Island Recreational
Reviews and Complaints

I swore I would never do business with them again years ago when I was recommended chemicals for my pool that actually made my pool worse. Then I see ads for the salt generator installation that I just couldn't pass up. Was told they would be at my home 4/14/23 to install it via voicemail with instructions to prep for their arrival. I even got multiple texts with a time frame. There was even a change in time where I had to cancel work and lost over $400 in pay to wait for someone who NEVER SHOWED UP. I tried calling the number they gave me that same evening and was put on hold (was told I was "next in line") for over 35 minutes ... Gave up and figured no one was even there. Finally called today and after a 20 minute wait being told I was "next in line" I got to talk to someone who told me the part was BACKORDERED and won't be in until June. I asked why no one contacted me and he just blamed it on the store and really had no other answer to make it right. How about giving me the $432 dollars that I lost in work and free start-up salt? Oh, and I'm supposed to have cancer surgery in June. I can't even guarantee I'll be around for the installation.

Had my pool 2 years and when we closed it year we found that we were losing water. Ww had to use ply wood to cover it up and it was completely empty when we opened it. We paid for a leak check and found 4 tears at the bottom of the liner. I called them multiple times and cant even get someone on the phone to see if this is under warranty.. A pool liner shoukdnt tear like that after minimal use its outrageous...

I purchased a pool heater three years ago, first year it worked great, second year I got an error code immediately. By the time someone from Island Rec sent someone here to check it out they said it just needed to be reset and the E3 code would go off which it did. Next day the code came back on and heater wouldn't work. Since it was the end of the season I just closed the pool and figured i'd deal with it next year. The following year as soon as I hooked up the heater it gave the code immediately and water was pouring out of the heater. Finally got someone to come look at it again and they said the pipe inside was cracked. They took pictures and said Island Rec would get in touch with us. After having to go down to the store, they said I needed an electrician and that would cost $150, So I paid the fee and an electrician came and said immediately, I don't know why they called me to come this is a product issue and left. When I tried to contact AJ or Chris who they told me too, AJ just never answered and Chris was flat out nasty saying we didn't properly winterize it. How were we to know how to winterize it when the people who installed it never told us we had to drain water out of the pipe. We disconnected the hoses and covered it thinking that would be sufficient. But they never rectified the situation after spending all that money on a heater we only got one year out of it and Island Rec didn't care. They are a horrible company! and their customer service is aboslutely terrible! The only goof part of island Rec is the store itself, the guys I worked with there Dan and another supervisor who was a gentlemen, they were so helpful and really sorry about our situation. Unfortuantely their customer service department didn't care about our situation, and now three years later all those thousands we spent on a heater went down the drain! so awful.

Pool was installed in early June. Leak from liner and from hose connecting to filter. I was told someone would come on 7/11/22 to fix hose, and no one came. I was told to go to the store on 7/10 and show a picture to the manager, which I did. On 7/12, I’m told that there is no record of me going to store or manager having conversation with installation team, which he had right in front of me. Left ladder unassembled. Installation manager has not returned my calls.

Issue with 3hp variable speed pump under warranty. Pump could not be fixed. They were to replace pump but didn't have a 3hp pump so gave. Us a loaner 2hp pump. Said the 3hp pump would be in in mid june 2019. Since we dropped pump off the 26th of may we agreed. Been to store 3 times to inquire since no 1 ever answers phone or they give us the run around if they do. Now they tell us maybe end of july. This store is very poorly run. We just want our 3hp pump. It is under kaminski phone number [protected]. We have been a customer for many years and spend a ton of money there. Please respond we don't want to start action that can be avoided. Thanks... Tom

