Swimming Pools Exposed

SWIMMING POOL NIGHTMARES - YOU DO NOT WANT TO EXPERIENCE WHAT THESE PEOPLE HAVE!

THESE STORIES WILL SHOCK YOU!  REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES OF POOL OWNERS ALL OVER THE WORLD THAT HAVE NOT BEEN EDITED IN ANYWAY.....ENJOY!

A Renovation Gone Wrong

"AC wrote…

We have recently employed a Pool Company to Renovate our existing Swimming pool. This Pool has been in the ground for over 20 years and we have never had a problem with it. A tradesman from the Company came around and put a pump in the pool to empty it so they could commence work. The pool emptied overnight and nobody turned up. The pool had been empty for over a week when one night we had a lot of rain. I awoke in the morning to see that my pool had literaly popped out of the ground. It had risen out of the ground 34 centimetres at the deep end, and almost 2 feet at the shallow end. I was in shock! You should see the condition of my backyard.

Apparently there is a thing called a Hydrostatic valve that should have been released as soon as the pool was emptied. I now have World War 3 going on in my backyard and the Company does not seem to have a clue how to go about fixing it. Could you please inform me of my rights as a consumer and tell me how I can go about getting this problem resolved."

$6,000 Down the Drain

"BC wrote:

We firstly approached several pool shops with the idea that they would be able to recommend some one local. The concrete one was highly recommended but unfortunately out of our budget. There was one fiberglass 'installer' from Ulladulla whom we got the name of from a pool shop in Ulladulla. After a phone call and a sales pitch we decided to go with this person, after all, my wife had only recently been involved in an MVA and the time frame for their install was sooner than others so that she, my wife, could use the pool for rehabilitation, as well as a $6,000.00 cash back offer it was too good to be true.

It turns out that this highly referred pool installer had his girl friend working in the shop (the other people were also duped the same way), this girl has been dismissed after she was found to have been helping herself to customer details and price lists. Unfortunately not soon enough for us!

A contract was signed on another letter head whom I finally contacted, as their number was wrong, and was told that this person had authority to use the paperwork. Filtration and disinfection equipment arrived less an airseat blower (I was informed that it must have been on back order), and finally the day arrives when the shell comes but there is a weeks delay for install.

The night before install I am contacted at work and asked if I know any one with an excavator, after some phoning around I secure a 22 tonne one only to be told not to worry he got one. They arrive with a 3 tonne one Nick named the Tonka toy. They fumble around and finish putting the shell in at 11PM just as I arrive home from work and do not turn up until I am heading off the next day, I believe this was a ploy as the shell was 1metre above where it should have been, and they tried to avoid a confrontation as I had already asked about several things that seemed wrong that they quickly assured me were right. eg. Class 9 under the ground , no shut off v/v even though the pool was now higher than the pump, why was the pool so high up? (answer: it will turn out alright, this is to help surface run off) the only win I got was to insist on the return line to be 50mm and then manifolded and reduced to 40mm.

We now know the back fill should have been mixed with cement as per Australian standards. Any way they merrily dumped the fill in and the water when the tanker came up, if they were not ready I stored it in the dam and one water tank dedicated for their use, they tried to blame this as well for the ultimate collapse of the shell which occurred 2 hours after they left as it was Christmas and they had to be at some company party and left me to finish filling the pool and treat it with 2kg gran. chlorine, 1 litre of clarifier it said floc but, it was that pale blue liquid (and would never have cleaned up water from a dam!) and a gel floc block. Why didn't I say or do something? I was alone with my family 3 crooks who all came up around me when ever I said anything and we read through an MBA contract that was shoved under my nose on the last day , which said that they did not have to come back to do any repairs if full payment was not received, (try getting legal advice on a Saturday afternoon). Whilst the bank would cancel the cheque the department of 'Fair' trading advised not to as this would make us look bad, so we didn't. We are $6,000.00 poorer because of that.

Three months of attempting to negotiate made way to six months in fair trading and finally after almost doubting ourselves Orders have been made. But the head man, I believe, got away. We are still going through the courts trying to get our money back from the builder and the first contact. They have to date ignored us but since I found one (first contact) working at another pool builder, I have served them with a garnish pay order and he has since both denied responsibility threatened Supreme court action and offered to replace the pool at his expense all through a solicitor I might add.

