Let me start with the one positive aspect of my experience. "The Sales Process". It was conducted quite professionally. The salesperson arrived on time for our appointments. He was knowledgeable and informative regarding the pool building process and presented a well prepared marketing brochure, and also was very attentive to our requests. We agreed on a design and price and signed a contract and were pleased to get started on our backyard retreat which turns out that was the last enjoyable moment of this unending, painful adventure.
It's been 16 month's since the day of signing and Blue Haven has yet to file accurate plans with the City Building department even though the pool does have water and is usable but totally unacceptable when compared to the high standards presented during the sales ride. At the moment the plans are supposedly still being redrawn and corrected by the architect yet no one in the organization is capable of communicating a date they will be finished and filed, which by the way is the norm for every step of the process.
I've also been advised that the local Blue Haven office has a reputation of often not completing the Inspection Finals which leaves me quite concerned.
During the building process I learned that the organization really has little to no organization and that if you expect construction to move along you must get heavily involved and consistently attempt to get Blue Haven's attention by contacting all possible levels of management starting with the salesman, the regional manger, and finally the National Customer Care line (which at first turned out to be an 800 number routed to the local office, until I was able to ferret out the real one located in San Diego and now Dallas, not that either had much effect).
To this day even after speaking with the National office several times all that has been offered is lip service and no known action to correct anything or to address a serious issue regarding additional charges falsely incurred.
All the work performed is by sub-contractors with little to no Blue Haven supervision or follow-up. It appears that someone at the local office has a list of steps and then schedules the work assuming the subs will show up and perform the work correctly which often is not the case.
For example, the steel was moved 3 times before being positioned correctly. It was actually even completely removed once and rebuilt from ground up. Plumbing also was missed and I had to contact the office repeatedly before anyone would come out and look and then after that the missing line was quickly and sloppily installed. The electrician left an outdoor plug non-functional and took several months before being able to get the pool light working and the work was not done as agreed. I have numerous other comments but let me wrap up the workmanship issues by just noting that each step on the checklist ended with issues of which some are yet to be resolved.
Beyond the shoddy workmanship during the construction let me also mention the damages, debris, and lack of respect to your personal property you can expect during the process. Anything on your property is subject to damage, be prepared to have gunite sprayed on anything (house, trees, bushes, etc) within several yards of the pool, the street will be damaged with cuts and gashes in the asphalt and also will be badly stained from leaking oil from the equipment and chemicals spilled, trash (drink containers, food wrappers, cigarette butts, etc..) and construction materials will be left scattered all around and do not completely get removed during the final pickup
In conclusion, if I ever have to contract a pool builder or recommend one in the future you can rest assured it will NOT be Blue Haven Pools especially the incompetent, unprofessional, disrespectful, discourteous, deceitful, and unresponsive staff in the offices located in South Florida.
David
Coral Springs, Florida
U.S.A.
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