Pristine Pool Service

In October of 2011, I purchased a pool heater from Randy and paid him $500. At that point, Randy had been my regular, weekly pool cleaning service for roughly two years prior. I had always been impressed with Randy's integrity and his dedication to my satisfaction. However, that seems long in the past as I have been attempting to reach an amicable solution to this problem for more than a year now - Attempts that have recently gone on deaf ears with no response from Randy on my last 2 email's. Throughout this challenge and most recently via email communication on July 6. 2012, Randy had acknowledged the problem and committed to resolve it by getting this heater running as originally committed. Most recently, I attempted to reach Randy on both 11/15 and again on 11/29, requesting that he complete the work immediately. Within the 11/29 email, I even offered to pay him another $100 (in addition to the $500 that I already paid him a year ago) cash if he completed the job by December 7, 2012 - Completion meaning pool heater that functions as designed with no leaks. As mentioned above, I have not received any response back from Randy on either of my last two attempts. Finally, given the ongoing challenges with Randy on this pool heater and some dissatisfaction around the cleanliness of my pool, I have parted ways with Randy as my weekly pool cleaning service. I have filed a formal complaint with the BBB in an attempt to reach a timely and reasonable response. However, I feel that I am likely going to have to waste my time and his money to file in small claims court.

My pool has a spa with water that flows over a stepped spillway into the pool. The main problem was that after the pump would turn off the water was partially draining out of the spa through the plumbing back into the pool until the water levels in the spa was the same as the pool. This resulted in about 18 inches of water draining out of the spa back to the pool. I called Harry Hunter, the owner and primary service provider. Harry called me back later the same day. (He does not have a staffed office, so when he's busy on a job the calls go to voice mail and you need to wait for his return call.) He told me that he would stop by the next day, which was fine. He missed the appointment due to illness but called to let me know and rescheduled for Saturday morning. He did the work on Saturday morning and was getting ready to leave before I noticed he was there. (He had knocked on the door but I hadn't heard him.) He had fixed the problem with the check valve and had cleaned the filter, too. The problem with the check valve turned out to be that pebbles from having the roof replaced had gotten into the plumbing and caused the check valve to get stuck. (For those that haven't had to deal with a check valve, it prevents the water from draining back through the plumbing once the pumps are off.) Harry is a kind of throwback to the days when work was done on a handshake. He's the owner of a small business and also the primary pool technician. He's done other pool work for me and has always done a great job at a fair price. He doesn't look for the most expensive way to solve a problem but instead looks for the best way to solve a problem. He doesn't have an office staff so be patient when trying to contact him. However, when the problem is urgent, he's been much more responsive than the 2 big pool companies I used before finding Harry. To be honest, I hesitate to post this review about Harry because I want to continue to do business with him and I'm worried that a positive review about a good guy might cause him to be a lot busier. However, he's always "done me right" and I feel lucky to have stumbled on Harry to do my pool work. He does superb work that is very reasonably priced and I don't hesitate to call him.