*sigh* where did the GOOD customer service go?

Picture it. New house, comes with a pool... Never had a pool before..should be relaxing...right?

Filling the pool took days... (letting the hose run for a bit each day).


FINALLY almost to the top, filter and pump all hook up... We have a problem. The drain hole on the filter is missing the cap therefore it is spilling out the water it takes in. Can't finish filling the pool so can't give it it's start up chemical treatment yet.

No problem, Derek picks one up at the pool store near his work. DIDN'T fit...Too big... or course!

I had the day off today, pool store near the house has excatly what we need because they looked up the model #... Yay...! only $5 bucks later I am heading home with a smaller cap. SMALLER ends up being TOO small. :o

Pool store is confused as that is the ONLY size for THOSE filters...

Okay, so we have the one and only mutant pool filter? Can't be... :scratch: I took photos of the filter, jotted down the model AND serial # and a nice close up picture of how too small the cap is to screw on...

Back to pool store.

They can't believe the cap wouldn't fit. Asked me if I measured it. I said "no, but I took a picture... wanna look? It is the exact diameter of the nozzle I am trying to cover, therefore too small. Needs to be a tad larger.."

"No....it HAS to be the right cap, and without a measurement I can't go find one that may fit"..

I said"...well if you go get me a measuring tape right now, I will measure THIS cap's diameter as it is exactly the size of the nozzle and that would give us our measurment..."

"no.... we don't have ANY other caps... "

"I have the serial #, surely your books would give the exact specs of this filter...this filter is probably a couple years old, maybe you don't have the books for this filter anymore???"...

"no....I have no idea why it doesn't fit...I checked our books,...nothing shows for a bigger cap...I even looked at older ordering books...see? Look, your model # and it doesn't match..."

She pulls out a flyer for me to see the model #'s etc...blah blah blah...

I asked if the filter company had a phone #?

"Yes, I COULD call if you like..."

I said "How about you give ME the #, I will call"
...because now I am thinking THEY are thinking I am nuts...and didn't trust them to put the call in... lol

"Ok, I can give you the number but it might be better if I call as they will handle a call better form the store then from the public..."

Silence ....... :silent:

"Well, unless you really want to call yourself?"

"Yes, I will".. :suspect:

"Ok, well call me and let me know how you make out..."

"Yeah, i will do that.... :suspect:

I head home...

Get right on the phone to the manufacturer...

"Here's my problem, pool filter, no cap for drain plug, can you help me?"

"Ahh yes, can I have the model #? And the serial # as it could be a case of the filter being a couple years old..."

THANK YOU!!! SOMEONE WITH SOME BRAINS!!!! :study:

"It's a 2007, this is the parts #, any pool store that carries our products can order it in. "

I call the pool store back, after doing their job for them... :roll:

No sorry, no nothing, just ....
"Ok, we can order that in, but we will have to charge shipping if it's not on a regular order.... unless you want to try any other pool stores first. " :silent:

....... thinking..."That should be YOUR job to call around...helloooooo!!!?"

I say "order it up please and let me know when I can pick it up...." :x

About 15 mins later, she calls back after speaking with the company...they said the NEWEST filters have that size cap, she can steal one off of one of them in the meantime for us until they order that one in...

Good grief....
:sleep: Why couldn't she do that in the FIRST place...???


Derek is picking this cap up on his way home...time will tell if it will actually fit... :roll:


stay tuned...

TC you need the banging your head of a brick wall emoticon tooo...


Yeeeessshhhh!!!! so I guess I shouldn't ask when the first pool party is??? :D :D

TC I hate to tell you but your are going to run into this many many more times in the next 30 years.. and it only gets worse.. you know why.. because you lose patience and want to kill.. !!!

lol...actually, I am the opposite... I have really good patience when it comes to this kind of stuff, however, I think they were sensing my frustration...

It was like...

"I have no idea why it doesn't fit...sorry."

And they wanted me to leave with that...

I am thinking..what would THEY do in the same situation? They would probably want someone to do what they can. call who they can, and find them a damn cap that fits!!! lol

Ah well, Derek picked it up....shall see how he handled it.... :lol:

OMG what a racket...Its like they didnt want to sell you the part...If it were a more expensive part or an entire system they may have been more Customer Service like as they would be making more money....

Hope the one Derek brings home fits...Fingers crossed for you

I am so glad someone else is having this problem, I thought it was just me! I seem to have an accent that isn't easily understood. The clerks just stand there with a blank look. Wally World and Rona are on my hit list this week! :x :nocmnt.gif:

OMG I so know what you're talking about! I went to CT the other night looking for a seat cover for my truck. I went to customer service after checking to see that they had nothing. She sent me to the parts counter. You know what he said to me. "Of course they sent you to me, have you taken a look at me, I'd want to come and see me!" The little puke! They don't have a catalogue you can look at, just this dumb ass little chart at the end of the aisle that tells you nothing.

and nobody got clubbed or stabbed or run over with a cart>>>>>>>.????/ thats why I dont do shopping...........Ed goes. I have no none nada zip zilch zero patience for idiots and or . and I cant keep my mouth shut anymore!!!! fortunately we have good insurance. :cowboyhound.gi

It fit! yay!


