The swimmingpool

A fun little story which actually carries a pretty good lesson to be learned. This is a true story, based on true events, a story about love, starring Corfitz, produced by Corfitz, directed by Corfitz... (I'll stop now..)

A few years ago we (me and my family) were living in a cozy villa in the center of Fuengirola. Outside we had this little pool which semmed to be having a leak in it. We called the landlord who told us they would send a friend out to have a look. We emptied the pool for water and the friend had a look around, noticing some smaller cracks in the paint, and told us that he would have to grind off the old paint in those areas, patch it up with fiber and repaint those areas. As far as I could understand from the landlord, it would cost them about 400 euros to have all the repairs done.

A week passed, and their friend came back with all the materials and utlities needed. He started working and it took about 2 days for him to do it. We waited another day and was told we could fill it with water again. The morning after the water level had fallen about 20 cm and we called the landlord again. Their friend took another look at said, that obviously he also had to fix the first 30 cm all around the top of the pool to ensure no leakage. According to my calculations, that would be at least another 400 euros the landlord would have to pay. We emptied the pool for water again, and waited another week for the friend to return.

The same story goes, he worked for 2 days and patched everything up all around the top of the pool, and the day after we could fill it with water again. Then the morning after, the water level had fallen 20 cm again, and the friend of the landlord looked at us saying "I give up!". This was to a big frustration for us and of course the landlord who had paid 800 euros for repairments already.

I searched for a local swimming pool company to come take a look though the landlord was against this and said they couldn't afford a professional company to do the repairs. But I was also tired of not having a pool, when I purposely rented this villa with pool and mid August is like a billion degrees warm. I called the first company I could find and not 30 minutes later, 5 people were at the gate with all possible tools you could imagine. They meassured the pumps, checked filters measured vibrations and whatever. I think it took them about 5 minutes to find the error. It turned out to be a leakage in the pool skimmer, and quickly opened it and placed a new fiber inside patching the broken area.

As they packed all their gear, we were handed the bill for repairs - and you know what it said? 60 euros! I was like - the landlord just paid 800 euros in repairing the pool, and a professional team spends not even an hour combined and hands me a bill of 7,5% that amount (Not using calculator at all..).

I believe the lesson to be learned in this scenario, is that what seems to be the most expensive solution could turn out to be the cheapest. And I often also see it in the world of branding and web development. It may seem intimidating to contact an agency or bigger firm to help your business, but compared to hiring your neighbours nephew or sisters friend from Sweden, you can be sure to get a much more professional result, in a fraction of the time and more often than not to a really good price.