Save Yourself the Nightmare and Go with a Different Company After receiving and selecting an itemized quote that included both pool and deck resurfacing--with applied discounts--the company failed to deliver the full scope of work. Despite clear communication and a signed agreement, the company only completed the pool work and continues to deny any agreement regarding the deck portion. This is a clear BAIT-and-SWITCH tactic of a shady business. Agreement was never met - so we had to hire someone else to finish the deck. They breached our contract and somehow expect us to pay them money we never agreed to pay. Within 20 days the pool began to delaminate, we have discovered 33 hollow spots within arms reach and there are TWO large cracks on the top stairs. We have Ring footage showing their crew using blow torches during the install to speed up the curing. (This is against National Plaster Council standards - which is who they have to get certified through to install/refinish pools) During the meeting (between owners Janice and Hardeep, and Allyn) they've mentioned in their updated reply that I am just now seeing: We agreed they would come to drain the pool with an NPT rep present (so we can trust the inspection results) and check the hollow spots that I've discovered to confirm they are indeed hollow. We agreed to pay them "their actual cost of materials for pool resurfacing" - which was relayed to be about $1,000. They don't even care to find out who their customers are. They refer to meeting Allyn (co-owner of this house and pool) who is NOT my husband. I was unable to be there - but Allyn is a full grown man and capable of handing the meeting himself. I then called Hardeep on the phone to confirm they intend to honor the agreement put forth to Allyn and told him we would like to proceed. He then informed me that he "was busy for the next two weeks" so he would "reach out to schedule the inspection" then. The texts I agreed to share, I still have and all time stamped. (These texts absolutely mention POOL & DECK) I told him if inspecting the pool and repairing it wasn't a priority for him for the next two weeks, then me getting the texts to him isn't either. That I'm happy to share them when we are face-to-face at the inspection. This business has a team of owners - there is no reason that one can't pick up the slack of another. I'd love to know how Hardeep getting upset I didn't send him texts when he wanted justifies them COMPLETELY turning around on their word and IGNORING the fact that they are responsible for an improperly installed pool (in addition to responsible for breaching a contract). read more

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Pinch A Penny #175 Time recently came out to inspect a faulty pool light that was installed by a third party. After investigating the problem it was found that the light was compromised before installing. No questions ask. He took a minute to look at my pool's circuit board bc the salt cell was not getting power. After troubleshooting we found the problem and didnt require a new board. Thanks for your thoroughness and honesty. read more

I have been a devoted customer of Pinch A Penny in Brandon for OVER 10 YEARS! That's a whole decade of loyalty and trust. In all that time, whenever I had a leaking or broken chemical jug, they replaced it FREE of charge--no fuss, no hassle. But NOW, under the new ownership of Merril and Janice Joseph, I am absolutely APPALLED to find that the price to replace these jugs has skyrocketed from just over $1 to an outrageous $6 in just TWO months! Are they serious? Did they start coating these jugs in gold when I wasn't looking? This is nothing short of a rip-off! And the worst part? Not a SINGLE word of warning or notification about this insane price hike. No signs in the store, no courtesy email--NOTHING! I only discovered this sneaky little change when I glanced at my receipt at home. Talk about underhanded! This is a slap in the face to loyal customers like me. The new management under Merril and Janice clearly doesn't value us at all. They've turned a friendly, reliable neighborhood store into a greedy cash grab. What's next? Charging us for breathing the air inside the store? Well, enough is enough! I refuse to be taken advantage of like this. You've just lost a long-time customer, and believe me, I'll be telling EVERYONE I know about this disgraceful treatment. Absolutely DISGUSTED and DISAPPOINTED. I expected better. read more

i recently had an issue with my spa leaking had terrance smiley out to fix it. He was very professional explained what he was going to do to fix it and would let me know if anything else was wrong with it. He got the job done quickly as I needed to leave to pick up my son from school. was very satisfied with his service got there on time answered my call with in reasonable amount of time and will be using him again in the future if anything else happens with my spa! read more

