PoolRite was my pool company this summer and seemed to do a good job when they would show up. They were very unreliable as far as showing up on the days they said they would, but I didn't even mind that part that much.
But recently I had my pool pump go out and I reached out to Nathan to see about getting it replaced. He gave me the schtick about only charging for labor ($200) and would give me the pump at cost ($700), which I don't even care about. He also said that I could take my time as this time of year the pool would be fine for 3-4 weeks.
Because of that I wanted to do some research on pool pumps to make sure we were putting in the best one for me long term, and Nathan told me that he only uses Pentair WhisperFlo 1.5HP pumps, which I happened to find available at Wal-Mart for about $500. He then told me that he was going to use the high efficiency model, which was more in line with the price he quoted me.
So I agreed and he said he would be out Monday, no later than Tuesday to do the work (nearly a week later from our conversation). I never heard from him that Monday or Tuesday, so I reached out and he said he'd be there first thing Wednesday morning.
When I didn't hear from him by Wednesday afternoon, I reached out once again to ask when he was coming over because I really wanted to get this taken care of.
Then, despite me being VERY nice about the matter - (you can see how nice in the text thread because I set it as my profile pic) - he then responded with a text barrage which I hope I can copy/paste here. He was blaming me for the delay, dragging my feet and then he blamed shipping for not getting the pump in time (not sure why he couldn't text me to let me know he wasn't actually showing up though). And then he was ripping me because now HE was frustrated, which was pretty funny.
Then he said he wasn't going to do the work at all, and that he would "throw the $700 pump in the trash before I work with people like you", to which I have no idea what he meant. I was beyond nice about the whole thing and if I can post the text thread here as the next step, I will. No idea what "people like you" means, other than maybe people who expect someone to show up on the day they said they're going to be there, or at least call or text if they can't make it. I'm really not hard to work with.
He then said he was mad because I beat him up on pricing, though I agreed to 100% of the full price he asked me for. Then he said he actually needed $1100 to do the work, though he never asked me for $1100. Then he said he was blocking my number and wouldn't respond anymore, and I never heard back.
So I called a different place, and had the pump installed the next day for about $300 less than Nathan was trying to charge me with his initial quote. And these people showed up on time and were very friendly, and said they would bill us. Nathan always needed payment that day, so yea. We always paid him right away and were really good customers.
Funny thing is, this month Nathan also started asking us to pay for pool service a month in advance, so he now also has our October money for maintenance service that he never showed up to do, and now also won't respond to me.
So one, don't work with him at all.
And two, if you have no other choice, DEFINITELY don't pay him in advance. You probably lost your money and won't get him to show up. That's our fault for doing the pre-payment. Live and learn.
Pretty sure with the pool pump he was probably trying to install a cheaper pump than he told me I was getting, but then realized I actually pay attention to things and would call him on it, so he didn't want to deal with customers like me... people who won't just blindly pay money to someone who was only trying to rip them off.
Very unprofessional service and actually so bad that I felt the need to submit my first ever Yelp review to try to protect others. read more
