As a pool owner i have been doing business with this company for about 5 years, mostly having my water tested and buying chemicals etc. As most people know you will normally pay more for things at a pool store, But i fugured what the heck they are testing my water for free so i thought it would be my duty to at least puchase the chemicals from them also.
The last few years i have had a leak in 1 of my return lines, not being sure which line was leaking i called backyard pools and asked them to come out and test the three lines and tell me which one was leaking. I was never given a price, I guess I should have asked first. Being a small business owner myself i thought how much could it be for about 30 minutes of work? (I was willing to pay about $200.00)
They came to our home on a monday morning, 2 young kids. I had showed them that I had everything ready for the test. All lines were apart and inlets too the pool were capped off. I figured I would get things ready so it would cut down on labor time and in return save me some cash. Should have been a very simple job for them, even jerry the service manager (one of the kids that came to the house) agreed that everything was ready and the test should only take about 15 minutes to complete.
As they were getting ready I asked jerry if he would need a check after the test or if they would bill me. He informed me that he would need a check before he left. So at that point i asked how much this would be, he said the min. Leak test was $400.00.$400.00 for 15 min. Worth of work (WOW)! I questioned if he was correct on that price as I did not need him to stick around and try and locate the position of the leak or anything like that. Just tell which line was leaking and be on your way. He told me if he was to stick around and try and isolate the leak the price would be more. So at that point I let him know i thought the price was way to much for what I was asking them to do and asked them not to do the test.
After they left I just could not see how they could justify such a high labor rate. ($1600.00 hr) ok lets give them some travel time ($800.00 hr).
Sounds crazy to me, so i talked to my wife (a local real estate agent) and she agreed that the price was way out of line. So at this point i still have a leaky line (not sure which one) and I am looking for another place to by my pool chemicals ($500.00 - $750.00 a year). Looks like they have a good service program in place that is sure to cost them plenty of customers!
I know things are getting more expensive every day, but this i feel was way out of line!
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