Skimmers Pool Service, Inc.

Here’s the deal: My mother-​in-​law inherited a house in Ft. Lauderdale, but she lives in Maine. Wife and I were living in France, so nobody could be in Florida to take care of the house. Also, the house had a pool. She hired Skimmers to take care of the pool until my wife and I could wrap things up with our business in France and move to Florida to clean out and renovate the house. She came down in October, and the pool was a bit green, and didn’t look like anyone had come. The service frequency had been set for each Thursday. She arrived on a Tuesday, and when Friday came and nobody had been by, she called the owner of Skimmers and he said it was an error, and someone came the next day to service the pool. Strike one.
Wife and I finally arrive on New Years Eve… a Thursday. The pool is filled with debris, and the bottom is covered with silt. The water level is several inches below the intake level and there was a pvc pipe contraption out of the intake vent so that the pump can still reach the water level. The pool water is clear, but the bottom is filthy and there are leaves rotting on the bottom of the pool. The guy we had feeding the outdoor cats at the house said he was emptying the pool filter basket all the time due to nobody else doing it (red flag #1)
I understand that NYE is kind of a holiday for people, so no sweat that nobody comes (red flag #2). Jan 1^st is definitely a holiday, so no worries there. January 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th… now I am concerned. I clean the pool myself on the 3^rd. Next Thursday comes, MIL is now down visiting us, and nobody comes from Skimmers. I clean the pool again. Did I mention that the owner of Skimmers asked my MIL to give his cleaning tech a $ 25 Xmas bonus? And that she did, even though she had caught them skipping her pool nary two months before?
Finally the other day I got fed up. I had just cleaned the pool myself again, despite paying $ 25 a week for someone else to do it. I call Skimmers, get a machine, leave a message. 24 hours later, I call again, leave a message. Several hours later, I get a call. I politely enquire as to whether our account is in arrears. I am assured we are paid up. I then ask why nobody has been by obviously in weeks, and don’t get a straight answer. Basically, either the route tech is fudging his route log, or the owner is not scheduling him to go there. Either way, we were getting shafted. The owner kept saying he was going to «look into what happened», which is not my problem. He repeatedly told me that «We don’t skip pools.» I’m sorry, but you are zero for two on that account in my book. He then tells me that he wants to give us perhaps a reduced service where they only manage the chem levels. Sorry, no.
Told him truthfully that we had to go out for dinner. During dinner and the movie following, I got at least 6 text messages from him and a call from his route tech telling me… whatever. I didn’t respond. Next morning, the route tech just shows up and walks into our backyard and starts servicing the pool! I politely asked him to leave, which he did.
TL:DR– Hired Skimmers to service the pool, and they didn’t. Charged us for servicing the pool, and didn’t. $ 25 a week is $ 1300 a year… That’s a vacation somewhere… for someone.