Pool Pros Are Done Babysitting Clients Who Don’t Listen

We can't tell if the chemistry is good by looking at it, it wasn't clear yesterday!

From the last time, the saltwater pool is a chlorine pool!

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My issue is that the director of engineering basically had to stop what he was doing for the rest of the day and drain the spa.

Because we couldn't come back at that point.

You know what I mean? It was too late for us to come back here, don't it?

But to drain the spa and fill it back up and then rebalance the water.

It's a total pain in the ass.

So he was just kind of like, hey, do we need to have a meeting about this or what?

Happy Thursday everybody and welcome to the Talking Pool's podcast.

You have Steve and Wayne here, your host for Thursday.

Hope all everybody's listening has done well over the past week or so.

Just a little bit of personal news.

I've been in Philly all week and my son got married Saturday night.

And let's just say I'm still recovering both my body and my liver.

It was, excuse me, it was interesting.

They have a malamute that I'm watching for them while they're away this week.

His name is Ozzy and they love this dog.

We love them too, but they particularly love this dog.

They had an ice sculpture of him during the cocktail gallery.

They had him his face imprinted on the cocktail napkins.

They brought him in for pictures wearing a little tux across his furry chest.

It was really, really cute.

We had a good time.

The wedding was gorgeous and beautiful.

I'm very happy and pleased.

And I love my new daughter, the death.

She's a wonderful person.

How my son ever got somebody that good, I have no idea.

But no, we had a good time.

So I'm going to pass everything over to Steve today because apparently Steve has a lot of things that got fucked up past week or so.

And we're going to be talking about some of them to Steve.

Take it away, sir.

Sure, so Wayne, congratulations again.

Thank you.

And then, you know, there's been some shifts in talking pool stuff, right?

So we want to welcome Andrea Brack on Tuesdays, right?

So she's back from her hiatus.

And then also there's Nick now that's on Mondays with their show actually just came out today.

I'm going to listen to it later today with Shane and Lee.

So I wanted to welcome him to the team.

So everybody, all you listeners out there, we have a new guy on Monday, who's with the Down Under Show.

So check him out as well too.

And with Andrea and Andrea just named her show.

So it's Andrea unfiltered.

And I got them thinking so I want you to start thinking.

I want you to start thinking.

I want you to start thinking about a name for our show.

Maybe we're going to name our show pretty soon.

So we'll have a little countdown for that.

I got some ideas.

But we'll hold those.

No, they're awesome ones.

I've told it to you before.

You did.

You did.

I really like that one.

pH.

This is the measurement of the hydrogen ion concentration in the water.

pH stands for potens hydrogen.

I'll say it without the email accent.

Potens hydrogen, which is Latin for the power of hydrogen.

The effectiveness of free chlorine is directly linked to pH,

which greatly affects water balance and user comfort.

So human tiers typically have a pH of around 7.5.

And that is the reason we shoot for the ideal range of between 7.4 and 7.6,

which is what?

7.5.

So an acceptable range extends from 7.2 to 7.8.

And please have people that I hear saying,

the pH was 7.8.

Why don't you lower it?

Because it was 7.8.

And that was, that's acceptable.

And it stays at 7.8.

It's a whole thing.

7.8 is acceptable.

I'm not saying you shouldn't lower it.

I'm just saying you don't have to if it's 7.8.

If it's 8, or lower it, I won't get into it.

We lower the pH by adding acid.

There are several different types available.

You have muriatic sulfuric.

You have dry acid.

Sodium by sulfate.

Sulfuric acids should not be used in salt pools.

It's bad for the cell.

Look, it's, it's a really thing to, a difficult thing to navigate.

We need fuel.

We can't get away from it.

So while everybody goes out and panic buys fuel and may be not needed,

we unfortunately have to join them because we just need to operate the business.

So on our meeting this morning, we sat down and discussed some strategies

how, where it is now, where it could potentially go,

what we're going to have to do just so we can keep everybody rolling on through the jobs.

So we have asked them to fill up every day or every other day if they see fuel

to just grab it just to keep us and give us at least a little bit of a buffer

that if fuel is difficult, we've got a three, four days until we can get it.

We've got a mix of diesel and petrol cars.

So yeah, it's spread across those two types.

We'll start looking at scheduling.

We'll start looking at everything's on the table.

Yeah.

So we had a situation a couple of years ago where our prices rise quite unexpectedly

and definitely started to look like it wasn't going to end.

It wasn't going to reduce any time soon.

And I thought, okay, I've got to be proactive here.

I can't sit here and watch my margin get squeezed.

Want to take you straight to breaking developments in the US right now?

When it rains of course.

And it's, that's just rang so true the last week because we got,

I got back from my honeymoon last Monday, right?

And I think it was like Sunday, like really late at night.

So like kind of Monday because it was Monday, Switzerland time, right?

Right.

And since then, I've just had nothing but fucking problems.

And some of them are my fault.

Some of them are just like nobody's fault.

Some of them are my guys fault.

Some of them are the clients fault.

But it's all just like weird situations.

And, you know, what it really comes down to is I'm fortunate.

We're fortunate enough that like we get to own the company.

But we get to work mostly on the business.

You know, Jen works a lot more in the business with the finance part of it.

But I get to like oversee stuff.

And you know, when we're here and we're not moving around so much like we were in,

we were gone for three weeks for our honeymoon.

Right.

So normally Jen and I will kind of just like back to back.

We'll go see all of the commercial clients.

And sometimes we'll do it together.

Sometimes one of us will go.

And it's not in place of our employees going and seeing the pool and doing the visit.

This is us just going and like making sure that the acid buoys are filled,

making sure that we have enough chlorine buoys for the next few weeks,

making sure that we don't need to, you know, order anything.

Taking a look at all the duck bills and making short turning on all the automated machines.

Right.

The Intellica machines or the IPS machines because like at our one client,

it's a commercial client.

But like they have an indoor and an outdoor spa.

They have an in, sorry, they have an outdoor and an indoor spa,

which is like part of the hotel thing, right?

Then they have a spa, which is separate.

And in the spots got a men's and a women's cold plunge and spa.

Okay.

So that's six bodies of water already.

Then there's five fountains outside.

And these aren't like little fountains.

These are like decorative rock fountains that like hold thousands of gallons of water.

People don't realize that with fountains,

you still need to maintain them.

You still need to sat and you know,

make sure there's corn in there and sanitizer.

Because especially in the public area,

because I mean, I mean, like Disney World, for example,

all those sums that they have, you see kids playing in them

and you still got to keep them safe for everybody to be around

or maybe stick a finger in kind of deal.

Hey there, bullpose, it's Thursday again.

Wayne and Steve are here, let the knowledge begin.

Steve's surfing the skies chasing that thrill,

kite in the windbodies, master in the drill,

Thursdays with Wayne and Steve dropping knowledge bombs

that you better believe.

