Perry’s Pool Service and Supplies

We were referred to Perry’s pool service by our realtor three summers ago and decided to hire him. Perry’s very knowledgeable, and prices for pool services are very comparable for the area. Our service was good for the first year, or so we thought.
After that things started to steadily decline. Receiving thorough answers to questions raised or getting stuff fixed was like pulling teeth. For example, we expressed concerns on several occasions that our pool cleaner would quit running for several days and that possibly our variable speed pump settings may not be enough to run the cleaner the way it needs to be run. We had a couple of great responses from him like (a) «It was working when I left» and (b) he told US to pull out the manual because he was not familiar with the pool pump. Keep in mind that he is the one who installed it for us. Is not monitoring and maintaining the pool equipment a part of weekly pool service? We continued to have issues with the pool cleaner not working…
We were spending $ 100 a month for pool service. Perry’s weekly service consisted of him testing chemical levels and brushing the sides of the pool… that’s it; he never once vacuumed the pool in the 2 years we had him… really??? He was in and out in about 10 minutes each week. We were new pool owners, so we didn’t know.
Then the last several months we had issues with him no-​call no-​showing, or showing up on a different service day and not telling us. Also, after we paid for our last filter cleaning service with him, it took him several more weeks to clean our pool filters. One note he left us was for a no-​call no show and filter cleaning inquiry was that he was sick (which we would have understood if he had taken the time to give us a courtesy call) and that he «may» complete the filter cleaning the following week… really, «I ‘may’ clean them next week»??? This was a service that was already overdue and already paid for. The next week came and went, still NO filter cleaning…
There was also an issue of where in the yard that we wanted the filter cleaning done. The prior year, instead of rinsing the filters off in a spot in the yard that had no grass, this guys rinsed off the nasty pool filters in our grass and left all kinds of debris in the yard!!! It was pretty disgusting and it took us almost the better course of a year to bring the grass back to life.
Based on last year’s pool filter cleaning experience, with that, we left clear written instructions for Perry to clean our filters in the far corner of the yard where we have dirt and no hopes of grass growing. We also provided a longer hose so that the corner of the yard could be reached. He in turn leaves us a note asking if he can clean them in a completely different location on the property… really???
The last straw was when we incurred unexpected charges for replacement of half of the pool filters when he finally did clean them… this would NOT have been an issue IF he bothered to pick up a phone and give us a heads up of the charge so that we could properly budget for the expense.
We hired another pool cleaning service; my husband left a phone message for Perry that his services were no longer needed. My husband received a phone call at around 9 o’clock at night from Perry who was «surprised» that we were letting him go and instead of «listening» to my husband’s explanation of why we weren’t happy, Perry kept on trying to justify his actions, shift blame to us, and talk over my husband… to which my husband just terminated the phone call; not worth arguing.
We’re much happier with our new pool service; nothing personal, it’s just that the service is much better than we had with Perry’s Pool Service and so is the customer service.