Aaron Pools, Inc.

I requested service from [redacted] on a pool pump that had stopped working. They contracted with Aaron Pools, Inc. to come out and do the repair on April 27, 2016. Aaron pools left me a voice mail the day before stating that their technician would be there between 11am and 2pm. I called Wednesday morning and told them I was taking vacation time from work to be there when their technician showed up so that I could give them a check for the trade fee and to discuss with them the issues I was experiencing with the pump prior to it breaking. I also wanted to be available should any other issues arise and I had to make additional decisions. The receptionist from Aaron Pools thanked me and assured me she would pass the information on to their technician. I arrived home at 11:10 am. I had two voicemails on my home phone. One was from the Aaron Pool technician at 10:10 am stating he would be at my house by approximately 10:25 am. The next voicemail was from [redacted] at 10:59 stating my claim had been denied because the technician had deemed the water pump had been submerged in water which voided any warranty. My pool pump is mounted on a concrete pad and the pump mounts raise the casing 2 - 3 INCHES above the concrete pad. There is good drainage on all sides and in the heaviest of storms here in [redacted] I have never seen water accumulate to the point that the pump casing was submerged in water. If that had happened my home would had been flooded as well. If the technician had shown up when he was supposed to, I would had informed him that [redacted], which services my pool on a weekly basis, contacted me 5 week ago to tell me the pump motor was excessively loud which meant the internal bearings were going bad. They told me it would be a matter of time when the pump motor would cease to work and offered to replace the pump for me. I declined because it was covered under my [redacted] had informed me when I signed the service contract that loud pumps are not covered, only those that stopped working so it was useless to call at that time. I received a few complaints from my neighbors on how loud the pump motor was and how awful it sounded. I agreed to change the hours it ran from night time to daytime and assured them as soon as it failed it would be replaced. When it finally failed, it simply quit working. No circuit breakers were popped which would of indicated shorted wires or circuitry due to the pump being submerged or containing excessive moisture within the casing. We had received no rain on the day the pump motor bearings started to show signs of failure and no rain up until the day the bearings failed. The pump was the original pump installed when the pool was built which is a decade old. I am sure there is a test the technician can perform to see if the bearings went bad but I am not sure if it was conducted. All of these questions and facts could have been raised had the technician shown up during the agreed upon time window. Considering the numerous other complaints filed against this company and the poor reviews they have received as a result of their services, it is my opinion they are an unethical company and people should choose other companies to do business with. I have contacted [redacted] and told them that they should re-evaluate their contract with Aaron Pools and partner with someone else, because until they do so I will refuse to consider renewing my service contract with them.

Review: Aaron Pools repaired my pool through a Home warranty company and I authorized them to debit the $45.00 for the first call. After that the home warranty company authorized the reapir, [redacted] from Aaron Pools indicated the cost would be $900.00 and the home warranty company stated they would cover $500.00 of the cost, and I then authorized [redacted] to repair the pool and asked [redacted] how he wanted to cover the other $400.00 and [redacted] stated he would leave a bill which he did and I said good and would send him a check, I also told him NOT to debit my account because I would send check whick I did on May 31st, 2014. I received they check back on June 7th in mail stating that they had debited my account which I DID NOT give them the authority to do, I called their office and spoke with [redacted] and she indicated that they would not put the nmoney back into my account unless I gave them another account number, I said no that I would send back the check. The problem with this whole process is that I NEVER authorized them to TAKE the money and they cannot give me any signed paper that says I did. Also [redacted] indicated that [redacted] does not recall writing on the receipt net 10 days, why is the service company always right ??? This is in my judgement is theft from my account, how do I know that they will not just debit my account when they feel like it? Nothing ever happens to companies when they do something of this nature, but I thought I would send this complaint in to let you know what business practice this company has. [redacted] also indicated to me that they do not play games with their clients, this is not true, if it was they would refund the money and let me send a check as we agreed. [redacted]

Business

Response:

