Island Recreational

Massapequa, Medford, Deer Park & Franklin Square

It has been a while since we dealt with this Long Island based business but the business that we had transacted with them left a pretty bad taste in our mouths back then, and just the mention of their name brings back lots of unpleasant memories that we would rather forget.

Hopefully you will not experience what we went through but we'd like to elucidate here what happened to us when we made a purchase from this business.

We saw an ad for an above ground pool "package" in our local Newsday newspaper. The ad featured an Intex above-ground pool with a "bonus," which was an included separate filter. The package was advertised for somewhere around $200.00 

Because of property-size limitations and our available funds at the time we selected a pool which was 15 feet in diameter and a depth of 36 inches. It wasn't the kind of pool in which you could "swim" but rather one in which you could at least immerse yourself in water to beat the hot summer heat! It was really bought and intended for the kids!

The pool package deal included a filter which was not packed in the carton which contained the pool but was offered as a bonus "side" accessory.

The salesperson was all too happy to sell us the carton which contained the pool. We asked about the filter which was included in the deal. He said that they had "run out" of filters being offered with this pool package but that after we paid for the entire package at his store we could go to another one of their stores to pickup the filter.

This was going to be a bit of an inconvenience and it would have been much easier if they had the filter in stock in the same store where we were buying the pool, so we told the salesperson that we were just going to go to the other store and pick up the entire deal there instead of paying for the pool package in one store and paying for just the filter in their other store.

The salesperson pleaded with us to buy the pool at "his" store saying that he would lose the commission on the sale and if we went to the other store to buy the whole package there he would lose that much-needed commission to the other salesperson in the other store. He said "Since you're going to have to go there anyway why not buy the pool here and allow me to make my commission on just the pool!"

Being reasonable people we figured "What the heck!" "O.K.," We said we'll do it your way so you can get the commission on the sale of the pool. It just seemed to be "the right thing to do after he had spent some time with us talking about the pool!" But before we paid for the pool I asked him if they had a "display model" of the filter that I could see. I just wanted to see what the filter looked like. He said, "Sure, follow me!"

He led us to a shelf upon which there was sitting a pretty good sized filter. This filter, seemed to be more than just adequate for the pool which we were buying and I asked if this was the "right" filter. He brought another salesperson over who assured us that this was the one! He said, "They (Intex, the manufacturer) wants to be sure that your filter more than meets the requirements for the pool!" The original salesperson said, As soon as you pay for the pool here I'll call the other store and tell them to expect you and they will give you the filter.

We paid for the pool and loaded the carton onto the car and proceeded to the other store.

When we got there we went inside with our receipt and told the first salesperson we came into contact with that we were there to pickup the filter for the pool that we had just purchased at their other store.

Our sales receipt was examined, then handed back to us, and we were told to wait for a few minutes and our filter would be retrieved from the stockroom in the back of the store.

After about 10 minutes a person emerged from the stockroom carrying a rather small box. He asked if we were the people who came there from the other store for the filter. We said, "Yes, we are," but since the box looked so small I asked him if perhaps he hadn't made a mistake and brought out the wrong item. He asked again for our receipt and shook his head saying, "No, no mistake, this is the filter that comes with your pool!

I asked him to open the box and out came a filter that was about 1/3rd the size of the filter that we had been shown at the store where we had purchased the pool!

We asked to speak to the manager of the store. The manager said, "That's the filter that comes with that pool!"

I told him that we had been shown a filter that was quite a bit larger and he just repeated what he had said previously.

From this point in the story let me just say that we went through hell with this business trying to cancel the entire sale and get our money back. We had been hoodwinked, lied to, cursed at and even threatened with legal action for harassment if we pursued a refund.

The moral of this story is.......if you can't figure out what the moral is then go to their store and buy whatever you want...but as far as we are concerned, if they were the ONLY store selling pools and pool accessories and supplies we wouldn't EVER buy ANYTHING there EVER AGAIN!

Click for a sample of the numerous complaints made against this business!