Must read this review before shopping here...
I went to island recreational to purchase a pool. I picked out the pool I wanted, liner, pump, etc. On the day the pool arrived and was being installed, I noticed that is wasn't the pool I ordered, nor the pump, I called and they assured me the other pool was out of stock, so they upgraded me. Pool was up and they were installing the ledges, I overheard the installers saying these were not the correct ledges for the pool, they made a call to island rec, the person on the other end said make them fit... So I watched them as they broke tabs off caps and just screwed in caps and made them fit needless to say after a month the caps just kept popping off 1 by 1. Also noticed that skimmer started pissing out water and pool was in even. The techs came back, re leveled the pool, told me i'm responsible for the price of all the chemicals to start the pool up again, gave me a new smaller skimmer, telling me that other skimmer was discontinued! Then they proceeded to caulk the caps to the pool! That lasted 5 months before they started falling off. Oh the new skimmer they put on, the screws are rusting now and dripping rust stains on liner. Finally they sent me new ledges and caps, the same ones only new.. Again after a while the caps fell off 1 by 1. Now, start of season 3 headaches, they finally send the right ledges and caps, so I went to buy a sand filter from massapequa from eric and matt. I told them the model pump, spend 300 on new sand filter which I was assured would fit, guess what, missing an adapter to hook up pump, went back to store matt gave me the adapter, I went home, don't fit! Went back to store fter research he tells me the pump is discontinued no parts in stock, gives me part number and tells me to research online and purchase yourself!

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Update, went back again to try and reason with eric or matt, basically matt told me again there was nothing he could do for me, the review on yelp means nothing to him, he found the part I needed, he told me I must order it online myself and pay for it. The real guy I need to speak to, the owner of this terrible company who actually won't take any phone calls or speak to his customers in person because he hides, he has reason to hide, just google all the complaints island recreational has against them, anyway I was told to send a letter to john bonnellie who is the owner of this wonderful company! Want aggrevation? Shop here!

I have ordered discounted pool from the company Island Recreational. I paid for the order and delivery, but it turned out that the order was already unavailable. The seller without my agreement sent me wrong pool and decided to make a gift for me and informed that I would get free pool installation. I was shocked, because the pool didn’t look the same as I wanted, and the shape was wrong. But the seller refused to cancel the deal, because the delivery man was on his way. Horrible company.

I was told by the Island WRECK rep (as one customer called them) that they get their pools from Asia/ China! Is that safe for us considering they don't have the same regulation/standards we do. I won't buy our new pool liner, not sure what could be in the liner material! Besides theyre always looking to do you wrong in one way or another, like the white glove (I'll call the white glove, the ANTI-WHITE person service). The pool installers, an angry black woman and black men were outrageous, bullying, screaming throwing their drinks, cigarette butts, lunch garbage all over yard, left items of the pool undone which they didn't finish causing pools to remain uninstalled, unfinished. Both my neighbor and a friend had to be forced off my neighbors property because the pools were not done correctly, the angry black woman was not doing the job correctly as we can see, this is why we installed our pool ourselves. Do not hire them they are an aweful company.

I purchased a pool from Island Recreational, 61 E. Sunrise Highway, and Lindenhurst, NY 11757. They required a $100 deposit to hold the price which I have paid by check and they also required you to join their VIP Shoppers Club Agreement for $100 which is applied to this VIP 'club' which was paid by MC. Also on April 5, I was required to pay the pool in full in the amount of $4720.78 which I paid with my MC. This price including their 'White Glove Installation' which is a 3rd party company they use to install and weekly maintenance of the pool. We were then told 'We use this company to avoid installation problems.'. I asked why the pool could not be delivered sooner since I came in with a newspaper ad that said 'Memorial Day Installation' but I was told because we were having a fence and deck included, that could not be done by Memorial Day.

On approximately April 21, 2006 they sent a site inspector to our home to look at the yard and provided a delivery date of May 30 and install date of June 15, 2006. At that time, we were provided the Atlas Site Survey (attached) with delivery date of May 30 and the installation date of June 15.

