Community Update

Ok, first some quick background. I have a large swimming pool which I maintained myself until June of 2012 when I fell seriously and traumatically ill, leaving me hospitalized for over a year. I am still on a slow mend both physically and mentally as I write this.

Needless to say our pool fell by the wayside and remained closed for two years. Given the fact I can no longer deal with our pool myself I decided to hire a company to open, close, and maintain the pool over the summer season.

I sadly bypassed Angie’s List and opted for National Pools of Hillsborough because I had been buying my supplies from them for over a decade. What proceeded was one of the worst customer service experiences I think I’ve ever encountered. From workers not showing up at the appointed time, then not at all, without so much as a call from the company. I had to call them and speak to Robert (the world’s worst customer service rep) and hear lame excuses describing just how utterly disorganized this company is.

They finally showed up and pumped out the pool and asked me to fill it for the next 15 or so hours. I did and the pool was crystal clear. Then they didn’t come back, and didn’t come back, so I called Robert the Terrible to find if they were actually in the business of working on pools or whether this whole thing was a hoax.

To make a long story short, Robert expended all his capital by essentially blaming me, the customer for their failure to perform the agreed upon work. After his tirade, he tried to calmly go on as if I was going to sign a contract with National. I calmly told him to send back my deposit and that I would seek the service of a real pool company elsewhere.

Perhaps that was a bit flip on my part, but I was pretty mad about the whole thing and I don’t deal with emotional situations all that well right now due to my PTSD. All I know is that I wouldn’t hire these clowns to run a bath for me.

I highly recommend that anyone who is seeking a pool maintenance company that you really check them out on Angie’s List or one of those services, or at least the BBB. There are too many reputable people in the pool business, why settle for the bottom of the barrel, which IMHO is what National Pools represents.

Good Luck.