From chemistry tips to repairs that impressed,

making poor care easier, helping you progress.

Wayne's the legend, the master of tests,

ruler of a region.

He's simply the best with touchation skills

that'll make your head spin when it comes to water.

He knows how to win.

Thursdays with Wayne and Steve dropping knowledge bombs

that you better believe.

From chemistry tips to repairs that impressed,

making poor care easier, helping you progress.

In an industry built not just on skill

but on those willing to teach it,

there's a call to recognize the people behind the professionals.

The Talking Pools podcast is now accepting nominations

for its 2026 Mentor of the Year Award,

honoring those who don't just have the answers,

but teach others how to find them.

If someone helped shape your path in this industry,

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Visit cpoclass.com,

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Hey, everyone, and welcome to another episode

of the Insurance Center, Lud,

with your host Steve Sherwood.

And as always, our guest, Packer and Yon.

Pat, thanks so much for having Yon.

We always appreciate you being here.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Steve.

Thanks.

So today, I wanted to talk a little bit about,

you know, my job and what I have going on.

And, you know, most of the time, Pat,

I don't work with a lot of different people.

Like, for me to even give you that first time,

like, I either really need what you're set,

like what you're doing.

You know, like, I don't do that,

and like, I need you to do it,

because like, I got a plaster.

And like, he does plaster,

and he does tile,

and he does coping,

and he does expansion joints,

and then he does everything up to there.

And then, if it's the deck,

we use a decking company,

because decking has just been, you know,

went through the roof,

and it's too easy to fuck up,

and something happened,

and now you get this crack,

and now they're coming back,

and looking to sue you and stuff.

So like, we don't want that.

My plaster doesn't want that.

Like, we don't do decks.

So we got a deck guy that does that, right?

But my plasterer,

they're on my insurance,

as an additional insurance.

Right?

Because I use them for multiple jobs throughout the year.

Right?

So my question to you,

is I had a weird situation,

because I also have a leaked detection guy.

And Darren blesses heart.

He's the best leaked guy that I've ever come across.

He finds all of the leaks.

He does a really good job.

He, you know,

allows me to make some money on the job, too,

which is, which is amazing.

But like, he doesn't like to leave the LA area.

And I totally respect that,

because somebody had me come up to Santa Monica the other day

at 2 p.m.,

and I was like,

I'm sorry,

you want me to meet you, Ben?

And I had to,

because it's a new client,

but I was like, oh, man,

it's been four hours.

Did you do that drive?

It was like a three-and-a-half hour round trip.

So my question is,

I have a client,

and they're not in the LA area.

They're more in like the Orange County area.

So like 40-minute drive,

but in the opposite direction of LA.

So my leaked guy,

he's not going out there.

And I totally get that.

So it took me a really long time to,

I actually went to the Western show,

and I found a leaked company at the show.

And they're going out to do a one-time job for me.

Like, I'm never going to use this company again,

whether they do a good job,

or a bad job.

Like, I'm not using them in LA,

unless my guy says,

I don't want to.

So my question is,

do I need to add them to my insurance?

Should I add them to my insurance?

And what are the benefits of doing that?

And then what happens if I don't do that?

Yeah, definitely.

Well, look, I think it's a good question,

and it happens all the time.

But yeah, if anyone's ever been asked for a certificate

of insurance that lists,

you know, the primary company is additional insured.

That's super common.

We pump out hundreds of those every day.

So it's definitely not out of the ordinary.

But what I would recommend is that, you know,

you actually get on their insurance,

as additionally insured,

and that way,

it doesn't necessarily give you,

it doesn't give you like the same ability,

like make changes and do stuff to the policy.

But what it does allow you to do

is put in a claim on their insurance

if they're the ones that screwed up.

Right?

So you have a contract in place,

you know, with the pool that is going to be inspected,

you know, if this other company goes out there,

and something happens,

or they cause damage or injuries or something like that,

you aren't able to initiate a claim on their policy,

unless you're listed as additional insured,

and they could just say,

like, we're not putting a claim in,

we're not taking responsibility for it.

And I've seen that happen frequently,

where, you know, they just,

they wouldn't,

they're not taking responsibility for the,

for the damage.

And, you know, it's like,

and so you've seen,

you've seen that happen before.

Yep.

Sure.

I would say that like 90%,

I'm not going to give you percentages,

but most of the time,

the company is going to say,

prove it.

You're going to be like,

we're not taking,

we're not taking faults for this.

Like, oh, yeah, cool.

Bring us to court and prove that it was our fault.

Yep.

Yeah, it happens a lot more than you would expect for sure.

So that just gets rid of it.

Right?

Where you're able to, you know,

you have a copy,

you have a copy of their insurance policy,

you have contact info,

you're additional insured,

it's really just a quick form.

Almost all the policies out there on general liability,

they have like blanket additional insurance.

So there's not like extra costs

or anything associated

for the leak detection company for it.

I mean, it just puts the ball in your court

if they're not taking responsibility,

you weren't on site.

So clearly,

you're not taking responsibility

you're using your insurance for it.

You want it, you want it to go through theirs

and if there's a claim,

it should hit theirs

and affect their rates

and their insurance standing,

not yours.

So, okay.

So, yes.

So we want to put them on our insurance

as an additionally insured.

So we have that much in retrospect here.

My question, I guess,

now is like,

how do I go about doing that?

Because like,

there's a guy that I met at the show

who happens to maybe be like a regional manager

or something.

This is like a real big company.

This isn't like a mom and pop leak company.

It's like a USA leaks or something like that.

So, you know,

he hooked me up with a guy

who is the one that's coming out,

but like, I've only text message with him.

I don't think this guy is the,

he'll write up the report.

And then like,

I also talked to somebody in the office

who was like,

hey, like,

setting up the appointment.

So like,

I've got three different

fucking contacts for this,

for this company.

No,

like, what's the best way

to go about that?

And how do you ask that?

Or like, you know,

do I just come to you first?

And then we have something,

because like,

you're saying to go to them

and say, hey,

I want to be additionally insured on your insurance.

Yeah.

Yep.

What if they tell me to fuck off?

Yeah.

We don't want to do that.

It's certainly a red flag.

It's really easy.

Like, if you have someone in the office,

just say, hey,

do me a favor.

Can you get me a certificate

that shows Sherwood poll consulting

as additionally insured?

Here's the,

here's the business name in the address.

If someone called me

and said, hey, opposite,

like, I need to get added

on to Steve's generalized

ability policy is additional.

Sure.

Obviously, I would call you

and make sure that you were okay

with that.

And then if that's the case,

click, click, click,

boom.

You can run it and have a certificate

out in less than three hours.

It's like, cat,

why am I on 200 people's insurance

for these people that keep going?