The builder is as we speak receiving a notice to sell land from the sheriff’s office so I should be hearing from him soon. There is still a lot to be told but I can fill you in later.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story."

 

How not to get on with your neighbour

"Sj wrote

We saw your company on Today Tonight, and are currently building a new home and swimming pool. After making quite a few enquiries, we hired whom we thought was a highly professional, experienced and talented pool company. Their prices were much higher than a lot of their competitors, and the owner is on the Board of SPASA. Apart from this, they were a multi-award winning pool company.

We believed this company had the criteria to build a stunning swimming pool which would complement our architecturally designed home. Unfortunately, our dealings with this company have given us nothing but frustration, expense and heartache.

We signed a Contract for approximately $65000 which was supposed to be fully inclusive. The pool was being built on the boundary of our neighbours (who had only 2 years ago completed their architecturally designed home).

On the day of excavation, the owner of the Company was not in attendance, and had his second in charge present and 2 excavators. The excavators proceeded to excavate the pool and spa area, of which one side was flush on the boundary of the adjacent neighbour. The area was dug up to a depth of 1.7 metres, and the neighbour's fence, plants, sandstone paving and soil caved in to the pool hole. Excavation was not stopped until the neighbour ordered that work be stopped immediately, pending arrival of her engineer and council representative.

An engineer and council representative arrived. The Engineer informed the pool contractor that he would not guarantee the ground would be stable until the pool was concrete sprayed. Our builder (who has no connection with the pool company or their contracts) was present, and we received a phone call from him requesting that we come straight down to the land, as there were major problems with the excavation. The ti-tree fence on the boundary of our property and the neighbour's had collapsed, taking with it the neighbour's plants, sandstone paving and sprinkler system. The neighbours and the pool company were exchanging words, with the excavators having told the neighbours to **** off. The neighbours had repeatedly asked the excavators to cease work when they saw that the fence was collapsing, but they would not stop, hence the further damage.

When the pool contractor arrived on the scene, he produced a Variation to Contract out of his pocket, stating that if necessary, he could perform shoring, the total cost being no more than $7,000, and the cost would be borne by ourselves. The pool contractor then made my Husband sign this document. Coincidentally, the shoring and formwork cost came in at $7,000.

The neighbours served us an account for the following:-

Landscaping
Replacement of Sprinkler
Replacement of Fence
Geo-Technical Engineer's Fee

We have also been advised by them that should any further damaged to their garden or home become apparent, they will be looking to us, as the owners of the adjoining property for compensation. The reinstatement of our neighbours garden and fees has cost us in excess of $8,000, plus an additional $7,000 of shoring up fees from the pool company.

We would have thought that the damage the pool company has caused to our neighbour’s property would be covered under their insurance, but the owner of the pool company refuses to use it, advising us that in his opinion, his company was not negligent and that there was no way to know prior that the soil was unstable and the wall would collapse. He has since offered us $2000 towards the repairs, but we have refused, stating that until the point of blame has been established, we will not accept any offers of payment.

I have discussed the option of taking the pool company to VCAT (Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal), however my husband is reluctant to do this at this stage, stating that the company still has to tile and finish of the pool and instal the equipment. He is concerned that any friction now may cause the pool company to finish the job off in a poor and unprofessional manner.

We do not feel that we should be in a position where, over the coming years, we have a neighbour who will, at any given time, be seeking compensation for damage which was no fault of our own.

We believe that:-

A) The pool contractor had visited the site on numerous occasions,and are well aware that the soil is very sandy and unstable. They have also been provided with soil reports.

B) Their professional judgement should have been used prior to excavation, and the pool should have been shored before being dug out, and the pool contractor should have been on site at the time of the excavation.

C) This is a case of negligence on the pool contractor's part. The Company did not have to move any fences to gain access to our site. It was a vacant block of land.

D) Our Concern:
a) Who is liable for reinstatement of the neighbour's garden and landscaping for the damage already done?
b) In the event that further damage is caused to the property, who is then liable?
c) Did the pool company take out a Protection Policy, and did they have to, as they were building on a boundary of a neighbouring home?

