International Pool & Spa Centers

I have shopped at this store for the last 30 years (yes 30 years). No more after today.
I brought an empty chlorine container for a refill today. They do have a sign at the front, new this year, that they do not want you to bring your container through the store. That I can understand the rationale behind. I walked outside and left it on their back bay. Then I walked through the store, empty handed to pay for the chlorine. I stopped at the water test station to have the water tested. The gentleman behind the desk told me it is not working. Then he asked me if I walked from the back. When I told I did, he ripped a strip of my back, telling me it is not allowed. There is no sign at the back saying this is not allowed. Furthermore, I do not see why you are not allowed to walk through the store empty handed. He said these are the rules. I told him they had no such rules for the last 30 years. I also told him I am handicapped and I am not walking back and forth outside the store three times just to get chlorine. He said I do not care, and if you do not like the rules do not shop here.
I proceeded to the cash to pay. He told the cashier do not cash him out. Yes. They refused to sell me chlorine.
I asked the cashier to call the owner of the store. They refused, saying the rude person yelling at me is the manager. His name is Blake. I again asked to speak to the store owner. They refused. Blake said I am on the phone with tech support.
I left the store and walked outside to the back of the store to get my still empty container. By the time I walked back to the car, Blake came outside with his phone claiming he is on a call with head office Danny. Blake refused to hand me his phone to talk to so called Danny. He held it in front of my face and told me to not to touch his phone. I am not certain if the call was on speaker or if there really was a Danny at the other end. I asked if the person can call me back on my cell phone. No response except from Blake saying no (I do not believe there was anyone at the other side of Blakes phone). I got in my car and left
I myself called head office. I got a voice mail for a Danny. Left a message. They never responded back.
What an awful store with an awful customer service. I noticed the last three Google reviews mention the awful customer service and one specifically mentions Blake. One customer has been shopping there for 25 years. Slowly but surely customers who have kept this store in business for decades will all start shopping elsewhere. It takes years to build a loyal customer base and only minutes to completely ruin it. I am certainly not going back.
I should note that the last few times I have been to the store, there were no customers. I can now see why. They are rude and obnoxious.
This year I do not recognize one person that works there. They are all new. In past years there were some turnovers but many of the workers were familiar and they returned year after year. I am not sure if the store changed owners. But even that is not a reason to hire all new staff and get rid of all the old staff.
The prices the store charges for the pool products are really high compared to other pool stores and the Big Box Stores.
You add to this awful customer service, I cannot imagine them staying open for much longer. The first thing they need to do is to get rid of Blake and his I do not give a care and I do not need you to shop here attitude.

I see several positive reviews but I would caution potential customers against having any service done by International Pool and Spa. The quality of their service appears to have seriously declined recently.

Our experience was awful. We needed to winterize our hot tub. We left three messages over a period of weeks. None of these calls were returned. We finally visited the store in person. No one was available to assist us from the service department, but our information was taken down. No one ever called us back.

We tried to call once more, finally getting through to someone. We scheduled an early morning service request and took time off work to be available. The technician did not show up and no notice was given to us, until the technician called us at the end of the day. Apparently he got busy with other jobs and did not bother to inform us. He offered to reschedule, but we had to go back to their service department to do so.

We had to call three times before someone called back from the service department. The company refused to take ownership, blaming their technician (although he is an employee of theirs), then refusing to make reparations by offering any discount to us. Ultimately we cancelled the request and went to one of their competitors.

Save yourself weeks of headache and just go straight to a different company.

Justin

I opened my pool this year to find that the liner was coming away from the wall and obviously needed to be replaced. My friend recommended international pool and spa. I went in and got a price that included the whole job. Got to pick my liner and a short time later my pool is brand new!! Thanks so much for the easy process!!

