Pool store refused to test my water...

[Carolina]

Yesterday I went into the local pool store to get my water tested (I have a waterfall, and I always need to keep on top of my alkalinity and pH). I am a stay-at-home mom, and I usually get my water tested during the week when the manager is running the store. Unfortunately, on Saturday, the store is staffed by seventeen year olds.

The store always asks about one's method of sanitization, and I always, of course, reply "bleach". Well, the seventeen year old looked at me like I had 2 heads. Usually when a pool store employee gives me a hard time about the BBB method, I politely reply that I am a chemist (I was an analytical chemist until I quit to be home with my young children, and I spent a few years doing water analysis as well). Generally, employees keep quiet after that, because they assume that I probably know what I am doing.

To my misfortune, both seventeen year olds proceeded to argue with me, and to make a long story short, refused to test my water because the chlorine level (I had just shocked the pool the night before) bleached out the O-tolidine reagent in the chlorine test.

Unfortunately, this store is now the only game in towm, so I may be getting a Taylor reagent kit. Boy, do I WISH I had access to my lab again!! And thanks for listening to my vent.

[Watermom]

Next time just tell them that you use liquid chlorine. They don't need to know that it is bleach. But, better yet -- do get your own test kit. Your results will be much more reliable than those provided by seventeen year olds at a pool store.

(I'm not against 17 year olds. I have a 22 yr.old, a 16 1/2 year old and a just turned 12 year old and although my two older ones are pretty sure that they know everything, obviously they do not! My little one is by far the most sensible one of the bunch. It's funny - my 16 yr. old just recently got his driver's license and keeps referring to the car that we allow him to drive some as "my car." Needless to say, I continue to remind him that I am the one paying the car payment, the insurance and for the most part, the gas money. Even though I never drive this particular car, it doesn't matter. As long as my money is what is keeping it on the road, it will be MY car whether I drive it or not!!)

[Carolina]

Thank you - that is good advice. Why stir up the pot when you don't need to :-) Now, I do know some perfectly reasonable 17 year olds, I suppose these 2 just thought I was a nut. As for cars, my 2 children (ages 6 and 4) are not driving until they are reasonable - at least 30 or so!

[cleancloths]

As a former chemical engineer who worked for 5 years in a chlorine production facility I find it very funny that they call it liquid chlorine. Liquid chlorine can only exist under high pressure at ambient temperatures. It you opened a cyclinder of liquid chlorine it would quickly flash off as a gas. But, they are pool store empoyees, so what do you expect them to call liquid bleach.

[CarlD]

I would speak to the manager or the owner. There's no reason for a clerk to refuse to test pool water.

Ultimately, the only chemicals you MUST get from a pool store (like CYA and Polyquat) are available from Internet sources, so once you do your own testing, you can tell them where to go.

Or, better yet, don't tell them. Just stop going and suggest alternatives to your pool-owning friends.

Unless, of course, their superior is smart enough to realize that what they did was VERY bad business and fixes the problem.

[chem geek]

cleancloths,

In the pool industry, "liquid chlorine" is any liquid source of hypochlorite so that includes both bleach and chlorinating liquid. It's true that it is not technically "liquid chlorine", but that's what people call it in this industry, as far as I can tell. I sometimes even write "liquid chlorine" instead of always saying "bleach or chlorinating liquid". I suppose an accurate compromise would be "a liquid source of chlorine".

Richard

[Carolina]

Yes, I am planning to take my water in tomorrow to be tested, and speak to the manager if he is there. I don't do much business there - an occasional brush or bucket of calcium chloride when needed - but it is convenient and close by. And I know if it were my store, I'd be concerned about employees ticking off the customers. Silly kids - whatever happened to "the customer is always right?"!

[waterbear]

Carolina,
They are probably tesing with DPD and not OTO. OTO (turns yellow) doesn't bleach out, which is it's one great plus. DPD (turns red) does. It will only test TC however.
Edit: Whoops! My brain locked up too! I meant to say above that OTO only tests total chlorine! I was thinking that when I typed the last line above!

[Ohm_Boy]

Ya know, if the manager has been testing your water, and they "always ask" and you tell them what you use, it seems that the manager is already agreeable to your testing. They should know the value of a happy customer.

Lemme spew a few tidbits from my corporate 'Consumer Affairs' days...

Generally speaking, a contented customer MAY tell 2 people, a disgruntled customer WILL tell at least 4. That alone can be a compelling argument for appeasing the customer, but here's where it hits the bottom line big time:
A typical business will lose between 7% and 9% of their customers due to a bad (or perceived bad) experience. Most will simply walk away and never come back, and the business never knows about it. But some will make their concerns known, and this gives the business the opportunity to reduce this by 2-5% by just doing a little customer service. If you can 'fix' a customer's problem, they are usually more loyal to you than another customer who's had no problem at all, and they will tell a lot of people. So those 'problems' can be a major opportunity to the business, if only they are aware of them and will fix them. After all, that money is walking away, and if you do nothing, it's gone.

So depending upon the margin per customer, a substantial amount of potential profit simply walks away every year, yet by doing things like testing your water, they can prevent a quarter to half of that for next to nothing. It's the closest thing a business has to free money.
F'rinstance, if the manager not only apologizes for his boys' 'lack of enthusiasm' and any misunderstandiing, and tests your water, if he coughed up a "10% off" coupon for any store purchase, maybe up to 25 bucks total, he'd go a long way to customer goodwill, and he'd be out very little (margin-wise).

OK, customer service rant over. Sorry for the rambling.

[CarlD]

I assume you don't have a vinyl pool (hence the calcium). But you can also add calcium by using Cal-Hypo temporarily as your chlorine source and that can be had at other places than pool stores.