Aqua Purification Inc.

In December 2012, Aqua Purification, Inc., was contacted by Mrand Mrs*** *** of *** ***They had terrible water and wanted a solution to make it usable and drinkableAfter our sales technician checked their water, it was found to be grains hard and the total dissolved solids
numbered ppm which made it very salty, and there was a trace of ironAfter some serious research, the equipment we found to make these problems much better was rejected by the ***'s because their budget would allow only $10,to be spent, not the $13,that we quotedSince this type of problem is not in our expertise, we relied on our supplier, Applied Membranes out of Vista, Calif., for help, because of their dealing with these types of water problems since After several calls from and to *** ***, their sales representative, he was able to recommend equipment which he stated would do the job and stay within the ***'s budget(see enclosed copy of quotation.) Included in the price was a commercial water softener, capable of handling the hardness of grains per gallonAlso included were two chlorinators, a carbon dechlorinator, and a mixing tank as well as several components that would make the installation completeIt was very important for Mr*** to do the scheduled maintenance on all the equipment to keep it working correctlyHe agreedThe warranty from Applied Membranes was one year and we also included our own one year free laborAs it turned out, we covered labor for two years and also replaced two R/pumps and membranes for this unit, which would not have been necessary if the required maintenance had been ***eWe supplied Mr*** with cleaning kits for the membranes, should he ever notice low pressureWhen he did notice pressure drops, he took it upon himself to readjust controls on the unit to make it workThe result caused the unit to run harder and hotter, ruining the membranesIn spite of this, we replaced the membranes at No ChargeMr*** claims that we promised "forever" free service and parts, but no company can do this, especially with water as bad as they have, After repeated service calls, which we feel were caused by the customers trying to fix the problems themselves and which were ***e at no charge, we finally felt that the customers were not performing their duties and when the 11/pump went out again after a few months, we refused to pay for itOur pretreatment equipment was working fineThe customer talked to Applied Membranes and were told by one of the Technicians, Joseph, that the equipment we sold them would never workHow can that be, when their own salesperson, ***, is the one who recommended the equipmentAgain, view the quotationNow the retest that the ***'s had ***e had excessive amounts of iron and other things that would certainly make this equipment failAfter *** *** had a conversation with the owner of Culligan in *** and ***, in which he stated that their test results were incorrect and they would send the corrected resultsWe then sent one of our service techs to recheck the waterHe contacted the owner there and tested the water againThe results were just as identical regarding the hardness and iron and total dissolved solids as beforeIt appears the tests ***e were very inaccurateWhen dealing with water problems of this magnitude, there cannot be anything such as light maintenanceKeeping up with the different types of equipment and their requirements can be costly and time consuming, but very much a part of daily checks to ensure that the equipment is working properlyWe feel that we have performed our duties way beyond the call of duty and now feel that the very company of Applied Membranes is trying to stay out of this problem when it was them who recommended this piece of equipment to begin withThe cost of $10,is divided as such, the cost of our supplied equipment was $7,and the cost of the R/was $3,000.00, which was Aqua Purification's cost with no mark upApplied Membrane is offering some credit on the unit and that will be between the ***'s and Applied MembraneOur equipment worked fine, but the ***'s are not maintaining it with salt and filter changes, so that will cause extensive damage and or repairAt this point, we are still willing to service Mr***'s units, but we will not incur any more expense on repairs or replacementsIf Applied Membrane decides the unit should be returned for evaluation, we will pack the unit up and send it to them, but Applied Membrane must pay for the shipping.Sincerely,Aqua Purification, Inc

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:Aqua Purification’s response to this issue includes many statementsFirst, wehave been doing all of the maintenance that was required of us and moreWewatched the gauges daily to ensure the pressures were within rangeWhen wenoticed a pressure change, we promptly contacted Aqua PurificationWe changedthe filters more often than what was required to make sure that there were noproblems coming from dirty filtersOn top of that, from the beginning, we havebeen putting 9+ forty pound bags of salt into the softener every week! We neverran it without saltWe contacted the manufacturer of the water softener andthey told us that this softener can only handle a max of grains of hardnessand that with our level of hardness there would be bleed byThis in returncaused the RO to scale up on top of the excessive TDS***, a representativeof Kinetico, the manufacturer of the softener, said that if the water goinginto the softener was within range, we would not have to put near this amountof salt in itJust the