Pool store refused to test my water...

[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!

[Carolina]

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.

Yes, you are right, they do use the DPD test. I have the OTO test at home and I got confused for a moment (sorry - mommy brain)!

[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.

[Carolina]

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.

That's not a bad idea. I always need to supplement with calcium every now and again to keep my levels up. Does it have cyanuric acid added as tri-chlor does?

[Carolina]

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.

The manager is quite a pleasant person, and has never even raised an eyebrow at my method of chlorination. I do have the feeling that he will be quite upset at his employee's behaviour. I do remember him telling me once that the turnover at the store is very high (which is one reason Leslie's does not use more sophisticated equipment for water testing as, for example, Anthony and Sylvan does.

And I do agree with your customer service assessment!