Okay.

Cool.

So that's, that answered my question

on, on that.

And then my other question is like,

I had one of the manufacturers go out.

So, okay.

That my client got her pool

done, right,

was built by this builder,

who was the contractor.

And then I came in

and I took over the pool for the service

because they didn't want to do service.

So they started it up.

We actually restarted up the pool

because we didn't trust that they did.

So we started up the pool as well.

And then now, like,

the M drive went on the pump

or something like that.

But I kind of said,

hey,

I'm not the one that installed this.

This is definitely still under warranty,

but like, you need to go

through the proper channels.

I know that, like,

the big manufacturers,

like Frouedra Hayward

and Pentair,

like, they're not just,

they're not taking your word for it anymore.

They're not just saying,

like, the M drive is broken.

We'll just send you another one.

Like, you know,

in 2011,

like, I could just call them

and be like,

hey, the M drive is broken.

Can you send me another one?

And they'd be like,

yeah, it's in the mail.

We'll get it to you tomorrow.

The days of that is gone, right?

So or gone, right?

So now they want to send out

their own warranty company.

Oh, I'm like,

I'm the service company,

but I'm not the one facilitating

the warranty work.

And I'm,

I don't know the exact company

that's coming out

because they've got

fucking seven companies

in LA that it could be.

So it'd be one of seven companies.

And like,

my problem is I called them,

I mean, it took forever,

like, because I wasn't in charge of it.

So I wasn't like,

because I'm,

I'd be up the manufacturers' ass.

I'm like,

hey, like,

you guys said you were coming next week,

like, you know,

at the end of the week,

like, can we get a date for this?

So I just let it go for a few weeks

and then three weeks it went by.

I called them and I'm like,

I called the contractor

and I'm like,

hey, like,

they're supposed to be sending someone out.

And I'm like,

okay, well, just to let you know,

like, I changed the one pump

to the spa jet pump.

But if this pool had been down,

it's been three and a half weeks down.

And he's like,

yeah, I know,

but we just found out about it last week.

And I'm like,

okay, I'm like,

so I called the manufacturer,

I called the manufacturer,

my rep.

And I was like, dude,

can we,

can we just get this done?

What, like,

I got it.

Like, why do I have to step in for this, right?

So he says,

look, I'm on top of it.

I'll get it done for you.

No problem.

So I went on my,

my honeymoon that I just got back from last week.

So it's been a month now.

That's since I've talked to them about it.

I called the guy this morning,

a Monday morning.

And I'm like,

do we have a status report on this?

And he was like, oh, yeah,

like we did it last week.

And I'm like, okay, cool.

But like nobody said they were going,

nobody told the client,

nobody told the contractor,

nobody told me.

And then they just went and fixed it.

And like, they're the manufacturer.

So do I need to do anything

in that aspect?

Or I just,

I just crossed my fingers

and hoped that everybody did what they were supposed to do.

Like what,

what could I have done better?

Or what could, you know,

the listener out there

in this type of situation

where they need to do warranty work?

Should they,

I mean, you can't,

you can't fucking call

Fluidra or Hayward

and be like, hey,

I want to be additionally insured.

They would laugh at you.

Maybe you want to like,

you're not sending an email

to pan dare to tell them

that you want to be on there

and just your pan dare.

The guys that are on their insurance

is the warranty guy.

And you've talked about this before.

Yeah.

You know, in,

in other previous interludes,

but, you know,

in, in some closing remarks here,

like, was there anything

that I should have done better

to just protect myself

in case, in case

shit hits the fan

is really what it goes down to.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think,

so you can ask the,

and those companies,

I mean,

I've done a million

certs for,

you know,

for the opposite.

So they,

they for sure have,

have certificates of insurance

for all of the warranty companies.

So it doesn't hurt to ask,

they could say kick rocks,

but, you know,

ultimately,

the question gets posed the same way, right?

Like, hey, you know,

listen, you know,

I'd like to,

to get a certificate of insurance

that's showing,

you know,

I'm sure with Polk Consulting,

on your policy is

additional insured,

and you can email it to

here,

that'd be great.

And, you know,

I wouldn't be surprised

if they,

if they would do that.

I also wouldn't be

surprised if they said,

no, thanks.

And then,

yeah, you're somewhat

ish role in the dies.

But you know, like,

the haywords of the world

have an insurance policy,

right?

And so, I mean,

they have the biggest

insurance policy.

Exactly.

This is not even close.

They have, they have insurance

policies where,

if they burnt the place down,

like, they would just

feel like, well,

I mean, they would wind up

settling out,

out of court anyway.

Yeah.

Which is really

what winds up happening all

of the time, right?

So,

sort of a one thing thing,

Pat,

because I,

I have a really awesome

relationship with,

you know,

my rep from,

from Hayward,

which is Sergio,

my rep from

Fluidra,

which is Mike,

you know, my crumb,

and like,

I'm not going to say

that, but,

you're saying,

this is what you're

supposed to do when you

have people go out to

jobs for you,

and they're, they're

doing the warranty.

But, you know, now that you

think of it,

like, there's just so many

people that I send out

without thinking about that.

Yeah.

Well, you know, where

someone's like, hey,

like, I'll go check it out

for you.

And you're like, okay,

cool.

Like, give me a quote, you

know, or whatever,

and then they touch

something and something

breaks.

Yeah.

I had, I had an

inspection that I went to,

I came off from the pump

on the pressure side,

and it went to the filter,

or you could make it go

another way.

So it had a

jandy valve,

or you could not make it

go to the filter,

and it goes somewhere else.

And I opened it up,

and it turned on this,

like, a swim spot thing.

Like, everything got

directed to the swim spot.

So it made

like a really nice jet.

And then I was like,

oh, it's this

one spot.

Yeah.

And then I turned it off,

and the pressure side

of the pump started leaking.

And I was like, dude.

I'm like, I didn't

touch that.

I'm like fuck, yeah.

So I had to like note it in the inspection

that like it was leaking, you know,

but like it was a visual inspection.

Like I didn't touch that and I sure as hell

I'm not gonna try and fix that

because then you make things and you make it worse

or something like that.

And now, you know, now they were like

this thing wasn't broken before.

Yeah, it's your problem as soon as you die.

As soon as you go to fix it, for sure.

It kind of take exactly.

Put your hands on your taking responsibility.

So what I'm here, what I'm here in here

is that basically anybody that you work with,

it's totally appropriate for you to ask them to,

to for you guys to not only have them

beyond your insurance, but for also you to be on their insurance.

And that basically protects everybody

and covers everybody's ass and just make sure

that, you know, if something does go wrong

and it's a one in a, you know,

a one in a million type thing

that something bad's gonna happen

but it always seems like the more,

the more stuff you do, the more chance

you have of this something going wrong, right?

