Very Overpriced and Extremely Poor Service
I purchased a home which has a Gib-San built pool, cabana and outdoor kitchen in January 2021 and thought it best to have Gib-San continue to maintain the installation given they had been doing so for 7 or 8 years. What a mistake. They are either the highest priced or rank amongst the highest priced services in the GTA so you would expect superior service. The technicians they employ are very good but the staff employed in the service office are terrible. Let me provide some examples.
The service staff book your opening and closing for "the week of" but will not confirm the date until late the day before their actual attendance making it very difficult to be present should you not work from home and want to be at your home when the technicians attend. I was advised by the pool opening technician that I should add 2 bags of salt immediately after the pool opening with a third bag to follow in 2 weeks which I did. The salt cell was not generating chlorine so I arranged for a service and was advised that it was not working because there was too much salt in the water. When I advised that I had done exactly as I was instructed to do by their technician Gib-San still took the position that this was somehow my responsibility and agreed to refund only half of the $220.35 service fee. Gib-San has been closing the pool and winterizing the cabana and outdoor kitchen since they built it 7 or 8 years ago but when their technicians attended to close the pool October 2021 they advised that they no longer offer cabana and outdoor kitchen winterizing services. I contacted Gib-San to find out why they had not informed me they would not be performing the full winterization and was told I should have somehow been aware of this as it was not specified in the contract. Now I am having difficulty locating another pool company that will winterize the cabana and outdoor kitchen because no one seems interested in doing this unless I agree to have them also close the pool which Gib-San has already completed. Had Gib-San informed me that they were no longer offering the full winterization service, I would have made arrangements with another service that would. Again, their failure to properly inform the customer was somehow my fault.
This is not the level of service I would expect from any one in the service industry, particularly a service that charges premium pricing for their services. I will certainly never use their services again and would encourage anyone reading this review to avoid them. You will easily find better service at less cost.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $2,500.00
- Company Response
Good Day,
We only opened and closed this swimming pool. We did not perform weekly maintenance of this swimming pool. We had a phenomenal relationship with the previous homeowner under the same procedures and management. When a homeowner choses to service their own pool ongoing, weekly water testing to check chemical levels is critical to keep the chemistry in ideal ranges.
In terms of opening scheduling and communication: We only book ‘the week of’. This is an industry norm. As weather and staffing can influence the schedule, we do not provide specific days ahead of the week scheduled. We contact the week before to confirm as well as the day before. Our work and schedule is greatly impacted by the weather outcomes. With rain days, the schedule will get pushed to accomodate. We hope this helps clarify this concern.
In terms of the salt reading, our technician conversationally stated that ‘typically you add around 2-3 bags of salt at opening’ when asked how much salt the pool would require after opening. A pool must always be tested before adding chemicals to treat water. As a pool is cold and the water level is lowered, the pool must be filled, circulating, heated, and tested before adding salt to the water. A salt reading will not be accurate until the water has reached a specific temperature range. As a homeowner who chose to service your own pool, the water levels must be tested prior to adding any chemicals or product. We refunded half of the service fee in good faith regardless of this to show our appreciation for your concerns.
We do not offer cabana or outdoor kitchen winterizing’s. As the agreement signed for the care of the outdoor pool (which includes all al-la-carte options) did not include the winterizing of the cabana or kitchen as an option, these were not closed at the time of winterizing the pool. It would make sense that a pool company would not want to close the cabana or kitchen without the pool. It is standard that a plumber would be called to close these water lines as they are not associated with the pool equipment.We are sorry to hear of your frustrations. Please know that we appreciate each of our clients. We trust that the above helps clarify.