Sterling Pool Supplies & Service Inc

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Excellent.

1) I fired our old pool company after a string of service snafus culminating in frequent green/yellow pool problems they were unable to resolve. We could no longer see the bottom of the pool! The Sterling Pools field manger, Eric, came out and figured out what was going on in five minutes. Guess what? The old pool service guys (second to last we used), installed a new pool filter system for $1,000 and, low and behold, the size of the filter mesh is larger than the size of the pollen in the redwood tree above the pool. So when the tree flowers and it rains, all the pollen goes straight into the pool and the filter can't remove it. It does not matter how many hours you filter the water. The last two sole prop pool guys we used missed this and specified the wrong filter system for our house. The Fix?: a new filter system with smaller hole size. Eric picked up on it instantly and said their firm would never have recommended the filter we were sold two years ago because of the vegetation in our yard and because the filter systems that use removeable filters (as opposed to filters that can be backwashed) are a full employment contract for pool service guys, so there is an incentive for service guys to recommend filters with replacable cartridges that is not in the best interest of the homeowner. Sterling did a fine job installing the new filter and the pool became crystal clear in 24 hours, as they promised it would. The pool has never been this clean in 14 years. They did a fine job on the plumbing too. On top of that, their weekly service is excellent. See #2: 2) For 14 years we have used a succession of sole prop pool service guys who came 1x a week, checked the pool, and performed their service. While they have done a pretty good job, there are three problems with this common approach. A) If any gear or upgrades are needed (filter system replacement, pump install, new solar panel), the sole prop individuals are often at a loss because they don't do this kind of work very often. B) Unless the sole prop pool service guy is smart enough to delegate project work to another experienced install team, the install of whatever component need replacement may involve an inappropriate system or a botched installation. Plumbing problems are common. As another example, pumps get installed that are not as energy efficient as they could be so it ends up costing you more than you think. If the sole prop only knows how to install one type of pump, guess which one you will end up with? C) the sole prop guys tend to come and go every couple of years as it appears to be a bit of a transcient business. So you may have a good sole prop who delegates project work, and then you get another guy if the business is sold/passed/etc, and the next guy is clueless about project work and tries to do things themselves, to your loss. Sterling is one of the few shops I have found that does weekly pool service, sells/installs equipment in a quantity large enough so they know what works and how to install it, and is a shop that does both standard heater/pump installations and solar installations. None of the other shops we looked at did solar themselves. I believe it may be better to work with a weekly service company that is also a shop that sells and maintains all your gear. In theory, if individual pool employes come and go, the company will stay. BTW: it was nice to hear from Eric that he has been with the company for more than 20 years! I was also pleased to hear that they use employees only and no contractors - I believe this generally gives a higher level of quality control. Weekly pool service fees. Sterling's minimum fee is $150/month. We have always paid $100/month to the sole props. So this looked like a price increase of 50%. We discovered this is not the case. Why? A) The Sterling fee includes supplies that the sole props always billed us extra for. That accounts for at least half of the increase. B) I watched the Sterling guys in action. They spend 2x the time on the service visit and, miracle of miracles, they don't do it while talking constantly on their cell phones! I notice the company provides Nextel walkie talkies so the discussions are short and just between the dispatcher/field manager and the pool guy - a wise choice! People just can't perform any type of service well (or drive a car well) when talking non stop on their phones. Sole Prop guys use their cell phones as their office phone, so they are doing dispatching and parts order work while they clean your pool. A dispatched team does not have to do this. I was really tired of sole prop guys talking with kids, girlfriends, wifes, relatives, and so on while they "cleaned" my pool. C) For further proof of the value, I watched the Sterling guys scrub the walls of my pool with special brushes I've never seen a pool service guy use before. They appear to even scrub the walls when they look clean! The pool is now spotless, the cleanest it's ever been. D) If I add up the cost for replacing equipment we never should have been sold, all the plumbing issues we have had, and the electric bill for pumps that were not as efficient as they could be, it is quite likely that Sterling will cost us less than what we have been paying. So the pool looks wonderful and it costs less. Perfect, yes? Not totally. There is one negative of Sterling Pools. I did get a complaint from our dog Cody. Our previous pool guy always left Cody a dog bisket. Cody is accustomed to wait by the window on pool cleaning day (how he knows when it's Friday I'll never know) for the pool guy to come and give him his bisket. If Cody was inside, the bisket was left on the door mat. Now he's pretty disappointed.... He told me to ditch Sterling. I said "no way." Then I gave Cody a bisket. He'll be OK for another week...

We did not use this company to do the work. The employee who came out was very knowledgeable but he diagnosed the problem without even checking anything. He said that he knew what it was just looking at the pool. He also said that a valve was cracked and it was not -it was just the way it was molded. The problem was the pool sweep,not the filter that he diagnosed. We know that he was knowledgeable but his attitude was brisk and bordered on rude. We he gave us the estimate for the work that he thought should be done we told him that we needed to think about it because we were planning on other expenses ahead of his and actually we weren't comfortable with his attitude and diagnosis. He then asked "why did you have me come out here if you didn't plan to do it" Somehow he didn't seem to understand that we didn't plan on it being that expensive nor replacing what he thought should be replaced. We were stunned with this reaction and knew that we would never use him even though he just did the estimates and not the work. Attitude is everything!

They were very professional

If they see that there is a problem, They point it out to us. They are very attentive and we have been very happy with there service. We have not had any problems with algae since we have been using them.

When I first hired this service, I thought it was a little on the expensive side, but after we saw how sparkling things were after the first time they came out, I can see why it is worth it. Our pool just shines. I think they are very professional and are very knowledgeable about their trade.

They have maintained our pool for three years and have always been on top of problems and quick to repair problems. They provide accurate estimates and perform work in a timely manner. Much better than other services we have used.

TECHNICIAN WAS POLITE, FAMILIAR WITH WORKS, AND ON TIME.