So it will happen inevitably just a matter of time, right?

But yeah, it really is part for the course,

like it's insurance agents,

like we deal with the stuff all the time,

you know, exactly what you're talking about.

And, you know, it's like, there's a couple of things, right?

Like the Hayward example, like Penter,

they have insurance, you know, they have insurance,

but maybe it's just some guy

doing a leak detection for you, right?

And maybe they don't have any insurance, right?

So you get to verify that they have active coverage

as a part of it, you know, be, you know,

you're able to initiate a claim on their policy

if they're responsible for something

and they don't agree with taking responsibility for it.

You don't need their thumbs up to put a claim in, you know,

and so there's a couple of different things,

but it really is part for the course.

And, you know, I think, yeah, everything's a little bit

of role in the dice,

but if you get a big company on site

with their warranty company that they use,

like warranty company has insurance,

Hayward Repentair has insurance on top of insurance,

you know, and so you really wouldn't have anything

to worry about outside of, you know,

they're not wanting to take responsibility

for causing damage or already injuries wall on site.

So it really isn't, it really isn't a big deal at all.

It's just ask for a certificate, you know,

list my company, it's additional insurance,

they're often running, it's, you know,

it's, it's really not that much work

for the insurance agency

and they should be doing those all day long every day.

I know that we do for sure.

And we have all the endorsements and everything's already

included on the blanket coverage on our standard policies.

You know, there are some that have a charge forward

and that may be a different ballgame,

but most of them don't know for sure ours

include all those endorsements to where,

even if you get asked for a bunch of different things,

like our policy has blanked the coverage

for all of that stuff that they're looking for.

Well, that's why it's amazing to have coverage with CPA.

So if you guys want to check out California Pool Association,

I know we say this all the time,

but California Pool Association doesn't just do insurance

and California, they do it in all 50 of the states.

So their license for pretty much everything,

their license for like auto insurance,

I have my auto insurance through them.

I have my general liability from them.

I have all of my riders through them.

So, and we have a ton of coverage

because our commercial clients

make us have insurance out the wazoo.

So Pat, thank you so much for coming on.

If you do mention the Talking Pools podcast,

they'll give you one month free on your general liability.

So definitely check them out.

And if you have any insurance questions,

please feel free to reach out to us at TalkingPools

at gmail.com.

And we will feature you on the show

and we'll send you some cool swag.

So Pat, as always, thanks for coming on

and we'll catch you guys next week.

Thanks.

Thanks Steve.

Yeah.

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People don't realize that with fountains,

you still need to maintain them.

You still need to satin, you know,

make sure there's corn in there in sanitizer

because especially in the public area,

because I mean, like Disney World, for example,

all those sums that they have,

you see kids playing in them

and you still got to keep them safe for everybody

to be around or maybe stick a finger and kind of deal.

What it is, is it's just, it's time.

And when I first went and picked up this client,

I always do like a walkthrough, you know,

and I'm like, okay, like let me take really take my time here

and see like how long it takes me.

And I was there for three and a half hours.

What?

So I knew that if we had one guy go

and do all of this stuff,

it was, even if he was hustling,

it was going to take him two, two and a half hours

if you have to change some duck bills and some injectors on,

because again, you got to look at 12 machines.

You got to make sure that all these machines are working.

You got to, there's 12,

there's six different canisters of acid

that you need to make sure are filled up with water and acid.

You know, so what happened at this place is we went

and he went and cleaned the pool, the guy that was there,

cleaned the spot.

And then he went and checked the injector

and the injector seemed to be messed up.

It wasn't working properly.

It looked like it was just going back and forth.

So it was clogged.

So he opened up the injector and he poked a hole

in the injector and made the hole super wide again,

which is what he's supposed to do.

But I'm not 100% sure that he went back

and recalibrated the box.

And the reason that I say that is

because he did the rest of his rounds and he left.

And then we got a text from the director of engineering there

and he said that the, you know,

he tested the water in the spa

and the pool was at 42 parts per part.

The body of water was at 42 parts per million.

And like when I tell you this spa is 800 gallons,

like I shit you not, it's 800 gallons.

It is like the smallest hot tub that you have ever seen.

It's four people would be, you'd be like,

all right, that's it.

Like I think you can hold five,

but four is actually like, whoa, that's a lot.

So if this was a thousand gallons or 1200 gallons

with all of the plumbing and all that stuff,

like that would still be stretching it.

So I can totally see how it could go

because when my guy was there,

he did the record keeping of it

and it was at 14 parts per million.

But what we should have done is we should have went back

and we should have calibrated the box

and we should have put the set point number way higher

than whatever the number was to tell the machine,

hey, but I don't know what it was

because he couldn't answer that question.

So that was probably the problem.

But my issue is that the director of engineering

basically had to stop what he was doing

for the rest of the day and drain the spa.

Cause we couldn't come back at that point.

Like you know what I mean?

Like it was too late for us to come back like he or she done it.

But to like drain the spa and fill it back up

and then like rebalance the water.

It's like a total bit pain in the ass, you know?

So he was just kind of like,

hey, like do we need to have like a meeting about this

or what and like I, you know, I spoke with him

and like we're all good, but like we just need

to communicate better with that, you know?

And I would much rather tell them like anytime

we find a body of water, that's at 14 parts per million.

Like big red flag needs to go up where we're saying,

hey, what do you want us to do about this?

Because they might ask us to drain off some of the water.

Right.

You know, like this is a commercial spa.

Like this isn't a residential pool.

Like I know they have a lot of people and stuff,

but like at the same time, like 14 parts per million

is is four over what the health department is saying

that they want.

So that's not something that we really should be messing

around with.

How did you measure 42 parts per million?

So we use, we use the FAS DPD powder.

Okay.

And that goes up to about, that'll go up to like 50

or 60 parts per million now.

Nope, nope.

The FAS DPD test is only good up to about 20.

Okay.

So then what do you do there?

Delusion test?

Delusion.

So he definitely didn't do a delusion test,

but he was saying like he like she tested it like three

or four times and that's what he came up with.

Okay.

So, but I have had it where like I have had it go to like 30

before where I was like at a like small fountain

or something like that.

But you're just saying that it's not,

you're not saying that it doesn't go higher than that.

You're just saying it's not very accurate.

Got it.

Good tie.

If it got hit, either way, either way it was to either way,

it was super high.

Right.

And like if you're saying it's 42 or it's 22,

I don't really give a fuck.

That's way too high.

Right.

You know, it is really what it comes down to.

And if it's that high, even if it was 22 or 25,

I would just say, hey, just drain it off.

Like there's so little water in there

that you just fill it back up and rebalance it.

But anyway, like not a good look for us, right?

So with that.

So that's that's the first thing.

The second thing is we had a commercial spot,

their light went out.

