Complaint Review: Pool doctor Staten Island - Staten Island New York

The Pool Doctor Contractors is located in Staten Island and is family owned & operated.

With almost two decades of experience and numerous industry builder awards, Pool Doctor has been Staten Island’s leading pool builder.

We are a full service company servicing Staten Island and surrounding areas, including Brooklyn. 

Our services in Staten Island include new pool construction of inground pools (gunite, vinyl liner or fiberglass), above ground pools & semi-inground pools, renovation of existing pools, excavation, weekly maintenance, and liner replacements.

We specialize in gunite as well as steel wall vinyl liner pools. Our knowledgeable staff is committed to providing our customers with unmatched workmanship and service. We believe the best way to build a lifelong customer is to do the job right from the start. We also provide openings and closings, warranty and non warranty heater and filter repairs, safety covers and child safety fences.

From start to finish, Pool Doctor is there for you.

Beginning with site surveying and design, through excavation, to building and completion of your new pool and backyard project, Pool Doctor Employees are on the job. Being one of the few pool companies that own excavating equipment, we can offer the hands on expertise and experience you deserve.

Using only the highest quality materials and the latest technologies, we assure your new pool or backyard project will bring you years of enjoyment.

We stand behind all of our work and guarantee that your pool will be built in a timely manner and we will exceed your expectations!  www.pooldoctorsi.com

We are accredited and recognized by the Better Business Bureau

 http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/business-reviews/swimming-pool-contractors-dealers-design/the-pool-doctor-contractors-in-staten-island-ny-96810/#bbbonlineclick

Our Home Improvement Contracting License # is 1272807

Below is our response to this complaint posted on rip off report.  We have all proof of service, contact and service provided to this former customer negating all of what she claims. 

Customer, Ishita Ganguly, hired us March 2013 to renovate her pool and spa and paid in full for the completed services she hired us for (approx $60K).   After completion of this renovation of her pool and spa Mrs. Ganguly hired us to maintain her pool weekly by joining our weekly maintenance program.  We did this successfully for the remainder of the year until mid November. 

To address the point that she was ignored after last payment of the renovation - how can this be when the renovation was completed on April 17th, 2013 and we were there weekly maintaining her pool, addressing all issues if they came up, and developing a relationship with the customer until November 11, 2013 when she then hired us to install her custom cover which we measured and successfully installed for her pool when winterizing it.   We even maintained her spa until February 26, 2014 for use during the winter.  I have work orders for all visits and notes on what we performed throughout this time. 

When Mrs. Ganguly emailed at the beginning of this pool season on April 14th, 2014 to schedule an opening appointment for her pool I got her on the schedule as soon as we had availability in our busy season schedule.  The appointment given was 9 days later on April 23rd, 2014 and she was emailed back a confirmation of the date and a contract for the same maintenance service she used last year for the upcoming season. 

She cancelled the appointment a few days later saying we were going to take too long for her.  We try to accommodate all of our customers date preferences but during our busiest 2 months of pool openings it is sometimes hard to make everyone happy and give them an appointment right away, we did our best to accommodate.  Subsequently Ms. Ganguly emailed us on May 6th to which I responded a day later to her request for a one time cleaning.  Her email read "My pool is open but I need someone to come and do a cleaning.  I need a onetime cleaning and I need a day Mike can come and explain how to use the pool.  Please let me know when this is possible and how much you will charge, again I need a onetime cleaning."

I responded the following day that a onetime cleaning/maintenance of her pool /spa would be $200 and we can train her on the functionality of the pool at that time if she was still unsure how things functioned.  The appointment was given to her 2 days later on May 9th, 2014.  She confirmed by email the day before her appointment saying she would pay $200 in cash and thanked me.  We would have explained to her at anytime in the 8 months after her renovation was complete and we were there on a weekly basis, but the customer expressed no interest, but only chose to enjoy her perfectly maintained pool throughout the summer.  The $200 charge was for the cleaning service only not the training information, which after so much time other companies probably, would have charged a fee. 

There is no Craig at the Pool Doctor, and the technician that did go to service her pool on this day is experienced and very knowledgeable.  He serviced her pool and spa last year many times and was familiar with the functionality of the entire complex pool system.  Upon his arrival, the pool water appeared green and had leaves & debris on the bottom.  He performed the job he was hired to do and fully vacuumed and brushed down the pool.  The customer was upset and became irate when she was explained that since the water had already turned green it would take a few days to clear up and she would have to balance the chemicals daily and carefully care for the pool to clear it up.  He tried to explain the functionality of her pool to her and how to properly care for it throughout the season and the customer became increasingly more agitated when she realized the amount of work it would take to maintain it.  She couldn't understand how the technician was unable to clear up the water before he left her property.  The fact of pool care is when the water has already turned green or is cloudy it has to be cared for daily by balancing chemicals, vacuuming, brushing walls and letting the filter work out all of the tiny particles in the water. It can be a few day process depending on the specific situation.   He again tried to explain the chemistry of pool water and this but the customer’s mood elevated so he started to bring the appointment to an end. 

