Kool Poolz

Description of Work: The man at the store where I have our pool water tested strongly suggested that we use Kool Poolz to install a new cartridge filter. This man has seen our pool several times and estimated that it shouldn't take more than an hour at $85 for labor and that the filter would cost about $310. Since that was the best price I'd gotten, I asked him to arrange with Kool Poolz to install it. He called back and said that they'd do it the next day. At about 2 pm the next day, our contact said that Kool Poolz was running late and they'd do it the next day. A little after noon the next day, two men from Kool Poolz came and looked at the equipment. I asked them to please install a valve so that water could bypass the filter when the pool has to be drained. About two hours later, they said they were done and asked me to see the installation and learn how to use the new filter. The first thing I saw was that the screen door to the pool cage was propped open and part of the door handle was laying in front of the door. When asked what had happened, one of the workmen said that the handle had broken off when he pulled it. (Above the handle is a button to be pushed to open the latch. Pulling h****** a latched screen door will not open it - it will break the handle.) He showed me how to use the valve to directly drain water from the pool. When he showed me how to open the cartridge filter to remove the cartridge, pool water continued to pour into the chamber around the cartridge even thought the pool pump was turned off. When I questioned him, he said that the only was to avoid that would be to drain water from the pool so it wouldn't go into the filter. I said that would be unacceptable.Cleaning the filter would take at least 10 minutes and dumping that amount of water would require refilling the pool to bring it to the minimum level required for the system to work. He suggested that perhaps another very expensive valve would accomplish what we wanted. I flatly refused to pay for the work and insisted that he have his employer call me. Joe McClellan of Kool Poolz called and spoke to me for what he estimated to be 45 minutes. He screamed at me, berated me, insulted me and humiliated me. He told me he wouldn't come see the problems because he didn't 'go into the field', he worked at a desk. He told me it would waste his time. He told me it would cost him for gas. He told me my screen door was rotten otherwise the handle wouldn't have broken. He told me over and over again that his men did nothing wrong that it was my fault for having a house that was built on a slope so that the back of the house was built on fill, causing the pool to be above ground level while the pool equipment was on the ground. He said it wasn't his fault because he rarely worked on inground pools that have the equipment at a lower level; he told me I should have known it wouldn't work. He told me that he'd rather eat the labor charge than have me 'bad mouthing' his company. He told me that the other contractor that said they'd remove the sand filter had to be lying or have a hidden charge because it would cost him at least $50 more if he did that. He told me that I had to have 'a special situation' with the other contractor because no one could do the work that cheaply. He said that unless he could see the written bid the other contractor made that he'd know I wasn't telling the truth. He ranted and raved and then apparently hung up. A few hours later he called back and said that his phone had gone dead and he had to recharge it to be able to finish our 'talk'. He said that he and the man from the pool chemical store would come to see the installation the next day. They arrived before noon and among the remarks Joe McClellan of Kool Poolz made were 1) I should have all the pool equipment ripped out and built on fill so it would be the same height as the pool. He said it was against code to have it built the way it was. (Curious, but many of my neighbors and several friends have the same situation.) 2) He said that the ball valves on the installation would soon rot, fall off and s*** out all the water from the pool to flood the backyard. He suggested that each existing valve needed to be replaced with a horribly expensive variant. 3) He said that the installation appeared to be leaning to the right because the slab was tilted. When asked if a wedge might fix the situation he said that wasn't his problem. 4) He said the only choices were to install two 'cheap' valves that wouldn't stand up to the sun and wear or to use two expensive valves that would cost about $350 for the job. When I asked the fellow that we've known and dealt with for years for pool chemicals for a few words, as we were walking away, Joe McClellan of Kool Poolz shouted that if I chose the 'cheap' valves he would install them for free.. After conferring, the difference between the cost of two $7 valves or $300 for the expensive set up seemed pretty clear. I had him install the two $7 valves. Nothing was mentioned about the handle on the screen door. He had so upset me with his constant rants about the sub-par equipment and installation, that I completely forgot. When his men finished the installation I gave them a check for the labor and other parts they had used. They would not take a credit card.