Failed after 4 years. Buy cheap, buy twice.

We are based in South Uk where we have hard water so we bought Scalemaster Softline 150 about 4 years ago for about £550 and it was installed on mains as per manual instructions. It was working fine until 3 months ago, when we noticed gradual drop in water pressure on taps and then yellowish/brown sand like (resin) started to appear in water from taps. We switched to bypass mode and presto - water pressure got to usual normal levels again. As it was still under 5 warranty we contacted Scalemaster and their immediate reply without sending anyone to check the unit, was that failure was due to Resin Contamination by high levels of Chlorine and is outside of their warranty. Ok Resin Contamination is stated in their manual as outside warranty, however it is not explained what causes it and how to mitigate it (switch to bypass mode). Scalemaster representative explain it to you when that happens at which point is too late, and they offer to replace resin in your water softener for additional £190! The information about Resin Contamination is on their portal, however you need to well look for it! Anyway the story goes: Chlorine levels are ad-hoc increased by Water companies after they done some maintenance on water pipes. When they do it is outside of householder knowledge, so there is no chance to mitigate this happening. Simple google search how long the resin should last answer is 10 years , however in my case it was 4.
So I contacted few 3rd party/independent water softener service companies who explained that Scalemaster is very likely using lower quality of resin than the resin found in more expensive products i.e. likes of Harveys or Kinetico ,whose products would withstand exposure to Chlorine and guarantee 10 years. Hence i am not willing to pay £190 that gives me only 4 years. Moneywise it doesn't make sense and i would be better off getting
I am not suggesting a specific brand here, however the statement "Buy cheap, buy twice" well sums up the Scalemaster Softline 150 product.
I would not recommend to buy it and rather look to spend more on reliable water softener products out there.