Have a look at what one of Pinch-a-Penny technicians did when replacing my valves (glued handles) He gave me a fake name and collected a $60 tip. The store manager "DON," called me back the day before appointment to tell me " WE ARE GOING TO CHARGE YOUR FOR THE RETURN REPAIR. This is by FAR the worst service I have ever received from a pool company. I paid $300 and tipped the tech $60 and have a look at the picture. DO NOT GET SERVICE FROM PINCH A PENNY ON 212 E BRANDON BLVD, YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESS. read more

I purchased a heater from them less than a year ago. The heater has stopped reading the temp properly. I contacted them about warranty repair and they said I had to call the manufacturer as they can not service the equipment they sell and install. I could have purchased off the internet for cheaper but I went local because I like to support local business and the service aspect if something goes wrong. Well I took issue and the owner (I think Don is his name) exact words were "it is what it is". You can purchase EVERYTHING in Pinch a Penny for 1/2 to 1/3 the price online or at big box stores. There is no need to support them as they do not deserve the support. read more

I visited the store this morning with a minor pool equipment issue. I was pleasantly greeted by Nicole. She observed the part I had in my hand, and proceeded to help me with the repair issue. Nicole was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I'm not sure if the company acknowledge employees that go above and beyond, If so please let Nicole know that her time and expertise was really appreciated by this customer. My hat is off to Super employee Nicole, if you visit this store be sure to ask for her, she is awesome. She reached out to another employee regarding my issue named Matt . He who was the complete opposite of Nicole. Keep him in the back room where Nicole found him. He should not interact with a stray dog, interacting with customers should be out of the question. I have been a loyal customer for years. Thanks to Nicole I will continue to have my pool needs met at this location. I and other customers have choices, we continue to frequent a business because of the service, not because of the products. People will forget your name but they will never forget how you made them feel. If I could , I would give Nicole 5 stars, Matt wouldn't get a star. Again, kudos to you Nicole keep up the good job. read more

Unfortunately, the ratings don't go below one star as this store doesn't even deserve one star. I have had misgivings about this store location since the very beginning of retaining their service to maintain my pool. For starters, they mandate a credit card on file from the first bill so they can charge when they feel like it with likely inadequate security precautions to safeguard this sensitive information. This may be an understandable step if they have a customer who's chronically late in paying their invoice, but not this store. They insist on this (which I'm not comfortable with) from day one. Message to the consumer: We don't trust you! I have had several hostile exchanges from Trey (General Manager) regarding my concerns over time. Customer service, professionalism, and demonstrating they value and care about their customers are not in their vocabulary, let alone practiced. My pool is serviced on Mondays. So, instead of giving minimal extra assistance to customers with a major hurricane bearing down on our area, they did nothing. Due to my growing concerns about the expected severity of the impact of the hurricane, I reached out twice - two days before landfall and one day before landfall. It would have been all too easy to simply attempt to show customers how to take precautions and lower the water level enough to mitigate the real threat of the pool flooding the house when he was here for his scheduled maintenance. Had they done it the regular day of the service (2 days before the hurricane's arrival), they wouldn't have even had to make a separate trip and demonstrated their concern for their customers. Instead, they ignored me. I attempted to talk with someone at the store two days before the hurricane, but they were largely indifferent, and despite informing the person who took my call that I was a customer of theirs, he made little to no effort to assist me - he didn't even ask me who I was or where I lived so he could better assist me somehow. He basically blew me off. My frustration hit a tipping point when I received a scathing email from Trey today. Instead of demonstrating professionalism and concern about a perceived service failure and subsequent desire to cancel the service by talking to me, he sent me a hostile email, permanently destroying any desire to ever work with them again. See below: Pinch A Penny #004 12:14 PM (1 hour ago) to me With what are you dissatisfied with if I may ask? We just had a hurricane come through the area and we are doing our best to service customers as effectively with the little supplies that we have. As of now the store is running on a single generator trying to provide as much service as we can. If you are unhappy because we did not get to your email in a timely manner regarding showing you how to drain your pool, I apologize, but that is something you as the pool owner needs to know how to do, especially in situations like these. Furthermore, if you needed expedited service for whatever reason, you should have called the store. Your email went to corporate and then came to the store, which I just received from at 11:54 a.m. TODAY. Regardless of all of this, we were too busy trying to get the pools that we could do, done so we had no room to send anyone out to do that for you. There are 1000 of you, and 11 of us. I will cancel your service effective immediately. Again, I apologize that you were not patient and understanding enough to give us even a slight opportunity. We do not drain pools, ever. That is simply something our service guys do not have time to do because draining a pool can take a lot of time. If you were concerned about the water level being high before hand, you could have called the store beforehand and we could have had your normal technician try to explain how to do it so that you could do it yourself. Thank you. Trey C. General Manager Pinch a Penny Brandon read more

