Response from Florida Water Treatment Inc
Thank you very much for your insightful review of my company, since you failed to elaborate on the details it would be my pleasure to do so. You purchased a service Big Deal promotion for $39 that we had listed that included an inspection of your equipment and a tune up if possible. You stated to my service coordinator when she set the service call that you had just purchased the home and the home had well water and you were not happy with the water quality. My technician arrived at your home on 4/2/14 and he tested the water and then began to break down the equipment. Your equipment consisted of a liquid chlorine injection pump (which was constantly running and had worn out seals causing it to continually lose its prime and not draw solution), a carbon backwash system (the valve was in continuous regeneration and the carbon/filter media was completely broken down and solidified), and a softener (softener was not metering water flow which would not initiate regeneration, the timer panel was losing power and locking up and the filter media was heavily damaged from hydrogen sulfide and iron). My technician spent close to an hour showing all of this to you and made his recommendations. He was able to temporarily fix the chlorine pump and water softener, but the carbon unit needed a total rebuild or to be replaced. My technician made it VERY CLEAR that the fixes were temporary on the chlorine injection pump and the softener and they should be rebuilt or replaced as well so we could guarantee the water quality - this was all documented on the work order that the customer signed (the water conditions at the home were harsh - very high iron, hardness, and hydrogen sulfide-rotten eggs smell). You chose to rebuild the carbon backwash system only, so my technician began pulling the carbon backwash system from the home so it could be brought back to the shop to be rebuilt. You then decided that you wanted to replace the carbon backwash system before he left your home. So my technician scheduled for you to have the carbon back wash system to be replaced a week later on 4/9/14. He filled out a contract for a new carbon backwash system to be installed and had the customer sign it - which they did (again on the contract he noted that the chlorine injection pump and softener may need additional work or need to be replaced down the road if the water quality did not improve). The customer was fine with just replacing the carbon backwash and said they would wait and see if any additional work needed to be done. So we replaced the carbon backwash on 4/9/14 and my installers made sure the chlorine injection pump and softener were operating properly - they were not. My installers had to re-prime the pump again and reprogram the softener and they made very clear notes on the install work order that the pump and softener were malfunctioning again and made the customer aware of the issue. So, a month later we receive a call on 5/15/14 @ 4pm that the water smells and the softener is losing power. We send a technician out to the home the next morning 5/16/14 @10am at no charge to assess the problem (it was the same technician that was originally at the home because he was familiar with the job). When he arrived the chlorine injection pump would not run and the softener's timer panel was blank and the system was in bypass. My technician again explained to the customer that he could not provide a permanent fix to the systems without rebuilding them or replacing them because of the damage and age of the equipment. The customer decided they wanted to replace the chlorine injection pump and softener, so we scheduled to do so. We set the installation for the following week on 5/23/14 because we had to custom build and test the equipment. We called the customer the day before the installation as we always do to confirm the appointment for the next day, the customer then stated they had no idea what we were talking about and they did not want us to install anything. We reminded the customer that we were just out the week before and at that time we had a contract for the equipment that gave us the approval to build the equipment and that the equipment was built based on there agreement to the contract. The customer finally came around and agreed they gave us the OK to build the equipment and we were not crazy, but they said they no longer wanted it. No mater what I said the customer was very argumentative and began to accuse us of multiple things and used multiple profanities. It was a no win situation for us and no matter what we did we were now the bad guys. The customer used multiple threats on how they were going to trash us on Angie's List and call local news media outlets unless we let them out of the contract, because we do not run a shady operation and I refuse to deal with people like that (they do not deserve a company like us) we did not proceed any further even though we had every legal right to do so. So I am now stuck with $2000 worth of equipment that was built for this customers home that is on well water which means it was highly customized to treat there specific water- so we had to eat the cost of the equipment. I am really confused on how this makes us some one who uses bait and switch tactics like the customer states. We have a spotless record on Angie's List and the BBB and nothing is built without a contract being signed. This customer signed a contract and had us custom build equipment for his home, he then decided to cancel the installation of the equipment at the last minute and instead of being a man he decided to resort to childish tactics to make us look bad and back out of his commitment. The fact of the matter is that I believe in Angie's List and I know that Angie's List members will see this customer for who he really is and understand that we are a legitimate company that does the right thing every day. I have documentation to support all of my claims and we have multiple pictures and video of the customers equipment malfunctioning to support our diagnosis as well as core samples of the filter media that show it is worn out. Unfortunately we can not help the unwilling.