Summary:
They wasted our time by selling us a pool that wouldn't fit in our yard while telling us it was a style that would fit (butress free)... And then they want $500 restocking fee to take it back! Why should we pay for their mistake?!?!
Details:
We went to Rec Warehouse to look at pools. We doubted we had enough room in our yard for one since our yard is only 15ft wide. The salesman assured us we could fit a 12x24 pool in this space as long as it was the "new" style sides (butress free) without the wide support posts on the sides. He pointed out the model in the showroom and said it's like that, but a different model because the one in the showroom doesn't come in 12x24. He said an installer could probably have it installed in a few days. We were sooo excited!
They had a contract delivery guy deliver us the pool. He asked where it was going and I pointed to the pool's future location. He started piling boxes on that spot. I asked him if it was a mistake to put them where the installers will need to be working and he said they have plenty of guys that will move things around a lot. It's rainy season, so I asked him about putting the boxes outside, and he said everything is meant to get wet so nothing will be hurt. My wife saw him putting boxes in the yard and asked him to put them in the garage instead. He put the last few boxes in the yard and left.
When the installer came almost 2 weeks later... It took him about 2 seconds to realize that we did not have a butress free pool and that it wouldn't fit. We contacted Rec Warehouse and they informed us they don't even carry a 12x24 butress free pool, so they couldn't even sell us the right pool. Since they couldn't help us, they offered to take it back.
We found another local retailer that had a 12x24 butress free pool that would fit, so we immediately bought it and had it installed a couple days later.
When we contacted Rec Warehouse about how to get the pool back to them (it came in many heavy boxes), Mike (the manager) told us they wanted a $500 restocking fee because the boxes were wet and they couldn't resell it as new again.
Well...
1. It's not our fault we ended up with a pool that wouldn't fit in our yard. There is just no way that we went pool shopping knowing we have a 15ft wide yard without telling the salesman that.
2. It's not our fault the boxes got wet. The delivery guy put them in the yard without mentioning that they should be coverered and even said not to worry about it when we expressed concerns. Naturally, none of us thought twice about protecting the boxes because we thought we had the pool we wanted and everything was fine. Who cares if the boxes get wet when they will just be in the garbage in a couple days anyway.
This mess wouldn't have happenned if the salesman had not told us it was a butress free pool and that it would fit with no problem. Had we known it wouldn't fit and/or known it had butresses (side support brackets - which we wouldn't want anyway)... We wouldn't have bought it. The boxes never should have been at our house to begin with.
Rec Warehouse should right their mistake by eating their cost of re-boxing the stuff or selling it discounted because of no boxes (if they would even have to). We shouldn't have to pay for their salesman's mistake.
This is still an open issue. The boxes are still at my house (in the garage now) and we are still arguing about the $500.
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