Bud's Spas & Pools

Great place with very knowledgeable and helpful sales staff. We did enjoy the hydrospa quite a bit but ended up going with a different unit.

Have used Bud's for pool opening and closing for a few years now after switching from another major store. They do such a wonderful job. Pool is sparkling clean when they leave. And every time I have had a problem with the pool (usually around the end of the day every time), they arrive the very next day. They take the time to explain what and why they are doing things. Last few times a young man named Keiron has been here to fix or open/close - such a nice person he is - takes time to answer all my questions always with a smile. And their staff in the store are always so kind and polite. Can't say enough for Buds!

Excellent service was provided by Mike Brown. Unfortunately, the company sent the wrong filters for my hot tub, and we had to wait for them to get them.
Four months later, I received the invoice, and sadly they charged me for the time we were waiting for the correct filters.
BTW, they never gave me the quote for the filters. They just billed them.
I tried to chat with the manager (Andrew), but he was never willing to listen and provide professional customer service. Unfortunately, they will have one less customer.

Installation was on schedule (6 years ago}. Conflicting recommendations and advice about upkeep of the mechanical cover the year after installation followed by an upsell. Liner stretched and bubbled a couple years later and had terrible service getting it looked (took months and then he simply opened the cover and looked at the liner from 6 feet away on our security cam but phoned and told us he was in the water to inspect it) followed by the predictable, "it must be something you did". Would not use if I had to do it over.

NO RETURN on Chemicals
As a favour to my daughter, I took in sample of her pool water for testing to Dundas location. This is her first year in the house. After young clerk explained results of test I indicated I would purchase chemicals for her, as she wouldn't understand what she needed. Clerk advised which were required and I purchased chemicals at his recommendation. As he tallied up, I focused on cost of each item at register and with tax it came to about $200.
When I took the chemicals to my daughters house, I checked pool shed and found a number of duplicates that I had purchased, in total about$136 (with tax).
On returning to store same day, asking for a return/refund I was told by young clerk that chemicals cannot be returned even though they were unopened. I asked why he didn't verbally indicate no return/refund when I purchased, since it was about $200. He said there is a sign at check out. There is a sign along with a bunch of products. My attention at checkout was on the cost of each product not looking for signs. If he had spoken about no return, I would not have purchased until checking further.
Called Bud's in Ancaster, and he indicated it was policy and nothing could be done. He said I should have looked for a sign, and also it indicates No Return on chemicals on bottom of receipt. This note on receipt is useless as I had already paid in full to get receipt.
Now out $136 at least until next year or later. Bud's needs to make this No Return policy verbally clear at purchase and train staff to do the same. Seems like staff just want to load you up as they know there is no return.

Professional and courteous, knowledgeable and efficient technicians. Great company that cares about customer experience. Thank you - Dan, Nick and MikeB for getting our swim spa up and running.
CG.

We just had Michael from Buds Pools & Spas, get our Swimspa ready for the upcoming summer. Michael was so kind, informative and answered all our questions. We are so very happy and thank you so much!

We purchased a hot tub from Bud's. We found Lindsay Newton - in Sales - very knowledgeable and accommodating. The delivery process was flawless and the support we have subsequently received from Bud's Technical Support Team has been excellent.

The owner of this company is a stand up gentleman.
The managers and office staff are all professional and knowledgeable of their products.
Highly recommend Buds Spas and Pools for all your Hot Tub and Pool needs.
Ask for Ken, he's a real people person!

Hello Lindsay,

Sure - I'm happy to rate the purchase and installation experience. You were good at answering our ignorant questions, as well as providing some supplemental information. The delivery arrangements went smoothly - not easy for you to arrange as it had to fit with the progress of the new deck.

We've been very happy with all our dealings with Bud's, and would have no hesitation recommending Bud's to others.

Best wishes

Simon Irving

Worked with Buds to purchase and install our first swim spa and was very pleased with the experience overall. Lindsay was great from the first interaction, answering and getting back to all of my messages and questions. Very supportive throughout the process and in helping to coordinate the crane lift, which ended up being a challenging and unique scenario for us (nothing to do with Buds). After the install, the two gentlemen who came for the orientation session were very informative and comprehensive, walking through everything I needed to know about the swim spa and making sure I had all of my questions answered. Overall very pleased with the experience

I highly recommend buying a pool through Buds. The team was easy to deal with, and you can tell by the professionalism of the staff they've done a million pools and care about each one of them. Every time I had a question, or what I thought was a concern the team @ Bud's has put my mind at ease!

