Dickson Brothers Inc

Very poorly. I brought in a pump for review for warranty. I was never told there would be a charge for this until I went to pick up the pump. When I stated my disapproval, I was told to "be quite before I embarrass you" and potentially charge me more. I was charged without prior notice and ridiculed for objecting.

My husband and I inherited a koi pond when we purchased our new home. We had no idea that there were fish in the pond since the prior owner had already moved to Brazil and never mentioned them or how to care for the pond. We knew nothing about taking care of such a large koi pond or fish, so we started looking into companies that could help us maintain it. My husband ran across Dickinson Brothers and decided to have them come out to access the condition of the pond. A few weeks ago, Francisco and his crew came out to clean our pond. It was a large undertaking that required a couple of days of draining and scrubbing. We paid $2,500 for the service and agreed to have the company come out every couple of weeks to maintain the pond. Our first red flag should have been when they charged us $800 extra for organizing the plants. They never informed us what the charge would be until after it was done. We definitely should have asked before agreeing, but we thought they would have at least given us a price before they took it upon themselves to do it, especially when it's an additional $800. We let that slide and didn't mention it because we really needed a pond company and didn't feel like searching for another one. Also, my husband was pleased because the owner, Alan, knew that we knew nothing about caring for the koi pond and said we could call him anytime we had a question about anything. That put our mind at ease because we knew we would have a lot of questions as time went on. Cut to the unprecedented freeze Dallas recently experienced. Days before the storm hit, my husband called Alan about what we needed to do to ensure the fish would be OK and the filter would not freeze up. Alan never called him back. I then called Dickson Brothers and informed them that I was very concerned about what the freeze would do to the fish and pond and wanted to purchase some aerators and pond heaters from them. The guy told me that I would have to speak with Alan because he was familiar with the pond, but that they would be able to get us the aerators and heaters we needed. He assured me that Alan would be in the office "any minute." We left our number and waited for him to call. Hours went by and we never heard from him. My husband again reached out to his cell and I followed up with his office. Again, they informed us that Alan would call us. We grew more and more concerned because we didn't know if we should trust that Alan would call us back and get us the aerators and heaters we needed in time or if we should go out and buy them. We continued to follow up to no avail. After days of trying to reach Alan, we decided to buy what we needed through Amazon. Unfortunately, the items were delayed due to the storm and we were not able to get them. We ended up having to get up every 2 hours throughout each night to boil water in a pot and sit it on the pond to break up the ice. We then had to shovel chunks of ice out of the pond only to have it freeze back over and do it all again every 2 hours. Our dryer didn't work so we couldn't warm our gloves. We ended up having to pull all the ice out bare handed for 3 nights straight. During this entire time, Alan, nor anyone else from Dickson Brothers ever returned our calls. It has now been 10 days since we originally tried to get ahold of this company. Suddenly, one of the employees, (Francisco) randomly showed up on our doorstep Monday morning without notice. I was in the middle of a work meeting. I went out to speak with him and told him how blown away I was that he would randomly just show up 10 days after we frantically called them for help. Mind you, he showed up when the weather was 62 degrees and pure sunshine. When I told him how mad my husband and I were, he just said "OK" and proceeded to leave. WOW!!!!!!! No apology or explanation whatsoever. I'm so happy we gave this company over $3,000 a few weeks ago. I guess business is so good for them that they don't care if they lose our repeat business. It's a crying shame that we couldn't rely on them during an emergency that will most likely never happen again in our lifetime. Even if Alan has the best excuse in the world for never returning all of our calls, their office had our number and someone should have followed up with us. If you can't depend on them for the biggest emergency you'll probably ever have, what can you depend on them for? **UPDATE: Alan called my husband this morning about our review and was INCREDIBLY RUDE!!!! He tried to claim he was upfront with the high cost for the aquatic plants (he most certainly was not). He didn't apologize or care about what happened, he only cared about the bad review and said he'd be refuting it!!!! He called the review "scathing." He should have been more concerned that everything in this review is factual and that is no way to run a business or treat customers that have spent thousands with a company.**

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Called the company at 1:00 PM to find out when they were going to arrive as the repair was going to take over 3 hours. Was told the person coming would not get there for over 2 more hours. Received a call at 5:00 PM stating they would not make it today and wanted to reschedule. Sat home waiting all day for them to show up and they wanted me to sit around all day again waiting for service. Not what I would call very customer oriented. Will go with another company even though they are more expensive but guarantee they will show up when scheduled.

They came out on time and looked at the pump. He determined that the pump was still under warranty. He was very nice contacted the company and had a replacement in his truck. He installed and and tested it.

Excellent. The guy, Allan Crocker, was very patient with me and really held my hand. He wasn't irritated when I called. They do an excellent job. They are all really friendly and they make sure the customer has what they need.

I thought that the price was high. I didn’t have anyone locally to call for the job. I live 65 miles away and they charge you from the time they leave. They charge $125 to come out and $75 an hour. The issue wasn’t fixed and I had to call them back again. I asked them if I would be charged again. They said if the service was because of our fault, then they wouldn’t charge me, else they would charge me. After they changed the hoses, there was a hole in the hose. I am not going to call them back for this issue. I took the part out to them and asked them to check it out. They charged me like a $50 fee and said that everything was okay. I brought it home and it still didn’t work. I took it back the next day. They said that they won’t charge for labor, but they charged me for it. I took it to them on a Friday and asked them if I could wait and take it back with me. They said that everyone had gone for lunch and it would be late. They called me the next day and said that it was ready. It was just a 20 minute work for which I had to drive 65 miles and go there the next day. It wasn’t again fixed and I took it back to them. I had to take it back four different times and I got it fixed. They were recommended to me as there was no one available nearby. I wouldn’t be using them again for service, but I might buy supplies from them. The guy who came to my house wanted to sing some songs and my husband just turned him down. He was a friendly guy. My employer had used him for years. I understand why I was charged so much money. They could have attended three or four pools in their area in the time that they took to come to my house. They had young boys and girls working who want to get out for the weekend and go party. They stood behind their work and they came out when they said they would.

I really like this company. They are very reliable and most of all knowledgeable about the pool and the right type of chemicals to use in it. There is one person that comes by to clean the pool. He is a nice guy. It is the same person every time.

This guy has been doing a great job for me on several investment properties over a 7 year period. I was very pleased this time. He did show up on time, the cost was exactly what he quoted me, he finished the work in a timely manner, and I just like his personality as well. I thought the price for the service was fair.

HE CAME WHEN HE SAID HE WOULD. HE WAS ABLE TO GET TO THE ROD AND SOLVE THE PROBLEM. IT WAS MONEY WELL SPENT. KEVIN IS A VERY OUTGOING AND KIND SERVICEMAN. HE'S ALWAYS READY TO GO THE EXTRA MILE.

WE'VE TRIED OTHER SUPPLIERS AND SPENT $100'S OF DOLLARS ATTEMPTING TO MAINTAIN OUR POOL. DICKSON'S TESTS THE WATER TELLS US EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED AND IT WORKS. THEY DIDN'T TRY TO SELL US A NEW FILTERING SYSTEM OR NEW VACUUMS LIKE THE OTHER'S. THEY KNOW THEIR BUSINESS. I HAVE USED THIS COMPANY FOR THREE YEARS NOW. THEY ARE THE ONLY SUPPLIER I TRUST.