The following is a letter I sent to Leslie's customer sevice site about my experience last season. I hope it helps someone to not spend the time, money and effort I did.
I have been dealing with your Leslie's store at 3185 Sheridan in Amherst NY for at least 17 years. I own a 51 year old large gunite pool that requires a lot of work to maintain by myself, so whatever help I can get is much appreciated. Last year I noticed the sign on the store door that claims pool care made easy as I came in for a water test in August because of some stubborn algae growth. I had already done the standard shock and scrub to no effect. The Leslie's computer analysis of my water claimed a Green to Clean treatment would clear my problem. If you don't know, that requires the Green to Clean chemical, about $50 of pool shock and more scrubbing. After following the directions to the letter (I had done it sucessfully in previous seasons), the algae reappeared so I called the store back. The associate I spoke to seemed perplexed and said to just shock and scrub it again, which means another $20 for chemicals and hours of work for his guess. Tired of spending money and doing work based on unsound advice at this point I went to another locally owned pool store. The person I spoke to there was familiar with my problem, owning a pool himself, and recommended a $15 bottle of copper algecide which not only cleared the problem but left enough to maintain for the rest of the season. Leslie's also sells copper algecide, but never recommended it for my problem. My complaint with Leslie's is that your computer based water analysis does not cover all the possible parameters of pool problems and the staff is not knowledgable enough to overcome the issues that the computer can't remedy. For this reason I will never patronize another Leslie's ever again, even if I have to travel further to get supplies and advice which is now the case. Your store might be a convenient 5 minutes from my house but in the end if it costs me time, money and any enjoyment I might get out of my pool it's simply not worth it. read more