On approximately June 5, we were called at our home and told we MUST come to the store and pay upfront for the sand for the bottom of the pool or scheduling will be delayed. We went to the store on June 6 and paid $65.17 with MC. We were told that the sand would be delivered the day before the pool installation, therefore on June 14. My husband waited for six hours for them to come with the sand to our home. We received no sand or no phone call to say that the sand was not being delivered. My husband then called their ONLY number [protected] for all their stores and after being hold for close to 40 minutes they said 'we called your home earlier today to inform you that your installation date has been cancelled.' The only call we got on that day which my father in law took while my husband went to get our children at school said 'Are Ben or Donna home?' My father in law said 'No' and they said 'Ok, we'll call the cell number we have.' They never said who was calling, what firm or what it was regarding. Only after process of elimination we assumed that the caller must have been Island Recreational. We never received a call on our cell...we have the cell phone records to show we received no call.

Additionally, their 'White Glove' workers have been at our home two times to clean the pool and said 'oh we're not surprised to see no pool installed, we see this all the time. This is very typical.'

I went to the store the weekend of June 17 to ask why 1) we had not been called and 2) why the installation had been delayed. I was told 'we called, we left a message' and due to the weather dates were pushed back.

Since the policy is a customer can have a cash refund if it is less than 60 days from the date of the delivery of the pool, I requested they pick up their pool and issue me a refund. The pool was delivered in our driveway on May 30 and sits the way they left in the driveway and we covered it with a tarp.

I went directly to the Lindenhurst store on Sunday, June 25 to get the refund in writing. 1) They do not provide the customer with anything in writing to get a refund. The filled out an internal form to get a pick up date and indicated it would probably be next week sometime maybe the end of the week of June 30 maybe the following week. and said I will be called tomorrow (Monday, June 26) with the exact date. I indicated that those dates were not acceptable because I need my refund to buy a pool from a different company. At 8:00 p.m. on June 26, when I had not heard from them about a pick up date, I called their only number and was told the 'store' had to provide a date not the 'main office' but they said the store would call me in a few moments. Sure enough, two minutes later, 'Tom' called to say the only date was next week probably Tuesday but I said that was not acceptable and I wanted a date this week. Also Tuesday, would be July 4 and I assume no one would work on that date. We've not heard back from them yet on a delivery date.

I called yet again tonight at 8:45 p.m. was put on hold and when a woman answered and I told her my whole story, she said 'oh you don't have installation let me transfer you.' At that point, I was put back into their answering service and put on hold waiting for installation'suddenly at 9:00 a recording came on to say 'the store was closed and I would have to call back.'

At this point, I want the 3 charges of $100, $65.17 and $4720.78 disputed until this is resolved to my satisfaction. To have to wait 4 months from the time they charged my account for this pool and the date of installation to come and go, I want a refund. I no longer feel this is an acceptable business practice and I should have been given a date of pickup 1) either in the store on Sunday, June 25 or 2) received the call on Monday, June 26 as they indicated.

Lastly, what I should have done first was check with the Better Business Bureau, as they have 76 complaints from customer all with similar complaints. This seems to be their regular business practice. I also have spoken to several people who had problems that were similar but some of the pools sat in their yards for more than 60 days and could not get a refund so they had to wait almost an entire summer before their pools were installed. I do not want to wait until the summer is over which is why we purchased our pool in April, plenty of time for delivery and installation.

This is by far the worst business practice that I've seen and they are allowed to operate this way.

Worse than organized crime. Charge for work not provided, Falsify documents like professional con artists. Stay away from this company, unless you don’t mind unsavory characters coming to your home or near you family.
They hire sub contractors with no background check. My pool lady not only has poor grooming she curses like and obviously on drugs (looking for a place to rent, ask if she could stay in my empty garage, even the police would not find her there. ?)
Call to complaint to no avail. Poor customer service. Once you paid they have nothing to do with you. Managers Eric, West or Nick are all trained the same way: “THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG, ONLY STUPID PEOPLE DO BUISNESS WITH US”.

