Burnett Pools Inc

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Burnett Pools built the vinyl-liner, Utopia brand in ground pool in 2002 in the home we moved into this summer. We chose to use their services because we hoped to get reliable, professional, and knowledgeable service as they were the original builders and maintained the pool for the previous owners. We set up an appointment with them to open our pool and to teach us how to maintain the pool, because we've never owned a pool before. When I asked if they could do this on a Saturday, as my husband and I are gone from home Monday through Friday 7AM-6 PM, the sales manager stated that "sometimes we work on weekends, but I'd have to rearrange schedules of my men, and we'd prefer not to have to do that, since it's already July." He also told me that I have a "special" type of pool with a unique style of maintenance, as it uses a bag filtration system. That should've set off alarm bells right away. So the opening had to be on a weekday (my mother-in-law had to come over as we couldn't get out of work for this), but the manager promised that the service people would teach my mother-in-law everything we needed to know about the pool. Well, she began asking questions, but the service person could only tell her that "they should talk to Robbie, he's the one who knows a lot about this type of pool, I don't really know much about it, but they'll have to be in charge of putting in chemicals. They need to turn the vacuum on and bring in a water sample on the weekend". All they did was remove the cover, fold it up, put the pump in the system and turn it on. This cost $275. So a few days later, we went to the Cortland Burnett store with our water sample to have it tested. They tested our water and said that it contained high levels of nitrates and nitrites, which was "death" to a pool they said. It was probably because the folks who owned this home closed it in the Fall of 2011 and hadn't touched it since. So after about 30 minutes of the employees attempting to locate information about our pool (one claiming that they didn't even build our pool or have a record of it, even though I have all of the paperwork from the old owners), a manager named Ida came over to help. I began asking her questions about how to maintain the pool, which chemicals we should use and how, and what needs to be done about the nitrate issue. All three employees admitted that our pool was "different", and we couldn't do this and that to it because it was a vinyl liner/bag filtration etc. but none of them could tell us what we could do to the pool. I don't understand how the company who built our pool, only 11 years ago, seemed not to know how to maintain it. We spent an hour in the store, and they came to the conclusion that our pool had to be drained and refilled. They sold us very expensive seeming shocking chemicals ($140, which is much more than the cost of them I've seen in other stores since then), and Ida told us to "call Robbie" the next day and he'd tell us what type of chemicals we could use to maintain the pool and how to use them, and he'd give us information on draining the pool in the future. She also told us to email her pictures of different things in the pool, and she'd help us figure out from there how to maintain it. We emailed her the pictures, and she never got back to us. We called Robbie twice that week, and left messages, and he never called back. Long story short- we ended up sending 3 emails to different managers, and left 3 or more phone messages over a 6 week time period, and none of them were returned. Meanwhile, our pool just sat there, unused (they said it was dangerous to use it without the proper chemicals, which is true- but no one could recommend us the right ones to use), untreated, and gathering algae and debris. Our clear water quickly turned a dark green, and the yard was infested with mosquitos so badly that even Tiki torches, mosquito repellants for the yard, and bug spray wouldn't work. About 7 weeks after they opened our pool, I finally got a hold of Robbie's secretary. Robbie is the service manager, and his secretary seemed shocked that Ida didn't tell us about chemicals (in the secretary's words "Ida is our chemical manager, she's the best at the chemicals, and I don't know why she'd recommend Robbie instead, because he just does the mechanical things really.") I left a message with her to have him call us back. A week passed- no return call. I called back, left another message with his secretary. Apparently he thought that someone named John had already come out to my house to take care of the issue, which wasn't true, as no one from Burnett had even contacted me for almost 2 months. The third time I called, the secretary was finally able to give the phone to him. When I finally spoke with him, he honestly admitted that issues often get transferred to him, even though he doesn't know any more about the problem then his co-worker did. He couldn't give me any information about my pool basically, and told me that it sounded like it needed to be drained, but his department wasn't willing to do it because vinyl liners are tricky, so he transferred me to Alan Burnett in Restorations because that department usually handles vinyl liner pools. I got a hold of Alan, who told me that it's possible that we'd need a new liner ($2800) because this one was 11 years old, which is about the life expectancy of one. I wasn't prepared for this type of investment, especially without knowing if it actually had to be done. He and I came to an arrangement that he'd come out to my house, drain the pool, inspect the liner, and if it didn't have to be replaced immediately, they'd refill the pool. This was going to cost around $600-700. If it did have to be replaced, then they wouldn't fill it back up, and they could install a new one in the spring. We set up an appointment for that Saturday, and he said he'd call me Wednesday to confirm our appointment (which was weather permitting). I received no call on Wednesday, so I left a voice mail on Thursday and another one on Friday. He never called back and of course he never showed up. I called on Monday, and he said that he went out of town and didn't realize we had made an appointment. He thought that we were just going to replace the liner in the spring. This was never even mentioned by me as an option in our previous 20 minute long phone conversation. So I had to explain to him again what our plan was, and we set up an appointment for him to come out on Saturday. He called me on Thursday and stated that he "wasn't sure if he could squeeze me in between his other contracts" and that he really feels that our liner should just be replaced and he doesn't want to waste time and money draining and refilling if the liner just needs to be replaced. He suggested for me to just close up the pool. All of this was said without anyone even inspecting the pool. So basically we canceled the appointment and I said I'll call in the spring then if we want the liner replaced. Too Long Didn't Read: A company that built a pool but had no interest in the new owners. Played "pass the buck", where I spoke with 5 managers in total, all of which couldn't tell me how to even do basic maintenance on the pool. They opened our pool for $300 but couldn't be bothered with selling us chemicals or draining and refilling it (all of which would've given them hundreds of dollars in revenue).

Great! Prompt and efficient service.

It was a very good experience. They came on time and we did not have to wait long for an appointment with them. They did what they needed to do. I would have liked it better if the price was lower but the job had to be done. I could not compare that price to anyone else because no one else gave me an estimate. The quality of their work, their responsiveness and their professionalism were also very good.

I used them to get things organized after the appliance guy that I dealt with was such a jerk. They came and repaired the used pump that the guy had sold me and they got the hot tub working. The original estimate for repairing the hot tub was $1000 to $1200. I ended up giving a $1000 to the jerk and Burnett Pools charged me $438 for the work that they did. I would give them the top grade. One would get what they pay for and they probably charge well. I would give a top grade for their quality and responsiveness. Their punctuality and professionalism is very, very good.