On May 18th of this year we contracted with Mirage Pools, Inc. Of Lake Worth, FL for the installation of an inground gunite pool. At the time of signing the contract we were told that the entire process would be
completed in approximately 12 weeks or around Aug. 6th.
The problems first started when Mirage failed to file the building permit applications in a timely manner, and so were not able to actually begin construction until June 29th, pushing the completion date out to
approximately Sept. 21st. What followed was a series of missed promises, failed inspections and outright lies that finally borderd on the ridiculous. At every step along the way we had to call to ask when they were
going to complete the next phase. Usually we were told that it was scheduled for the next day or two but in actuality it was usually 1 to 2 weeks before they finally made it out to perform the work.
As the Sept. 21st date approached it became apparent that there was no way that they could be completed by that date. When we asked about it, Mirage promised to have it completed by the end of Sept. When the end
of Sept. Came and went, we were promised that it would be completed by the end of Oct. Well the end of Oct. Came around and, your guessed it, it still wasn't completed.
While all this was going on, I accepted a new job in Louisville, KY and we moved up here at the end of Sept. Not only have we not been able to put our house up for sale, but my wife has had to make two trips back
to FL just to try to get things moving.
Finally, this week we thought we were finally done. They completed what was supposed to be the final steps and the pool was filled with water. As part of the contract we had specially ordered and paid an extra $2000 for an Autopilot Salt Chlroine Generator. This system is designed to prevent you from having to constantly monitor and adjust the chlorine level of the pool. No extra chlorine should ever have to be added, the
salt system automatically keeps the chlorine at the proper level. Mirage made arrangements for a pool service to come out after the pool was filled to perform the intial setup of the pool (add initial chemicals,
adjust water etc.). The pool service would also provide instruction on the proper care and maintance of the pool (which should have been minimal because of the Autopilot system). Because we no longer live in FL, we made arrangements with one of our former neighbors to meet with the pool service and do the maintenance until we could sell the house. Imagine our suprise when our neighbor called and started talking about how
chlorine needed to be added to the pool and kept at the proper level or our warranty would be void.
This is what the $2000 salt system was supposed
to be for, so chlorine would not have to be used. Upon investigation it was found that the salt system that we paid for was not installed. We have called Mirage several times, trying to get an explanation on this, but the owner is no longer taking or returning our calls.in
addition, we have now had to contract with the pool service company at $50 dollars a month to maintain a pool that was not supposed to require that much maintenance.
So here we are almost 6 months after what was supposed to be a 12 week process and what do we have. A poorly constructed pool (I haven't even got into that part of it). A missing $2000 salt system. A $50 a month
expense for maintenance that shouldn't have to be perfomed. Plus the added expenses of a couple of trips from KY to FL to try to get them to do their jobs and the inablity to list our house during a red hot real
estate market.
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