Palmer’s Pool Service

Avoid at all costs! Similar to A M.‘s review below, Jeff was super friendly at first. He had me meet him at a couple client’s homes nearby to show me their systems similar to what I was looking for and he agreed to match the price of a competitor but with allegedly better equipment and thus a better overall value. On this basis, and mistakenly thinking I had read positive Unilocal reviews I went with Jeff for my $ 13,000 Pentair total equipment replacement/​installation job and am regretting it to this day.
At my request he provided me the dimensions he wanted me to have the enclosed pool equipment area constructed to then once he began his job he realized he had made things rather tight for himself and complained the entire rest of the job that I should have had it built bigger and somehow it was my fault. He also berated me for not labeling the old electrical and plumbing conduit and pipes and tried to charge me hundreds of dollars after the fact for his time to «figure things out.» Again, as the expert, he should have labeled them himself before I had the old enclosure and equipment demolished and partially removed at his request.
He recommended the wrong filter for my application, installed 90 degree elbows which I’ve subsequently learned is a no-​no and could void my equipment’s warranty. He also messed up programming the valves between the pool and spa and I ended up purging 1000s of gallons of water out of spa unnecessarily. He also recommended I install a new booster pump to service an old pool cleaner I had rather than to just recommend I buy a new energy efficient electric cleaner (such as a Dolphin) for a marginal additional cost.
Trusting he was done with the install job when he said he was, I paid him in full only to realize he hadn’t done everything he promised to do and stopped responding to emails, texts and phone calls for days inquiring as to when he was going to actually finish the job and walk us through the new system. When he finally did respond (only after I threatened to stop payment on the check), he devolved into screaming at and berating me. The whole interaction with Jeff was extremely bizarre and frankly, pretty scary.
Apparently, his reputation proceeds him as the pool service I had come look at Jeff’s work after it was done was well aware of his shouting at customers and being volatile. This other pool service informed me of numerous things they would have done differently (better) had they done the installation.
Avoid Jeff at all costs.

We hired Jeff for regular pool maintenance starting around 2005. Very friendly initially. Pool chemistry seemed to be fine. Pricing for regular maintenance seemed fine.
The problems started when we started seeing items on our invoices that we had not requested (and were grossly overpriced). Jeff didn’t talk to me about getting a new leaf net for $$$$, and when I asked him about it, I was told that I was a bad customer for not paying all of my bill in a timely fashion. Didn’t need to be scolded, and he never really addressed the issue, so we parted ways.
Quite frankly, I didn’t think Palmer’s was still in business since I hadn’t seen his truck in the neighborhood. Just found out from a neighbor two doors down that he got a quote from Palmer for solar panels that were 2.5x what could be found elsewhere. This is before installation: panels only.
I find it interesting that the only other review at this time is from someone who lives in Napa. Perhaps she used to live in the East Bay. Who knows. In any case, Jeff does an acceptable job of keeping water chemistry intact. My advice is to keep a sharp eye on those invoices.

Jeff is reliable and honest. He has been in the business for over 15 years and comes with a wealth of knowledge. If you are looking for someone you can trust to be on your property regardless of wether or not you are home, Jeff is your guy!