So they told us, hey, our light went out.

So we looked at the light,

Jen looked at the light, we're in Norway,

where you know, she's like, hey, is this light okay?

I like gave it a quick once over.

I was like, yes, seems okay.

And then my guy went and picked up the light.

And then we installed the light and it's a color light.

It's not a white light.

And like with commercial,

you have to put in white LED.

And like you can make it white LED, which is fine,

but like every time it turns off,

then you would have to turn it back on.

Like it should every time go to white,

but like that is not what they asked for.

You know, and that's not all you were supposed to put in.

So guess who's going to eat this light?

We are, you know what I mean?

So we're going to have to go back

and we're going to have to put in a new light.

So that was kind of a pain in the ass.

And then also at this same client,

it took me like a year to get this client, okay?

Like I had went there.

I had wrote up an inspection report for them.

I had told them everything,

what they were deficient in that they needed

to drain the pool this fall in both places

because there's two places across the street

from each other.

And the guy who was their general manager,

I just was like having a really hard time

always getting in touch with him.

You ever like have one of those clients

where like anytime you call them,

like they just don't answer their phone.

They don't answer text messages.

Yeah.

And like he was better at responding to emails,

but like there was certain things that were coming up

where like, you know, my service manager's there

in the morning, he tells me something's wrong.

I want to call somebody or text somebody

and be like, hey, what do you want me to do about this?

What do you want us to do about this?

Like we want to fix this now.

As opposed to me sending an email,

and then like hearing back from you later or tomorrow,

like I'm not checking my email every five minutes.

Like if you send me a text, like I'm on it.

So it was super frustrating that I was getting,

but not getting in touch with this guy

and then like they were having problems

that were coming up.

But like we started taking care of the pool and spa's

and like they weren't on board with draining it anymore.

I'm like, now we're taking care of it

and your TDS is at 4,500.

There's fault in the pool still

and there's no, there's no salt sale working anymore.

It's like, what are we doing?

Like we have to drain the pool and spa.

So I get an email from somebody in finance

and they're like, hey, can we have a meeting?

And I'm like, okay, cool.

Like I can come up and have a meeting.

When do you want to come up?

And she's like, can you come up a Friday to PM

and this place is insane amount.

And I was like to PM, like Wayne,

that's like a death sentence for me coming home.

Like no joke, it turns your hour trip into two hours.

You know, that's why I only make appointments

between time and one, but I was like, okay, cool.

Like I need to get, we need to get some,

some stuff squared away here.

Let's meet.

So I go up there at two

and I meet with this finance lady

and a couple of their engineering guys.

And I find out that the general manager

doesn't work there anymore.

So like literally my point of contact for the last year

and we just got this client two weeks ago or three weeks ago.

And now there's like a whole new, whole new regime in there.

And her first question is she's like, you know,

10 minutes into the meeting.

She's like, I gotta go.

She's like, I have other stuff I need to do.

Can you just recap me later?

And I was like, recap you on what?

I'm like on all, like I had our,

like I've sent you a full email with 60 bullet points on it

of the different things that we need to get

that were deficient and that we need to fix here.

But like none of that stuff has been fixed yet, right?

So I just said there, I was like, I'm literally just going

to forward you the email that I had sent to, you know,

Roger or whatever is name what.

And I'll update it and I'll send it out to you, you know?

So I was just kind of like a man.

I was like, I just kind of like not the best feeling

in the world that you're working with somebody.

You go over all of these things that, you know,

they're like, okay, cool, we're on board to fix that

and to, I want to make this easy for the guys

that are working there as it is easy for us.

And part of the problem is like,

it's in the middle of downtown Santa Monica.

So there is no off time with them, you know?

Like these pools and spas are ridiculous.

Like high-bather load would be an understatement.

Yeah.

And the first question that the lady, you know,

the lady says is like, why do we have to drain the pools

in the spas?

She's like, that, you know, we don't want to do that.

That's going to cost a lot of money.

And it's like a 12,000 gallon spas or pool.

So like I had to tell her, like it's probably going to be like $60,

$100 in water, like it's not going to be that crazy.

So that was just kind of like, okay, cool.

Like we really need to regroup here and we need to like prove

ourselves to like a new management, you know,

which is like never the best feeling in the world.

So there was that.

Then I told you a couple of shows ago that I had a pump

and the pump went down.

The M drive shut off, right?

So I had my service manager go there, Carlos,

and he swapped the original pump with the jet pump

because they were the exact same pump.

So just to have our client, you know, be able to have circulation,

we swapped over the pump and we told, you know,

and it was fluedra, we told fluedra,

we were like, hey, this is what we're going to do.

And they were like, okay, cool.

But something got lost in translation

of like getting the warranty station out there

because fluedra makes a company come out and look at it,

which I'm totally fine with.

But like I had said to my client, like we didn't install this.

So like I can't, I'm not going to really reach out

to fluedra on my behalf, like, you know,

your contractors, the one that installed it,

he's the one that needs to get the warranty,

like he should reach out to me.

So I got a month went by, I checked in like at three weeks

and they were like, oh, like we just heard about this

last week and then like I went to on my honeymoon,

which was three weeks and then we got back

and then like my client just texted me this morning

and she was like, hey, like did they change the pump,

you know, so I called my rep from fluedra

and he was looked at it and he was like, oh yeah,

like we actually fixed that last week.

But he was like, I want to show you some pictures

of like the way that the pump was wired up.

Like it wasn't wired up correctly

and that's what fried the M drive.

But like we didn't wire up the original pumps, you know,

like the M drive was already done

by the time we got there.

So it was like, you know, this guy doesn't know

if it was awesome, if it was the other company

and like we didn't really do any of the wiring, you know?

But it's kind of hard to explain when they send you

a picture of like what was wrong, you know what I mean?

So like I need to have a follow up conversation

about wiring with them just to make sure

that we're all on the same page.

But like, you know, they went out there,

they didn't tell me, they went out there,

they didn't tell the client, they went out there,

they didn't tell the contractor that they went out there,

they just went out there and they just fixed it

and like didn't hit it stop and say, hey, like this is fixed.

So I'm like, okay, thank you.

You know, so again, like communication is key here, right?

And then this one, I have a fountain

and it's not a pool, it's a fountain.

And it's been leaking like crazy for the last like four year,

right?

And I just wear this client is located,

it's not an area where a lot of people from L.A. want to go.

So I had a really hard time finding somebody

who would be able to go out there to do leak detection.

So I went to the Western show

and I'm at, you know, American leak detection.

They were like, we go in that area

and I was like, oh my God, perfect.

Like, you know, so I don't know if I had told you

but they sent someone out there

and they were like, we didn't find the leak

and I like looked at his report and his pictures

and I was like, you did what?

