Great Advice! we knelt on the bottom of the pool for four hours, two of us, joined by two of our kids in the last hour. We had to work out the wrinkles inch by inch to the edge of the pool. the last few wrinkles needed help with a plunger to suck up the liner and stretch it toward the wall. No vacuum needed at all. We worked in about 8-9 inches of water. any less and the vinyl would have moved back into position. We may have been able to do it in 12 or more inches, but 8 worked fine.

The bottom has lumps because the sand/cement mixture on the bottom lost its compression due to the lack of water above it. i'm not sure how to get these out or if i need to until we get a new liner. my son's foot prints are in the angled side of the deep end where he was playing while the water was down. we didn't notice these depressions until after the pool was refilled. Oh well.

the age of the liner made a huge difference. Only three years old and very flexible. one of the reasons i didn't refill the pool sooner was because i didn't know the city would give us a break on water. they remove the sewer portion of the bill, about half, once a year. I have to remember to not only turn the pump off but turn the valve to off as well or the siphon effect from being on "waste" will drain the pool again.

Thank you again for your advice. The pool people in town didn't have a clue, and didn't want to spend the time doing this kind of service call. I can imagine they would have rather brought in a new liner or charge $100/hour.