Most of what Mr. [redacted] states is true relating to the home warranty call. He did give us a credit card, however did not state to [redacted] NOT to run the card for the additional work nor stated he would send a check. When the technician's paper work was turned into the office they we received together and as no notation NOT to use the card for payment which had been supplied to us, and no indication the home owner would mail a check, the card which was supplied to us was used for payment. I explained to Mr. [redacted] this may have just been a misunderstanding because the technicians will note if a check is being mailed or not to use the same cc card. Our technicians are excellent at making these notations and Aaron Pools has not stayed in business 35 plus years by theft! I never stated that [redacted] did not recall writing "Net 10 days" because, again, this is noted on every receipt as are payment arrangements. [redacted] stated he did not discuss with Mr. [redacted] that he was sending a check nor was informed not to use the credit card. I would have let Mr. [redacted] come by the office but as irate as he was being we here in the office were fearful! I did ask for another credit card/debit card which I would process immediately. Once that processed through I would refund his original $400 immediately. Mr. [redacted] adamantly refused this option. I also offered that if he preferred to send a check I would refund his credit card as soon as that check cleared. If Mr. [redacted] had the money in his account to cover the check, it seems reasonable the money would be there if we were provided a debit card to that account. Mr. [redacted] again adamantly refused that option as well.

When speaking with him, I did repeatedly state I wanted to get this misunderstanding resolved but there was only one way he would accept and that was to refund his money without an alternate form of payment to Aaron Pools. Aaron Pools would still be amenable to accepting an alternate form of payment and once that payment has completely processed through we would immediately refund his $400.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

[redacted], This is not true that how to make payment was not discussed with [redacted] who is the owner, I called [redacted] after he had installed the new equipment and sent me a picture of it, I responded by asking him how he wanted to handle the $400.00 payment, he said you can call the office or I will leave you an invoice on your table, I indicated that leaving an invoice would be better and not to debit my card without my authorization. That did not happen, I did not know they debited my account until after I received my check back in the mail. As far as I am concerned they debited my account without any authorization and they also debited an account that I did not want the money taken from. As far as being irate with them that is not true was I upset absolutely, they debited my account with out my authorization, in my belief that is stealing. They also would not give me an address where I could come and retrieve all my information, why? [redacted] also indicated that she did not care that I could not come by their office because they have been in business and did not really care what I thought. She did indicate that she would refund the money back to my account if I gave her another card number and I said no thank you, because I could not be sure that they would refund my account after they had already committed theft in my opinion, so no I would not give them a new card number and I said I would send them back the check once they refunded the money in my account and [redacted] said no way. So again I had no confidence in their business nor in way that they handle customers. The right thing to do would have been to credit my account then I would have sent them the check back, but [redacted] said that from the owner [redacted] we will never do that, so how do you trust or believe anything they say or do? What they did in my opinion was fraud.

Business

Response:

In response to Mr. [redacted]'s latest reply, I only relayed to Mr. [redacted] that [redacted] stated he was not instructed not to use the credit card provided to our office. I did not tell Mr. [redacted] that I did not care what he thought of our company but did say that Aaron Pools has been in business over 35 years. Again, a company does not stay in business all that time by stealing from customers. I offered what we considered several fair resolutions to the misunderstanding in that Mr. [redacted] could send us a check and once that check cleared we would gladly refund his credit card. If he gave us another card to use for payment, of course, I would immediately refund to his original card. We are members of the Revdex.com and are members in good standing with ROC. Taking into consideration the numerous messages left on our answering machine over the weekend when we state on our message we are not open on weekends, hearing Mr. [redacted] during numerous conversations, and not personally knowing Mr. [redacted], we of course were reluctant to have this gentleman come to our office what with all the violence at businesses and schools. I would like to think he was not a danger to us, but it certainly is something which needs to be considered. Our office is NOT open to the public and VERY rarely do we have ANY customer come into our office. I apologized to Mr. [redacted] more than once and offered everything we could to resolve the misunderstanding but he refused every possibility. The only thing he would accept was his solution and, again, could we trust Mr. [redacted] to pay us after all his allegations? Again, I have to wonder if the money was in fact in there to cover the check, a simple solution would have been to simply transfer the money on his end. Although we did not want to impose on him to take care of it on his end with a transfer, it may have been one of the simplest solutions. We do not know what more we could have done to rectify this matter. All offers were rejected by Mr. [redacted].

