My husband talked me into buying locally and it cost us about $2500 more. I would have been happy to pay the extra if I had a good experience with the local pool company. I did not. They were all smiles when I bought the pool but I could not get their installer to come out and look at my land and give me ideas on the installation. That should have been my warning but my husband was adamant about having someone we could go to in case of trouble. The pool was delivered after the installers were already here (the installers were sent by the pool store). Our pool was being put in on May 15th and the pool arrived so late that we almost had to be rescheduled, which would have been, by then, a month later! (We had purchased the pool in January) The pool arrived. We had specified in our contract, written up by the pool company that the pool was to be dug out in the center to a depth of 6 feet. While they were doing the dig we kept thinking and saying that it looked too shallow but the pool installers, again who were from the pool company were adamant that it would be 6 feet. They got the pool installed and left their vacuum here to pull the liner closer to the walls. There was a lot of over hang of liner on the outside of the pool but the installer told us that it was correct. Got the pool filled in a couple of days and then jumped in. The center was only a little over 5 feet deep. We went back to that same all smiles pool company and were told 5 feet is the same as 6 feet and we should have known that and to get lost!!! Lots of battles ensued and obviously we are never going back to that pool company for anything. We had asked our township before we bought the pool that this company was fine but after doing more digging we found that many people had trouble similar to ours with installation and support. I could have saved a couple of thousand dollars by buying online and by hiring my own installers and probably some headaches and gotten what I wanted. I know there are good, honest, pool companies out there but the industry has a lot that are not. You will pay more by buying local and it may be worth it but do A LOT of BACKGROUND checking, not just asking the local authorities (who in my case never give any opinions on anybody as I have found out). Do not assume that buying LOCAL will automatically give you the service or help that you want. I wish someone would have said this to us before we bought!