We fell for the solar panel deal. Did you? We are still waiting, almost 2 years after we bought the system. There contract says they can cancel anytime the rebate goes lower. However, if you are like us, you didn't have the panels installed because Island Recreational FAILED to provide the panels and then FAILED to install them. Eventually the rebates ran out as they hoped and Island Recreational saved money. Did you know that they have not installed ANY solar panel systems this year? That seems odd for a company that is "Doing everything we can to get your panel system installed for you." It is going to cost the company thousands more to install each of our panels at the lower rebate (their fault since they purposely waited) then to refund us and pay the few hundred ($500? $600?) they are currently offering through their refund + 16% interest. Unfortunately the $4, 500 we will get back pales compared to the $59, 000 10kw solar system we are losing. Instead of $3.50 p/w rebate, it is now around $1.25. So we can't even take our refund somewhere else to get the panels for the same price or even triple the same price. Not even to mention the LIPA bills that would have been lowered if we did have the system in June, 2010 like we were promised. We are holding on hoping to get our system. They are hoping and pushing for us to cancel. I hear class action suit is in works in additional to others getting ready to sue using their private attorneys. I would like to hear from others who fell for the same deal too. Maybe we can help each other out to get our panels. You can contact me at [protected]@yahoo.com

I purchased a speck E90-1 above ground pump that was advertised as a 1.5 HP which turned out to be a .75 HP. Island Rec just put a 1.5 HP sticker on it and sold it for a higher price. I found out by accident as I had a problem with it a few years after purchasing, and measured the flow rate which was checked against the specs and found that it coincided with the .75HP specification.

I bought a pool from them and the pool was installed by Champlain a company they Hired to install the pool. Within the first season the side walls blew out cause the pool was not properly install with the center straps that hold the pool together. Dealing with the management was a nightmare after complaining in front of customers they finely sent the pool installers back to fix the walls and the Deck that was also installed incorrectly. when they showed up they cut the liner and around the skimmer and return was already starting to rusting . They told me it was leaking behind the wall and the skimmer and return was not installed correctly in witch I then told them Their company installed .They sprayed it with rustolum that they ask me to purchase, Now the rust is growing through the wall and the Store is telling me It is not their problem . This pool is done after the 3rd season . There is other pool companys out their . Before you buy Just stand near costumer service and listen to their costumer complaints . Ask them for there Phone # to the Store and see them sckworm they will only give you a # that goes to No-ware . Then you have to go back to the store in frustration . Google THE STORE NAME Complaints and see what others are saying about this Company !

I have been a member of Island Recreation for twenty years and have always been telling others about the great deals for members. You are charged $100 for a membership per year and you receive $110 of "Credit Checks" to be used throwout the membership year. Your charge card is automatically charged each year at the renewal time for re-membership. This worked well until this year.On 4-07-06 I visited the store to buy a cover pump. I received $110 in checks and used $38.01 to purchase the pump. I received a receipt stating that $61.99 credit remained and my membership expired on 12-2006.
The following was not discovered until Jan of 2007 after I received a mail notice that Island Rec would no longer have a membership fee for customers beginning Jan 2007. I found to my horror that I was being charged to my visa account the following.
Membership fee charged to my Visa account on 9-28-06 again although my previous membership expired on 12-06.
Membership fee charged to my Visa account on 11-03-06.
Membership fee charged to my Visa account on 12-21-06.
It may be advantageous to check your credit card account for any fraudulent charges and unauthorized use of your credit card for membership fees to Island Recreational. I have to date found that two co-workers have also found numerous additional unauthorized charges to their credit card by Island Recreational. Currently the charges are in dispute through Visa and I am awaiting credit to my account.
Where their are three instances of abuse there are likely many more. I would scrutinize my credit card bills if I were you. It's ironic to find out just now that this web site is charging $5.00 to post this complaint. They accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover cards!