We had high hopes of finding someone to maintain our equipment, open and close annually, and…read moreperhaps sell and install a new liner for us.
Let's start with our first impression:
Back in August or early September, we stopped into Vlietstra Brothers Pools & Spas to ask a few questions and schedule our closing. The woman working the front counter was obviously very tired and didn't really want to deal with us. I asked about ordering a custom spa cover. No, they can't do that. Hmm... pools and spas, right? Ok, what is your payment structure for pool services, such as a fall closing? She had no idea what I meant, and was insulted when I asked my husband if I had said it too politely... snapping at me before I finished my sentence, like I was going to call her stupid or something. Nevertheless, we gave her the benefit of the doubt. We all have off days! So, we scheduled our closing for the 22nd of October, 2021 and she wrote it into their schedule book.
Fast forward to Friday, 10/15:
I received a call mid-afternoon from a woman named Michelle (not the same woman, I am told). She wanted to know if she could schedule the closing for Monday, 10/18. Well, we weren't prepared and it's 5 days early, but hey, why not? I was told they work hourly, so we'd just throw a few more bucks their way for closing, as we hadn't finished everything we'd hoped to have prepped for them yet. However, we did spend a large part of our weekend getting as much water drained as we could in the time we had left, laying out the cover, and prepping the deck area for them.
10/15, 10/17, and 10/18:
I called and left messages with 3 different extensions asking that someone call me ASAP. I just needed someone to call me before they came to my address.
All we wanted was to discuss where everything was located, and what we had done ahead of time. Maybe even what we expected of them, since no one had asked us what exactly we wanted done....
By the time I did get in touch with someone at Vlietstras, I was informed my pool closing was completed and the service tech had already left.
This was Monday, 10/15, at 9:27am.
I work close by and ran home, as I had intended to do to speak with the service tech.
Here's what we found:
1. My diving board, which had never been removed, was sitting in the back corner of my detached garage. This is not where the pool equipment is located. This is not where anything for the pool is located. What business did this tech have being in that building, let alone traversing a mountain of equipment to sit my diving board in the back corner??? So, in hindsight, this still absolutely infuriates me. This person went into a closed up building, saw there was no pool related equipment, and continued in and around.
2. After removing part of the now installed safety cover, we discovered the jets had not been blown out, and that the water level still was above them. If you're reading this, it's probably because you have a pool. You probably then know that water left in those pipes over the winter will freeze here in Michigan. No anti-freeze in anything. That can crack the pipes, fittings, your filter, your pump, and any other hardware connections that are in the way!
3. They installed my safety cover that I've used for 4 winters, with new connections in my cement - not using existing ones. Yes, you read that right. They put several new anchors into the cement that surrounds my pool, even though the anchors that have been there for years and working were extended by us for them to use.
4. At this point, we're wondering: Is this some sort of master plan to get more business in the spring??
The phone calls:
If you've been paying attention, I'm sure you can imagine we had some questions for this business. Michelle is apparently the scheduler *and* office manager. She admits she knows absolutely nothing about the workings of a pool, closing one, how pipes freeze, what a winterization or pool closing entails, etc. etc.
As a result of her inability to discuss what we found had happened here, we asked that her boss (the owner) please call to discuss.... Michelle called us 3 times instead, to tell us this is how the do pool closings.
Mind you, she didn't understand our questions and certainly couldn't answer how this wasn't causing loads of angry customers.
As of 10/25/2021, my husband is still waiting for the owner to call him.
So, after everything:
We uncovered half the pool, drained the water down below the jets, added winter chemicals, blew out the pipes with our air compressor, dumped rv/marine antifreeze into the filter, pump, and all pipes, plugged the jets and skimmer pipe, and re-covered the pool ourselves.