I'm like, you pressure tested all the lines

and you, I'm like, you didn't need to do any of that stuff.

I'm like, the bottom trough is empty all the time.

Like, it's in, it's one of the troughs is the problem

and I'm pretty sure it's the bottom.

So I like called them and I was like,

I'm not super happy about this, you know,

and they were like, okay, they were like,

he actually didn't listen

and like, he's not having a great attitude about it.

So like, we're just gonna send somebody else out

and I was like, okay, perfect, thank you so much.

So they were like, can you make sure

that you have the bottom trough has like,

200 traventine bricks on it that you need to remove?

Oh, I'm like, okay, cool.

I'm like, my guy's gonna go out there

because they said he was gonna go there last week.

My guy went out there, he took all the things off,

he filled it up with water,

all prepped for them and then like a week

and a half go by and they don't go.

So I like called them last week

and I was like, hey, like, are you guys going out there

or when are we doing this job, you know,

and they were like, okay, cool, we're gonna be there

on Monday.

So I'm like, okay, can you just have the guy text me

so I can have my client fill up, it's not near us,

I just have my client fill up the bottom trough, right?

So client fills up the bottom trough, the guy texts

and he's like, hey, like, I need the trough

to be clean and clear and you know, no bricks in there.

So my client texts back and he's like,

it's filled up with water but he's like,

it's got algae all over and the guy's supposed to come today.

So I had to call the guy and be like, hey, like I apologize,

but like you guys were supposed to come last week,

that's why I had the guy come.

But please don't tell me on Saturday

that you're coming on Monday, like that only allows me

to go there on Sunday.

I'm like, let me know as soon as you know in advance,

so I can go out there and I can do whatever I need to do

and we could leave this thing on 24-7

before you and shock it, you know,

but like we only go once every other,

we only go twice a month because it's a fountain.

It doesn't need to be serviced every week,

but like thank God that he didn't go out there before,

like at least we communicated like, hey, don't come out

because it's not, something's not right

because that would have been the second time

that someone would have came out

and I would have been like, I'm not willing to pay you guys,

you know, so that's kind of been like what's on my plate

and just, you know, watch there's one more I guess.

So how to client text today, this morning

and she was like, hey, she's like,

did you guys stop coming to this house?

And she's the house manager.

She's located in like Oklahoma or Texas or somewhere

so she doesn't live at the house.

The person that lives at the house has full-time care

and so there's two live-in caretakers

so the person that lives in the house

is not going in the pool ever.

Like they have not went in the pool ever

since we started with them.

So literally this is just like a decorative pool, okay?

So all we have to do is go there, clean it,

do a good job, make sure it's cleaning clear.

So before I call her or I call the guy that's going there,

I look back at like the group text messages

and like the group text messages kind of fell off

and like we have a lot of clients

so I get a lot of text messages

so like I'm not, I wouldn't notice

if you didn't text somebody one week or whatever.

You know what I mean?

Like it's just I'm getting this constant text messages

of like, hey, and I go through skimmer

and I can check and see that they went there

and that they have their pictures and all that stuff.

So I go back through the records and I'm looking

and my guy went and I see the pictures

but like he just, his reporting wasn't that great.

Like he didn't say like when he went in

and when he left and like it says that he, you know,

what he put in but like it's like a 30,000 gallon pool

and then for the chlorine was at like four

and he put in one gallon and I know what happened.

They have a salt cell.

So over the winter time one gallon was enough

because every time he would come in back,

he put in one gallon and then he'd come back

and it would be at four parts per million.

If you look at through the history,

it's just 444444.

I'm like he's not making it up.

It's really at four every time.

So what happened is the last week and a half in California,

we had a heat wave and it'd been 100 degrees,

you know, where they're at in the, you know,

they're inland a little bit and it's been really hot

and then over the course of this weekend,

we had like 25, 30 mile per hour winds on Saturday

for like four hours straight.

So apprehensive to see because he's on his way there.

Now I was, I called him and I was like,

hey, like you have to go back to this pool.

I'm like, so not only that, the two caregivers

said to the lady who's the house manager

who doesn't live in the state.

She's like, we're not convinced that this guy has been coming.

Like the pool doesn't look that great, you know?

So in my mind, like the pool has algae

but I don't think the pool has algae

because the guy was there on Thursday

and the pool look totally cleaning clear.

So what I think is there's just probably

a lot of leaves in the pool

and we're just having a bit of a misunderstanding here

but I had to call my, you know, my employee

and explain to him that like, hey,

like if somebody tells you, somebody tells us

that they think that you're not coming,

I need to be able to go through the notes

and tell them the exact time that you showed up

how long you were there for,

what the chemical readings were,

what you put into the pool

and I need a picture of before

and I need a picture of after.

And like that's something that we're supposed to do

at every single pool and all it does

is it just allows us as the business owners

to protect you, the employee, you know?

And it's just, it was really frustrating

cause like in every week there was like something missing

whether it was like out time or it's in time or

and this is my employee that's actually the best at reporting.

He's actually usually really good

but like I understand that like there's days

where you have 11 pools

and you might be doing a commercial pool in the morning

and then like it's really, you know, like you're busy

and you got a lot of stuff going on

and like sometimes I'll be in the car

and I'm like I don't wanna go back to the pool

and take a picture so like I'll take a picture

like in the car cause it won't let you close out

for that job and go to the next job

until you take an actual picture.

And the reason that I know that my employee

cause I was like did this kid go and not tell me?

Like did he not go to the pool and saying

that he went to the pool and he had to have went

because you're not allowed to in the app,

they make you take a live picture.

Like you can't pull a picture from like before

or anything like that.

So I absolutely know that he was there

but he's not making it easy for me to protect him, you know?

So and that just brings me to another point of like

and this is something that I talk about all the time

but it is so, so, so super important

when you fix something or you sell someone something

and something's broken.

Like if it's a pump basket that's broken

and you're replacing it with a new one

like I always take a picture of the old one

and when I install the new one

I always take a picture of the new one

cause I can't tell me tell you how many times

that at the end of the month

I charge somebody for a basket or something like that

and then they're like I went out and checked the basket

like basket looks like it has leaves in it

like it doesn't look new

and I got now I gotta explain to the client

that like the only thing that the pump basket does

is grab leaves and pebbles and twigs and stuff

like that's its actual job.

But if I don't have the picture to prove to them

that hey, you know, we actually did this

now people in their mind

and it doesn't matter what actually happened, Wayne.

You know, when someone assumes that you're

that you didn't come or like there's really nothing

that you could tell them that's gonna tell them

that's gonna make them think otherwise

unless you can give them solid proof

and I did send to her the pictures

I, you know, the last three weeks

I sent her the pictures I was like,

hey, this is what the pool was is what we put in

and then, you know, how we're gonna fix this moving forward

is we're gonna text every single time that we went

and part of the problem is that my guy didn't text

for like the last month

and I just hadn't been checking because I've been away

but how we're gonna fix all this for this client

is my employee every time he goes

he's gonna text me and her

and then when he gets there

he's going to announce himself to, you know,

he's gonna knock on the door or ring the bell

and let the caregivers know that he's there.

