NORTH SHORE POOL & SPA

First service performed was a pool opening in May. Company was punctual, knowledgeable about my specific pool (I am a new homeowner). Within first week of pool opening, water was not properly filtering through our equipment. Called the pool company to come out and service the pool. I was at the house during this and the tech mentioned that the filter basket was not properly placed initially by their service tech and it was preventing water from flowing freely. This was cleaned, corrected and left in working condition. The next day, same issue...Pool company came back again and repaired the filter. Two days later, same issue. I sent an e-mail to the owner/manager expressing frustration and desire to fix whatever issues there were. I was met with tremendous attitude and the tone of my email was questioned. I found this to be incredibly unprofessional and ended their services over the phone. I am not claiming to be a pool expert, and there might be issues I don't know, but i felt the level of disrespect on this call warranted a negative review. At no time should a customer be challenged when the service provider is unable to fix a problem on several attempts. Will be looking for a new company to work on our pool!

see above

This pool and spa company provides service and sells related products. They are one of a few dealers in the area and I really wish there was more competition because this company has clearly forgot the basic principles of small business and have started acting more like Wall Street. I bought two containers of spa chemicals, a 32 oz container of Sani Brom and a 36 oz container of Sani Start. For both these items they charged me $19.95 each. I have 10 month old containers of these products in my garage from this company and they were labeled $9.95 and $13.95 ea. They have almost doubled the price in less than a year. Since I was having company and needed the chemicals, I bought them very, very reluctantly. I complained about the high price which of course they couldn't care less. They said on the way out, have a nice day, I put my head down and said I feel like I've been robbed. I said to myself I was not going to use this company anymore. I went on the internet and found the manufacturer of the product, (N. Jonas & Co), which they go to great lengths to try to hide as it is nowhere on the bottle who makes it. Anyway, after a little research I found an EPA related site with this manufacturer and they listed North Shore Pool & Spa as a distributor for this particular product along with many other distributors. I looked up some other distributors and all the ones I saw were charging $5.99 and $10.99 respectively for these two containers. In other words, I could get the same two containers for $16.98 (not wholesale but retail) that North Shore Pool & Spa just charged me $39.90 plus tax. UPDATE 12/1/09: I received a call from the owner of the business and he was very nice and understanding. He made a genuine effort to explain why their pricing was the way it was. He also told me that the feedback I gave him was very important & that it has caused him to look into their pricing. He has already reduced prices on a number of products and services. Furthermore, he explained that he would be trying to change the way he sources some of his products so that it would reduce his costs and that can be passed along to the consumer. I appreciated the time he took to call me and make things right.

They told me the circuit board in the Spa Pack was bad and should be replaced. They said I really should replace the entire Spa Pack though because just replacing the circuit board is not reliable enough and some of the old parts may not work with the new board. I said how much for a new Spa Pack. They said $3000. I said how much for just a circuit board, they said $1000. They charged me $115 for this expert advice and quotation. I found this pretty ridiculous so I called the manufacturer of the Spa Pack in California. I talked to a technical sales engineer and described the problem. He said that all I should really need is a new circuit board and he could ship me one in days for $320. He said if it didn't work I could return it. I asked him if someone semi-technical could do it, he said yes. I asked just out of curiosity if I also wanted to replace the heater, how much it would be. He said $105. But he said I really shouldn't need it, that it sounded like a circuit board issue as there was power going to the heater and there is not much that could go wrong with the element itself. To be on the safe side, and for that price, I decided to replace the heater. This work turned out to be fairly easy and was just some basic threaded PVC pipe connections and plugging electrical connections into clearly labeled spots on the circuit board. For this, North Shore Pool & Spa was going to charge me over 300% mark up on just materials alone. A solution they were going to charge me $3000 for, I could do myself very easily for under $500. I really think that companies like this like to take advantage of helpless people who need to be rescued from their pool or spa emergency. If there is one thing I am learning as I deal with contractors, tradesmen and other home improvement gurus, they don't always know what they are talking about, they will gouge you if they can, and very few of them want to do a quality job for an honest and fair price. As much as possible now, I try to do things myself when I feel it is within my capabilities.

The spa heated properly after, they rectified the problem. They were prompt in getting a technician out. John Ure is the guy in the office and was very knowledgeable and helpful. We bought a house with a spa in it and were not familiar with how to maintain it, etc. He took the time to answer questions.

TECHNICIAN WAS ON TIME, KNOWLEDGEABLE, POLITE AND REASONABLY PRICED.

THEY WERE HORRIBLE