Thank you

The Whitman's

Michael came out to help us with our hot tub that came with our new house. As new hot tub owners we had no idea about upkeep or hot tub care. It was mid february and a cold day but Michael drained, cleaned and filled our hot tub with no complaints. He had ensured that he brought accessories and all he needed to repair our model if needed, which was smart as several items unexpectedly needed replacement, including our main panel, the head rest and the wifi piece. Michael has been very helpful since then as well, to answer questions that have arisen. I would highly recommend Bud’s and especially Michael for your hot tub needs!

Great experience with service department at Budd's pool, spa Ancaster.promt service, diagnosed the problem, and resolved

These guys helped us out when our hot tub spa pack died in freezing weather. They were prompt, professional and fixed it first time, and on the run up to Christmas. We can't speak highly enough of their service.

Had the very old liner changed recently and decided to do this late in the season. My water was awful and harder to balance in part because the old liner. Buds had the style we wanted, were competitively priced and they had it installed with in 4 weeks of initial order. The other pool companies were not able to begin work until spring. Buds saved the day! Lindsay and team were fantastic and the pool looks like the day it was installed. Thanks Buds!

After 20 years of owning a hot tub from Buds we replaced it with a new one. There was no question of buying again from Buds as the service and knowledge are second to none. From Lindsay in sales and Carol in the Service department to Mike, Ryan, Andy and Ken who delivered and set up in my yard, our experience was flawless. Every question or concern was promptly addressed and solutions found. We’ve been clients for 20 years and look forward to another 20 in our beautiful new Hydropool.a heartfelt thank you to all the staff.

I contacted Buds Spa & Pools in early 2022 for a inground pool install. Discussing the type of pool, size, and overall facts of the process was overwhelming. Buds was my first call and Bill explained the details of everything so well! He provided realistic information and explained the pros and cons of the salt water, versus chlorine, fiberglass versus concrete with a liner, extremely well. I felt better with the information he provided. Next I contacted other companies and received numerous quotes. These other companies did not provide as much details into my questions and had inflated prices compared to buds. Buds was my fist call and my final call to book an inground pool install.

The communication between Buds and myself was superb. Every question answered within 24 hours. The installation process was on time, efficient, and exceeded all my expectations. I was kept in the loop through the whole process. If I ever had any questions or concerns I could send a quick email and have a response within the day. Not only was my inground pool installed on time, it was completed ahead of schedule!

Buds provides pool school orientation (a 1: 1 hour session) on pool equipment. They take the time to show you how everything works and provides you with a nicely organized binder as a reference guide. You can always count on Buds team to provide excellent customer service and answer any questions you have.

As a new pool owner I cannot express how great this entire experience was! I feel comfortable and more confident with the pool due to the great lengths that Bill has implemented as part of the company's installation package including pool school and chemical orientation.

Thank you for such a great experience.

Thank you to Nate, Bill, John, and Freedom 100 (you know who you are) and to all those who helped create my backyard oasis!

Everyone is helpful and show up when they say they will. A great team. Mike Brown did a great job on the orientation and Lindsay Newton has been very helpful in every way.

Michael came by and did a through inspection of our tub and found the root cause of our mild shock issue before it became dangerous.

Bill the owner was fantastic the whole time, patient and understanding and never once felt any sales pressure along the way. At the end we could not go ahead with the pool install and Bill was great about it! Definetly recommend Bud's to anyone. Stacy was great as well at the store.

Our very old Hayward SuperPump stopped working on a Saturday night. This is something I would have fixed in the past but as I am waiting for surgery I could not do this. So we went to Buds the next day (Sunday). Armando was able to book us in for Wednesday for sure, but said if they time between other appointments they would send someone sooner. Monday at 2: 00pm we got a call that someone could come in 20 minutes. Ryan showed up, in probably less than 20 minutes, fixed the pump in under half an hour, it was just the capacitor that needed replacing. Awesome service all around from Buds!

We have used Buds for many years. Mainly because it is close to our home. We will no longer continue to support this business. The young people who test the water are knowledgeable and friendly. But, the service department is HORRIBLE!
We had Buds install our new liner at pool closing of 2020. It was fine last year. This year a six inch section of the liner has come out of the coping. After several attempts to contact the service department, we finally spoke to Ryan. He suggested the liner coming out was our fault ie) water behind liner, chemicals out of balance. We have had our pool for 20 years with no issues! Buds would not stand behind the installation. Ryan suggested how my husband might fix the liner. My husband tried what was suggested, with no luck. After more run around, a different person said someone would come out, with the cost of a service call at $135.00 per hour. For them, it would have been a very quick fix!
If this were the first issue with Buds we would have “ sucked it up” and paid the service call.
Unfortunately we have had repeated issues with the service department. And we have finally put our ‘money where our mouth is’, Buds will not get any more of our business or our money! The culture of extreme penny pinching at Buds comes from the top! There are other pool shops out there, and I strongly encourage people to find a different option than Buds.

