River Pools Virginia — Local services in Warsaw

My frustrations with this company would take too long to explain in full. I will try to stick to the highlights. First, my sales person used the phrase "the best part about river pools is how close we are, like a family, we are always there for each other." Then found out she had quit before construction began. That should have been a sign.

Next, at my pre-construction meeting, I realized quickly I was assigned an inexperienced coordinator, who had not even a basic understanding of arithmetic. Among numerous basic errors, she incorrectly calculated the necessary depth of the pool to account for 2 step heights. I corrected her at this meeting, with pictures, and descriptions. She ensured me that she talked to her superiors, and promised me the steps would work out correctly, and each step would be the correct 8" rise height. After construction was finished, just like I told her would happen, there was not enough clearance. First step is less than 4", and 2nd step only 6", which is a trip hazard. This coordinator, Brianna, also incorrectly conveyed the depth of these steps. Which I told her, numerous times needed to be 20" from the patio. Only to see them be built 24". Which threw off the entire patio pattern. (installed by other).

Skipping over the many other issues, she sent out her "manager" to discuss. This manager was very unprofessional, insisted I voice all my concerns at once, before he responded to any of them. 10 minutes later, his only response was "sounds like there were some communication errors. We will work on that, internally, moving forward. Plus, whoever laid your stone did a bad job also, so I'm not sure why you are complaining about us." A company saying they will work to improve their procedures in the future, without providing any solutions/compensations to the current customer is a slap in the face. And to talk badly about another contractor, without taking any blame himself, is very unprofessional. I work as a contractor, and if I ever treated a customer the way they treat customers, I wouldn't have a job anymore. On top of that, they have no control over their sub contractors, and were left making excuse after excuse for their delays, and missing work. Save yourself the headache, use any other company.

EDIT: Because this app does not allow responses to false information from the "owner", I must clarify here.

The conversation about pool depth took place in early December 2022. The conversation about the depth of the home's footers (not foundation) took place in late January 2023, after the second round of digging had taken place. They could not even see the footers until this time. In fact, the coordinator even said "turns out, your footers are at the same level as the pool now. So that is hopefully a silver lining to this problem".

Neither I, nor anyone else ever said anything about the coping not being straight. The comments from the manager were directly disparaging the other contractor.

This is what happenes when the author of these responses is not involved with the projects at all. False information to try to save face.

And if it sounds like I am simply being a negative person, I had 4 different contractors work on the project after RiverPools was finished. All of which were friendly, punctual, and did great work. I thanked each of them personally, bought them lunch, and tipped them for their willingness to go above and beyond. I have recommended each of these other contractors to friends, family and neighbors. Many of which have already done business with them as of this post. There was clearly only one bad apple in my back yard process, which was RiverPools and its sub contractor.

I am a contractor myself. If I had done half the things this company did, I would have ended up paying for the mistakes out of my own pocket, or found myself looking for...

My experience with this company has been a horrible one. I have done my research... a LOT of research and based on this research, my husband and I liked what we read and saw in the vast amount of knowledge and portaited experience provided by River Pools on their website. So, to our surprise, we were stunned to learn River Pools was not willing to stand behind the information, THEIR OWN COMPANY MADE information, that was provided on the River Pools website. This caused my husband and I to question the integrity of this company. So we were ready to move forward with another company, but then we received random email from River Pools offering a special discount to the last quoted price that was provided. I thought, "ok, we havent signed anything with this other company yet... Could this be a sign?" So my husband and I decided to investigate the offer that was provided by Jason Hughes. Well, unfortunately, River Pools once again has caused us to question its integrity. Even though Jason Hughes' offer was to provide a discount to the last offered price, River Pools refuses to honor this offer. They will only apply the discount to the second to last offer, not the final offer they provided to us. So, if you want to work with a company that you can trust and cares about its integrity and customer satisfaction, I would not recommend working with River Pools.

Additional Correspondence that is relevant to my unsatisfactory review and River Pools response.

Mr. Hughes, I appreciate your attempt of an apology, however, it is really easy to say it was your mistake and say it was an oversight and it should have been given, (which is all we were asking for in the first place) but then in the next statement, speak for my husband and I and assume we would be happier with another contractor. That sir, is not good customer service at all. Your company was wrong, you have acknowledged it and now you tell the customer (who is entitled to feel the way they do because of an "oversight") indirectly that you do not wish to do business with them. From the beginning, all I was asking was for your company to honor your information and even more recently, honor the offer River Pools made to my husband and I, via email. It is obvious your intent is to try to "save face" and make it appear you were willing to honor what your company agreed to, but in reality your company really had no intentions of doing so. If it did, we would make this right and move forward with the transaction. And just for clarity... We were willing to still move forward with River Pools because it was the integrity that was in question and honestly, making this right could be done. Just honor what your company already agreed to. If not honoring your word or the word of your employees is having integrity, I would hate to see what not having it looks like at River Pools.

One additional note, the substantial discount your are referring to was $3000 and the only reason it was that was because the "up-to-date" pricing information the sales guy gave us was not incorporated into the quote that he gave us. So in actually, based on the information the sales guy gave us when we meet in his office, it was really a $2000 reduction. So again, I was attempting to get your sales guy to honor what he previous disclosed to my husband and I. And to assume I was offended by a $1000 discount when I was only asking for a $2000 reduction is a bit ridiculous. In negotiations, you go back and forth with terms and conditions and pricing until you come to an agreement. Our opposing positions were not that far apart... not on a $50K+...

This is a long and detailed review, hopefully others thinking of hiring River Pools will find it helpful. In July of 2020 I reached out to River Pools to get the ball rolling on our long awaited pool project. In a time, where due to the pandemic, and other factors complicating scheduling for most construction trades many pool contractors were months out on scheduling an initial conversation. River was able to connect with me for an initial virtual appointment within just a few weeks. I had a video call with Mike who thoroughly explained the process, went through options, and discussed a rough budget for my project. I then moved forward with a site visit. Let me address something regarding the site visit process. You will read many negative reviews from people who complain about the non-refundable $500 fee charged for the site visit. I think it is important to point out that this fee is credited back to the cost of your job if you move forward with hiring River Pools. It also seems totally reasonable to me that a reputable company would charge a design fee for the hours their employee spent with me discussing elevations, reviewing drainage, and staking out the shape of the pool during this visit to my home. All of which happened well before I signed a contract and paid any deposit. This can be a six figure investment, if you are not prepared to spend $500 to make sure the design fits your yard and its' specific elevations you are making a big mistake. The entire team at River has been GREAT! From my initial meetings with Mike, which included making himself available on a Sunday to meet with us at their pool park in Warsaw (I highly recommend visiting if you are no more than 90 mins away), and multiple site visits to ensure the pool would be placed exactly where we wanted it which were very helpful, to my project manager Wes and the entire installation crew. River was with me every step of the way. I made the decision to hire my own concrete sub for our pool patio. Wes and his team integrated seamlessly with the crew from Decocrete and both companies did everything they could to make sure things went smoothly and to ensure we were happy with the final result. All of my interactions with everyone at River Pools were pleasant and professional. I would not hesitate to recommend them. Special thanks to Mike, Wes, Kaci, Rebecca, and Gavin. I'll update this review when the landscaping is complete to include photos. When you want a professional job, done by folks who truly care about getting it right and making sure their customer is happy River Pools and Spas should be the only...