Review: I called Aaron Pools regarding a pool leak and was told to call AZ Leak Detection. On June 28, 2012 we had [redacted] from Az Leak Detection come to our home to check our pool for a leak as we were losing more than the usual amt of water on a daily basis. The owner of Az Leak Detection was the one who checked for the leak. He told us that the skimmer plug was missing and that is why we had this leak. I immediately contacted Aaron Pools and spoke to Stephanie. She said she would inform [redacted]. We were asked to provide the invoice/report from [redacted] and we did so. The report was received as I made a call and asked. No response from Mike - we had to pay $225 for the leak check. I called again on July 17, to alert Stephanie that we sent a copy of the invoice to them. On 8/22 I sent a letter to Aaron Pools via email and asked for a reponse to acknowledge that it had been received and did not get one.

We are requesting that [redacted] reimburse us for the $225 fee, as [redacted] told us that there is no way it could come out on its own and that it is extemely difficult to remove.

We receive pool service every week from Aaron Pools and have had dissatifactory service at times. We can't say if one of the techs who came to clean the pool may have removed this plug. After several efforts to contact [redacted], I basically let the issue go for awhile. However, this is the 11th month since making the complaint. I called again May 12 (2013) and spoke to Stephanie. She was surprised this hadn't been resolved and said she would leave a message on Mike's desk where he wouldn't miss seeing it. He didn't respond. I called again last Friday, 5/24 and spoke to Stephanie again. She said she would put us on Mike's schedule so that he would have to come by to talk to us. She said she'd call back and let me know when he would be coming. Since she did not call back I took the initiative to call her this morning and she said he is scheduled to be at our house between 1:00 and 3:00 PM today, Tuesday, May 28th. He did NOT show up and he did NOT have the courtesy to call and let us know he would NOT be here. I believe he has deliberately avoided resolving this issue for the last 11 months. We are only asking for reimbursement for the $225 fee we had to pay to Az Leak Detection. Obviously our water bill was higher due to the water leak. I know that the office closes at 4:00PM and have waited until 5:00 to hear from Mike. I will call again tomorrow and speak with Stephanie.Desired Settlement: We would like [redacted] to speak with us and to reimburse the $225 we had to pay to Az Leak Detection since this inspection would not have been necessary if the skimmer plug were in place.

Review: Aaron pools was contacted by my home warranty company to repair my pool heat pump. When I scheduled the appointment I explicitly told then it was a heat. When the technician showed up he told me they do not work on heat pumps at all. I was then billed a $75 service fee.Desired Settlement: I want a refund of the $75.00 for the service fee.

Business

Response:

We were contacted by Mr. [redacted] home warranty company to do a repair on his heater. When we scheduled the appointment the failure that was explained to us, was that the panel to the heater was not reading and nothing was said about a heat pump. We don't work on heat pumps and the home warranty company doesn't cover for heat pumps. If Mr. [redacted] wants a refund for the $75 service fee, that is something that he needs to take up with his home warranty company, since they are the ones charging him the service fee. That is a contract between him and the home warranty company.

I would give them 5 stars if there was a star rating scale of 1-to-5. AHS my home warranty company assigned my request for service on my pool to Aaron Pools. The called the same day (Tuesday) to set appointment for Thursday. I received a call Wednesday afternoon saying Mike, the technician would be out between 10 & noon. I asked if he could call when he was on his way & the girl said of course. Mike called about 9:15 or so & said he was running early if that would be okay he would be here in about 15-20 minutes. He not only came earlier than expected, but had pump motor on his truck so replaced dead pump motor & all repairs were completed in about 30 minutes. All is good! Pump back up & running. Mike was very professional and pleasant. I would recommend them anytime for pool repairs based on the service I received from them.

