Tracy in Ottawa

I have had my in-ground salt-water pool for 3 years. I had my water tested and bought my pool supplies at the Purewater location in Manotick. I never had an issue. Last year, subsequent to their move to Bell's Corners, I began to have MAJOR problems. I purchased a case of solar fish and a salt-cell from Purewater online. I paid the $500+ and an extra $20 to be able to pick the items up in-store. It is a 1.5-hour round-trip to the store and my family and I made the trek early on a Saturday morning. We arrived at the store with printouts of our online order. The store was empty except for 2 employees. We were ignored until we advised we were picking up the 2 items. We were treated as an inconvenience and told there was no record of the sale and that they would not give us our product. We asked them to call the owner, Alex. After an incredibly long wait the issue was resolved and the items were given to us, albeit begrudgingly. I wrote a long letter of complaint to Alex. He responded that he had not yet dealt with the issue but that he would personally handle our transactions in the future and that we would get a discount on our next purchase. A few months later, we booked a pool opening for $300+ and asked for a roller to suit our pool size and shape. One was recommended for $349 + tax + $99 installation. Total, $731.45. I told the serviceperson, Theresa, that Alex had promised us a discount and said I would email him. I emailed Alex and said I was pleased with the service I had been receiving from Theresa and would he please give me a quote for the new roller, etc. Alex did not even have the common decency to email me back; rather, I got another email from Theresa with an invoice for the roller at exactly the same price as she originally quoted. 2 days ago the Purewater technicians came to our house at 1130, opened the pool, then said they had to leave for an hour. 5 hours later, they returned and installed the roller and blanket, then left. My husband and I went out to inspect the work to find that the deck had not been cleaned (this was part of the package), the pipes were leaking and the Feherguard roller is unacceptable and inappropriate for our pool; frankly it appears as though it is about to break. The white plastic ends are collapsing and the tube is sagging significantly in the middle. My husband and I tried to roll the cover in either direction and it would not roll either way. . We called Purewater and were told by Seth in sales that the service department was closed and to call back tomorrow. I started to ask him about the pool roller we had installed and he said, "If Theresa sold it to you, talk to her". I asked if he would have recommended the Feherguard and he said no, he would have recommended the Rocky Roller. My husband sent a nice email to Alex, the owner, asking him to call us to resolve the issue. Instead of a call, we got a curt and rude email saying “You ask me to arrange a service, I did so immediately.” Moreover, he proceeded to say my family and I should no longer shop there. Fortunately, competition is great and there are many wonderful pool companies in Ottawa that deserve and want our business. I will go to them from now on.