Aqua Pool Service

I can’t stand Unilocal.Let’s start there. It such a crap business — legitimate positive reviews are filtered out with absolutely no recourse. People purposely sign up for multiple accounts to leave more negative reviews on a business on purpose and Unilocal refuses to open their eyes to the fact that the writing style (and almost 100% likely the IP addresses they were posted with) match. They refuse to take action on crap like that because it then appears that they have a large active user base — and therefore can sell more ad space. It’s disgusting. Unilocal,you suck.
With that out of the way let me talk about Aqua pool service. Just don’t. It’s the bay area and yes it’s expensive here. That trickles down to everything from mortgage & taxes to bananas at the store & pool services you use. Everyone who lives here has the same exuberant expenses and thus it will be rolled into any item you buy or service you use. I understand this and have come to find that anything actually reasonably cheap HAS A REASON for being so.
I’ve found many pool companies that have «great» rates and all start off great. What I’ve come to find is a simple game of math they all play. The hustle around attempting to get as many «accounts» or «clients» as possible. Each one of them start off on their best foot forward right away so as to impress. As time goes on you simply become an account they’ve grown accustom to happily collecting a fee on while doing almost nothing for service. In the end most of the «affordable» pool companies will resort to simply stopping by quickly and stirring your dirt. You’ll be lucky if they actually pour chemicals into your pool.
My experience was with Juan. I caught him straight up simply stirring dirt, not putting chemicals in, and running off. Caught on camera. Total time spent on my property was less than 5 minutes, this includes time for vacuuming, across multiple visits. I had to show him the pre-​filter basket to my pump hadn’t been empty in at least 4 visits! Do these guys ever check the actual flow rate? One simple look would have been obvious. When I called him on it he [Juan] actually became very defensive and outright vulgar. The guy has a mouth worse than a sailor. The cojones on this guy actually using profanity with a paying client! He was simply p.o.‘d I’d caught him red-​handed not doing his job.
I read one of the other reviews for Aqua Pool service that said Oscar has hired family members to help as his business has expanded. Bad move Oscar. Never ever involve family in a business. It’ll only result in problems. How do you tell a family member they’re doing a lousy job and to please pick up the pace or tighten their ship? You don’t, because they’ll easily be offended. Never hire someone connected to you personally. Hire people with great work ethic that are trustworthy. People you won’t have to breath down their necks on or check up on. Also pay them well enough that they care about not losing their job. If you get this equation right, your business wouldn’t be having the problems it’s having now.
I cannot recommend Aqua Pool because of the absolutely inexcusable situation I had. I sure do hope Oscar turns things around. Unfortunately for that to happen he’ll need to rip off the band-​aid and fire anyone with personal ties to himself and start over. Most likely he’s acquired too many obligations now (personal and business alike) that would allow for him to do this.
The stink on this business and it’s practices are too high — steer clear and find a reputable pool company, and don’t be cheap yourself. You want good service? You’re going to have to pay for it here in the bay area. You wouldn’t buy a Jaguar for a car and then service it at a mechanic who specializes in Daewoo/​Kia/​Hyundai would you? You own a pool. Take care of it. You want super cheap rates? Expect inattentive, unreliable, & incompetent service.

Oscar and this entire company (if thats what you want to call it) are horrible. Just like everyone else, Oscar started off with a bang and then stopped showing up at all. Said we needed a new pump and we agreed, come to find out he bought a used one but charged us for a new one. When we called him on the pump over charge he played stupid (we think) and tried to explain it away as a mistake. Then they continued to charge us for cleaning the pool, however based on the pool condition we didn’t think he was coming at all. Called Oscar again and he assured us he had been coming to clean the pool I checked my video surveillance cameras and if you can believe it Oscar had not showed up in over a month. Stay away from this company, they are shady…

Some businesses start out small, provide great service, get great reviews, and know how to scale and maintain great quality as they grow. Unfortunately Aqua Pool Service is not one of them. Service degraded quickly as they expanded.
Oscar was great at the beginning. He came out and vacuumed my pool as part of the initiation. Things were ok until repairs were needed. He was more than happy to replace my pool pumps since that was big $ and easy to do, so he probably felt that was worth his time. But there was a screw that he broke on one of the levers that controls a valve. All he had to do was find another one and stick it in. It took him two months after multiple e-​mails and calls to remind him. And when he «fixed» it, he put the lever on backwards, so now I have to remember that the water flow is in the opposite direction than the lever indicates.
Then there were more problems around the pool that needed attention, and after multiple texts /​e-​mails that went unanswered, I decided to cancel the service. But of course, he never responded to the cancellation, nor did he communicate it to his service people, so those people continued to come to my house for three more weeks (each week not being able to get past my locked gate and they would leave a note on my door). Finally he got around to responding to me and apologized and finally processed my request to cancel.
Then shortly after I cancelled service, I went out to inspect my pool, I discovered that someone had actually swapped out my newer pool brush head with a crappy, dilapidated, trimmed-​down to the metal brush head. I don’t know when they actually did the switcheroo, but this happened during the period of time that Oscar’s team was servicing my pool.

Reading the not so good reviews…
I CANNOT believe it is the same Aqua Pool Service!
I have used AQUA POOL since 2000, almost 14 years, the service has been the same GREAT every week !! My dogs even love Oscar!
Oscar is a good man and very kind. We should give business to small company’s like this!
My friend uses Aqua Pool and her pool service is the same — Great!

