issue with Pools & Spas but we accepted a discount on the labor to install the new pump and gave away a perfectly good two year old pump to a friend who uses it for his solar recirculation. PROBLEM #6 - lack of respect for our property and equipment - the weekly guys would come out to our house to handle the vacuuming and chemical testing and would literally leave things laying around, i.e., if our rafts were piled by the side of the pool and in their way, they would literally kick them out of their way and never put anything back the way they found it, we found on several occasions that they left our electronics box wide open to the elements and fortunately it did not rain or all the electronics for our Compool would have been destroyed. If they need a hose, they would leave it where ever they were when they were done. Our Vanquish system requires the skimmer basket to be locked into place to create the necessary vacuum effect and on many occasions we would literally hear the system sucking air since it was not properly locked into place. PROBLEM #7 - rock knocked into the pool and put a hole in our liner - we have over 35 feet of water falls, and one of the skimmer is in between two water falls by the slide, one of Pools & Spas employes was careless while climbing around the rocks and knocked a rock off the waterfalls into the pool and put a hole in the liner. That took place in September 2013 and we were furious. Pools & Spas patched the hole and the owner agreed to come out and discuss all the problems we were having with them which was agreeable. PROBLEM #8 - hole in the new security cover - that same September when our pool was to be closed and winterized, an employee literally dragged our security cover from its summer storage bin about 40 feet to the pool over our paver patio, if this sounds familiar it is, read problem #2 above, but this time they tore a hole and ripped the brand new security cover. The pool had to re-opened to allow for the three weeks for the cover to be repaired, not replaced with a new cover which we certainly could have pushed for, but repaired. In the interim Pools & Spas did cover the cost to keep the pool open for an additional three weeks while the cover was be repaired by the manufacturer. PROBLEM #9 - the meeting - I kept calling and emailing and asking the owner when we were going to get together to discuss all the issues which was his suggestion back in mid-September, finally in late December he found it was convenient enough for him to come out and discuss the problems. I never expected him to BLAME US for having elaborate water falls which prevented his employees from doing their job properly …. IMAGINE THAT! We were told it was OUR PROBLEM to find a solution so that his employees could do their job without having to crawl around on the rocks to get the to skimmer. He did agree to monitor the patch every year and change the patch on the hole his employee made in the pool. Unbeknownst to us it was the owner’s son who had kneed the rock loose and was also the employee responsible for our pool, that being said it was he who would leave the yard a mess showing no respect for our pool or personal property. Having had so many issues we really should have fired Pools & Spas in the 2nd or even 3rd year, but the technician we had was the owner’s brother, our pool and spa was fairly sophisticated and he was not only an excellent technician, he knew our Compool system and that was enough reassurance for us to retain them with the understanding that they would continue to monitor the patch at their expense. September 2014 we were away for a long four day weekend which also coincided with our weekly service. When we returned we found our rafts and floats were laying around, a hose had been dragged from the house to fill the pool, even though there is spicket right at the housing of the Vanquish system with a four foot hose that is used to fill the pool …. you would think they would see that every time the bend over to clean that unit, remove the drain bag, replace the system and lock it into place …. even more so since we had to complain that they frequently did not lock the system into place. The pool had literally just ½ inch of water flowing into the skimmers, the pool pump was screaming since it was sucking air and the hose was left laying around. The tech could have set the pool into service mode, turned everything off and called my cell which is on file to alert me to the problem, but that would have required THINKING and being concerned and respectful of our property. Fortunately we filled the pool and with the exception of losing water we were fine. The following week the tech comes to clean the pool and literally drives his van into our landscaping and bent one of our low voltage landscape lights, when my wife confronted him about moving the van off the landscaping he copied an attitude. I called to find out who the tech was, and it was the owner’s son, AGAIN. I told Pools & Spas that he was no longer allowed on my property, as well as informed them after they closed the pool for the season that we would no longer be using them, they were fired. Oddly enough the pool liner is only ten years old and yet we were losing water, presumably from the hole the put in the liner, which in the eight years we have owned the home has never been an issue. Assuming the patch was leaking we asked Pools & Spas to come out and check the patch as well check why were losing water. Another tech came out and informed me that we had two seams that had breached and we needed a new liner before the pool could be covered. Always looking to repair relationships, I spoke with the owner’s bother and laid out all the issues, which oddly even he agreed that Pools & Spas was not living up to their end of the relationship. We offered to continue our relationship with them provided they worked out an agreeable deal with replacing the linter before closing the pool. I suggested that they not only owed us that for all the problems and issues but that if they wanted to continue an already seven year relationship in which we have paid them in excess of $20,000 that they needed to take some responsibility for their employees, do the right thing, step up to the plate and straighten out this relationship to move forward …. that is what ‘real’ businessmen do, but it still meant the owner’s son was not welcome on our property. The owner, Chuck Calhoun was not interested …. and that told me exactly what kind of business person he was. Fortunately for us we were working on a plan B since we were not satisfied with the answer about the pool liner seams having breached. We checked with the replacement pool company who connected us with a professional leak test company. The performed a leak test on the entire pool, liner, intake and return lines, lights, underground lines, everything and found that all of a sudden we had an additional five holes in our liner which were all patched. When I asked if I needed to replace the liner I was told no that all the holes had been sealed, they would hold perfectly fine and we could expect at least five more years if not more from the existing liner. Again, I cannot prove that they purposefully put five holes in my liner, but looking at the history and the issues surrounding the owner and his son’s attitude I can only draw my own conclusions and assumptions. I can say with certainty that if you are looking for the problems we have dealt with this company, then they are the company for you …. but if you are looking for a truly professional pool service company, then keep looking, this is not the company for you. Brett & Doreen Sabio Farmingdale, NJ
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 13:20:08 +0000