As you can see, we have proceeded too far into this Contract to be reading any material on how to prevent what has already happened. Do you have expertise in this area, and I note from your website that you have a consulting service.

I would value any advice or direction you can give us in this matter."

 

Who is responsible for this?

"Kp wrote:

Guess you are going to be unindated with emails.... I was so interested to see the segment as I was sure it would be the F@#Kwit Pool Company (thats our new name of the company that have ripped us off ) !!!!!!

I was a Bit disappointed they weren’t outed (whether it was them or not any company doing this to hard working Aussies should be )!! I have been trying to get a refund since sept and been treated very badly by the so called ""pool consultants"" or as my husband calls the Dodgy F'wit pool Company.

We too stupidly signed the contract and paid them in full on April 15th they supplied us with Illegally obtained plans and when council wanted more info from the engineer it was discovered that the engineer knew nothing of these as they had been bodgied from the dodgy company !!! and so the story goes on & on & on.(wont bore you !!!)

Heres a shot of our lovely pool (not ) !!!!!!"

 

Are you being ripped off for chemicals?

"MA wrotei-

Recently we returned from a 4 week holiday to find that our pool had turned green. We phoned the pool shop to fix it. They came around to our house 3 times. The first visit was only for 5 minutes to throw in a bag of flock and 15 litres of liquid chlorine. The second visit was for 60 minutes as they vacuumed the pool, backwashed and rinsed the filter, added 15 litres of liquid chlorine and adjusted the Ph of the water. The third and final visit was for a further 10 minutes where they again tested the Ph, and added 1 litre of acid,(which we already had).We were then charged $770 which we objectively paid. Now I am not a Pool man, but I am sure we were overcharged. I have no problem paying for services, but I was paying for a Pool Cleaner, not a Lawyer."

 

Excessive charges for pool maintenance

"KF wrote:

For years we have paid to have our pool maintained on a regular basis. One day the cleaner turned up to clean the pool, we had recently installed an automatic pool cleaner and the pool was spotless. I watched as he scooped 1 leaf of the pool surface and then proceeded to add large amounts of chemicals to the water. I found this odd as the pool was very clean. A few days later we received an invoice for the vacuuming of the pool and additional $65 charge for the chemicals that were added.

Two weeks later the same thing happened again. I decided to hire a consultant to inform me of the exact purposes that these chemicals were used for. I became quite annoyed to learn that the chemicals we were having added to our pool and charged quite handsomely for were only needed if the pool water was going green or if the pool had some sort of Algae or Black spot problem. Our fully tiled pool was in pristine condition and most certainly did not have any of these problems. We had to question how many times we had been charged for additional chemicals when the pool did not require them. We immediately ceased using that Pool Company and found someone who was honest. For years our charges for pool chemicals have been in excess of $1000 per annum. In the last 12 months after employing a new cleaner we have paid only $220 in chemicals. It makes me wonder just what proportion of consumers are being ripped off just like we had been for so long."

 

When a cheap job isn't cheap

"Mysterious Angel

to whom it may concern, Our names are R and L. One year ago my wife wanted to buy a pool and did the calling and found the pool company by the name xxx pools, neither my wife or myself have ever dealt with having a pool installed , so we asked the man who came to our house ( bob) to fill out some paperwork and to get my wife’s name on the contract. Bob later stated that he may know someone who could install the pool at a cheaper rate if we would pay cash in hand, so in other words they would install the pool on their days off.

Well 2 weeks after Kim installed the pool, it started raining and the pool started rising after the rain storm passed 3 days later I went out to Start measurements for the retainer wall the be built and noticed that the bond beam on the pool was cracking, so I then called Kenny (the installer) what had happen and he came out and had another bond beam installed and leveled the pool as well. It lasted only 3 weeks before the pool started rising and the bond beam has fallen off , the pool has risen 8 inches out of the ground and is still that way today . no one will repair or even pull the pool out , all the plumbing is cracked I had to take the water out and the bottom of the pool is all rippled, its not even in one spot, I have tried spaza, and the Q.B.A. and nothing has happen. I have even rung Kim to look at the pool, and he said that he could fix everything. no matter how many times I've called Kim the pool is still unsafe. the work that was done is sick to look at , now all I have is an empty pool to look at and no one to fix the pool . what can my wife and I do . we paid cash in hand and we never received any receipts..to tell you everything about this pool installation would take an hour to tell you have to see it to believe it . what can we do???????"

