Home Water services mystery solved and the little known dillema of the water filtration and softeners industry Own Ly Follow Jun 26, 2017 · 4 min read

You know its summer in Ontario when the neighbours are bbq’ing and people switch out of their parkas in favour of t-shirts and flip flops. But something else that comes along with the summer is a flurry of door to door home water service sales people.

Having heard of prevoulsy water softener scams reports across Ontario I wondered why people were making such a big push for these services this summer. There have been a huge surge of people being visited in Kitchener Waterloo recently for water filtration products and as a water industry writer this was worth looking in to. The first thing that seemed off was when you try to search about home water services don’t really find much information.

What I was able to find were a handful of indeed job postings for door-to-door sales roles, along with a strangely generic company name, Home Water Services. Who is home water services and where did they come from? After digging a little deeper I found that one of the workers of these door-to-door jobs had actually found out the scoop on the company’s background. Seemingly they appear to be related to another local water softener company.

Apparently these folks are connected to Green Life Water

Edit: Home water has recently published a website and here is where you can find out more about their company and services https://www.homewater.com

Now businesses can choose how they want to market their products and even though the door-to-door sale approach isn’t as cool as some of the latest innovations in marketing and sales. The problem generally in the water filtration industry, is that if you go with a door-to-door sales or a bulk store that carries a limited number of water filtration products, there are a few problems you’ll run into. At this point I’m not sure if if home water falls in any of these categories (maybe someone who has personally been visited can comment) but generally here is the problems customers run in to when exploring these options which make up about 80% of the water filtration market unfortunately:

1-Buying water softener through door-to-door sales may mean 40–80% markups on your water filter

Companies that often get employees to go door-to-door often pay large commissions for sales people, because they have to put their face out there and sell products to you. This is far more expensive than simply putting out ads or doing online marketing.

This results in additional mark ups to what you are purchasing, frequent turn overs from the masses realizing sales isn’t their forte, and incentives for people to keep knocking on doors. Because the job isn’t ideal for many people the only way to keep staff employed is to offer enticing commissions on products. It is precisely the inconcenience of going to a water softener store that can save you money in the long-term.

2-Products and warranties aren’t guranteed when you buy door-to-door

When something goes wrong customers may be left in the dark if there aren’t any local retail stores to work with to get their water filtration system fixed or serviced. The challenge with having just a corporate office to contact is that you can get into long drawn our customer service calls with no resolution in sight. Where as if you had a local water softener kitchener store, to go to you can get the issue rectified 5x faster. This is big problem for most customers in this industry especially after a tough winter in Ontario.

3- Limitations with buying from a bulk retailer

Some bulk retailers where you tend to buy bulk food also offer home appliances. One of those appliances are home water filters, but the challenge to this is that industry insiders know they may not always provide the best total cost of ownership. That means you may pay less than going to a dedicated water softener Kitchener retailer, but you may end up facing challenges when looking for repairs and may need to do so sooner. This is because one of the touted features is a larger resin capacity, which may lead consumers to believe since the resin is the key ingredient to cleaning the water it must mean better water. But this isn’t true especially for reverse-osmosis filters which can lead to a lower life span of your water filtration system.

4- Some offer subscription models which can be compared to paying for a cell phone plan

Chances are subscriptions means that the cost of salt, repairs, and other expenses are already factored in for each customer meaning you are paying indirectly for these services whether you need them or not. Thankfully there aren’t any over usage charges but this still means a higher total cost of ownership for customers compared to those who can purchase quality water softeners. This last point is about paying for what you need versus for paying for what you may need. The catch is that if a product is truly of quality and build then there won’t need for a regular subscription for maintenance and warranty. In fact a well built industry machine won’t need to be serviced untill after 8–10 years.

Given that these are industry norms for the past decade or more, consumers in the Kitchener Waterloo area should be thoroughly informed before making a decision. This article hasn’t verified whether Home Water is complicit of these industry issues but is a timely cue to look at these purchasing points before making a decision.

They are also encouraged to explore local water softener business many of which have been in business for over 23 years:

Water Smart Systems

Ontario Softwater

Eco Water Systems