I wish I can give them a -5 stars terrible customer service starting with the owner going down. Literally got into a argument with the owner over a payment that was late because one of his employees took down the wrong expiration date when grabbing my card info so he calls me personally with this shit attitude on a Saturday the owner himself and gets mad because someone puts him in his place ! You won't disrespect me when I'm paying almost 200$ a month for pool service , I also payed between $125-200$ for deep cleanings 4 different times , and have shopped in your store multiple times. Disgraceful to your community I wouldn't spend a dollar here anymore if my life depended on it. Don't shop here !!!! read more

I don't usually write bad reviews but I think this circumstance warrants it. As I read other reviews I see a common theme regarding management. I called today as our house was struck by lightening and I have had multiple people out to the house to replace electric etc- this includes pinch a penny who came to evaluate pool equipment that was not working related to the strike. I was looking for a lightening affadavit that I was told would be filled out for me no problem and returned via email. I called a fourth time today to check in (and I was never pushy or rude at any point) and I get transferred to Don, the manager of the store. I don't need to go into detail but he was extremely rude and accused me of lying about the incident. My week has been rough enough already, but for someone to insinuate that I am lying and give me a hard time about working through the situation really ticked me off! He questioned how a few parts to my pool were hit and not others to which I replied "sir I can not explain how lightening strikes." I am just appalled by his arrogance. Luckily Don, I have all that I need from you guys and will be taking my business elsewhere. Thank you! read more

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Don Z. & his team here does a great job serving there customers with all there pool needs every time. I recommend coming here for your pool needs 100% read more

I have been in Brandon for 35 yrs and been a customer for this Pinch a Penny store in Brandon since I remember. I receive coupons once in a while and they always gives me the discount without the coupon because the have my information in the system. A couple wks ago a young lady refused to give me the discount without the coupon, she said just can' do it. I was upset and said I was not going back. Today I decided to go back. The got my jugs filled right away, but, when I got in the line, the cashier is talking to a coustomer who wants to know how something works. I was 3rd on the line and there was also people behind me. After 8 minutes I asked a manager if he can open the other register and he said he was busy with a customer. I kept waiting and when he was done with the customer I asked him to give me 2 empty jugs as I got tire of waiting. He said was going to help, however he turned around and said he was going to give me the 2 empty jugs instead of geting in the other register and take care of the line. I left and the cashier was still explaining the customer what he need instead to refer him to another staff they have for that. I guess the customer service is not important there anymore. They rather let me go upset and without spending a penny there. Well, that's ok, they are not the only pool store in Brandon. Now I won't be back and my recommendation about this store will be completely negative. I.R. 8134708307 read more