 

What good is a pool with no chlorinator?

"NO wrote:

I signed a contract to have a concrete pool built in my backyard. I thought I was paying to have a salt water pool installed. After the company taking 9 months to complete my pool, when they said they would take 6 weeks, I finally got to enjoy a swim. A few days later a friend popped over and asked me where my salt water chlorinator was. Being a little naïve and completely unaware of anything to do with swimming pools I was a little confused. I phoned the pool company and asked them why my salt water pool did not have a salt water chlorinator. After waiting 3 days for someone to return my call, I was informed that I did not have a salt chlorinator written into my contract. The sneaky salesman had indeed stated that I was purchasing a salt water pool, but said nothing of a chlorinator, which I now know is a compulsory piece of equipment to transform salt into chlorine to keep the pool water sanitized.

The company’s idea of a salt water pool was to throw in 5 bags of salt and leave the rest to me. They then had the gall to try and sell me a chlorinator at an inflated price and charge me even more to install it. At the time of signing the contract I was very excited that I was getting the pool that I had always dreamt of and I trusted the salesman to do the right thing by me. It took me 6 months to save the money for a salt chlorinator and have it fitted by the local pool shop. I will never forgive the way that Pool Company so opportunistically took advantage of my trusting nature."

 

What about all the hidden costs?

"PN wrote:

My wife and I purchased a home which needed renovating. There was a concrete pool in the backyard which also needed renovating. The renovation of the house took 3 months to complete whilst the pool took nearly 6 months and was an absolute nightmare. We signed a contract with apparently one of the most reputable Pool Builders in the Country for $60,000.00. They took a 10% deposit and we did not hear from them for 14 weeks. When they finally turned up their tradesmen were rude, never arrived on time, and did not seem to have a clue what they were doing.

After removing the waterline tiles we were told that we would have to pay an extra $2000 to render the area smooth, this was the first of the hidden costs. We paid the money and watched 2 jokers do the job in 3 hours and use less than 2 bags of cement.

The next stage of the nightmare was when they turned up 4 weeks later to lay the coping. They claim that it took that long for the Terracotta Tiles to arrive, but the Tile shop informed us that they had plenty in stock. They then took 2 weeks to complete a job that they worked on for 2 days, and when it was finished it looked like it was done by a 10 year old. After we complained that the finished coping was unacceptable we were told to accept it as it could not be done any better. Another 3 weeks went by before someone turned up to prepare the Interior to be pebblecreted. This guy made the biggest mess and had covered our new tiled coping with cement and left the job without bothering to clean it. We were assured that it would be cleaned on the Acid Wash, but the Tile shop told us that the tiles could not be touched with Hydrochloric Acid as it would burn them. So I spent a day on my hands and knees scrubbing them clean. Finally they came to do the pebblecreting and were in such a rush that they left even more mess than the previous guy. Once again I was down on my knees scrubbing tiles.

A week later the Acid wash guy turns up, this is despite being told that it had to be Acid washed and filled the day after the pebblecreting or the interior surface would go drummy. When the final tradesman turned up to start the Filter he claimed that the entire system needed replacing, and if it were not replaced with new equipment the pool water could not be cleaned thoroughly and this would affect our warranty on the new Interior. We were left with no choice but to buy a new pump, filter and chlorinator at a cost of $7000, which way later find out was more than twice the retail price. So by the time we got to swim in our newly renovated Pool which was only meant to take 1 month and took 6 months, we were looking at a cost of $69,000.00.

We were not happy with the finished product and refused to pay the final 10 % payment until certain areas had been rectified. They then voided our warranty and told us not to ring them again. We have since been informed by an Independent Consultant that the whole job should have cost no more than $15,000 and was not done satisfactorily. We had paid $63,000.00 for an absolute nightmare.

