Complaint Review: Shasta Pools - Phoenix Arizona

After following preventative maintenance schedule of the Quickchlor salt chlorinator cell for my two year old, newly built (~$35K) Shasta salt pool, my salt chlorinator (also called salt cell) needs replacing.

The issue is that Shasta has pulled the few remaining Quikchlor chlorinators (salt cells) from their stores back to corporate office, hording these items for unforeseen reasons. They have executed this strategy as a result of being cut off from distribution by the manufacturere Quikchlor salt cells. They have communicated numerous different reasons, includig their distributor (in Australia) no longer will sell to them.

I have two issues with Shasta on this item. First, where was the proactive management of this issue and notifying their customer base that we would not be able to purchase these any longer? Why didn't they run a query from their dbase and identify customers whose pools were <4 years old and let them know of the issue? Why did they not try to work to secure this vendor / supply chain, or buy up excess inventory to buffer their customer needs? Where is the creativity in developing an alternate source?

My second issue is that Shasta's solution, for this issue, is for their customers to spend $1,600 for them to come out and replace the salt cell (chlorinator) but also the instrumentation panel as well. For most consumers, the instrumentation panel works fine and does not need replacing. Rather then develop or source a adequate replacement for the Quikchlor salt chlorinator (salt cell), their solution is to replace perfectly working equipment (instrumentation panel) as part of the solution. Not only are they burdening their customer base with unecessary additional expenses, it is also not very environmentally friendly.

Shasta customer service and other company representatives will not present you with any other solution other then to replace the instrumentation panel and chlorinator cell. However, A&A Manufacturing (Shasta's local Phoenix distributor) was very helpful and communicated that if you get the model number of the QuikChlor off your existing cell and conduct a web search, you will find alternatives to replace the QuickChlor for ~$500 with two year warranty (note they are made to order with a 3 week lead time).

It is pathetic to consider but, I can't help to wonder with the economic environment being what it is, and the decline in housing / pool industry, is Shasta subsribing to the mentality "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste, what I mean by that is it is an opportunity to do things you think that you could not do before." Taking a situation where they can't get the supply and making a conscious decision to provide a reasonable solution, they will maximize revenues by having customers replace the entire chlorinator system, including instrumentation panel. Not surprising, when I pose the above to Shasta reps, they deny this is the case; stating the common line about "valuing our customers." However, their actions suggest otherwise.

Regardless, this issue has proven to me again that Shasta lacks leadership, innovation, and creativity. Compounded with other challenges we have had with Shasta, I would definitely never purchase another pool from them and ensure to let everyone I know not to purchase from them as well.

Mike

Goodyear, Arizona

U.S.A.