Very professional service great staff to deal with install went very well and the timeline that buds stated was on track the whole time would recommend Buds for any sales or service

Recently purchased a property with a pool, so I had to go to Buds Pool & Spas for a new Hayward Super Pump.
The store is nicely organized, the staff is very kind and helpful.
Originally before purchasing the pump, I had questions about the pump and Armando, the service rep, guided me through the entire process.
He was extremely professional, knowledgable and kind throughout the experience.
He was actually the reason I ended up going back to Buds and purchasing the pump there, other pool shops had the same product even at a lesser value, but because of the excellent service I received from Armando, I had to go back and purchase it there.
I will continue to shop there and ask for Armando's assistance.
Thank you my friend!

Lady that was in the service department had really poor customer service skills. I came in asking to schedule a visit to quote on pipe repair leaks. She didn't even attempt to take my information. Basically drew out several hypothetical scenarios why the company that did the leak detection should provide a detailed report instead of just chalk marks. I came in around 5 pm today. No name tag on this person.

Terrible customer service! I installed a new Hayward Aquarite chlorinator into my pool set-up.i connected the chlorinator to my Omni Hub controller. Before I started, I asked Carol in the equipment sales and service department about supplying me with what I needed to do the job. She insisted I needed a part (Omni Relay) to do the job, even though it is not mentioned in the manual. I purchased the Relay and later found it to be completely unnecessary. That was the first problem. I followed the installation manual with extreme care to all details. Unfortunately the Omni controller software was not behaving exactly as the manual said it should. I told this to Carol in equipment and she said I would need a service call as she did not see what could be wrong. They sent out a service tech and he took a look. He said that my installation was properly done and could find no faults with it. He he could not explain the problem that anyone could clearly see. He then asked his supervisor, Andrew to come take a look and Andrew confirmed what the tech said. Andrew called his contact at Hayward and as it turns out, they said that the there was a misprint in the manual and that nothing with my installation was wrong. I told Andrew that I should not be charged for a service call, when it was not my fault that there was a problem. I felt that this should have been a known problem and that I should have been informed about it at the outset. This Omni system has been available for years now. I should not have to pay if Hayward and Bud's have communication issues. Not only that, I just made them aware of a problem of theirs that in turn would help them assist other customers. Well.they billed me anyways and charged my credit card without my authorization. I called to complain and spoke to Ken, who is the service manager. I found him to be very condescending and certainly unsympathetic. Take away message: do not trust Bud's with your credit card information and do not rely on them to know enough about pool equipment to be of any service.

That Stacey lady can be very annoying and hard to talk to. She gives a lot of attitude towards customers and she gave a lot to myself. I did not feel welcome when she was there and other people have told me bad stories about her to. Not welcoming, never nice towards anyone. I don’t think I’ve had a good interaction with her. But on the other hand, the other workers there are amazing. Always helping and asking for help. Nothing but good things about them! Amen to them, such nice people!

Great service. They helped me find a tiny little o ring for my pump. Will be back for larger purchases

Great service provided. Michael Brown is a very knowledgeable technician. With every penny spent to troubleshoot and repair my hot tub.

Very nice people and they have the supplies/parts that you need however.

If you can, shop elsewhere for your parts as they are much more expensive here.

Bill and the team were outstanding, fast and efficient. We had delays in getting permits due to our home being new build, but they were patient with us over the months of waiting. After city gave us the approval they were quick to get the dig going within a week. The construction was smooth with little to zero hiccups along the way. They did their very best to keep the integrity of our lawns around and did no damage. All our concerns, questions and last minute they were quick to get back to us. Hands down I’ll recommend them to anyone. Now we have an amazing back yard. And if we ever sell or move from our current house you’ll be hearing from us again. Thanks a million to Buds Spa & Pool, Bill & all the team.

First service repair since owning our hot tub. We were concerned about costs and potentially being up sold on items we didn’t need. However, Mike B attended for the service call and was nothing but informative, fair and friendly the entire time. Learned a lot more about our hot tub and Mike had the fix done in a timely fashion. Will definitely be returning to Buds for any future service needs!