Although he did say he got "firm" with them...lol ....and left with the owner's business card...

TC believe me your patience will leave you one day and you will just blow.. hahha then you will go home and say ... where did that come from.. well it came from years of dealing with idiots..
Like Joan says she has no patience and can't keep her mouth shut.. well me either.. I just loose it sometimes.. omg especially when a clerk is making change and has no idea how to count change out backyards.. or store employees avoiding you at all costs.. or they know nothing about anything in the STORE they work in.. !!!! frustration.. once I asked a Wally World employee about getting a rain check on something.. you know what he said.. he said NOTHING.. just stood there and looked at me with that blank look.. I said do you know what a rain check is?? he replied NO.. I just walked away before I said something very mean.. really not his fault.. who trained him.. !!!
No I just try hard to avoid shopping .. It really brings the worst out in me.. :twisted:

TC, if it's the pool store I'm thinking of they haven't a clue...in fact every pool store i've been to here hasn't a clue (mostly when you're talking to the young girls working.)
Be careful if you take a water test into them. They soaked us for $300 in chemicals (err got hubby roaped in anyway, if I were there I wouldn't have bought all the extra crap :bounce: He hasn't ever touched a pool where he needed to know what was goign on before hahaha

Good lord! $300 in chemicals! We have a bunch here, left over from the previous owners...

We will be sure to tell them what we have in stock AFTER they give us the results and what we may need..... hehe :twisted:


So we can say, "got it, got that, got some of that too!" :P

We had quite a bit here too, but Peter told them the list of what we had and they would say "oh that's not our brand, we don't know how much you need" or "Oh that COULD work, but this would work better"


He's FAR too trusting. Thankfully I'm from Ontario and learned not to trust sales people early in life ;) :lol:

and you could always go with the salt water pump and avoid chemicals...

OMG, that is what they told Derek to do.... When he brings the water in, to have the list of what we have in stock... :shock:

I will point him towards this thread... :roll:

He lived in Toronto for most of his life... he's probably already onto them.... :suspect:

Saltwater pump...sounds intriguing... may be worth looking into in the future... :)

well, the SAGA continues actually... I woke up in a cold sweat at 3am thinking we needed the "kit", which is cap and o ring seal... They only gave us the cap, no seal, therefore the cap is dripping a bit... ARGH !
I will be buying my chemicals from JC's in Coldbrook. They seem genuine and are more knowledgeable I find. The "other" store will be hearing from me today in a very straight forward e-mail... no holds barred... Piss off TC = piss off Derek....

to be continued..............

hahaha.. get after them Derek.. dorks!

e-mail sent to the owner.... awaiting a reply now.... This should be good.... :p

Derek, I think there's a JC's in Kingston as well (I think....)

Good thing you've got that Toronto blood....as a St Kitts girl myself I don't trust many people :lol:

The owner e-mailed me, apologizing, however, apologizing that "Trish MISUNDERSTOOD" their reasoning and what they were saying about just about everything that went on... OMFG, I wanna smack someone now...
Anywhoo, she is sending us the additional parts via snail mail so we dont have to make a 5th trip in to see them... this, even after I told her neither one of us would ever use them again for anything...
It was a nice gesture, but regardless, no making up for the treatment we both received, and the lack of knowledge their staff has about something so easy to figure out with asking the right questions in the first place....

so.... we get the package from them in the mail last night... There is a "screen", in an opened bag, that clearly states on it, "KIT"... Drain cap, seal, and screen....Because we all know that a screen can stop a water leak !!! :evil: So now we have the drain cap, and screen, and still no seal, as the picture CLEARLY SHOWS it has separately, and the bag says it has 3 parts, etc, etc...
Well, I tell the owner "Debbie" of this via e-mail and she blows a gasket, no pun intended... oh, wait, yes there was.... Says "Im not going to respond to this or I'll tell Derek where to put his gasket"... How's THAT for customer service !

Needless to say, we will never go there again and let everyone else know, it's not the place to get anything from as they don't give a shit about fixing their customer's problems with their pools, they just want to sell sell sell, and make you feel like its only THEM that can be right.

Canadian tire and a $1.00 roll of plumbers tape fixed our leak. NOT Holland Home Leisure in Aylesford.

I was pretty certin it was HHL that was causing the grief :lol:
Funny how you can tell by the crappy customer service.
Let me know how JC's is please :) That way when I have to go buy my stuff I can go to somewhere that doesn't suck :lol:

so far, JC's have been VERY helpful :)

With the salt water pumps you'll spend LESS in harsh chemicals, no trying to figure out if you have to add this or that to make the levels right and end up fighting a loosing battle....pool place said.." well it should be clean now"....I shocked the crap out of it....did this did that...still green....gave up after spending roughly $50 and drained the thing!!.


I vowed I was going to switch to salt pump in the next year...but gave the pool away!