Water tested for 'free' - SCAM ?

brianon

My dad had a caller to the house (estate in Newbridge, Co.Kildare) at around 7pm. Guy never mentioned his name or who he worked for but said he had been testing the water in the estate (big estate) and that the water was 'bad'. He asked could he test a sample and my father gave him a sample of the tap water.

So tonight he rang my dad to tell him, surprise surprise...the water had tested bad. He is calling tomorrow to discuss options.

The thing smells like a scam to me. Anyone agree/disagree ?

I was thinking maybe of getting my dad to offer a second sample for 'testing' and supplying him with a sample of ballygowen

Karoma

Scam/sales technique - thin line.

brianon wrote: »

I was thinking maybe of getting my dad to offer a second sample for 'testing' and supplying him with a sample of ballygowen

Go for it.
Ask him for a breakdown of it as well.

SeanW

Friend of my mothers got taken in big by something like that. Stay away from those guys. I would even go so far as to say not to let their salesman near your house or particularly your water supply.

jhegarty

It's a scam.

They put electrodes in two water samples. Of course there is gunk on the one put in your water.

gerky

There are several of these companies pushing reverse osmosis filters, that's not to say that all water companies are at it, there are instances where filters are needed and useful from simply making water taste better,cutting down on the hardness to cutting down on the risk of contamination.

But reverse osmosis filters take everything good and bad out of water, and this is required for some applications but not for everyday drinking water.

Some of them use what they call the precipitator test, this looks very good but is bull of the highest order, it involves sticking prongs in to water and passing a current through them which will turn the water brown.

Some companies claim that this shows all the impurities in the water but what it shows is all the minerals in the water, its electrolysis and turns the iron ect.. rusty, so it looks very convincing but is worldwide known to be scamming technique.

The only real water tests should be done in an independent lab and should show a breakdown of everything tested in the samples and what if anything needs to be adjusted by filtration, there are several reputable water companies selling good filters for proper uses but there are also lots of them out to make some easy money.

Here's a site for some lovely reading.
http://www.watertestscam.org.za/

robtri

SCAM SCAM SCAM......

DublinWriter

brianon wrote: »

The thing smells like a scam to me. Anyone agree/disagree ?

Scamola.

Phillip Boucher-Hayes did an investigation on one of these companies on the Pat Kenny radio show a few months back.

gerky wrote:

Some of them use what they call the precipitator test, this looks very good but is bull of the highest order, it involves sticking prongs in to water and passing a current through them which will turn the water brown.

What he said. They do the above in front of people and it frightens the crap out of them. It's a natural electro-chemical reaction - doing the same experiment on Ballygowan would yield similar results.

Tell yer Dad to stay clear.

BrianMeehan

Ever went into one of those "free" NCT checks??

Now why does the "mechanic" aways find many things wrong with the car?? So he can sell you the parts and fix your vehicle.

SAME THING HERE.

When will the little Irish man waken up?

Oldtree

yes we've had them around and they did a few of the older neighbours. Granted the water was sh*t as it is a group water scheme, but nobody had died and there are other cheaper filters around that do the job. The local scheme was in the middle of being upgraded and is now "safe to drink". they did one old boy for €2K!!!:mad:

if you are worried about your water have it analysed professionally in one of these labs, the cost isn't huge:

http://www.publicanalystdublin.ie/en/StatutoryFoodControl/HSEFoodSafetyLaboratories/

then think about collecting and drinking rainwater, I do and its
good and clean and fresh tra la laaaaa:P

fatherbuzcagney

if its the company that i think it is stay away, you can get the system they are selling/(ramming down your throat) a lot cheaper. imo the unit they are selling is excellent but way over priced and you may not even need it. the precipator test is a scare mongering tactic but the TDS meter test is accurate and worth understanding the results

Capt'n Midnight

One scam uses stuff (EDTA?) goes pink and yukkie in water

the council/corpo test water more extensively than most bottled water

unless there is a specific need , like lead pipes or superbugs then probably not worth doing

byhookorbycrook

cousin had this done, system installed ar great expense, horrible taste of chemicals off water since, keep away!

pug_

We had a guy call around our estate in Newbridge last night looking for a sample of water to test. Didn't even cop there might be something dodgy about it until he was gone.

