KineticoMaricopa Water Processing - Kinetico AZ ripped us off with false promises and shady business practices!...
Not all Kinetico water conditioning dealers are created equal! Maricopa County Water Processing aka Kinetico AZ is very pricey on installations and disconnections and they don't give a damn about YOU their customer!
We moved 1,800 miles to AZ and our Kinetico equipment arrived in perfect working order. Made the mistake of calling Maricopa Water Processing Systems to install it... The bill was over $400 and included a pressure regulator on our brand new house. We too bought their song and dance about city water pressure!
When we called Maricopa to disconnect our equipment as we were moving out of state they were all too happy to come out a second time. I had been promised that boxes would be brought and our equipment would be readied for the impending move. The technician showed up with no boxes, borrowed one of MY moving boxes to put the drinking water system into and some of my packing tape to seal the water softener shut. I'd utilized Kinetico personnel before on several moves in Minnesota and had always had good experiences... I had no reason to question what the technician had done.
When we arrived in Minnesota we did not buy a house immediately so the Kinetico equipment was placed into the basement of the house where we stayed. When we finally did purchase our own house (a year later) we called our original Kinetico dealer to install the equipment. Much to our surprise we learned from the dealer that our water softener had been damaged in the move... No packing materials put inside the tank to protect the parts; the Maricopa technician just put everything he'd disconnected loosely inside the tank and taped it shut. Consequently we incurred an additional $140 for repair and trip charges.
I contacted Maricopa and spoke with the Service Manager, Bob Michele and told him of our dilemma. Mr. Michele spoke with myself, my husband and the Minnesota Kinetico dealer and said that Maricopa would pay take care of the damage... That is until he had had time to think things through and then he became argumentative and withdrew his offer. Next I wrote a letter to the company President, Martin Chan and provided photocopies of our installation and repair bill in Minnesota. Several weeks padded and I heard nothing back from him.
Not knowing what else to do I contacted the Phoenix Better Business Bureau as Maricopa flashes the BBB reliability logo on their Maricopa/Kinetico AZ website. What a worthless joke that turned out to be. Pete Rambo, Vice President of Marketing for Maricopa Water Processing wrote a letter to the BBB and basically called me a liar and saying that Maricopa had no responsibility for the damage as they just "disconnect - they don't pack." Huh, would have been nice if they had told me that beforehand... I could have put packing materials inside of the tank myself to protect my $1,200 investment for the long move had I known. Gosh, I just assumed that when the Maricopa technician taped the tank shut all was well.
Mr. Rambo even went a step further in his letter to the BBB to suggest that we had opened the tank and damaged our own equipment... How absurd! But the absolute worst insult was that Ms. Diane Spencer of the BBB sent me a letter saying that although the dispute was not resolved to my satisfaction it was resolved. That is sheer silliness... Because their member, Maricopa wrote a letter (falsifyies the truth) I guess an answer constituted resolution. I always thought that the BBB meant what they said when they advertised protection of the consumer by providing honest information and following ethical business practices.
The lesson I learned through all of this is this: don't believe everything you learn from the Better Business Bureau as it isn't always accurate AND beware, beware, beware of Maricopa Water Processing Systems if you live in Arizona!
Patricia
Crystal, Minnesota
U.S.A.
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