Manning Pool Service Inc

My experience with Manning replacing a failed pool pump had been a comedy of errors and resulted in hundreds of dollars of additional expense to resolve. First, Manning replaced the pool pump and installed a Pentair unit, which was completely incompatible with the rest of my system/automation which are all Jandy products. After some time, they did replace it with a Jandy unit, which soon then after failed and required a repair under warranty. Locating the parts and scheduling Manning to return to my house took several weeks in which time my pool turned green from algae growth. To remediate, this required a full drain of the pool ($1,200 water bill) and Manning was happy to invoice me an additional $700 charge for chemicals for the pool. I do not recommend based on my experience.

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Very prompt and professional response. The price per service was significantly higher then the provider we inherited when purchased our home. We decided to keep him.

Excellent. My pool has never looked better and I have full confidence knowing my pool is being maintained properly. The serviceman always gives me a detailed report on the condition and function of the pool. Punctual, professional, and I could not be happier. It is also comforting that if a problem is found, Manning will detect it and fix it.

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They provided an estimate telling what they would do. They did exactly what we agreed upon in the time indicated with excellent results. The pool and spa look brand new. It was a pleasure dealing with the company both in the planning stages and in the execution of the renovation. I would highly recommend this contractor.

They are still working on it, but came today and I am amazed at how fast they are working. The pool is empty, they are epoxying the surface, and attending to each detail. Good, nice guys.

I called them on Wednesday to arrange for a service call. I was told that I would receive a call back on Thursday morning with an idea of when they could come out. The office could not tell me a time since all of their techs were on service calls. (I'm not clear on why the office cannot set schedules, but that's their business.) On Thursday morning, I waited until 9:45 to get c all, and then called their office again to get an idea of when they would come out. I was told that everyone was still getting into the office, and that she would tell them I called. I finally got a call about 4:00 from a tech, saying he was about 20 minutes away and would arrive shortly. I would have preferred having advance notice, but this seems to be their business practice. When the two techs arrived, they looked at the pump and said it might just need a new seal - and then said they weren't confident that they could get it back together properly when replacing the seal. (This did not inspire my confidence.) They recommended a new motor. They did not have a motor with them, and said their office would call me on Friday to give me an estimate of the repair cost with a new motor. They were onsite for 10 minutes max.On Friday, I got a call from Jeff Manning, saying he was having having trouble locating a pump motor, and suggested that I may want to replace the entire pump instead. I told him I was not interested in replacing the pump if it just needed repair. He said he would look some more.Jeff called back late on Friday, saying that he had been unsuccessful in locating a motor locally, and would need to order it from the factory. He quoted around $1200 for motor and labor. In the meantime, I had researched the price for the motor, so I knew I was being charged list price for the motor. I asked him if the quoted price was list price, and he said it was. At that point, I was getting fed up with this company, so I told him I wanted to look around for another service provider. He said I still owed him for the service call, and I challenged him saying "But they didn't do anything!". He responded "They diagnosed the problem". He also said I owed them for his labor in (unsuccessfully) locating a pump motor locally, since he had spent an hour on the phone trying to find one. (So I pay for them not stocking a part? Huh?) I told him to send me an invoice for the lab or to that point, but not to order anything or schedule a return visit.The next week, after being out of town for 3 days I received an invoice in the mail for $1900, for 2 hours of labor and a whole new pump. I first checked to be sure they had not come while we were gone, despite my explicit instructions to Jeff that I was not authorizing any further work. The old leaky pump was still there; they had not returned, thank goodness. So I called their office to complain, saying they had NOT installed a pump. The office was surprised that they had not replaced the pump on the initial visit - so I'm not sure what was reported by the original techs. She said she would look into it and get back to me.I had not heard anything by the next morning, so I sent an email to make my wished clear. They responded with an invoice for one hour of labor @125/hour. So, I paid about $12.50 per minute of their time onsite to make a shoot from the hip diagnosis (note that they did not even open up the pump). Don't expect any free estimates from them!