Leslie's Poolmart Inc

In the year that I have tried to do business with them it has been a lousy experience. last year ordered and paid for a filter that was suppose to arrive in 5 days. 2 weeks later no..no filter. Numerous phone calls to them and was told it #1 was shipped and on the way, #2 they would call me back...never did. Finally 2 weeks after the fact went down there and demanded my money back. They called where ever they had ordered it from and found had never been shipped...despite several times previously having told me they had called and was shipped. Several other times went to buy something and they are always out of stock. The latest incident taking place on 6/9/2014 involved a part (adapter) we needed to connect the hoses from the filter to the pool. Went down there on 6/8/2014. Was told part not in stock but was on truck arriving the next day and to come in after 5 to pick it up. Went back the next day and original sales clerk not there so had a different one. This guy had not a clue what I needed...and I even had an adapter with me to show him. Had bought the original adapter there last year but somehow got misplaced. New sales clerk was clueless..also said none were on truck or had been ordered. was a wasted trip there. To make a long story short we ended up ordering the part off Amazon. To sum it all up.....lousy service, store rarely stocked, sales clerks have no clue to the business they are in. Don't waste your time doing business with this store.

This transaction started well, with a polite and helpful young woman behind the counter at Leslie's when we first dropped off our Heyward pool vac for repair, Tuesday 2 August 2011. Then the troubles began. On Tuesday I'd been told the vac would be ready for pickup on Thursday. On Thursday I was told to come by Friday; on Friday, come back Saturday. I finally picked it up Sunday afternoon, but when I put it in the pool it didn't move; the repairs hadn't done any good. I took it back Monday and had an other-than amiable conversation with the manager, who assumed what I took to be a hostile stance throughout. She told me the problem was most likely in the tubing, so she sold me some new tubes for an additional $32.00. But still, the vac unit didn't work when I placed it in the pool. When our pool serviceman responded to our call (an additional expense, of course) and checked both the tubing and the line from the pump to the pool vac, nothing was wrong with the system itself--the trouble lay in the allegedly-repaired pool vac. I called Leslie's again, talked with the manager, and arranged to take back the unit and exchange it for a new one--not the solution we wanted. I would describe the attitude of the manager as passive-aggressive throughout, suggesting a short course in consumer relations was in order--or at least a morning's observation of her polite and helpful employee. Through all this I spent roughly $500, not counting the pool serviceman's time and the cost of the gas it took to drive 88 miles to-and-from Leslie's in four round trips. In summary, a displeasing and frustrating experience, one the unsuspecting customer shouldn't have to endure; but please note that I'm not sending the present report to get revenge on Leslie's, but rather to help them improve their service in some crucial ways.