Complaint Review: Aqua Pool & Spa INC - Manteca California

Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to Aqua Pools describing our experience

Dear Aqua Pools:

We purchased a pool from Aqua Pools that was finished near the middle of this past August.  We spent a fair amount of time meeting and interviewing various local pool construction companies large and small.  We decided on Aqua Pools mainly due to the apparent high quality of your pools from the sales center in Manteca.  We have run into a number of items that have really frustrated us as customers and home owners.  I kept brushing these things off until now.  The final straw happened this past Friday, September 6th.  Let me go back a few weeks to explain.  About a week after our pool was finished, I smelled what I thought was gas when I was on the side of our house by the gas meter and the pool/spa heater.  I called my wife over to get her opinion.  We talked and she was able to convince me that the smell was likely coming from a neighborhood barbecue.  I did not think twice of it until I walked by that same side of the house after work around 5:15pm on Friday October 6th.  This time I was certain the smell of gas was coming from either the meter or the pool/spa heater.  So I went into my house and immediately called the PG&E emergency line.  I talked briefly to a customer service agent explaining to them the smell and the recent construction project.  A PG&E field worker came to our house late that Friday night.  As you can see from the report included, the field worker found 4 gas leaks: "two at the meter and the other two at the heater."  Furthermore, the field worker told me the pipes carry the gas from the meter to the heater were very loose and not put together well.  Due to PG&E policy, when a gas leak is found, they have to check every appliance in the house that has a gas source.  So the PG&E worker had to check the water heater and climb into our attic to check the heater in the attic.  He finally left our house at approximately 11pm that Friday night.  This was the most egregious and most recent of a number of inconveniences and problems caused by Aqua Pools not to mention the safety issue of multiple gas leaks.   Another occurred when the gas line was originally tapped into for our pool/spa.  During this process our water heater shut off as is expected.  We were unaware and uninformed of this.  So we went for over a weekend without hot water.  We were not told this would happen, but I soon figured it out and had to call Aqua Pool to turn our water heater back on.  

            Next I would like to cover the cement work.  My cousin and I did my flat work around my house ourselves.  We attached one of the gate posts to the garage wall with slag bolts to avoid burying the post to avoid possible rotting.  When the gate was put back up during the pool construction process, the carpenter put a fence board up as facing on the post that I had bolt to the garage.  This facing was not something I had prior.  A small section of concrete near this gate and post had to be removed for the gas line.  When the cement was poured to replace the cut out section near the gate, the cement workers poured cement around and buried the facing on the gate post causing a bump in what was previously to be flat work.  This could have been very easily avoided by simply cutting back the fence board and inch or two.  In my mind, this was very lazy and poor craftsmanship (refer to photos enclosed). 

            Next I would like to bring up my issue with scheduling my landscaping.  I chose to have a family friend of ours do the landscaping around the pool.  I understand that the pool construction took a fair amount of time and tried to be as patient as I could.  I asked Jason, the supervisor assigned to us by Aqua Pools, sometime in the middle of July to let me know when the backyard would be available for the landscaping company to beginning working around the pool.  Near the end of July beginning of August, the exact dates I am not sure of, Jason told me that a cleaning crew would be coming by to clean up the cement and plaster over splatter on that upcoming Wednesday and after that the backyard would be ready for the landscapers even though the pool was not 100% complete.  On his word, I called the landscape company and told them to come by on that following Monday, 5 days after I was told the backyard would be ready for landscaping.  On Saturday the backyard was still not picked up like I was told it would be on the Wednesday before.  I called Jason and he was unable to give me any answers on why it was not finished besides that he knew I was on the schedule for a clean-up crew that past Wednesday.  So I decided to call Jim Falco, the salesman.  I told him about my dilemma and he told me that I need to be patient because I "did not know how this industry worked."  This made me extremely upset for two reasons.  First, it insults my intelligence, as I worked construction back in my college years and we never missed a scheduled appointment.  Secondly, because it assumes that the construction industry is not bonded by their word and able to not follow up on scheduled events unlike any other industry that I am familiar with.  This upset me.  Also, the fact that I was not called or informed in any way that I was somehow removed from the schedule.  This caused a problem, because I had to call the landscaping company and inform them a mere 1 day prior that I would have to delay the landscape work, because the pool construction company had not delivered on their schedule appointment.  

            Finally, I would like to go over the pool equipment introduction with Jason.  During the 1 hour meeting, we were interrupted no less than 6 times by Jason's phone.  I felt like I did not have his attention as he attempted to show me how to maintain and operate my pool equipment.  Jason did not have enough time to clean the pool filtration system with me.  He told me he wanted to help me clean it for the first time, but said he would have to tell me what to do without actually doing it because he did not have time.  I was only given a cursory review of the pool digital assistant (PDA) and was left to figure it out myself.  I also was not instructed how to change the auto-cleaning function.  Jason said he would set it from midnight to 6am.  Since this, I have been told by others that it is customary to decrease the pool filtration time during the winter.

     I realize that my pool is a small project compared to most of the large pools that Aqua Pools builds, but I feel for spending over $40,000 I deserve better customer service and more attention to details. Megan, please do what you can to make sure this letter gets to Aqua Pools CEO.  I expect and look forward to a prompt reply from Aqua Pools CEO.

Thank you for your time,

JPHamel