fact that the softener was eating this much salt is ahuge indicator that our water is just too hard for the softener that AquaPurification installedWhen we bought this equipment, Aqua Purification told us how low maintenance the systems should beI have included a copy of the letter they gave us when we bought the systemsIt specifies 6-minutes a monthWe spent more time than this daily due to all the problems we have hadAs far as the cleaning products that Aqua Purification left with us, we were told towatch the gauges daily to make sure the pressure did not go over poundsIfit did, we were told to use the cleaning cartridges to descale the membraneWekept a close watch on these gauges, checking them at least once a day,sometimes moreThe pressure did not go over the pound markThe pump juststopped working twice within monthsIn response to the amount of time and money Aqua Purification has spent repairing theequipment for the past two years, this was due to the agreement that we madewith *** *** about a year agoWe were having several problems with thesystemsThe RO kept shutting off and we were constantly dealing with losingwaterAfter having several problems with ***, the manager at AquaPurification, not returning our calls, we asked to speak to the owner***spoke with us at length about the many problems we were havingWe asked him toallow us to return the equipment and refund us because we obviously were notgetting what we had paid for*** told us that he could not afford to take ahit on the equipment by refunding usHe told us at that time, his company hadbought a few systems from Applied Membranes and that they were having problemswith all of themHe said that Aqua Purification would stand by us and continueto work on our systems without charging us for labor or parts until the issueswere resolved and the systems were in working orderHe said he knew it wasunfair to us to be dealing with these problems after paying $10,forequipment that was supposed to filtering our water without continuous problems.He did not say he would do this indefinitely, nor did we expect him toTherewas no timeframe set in place, only his word to continue fixing whatever issuecame up until the systems were working the way they shouldHowever, we didexpect him to keep his word and make sure our systems were workingOur systemshave NEVER gone more than a few weeks without messing upHe knew there wereproblems and was willing to eat the costs of repairs and parts in order tofigure out what was wrong and get it fixedNow, after years of nothing butproblems, and now that the manufactures of both systems are saying that AquaPurification installed equipment that could not handle our difficult water, ***wants to back away from it all and not honor our agreementThese systems cannotbe fixedThey are just not capable of filtering our water withoutmalfunctioningAlso, from the beginning, we have only dealt with Aqua PurificationOnly recently have wecontacted the manufacturers to find out what their opinions wereWe were relyingon the expertise of Aqua Purification to know what they were talking aboutWehired them to fix our water problems and they informed us that they could by usingthese systemsThe conversations they had with Applied Membranes have nothingto do with usAqua Purification is the company that we bought the equipmentfromApplied Membranes is a company that sells equipment to dealers and doesnot typically do business directly with the end userSo, for us to expect themanufacturer to refund us is incorrectThe refund should come from AquaPurification to usWhat Applied Membranes and Aqua Purification decide betweenthem is their concern, not oursIf Applied Membranes did in fact recommend thewrong equipment to Aqua Purification, then that is an argument between them.That should not affect the wrongful actions of Aqua Purification towards usItwas Aqua Purification’s job to make sure they were selling us the properequipmentThey failed to do soTherefore, it is their responsibility torefund usWe know from Aqua Purification’s own maintenance man, ***, and the manager, ***, andthe owner, ***, that they are having problems with all the systems theyinstalled from Applied MembranesAre they claiming that all of us are notdoing the proper maintenance? This is just an outright lieFor them to evenclaim that we are not doing the proper maintenance is just them grasping atstraws trying to blame everyone else for their mistakesWould it make sensefor a business to continue doing repairs and replacing parts at no cost for 2years if the customer was not doing proper maintenance? No, they would not.This proves our pointAqua Purification knew that there were problems with theoperation of our systems and that is why they were willing to keep coming outand making adjustments, repairs, and replacementsNow that it is adding up andwe have proven that they installed the improper equipment, they want to try tofind any way possible to attempt to put blame on the customer and manufacturers.Aqua Purification cannot argue with the companies who built the equipment that theyare installingBoth of the manufactures, Kinetico and Applied Membranes, are inagreement with us that these systems will not workThey have clearly statedAqua Purification should not have recommended and installed these systemsWeeven had a 3rd party water treatment specialist company come out,take water samples and send them to a lab that tested our water thoroughly.They also concluded that our water was too difficult for the equipment thatAqua Purification recommended