Drink This

When we first decided to purchase a water purification system from Drink This we were excited and felt like we had made an intelligent purchase from a reputable company. We were promised top notch customer service, professional installation, and the best water purification system currently on the market. The jury is still out on the last claim, but the claims of professional installation and superior customer service are a farce.
Our greatest disappointment has been with the customer service we have received. In some cases, we feel that there have been severe oversights while, in other instances, we feel we were purposely misinformed. We were told we would receive a free used water purification system for my business to use with the purchase of a new system for our home. After over two months, such a unit has never made its way to my business. We were told that a water outlet would be installed outside that would allow us to wash our cars using the purified water so we could enjoy spot free results. When I asked the installer about the faucet that was to be installed, I was told, "the easiest thing would be to disconnect the water hose going to your washer machine and run a hose out to your driveway." Easiest way for whom? From the laundry room we would have to run about 150 feet of hose to make it out to the driveway plus climb on top of the washing machine to get to the water outlet each time we want to wash our cars. We were also told that there would be a follow up visit from a Drink This representative. To date, no person identifying themselves with that company has visited or even called. We were pressured to submit a list of 10 people that Drink This could solicit as referrals. We were told that they would not tell the people on the list who referred them to Drink This. A week later, we had five people call us; threatening to give our name to every telemarketer they came across! Finally, we were greatly misled about the payments we would be making when we chose to finance the purchase of our system. Our sales rep told us that our monthly payments would be $129 for 66 months and then we would own the system. He told us we would pay approximately $1200 in interest over the life of the financing. Our monthly minimum payments are $129, but since interest (%18 annual) accrues on the $6500 purchase price of the system, paying the monthly minimum means that only about $35 of that payment gets applied to the principle balance. It will take considerably longer than 66 months to pay off this purchase if we only pay $129/month. As for the $1200 in interest we were told we would pay over the life of the loan, I think we will probably pay that much in just over a year if we only pay the minimum payment due! Our general feeling is that this company allows its representatives to say whatever they can to make the sale without any intention of following through with their promises.
As for the installation, that was another major disappointment. We were told the installation process would take several hours but the work would be completed the same day. It took our installer one full day (once he was done with his other obligations), about 5 hours the following day, and a couple more hours a few days later to complete the task. Our installer was very personable, but not professional. He showed up an hour late on the say we scheduled for installation. Then, he disconnected our main water pipe and left to take care of some other obligation he had with his church. He came back four hours later to begin work. I have absolutely no idea why he disconnected our water if he had no intention of starting work on our house! We were very upset that the person Drink This sent out to install our water purification system left the job site (our house) to run personal errands on our time. By the time he came back and turned the water on, we had been without water for over 8 hours. That is a long time for a family of four to not be able to use their bathrooms or cook.
Okay, now the good news. We do enjoy our water purification system. We think it is probably filtering out most impurities and we do notice a reduction in the amount of chlorine in our water. We had hoped we would be visited by a rep from Drink This so we could have him/her retest our water using the same methods that were used in the prior visit to verify that all the minerals and impurities have been removed, but it looks like that will never happen. The system is fairly quiet, even when it is performing a cleaning cycle. Our goldfish seems to like the water we are using in his tank now.
To summarize, we are generally pleased with our water purification system from Drink This. What we are not happy about was the unprofessional installation of the system. We absolutely hate feeling like we were duped by the sales rep! I had a relative who looked into buying this system and one by [competitor]. He chose [competitor] and saved over three thousand dollars and did not have the hassles we did. We have no intention of ever purchasing any thing from this outfit again and we have been actively telling others who express interest in such systems to refrain from doing business with Drink This.