Glad I came across this thread, at least now I know what they're up to I can be prepared for how to try to make them squirm a bit before giving a serious bollocking.

Thoie

Amusing things to say to them:

"Ah sure, what hasn't killed me must be making me stronger"

"No thanks, I'm planning a trip to the Sahara and am building up my immunity"

"I only drink my own pee, so I'm fine, thanks"

"Hey, do you reckon that's what killed the dog? I miss Rover. Will you keep me company?"

"Can you explain to me how that works? Start at the beginning, explain electricity to me."... "I still don't get that whole precipitation thing, can you start again?" Take notes.

"So, are you a registered homeopathist?"

"The voices said you'd be coming."

TheParrot

These people will make a forutune out of this scam.

The greenies are so frightened. They believe anything, "oh, the world is falling apart..."

An age old trick. Frighten the plebs and then fleece them.

brianon

Just an update. They never called in the end.

Buffman

Buyer Beware! with Phillip Boucher-Hayes did an episode about this sort of scam. The stuff that these 'salesmen' were saying was almost hilarious, but the not funny bit was that the reverse osmosis machine they sold to 'fix' a non-existent problem, could harm your body if not fitted with mineral cartridges. See http://www.rte.ie/tv/buyerbeware/prog5.html

Ironmania

I would'nt say all water companies are bad. I purchased from a company called waterpure.ie over 1 and a half years ago and are delighted with the results. The bad taste/smell is gone from the water, there is no lime on my kettle, my husbands dry skin has cleared up, the water is lovely and soft from the showers and bath, loads of suds:) and my daughther's kidney infections have stopped. They did'nt do that funny electro test that people were talking about and they just dont sort out your drinking water, they treat it for the whole house.

rainbowtrout

I had these guys call to my house a few months back to get a water sample and again like other posters have said I got a phonecall saying that there was a high level of dissolved solids found in the water and they would like to send a rep (read : salesman) around to do further testing.

Anyway out of sheer curiousity I agreed, having no intention of buying a water filtration system, however the salesman didn't reckon on dealing with a chemistry teacher!

Anyway so he did the electrode test and the water went brown and murky, I was nearly expecting him to go 'Ta-da! - you're water is polluted' so he asked me why I wasn't shocked and I told him I was expecting that reaction because of the minerals in the water.... and that it was a Leaving cert chemistry experiment.

He then went on to explain the spiel on how water is essential for our bodies and it should be pure... it was a filtration system he was selling

He also showed me this probe type thing that measures the amount of dissolved solid in the water so you can test your filtered water regularly.

So then he tested my tap water with the probeand it had total dissolved solids of say 900 mg and he reckoned that it was really high (read dangerous) so I should really consider a filtration system. He did the same experiment on his purified water and it read 2 mg which is essentially pure

I pointed out that safe levels of dissolved solids in drinking water were levels below 1500 and also that to filter the water completely removes all minerals, removing 40% of the calcium in my diet and the fluoride which protects my teeth. I also pointed out that the dissolved solids found in a bottle of ballygowan were about 1200 which just proved that my tap water was as good as bottled water if not better.


He still perserved. I hate being such a pain about stuff like that but it's not often i get the opportunity.. so anyway the filtration system costs €2000, but he failed to mention the annual service charges which i guessed there would be (to replace the deioniser in the filter), so i asked him about it and explained the chemistry of how the deioniser worked, he wasn't expecting that but did tell me in the end it would cost about €100 per year for maintenance/replacement.

Anyway he finally accepted that I wasn't buying it and went off tail between his legs but I can see how they could easily con people into installing an expensive and unnecessary water system

Buffman

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I had these guys call to my house a few months back to get a water sample.................

Fair play to ya, these sort of scare tactic salesmen are really annoying.

rainbowtrout

Buffman wrote: »

Fair play to ya, these sort of scare tactic salesmen are really annoying.

Thanks, thought it might be useful for other people to know the science behind the scare tactics Dazzle these guys with a bit of chemistry!

Lobelia Overhill

there's a tread about this sort of thing here