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You really have been very kind to many of the responders, and you have also laid out your priorities.
So, add up all the bills, have a sit down, face to face, serious conversation with Brian and explain what it costs, and that you don't wish to hurt him such that he goes out of business. Whatever he charges you per month, divide the amount you have incurred by his rate and tell him he will be servicing your pool for that many months at HIS EXPENSE until the debt is paid off. Be very firm. No negotiating or squabbling. Be honest that you appreciate his service aside from this event.
That is very fair. You save him his company and continue to have an otherwise good pool guy.
Thanks for your kind response. I can't have a face to face with Brian, as I won't be back in the states until November. I do like your advice, it is very common sense and fair, but as a softie it's hard for me to be firm. I will have to rehearse before calling him!
The young man (Brian) who takes care of our swimming pool once a week was adding water to our pool with the garden hose, and he forgot to turn it off when he left. I arrived at this home 5 days later, saw the water running, and knew we would have a very expensive bill.
When the water bill came, it was for 48,000 gallons (we normally use 1000 gallons or less because this is not our primary residence), at a cost of $418, which I let Brian know. He offered to give me one month of free pool service, but that is only $200. I told him I would see if the water company would give me a price adjustment (they did, down to $225).
Then a couple weeks later I remembered that our billing for water and sewer had recently been changed, and is now administered by two different companies. Our sewer bill arrived, and it was for $550! So I called Brian back, and told him about the additional $550 but that I would apply for a "pool fill credit." (still waiting to hear back about that). Brian just said something vague like "Well, hopefully we can work something out." He has never offered to cover the bills whatever they are.
THEN I realized that the day the water meter was read was on the third day out of the five that my garden hose was running non-stop. This means my NEXT month's water bill and sewer bill will also be extremely high. (And the price adjustment thing can only be requested once per year, so they will be due in full.)
I hate that the expenses I'm reporting to Brian just keep growing and growing. He's a very nice and polite kid (probably 20-something) who is trying to get this new pool business going, and I'm going to have probably over $1000 of bills, because he forgot to turn off our water. I'm bothered by the fact that he hasn't offered to pay whatever the water and sewer bills are for the two months. But I am currently living out of the country, good pool guys are hard to find (he's good other than this one lapse), and I probably need him more than he needs my business.
Should we insist he pay the total bills (minus a small portion for our household water use the few days we were there)? Or perhaps split it 50-50 as a gesture of goodwill since we do want to keep him as our pool guy? Why am I feeling guilty for expecting him to pay? (Ah, I know the answer: because we are older and financially secure, and the thousand bucks will hurt him a lot more than it would hurt us. Should that be relevant?)
This happened to my a long time ago. One of my employees turned on the water to fill a pool while he was servicing it. He was trained to leave his truck keys on the faucet so he wont forget to turn it off when he's done servicing the pool. Well, he didn't do that and it was labor day weekend and left the water on for 4 days (full blast). Owner came back and found his back yard flooded but thank god it didn't do any damage to his house or neighbors. I ended up firing the employee because he wouldn't take responsibility for it. I ended up paying the water bill which was $980 and they agreed to keep my services since they knew it was an honest mistake. I ended up selling them an autofill unit so we wouldn't have this problem again.
There are other pool guys around and it was Brian's mistake so I think he should compensate you. Don't feel that you don't have any other choice out there. There will be another company that would appreciate your business.
Where do you live that you pay $200 a month for pool service? Mine is $75.
I own a pool service company and price ranges from size of pool and difficulty of the service. My prices range from $55 a month to $300 a month. I have some pools which are weekly rentals (air bnb) are basically commercial accounts and they will be $200 + a month. I also have some pools that are 50,000+ gallons and have a lot of trees and debris that can take 1 hour to clean and uses a good amount of chemicals.
I would consider an automatic pool full. Any modern pool comes equipped with that. In fact they started doing that decades ago and the days of filling pools with garden hoses are long over, for exactly this reason.
I would consider an automatic pool full. Any modern pool comes equipped with that. In fact they started doing that decades ago and the days of filling pools with garden hoses are long over, for exactly this reason.
Thanks, I had not heard of these, but will look into it.
You pay $75 for weekly pool service?? Our guy is there for at least an hour every week. Maybe your pool has more automation so your pool guy doesn't have as much to do.
My previous lady (the one I got rid of because she wasn't doing a good job) was charging me $75 a WEEK! I started out using her because the previous homeowner used her, and with me not living there, it seemed easier just to keep the person who was already familiar with that pool. I did think $75 a week was high, but $50 seems reasonable based on what I've seen online.
Count yourself lucky for getting it done so inexpensively! I do look forward to living at that house and being my own "pool guy" again. Quite easy to do with all the information at the Troublefree Pool website.
I pay $75 a month for weekly service. This is in Fort Lauderdale. It is very competative.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AA702
I own a pool service company and price ranges from size of pool and difficulty of the service. My prices range from $55 a month to $300 a month. I have some pools which are weekly rentals (air bnb) are basically commercial accounts and they will be $200 + a month. I also have some pools that are 50,000+ gallons and have a lot of trees and debris that can take 1 hour to clean and uses a good amount of chemicals.
One of my weekly rentals is a Tri Plex and all three units have use of the pool and it is $75 per month.
No help at all, but I wish that I had a pool and a guy.
Hahaha this is awesome, made me chuckle.
We are building out the backyard pool / hot tub / fire pit now. Excavation finished Saturday (our house is new construction so they leave you with a dirt back yard), pluming trenches dug Monday, and plumbing going in Tuesday and Wednesday, electric Thursday. We have a small back yard, which we chose because the lot has an amazing view (unobstructed Las Vegas Strip / mountains), but it’s big enough for a 13x26 pool and 7x7 hot tub plus a large fire pit and that’s enough for us. Less maintenance and that’s enjoyable outdoor space, at least.
We did go with all upgrades on the pool so it’s UV, self-cleaning heads that come out and clean the pool without needing a robot pool sweep, self-filling pool, and also electric heating. Gas heating is faster (3x) but much more expensive and less efficient. It only makes sense if you rarely use your pool like on weekends only or pool parties, that kind of thing. Almost everyone is forced into gas heating because the pool companies default to that, but it didn’t make sense for us at all. I work from home so for me for the 8 months a year or so of swimming weather I intend to swim almost daily. I didn’t want to pay $500/month for gas heating mid-March through mid-May and October through mid-November. Plus we will have solar power so it just made more sense.
$75 is cheap and can be done with a small pool. Trust me if the pool is a large pool $75 wouldn't cover the labor and chemicals. What is the minimum wage in your area?
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