My wife and I could not believe at how blatantly we were ripped off by this supposedly award winning Pool Company." <

 

A bad rendering job!

"RB wrote:

I had a concrete Pool installed at my house and the Tradesman and their work was average to say the least. The Interior finish on the Pool was totally unacceptable, even to the untrained eye. I was convinced by the Pool Company that all finishes looked that way and I would not even notice the flaws once the Pool was filled with water.

Given that it was the middle of summer at the time I agreed to let them fill it. However once the Pool was full of water and operational I soon came to realize that not only could I still see the flaws, but they had actually been magnified by the water. Having made my payment in full I decided to make good of my 10 year warranty and told the Pool Builder that I was not happy with the finish on my pool and I wanted it fixed. They told me that once winter came around and they were not as busy they would have a look. At the time I thought this was reasonable. Unfortunately though, the problem escalated over the following months, and due to the fact that so much of the pebble had been washed out I now had blackspot forming in the bare areas.

When a company representative turned up almost a year later, he blamed my lack of maintenance on the pool saying that the blackspot had actually caused the pebble to come away and that there was nothing wrong with the quality of workmanship from their company. I threatened to go to the Regulatory bodies and put my case before them. He quite blatantly told me to go right ahead and said that I would be wasting my time (he had obviously been down this road before). Sure enough the Bureaucrats were a waste of time and appeared to be there for the Builder and not the Consumer.

Three years later after much heartache and vast sums of money wasted on Pool Chemicals, I have had to pay an Independent Contractor to re-surface my Pool correctly. If only I had of had a copy of your book from the start and been educated none of this would of happened, not to mention all the money I would of saved on buying chemicals that I did not need. The entire Industry is an absolute joke!"

 

When the pool company uses the wrong materials

"Ss wrote:

We currently have a six year old pebble concrete pool which has given us many years of enjoyment until now, we currently have a crack the entire way around the top of the pool approx 2 - 3 inches below the coping. There was a 3 year warranty on the coping which has since expired and a 7 year warranty on the construction. (therefore still have a current warranty on construction of the pool).

I contacted the pool builder and informed him of the problem and he came out to look at the problem and advised us that it was not construction but in the clay coping that was used. I was advised that the clay copers have expanded and hence this crack around the pool, the crack is uneven as the coping is pushing out the pebblecrete and a few hunks of pebblecrete have come off. The pool builder has stated that this is not a construction problem and the onus will be on us to pay for it.

Yesterday I contacted a repair pool builder in the Central Coast area who advised that he has seen many problems like this and to take on the brick/clay companies!!!

Our home insurance will not cover this type of disaster as it is classified as wear and tear as it has not been caused by fire, flood, storms etc.

Fair Trading have advised to first get a report from a structural engineer to ascertain the problem and then refer it to them. Other advice have been made to take this matter to the Pool and Spa Association??

Can you give me some sound advice as to what we first need to do. I do believe that the pool builder has been honest with us regarding the problem being coping, but do I

1/ still get a structural engineers report
2/ does the pool builder have any liability regarding this as he employed the people that did the coping etc and advised us on the coping to obtain.

I also wish to add that I approached the company that sold us the clay coping and was advised that 3 - 4 years ago they stopped using clay coping and now use concrete coping because of this problem.

Should we have been notified of this problem about clay coping 3 - 4 years ago by the pool builder once this became known.??

PLEASE HELP THE PROBLEM NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT QUITE SOON AND I AM
CONFUSED AS TO WHAT IS THE BEST OPTION AND RIGHT OPTIONS TO TAKE AS I
GET ALL DIFFERENT ADVICE."

 

How a $17,000 job turned into a $34,000 one!

"PT wrote:

We had a Pool installed and it is one of the most stressful things we have ever done. The Salesman was pushy, the tradesmen were rude and the management was arrogant. We had nothing but problems, we did not receive what we thought we were going to get and we have never been happy with it. They showed us pictures on the quote and tricked us into thinking that we were getting a Pool that was the same as in the pictures. However when the supervisor turned up we soon realised that we had signed up for a pool that was very ordinary and not at all what we wanted.