Ms. Ganguly contacted me at the office in a panic and was screaming and cursing at me.  The technician was instructed at this time by me to leave her property due to her erratic behavior.  She was calling us both unimaginable names, threatening to sue us and the company and screaming profanity that made it impossible for me to speak and explain. When she finally calmed enough for me to speak I explained again the service, our procedures and the reality that the pool could not, by anyone, be cleared up in an instant.  She said if the pool was not cleared up today she would "ruin us and our company". 

I tried to give her different options for us to try to help her with the maintenance of her pool and getting it cleared up and ready for the season but she made it impossible to speak.

Her behavior was unacceptable and I stand by our companies’ customer service and expertise.  We went above and beyond for this customer from day one of our business relationship and the way she behaved and threatened makes us believe it is better to not have her as a customer anymore.  Her complaint is false, her dates are not accurate, names and monies paid are not correct and the complaint contradicts itself.  She has no proof of negligence as it never occurred and again she enjoyed her perfectly running pool for many months after completion.  She has no proof services and installation was not performed or delayed in any way because that was NOT the case but we do have proof and receipts of all services provided and completed to prove quite the opposite.  Prior to customer using a different company for the opening of her pool, for the duration of our services being provided, her pool was problem free.

Ishita Ganguly is trying to ruin our hard earned reputation throughout our 20 years of business.  If you research her name you will see that lies and fraud are her way of trying to get ahead.  Following is an article from the Staten Island Advance regarding her fraudulent activity: 

{Guilty plea for S.I. woman accused of bilking hip-hop producer and others

 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Huguenot woman pledged to invest her deep-pocketed clients' cash in projects designed to promote humanitarian, social and economic development and reap them handsome returns.  Instead, Ishita Ganguly left them high and dry, siphoning off at least $2.5 million while treating herself to $300,000 in jewelry and buying a multimillion-dollar waterfront mansion on Nicolosi Drive, prosecutors said.  Now Ms. Ganguly's free-spending days are over - but not her legal woes - with her recent guilty plea in Manhattan federal court to securities fraud, court records show. Ms. Ganguly also has a civil lawsuit pending in Brooklyn federal court. Two well-off clients -- platinum-selling hip-hop producer and artist Kevin Rudolf, who's worked with Justin Timberlake, the Black Eyed Peas and Lil Wayne, and retired Michigan businessman James Campbell -- each allege she bilked them of more than $1 million. They seek return of their cash plus unspecified monetary damages. According to the criminal complaint, Ms. Ganguly, 33, contacted her marks in April and May of 2012. She allegedly identified herself as managing director of Astute Partners (BVI) Ltd., an entity based in the United Kingdom and registered in the British Virgin Islands. She said she was seeking clients for an invitation-only, capital-leverage program, said the civil complaint. Ms. Ganguly told Rudolf and Campbell her firm was part of a larger partnership between several prominent multinational banks and intergovernmental organizations seeking to generate cash for charitable, humanitarian and economic projects in the developing world, said civil suit filings. She explained the banks kept such opportunities confidential, and, as a result, she was positioned to offer them returns "unavailable anywhere else in the finance industry," civil filings state. Moreover, she allegedly assured Rudolf and Campbell they assumed no risk and that even in a worst-case scenario, they'd recover their $1 million investment.  According to documents in the criminal case, Ms. Ganguly told her clients they'd receive a $10 million return on their investment "after roughly 21 banking days."  They never got a cent, court records allege.  In late May 2012, Ms. Ganguly ceased all communication with Rudolf and Campbell, said court papers.  The investors subsequently received e-mails from Paul D. Phillips, identified in court records as Astute's London-based chief executive officer, court records said.  In one exchange in late June, Phillips told them their initial investments would be returned in a few days, said court papers.  But Rudolf and Campbell never got their money back despite that promise, court records said.  Ms. Ganguly, however, allegedly prospered.  Fueled by her clients' cash, she lavished herself with $300,000 worth of jewelry and also bought a spacious multimillion-dollar beachfront mansion in August 2012, court documents allege.  The civil filings contend the property cost $2.2 million; however, records on file at the Richmond County Clerk's office list the purchase price as $2.45 million.  Those documents also identify the buyer as a corporation known as 151 Nicolosi LLC. Online records of the New York Department of State reveal the firm was incorporated on Aug. 8, 2012, on Staten Island. There is no registered agent.  The property hasn't turned out to be a profitable investment.  Its estimated market value for the 2014-15 tax year is $1.17 million, according to online city Finance Department records.  Ms. Ganguly will be sentenced Jan. 16 in the criminal case.  Her criminal defense lawyer, Thomas A. Tormey Jr., said he and prosecutors are discussing possible sentences. He declined further comment.  The office of Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is prosecuting the case. 

http://www.silive.com/southshore/index.ssf/2014/10/post_41.html  }

We have addressed the same complaint she filed with the BBB, with whom we are accredited with and have an A+rating.  Any contact with this customer is undesired after the way she treated me, my technician and our company.  All manuals for equipment installed at her home can be found online and she was given a tutorial already despite the fact that she still doesn't understand.  We cannot give her a refund of services not performed because she has only paid for services we have completed.  In fact she has not paid for the one time cleaning that we did complete for over 2 hours on the day this complaint was filed. 

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