The owner Don was just very rude to my husband and I for no reason. I have been coming to this location for about 5 months and have never had any issues or seen/met this guy before until today. We brought in 2 empty jugs to be filled with chlorine and then proceeded to inquire about pool vacuums. After we were done talking to an associate about the vacuums, we went back up to the front to pay and get our filled chlorine jugs. When we looked at the cart the associate had waiting I noticed they were different jugs and simply let her know those were not ours. She told me that one of them had a leak, a slash/slit on the back and so she replaced it with a new one. That would have been fine except for the other hub was not one of the ones we brought in either. I asked her where our other one went and as I was doing so Don came out asking if there was a problem. I then had to explain everything to him again and let him know we were just curious what happened to our original jugs which were newer and clean. The one they were giving to us was dirty and older as you could see the stickers faded and the jug had scratch marks all over it. We were then basically accused of lying as there is no way that they would ever mix up our jugs or accidentally give them to someone else. We spent about 10 minutes looking at vacuums so it is definitely possible they gave our other two jugs to someone else in that time. The owner had a disrespectful attitude the entire time speaking to my husband and I and was very defensive for no reason telling us that "this has to end." He has absolutely no customer service skills at all. I was in shock that he was even the owner and the way he was speaking to us was appalling. After realizing we were getting no where with him, we decided to just leave with two completely different jugs than we came with and will never be back to this store. We will be purchasing our pool vacuum from another store. We were even going to consider having them service our pool, but after today we will never be back to this location even if we have to drive further to go somewhere else. Update: I emailed the email address mentioned below and never heard back. Not surprised. Update: After posting my last update I received an email reply that was absolutely useless lol. Don't comment on my yelp review saying to email when you clearly cannot do anything just to show face and appear you are helping when you can do nothing to help. :) ALSO LESLIE'S POOL SUPPLIES ON WEST BRANDON WAS GREAT!! A little extra drive, but so worth it! Happy to not ever have to deal with this sketchy pinch a penny location! :) Even our neighbors have had a bad experience with Don, such a shame. Their response: Dear Ali, We're sorry to read about this experience. All of our stores are individually owned and operated so were unable to make decision's on behalf of the owners. We have forwarded your concerns to the owner of this location so he can be aware of the situation. Customer Support - Pinch A Penny, Inc. read more

Worst place for pools In 5 months they were horrible. Never changed the filter cartridge as the pressure was sky high, and the water was trickling into the pool inlets. The chlorine was always 5.0+ and ph 8.0 every week for the entire 5 months. The last service call door tag showed 5.0+ and ph 8.0, and they added chlorine that day and no other chems. So I called to ask about it. The owner said i know u. You don't understand a thing about chemistry. You have the salt pool on... Apparently he doesn't know chemistry. I said we don't have a salt pool. Then he said I didn't know anything about pools. So I asked why your company didn't added any chems to adjust ph? He said u complained about us not changing the cartridge, and because our door tags couldn't be read, and now because we didn't add chems for a high ph, so we don't want u as a customer anymore. LOL A former customer read more

Great Great customer service. I take care of a couple of pools and I have gone to other places for clorine fill ups because they were close. This is my favorite place out of them all. I drive 10 minutes out of my way to buy what I need here. The staff gets the jugs, fills them up and puts them in my car for me. From the time I walk in, I am treated like they care that my experience is the best. If you have a pool cleaner they will fix it right there on the spot and they only charge you for the parts they used. Don't forget they will check your water for free. Customer service is so important to me. I am a raving fan! read more

We have an 18,000 gallon pool that our pool guy has been neglecting since June. We brought a water sample in Sunday and Greg went out of his way to go through every detail and a step by step plan to get rid of our algae problem. One trip here and my pool is completely spotless, way more than our pool guy could do in 3 months. Thanks Greg! read more

After the Seffner pool store closed I had to find another place to buy supplies. This one is a little out of the way for me but it is worth the extra ten minutes. The staff is very knowledgable about pools and chemicals. The prices are fair and an occasional coupon arrives in the mail. read more

Overall service is good. Problem resolution is terrible. Don, the owner is just overall obnoxious. The manager and staff are good. If you have a problem, Don will adamantly deny any responsibility and put the onus back on you. He will accuse you of lying and then deny he did it. The customer is NEVER even close to right. Great company as long as you don't have a problem, have to deal with Don, and as he put it "Did you see him do it"? mentality. I can see why the overall views for this store is 2 1/2 stars. Sad for the great employees they have. read more

Awesome customer service and great pool cleaning!!!! Super helpful customer service, polite and responsive!