This is when the games began. He told us if we wanted a Pool like the one in the photographs it would cost us an extra $17,000.00. This was twice the contract price. We could only afford an extra $5,000.00. We were made to sign a contract variation form on the spot and the excavation had not even commenced.

1 hour into the excavation they hit rock, and they actually appeared to be happy about it. They took a little under 2 days to remove the rock and produced another contract variation form stating that we now owed them an extra $10,000.00. This was not even discussed with us before hand and we were left with no choice but to pay it. They then started the formwork and claimed that the Pool needed additional shoring. Out came another Contract variation form with another charge of $2,450.00. They had not even started to build the pool and already the price had jumped from $17,000.00 to $34,450.00.

We couldn’t believe it, and they were actually trapping us into these additional costs. We watched in amazement as the additional shoring consisted of 11 lengths of corrugated tin. It took nearly 2 months for them to build the concrete shell and it was smaller than what we thought. We were told that the size of our pool would be measured at the waters edge, but it was measured at the rear of the coping which made the swimming area smaller. We were lied to once again.

We then had to make our 3rd progress payment, after which we had no money left to pay for the continuing construction of the pool. The company did not seem to care less, they just took our money and said to call them when we had more money. We were forced to look at a bare concrete tank for over a year until we could afford to continue construction. When they came to lay the coping the pavers were not the sort we had chosen, we were informed that in the last 12 months there had been a price increase, and if we wanted those same pavers we would have to pay extra. Here we go again we thought to ourselves. We just accepted the pavers they had as we just wanted to get our Pool finished and could not afford these constant extra charges.

Then the plumber came out to install the filter and we had to pay an extra $800.00 to have the backwash line extended to the sewer, as the contract stated that backwash plumbing was only included up to a length of 5 metres, and it was 16 metres to the sewer drain ( caught again ). After countless phone calls, another 2 months passed before they came to do the interior finish. This was done whilst we were at work, and we returned home to find that they had done it in the wrong colour. This meant that the colour of our water would not be blue, but instead it would be a light shade of green. We were so fed up at this stage that we just paid the money in order to never see anyone from that company again.

We now regret doing that as we have never been completely happy with what we see in our backyard. At the end of this project it had taken 18 months and had cost us $35,250.00. Not bad when we thought we were paying $17,000.00 for our Dream Pool. I doubt we would ever build another Pool again!"

 

When is a refurbishment not a refurbishment?

"JC wrote

We need your advice, we are desparate.

Our pool is about 15 yrs old and had osmosis, so we decided that we would get some information on re surfacing it rather then the disruption of replacing it. We decided to go with a company that told us the best thing was to re fibreglass the pool. They showed us pictures of before and after the fibreline process. We thought it was a better option then re-gel coating as we had heard that blackspot could comeback with that process.

The pool resurfacing took a total of 3 day's and we had to have them back twice before we would pay the company as the workmanship was shocking ie: light was covered with fibreglass and glue, so were the outlet valves. Skimmer box lid no longer fitted and the top coat was so thin that the fiberglass particles were sticking up from the surface. After having them back twice we had enough and although you could see the seams all over the pool and the job was substandard. we decided to ask for a discount and pay the company. We asked for a 10% discount on the total cost of $4100 and the company agreed to a $300 discount. We thought that was the end of it.

8 months later we have a pool which has rampant colbalt staining and our filter cartridge is constantly covered in a black soot. We also have blistering and peeling. The pool looks in far worse condition than prior to re fibreglassing. We called the company to come out and Phil the owner (who had not overseen any of the work) came out to the site. He said that the problem was blackspot and we obviously have not maintained the pool to the correct chemistry. We disagreed with his remark and he told us that no pool companies warranty against blackspot. In this companies advertising it states ""GIVE YOUR POOL A NEW LEASE ON LIFE"" could 8 months or less be classed as a ""NEW LEASE ON LIFE"".

On top of this Phil also stated that we had witheld monies (meaning the $300 discount we agreed on) and no repairs to the peeling could be done untill the $4100 was paid in full.

We feel upset and frustrated. We have paid for a product which was to inprove the look of our pool and we have received a product which leaves us in the position of having to replace the pool at great expense and be a further $4100 out of pocket. How do you stop these people.

Ripped Off, linda"