I recently called Webb Pool Supplies because my chlorinator had cracked and the ball valve was leaking. In the past, Webb's pool technician Franky did a phenomenal job when our filter's motor went out. Now, unfortunately, they have a new guy, and he is not so great. The condensed version of the review is that the new guy had no idea what he was doing, he said the PVC had to be cut, and he actually told us to call a plumber. Now I get that pool filters involve PVC, but it is an isolated system that has nothing to do with our house's water supply. Obviously, I had reservations, but we called a plumber, and sure enough, after waiting two days for the plumber to come out, he told us we need a pool technician since the piping connects to a pool filter and not our house. Thankfully, we found Franky's number, and he removed the cracked chlorinator and installed a new one without having to cut out pieces of the PVC. In fact, it took him less than an hour.
For the unabridged review, there were other problems with trying to even schedule the appointment for Webb's guy Lance to come out. I called them on Monday and told the lady about our chlorinator, she said their new guy wasn't very busy and would be able to get to us by Tuesday. She said he would call me in a little bit to schedule an appointment. I didn't hear from him at all on Monday, so on Tuesday, I called to see what happened. She said he didn't have a chance to call me, but he would have time to come to our house that day and would call to give me a time window. Luckily, I work from home, but we did have some appointments that day. I didn't hear from him until around 3 p.m., when he called to say he would be at our house in five minutes. We were in the car getting ready to go to an appointment. I asked if he could give us an hour since he never called to actually give me a time window, and he said that it had to be now. My husband stayed, and I went to the appointment.
After my husband showed him what the problem was, he told my husband how swamped he was for the next couple of weeks and said if he had understood what the problem was from my call, he would have told us to call a plumber. He said something about that is what happens when wives talk to wives. Now, yes I am a wife, but I also knew exactly what the problem was and described it as such on the phone. I explained that our inline chlorinator was cracked, and the ball valve in the bottom was leaking, meaning we were not able to just turn off the chlorinator and run the filter without it. Inline means the chlorinator connects directly into the filter's return line as opposed to an offline chlorinator, which uses a bypass line. I hope that information was just relayed to Lance incorrectly. Since I understand what inline means and that it means PVC is involved, I sincerely hope he does too.
After all of the drama, we're just very glad Franky Hernandez made time to look at our chlorinator problem. He was able to come out the day we called, but he also gave us a time window so we had ample time to be ready and available, and he knew much more than me or my husband about our pool filter, which is as it should be. It's very refreshing when proclaimed experts are actually experts. He was able to remove and install the new chlorinator without having to cut any of the PVC and never once had to call in a plumbing specialist. Next time, we will call Franky directly and not mess with Webb. read more
