Neal's Water Conditioning

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It started off well. The previous home owner has leased a water softener from Neal's, and it was left in the home for us to try out for 30 days when we moved in. Having had one in our other home, we thought it was a nice addition. However, the unit didn't work as well as our last unit did so we opted to not use them. When we called, they offered to come out and look at it and give us another 30 days. They came, said the unit was okay, added more salt and went on there way.
After not seeing a difference in a couple of weeks of running water through it, I looked up the model we had and not only was it an outdated model, but it was not sized appropriately for the home/family. It was a unit sized for a 2-3 person family...previous owners was a family of 4. The home is 3400 sq ft, 4 BR 3.5 bath.
After calling and asking for it to be removed due to it not working, they came out and acknowledged it was an old unit, and undersized for us and they would order us a larger unit and let us try that one. When pressed, they said they didn't have the tools to remove it and would need to re-schedule that...and would just bring us a new unit then.
I called the office and informed them they would need to be here Monday to pick their unit up at the curb. Since they are unable to fulfill our request, I will remove it myself.
This is where I was really surprised. When they installed the unit, they failed to install the softener bypass valve that not only permits bypass in the event the unit is damaged, clogged, or other wise broken...but it also permits its future removal while still permitting water flow into the home.
So my removal turned into a replacement. I headed to Lowe's in Cedar Rapids, told them what happened and what I was dealing with, and for $650 I left with a properly sized unit, bypass valve and metal hoses, salt, and tools needed. Since Neal's had braized their unit directly into the plumbing, it was absorbing all the heat and would not permit proper removal and I had to saw it out (~2 hours). Once removed, it took roughly 30 minutes to install the new unit and get water flowing.
We interacted with a couple of people there, including the owner and was just appalled at their lack of customer service. And from a price perspective....leasing at $70/mo * 3 years = $2,520....buying my own unit, with what I estimate to be my 3 year salt cost is $650 (initial buy) + $42*6*3 (salt every 2 months) = $1406.....roughly 1/2 the price and that assumes the unit would fail at 2 years or need major maint. My last unit was good for at least 5 years.

Installation process went well for the most part. The mounting of the filters for the drinking water system was somewhat unstable and has proven to be an issue since when it comes time to change the filters. We have not esperienced any equipment problems and water quality is good.

We've rented a water softener from Neal's for about a year. We decided to upgrade our softener, so we called them to discuss it. They came out the next day to test our water and recommend a system. Once we decided on a new one, they came out the next day to install it. They've always been punctual and friendly.