Anyone know H2O water filter company?

Fogmatic

They cold-called me (in Donegal) at 9pm last Wednesday, doing a 'survey'. Rather than spend time asking questions I just went along with it, as he said it was short. It was, too - basically whether I was the house-owner, and did we drink tap or bottled water? (both).

As far as I knew H2O could have been a public body, so I didn't bother telling him I'd had my name removed from the National Directory Database (making cold-calling me illegal), but went to their website later instead. It's a commercial business, and seems to supply big customers. No particular alarm bells there, except that I couldn't find any clues about my main question (How much?)

I suspect the cursory survey of being a ploy to ring me legally (as I've now had previous contact with them). I know I can still ask them not to ring any more, which should make them desist (unlike, for instance, Talk Talk - I've been keeping a log of cold calls, hence the precision!). And I have no problem with seeing off over-zealous marketers. The reasons for posting are just (a) curiosity about whether my lingering dubiousness is right, and (b), to alert others if it is.

Dermot2468

Got a call from these ages ago claimed we won 30euro worth of wine or something for doing a survey ages ago. They said they were going to drop it round to us. they got instructions how to get here and half an hour later said rang and said they couldnt make it. They said they'd drop it round next time they were in the area. The number they gave was definately from that company so i dont know what the idea of it was. anyway just thought id let ye know that there a waste of time

smashey

OP, if I remember correctly, Donegal County Council were supposed to be taking legal action against some water filter company last year. The company reps were cold calling and basically telling customers that the public supply wasn't safe and managed to sell quite a few filtration systems. Their "sales pitch" didn't go down too well in Lifford.

Fogmatic

Ah. Nice to have one's judgement validated, not so nice to know that yet another company is trying to pull a fast one. Thanks, Dermot and Smashey.

I'm not surprised about their reception in Lifford, if the council are typical Donegal people. The locals' resistance to waffle and spin is one of the things I like about them.
My own resistance comes from running businesses in London (my home town), especially my husband's building contracting one (as a sole trader). My dumbest error was the one time I signed something before reading the small print, and was duped by a photocopier salesman. No lawyer could break the (unfair) contract (as a business, we weren't covered by consumer law, as that crowd well knew). The only reason we weren't paying big shillings every month for years is that we went bust, which happened to break the contract (and also precipitated our move to this fine place!).

Fogmatic

Forgot to ask what OP stands for? (original poster, maybe?)

smashey

Fogmatic wrote:

Forgot to ask what OP stands for? (original poster, maybe?)

Correct.

When I mentioned Lifford earlier, I meant the County House.

julesrtc

They rang my house and wanted to call so i sat grand and made a time for them. They said it would only take half hour max and i would get a voucher for a local restaurant and named it. Said why not.
Afterwards i was thinking what have i done, so i rang the guards and they said they were legal, just trying to sell filter systems. So they arrived he spent 40/50 mins talking and showing us the difference between their filtered water and our tap and brita filtered water in fridge.
Then wanted to know would we be interested as has loads to show us. We said we are building so might be how much? He would not tell us how much but kept saying if u have time ill show us a lot more stuff, i said again how much. He said if ye dont want me to show ye ill go.
I said what about the voucher for restaurant? He said since you wouldnt let me show ye the rest u dont qualify but gave us an application form and filled it in and on question on did they see the whole thing he said NO!!!

I said u r here over an hour without showing us the whole thing and on the phone it said 30 mins max so we have no time anyway, thats ur fault!!
He left and we threw the form into the bin after promising we would post it in.

opa01_2000

I had the same here a couple of weeks ago in Donegal Town. Rang one evening to ask us to take part in a survey. I said no as we were busy. 30 seconds later rang again, same questions - again said no.

Two days later rang again - I asked for name, number and company name as we didn't want any cold calls. The number came up on the phone as 0041 which I think is Holland but the english was perfect. He got stroppy and kept persisting on what harm it would do so I put the phone down - haven't heard anything since.

Fogmatic

(sigh) Why am I not surprised?

It's a bit like the TV adverts for loan consolidation at only €x per month - they never answer the obvious question "For how long?".

Fogmatic

(sigh) Why am I not surprised?

It's a bit like the TV adverts for loan consolidation at only €x per month - they never answer the obvious question "For How Long?".

matrim

My parents had something similar to that last years, but I'm not sure if it was the same company.

