Ian Whitcomb
Would not trust this company with a kiddie pool, let alone a high-end installation. Zero stars if it were an option.
We hired Pristine for routine pool cleaning service. They scheduled us promptly, and the first visit seemed fine—until I received a service notice claiming the pool had been vacuumed and cleaned. I went out to inspect, and the bottom was filthy. It plainly had not been touched. I called, and they agreed to send someone out.
A week passed, and I noticed a white powder coating the entire bottom of the pool. When I called, they explained it was simply the result of shocking the pool. As anyone with basic pool chemistry knowledge understands, properly dosed shock dissolves—what was sitting on my pool floor was excessive, clumpy, and clearly undissolved product. I asked them to come meet me on-site so we could review it together, and also pointed out that the trough on my infinity edge had been completely neglected. I was told they would schedule a time to address everything.
No call. No follow-up. Just another automated service notice stating the pool had been brushed, vacuumed, cleaned, and was "OK for swimming." I went out again: the pool was a mess. So I pulled my security camera footage. The technician had arrived, emptied one of the two skimmer baskets, connected a vacuum, ran it across the bottom in roughly three passes, shocked the pool yet again, and left. He was on the property for 23 minutes total—performing actual "cleaning" for only 11 of them.
I called the office again. They repeated that the pool had been shocked. I asked why, then, I had received an email clearing the pool for swimming, given that you cannot safely swim immediately after shocking. The response: "Oh, that's just an automatic message." When swimmer safety is on the line, sending automated all-clear notifications that bear no relationship to the actual chemistry is, frankly, indefensible.
I then raised that my salt cell had been reading low salt for weeks—which is why they'd been dumping liquid chlorine in. I was told the water wasn't warm enough yet for the salt cell to function. Except I had been heating the pool to 88 degrees for three months. That explanation was simply false. After going back and forth, I asked to speak with the owner—and was hung up on. From everything I can gather, this is an absentee-owner operation with no reachable accountability.
The next day, the same representative called back: "What can we do to make this right?" I appreciated the shift in tone and kept it simple—I needed the pool serviced correctly, and I needed someone on-site while I was present so we could walk through it together. Once again, someone "came out," never connected with me, and "looked at the pool."
The following day the technician returned and shocked the pool yet again—entirely unnecessary on a saltwater pool with no algae present. He was there 29 minutes this time, and left behind: the pool's power panel hanging open, the system in service mode with the pumps off, the spa half-drained, and the filter improperly sealed and leaking water everywhere.
At that point I was done. I terminated service and hired a competent company.
Bottom line: this outfit demonstrated a fundamental lack of pool knowledge at every turn—misdiagnosing salt cell function, over-shocking a saltwater pool, mishandling chemistry, and leaving critical equipment in an unsafe, leaking state. If you own anything more sophisticated than an inflatable, look elsewhere. I would not trust them to clean a toilet, never mind a pool.