And then Jan and I, we're gonna have to, you know,

and we do do this once a month

we try and get out to all of our commercial clients

just to help out and see like do we need to fill this

does this need to be done

do we need to order this whatever it is

but we weren't able to do it last month

and that's obviously our fault

we've had a lot of shit going on

and we were on, you know, our honeymoon

which is no excuse

but it just goes to show you that like even though

we worked on our honeymoon

and we tried to not have the wheels fall off

you can still come back

and there's still a bunch of dumpster fires, you know

and no matter how well you run your business

problems like this are gonna pop up

and I always say that like we try and,

we try and do preventative maintenance all the time

but with this type of stuff

you have to be able to also just, you know

do good reporting and different things like that

to make sure that you can kind of cover your ass

and I always tell my guys

and I'm gonna tell all the listeners out there

if you can't prove to your client otherwise

like they're never gonna believe you.

No, and that's why documentation

like you're doing is your, it should be ingrained in you.

I mean, in order to show exactly what was done

what would show you to your customer

what was done or not done or something like that

but you know, and that holds true

not just in your area of expertise

but in pretty much any area.

I mean, even like for example when I was handling

all the technical calls for them

and I kept a spiral bound notebook

of every text call, a text call I've ever done

and by the time I left it 32 years

I had 23 thick, big spiral bound notebooks

with the date, the time, who the customer was,

what they wanted, what the solution was,

that kind of thing.

And that turned out, and as messy as my handwriting is

was, we're still the documentation

and legally that they accepted that

when we had an issue with a couple of customers years ago

but still, documentation is a point

even if it's as simple as something I was doing

versus something more involved

as what you're trying to deal with.

It's important to have some kind of a record,

some kind of documentation that shows what happened

and what the solution was and what was done.

It's invaluable, invaluable information.

Right, and I just think that like, you know,

not only that, but just what I was talking about before

that like if you can't prove that person wrong

and even if you do sometimes like people

are still gonna think what they're gonna think, you know

and if they're like, hey, this caregiver

like never lies to me, they always, you know,

they always are on point like, why would they lie about this?

Right.

You know, and like they haven't seen them there

and they're there 24-7.

So I know that my guys are there,

but like with the commercial pools,

there's just, there's so much stuff that you have to cover, Wayne.

Right, right.

I really do feel for the guys that have to go out

and do the commercial pools because like,

with the commercial pool, like you have to go

and check 60 different things during the day

to make sure that this is okay.

I'm like, it's a time, it's not waste, you know,

it's not a time-waster, but it takes up a lot of time.

Right.

In that aspect, you know, where you aren't in and out

of these pools in 30 minutes or 40 minutes,

like it takes you sometimes two, you know,

sometimes three hours.

And then like we showed up today

at one of our commercial clients and like,

the spa was like smurf blue, you know,

and like we hadn't been there since Friday,

we have no idea what happened,

but like we're the ones that are now tasked with draining it.

Yeah.

So it's just, it's hard to keep up with all of this stuff,

but like the only way that you can do it

is through documentation.

And I actually need to be a little bit better as well too.

Like I try my best to go through skimmer, you know,

like almost every day, but like it's hard, you know,

and then like, okay, like the guys didn't finish skimmer today.

Like you text them about not finishing, you know, skimmer.

Hey, could you, could you finish this up, you know,

and then like you go back again the next day

and it's still not, and then sometimes there's like a glitch

where like they did actually do it

and it's not closing on its own.

So it's just like, it's a, it's a never ending, like chase

to try and, you know, stay on top of all of this stuff.

But like if you want to run a good business

and if you want to do good business,

like I expect nothing less than 100%.

You know, and that's why I don't, you know,

I don't like talking all this negative shit,

but like it's, this is what really goes on in a pool company,

you know, and it's just, it's, it's real stuff.

And like some of this stuff is my fault too, you know,

but like if you're running a pool business,

like you, your goal is to, to try and be one,

and speaking of 100% remember those two people

that I told you about the bills that, oh yeah, oh yeah.

We started getting nasty and they were like,

well, like we're not going to pay this or blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, I just stopped, I just wrote them

and I said, hey, this is your bill.

And if you don't pay by this day,

we are going to send you a certified letter.

And then if we don't hear back from you,

we are going to, you know, start the proceedings

to either go to collections or basically,

we're going to take you to small clean score.

And as soon as we sent the certified letter,

we got paid the next week from both of them.

So you could don't, if a client is trying to like bait you

into going back and forth with them

about getting paid or anything like that, don't do it,

especially because then they might say something

that like is crazy.

And like the one client, I was so upset with them

because they sent us a letter of that they weren't

going to use service anymore.

And it was, we loved you guys so much.

You guys have been so amazing through giving us discounts

and when my husband was sick and like, you know,

wrote this like charming, lovely email of like that.

We were the best things since sliced bread,

but monetarily they need to move on.

And I was totally fine with that.

I wrote them back.

I said, thank you so much.

And then they didn't pay their bill for three months.

And then we, you know, we reached out to them

and we were just like, hey, like you still have

an outstanding bill here, you know, can you please pay it?

Like we don't want to have to take any other action.

And they wrote back and they were like,

the tone of your email, I don't want it to be like,

what, we just literally asked you to pay your bill.

Like the tone of our email, we said like,

can we get paid for services that we already rendered?

You know what I mean?

But then like that was them trying to get like a rise

out of us and for me to write back and say,

well, well, you know what I mean?

Like, no, I didn't engage in any of that.

So anytime anybody owes you money, like if, you know,

if you have the record of it,

I've been to small claims court once and this guy

totally lied about basically what went on.

And I went into court and I had all of the documentation.

He didn't even let me speak.

He literally opened up the thing and read it

and was like, okay, guys, he's like,

I need you to go into the hallway

and see if you can get this figured out.

He's like, if not come back in for my, you know,

for my proceeding and we went out on the hallway

and the guy was like, there's no way

that I'm paying for this blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, okay, cool.

Let's go back inside and see what the judge has to say.

I'm like, I sent him all the documentation

and we went back in and he was like,

I'll let you guys know within three weeks.

See you later.

And I was like, what the fuck was that?

I was like, I thought we were getting out of here,

getting paid and like now he says three weeks

and he looked over all the stuff

and like basically dismissed it.

So, you know, if you have the documentation

and documentation these days,

doesn't have to be a certified letter.

It can be an email.

It can be a, you know, a text message.

It can be a voicemail.

