BLUE MARLIN POOL & SPA

My spa heater broke down over the Memorial Day weekend. My pool guy came to look at it and he recommended Blue Marlin to come down to fix it. He said that he had used them before and that the company was very good. The service guy came down the following Friday. He took a look and showed me the thermister he was going to replace. When I asked him how much it was going to cost, he told me that the company would bill my pool guy, who will in turn bill me. That set off warning bells in my head, but when I pressed him to give me a ballpark figure, he refused. So it was no surprise to me when I received an invoice of $185 from my pool guy later that week. They broke it down into $90 for labor, and $95 for parts. The charge for the parts was a real surprise to me as the thermister is literally a wire with a yellow plastic piece at the end. So I jumped on the Internet and found that one can get the same thermister for between $35 to $40! I asked my pool guy if there was an error ( like they accidentally charged $95 instead of $35), and he told me he would call the company to check. He called me back and told me that there is no mistake and that the company marks up the prices of the parts they sell. I understand that, but by more than 2x? That's a little extreme. At this point I wasn't sure if my pool guy was taking me for a ride, so I wanted to talk to someone in the company to make sure. But when tried the contact number I found on the Internet, the number wasn't in use! I tried different websites to look up their contact number but all I found was an active fax line. These people don't seem to want to be contacted! Finally I got the boss's number from my pool guy. When I called the boss, Larry, and introduced myself, he went on the defensive and launched into a very angry diatribe about how he is JUSTIFIED in charging what he charges. He was very abusive and unprofessional. I tried to explain calmly to him that I am happy to pay for the service rendered, but wanted more clarification on the charges made for the parts used. He shouted at me said that it was wrong of me to accuse him of ripping me off ( which for the record, I did not. But i guess that's his guilty conscience speaking). It was clear to me that I was wasting my time talking to him and I hung up as soon as I could. From the conversation, it was obvious that I was not dealing with a professional nor ethical company. I would never use them again, and definitely would warn anyone else to stay away from them, unless you want to be taken to the cleaners. As a side note, prior to talking to Larry, I had called three other spa and pool supply companies in my area to ask for quotes on the thermister as well as labor to get it installed. All threes quoted $40 for the part and were comparable to Blue Marlin on the labor. So as you can see, it is clear that Blue Marlin was overcharging for parts! It was an unpleasant experience for me, I hope this report will help others avoid the same experience.

IT WAS GOOD. THEY DID WHAT THEY SAID IN A TIMELY MANNER. THEY CONTACTED US ABOUT SCHEDULING QUICKLY. THEY WERE PROFESSIONAL. THEY CAME IN AND DID WHAT THEY NEEDED TO DO. THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING EXTRA, AND THAT'S WHY I GAVE THEM A B RATHER THAN AN A. THAT IS WHAT THEY WERE CONTRACTED TO DO.