DO NOT Use Valley Center Pools! We were told by a friend to use them and shouldn't have listened. We were in the middle of Escrow to purchase our first home and our bank wouldn't sign off on it till the pool was clear. It was a bank owned property so we needed to get it done ourselves because the seller bank wouldn't do it. We were quoted $600 to $700 by VC Pools. He said that he could just set up an external pump and it should be clear within a week at most. (The existing pumps were not working.) 12 days later the pool was still cloudy and they charged my card $1090.67 without an invoice or a phone call! I called to ask what was up and was told the pool was too far gone to clean via just pumping and that they would need to drain it completely, scrub and refill for which they would charge me an additional $520.00. When I started to get upset that they charged me over $1000 for something they quoted me only $700 for Sherry got all indignant and said we were getting a great deal and I shouldn't complain. Escrow needed to close asap so I went with having them clean the pool. I was ready to get someone else but my husband wanted to give them another try because of our friend. Bad idea. They emptied and cleaned the pool and Escrow closed a week late. My husband scheduled another service visit to fix parts etc on the existing equipment and pumps. He came out a couple times while we were in the process of fixing things up before we actually moved and my husband met him there to fix various things and I thought maybe I had misjudged them and our pool was just a very extreme case. The last time he was out we had moved and I was home. He spent the first 20-30 minutes of his time on the phone either working with one hand or just standing there. I thought it might be work related but then I overheard him talking about how the US government was building concentration camps in the Arizona desert. Yeah, not professional! Even with the small town attitude of Valley Center I thought it was tacky. He was suppose to fix all the valves with new O-rings and fix the leaks on the solar. When he left he said he didn't have all the O-rings so asked my husband to stop by the shop to pick it up and put it in himself. My DH stopped by the very next day, during business hours I might add and the door was locked and no one was there nor did they answer the phone. So he went to another pool shop and bought the O-ring to fix himself. The solar leak hadn't changed so whatever he did to ""fix"" that hadn't worked at all. When we received invoice (I know, shocker we actually got one this time.) It didn't break anything down but just gave a total. I wanted to know so I called. Was told she had to call me back. When she called back she gave me the break down etc of parts, prices and work. I had told her about the O-ring my husband was suppose to come get and she was just silent. No explanation or okay we will take it off the bill. This time my husband completely agreed we will NEVER use Valley Center pools again!! Go to Leslie's Pool supply in Escondido, much better service!
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