We bought a house with a saltwater pool and were unsure how to open/close it properly so we found Dolphin and took them up on their combo open/close offer. We mentioned we didn't know how to maintain a pool (chemicals, salt levels, how to open). We said specifically we wanted to learn from them how to do it. It took a few phone calls to get them out on a day we were actually home. Once they did arrive (no eta was given, walked straight into the backyard with no notification of arrival), they couldn't even put the ladder in position. We had to do it ourselves. It wasn't until after that we found out they didn't even add salt or balance the chemicals. The "lesson" we got about pool chemicals was a joke. I had to research it all myself after the fact.
Half way through the summer we were having issues with our filter, they sent a technician out (who was at least the third employee to our pool). It wasn't until now that we were told "ya, your filter is designed for a small above ground pool...you need one double the size" now why could the other technicians not tell us that at the beginning of the season and save us the maintenance visit and pool issues ?
On closing the pool, we called to arrange an appointment a week in advance and were told to call the Saturday before to determine the eta of the crew. When Saturday came, they couldn't tell us an eta. So we asked them to call us before they arrived on the Monday so we could ensure we were around. My husband called at 1:30pm and was told "sorry...we must have made a mistake. You're not in our system. We will try our best to show up by the end of the day" so finally, around 4:00, they arrived. Again, no notice, just walked into the backyard. They didn't bring their own garden hose either. My husband saw them outside, went to introduce himself, one said hi, the other one walked right past and ignored him. Very "professional". After watching the steps taken to shut down the pump/filter, we went inside. 45 mins after their arrival, we looked outside and they were gone. None of the equipment (ladders/solar blanket) were put away, 4 water weights were left unused laying on the deck, and the filter plug was left sitting outside on the floor of the filter house. Maybe they could have put that stuff away instead of sitting on their a$$es when we saw them outside.
After all this was over. We regret to have ever enlisted the help from this company. We could have done this all ourselves and saved ourselves $800
- Approximate cost of services:
- $800.00