Pool Town, Inc. — Local services in Howell Township

UPDATE 8/9/17 - I am still giving ZERO stars. My advice is to still go in a different direction. I really should have went with a local pool company. Let me take you thru my 10 week nightmare. That is how long it took from the time they dug the hole until the time concrete patio was poured. My "Design Consultant" (at least that is what his business card says) may have been a help when he sold me our pool, but a true design consultant would have come to my home to discuss layout, location of pool and equipment. Since he didn't want to make a visit to my home an engineer made all those decisions and now I am stuck looking at the pump and filter only 6 feet from my concrete patio. Yes I approved the Engineering drawings, but I am not an engineer and dint notice the pump/filter in the picture. See the attached picture of the pump and filter. BTW, I have more than an acre of land. The equipment could have gone anywhere. When I received other quotes, the owners of the local pool companies sat at my kitchen table with me and discussed the layout and location of everything. Due to the location of the pump and filter it cost me an extra $700 in electrical runs. With all my issues I am shocked that my "Design Consultant" has not bothered to check in with me or respond to emails or text messages. Next issue was with their construction department. I wasn't aware that I had to handle vendor management for them, as I was the one who had to call the excavator, the electrician and the mason and coordinate when all the work was to be done. I was taking phone calls from my electrician on Sunday afternoons while coaching soccer games. Their construction department also failed to talk to each other about extra excavation that was needed and then my coordinator got caught in a lie as to why my work was delayed. Yes, Pooltown will blame the weather, but they wont take responsibility for all the lost days where weather wasnt an issue. Next up, a rock fell on my light during backfill and the construction coordinator assumed I was going to pay to have the pool drained and refilled. Pooltown promised to pay for the refill of the pool and I have yet to receive any money from them. Pooltown also stated that it took them a week to replace the light because they had to get a new one from the warehouse. I saw the saw light on Amazon and could have had one delivered the next day. Now, let's talk about the installers, yes they did a great job, but apparently one of the workers thought it was my fault he had to work late and called me a "d**che" while he was on the phone. This was said only a few feet away from my 12yo daughter. Pooltown denied this happened, but my daughter knows what she heard. With all the issues and delays I had I asked Pooltown for 600 sq ft of extra patio. Comes to about $6000. They countered with 100 sq ft. I asked for a meeting with ownership, but like my "Design Consultant" he didn't want to drive up to my house. They wanted me to drive the 90 minutes one way for this meeting. I wasn't going to take a day off of work for a meeting and I wasn't going to drive down the GSP during rush hour to meet after work. One last item, they still owe me a winter pool cover, but I had to make my final payment to them. Most companies don't accept final payment until all work is complete and equipment is delivered. Finally, because I posted a bad review on Facebook, which I think they deleted (they also blocked me from posting any more on Facebook), they rescinded their offer of an extra 100 sq ft of free patio concrete. My advice, spend a little extra more and go with a pool company that will spend the time with you to discuss your pool. Also, do your research on this company, read all reviews, angieslist, BBB, google, yelp, etc. I have spent my summer regretting a pool, but I think my biggest regret was getting it...

If you are planning to have the pool I suggest to find another company. They have poor communication skills and they just want to say what you want to hear. I learn it the hard way when they did my pool. This is the letter I send to the construction department and even that department say the customer service will be in touch with you but no one called me.

"I had to review all the recorded conversation I that I had with Maria and Ron. To my understanding they told me in 2 weeks they can pour the concrete and now looking at this phase 3 stage it seems that there is a poor communications here. Now it says in 4 weeks they will pour the concrete. What if we asked to pour the concrete after the 2 weeks is up would that void the warranty toward pool town? What if we asked to do it in 3 week instead of 4 week? Also in the recorded conversation Maria said that (Pool town) don't recommend using the pool until the final inspection but some costumers do it after the pool is filled with water. This is not what I read in the contract, it says that it should not be use until the final inspection. When we talked to Ron before signing the papers we give him the time line about the party that we suppose to do this coming Sunday. He said that I should not be a problem and that the pool will be ready by then. As you can see the pool is not ready and we have to move the party until further notice because reading at this phase 3 paper it looks like the pool will not be ready anytime soon. We give the initial check of $25,000 on June 24, 2019 before going to vacation in hopes that when we come back the excavation will be ready, instead we called July 11, 2019 in the township and they said that they just received the papers from you yesterday July 10, 2019. The permit was released July 12, 2019 and that will start the 35days the pool town said the pool will be ready by then. As you can see the 35 days is up in August 16, 2019 and the pool is not ready. Also, Maria said we can do the front yard cleaning after the backfill is done but it looks like we cannot do that because in order to do the concrete the truck has to pass by in the front yard. Another thing, that Ron said is after everything is done with the pool the pool town will put top soil on the damage lawn areas, but reading through the contract it say that its the customers job to do that. Listening to all the recorded conversations in my opinion, Maria and Ron just say what we want to hear not what is the truth. If they were honest in the beginning this frustration and miss communication would not have been an issue. We been patience and cooperative, paid the due balance right away when needed. I hope in this last phase we will have an honest conversation."

Unfortunately the last phase was still horrible. They say the heater will be deliver and be installed on Tuesday and they will clean the pool that day. Tuesday came and they show up with the heater. I asked if they are going to install it the people came said it's the electric company does that. I ask also are they cleaning the pool today and they say no they have to come back someday for that all they where instructed to do what to drop off the heater and get the check. I told them you want me to cut a check when they didnt even informed me when are they installing the heater and clean the pool? What if I cut you a check now and the electric company decided to come next month to install the electric for the heater and you got your check already so who got fooled now? Me since you have the money already but I dont have my heater. I called pool town for an update but like always with the poor communication skillsthey didnt...

Update to my original review: Following my review, I received a call from Russ (1 of 2 owners) and the conversation went differently than expected. Russ was cordial and understanding to my thoughts and opinions on how things went. Coming from the construction industry myself, I experience alot of what Pool Town was going through with the current material shortage. One thing I expressed to Russ was the lack of communication in "delivering" the message across. Russ guaranteed me that moving forward they will do a better job in communicating with their customers. I think hearing my concerns directly, may have opened Russ' eyes to how the message is being received on the clients side of things. Again, this was a positive conversation and I hope my experience will help future clients of Pool Town. Again, the finished product is great and I have no issues with the pool. I hope the best for Pool Town and all their clients and with that I'm going to change my 1 star to 3 stars.

My experience with Pool Town was horrible. A 3 month project took 14 months to complete. Their sales pitch was amazing but they never lived up to expectations. Communication was the worst as there were too many people involved and the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. Then after giving them a hard time, they make a ton of promises which they fail to make happen (each time). On top of knocking out my internet twice, leaving a mess, bad communication, broken promises, etc. the pool did come out nice. Unfortunately it was finished just in time to close it for Summer 2021. I would not recommend Pool Town, their contract is one-sided. If you consider using them, get an attorney involved to review the contract and make changes to help protect you. More than likely Pool Town is going to respond to this review (expected), stating that that my claims are not true and give some incorrect information. The right thing to do is for Pool Town to respond by saying the following: We do apologize for your experience, we did try our best but the Pandemic got the best of us. We took on way too much work and were not capable of handling that workload. We should have been more diligent in taking on this work knowing that there was a chance we would have be able to get materials or the manpower to complete the work. We are going to take these comments as constructive criticism and work on our communication with our clients because without our clients, there is no Pool Town. Again, we deeply apologize for not making your experience more enjoyable, therefore we are sending...