We contracted with Don Goldstone of Ultimate Water
Creations to build a spa with a waterfall in our backyard. The contract was dated 8/24/05 and specifically states Start Date: 9/15/05 End Date: 12/15/05
When the contract was signed, Don said that 12/15/05
wasa worst case scenario and it was likely it would be
completed sooner. It is now 4/09/06, almost 6 months later! I've attached photos taken today showing the state of our backyard and a photo of the section of the contract with the dates. Take a look at them; they speak volumes!
Nothing has changed from our original design, and all
of Don's invoices were paid instantly. The entire experience has been fraught with frustration. Here are just some of the highlights:
- Our property was not cared for during construction.
We've had to pay to repair items that they damaged.
We were not told our gate and outer wall would be
ripped out so the bobcat could get in. It was, and our back yard had no privacy from the street for 5 months.
We were then charged $650 to rebuild the wall later -
during construction the gate was trampled and ruined
and we've been quoted by a gate company $725 to make a
new gate. Total: $1375 unexpected - Don came to our site, it was obvious before signing the contract the wall would have to come down to fit in the bobcat, yet this was not included in the contract.
- It was Don's suggestion that the filter and heater
go in the garage, and Angela the designer said it would
be very small. The day after installation my car would
no longer fit in the garage. Mike the installer said he
was planning to take up half of the garage for the
equipment, and was blaming me for having trouble
fittingit in! After a week of complaining to both him and Don it was finally re-worked so my car can now barely fit. Again, this was something that should have been completely obvious to Don when he initially surveyed our site.
- As the 12/15/05 date passed, Don would not return
phone calls and made various excuses for the delays, some
included: - If the workers don't need to visit their families in Mexico, maybe I can make them come work during Christmas - The workers already scheduled on another job - He blamed delays on inspectors, however we had a full-time mural painter who saw the inspector come immediately
- We were not told that the waterfall rocks would be a
dark brown color when we chose the flagstone. We
would have preferred to have the flagstone better match the rest of the rockwork.
- We were not told about many extras that were
attempted to be upsold to us later often using fear as a salespitch: shotcrete, what if there's an earthquake? $2000 - new electrical panel, what if the spa makes all
the ower go out in your house? $500 - purification system, this will kill the aids virus if, heaven forbid, it gets into your water, $4000 - Aqualink controller, it will be cold getting out of your spa everytime you want to change a setting, $4000 high-efficiency heater $3000
- Don claimed the high-efficiency heater would heat
the spa faster. He said our standard 400BTU heater would take over an hour to heat the spa in the winter but the High E unit would do it in 30 minutes, while using only 1/2 the gas. I checked the website of the company and it seems this is not true. Both heaters heat in the same amount of time! I'm also not sure how a 95% efficiency heater (the High E one) uses 1/2 the gas as an 82% efficiency heater (the standard one)?
- We were told the jets could be anywhere we want, but
then they came and installed them without asking us. We
wanted a footjet in the bottom of the spa and told Don thatverbally the first day we met with him. Don made the
change but billed us $525, and on the invoice said, "I am NOT adding profit or overhead as a gift to you" = it was his gift to us to fix his own oversite?
- Whenever we went over issues with Angela the
designer, she didn't take any notes. When she finally gets back to you, she often forgets details. Then, it's very difficult to get back in touch with her to get things updated.in the meantime, workers show up on the days you're not around and follow the old plan.
We never received a drawing of what the waterfall
rocks would look like, they just do them when they show up, and you just get whatever they give you. The flagstone wasn't placed like the plans show either.
- The designer Angela told us many things that turned
out to not be true. She seems very reassuring because she tells you anything you want to hear. Sprinkler conduit that she said would be installed was not; in fact she pointed to the water fill conduit and said it was for the sprinklers! She claimed she supervises the waterfall design on site, yet she had nothing to do with that. She said the filter and heater would be so small they could go anywhere, even under a rock (take a look at the photos). She claimed the drain lines were
lighting conduit. She asserted that planters would be
created in the spa that weren't.in Nov & Dec when we said we were frustrated with the delays, Anglea responded with our favorite line: "What's a few weeks of delay compared to a lifetime of happiness"
- Angela also made odd excuses for not returing emails
or phone calls. When asked about an email she said she's having problems with her email. When asked about a voice mail, she said she's having problems with her answering machine. One day she promised to FedEx updated plans to
us, but they didn't show up for 4 days. When we
called her she apologized saying "she was too busy to send them!"
- Currently 4/11/06 we are waiting for the pebbletec
coating to be installed. We've been told that we must be home because they have to fill it up with the hose and we have to turn the hose off. (For some reason the automatic water fill line can't be used.) First we were told it would be done Thu 4/6, then it was to be
Fri 4/7, then Mon 4/10. Today (Sun 4/9) I was told it
might not be until Tuesday 4/11! Tuesday 4/11 they don't show up and promise Wednesday 4/12. Wednesday 4/12 they STILL DID NOT SHOW UP and the GREEN SLUDGE remains!
While the promised dates were: Start Date: 9/15/05
End Date: 12/15/05
Here's what some of the real dates were approximately:
11/2/05 - demolition
12/1/05 - piping
1/14/06 - grating
1/19/06 - masonary
2/20/06 - rock work
3/10/06 - filter installation
3/27/06 - gas line
4/12/06 - still waiting for pebblesheen coating
installation
We still have absolutely no idea why Don would promise
that the job would be done 12/15/05 when no effort whatsoever has been made to keep the job anywhere near that time frame.
please *beware* before doing any business with this firm.
WE HAVE BEEN GREETED BY NOTHING BUT DISHONESTY THROUGHOUT
THE ENTIRE PROCESS. We are now faced with hiring another
contractor to finish our job!
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