The only difference is they offered to come out and test the water. My parents agreed, a guy came out and tested the water. He ended up saying that our water was better than most bottled water.

moldypeach

All they do is come out and test your water and in return you get a voucher, the sales rep cannot deny you if they have visited, if you choose to buy a filter that's your choice.

Musha

Too answer the orginal question
they use a Precipitator to burn off impurities in the water
(not all of them are harmful)
they go through a demo book to tell you how bad your water is
(yesterdays report on ground water (independent) not too far of the mark)
them sell you the unit for a very over priced €2200
if you cannot afford that they will offer you credit agreement at 27% interest rate then €135 per year service
there are better companies, and there are cheaper options
its not a con just very over priced I got a unit that does the same thing for €850 and cheaper if you install it your self. we are in a very hard water area and I got fed up of grit in the bottom of my tea.:D

66o66o

They use reverse osmosis technology to purify the water which is all well and good for you if you only drink it for a few weeks max, other wise you can start developing osteophorsis as the water containns no salts so as everybody that was an idea of science knows salt travels to areas of low salt in water ...
so about my not perfect definition.

besides this type of water tastes crap!

Musha

660660

if you were on a diet of bread and water I would start to get worried, but because we live in a society of the well balanced diet and the likelyhood of anyone developing osteoporosis from drinking RO water is stupid

Mike...

I have previous experience of this company they are worth steering clear of,the company is run from Galway....Report them to the Revelant autorities and keep all dates of visits and names of reps

ezpz

it seems they are calling all over dublin now offering 250 euro spa break voucher they called my wife and asked if they could call around that they had chose 40 random people from our area and that we had won this voucher.
all well and good. They came out done there demo which is quiet convincing
but when it came to how much the rep put so much spin on it was hard to get the price from him.
after i did corner him on the price i found 1 it was way to expensive for me.
2. the pay monthly plan was a complete rip off (%18.49) APR so thats nearly a grand on top of the 2
3.iv had a diff company in to test my drinking water and it is perfectly safe.

When i told the rep that i would not decide about this on the spot he got very moody about this and told us that if we didnt sign up that this special offer would not available again he then stormed out and left us a questionnaire to fill out to apply for a voucher. This company seems to be very aggressive in what way they try to sell their product BEWARE

Padraig Mor

I ahve yet to be convinced that any of these water purification companies are anything other than scam operators...

craichoe

opa01_2000 wrote: »

I had the same here a couple of weeks ago in Donegal Town. Rang one evening to ask us to take part in a survey. I said no as we were busy. 30 seconds later rang again, same questions - again said no.

Two days later rang again - I asked for name, number and company name as we didn't want any cold calls. The number came up on the phone as 0041 which I think is Holland but the english was perfect. He got stroppy and kept persisting on what harm it would do so I put the phone down - haven't heard anything since.

+41 is Switzerland, +31 is Holland

Mollywolly

We got caught with these guys in Limerick a couple of years ago. First there was a survey for which we got a thank-you gift for taking part. They said that their rep would drop the gift round and would tell us about their water system and would be about half-hour presentation.

The guy showed up and gave the presentation, probably would have taken an hour at most if he hadn't insisted on trying to tell us how c**p how water was. Then, when you add on the bit about how much it was (way over-priced, even two years ago!) the whole thing took nearly three hours!!! By then, me and hubby were not amused and trying to shoo him out of the door. He got really upset when we said we wouldn't be going ahead with it because it was too expensive and he almost threw the thank-you gift at me. A pleasure to deal with, I don't think so!

More recently, we got a call from an American number using the same ploy. Survey, free gift, etc., and it was an Indian guy making the call who was obviously reading from a script. When I kept interrupting him to tell him I wasn't interested, he kept on going. I eventually hung up on him. They did try again a couple of times, but I recognised the number and didn't answer.

What a bunch of a**holes.

md12

had these guys around about 3 weeks ago.I live in the edenderry area.wife got a call about some water survey.The guy on the phone said we had been one of only a handful of people to win a voucher worth 250euro for a spa break.Their rep came round and told us how bad our water was.The missus gave him a right hard time.She questioned everything and made him very agitated.When it came down to the cost he said it was 2,200 if we signed up there and then, or 2,800 if we waited.Not surprisingly we declined.We've our own well and the water was tested and proved to be fine.No sign of the voucher 3 weeks later.A friend of mine said there was something on liveline today about this con.My advice is to hang up on these con men if ever they call.:mad:

prendy

these guys are all over, in Mayo they called to my neighbour, and the rep proceeded to tell him how bad the water was. Funny thing was that this guy had purchased and installed one of their water purification systems about a year earlier!!

boardsie08

For anyone interested in the latest of the H20 "Saga" - check out Thursdays Liveline episode!

