The sales pitch:
I should have followed my 1st instincts and said No Sale and discontinued all contact when Great Southern Water Treatment tried to sell me their Ionics water treatment system for $12,000.00 in 2007. Their service representative tried to have me sit through a 2 hour sales pitch. Thirty minutes into a sales pitch I told him all I wanted to know was if the system was maintenance free and the price for the system and left the room.
After another 30 minutes of presenting his sales pitch to my very patient son, the sales representative called me back into the room and told me he could let me have their $12,000.00 maintenance free Ionics water treatment system for a only $9,000.00. I told him the system would have to turn the water to silver if I paid $9,000 for it. I thanked him and said goodnight. He didn't leave, instead he called his boss and asked me to speak to him. I spoke to someone on the phone that represented himself as the owner and president/owner of Great Southern Water Treatment Inc. This person informed me that his company had spent their time and money to come to my home and demonstrate their maintenance free Ionics water treatment system which they said is used at Disney and the Space Center. He informed me that the least I could do is purchase the system. I told him that sympathy and hard sale didn't work with me and politely said goodnight. The next day I received a call from Great Southern Water treatment offering to sale the same system to me for $3,900.00. I purchased the system, that was in July.
The maintenance scam:
In July my son scheduled a maintenance appointment with Great Southern to replace the stinner tube a part they said had to be changed on the system annually. The GSW service representative insisted some other parts were not working properly and replaced the parts. After the maintenance call from GSW and parts replacement the system stopped working properly.
My son called GSW out another 2 times during the six months after their initial maintenance visit to check the system, because it wasn't cleaning the water. I was billed approximately $190 for each repair call and was informed that a full system check had been done each time and there was nothing wrong with the system.
On the third service call I was home, and I stood behind the service repairman and watched as he checked the system. He removed the cover on the system and a rotary part with a belt improperly installed around it was visibly melted. The repairman remarked "well this might be the problem". He admitted that it was obvious that the part had not been installed properly. I asked, "How was it possible that this wasn't discovered during the previous two repair calls?" He said he didn't know.
The young man was very polite, he replaced the mangled part and the system began working properly. I told him I wasn't happy that I had previously paid for 2 repair calls and this problem wasn't found or fixed. I told him I was going to call GSW and ask for a refund for the previous two visits. He said he had to bill me for the parts or he would get in trouble, so I paid him for the parts.
I immediately called GSW and spoke with someone that identified herself as Dee. I explained what had happened regarding the service calls and asked them to do the right thing and refund my money for the previous two visits. This person, Dee? Told me that when they made the July service call there was a smashed lizard in the system, it must have been a huge lizard she said, there were lizard guts all over the system. At first I thought she was making a joke, but she continued for a while talking about how massive this lizard must have been and how gross it was. I finally told her this is Florida, there are lizards everywhere. I then asked her, haven't you found lizards in the equipment before? And what does the smashed lizard have to do with your service representative not making the repairs on the previous two repair calls. She said well maybe I'll look into. I responded and said, well maybe I'll pay you for today visit. She told me you don't have a choice you have to pay the bill if we make the call. I again asked her will please refund my money for the previous repair calls. She responded I'll call you back and let you know, then she hung up the phone.
I immediately called my bank and stopped payment on the check I'd given them that day for third service repair call.in total GSW swindled me out of almost $600.00 for unnecessary service repairs.
I received a call from GSW about a month later. The person said she had just been handed my check that had a stop payment for parts replied on a service call and she wanted to know when I was going to pay my bill. I told her to go talk to Dee, she can tell you all about the squashed lizard in my system.
During the time my system wasn't working properly I contracted a gastric infection called H-PYLORI from the unclean water and had to take ten days of very serious antibiotics. I now refuse to have any further relationship with the scammers at Great Southern Water Treatment Inc/Ionics. Im not afraid of retaliation or the threats from Great Southern Water Treatment Inc/Ionics. I worked to hard for my money.
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