Name: Swimart New Lambton
Telephone: (02) 4957 3616
Rating: 4.3

R Sun

google

★☆☆☆☆2 years ago

This is the first ever one star review I have posted. Long story short, the owner of the business would not accept responsibility when things go wrong. In this case, a $32 plumbing part that was damaged during pool pump replacement. As a result, not only was the pump out of action for one week beyond the installation date (payment of $1070 was paid on the same day), the owner had the audacity to threaten me with debt collection over an invalid invoice for the plumbing part. DO NOT trust this business, especially when the owner is a manager with MBA and CPA qualifications who argues over $32 parts. The photos shows the story. HERE IS THE LONG VERSION of the story: Imagine you have a broken pool pump that fused and tripped the electricity circuit, otherwise the pool sanitization system was fully functional beforehand. It is summer time and you do not want the pool to turn green. Swimart was called to quote for a replacement pump and then scheduled the job one week later. The pool sanitization system was installed by Swimart under the previous owner, and the pump had previously been replaced (it's a Waterco model that was just swapped out). I had the pleasure of watching the job done in 30 minutes last time. Straight forward disconnection and reconnection, though the parts needed to be disconnected in a particular order, and minor adjustment was made to the plumbing circuit. This time around, it took almost a full day to do the job on the first day. I was not at the property but kept receiving notifications from the surveillance system that someone is at that section of the house for most of day. Thinking it's a simple job and they have attended the site, I made the payment straight away. Not until I checked the pool pump a few days later, the leak and failed installation was apparent. I have to find the faulty part and attempt to connect the circuit, then realizing the plumbing was physically damaged. There was no messages or notes to indicate the job was incomplete. What's worse, they only responded after the real estate agent chased them up, by the time the pool had turned green. It's ludicrous to suggest the pumping was leaking before the pump broke. The leak would have emptied the pool below the skimmer level within 30 minutes. It is just as ridiculous to suggest cutting and joining a piece of PVC pipe to fit into the circuit should take 2 hours in the owners reply, only to show the technical incompetency of the people in question. This is what happens when people with non-technical backgrounds get into a new technical field. The owner could not answer my straight forward technical enquiries, and fails to show understanding of basic engineering principals. However, accountants are extremely competent at chasing debts, and threatening to tarnish credit scores, as shown in the correspondence. Fortunately I have successfully defended my consumer rights in the court of law multiple times in the last two decades. I will upload the results and documentations of the legal challenge once the case is settled and in the public domain.

Response from Swimart New Lambton

Swimart originally quoted to install a new pump, not a catch all quote to fix all existing issues relating to the pool circulation system. The leak in question was not caused by Swimart technicians and the installation of the new pump, but from a fatigued union on a very old existing filter. The fatigued union could not be diagnosed with a visual inspection and the leak only became evident once pressure was established to the system with a new pump. The additional required repair work was approved by the customer’s real estate agent and involved sourcing and customising a filter union for the old filter and 2 hours of labour which was completed and installed as soon as the new part was sourced. The customer was charged only $152 for this additional work. As the customer has refused to pay the invoice Swimart has referred the amount to our credit agency for collection.