What is the worst "pool store" info you have heard?

[PhantomAndy]

All pool stores are in the business to make money -

If you walk in the door with your pants around your ankles and your wallet out, you deserve to get taken to the cleaners.

If people would A) Do a little homework B) Quit being so lazy and looking for a chemical fix for their failure to just check their water balance daily then the pool stores would change their ways.

However that's not the world we live in. So those of us that do our homework, and take care to stay ahead of our water will always get a good laugh watching the person in front of us at the pool store stroke out at their total as they reach deep into their wallet to pay 'the man'.

Pool stores are the Car Dealership of the water lesiure world. . .

[waterbear]

My worst 'pool store info' (and YES, I DO work part time in one. some of us actually try to help people!) was when I took a water sample to be tested at a local store (not the one I work at, but it's closer to my house). I have a SWG and they tested my salt at 3400 ppm and my TDS at 4100 ppm and told me I had to drain and refill the pool because the TDS was way too high! I pointed out that part of what they were measuring was my salt and therefore my TDS was only 700 ppm! The young girl testing my water looked very confused by this and started to argue that those were different tests and had nothing to do with each other. I thanked her and bought the muriatic acid I originally came in for. IMHO, the biggest problem with pool stores is that many of the people working in them just don't really have any real knowledge of the chemistry of pool water and just buy into everything the manufacturers tell them in training and seminars. When I owned my first portable spa several years back (I was a complete newbie!) the dealer, who also sold all types of pool and spa chemicals and equipment, had me using bleach to chlorinate my spa and baking soda for alkalinity (unfortunately, he DID have me use sodium carbonate to raise ph and recommended test strips)!

[PopcornGirl]

All pool stores are in the business to make money -

If you walk in the door with your pants around your ankles and your wallet out, you deserve to get taken to the cleaners.

If people would A) Do a little homework B) Quit being so lazy and looking for a chemical fix for their failure to just check their water balance daily then the pool stores would change their ways.

However that's not the world we live in. So those of us that do our homework, and take care to stay ahead of our water will always get a good laugh watching the person in front of us at the pool store stroke out at their total as they reach deep into their wallet to pay 'the man'.

Pool stores are the Car Dealership of the water lesiure world. . .

At risk of sounding argumentative, I have to disagree with this sentiment. I'm not saying that you don't make a good point, but it shouldn't have to be this way.
Call me a Pollyanna, but I think ANY time a business takes advantage of a person's ignorance or lack of knowlege, it is just plain WRONG.
We can't all be *experts* at everything.
Using your logic:
*It's perfectly acceptable for the auto mechanic to charge me for a bunch of repairs I don't need. After all, if I'd only bother to learn more about how my car works...
*There's nothing wrong with my doctor prescribing a bunch of pills I don't really need... Hey, the internet is there and I should be familiar enough with my body & my illness to know what is really necessary, right?

I totally *get* that this is the reality, but it shouldn't be. And I *DO* believe that pool owners should become educated about their own pools (as I recently did). But just because every pool owner hasn't come to that same realization just yet, does not morally or legally justify fraud.
And you never know... that "sucker" you just sold $200 dollars' worth of unnecessary chemicals to MIGHT just turn out to be the doctor holding your test results or the mechanic handing you his bill...
Just my .02

[littleHeidi]

All pool stores are in the business to make money -

If you walk in the door with your pants around your ankles and your wallet out, you deserve to get taken to the cleaners.

If people would A) Do a little homework B) Quit being so lazy and looking for a chemical fix for their failure to just check their water balance daily then the pool stores would change their ways.

However that's not the world we live in. So those of us that do our homework, and take care to stay ahead of our water will always get a good laugh watching the person in front of us at the pool store stroke out at their total as they reach deep into their wallet to pay 'the man'.

Pool stores are the Car Dealership of the water lesiure world. . .

I don't agree with this either. It's not that people are stupid or lazy when it comes to pool maintenance. It's that they DON'T KNOW there's an easier way to do it!!! I had NO clue the first year we had our pool that you didn't HAVE to go to the pool store every month (like my landlord had us doing). The other day when he (my landlord) was up here he looked at the pool and said, "Hm. And you do ALL that w/ just bleach?" He'd had a pool for over 20 years and had NEVER heard of this method. Don't be so harsh!!

[gonefishin]

Well...it's not a pool store story. But a recent story while looking for some muriatic acid for my pool.


I was in Walmart looking for some muriatic acid (for a TA problem). I looked everywhere, but couldn't find any. So I asked a Walmart employee for some assistance. He answered that he didn't know and would ask (via two-way) if anyone knew if they carried it. One person replied that he thinks they had some in the pharmacy.

I wonder what that would cure

take care all

dan

[CarlD]

I think the message is if you are truly unwilling to take the time to learn about your pool and caring for it, then you are a ripe pigeon to get "Pool Stored".

I don't think ANYONE deserves to be robbed, but to NOT have your guard up out in public is inviting the chiselers to home in on you.

"But, Jim, I didn't invent pigeons!" -- The Rockford Files

[haze_1956]

Back in May I went into the nearby pool store to get a quart of Polyquat. I saw a bottle of "Black Algae Killer" (60% Polyquat) above a sign that read 14.99. But when it was rung up, it was 22.99. So I argued that was not what the sign said so the girl called the manager who took me back to the aisle.

There he showed me that it was 30% poly that was 14.99 and the bottle I grabbed had been misplaced from further down the shelf (Identical Bottles by the way just percentage on the ingredients were different.)

Manager then said to me. "Your water would have to be totally black to need the 60%"

I smiled (and did manage to resist laughing) then left.

[poolmom06]

Well I have two pool stores that I go to, last week after my pool was cloudy and turned green I took two different samples to the two stores, JUST to see what kind of answers I would get.. I got two different results and of course two different recommendations. I told the guy at the "chain store" I have more green cloudy water( I had been going in there all week to get help, just to walk out with $50 or $60 worth of crap each time) I wanted to kill green before I worked on the cloudy... he just wanted to work on the cloudy.
Thank GOD I found this site and in one application of a bottle of bleach... i had blue water again in less than an hour!!
So I am going to make one more trip to the pool store... just to let "cute flirty manager guy" know what worked for me and see how "Shocked" he is!!!
he is gonna flip a lid when I tell him I cleared my pool with less than $10 worth of household items from WAL MART!!!

[Gracy101]

First time I walked into the pool store for a water reading and explained I would be doing the BBB method, the OWNER gave me a looooong speech in which he said and I quote "I not only own this store and been in business for 13 years but I have a minor in chemistry" and then launched into all the reasons why I should not try to take care of this "very big investment" on my own since "there are people who make their living FT doing this!" Twenty minutes later:

When he gave me my Cl reading and I asked if that was FC, he said "no it's TC, we don't test for anything else; you don't need to know that in Miami."

When I asked what my Ch was - again "that's not important right now, you just need chlorine and acid"

"don't let your pool get above or below a 2-3 Cl level - it will dry out your skin"

Finally - when he tried to sell me chlorine in tablets but I said I would rather take it in liquid form (yes I caved! , he ACTUALLY said "you realize those are 2 1/2 gallon jugs - they'll be very heavy for you to carry."

Those were just the highlights I could remember after my head stopped spinning.....