Delivery problems with a certain pool company.

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TangoOversway

TangoOversway

Active member
Jul 19, 2019
39
Richmond, VA, USA
I ran into a situation I think I should alert people considering an above ground pool to consider.

As most people know it's almost impossible to find a pool for sale right now. The choices now are slim. I finally ordered a pool for $450. Shipping was over $300 from a company that can be found online as well as at stores such as Wal-mart and Sams. (If you want the company name please PM me and I will share it there.)

I have worked with many contractors before getting large deliveries. I've dealt with a large number of deliveries ranging from small stuff in an envelope to dumpsters, 20 ton loads of dirt or gravel, stacks of roof trusses, large coils of 1,250' of conduits for underground wiring and water, lumber, a pool table, all our furniture, concrete in big concrete mixers, lots of loads of railroad ties, and much more.

Before dealing with this pool company, I have never had to fight with anyone to get something delivered in a sane, safe way.

The pool company informed me they specify curbside delivery and don't pay for more. (This was AFTER my order when we were working out delivery.) Seriously, after paying over $300 for shipping, I should have been wined and dined. I figured I would talk to the delivery company. I've paid less for bigger items.

A few days later at 7 AM, I get a call from the delivery company to work out when they should deliver my pool next week when it gets in. (I know many contractors are at work at 7 AM, but I've always made sure, in my business, to never call a customer before 9 AM unless I know they'll be up.)

He explains they do ONLY curbside. I can't pay for more. I explain we don't have a curb, that it's dangerous to try to unload from the road as it is a narrow country road that people tend to speed on. He finally says, "We can back in or drive in if you have a strong driveway." Again, he goes through "curbside only" several times. Also emphasizing that's what the pool company is paying for. For $300 you would think they would bring it onto the property and put it where I wanted it.

Add to the problem there is no delivery window, just business hours for the whole day. I tell him I have appointments the day the pool was to come in and wanted to know whether to cancel my morning or afternoon. He can't say at all and I finally get him to admit they can deliver on other days, so I specify the next day (Friday). And I reiterate that delivering from the road is unsafe. Sure, they can back in or something like that. As long as they can turn around if they have to nose in.

On Thursday I had finished an appointment, looking forward to my afternoon one. Then the driver calls me and wants to deliver in half an hour. The pool is due TOMORROW. Nope, they're out there now. And they do ONLY curbside. He's more literal than the 7 AM caller. Only curbside. No liability insurance to cover them if they come on the lot.

Oh, now he tells me if I sign a liability waiver, he can come on my lot. I say I'm not ready for it today, it was due tomorrow, and I can't handle it today. He gets someone from the office to call me. So it turns out I have to cancel my afternoon appointments and they'll deliver that afternoon, but if he comes on the lot, I have to sign a waiver.

So if you are thinking of ordering a pool online please PM me so I can share the company name with you so you don’t go through what I went through.
 
Tell us the rest of the story.

Was the pool delivered on Thursday or Friday? You sign the wavier?

Where did the truck drop it off? How did the truck maneuver?

The product arrive as ordered in good condition?
 
Have you ever talked to people in a cult? Where you get to a point where they all suddenly fall back on the same programmed speech that doesn't answer your question but lets them think they know what they're talking about? I talked with two people in the office and the driver. I would something like, "I have never had to fight a delivery service to just agree on a safe and common sense way to make a delivery," or, "If you don't come on the property at all, the driver has to stop on a country road with a sub-development 2 miles down the road where the residents there come by here driving 60 or more and can't see around the curve far enough to be sure your drive would be safe unloading from the road." Each time I made what I felt was a strong point why they should at least consider having the driver back into the driveway, they would launch into a speech about how well they serve their customers by providing good service and working hard.

You cannot have a reasonable discussion when people behave like that.

Ultimately, I got them to delay it until the end of the day on Thursday and I agreed to sign the waiver. This forced me to cancel a video appointment. I had to make sure I got everything done to get my trailer hitched on the tractor and ready for them to transfer the pool to it. That created significant issues in aggravating a recent back injury that would not have been an issue if I could have rested for an hour or so between each step in those preparations.

I cannot stress enough how much the waiver concerns me. Actually, it scares me. Once that's signed, I'd have to prove negligence or carelessness to avoid liability if anything went wrong. I have never dealt with a delivery service that required anything like that! When the driver got here, I recognized him (from his unusual tattoos we had previously discussed) from a delivery in 2006. (Odd I had to sign a waiver now but not then...) Back then I remember he did not impress me as exactly the the most knowledgeable truck driver I've ever worked with.

The barn, where the pool is going, is half a mile off the county road, but on a solid road I've carefully built. (I've had a number of 74,000 lb dump trucks on that road, making deliveries of 20 tons of gravel or dirt in one load, on that driveway from the start of the process of building it. Trust me, the road is well built and safe for almost everything short of an 18 wheeler that would not be able to make the turns.) There was no way I was going to let someone drive down there on my responsibility! (Even if he did, the pool would still have to be taken a good ways away from the roadway and I never expected a driver to take the pool to its final destination. I just wanted it transferred to my trailer in a safe place.)

So he came on to the property, we unloaded as near to the front as possible, from the truck into the trailer. I had him turn around as close to the front, in a safe place I picked, as possible. I have the pool, but I'm having to take several extra days to rest my back and recover due to the timing and the "minimalist" service from the delivery. I have not yet been able to go down and open the packages and make sure everything is undamaged. I'll do that when I can spend more than 5 minutes at a time on my feet.
 
Glad you got your pool. Hope you feel better soon.
 
kimkats said:
What a sad state of affairs to insist "we have great customer service" while NOT providing it!!! Unreal!
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Exactly! But they are convinced they're doing a great job, but trying to get something handled safely and intelligently was tough. They would have just left it by the roadside if they had their way. Leaving it by the roadside on a road where people zip by and my house is not visible from the street and there's a 1,100 foot deep field there would make it look almost abandon.
I hope your back feels better and you can work on getting that pool up! :hug:

Kim:kim:
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I'd say in another day or two, it'll be like it would have been Friday morning if they had not made me deal with them on Thursday.


Thank you.
 
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