Pool firm's clients get steamed
Complaints mount on service, missing parts, and torn seams, Better Business Bureau says
For some people who planned on cooling off in their inflatable swimming pools this summer, the season has been particularly long and hot.
Swimming pool manufacturer Aqua-Leisure Industries Inc., based in Avon, has been given an ``unsatisfactory" rating by the Better Business Bureau Boston following a stream of complaints from customers about torn seams, missing parts, and ripped linings. The company's products are sold in stores nationwide.
``The majority of the complaints concern product quality issues," said Paula Fleming , vice president of communications and marketing for the nonprofit public service organization. She said the bureau has received an unusually high number of consumer complaints about the company: five in the past month, about 15 in the past year, and 28 over three years. But so far, Fleming said, it has not been able to get Aqua-Leisure Industries to address customers' concerns. While it can not penalize or take legal action against companies that are the subject of complaints, the bureau attempts to alert consumers about bad business practices.
Aqua-Leisure has about 50 employees at its 88,000-square-foot plant. Besides inflatable pools, floats, and other products, it makes steel-framed and ``insta-set" pools that do not require inflation.
Customers have told the Better Business Bureau it is difficult to get through on the company's toll-free telephone line. When a Globe reporter recently called the customer-service number listed on Aqua-Leisure's website, aqualeisure.com, a recorded voice estimated there would be a six-minute wait to reach a representative. Thirty-seven minutes later, the call was answered and the reporter was told to call the company's main business line.
In an e-mail, Scott M. Berenson , Aqua-Leisure's director of consumer assistance, said the company has been in business for 35 years and has ``proudly stood behind our products with warranties that have met or exceeded those of our competitors." Berenson said Aqua-Leisure attempts to resolve ``valid claims made under those warranties in a timely and satisfactory manner," and has done so in the ``vast majority of cases." But, he added, ``there have been some instances recently in which we've been slow to respond" to complaints about defective products.
Jennifer Dobo of Chalfont, Pa., said she purchased Aqua-Leisure plastic floatation devices for her 2-year-old son in April. A month later, her husband attempted to inflate one and ``found that there was a defect at the seam," she said. After two hours on the phone to the company, Dobo said, she was told nothing could be done because she had thrown away the receipt. ``The woman on the phone told me if she would have bought this for her child she would have kept the receipt," said Dobo. ``It should have been replaced, no questions asked."
Other customers also said that when they finally reached a service representative, they were unable to resolve their concerns and on occasion were treated rudely.
Oxford resident Tammy Fradsham said that in April, she paid $136 for a 13-foot round inflatable pool for her daughters, ages 7 and 9, which she set up in June.
On July 22 the seams began leaking, she said. Two days later, Fradsham said, she called the company and was told the defective pool would be replaced. When it did not arrive by the end of the month, her husband called Aqua-Leisure and was told the pool was out of stock, according to Fradsham. They were offered a different model, but that one also did not arrive. Fradsham said her husband called the company again and was told the replacement model was out of stock.
Fradsham said she called back about five days later and spoke with a customer service representative who ``hung up on me."
The complaints lodged with the Better Business Bureau are not the only reported problems with Aqua-Leisure products.
In 2001 , in cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission , the company voluntarily recalled about 90,000 baby floats because the leg holes in the seats were susceptible to tearing.
And this year , the company recalled about 320,000 pool ladders because the plastic step support clips could be assembled upside down, causing the ladder steps to break under a user's weight.
Sandy Coleman can be reached at sbcoleman@globe.com 