It can be pretty much anything, right?

But there's certain people out there

that are going to try and take advantage of you.

And it's really hard because like for you Wayne,

like you never sent out test kits to anybody

before you got paid that you didn't trust.

Exactly right.

So I got 60, 80 different people that I'm working with, right?

You got to trust all these people

that they're going to pay.

But we do this service first

and then we charge at the end of the month.

I know there are companies out there that do,

and this is a valid point.

You could say like, well, why don't you just charge them

at the beginning of the month and, you know,

and the reason is like there's so much other stuff

that goes on that like maybe we changed a pilot

or maybe we changed a pressure switch in their heater

or maybe we put in a pump basket.

So every month like this person pays whatever,

$220 a month, $100 a month, whatever their bill is, right?

And then I got to come back and be like,

well, you owe us another $62 for a blah, blah, blah,

and time, you know, or whatever.

So like every month you would be,

you would be, you know, taking bills

and making them look different, right?

You'd be changing, changing the bottom dollar on it.

So that's why we just do the service first

and then at the end of the month,

we say, hey, we added extra chemicals here,

but also with that, it's super important

that you, if on week two, you change out something

and you fix something, it's important

that you let the client know then like that day.

Like, hey, we didn't want to bother you,

but the pump would have been down

without the pressure switch on their,

you know, or the pressure gauge on the filter, right?

You know, not the PSI gauge itself,

but like the bleed thing, start was leaking.

You know, we couldn't leave the pump on like that.

We had one on our truck, we fixed it.

It's gonna be $60, you know?

Because then at least when that person gets the bill

at the end of the month,

they understand exactly what's going on.

They understand, hey, you know,

well, I do remember talking to you about this.

I've had people where we've talked about it

and then at the end of the month,

when they still ask me like, hey, like what's this?

And then I'll literally send them the message

and I'll just be like, hey, like, you know,

I had told you, you know,

I had said to you on, you know, three weeks ago

that we had put, you know, extra time.

And the biggest one is the, the, you know,

when you go to a client and there's, there's algae.

And I don't know, I mean, there's like a couple pools

that I have, Wayne, that just I have such a hard time with.

And it's because it's a pool that's 36 feet long

by 18 feet wide.

And there's two returns that are in the, you know,

in the deep end of the pool.

And it's like, we can run this thing 24-7.

We could put as much chlorine as we want in there.

It's just over the course of a week,

like there's so many leaves and shit that gets in there

that like, we're gonna come back

and it's gonna be at zero chlorine.

And there's gonna be algae.

And like, they don't have phosphates.

We already have a, you know, a Blu-ray Excel in there.

Like, we've already done the,

we've already went through the steps of it,

but like, how am I gonna turn over the water more?

Unless we, you know, put new returns in the pool

or we change the plumbing size or whatever, you know?

So it's, it's just a bit frustrating

when you come into situations like that

where you're like, hmm, like we're doing everything

that we can and like all we could really do

is start doing two visits a week.

But we're doing two fucking visits a week anyway

because we go there, you know, it has algae.

We have to blast it with chlorine.

We gotta come back the next day or the day after.

We gotta blast it with chlorine again.

And then like, it's good for that next week.

We come for all that next week's visit

and we put it to 10 and like, 10's never enough.

But like, how much chlorine do I get?

How much chlorine do I give away for free?

Yeah, you know?

Yeah.

No, I don't mind giving away a little bit once in a while

and like, we're totally fair.

Like, if I came back three times, I'm probably not,

and you're my client, I'm probably not charging you

for three individual visits.

I'm probably giving you one of them for free

and I'm gonna eat some of it, which I don't mind.

But it's just a weird situation

because like, there's really no answer to this.

Because what needs to happen is the, you know,

the filter in the middle of the week needs to be the hackwash.

Like, if somebody would have to come back

and backwash the filter and like, you know,

brush the pool again and stuff.

So I have a lot of these pools that are like,

kind of problem pools and I don't know,

I gotta figure out something

because it's how we're coming to that,

like it just was 100 again this past week

in some areas of Los Angeles.

So I really have to think about

what we're gonna do with this and sit down with the client

and say like, hey, like what we've been doing

isn't really working.

So what do you want to do?

Do you want us to start putting in more chlorine

at each visit, which I don't mind?

But like, it's a 20,000 gallon pool.

I'm giving you two gallons a week.

Like, that's all I can give you.

I'm not gonna give you a case of chlorine per week

when you're putting, when I'm paying $40 for it.

And, you know, per visit, it's, I mean,

it's more than $40, but, you know, it's not crazy.

I still gotta pay a guy to go theirs.

These are like the logistical things

that rack my brain of, you know,

keeping these clients happy and making sure

that we're doing a good job

and being able to keep these pools clean

and clear and swimable for everybody.

Yeah.

And, and you're doing a great job about it too.

Doesn't seem like it.

Well, this is coming from a retired person.

So eventually you will get there,

but no, you're absolutely right.

And, and the insight that you give about

having to deal with these kinds of clients,

both the good and the bad is helpful to everybody

who all of our listeners don't want to like harp on my guys.

They do do a great job and they have a lot of work

and, you know, we're all really busy out there.

And so I do love to focus more on the positive

than the negative, but it would be a bullshit show

if we, if I just told you about every good thing

that happened to me every time, you know.

So, but I also like usually get a few days

to think about this stuff

and like all this shit happened today.

So I just came in and I'm like,

this is what we're talking about today.

So I do appreciate the listeners out there.

I do appreciate you guys listening

to both the good and the bad.

And, you know, obviously if you guys ever have any questions,

feel free to reach out to us

because there's a lot of different things that happen out there.

There's a lot of weird stuff.

And, you know, we love talking about it on the show.

And if you, if you ever want to reach out to us,

just reach out at TalkingPoolsAtGmail.com

and it'll get to us.

Right.

Exactly right.

And with those kind profound words, that's it for today guys.

As always, like Steve mentioned,

we appreciate your comments and your suggestions

and things like that.

So TalkingPoolsAtGmail.com is the way

to get in contact with us if you absolutely need to

or to send an idea or whatever we do greatly appreciate it.

Steven, thank you as always.

I have found out there in Colorado, Colorado, California land

where it's, you know, like it's a very warm.

Right now it's 51 and rainy here in the Baltimore area.

So we don't know what heat is yet.

Yeah.

So we'll take care guys.

Everybody, we'll see you all next week.

Take care.

Everyone.

I just wanted to say thank you for listening today.

I'm hoping you enjoyed the episode as much as we enjoyed

putting it together for you.

Listen, it's been a couple of wacky, crazy screwed up years

from pandemic to pull them again.

I just want you to know that we are all in this together.

If there's anything that we can do for you, send me an email

at TalkingPoolsAtGmail.com.

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Yeah.