Well, the first problem is a pool that looks like a body part...

I'm sooooooooooooooo sorry you are having so much trouble ...

What exactly is not done? If it is just the cleaner & equipment manuals that is an easy fix--go buy a cleaner on your own & deduct the cost from the balance you owe him. Manuals/warranties & instructions for pool equipment are easily found on the internet. Is the pool itself finished & all equipment running?

We had trouble with our pool company as well and had to part ways. Trust me its much harder the next time if you have a good experience with once. Me and my wife developed a saying to get us through...try it and it may help: "It is what it is."

Thanks everyone!

robindingo...I hear ya. He would have been better off with another body part to reflect his character! :)

muddy...I quoted you to them in that there was no excuse for the length of time it took to get this done and that there are some builders out there putting them in as fast as 9 days at times and they again said I was lying!

moneypitowner...yes, that's all that is left to be done. I have already gone to the manufacturers for the manuals and will be getting my cleaner. The bigger problem with this is how he has left the project and didn't know what else needed to be done! Also, it took him 7 months to get to this point, lied repeatedly along the way and generally just a very poor businessman,

barco....Pentair tells me that this is the norm these days! Muddy (and Kelly and all the other PBs here), I know you are the exception rather than the rule. I will say Pentair is bending over backwards to get me taken care of. I know your saying very well unfortunately...use it all the time! :)

The other saying is "this too shall pass"!!

That's terrible!! Please do your community a favor and post a complaint with the BBB. It may or may not help your situation (sometimes it does get the attention of the guilty party), but since the BBB is the first place people go to check companies out you will be helping to warn others. I can't believe that phone call, I would have been furious!!

Tres, I will absolutely be filling that complaint..you can bet your sweet bipsy!! :) At this point in the game, her hanging up on me didn't really surprise me nor make me any madder than I have been for months now! I have absolutely been at my wit's end and just so maddened by all this and the incredulous behavior that's it's relief to at least see the end of the tunnel! What is so typical and telling is that this woman professes to be such a Christian woman! What a hypocrite!

I, also, am sorry that you got burned by a scoundrel within our industry.

quote" Muddy (and Kelly and all the other PBs here), I know you are the exception rather than the rule. "quote

I can assure you that this is not true. The truth is that you never hear about the good men in my trade, only the bad.
I agree with Tres, report this to your local BBB and then move forward towards completion. There hasn't been a single year in the past 10 plus that I haven't finished at least 10 to 15 pools annually behind worthless peckerheads like your builder. What gets under my skin is that I wasn't good enough to build their pool because my price was higher during the quotation process, but I was more than worthy of the call to finish up the pool that they got screwed on. I bid every job with the same markup regardless of the caliber of the project and these guys usually prey on the entry to lower level pool construction projects.

Don't lose any sleep over what has happened to you. Your most certainly not the first and will not be the last to be sucked in by a scoundrel. These guys are usually very slick in their closing techniques.

quote" What is so typical and telling is that this woman professes to be such a Christian woman! "quote

I HATE to say it but, I've found this to be true in most construction industries.
If a business owner flies the Fish he's not worth signing a contract with.

Just my .02

See ya,
Kelly

Yes, I agree about the BBB. We didn't check before hand...but after our pool started having problems, we found they had 140 complaints and 22 from the last 36 months or whatever. They said it was because they are the biggest pool builder. Of course, we should have checked BEFORE signing the contract, but that was our fault.

Quote: "What gets under my skin is that I wasn't good enough to build their pool because my price was higher during the quotation process, but I was more than worthy of the call to finish up the pool that they got screwed on"

I don't know how many times I told my wife during our pool-building process that after reading all these stories here I was happy that we spent a few thousand extra to make sure we were getting a high-quality PB rather than going with the lowest bid and throwing the dice on what we might end up with. One of my friends was just telling my that his sister paid 25k for a pool, paid out 100% when they were only halfway done and then the PB walked with her money. She ended up paying a 2nd PB 25k to finish it!!! I think she'd be happy to admit now that she would have prefered paying 30k for a quality PB the first time!

midtngal, very sorry you went through this. But as you can see from that story, it could have been a lot worse :-)

Kelly, you are very correct in that you don't hear too much about the good ones. Although I will say I saw some fabulous pools on this and other forums that were done lightening fast and with great pride. That's part of what angered me so...was seeing what *could* be going on but wasn't anywhere close! I will have to say that I probably didn't do enough bidding in the front end. I went to 3 places, him being the 3rd. I probably jumped the gun and signed the contract to get it started, but it was 107 outside!!! I wanted that pool then!!!! He was the lowest, but that wasn't necessarily the reason I chose him. He was referred to me by friends (who BTW right now are so completely embarrased!). I did also look at pools he had done and talked to the homeowners about the build and whether they would do it again. They said yes, not a problem. He didn't have any complaints at the time (but now does and soon to have a second!) on the BBB. I checked him out every which way but Sunday! The biggest reason he got the job was his name being on the door...kinda thought that meant he would work a little harder!

Tres, yes, you need to thank your lucky stars that you had such a great builder! I do realize it could have been much worse and am thankful to at least be done with the install part and not have to pay out like your friend's sister! Whew...that might not have gone so well!!! :)

Its not always the low price to watch out for, the highly recommended guy with the higher price can screw you just the same. Im sorry to hear all of your problems but I wouldnt be too hard on yourself, its not your fault this happened. Even if your PB had a spotless record and you checked every single pool they built, it still may have turned out the same way.
The BBB is a good place to look but also check with your states department of professional regulation to see the complaints and reprimands they have on their license as well. Also report serious complaints to the Dept of Prof Regulation, the local contractors board and the BBB. The BBB does nothing but forward your complaint to the business and forwards his response back. They have no authority and will not push any company to do anything. They are basically only a business ratings website.

I'm looking for someone in the Lebanon area (other than Roy Vaden or his affiliates) to maintain my inground 15 x 27 (approx) "kidney shaped" pool. Can anyone here recommend someone for me?

This post was edited by Happyfamily1 on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 11:23

I took over facility operations at an area hotel some time back and inherited another pool company. At the time I had zero pool experience. I was having issues with our salt system and was getting nowhere with this company. I'm so grateful that my first call was to Roy Vaden pools.They worked diligently to get my problems resolved and I'm happy to say that my pool is now operating grreat. Everyone that I've had contact with couldn't be nicer. They are extremely knowledgeable and were more than happy to educate me in pool maintenance. They also were kind enough to follow up to make sure everything was okay. I had been working to get my pool right with the other guys for about 8 months and the tech from Roy Vaden got me going in 2. From this point they are the only company that I will use. I hate to hear that others have had bad experiences but I would encourage them to try again. I would not hesitate to recommend Roy Vaden pools.