I really can't recommend this place. When I take in a part and ask for a replacement I'm pretty confidant I will get the correct thing. I have exactly what I need how can there be any question? It works every time at Ace Hardware. I get home and it's not the correct size. I call the store, the guy who sold it to me answers, I explain it's not the correct one and he says 'uh, you sure?' I answer 'yeah I'm sure, the lid is too large.' He replies, 'bring it back up we'll swap it out. Your old one is here on the counter. I just looked at the top and grabbed the wrong one. Sorry about that.' I said 'well maybe you could find a discount coupon for me while I drive back over there'. So I drive back over and go in, he matches up the old lid to the new lid (this time) to show me it's the correct size and I get a $4.28 refund for a price difference from the incorrect one they first sold me. Then he tells me 'since you are already getting the $4.28 he can't give any more discount'. Really? read more

Other pool stores help you take the chlorine jugs to your car. This one doesn't. They don't have the courtesy to help customers with that. So was much as I want to like them the staff here is polite but never friendly, it seems like they are not having a good time at all. I understand is just work and probably they are underpaid. But can we make this more pleasant? Can you help me load and unload my Chlorine so I don't ruin my clothes? I know there are plenty of difficult clients, but trust me what I'm asking is just basic service and courtesy. read more

TERRIBLE..... This is the worst pinchapenney store I've ever been too. The employees are very rude and disrespectful. Customer service is terrible. I will never visit the location ever again. read more

The staff at this Pinch A Penny went out of their way to help us. We are new to the area and never owned a pool. The set us up with their Pool School, which was incredibly helpful. Each time we have been there, we have been impressed with the customer service! read more

Great store !! Always have what I need. The employees are all very friendly and knowledgeable. This is the third pool store I have used. No need to look any further. read more

It is late June, summertime. My solar pool heater was overheating my pool, and so I called Pinch a Penny to see about setting up a service call. They put the manager, on the line. He voluntarily took me through some troubleshooting steps over the phone, and arrived at the conclusion that the actuator valve was not operating properly. He explained that this valve is activated by an electronic component that was probably broken. Essentially, the valve was stuck in the "open" position, and allowing water to circulate continually up to the rooftop solar panels. My understanding was that if the switch was operating properly, it would sense the water temperature and close that valve so that water would not go up and be heated. During the phone call, I asked him a direct question: "Isn't there some way that I can just manually turn this valve?". He answered that the valve was controlled by this electric switch and that there was no way to manually move that valve. Cut to yesterday, the service guy arrives at my home and calls me to let me know he is there. He says he needs to replace the actuator, and it's a $300 repair. I said gosh that is expensive for something that I don't even need right now, since we are in the heat of summer. Can't we just turn it off and do this repair at a later date? He answers, oh yeah, all you have to do is unscrew this screw and the valve will automatically shut. In fact, you don't even really need a temperature-sensing actuator -- you can manually turn this valve on and off whenever you want to. I was like, Man, I wish your boss would have told me that last week! So I asked him to just turn off the valve, and said I would call Pinch a Penny at a later date to do the repair. I asked him to let his manager know that I expect no bill for this 5-minute service call, since I was misinformed about the fact that I could have turned that valve off myself. This morning, the manager called me and was clearly agitated. He said the tech told him that I was refusing to pay. I said no, I just want to postpone this repair, and I do not think a service charge is warranted given the circumstances. The conversation became pretty heated. I told him that I had every intention of having them do that repair, but at a later date, and that if I had known I could turn that valve off, I would have just done that and waited until fall for this service call. He says he is going to send me a bill and if I do not pay it, he is going to take a lien against my house. Very disappointing. read more

I would give the store itself 5 stars but their pool repair service is not of the same caliber. We know where our leak is, have had them come out twice, paid $137.50 and the leak isn't fixed. They charged me $95.00 to look at the leak which my husband had already identified and dug around so their job was simple. They said they needed it dug out a little further (we're talking less than 3 square feet) and they said "we're sure you don't want to pay us $95 per hour for 2 hours to finish this so you have your husband dig it out and we'll schedule another time to come and fix the pipe. The one technician mentioned at LEAST 3 times that they charge $95 per hour. After this experience, we opted to not have them come back. I called to tell them, the person who answered the phone just said "ok, I'll let them know. What credit card do you want to put the $95 service fee on?" No apologies, no tell me what happened, nothing. When he was hanging up he said I hope whoever you chose to fix it can fix it for you. Today we get a copy of the receipt in the mail. NEVER using them again. Very disappointed since our in-store experience has always been so positive. read more