At first when dealing with EcoSmarte the customer service was great. Mike Dewar was our contact and he promptly returned all of our calls and answered all of our questions about the product. We were in constant contact for two weeks when we finally decided to make our first purchase. He told us to get dealer pricing we would have to buy at least 6 systems. We told Mike that we wouldn't be installing our first system until spring and the warranty was only good for 60 days. Being the beginning of winter we didn't want to purchase a product and hold it in our inventory until the warranty expired.
Our other main concern was, what if we got the product held it for 4 months, installed it and just didn't like it. Mike told us that the 60 days started from the day of installation and if we had any problems or if we just didn't like the product for any reason we could return the product for a full refund excluding the shipping. I told him that I will take the dealer package since he seemed to stand behind his product so well. I would like to emphasize that the only contact we had with Mike and EcoSmarte was via the phone. We never met in person.
Throughout the remainder of December we spoke with several other pool builders in our area and none of them were using the EcoSmarte system and the one builder who had used them in the past strongly recommended against it. One of the reasons was how difficult it was to set and maintain the ideal water balance. We new we could install the product and get it working properly, but a homeowner would have a much more difficult time using the product.
When learning all of this we contacted Mike and told him that we felt he misrepresented the EcoSmarte product and would like to return what we had purchased. Mike said that was fine and implied that a refund would not be a problem. On two different occasions there were arrangements made for an EcoSmarte Rep. to contact us with a specific meeting place where they would take back the product and drop it off at another dealer who wanted the product. We were told it would be somewhere in Seattle, WA.
So on two separate occasions we drove 45 miles to Seattle with the product on one of our trucks and waited to receive a call. On both occasions the day came and went and we were never contacted by the representative.
At that point we again tried to contact Mike Dewar with no success. Suddenly he was always in meetings, or out of town, or not in the office at all. After numerous phone calls with no answer we left a message on there voice mail saying we were returning 5 out of the six systems and expect them to credit the correct amount onto the original credit card and contact us letting us know that they actually received the product back.
After 2 months we still saw no credit on our card and they had not contacted us to let us know they received the products. So we contacted our credit card company and told them the story and asked them to reverse the charges. They were going to reverse the charges but then received a letter from Mike stating that they do not offer refunds and we had a store credit that we could use get any other products. I find that funny. How are we supposed to get new products if they won't return our phone calls?
The worst part was that he couldn't even remember our company. He told the credit card company that we met him at a trade show. As I stated earlier, we never met him in person, our business relationship was limited to the phone and email. Needles to say the credit card company denied reversing the charges. And now EcoSmarte has our product, our Money and won't return our phone calls. They are dishonest thieves.
To anyone who is looking into this product or company I would passionately tell you to stay away! They misrepresent there product. It seems to me this entire company lacks integrity. Please learn from my mistake and steer clear of EcoSmarte, Larry Couture (Owner of EcoSmarte) and Mike Dewar (Contract Administrator)! We are currently perusing legal action against EcoSmarte to try and recover the $5,000 we spent on there product. It still shocks me how someone can sleep at night knowing they have stolen $5,000 from anyone.