Purchased a hot tub from the Thornhill location last month and it was a great experience. Sales rep was very patient with us as me and my husband knew nothing about hot tubs previous to this purchase. We were quite nervous making such a large purchase but the staff made us feel like they appreciated our business. Once we got the hot tub delivered, the guys explained how to use it and then we attended a spa class that was extremely helpful. Thank you International pool and spa for making our first hot tub purchase a smooth and enjoyable process! Highly recommend!!

My wife and I were in the market for our second Hot Tub and in 2010 we visited the National Home Show. It was there that we met a sales person (Ken) from International Pool and Spa and he took the time to explain to us what we may want to consider when looking for our new hot tub. Providing us with insight into the options that are now available and he helped us find Coast Spa that suited our needs and budget. He took his time and seemed more interested in making sure we made a good decision not just any decision. In fact, our first hot tub was purchased from a company that is no longer in business. Service on our first spa was an issue on many occasions, we had trouble getting things resolved. International so far has done everything they said they would do and then some. They have always treated us as a very valued customer.

5 years ago I hired International Pools to install a new pool liner. They were replacing a 20 year old liner that had seen better days. The entire transaction took place in the store and being new pool owners we didn't realize they should have measured for the new liner. We chose a plain blue liner because of the cost and they arrived a week later to install the new liner at the beginning of the pool season in May. In the fall there were two areas that the liner had come out of the coping and they told us that this was normal for a new liner and they would fix it when they opened the pool in the spring. Came the spring, 4 areas needed to be put back in the coping but one of them wouldn't go back in completely. To make a long story short, every year more of the liner was out of the coping in the spring, some of which could be put back in, some left just bulging out a little. We complained every year but kept getting told that this was normal. Last year when I had switched to another pool company I was told that all this was NOT normal and the liner would probably need to be replaced in the spring.

Spring arrived and as well as hanging out of the coping in several large areas, there were two rips in the liner that I was told were a result of the liner being too small for the pool. Finally I had an answer to my repeated questions, they had not measured and therefore had installed a liner that did not fit. I am replacing the liner this spring but the new one won't be here for at least 3 weeks because they have to make the liner to fit the measurements. Over the time I used International Pools I had nothing but problems with them but figured that all pool companies were the same. I was totally wrong and will never use them again not even to buy pool chemicals from. I have a good pool company now and will continue to use them instead.
I wouldn't recommend International Pool and Spa to my worst enemy.

The service people from this company who were sent to open my pool were very rude and unco-operative as well as doing a less than poor job. They refused to fold the winter cover after removing it and left it in a heap on the pool deck. All they did as part of the pool opening was remove the cover and throw my hose in the pool. They didn't even turn the water on to fill the pool. Their service people then told me they would not put that winter cover back on the pool in the fall as it had a rip in it. It had been a brand new cover in the fall and they installed it on the pool, how did it get a rip in it? They took the winter cover away though it had a 10 year warranty on it and was less than a year old. When I complained to head office about the poor service, the rudeness and the fact I had lost a winter cover because their service people had taken it away, they told me it was my fault their service people did not do what they were paid to do. Then they sent me a 5% discount card for chemicals for the season. They then billed my credit card twice for the same pool opening. I would not recommend them to anyone and I will never deal with them again.

Purchased *new* winter cover from them, when International Pools closed my pool in Sept 2005. When pool opened June 2006 by another pool company with an excellent reputation the pool cover had many holes in it and was threadbare. I had 2 different pool companies examine the pool cover and both assessed the *new* cover as being *used*. They said there was no way a pool cover could deteriorate as badly as that one had in one season. They estimated that it was at least 5 years old. I contacted International Pools and though they offered to replace it if I brought it to them and they agreed with the assessment of 2 *reputable* pool companies they refused to pay the costs of removing all the garbage that was in the pool due to their poor cover. Dealing with their customer service department is a total waste of time and energy. I chose NOT to have them replace the cover and bought a brand new one from the company I was now dealing with who have an extremely good reputation, because I thought I would probably get another USED cover. I would never recommend that anyone use this company for anything and if I knew that someone was using them I would warn them away.