We hired Oscar in late 2011, and things started great. Our pool was clean and the chemicals balanced every week, all for a great price. In 2011 and all through 2012, Oscar’s team was reliable and professional. My wife and I were very happy with Aqua Pool all the way to Summer 2013 when we started to have trouble with the quality of service and lack of communication.
June was when we first noticed the quality of service was starting to degrade. Our pool would sometimes become green and dirty at the end of the week, and Oscar’s team was showing up on inconsistent days — sometimes late into the weekend when it was too late to enjoy the pool for the weekend. One week in early July, nobody showed up at all. When my wife called Oscar, he was friendly and said that he would adjust the bill accordingly for the missing week. He also notified us that the filter may be in need of cleaning, so we authorized the additional filter cleaning service charge.
The next week, our pool was serviced on time and filter was cleaned. A few weeks after, we received our July invoice, and noticed that no adjustment had been made for the missing week of service. We emailed Oscar to clarify but got no response back.
Later in July, after another service, we got a note on our door saying «Filter No Good — Needs Replace», so we contacted Oscar about it hoping to get back on track since we had paid to have the filter cleaned only a couple of weeks prior. Again, no response. Meanwhile, weekly pool service now stopped showing up completely, and we had no communication whatsoever.
Again, we tried calling to clear things up, but we would always get voicemail and Oscar didn’t return our calls or respond to our e-​mails. Meanwhile, it is the summer season and we want to enjoy our pool, so we were left no choice but to contact another pool cleaning service to look at replacing the filter and cleaning our pool.
When the new serviceman inspected our pool, he told us that the filter was fine, it was just not cleaned properly, and also that the chemicals had not been balanced correctly.
We just got an invoice for August Service Charges, but we never received any service all month! Oscar still hasn’t called or responded to our e-​mails, but we’ve settled our bill despite the lack of quality and asked him to close our account. We’ve just moved on to another pool cleaning service that so far has really met our needs.
It’s really unfortunate that great service can degrade so quickly. If you want reliable, quality service and customer attention — we can’t recommend Aqua Pool Service anymore.

Recommended by a neighbor. Started out with very good service a year ago and Juan who works for Oscar has been great. However over the last couple of months the service degraded so badly (water completely green and cloudy) we had to switch services.

Good service, good prices. I shopped all over the Peninsula for pool service and i don’t think you can find anything better, not for this price at least. As good as it gets.

Oscar used to have one of the best pool services in Redwood City area. In past year, he has hired his relatives to manage his existing accounts while he acts as the manager and the service has fallen dramatically. I am looking for another pool service as we speak.

We found Oscar after reviewing online reviews. They do a great job of keeping the pool clean. They are replaced our filter and reprogrammed the controller to save energy. They only take payment after finishing the job to satisfication.

After years of struggling to keep my pool blue and clear i decided to finally hire someone to do it.
After almost a full year of service from Oscar, I figured I should finally write a review.
My pool has been blue and clear for a year. I haven’t had any trouble. His prices are the best in the Bay Area and he is very communicative over email (which is good for me because I am never home when he is here.)
I don’t think I need to explain things any further.
Highly recommended.

Oscar does a great job maintaining our pool and we couldn’t be more pleased. He is also great at triaging a bad situation (we switched service to him and his wife when we had an out-​of-​control algae bloom). Within 3 days of treatment our pool was back to normal :-)

I have been a customer of Oscar’s Aqua Pool Service for 3 months and can’t begin to explain the improvements in my life. Before Oscar, I spent years frustrated trying to balance the chemicals in my pool and spa. I still remember my guests complaining to me about my bad pool and spa water «smelling like a dirty dish rag.» After throwing up my hands in despair, I searched the Internet one day and found Aqua Pool Service. One phone call was all it took to change my life. My pool went from being a liability and financial sinkhole to being the pride of my home. My spa went from being caked in yellow grime from my incorrect chemical mixtures to a beautiful, silky experience with bubbles flowing effortlessly around my skin. Oscar, his wife, and his team are capable of everything. They converted my pool and spa’s chemical solution, the cleared my cloudy pool water, they installed a new timer system, and they come every week to maintain the beauty they have created. And believe this: They do it at an economical price that is better than the other pool specialists I spoke with before finding Oscar.
In short, you should hire Oscar immediately and totally trust him and his team. They under-​promise and over-​deliver. They are a tremendous economic value in these tough times. And they are old-​school reliable, honest players in today’s world of charlatans trying to earn an easy buck. I am saving time, money, and endless aggravation. And I have the best looking pool you could possibly imagine! Plus my spa is truly luxurious. Thanks to Oscar, his wife, and his team.
To anyone looking for a pool guy, my advice would be to stop screwing around and call Oscar now. You will wonder why you didn’t call before. I sure did!

My friend’s, who lives in San Carlos, raved about their pool service so I made the changed. Oscar and his wife Elizabeth are outstanding! Our pool and spa are both looking great. Oscar just started up my pool solar system (April 2011). Try them you won’t regret it.
Susan and Eddie of Redwood City

Aqua Pool Service is reliable and provides excellent pool service. Any questions are answered within 24 hours. I have several friends in the area who feel the same about Oscar.

Oscar is the BEST pool person to have!!!
He is so good at keeping our Salt Water Pool Clean and Clear Blue. We sold our home on the first open house last month, Oct 2009. Oscar was there Sunday morning making sure it was in great shape. The first family that came purchased our home, they mentioned how beautiful the pool was. Now at our new house, the existing pool guys came and went, did not even look like they were there (at $ 150 a month), they put a garden hose in the pool to add water, never told me or shut it off, they didn’t use the valve??? Oscar is now helping us at our new home, my chlorine pool is old but looks great. Oscar will change it to Salt Water soon. Oscar is a kind person and good to my dogs too!
Aqua Pool Service is less than other pool company’s.
I have recommended Oscar to my friend that built a new pool in Hillsborough and she has no complaints. Her pool is Krystal blue!
His email: