I've skimmed this thread, and agree with most of what I read: welcome to the wonderful world of marketing!

The interesting thing for me has been, as I came to understand how marketing and sales deception drove the pool industry, I began to see the same sort of deception in most other realms of marketing.

Chemicals seem to be a realm in which deceptive marketing especially flourishes, whether it's cleaning chemicals or pharmeceuticals. But cars, toys, electronics, 'personal hygiene products' and more are all sold with the same kinds of lies.

That's just the kind of world it is in which we live!

Ben

PS: Thanks for keeping the rants here, instead of in the general discussions. But that doesn't mean that newbies shouldn't be told that Proteam is just borax.

PPS: Waste, before you are too hard on your employers, spend some time thinking about what sort of *workable* business model they could adopt that would allow them to be both honest and adequately profitable. I was fortunate, early on, to stumble on a commercial pool service model that allowed both. But, it's model few in the industry understand, and it was tailored somewhat to my own skills which are not entirely typical. Dishonesty is always dishonesty, but even the Bible excuses it more when it's for the sake of eating.