A Plus Pool Design

I was a customer for over a decade to the former A+ Pool and Spa. Then, a couple of years back, they changed the business name and it's never been the same. My long-time pool service professional left the company abruptly and he was replaced with someone else. It went downhill from there. Sad to say, my pool was not being maintained correctly, the water was, for long stretches, cloudy and the auto cleaner wouldn't work much of the time. When asked multiple times why this was happening, I was told either nothing was wrong or the equipment was 'crap'. Prior to a final, bad situation where equipment and surfacing was damaged due to long-term water chemical imbalances (this was verified by 2 other pool services), I had already started to look at other companies. The final straw was when they told me to pay $600 to replace an entire Hayward filter that had "a crack in the filter housing". However, after examining the housing myself and bringing it into a local pool store, the problem was determined to be a rusted center pole that had fused the pole's threads to the locking knob. This was repaired by me with the advice and parts from the pool store for $130. The sad part is that I angrily confronted the wonderful gentleman who runs the office because of it. It wasn't his fault and that is not typically how I respond. For that I apologize. Nonetheless, I don't appreciate being lied to or ripped off. Diane, the co-owner, did call a couple days later and left a message thanking me for the years of loyal patronage. That was a nice thing to do. I did ask to be reimbursed for the balance of the monthly fee for the services that were never performed but I never received that. I still give this company a C rating for all the years they did a great job. With the correct leadership and desire to do the right thing, they could possibly bounce back to the high-level of performance and service as in the past.

Initially things seemed to be going fairly well. We were concerned, however, about the company's professionalism when at the end of the work day, they would leave tools, fast food bags, soda cans, and cigarette butts skattered about the back yard. Once I came home to find one of the workers burning and then burying something in close proximity to the backdoor of the house. It was stated in our contract that they would service the pool for one month after the interior was completed. The final service never occurred. We contacted the owner of the company and she stated that they had come out, and the gate was locked and our month was up. This was strange since we and the owner had already agreed that her company would call prior to coming as we do not leave our gate open for sercurity and liability reasons. The main reason for our dissatisfaction, is the fact that after spending $10,000.00, we have a 10-week-old deck with several long cracks in it. We contacted the owner to express our surprise. The owner stated that "it was not unusual to have the deck crack after having a lot of rain" and "the ground shifts in Florida and it is unavoidable with conrete". She then stated she could come out and give us an estimate on what it would cost us to have the cracks repaired. We are not contractors nor are we specialists in concrete. Nowhere in the deck proposal was it stated that the deck could crack at any time and was not under warranty. The owner responded that she verbally stated in our first meeting that concrete decks could not be warrantied due to settling in Florida. We do not recall her making that point. As you can imagine, we would not have spent this amount of money on a product that could crack in a matter of weeks. We feel that this should have been disclosed in the contract and required our signature so that there would be no surprises. The owner responded that she was sorry we were disappointed and they are very professional with everything they do. She also stated that they did a lot of extra work at no charge including removing dirt and rescreening the patio. We did pay an additional $385 to one of her subcontractors for things that came up. The screen needed to be replaced after one of her workers cut a long vertical slit into it to plug in an extension cord. We do not recommend this company and disagree with her assertion that they are "very professional in everything they do".

Great job. The technician arrived as scheduled and had the replacement pool pump installed in about 45 minutes. He did a good job and was careful to position the pump properly and cut/adjust the pipes to have them line up properly. No leaks and everything has been running well for several weeks.

When I originally bought my house with a pool in February 2010, I had never been a pool owner. I was immediately advised to get a service. I checked with several neighbors (both with and without a service) and visited 4 local shops (3 with chains and A+). OUt of the entire group, A+ was the most knowledgeable and helpfull (willing to answer all my questions without a charge or me buying anything). I used them for my chemicals which they took the time to explain how to use, test, measure and keep steady, eventually bought my "barracuda" cleaner replacing the little crawling robot type and ended up with a pool that required me to check levels weekly and clean the edge where the barracuda could not get to around every 2-3 weeks. It became a low maintenance issue once I got it "steadied" as they recommended. They even taught me how to adjust for temperature variations and heavy use periods compared to low use times. When a motor become a home for an ant colony, they were quickly out to check, and eventually replace at a reasonable cost and very quickly. When I moved and started renting my house, I hired them for pool service and they have done a fantastic job. Nothing but the agreed monthly charge since July 2011.

It's been excellent experience. They are very practical, very knowledgable, and willing to share their knowledge. They are priced competitively. Their service is friendly, courteous, and fast. As a new pool owner, I needed a lot of guidance, and they were not only patient, but the information they gave me allowed me to save a lot of money compared to other competitors.