Review: I purchased an LED pool light from [redacted] with the intention of replacing an existing faulty light. Upon removing the existing light I quickly realized I would need the assistance of a professional pool service company. Aaaron pools was consulted and advised they would be able to install the light for an agreed upon fee. They advised the task was simple as long as there were no blockages with the existing line. The existing wiring was left intact and the new light was left in its origianl packaging to include the 100' cord being zip tied to the housing.

On Friday, February 27th two technicians arrived and were supplied the light in the original packaging along with all the included instructions and warranty paperwork. After approximatley 1/2 hour the technician asked me if the original on/off switch was functional along with the remote control. I advised they were in working order as of that week. The technician advised they were having difficulty turning the new unit on. Later the technician returned and advised we were given a faulty light and we needed to deal with the company who sold us the light. Based on this we paid the technician for his services and proceeded to call the supplier.

We were directed to the manufacturer, [redacted], to file a warranty claim. Upon contacting [redacted] they asked several questions about the installation. One of the questions asked if there was a transformer installed as the light was a low voltage light and operated on 12 volts. We were unable to ansewer this question at the time and needed to refer to Aaron Pools. Aaron Pools was contacted and advised they only installed the light provided by the homeowner. We were then told the Technician would call us for furhter details.

We failed to receive a call back and on Monday I called Aaron pools and ultimately spoke a techinician. The technician advised he installed the light I supplied and this was their common practice. The technician simply repeated this same statement several times when he was asked additional questions. Therefore, the technician wired the 12 volt light into the 120 volt line.

After speaking with technician I spoke to the manager/owner Mr. [redacted]. Mr. [redacted] called me within minutes after speaking with the technician. I explained to him the situation which he was already very familiar with. He advised this was my fault for purchasing the wrong light. However, he did admit that this light would have been the appropriate light if a transformer were to have been installed. He advised his complany had a "moderate amount of liability" but he would not replace the light. At this point it was understood the light was burned out by the excesive voltage. Mr. [redacted] would only agree to waive the service fee. He offered to discount the price on a replacement light but this was basically my fault. Mr. [redacted] became quite upset and informed me I was an example of the problems with our society as I wanted to hold other responsible for their actions.

In conclusion, I hired Aarons pool company to properly install a light I had purchased from [redacted] as I felt I did not have the knowledge to complete this installation. Aaron Pool company agreed and a technician responded to the house. He did not identify that the light was 12 volts even though it was properly identified on the box and instruction mannual, which were provided to him. The technician installed the 12v light into a 120v line burning out the new light.Desired Settlement: Aaron Pool company should replace the light burned out with an identical new light and waive the service fee.

Business

Response:

We were dispatched to Mr. [redacted]'s home through a home warranty company for a motor not working. When scheduling the appointment we were asked if we could also look at installing a light he had purchased.We showed up at the agreed upon appointment time and quickly repaired his motor and looked at his light.The home owner had already removed the old light and purchased a new one online. We usually don't like to get involved with situation where an internet mechanic has already dismantled something and ordered his own parts. Trying to be nice,we agreed to install the light he purchased for $89. Again the home owner already removed the old light and opened the new light and removed it from the box.We installed the light as directed. After installation we realized the light did not work. Upon further inspection we noticed the home owner ordered the wrong light. He ordered a 12v light for a 120v system, both the 12v and the 120v lights appear the same externally. We informed him he could order a transformer to make that light work, or if he ordered the right light we would install it for free. We do not know if the current light is damaged due to the incorrect currant or not. We did not charge the home owner for our time as a courtesy. The home owner is now requesting we supply him a free $500 light, since he give us the wrong one to install. That is obviously not reasonable and he is clearly looking for someone to blame for his mistake.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.The business did not propose a resolution and the information provided was not factual. The technician was provided the new LED light inside the factory packaging which was clearly labeled 12v. I personally handed these items to the technician. In addition he was provided the instruction booklet which stated on page one a transformer was needed when installing the light into 120v. Also the original light was provided as it was left within 3 feet of the pool light housing upon the technicians arrival.