and installed Furthermore, Aqua Purification did not even respond to our complaints about their customerserviceIn our last conversation, *** raised his voice and told us to shut upor he would never speak to us againWe told him that he could not speak to usin that manner, and *** said, "I'm rich! I ***'t have to put up withidiots like you!" He then hung up on usHe called the maintenance manthat was at our house and told him to tell us that his company would never beback out to my house again and would refuse to even resolve this issue.Businesses that treat their customers in this manner do not deserve to have anA+ rating nor should they be an accredited business with the Revdex.comIf the Revdex.comallows businesses like this to be accredited, customers will no longer rely onthe Revdex.com for guidance as to which companies to use because the scores would beunreliableWe want Aqua Purification to refund us in full for the equipment we purchased from thembased on their water treatment expertise and recommendationsWe only want whatis fairWe bought equipment that they said would fix our problems and thatthey installedNow that we have proven the systems will not do what they saidit would, they owe us a refund in exchange for all the equipment theyinstalled
Regards,
*** ***

After much consideration and thought, I contacted *** at Applied Membranes and had a very productive conversation with himI was able to learn many aspects of the actual parameters in water chemistry to allow certain membranes to function properlyI learned about using a descaler to assist the membrane processNow be advised our expertise is pretreatment of water, so this is why the membrane technology was left up to Applied MembranesI also had a lengthy conversation with the owner of Culligan Water ConditioningHe agreed that the most recent water tests were inaccurateHe would correct the test and forward information to the ***'sNow I was ready to contact Mr*** and *** ***Mrs*** answered the phone and I was able to convey my many thoughts and possible solutions regarding their equipmentFirst of all, I offered to have an analysis of their water performed at my expenseThis would allow Applied Membranes to check the parameters of the existing reverse osmosisNow Applied Membranes agreed that if we were able to get the right pretreatment, their R/O would be able to perform correctlyThe existing water conditioner has never been an issue and is fully capable of softening the ***'s waterVarious tests have placed the softener's performance as satisfactoryThere are now, at this point, factors involving water changes that may have caused differences in the water production, so we will retest with an independent lab to verify those changesMrs*** was very pleasant and agreed to our proposed solutions for getting her water back to a usable state, utilizing the existing equipmentWe will get started on this as early as next week

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me if the business follows through on its promises. We would like the complaint to remain open until all problems are fixed and our equipment is in working order.
[redacted], owner of Aqua Purification, contacted me in regards to this complaint with his proposal of fixing the situation. He said that he is willing to do anything necessary to pretreat our water supply to get it within the parameters needed in order for the reverse osmosis system to work properly. He then plans on replacing any parts that need to be replaced in order for the systems to work properly. He stated very clearly that he is willing to do this at his expense and that we would not be required to spend any more money to fix the problem. He also guaranteed me that he would offer a warranty on all the equipment including parts and labor for an agreed upon length of time after the issue at hand is resolved. Applied Membranes, manufacturer of the reverse osmosis, has stated previously that the reverse osmosis system can not function properly with our current water supply based on the last water analysis we had performed. [redacted] has offered to do another water analysis to verify exactly what is in the water. At this point, we are willing to allow Aqua Purification to retest the water and determine what needs to be [redacted]e in order to pretreat the water and get it usable for the reverse osmosis. If the water is in fact able to be pretreated and brought to a usable state for the reverse osmosis system to work properly, and Aqua Purification is willing to install all the equipment needed to do so at their cost, we are willing to resolve this complaint. However, if the proposed pretreatment process is going to cost us any additional money, then we would want the refund that we have already requested. We can not afford to spend any more money on additional equipment or monthly maintenance. [redacted] also apologized for telling me to shut up during our last conversation. He admitted that he believes that the problems we are experiencing with the equipment is in no way our fault. He explained that their company is on a learning curve with this type of reverse osmosis and that they are willing to do anything and everything possible to get our water to the point it needs to be using our existing equipment and adding pretreatment equipment as needed at their expense. As long as [redacted] keeps his word and promises, we will be satisfied with this resolution. We would like for this complaint to be left open until the issue has been completely resolved.  
Regards,
[redacted]