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/liveline/

Tiriel

Ya was listening to it on Liveline yesterday - what a bunch of annoying players. In fairness, it is amazing they got money out of so many people at all - but the number of complaints and common situations was unbelieveable. They're so dodgy!!

kazzpop

ezpz wrote: »

When i told the rep that i would not decide about this on the spot he got very moody about this and told us that if we didnt sign up that this special offer would not available again he then stormed out and left us a questionnaire to fill out to apply for a voucher. This company seems to be very aggressive in what way they try to sell their product BEWARE

About this time last year, they were doing a survey in West Dublin. Asking if we wanted our water tested, offering a €30 wine voucher (to a store near you) Tralee to be exact!
We agreed to have this done and a couple of days later the rep(late 40's early50's from Laois) called with a BriefCase.
He stayed for about 2hrs giving all the speil and when we declined to take up the contract. He lost the plot and got very agressive! Myself and my husband are very laid back but were on the verge of calling the guards to get this nut case out from our house.
A few months ago same company came knocking at the door doing the same thing and my husband just ran them

cathy neefoley

Hi Everyone

Well we are one of the 'so-called gullable 'who bought the water system from H2O,Galway,and are very happy.

Yes the salesman was very good , but no pressure whatsoever. Having had problems with our water system for 30 years (public water supply),at times the smell of chlorine as the water came out of the tap was awful,tea tasted dreadful ,and yes water very hard.

We decided to go ahead and buy the system, yes, expensive .The young man who fitted the system was excellent,he was a plummer and electrician all rolled into one.he had to drill into a granite counter top, supply a new tap find a esb source and fit plug and no mess whatsoever.Anyone who has dealt with these tradesmen over the last few years will and should know how expensive they are,(if you could get one!)
Our tea now tastes decent and beautiful clear drinking water,and a bonus a clean kettle. Just a very happy customer and good luck to the company

whippet

cathy neefoley wrote: »

Hi Everyone

Well we are one of the 'so-called gullable 'who bought the water system from H2O,Galway,and are very happy.

Yes the salesman was very good , but no pressure whatsoever. Having had problems with our water system for 30 years (public water supply),at times the smell of chlorine as the water came out of the tap was awful,tea tasted dreadful ,and yes water very hard.

We decided to go ahead and buy the system, yes, expensive .The young man who fitted the system was excellent,he was a plummer and electrician all rolled into one.he had to drill into a granite counter top, supply a new tap find a esb source and fit plug and no mess whatsoever.Anyone who has dealt with these tradesmen over the last few years will and should know how expensive they are,(if you could get one!)
Our tea now tastes decent and beautiful clear drinking water,and a bonus a clean kettle. Just a very happy customer and good luck to the company

WOW ... such a ringing endorsment from a first time poster, what is their number I really can't wait any longer for that proper cup of tea!

Do they sell extended warranties on the machines aswell, with the tightening economy I really want to have a smaller wallet !

mrs.ljungberg

whippet wrote: »

WOW ... such a ringing endorsment from a first time poster, what is their number I really can't wait any longer for that proper cup of tea!

Do they sell extended warranties on the machines aswell, with the tightening economy I really want to have a smaller wallet !

Just get a salesman around and you will get your wish of a smaller wallet:D

sunny2004

My parter got a cold call last night, not from the OPs company but from some company in England..

She handed me the phone and I asked how they got the number, they told me that they get 6 digit numbers and the rest of the number is random..
So I responded with what I told her was random abuse after random abuse no 3 ( I announced the abuse by numbers) .... they hung up !

Worked a tread..

I am a lover of the advert where the lady puts them on hold to music playing from a toy bear !

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

mrs.ljungberg wrote: »

Just get a salesman around and you will get your wish of a smaller wallet:D

I hope people take the anti and pro H20 comments on this thread with a huge pinch of salt. amazing how many new posters have appeared just for this thread.

Here's my advice to any water filter companies out there - just do your job and don't try to use cowardly anonymous messages on a discussion board to try to undermine your competitors.

I'm guessing that if we could be bothered to check the IP addresses, then there would be a link between many of these new posters and the IP address of whoever H20's competitors are in Galway.