Not every pool store is out to screw the customer

[Buford]

John: The stores here do hand out sheets, with detailed instructions (steps, time intervals, where in the pool, brush, and in the case of chlorine--after sundown) sometimes photocopy checklists, sometimes computer printed. The worst employee, at the chain store was a twenty year pool owner, who assured me she knew her s***, which turned out as she didn't know s***.

I have never been associated with anyone owning or working at a pool store. I just know how I've been treated. To make a complex situation simple, I've been given a "one size fits all" solution. What the customer needs is an adequate test, but does not want to deal with a test kit (see my first post) so they go for the "free water test", since the store did the test, they must be "experts" , so the average customer gets everything they need (so not to return soon). I have to agree with BK, the store should be responsible for the test and treatment plan, but isn't that incongruent with high prices or are we demanding a value added reseller who provides low prices?

By the way, why do folks think pool stores are testing "experts"? They may advertise it, but I do not recall seeing anything but "free water test(ing)". So why the complaints about a "free" test?

The one point nobody has hit on, is if the operating model of a typical (chain) store is so bad, why are they still operating? They have to sell a lot of baking soda and chlorox to pay the rent, utilities and salaries. Nobody makes customers go and nobody makes them buy.

 

[RobbieH]

The one point nobody has hit on, is if the operating model of a typical (chain) store is so bad, why are they still operating? They have to sell a lot of baking soda and chlorox to pay the rent, utilities and salaries. Nobody makes customers go and nobody makes them buy.

Ignorant customers.

 

[bk406]

By the way, why do folks think pool stores are testing "experts"? They may advertise it, but I do not recall seeing anything but "free water test(ing)". So why the complaints about a "free" test?

.

Because they are a pool store, they should be experts at whatever kind of testing equipment they have. If I call a plumber out to my house, I expect they know what they are doing, same thing. Just because they are free doesnt mean they should be any less accurate.

The reason pool stores operate is because, like john said, everyone is looking for a quick fix. Pour in a bottle of XYZ and my pool is clear. Thats what most pool stores are selling, a fix that includes several products. And no, i dont think a store could stay in business selling borax, baking soda, and bleach. As long as there are people willing to let someone else worry about their pool and they have money to spend, the pool store will stay in business.

 

[chem geek]

The fact is that if pool stores gave advice for the least expensive but still effective approach, they would have a hard time making enough money unless they sold a very high volume of disinfectant products such as chlorinating liquid at a competitive price vs. bleach (perhaps a small premium for the convenience of having to carry half as much weight) or unless they service a large enough area to sell replacement parts for equipment in their retail store. The local pool store in my area goes one step further in doing pool installations and in doing regular weekly pool service. Having multiple sources of revenue help to make a sustainable business and not everyone wants to maintain their pool even if it is relatively easy and inexpensive to do. The retail store itself isn't particularly profitable for its size, but it also acts as a showroom and sales portal for the other services.

Nevertheless, they do still sell a lot of Trichlor pucks/tabs (and pH Up) and they also use them in their own weekly service, mostly to be able to have chlorine maintained in the pools for an entire week. They do end up having to do some partial drain/refill when the CYA goes over 100 ppm (after around 3 months when cartridge filters are used) and they tend to maintain 4.5 ppm FC in the pools and shock them weekly (probably to make up for the low FC/CYA ratio in the latter part of the season).

 

[swimcmp]

So I guess when a mechanic asks whats wrong he doesn't need to know anything that might assist him in fixing the problem either then. Sometimes information is very helpful when you are trying to fix someones issue when you are going off of what they tell you.

 

[Buford]

By the way, why do folks think pool stores are testing "experts"? They may advertise it, but I do not recall seeing anything but "free water test(ing)". So why the complaints about a "free" test?

.

Because they are a pool store, they should be experts at whatever kind of testing equipment they have. If I call a plumber out to my house, I expect they know what they are doing, same thing. Just because they are free doesnt mean they should be any less accurate.

The reason pool stores operate is because, like john said, everyone is looking for a quick fix. Pour in a bottle of XYZ and my pool is clear. Thats what most pool stores are selling, a fix that includes several products. And no, i dont think a store could stay in business selling borax, baking soda, and bleach. As long as there are people willing to let someone else worry about their pool and they have money to spend, the pool store will stay in business.

My comment about bleach and baking soda was not meant to imply that should be their only product, it was meant to imply they need gross profit to cover overhead.

Swimcmp and Duraleigh posed the question about why are we bashing (complaining) pool stores, which is where we should be heading with this thread? If this is going in the wrong direction, please point to the correct direction.

BK: No doubt you are correct on all the issues, what about solutions? Customer training classes, charging for accurate tests? And what about the high price issue, and as Robbie said "ignorant customers"? Am I reading you correctly, pool stores do not meet your expectations and consumers should be smarter? IF they lowered prices, would the mediocre service be acceptable? Or would prices be ok, if service was up to par. Put another way, Swimcmp is an executive at a pool store, what should he be reasonably be expected to change, to improve the industry?

I am at loss as to what to do about consumers, there is plenty of information available and at no cost. Consumers still opt for the "free" testing, which is part of the higher price. Oddly enough, the tests and high prices are the sources of the biggest complaints. Reminds me of the Southpark episode, where the big "Mart" store openned, everyone hated it and protested it, but everyone shopped there. Pool store customers hate pool stores, but continue to shop there.

I'll toss this up for thought: Are we upset that everyone does not adopt our methods, which are far superior (at least for me) and do not understand why this site is not overwhelmed, resulting in "preaching to the choir" about all the benefits?

 

[Buford]

So I guess when a mechanic asks whats wrong he doesn't need to know anything that might assist him in fixing the problem either then. Sometimes information is very helpful when you are trying to fix someones issue when you are going off of what they tell you.

I paid for my college as a mechanic at a Pontiac dealership. Yep, you have to be clairvoyant, and don't even think about getting clarification on something like "my car don't turn over".

 

[duraleigh]

If anyone has anything REALLY new or revealing to add, we can continue the discussion but it seems to me we are starting to beat the same dead horse. :-D

 

[Lershac]

Well to take your own analogy a step further swimcmp, if I took my car to the mechanic to be serviced, told him what I was unhappy with, and he gave me a bunch of products that didn't fix the problem, but made him a living... I wouldn't go back.

Just like the pool store. I go there for convenience in purchasing products (I want a brush for my spa TODAY) an not for the advice which they actively try to push with free testing bottles and flyers in ever bag out the door.

Sorry duraleigh, that horse was twitching and I had to deliver a couple more blows.

 

[anonapersona]

When I kept fish it seemed that many of the fish store employees got their education by reading the advertisements for the products they sold. Fish store potions tend to be nearly as magical as pool store potions. So, maybe some of the problem is the fantastical claims that the pool products make in their ads.