Being in the field means not only knowing water chemistry, mechanics and sanitation products, but also communicating well with customers to keep their business.
So service technicians are used to all sorts of pool and spa conditions and situations. However, some days go way beyond business as usual. Since Halloween is just around the corner, PSN asked service techs to recall their most memorable service horror stories.
Following are three stories of nightmare scenarios as told by the pros who experienced them. These tales reveal that, as is true in life, nightmares come in all varieties. Some are funny, some are infuriating and others are just sad. There are collisions both literal and figurative, and messes both visible and visceral.
But true professionals find a way to come out of these quagmires — hopefully in a better position than they were before. Or, at the very least, they walk away with a lesson for themselves and their customers. (Real pros also think of their customers first, so names here have been changed to protect client privacy.)
A Messy Dispute
Dan O’Brien
Former owner
Southern Connecticut Pools
New Haven, Conn.
About 20 years ago, I had a pool-cleaning business in Connecticut. My customer — we’ll call him Walter — lived on a property whose driveway was set off the main road. A city sewage line ran down that road, but not to his house and a neighbor’s house. Neither had tied their homes into the sewage line. The customer’s neighbor, who had a failing septic system, wanted to split the cost to connect both homes to city sewage. But Walter didn’t want to spend the money.
The situation had been brewing for a long time. It finally came to a head when the angry neighbor filled a bucket with his overflowing sewage and dumped it into my customer’s pool.
Walter called me, explained what happened and said he needed service right away. He told me exactly what was in the pool, saying you could see toilet paper.
My brother was working for me at the time, so I told him to take the call. I said, “Go down to Walter’s pool, it needs to be cleaned, it’s got a lot [expletive] in it.”
My brother got to the call, saw the sewage and realized it really was contaminated with human waste. When I saw him later, he wasn’t happy.
“You didn’t tell me there was actual [expletive] in the pool!”
I responded, “Billy, I wouldn’t be able to get you down there if I told you the real truth.”
He vacuumed out the waste, super-chlorinated the pool, and told Walter to let it sit for a while. In a few days the water chemistry was back to normal.
Wrongly Accused
Noel Conley
President
Miracle Pool Service
Garland, Texas
In 2005, one of our customers called and said that, when we were servicing the pool, we had damaged one of their vehicles. It was a 1969 Volkswagen Bug. When the call came, several days had passed since the techs were at the home.
My first question was, “Why did you wait so long to call?” The customer said they had been out of town and just got back and had not noticed the damage.
I thought it was strange but decided to investigate. We checked our truck for damage but didn’t find any. Then we went to see their vehicle. One side of the Bug was scuffed, and it had some white paint transfer. Our trucks are white, so I started asking more questions.
It turned out to be their daughter’s car. I asked if their daughter could have taken the car out when they got back in town, and maybe the damage happened then. The customer insisted the car was right where they left it before leaving. Well, the car was parked about 18 to 24 inches from their fence — so it was hard to get in there to take pictures. We knew there was no way our vehicle could have done it. The customer insisted the portable vacuum did the damage. There are two problems with that: The portable vacuum would not have fit through the space, and it’s black, so no white paint transfer.
I tried to have a logical discussion, but the customer wouldn’t have it. She brought us a quote from her body shop for $681.50. I explained we would not be paying, since we were not responsible for it.
Unwilling to take no for an answer, the customer sued. Our insurance was ready to pay; they didn’t believe it was significant enough to fight. But we didn’t want them to pay because we didn’t do it. Luckily, our insurance agent is a family member and convinced the higher ups to fight it, so they assigned us an attorney. The morning of the hearing, we got a call from our attorney saying the customer showed up earlier and had the case dismissed.
It would have been more lucrative to keep her as a customer and let the insurance pay. But from a principle standpoint, we felt we needed to fight it.
Unexpected Loss
Steve Homer
President
United Pool Association
This one was very sad. Before I arrived to service a customer’s pool, they called to say they were going out of town and had left their two dogs and a new rescue dog with access to the backyard. They wanted to make sure I was aware of the third dog and wouldn’t let him out.
As a service guy, I specialize in not letting dogs get by me. I’ll do whatever I have to do, because I don’t want to be chasing a dog down the street.
When I got to the house, I came in the yard carefully and started looking around. I saw the regular two dogs, but couldn’t find the third. I checked the garage, because the owner said he might sleep there, but no dog. Then I get back to the pool and there’s the rescue dog floating in the pool.
That was a nightmare, because I love dogs. It’s a real sinking feeling to see a drowned dog in a pool. I am sad for the animal, and now I have to figure out what to do. The homeowner isn’t coming back until Monday, and I was there on a Friday.
I sat down to think. If I take the dog out of the pool, what do I do with it? I can’t put it in a trash can — it will smell. I was afraid to dispose of the body, because the customer might think I’m lying about the animal drowning, and that I actually let him out of the yard. There’s nothing I can do for the dog, but I want to save the account. I called the customer to explain. Then took the dog with me to dispose of.
It was a very difficult conversation, but in the end, the customer thanked me for taking care of it. Since the original dogs never had an issue, the homeowner didn’t realize the pool could be a danger to animals. They learned a hard lesson and now they have a house sitter to watch the dogs when they’re out of town.
This was about 10 years ago and they’re still a customer.
