Smaller pool companies are much better then big franchise

Does anyone have the same experience with smaller pool companies serve much better then bigger franchise? specifically older serviceman’s are much professional then those young one’s

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Welcome to the community @Armondo

If you are thinking of engaging a pool contractor to install a pool, I strongly suggest that you ask for contact details of recent customers who used the company to do a similar pool installation. Being from Queensland, we had some friends who engaged contractors from the phone book without checks and had problems with the installation or the pool after installation. Others who asked for referees and the companies who provided them, seemed to have less problems.

The size of the company possibly won’t impact on the quality of a pool as there will be good and not so good tradespersons in businesses or any size. This is why background checking with past customers is critical.

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Hi & welcome Armondo

Are you referring to pool maintenance or pool installation companies?

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Installing a pool.

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Looks like we are talking about pool maintenance when,

Our experience after three swimming pools in very different locations.

  1. Some owners are largely self sufficient and simply need a place or choice of suppliers for chemicals and equipment parts.

  2. For some the interest or knowledge base runs out beyond the basic pool water chemistry lesson and how to set up the pool cleaner.

  3. The remainder are happy to rely on a 100% delivered service by a pool business. Franchisees such as Swimart etc or a less obviously aligned local pool shop which will still operate through one or more wholesale distributors.

Our experiences were varied with at least one local pool shop part of a national chain providing good advice and service as needed. The more independent businesses appear to be a mix of those who know and those who don’t. Having known personally one such owner one of their biggest concerns was finding and keeping reliable service staff. The owner was a business person first, electrician second and pool expert after the fact. (The service staff were treated as an overhead and not a profit centre. Profit came from the markup on chemicals, parts etc.)

It was never certain in our experience that service when called upon would be reliable. It was always expensive to out source when I was away from home. Perhaps the older staff had developed a better poolside manner?

For those not living in the urban sprawl of Oz we found the options very limited. It may be difficult to generalise. The more one can learn about looking after your pool the less likely unfair advantage will be taken. It may even save money if there is time to do more yourself.

That is well said but Swimart or even poolwerx? ohh no no ,as many of my friends and their experiences as with young pool technicians without any millage on their problem solving issues and just follow the sales force from their employer to build a unnecessary invoices is clear indication that older one’s with experience accumulated are more useful for these franchise weeded shops growing everywhere without having sufficient personal to carry the tasks forward and build a reputable trust with their customers with providing correct and precise needs of equipment or services and this is not limited conversation for maintenance only but building as well, that is why so many cases dragged to tribunals and insurance companies claims.
I am sure you will find a reasonable answers without pretext marketing material available on websites reviews

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I think you also may get the award for the longest sentence in a single post. :slightly_smiling_face:

Do you have specific examples you can share of a pool service, the company and location, and how it failed to meet reasonable expectations?

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it is maybe coincident that your impressions and directions towards Swimart retail like marketing views but I am not saying they do not deliver what they should,do not misunderstand me ,my original review was all my conversations with those they had experiences like with young servicemen s were more sales and no understanding of their products they forcing unnecessary to customers but I had few older servicemen that they were so knowledgeable then my expectations and that was great