Reflections Pools
Ernie Grenz ripoff Obtaining money under false pretenses Will not meet their contractual obligations

Steer clear of Reflections Pools and it's owner Mr. Ernest Grenz

We signed a contract with Reflections Pools on Oct 23 following the on site visit by the owner, Ernest Grenz some two weeks earlier. We had verbally accepted his bid and had made an appointment for him to pick up a deposit check and sign the contract on October 17. He failed to keep that appointment, and in spite of several calls, he did not return my calls until Oct 21 when he claimed he did not know how to access the message feature of his phone. That should have been the first red flag as even if that were true, the fact is that he missed the appointment.

He had told us at the time of the site visit that completion would be 6-8 wks. On signing the contract he told us 8-10 wks, which was still acceptable, as it would still allow me to finish up the landscaping before the weather turned warm.

The excavation was scheduled for Nov 3 and Mr. Grenz was to meet with the digging crew and me at 8 A.M. To mark out the exact location. The digging crew showed up but Mr. Grenz did not. We all hung around for 2 hours trying to phone him and expecting him to show any minute. Finally the crew foreman got through to him and he told him that he had forgotten. I reached him shortly after that and was given a different reason. The crew loaded their equipment back up and departed. Mr. Grenz called the next day to say he would be out later that day to mark out the pool outline. When I returned home there was a paint outline on the ground, the only thing was that it was some 5' from where it should have been. I phoned Mr. Grenz and pointed that out. He flew into a rage and claimed it was laid out exactly according to plan, which it most definitely was not.

Another excavation date had been scheduled for Nov 6 and Mr. Grenz did in fact show up along with his assistant early that morning. We both had a copy of the plan, and he had to agree that the position was wrong. He stated that repainting it was no problem at this stage as nothing had been dug. Why he could not have reached the same decision earlier instead of yelling at me, I don't know. I guess when he realized that the mistake was his, it became easier to take care of. They spent around 20 minutes remarking the ground and had it finished before the excavator arrived and completed the dig according to plan. The electrical and plumbing work was scheduled for Nov 17, which Mr. Grenz was going to do personally along with his assistant.

He did not show up on that day, but called me two days later to say there had been a delay, but he would be over the next day. Of course, he wasn't. I called him and he told me definitely the following Monday. We did not hear anything until the following Wed, when I called me from a parts store to ask if what kind of filter system I wanted. Earlier he had already claimed that it was on backorder and was therefore causing a delay in the scheduling. He obviously had forgotten that, but I let it go. He called me again the following Friday, Nov 28th to say that he couldn't make it, but things would resume the next Monday.

Finally on Monday, they started. The next day when I came home I saw that the filter equipment had been sited immediately in front of a bedroom window, two inched from the glass and dead center. I thought it had just been dumped while they worked on something else. However, when I went outside I noticed it had been placed on a concrete support and a trench had been dug in front of it for the pipes to lead into it. I called Mr. Grenz, who was very hostile and argumentative, telling me that it was sited correctly and was again according to the plan. I told him to get his plan out and take a look, as it should have been sited to the side of the window and not bang in front of it. He told me that I had told him that I did not use that particular bedroom, and that that is where they always put them. I insisted that it be moved, and he got really mad.in a later phone call he admitted that it was not shown on the plan that way and because it had not been actually plumbed in could be moved to where I wanted it. Again, why could he have not agreed to this when I first called him, even if I was at fault, which in this case, I was not.

The rebar crew came on Dec 9th, and finished that stage in a couple of hours. The next day Mr. Grenz called for another check per the contract prior to starting the gunite. He told me that it was scheduled for Dec 15. I gave him a check on that understanding and told him no more delays, and excuses. Needless to say, no one showed up on Dec 15 nor the day following. I called Mr. Grenz on Dec 16 and asked what was happening. He told me he had been thinking things over and had decided it would be better to build the retaining wall to the pool, before the shotcrete. I called the county building department and was told that there was no record of a pool permit having been applied for. I had called them about this a couple of weeks before and was told the same thing and had spoken to Mr. Grenz about it who assured me that the county were mistaken and that I must have got through to the wrong person, but that he would get onto it immediately.

The retaining wall was finally started on Dec 26, but it was in the wrong place and not positioned according to plan making it too close to the pool edge for accessibility. I called Mr. Grenz, whose reaction was, What do you expect me to do about it He agreed to meet with me on site at 7 am the following Monday, Dec 29th but once again did not show up. On Jan 2 I called the county building permit dept to see how things were going and once again was told that as of then they did not even have an application on file. I called Mr. Grenz whose reaction was that I was out of line by calling the County. He did agree to meet with me on Jan 5th. He again did not come, but this time at least phoned me to say he could not make it. The following day someone went to the site and threw a few shovelfuls of dirt to fill in a gap behind the new retaining wall, and at the same time managed to dig up three mature bushes and vandalized a fourth. None of these were related to the work in hand, nor were they in any one's way.

I filed a complaint with the State Registrar of Contractors at that time. While in their office I noticed that one of their other victims (or customers as Reflections Pools would call them) was not very far from my house. I paid them a visit and learned that the treatment they had received at the hands of Mr. Grenz was very similar to my experience, i.E., non of the work was ever finished when scheduled, they took their money and did nothing for weeks, and told lies and made excuses and were yelled at whenever they had questions. They had ordered on August 10 and had like me been told that it would take 6-8 weeks to complete. So far they were five months into it and had not had the plaster
nor equipment they had already paid for.

The following day, Mr. Grenz called me with a completely different attitude and promised that he would change his business attitude and would apply for a permit immediately, and have everything finished by the end of January if I would withdraw the complaint, and what's more he signed a document to that effect. I really believed that he had a change of attitude and as all I wanted was for him to do what he had contracted for, I withdrew my complaint. The following day he called and told me that he had applied for a permit, and that the County had mislaid all the other applications he had put in, but would see to it that this one would be processed. I called the County and this time they confirmed that a permit application had in fact been made that day.

As far as the wall in the wrong place, Mr. Grenz agreed to have extra rebar where the pool came close to the wall, and to build some decking kind of into the pool where there was not sufficient walk space. The rebar was done a few days later, and repairs made to the plumbing where the wall guy had cut it to make room for the wall in the wrong place.

On Jan 22 the Gunite was scheduled for the 24th, and was actually done then. I began to think that things were happening, as they should, finally. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case as, after that, we were back to missed appointments, excuses and delays. Plastering was scheduled for March 9, but it did not happen. Mr. Grenz told me the crew was very busy and could not come for another week. The real reason that the plaster crew did not come was because Mr. Grenz did not show up to pay them. I wrote to him suggesting that in view of the unreliability of these particular subs, it would be a good idea if he booked another firm tentatively just in case they let us down again. I think he knew that I knew why they really did not come. The following week we actually did get another plaster firm out and that part was finished. I had a visit from Mr. Green's new business partner who told me everything would be finished the following week, including access and lot tidy up, salt water system, cleaning system, replanting of destroyed plants.

They were going to come up with a Bobcat, but would know after the weekend which day they would be coming, and would call me on Monday to let me know, as I wanted to be there. He asked for the final payment check. Under the contract I was obligated to give it to him, which I did. It sure would be nice if these contractors felt obligated to do the work they agreed to do and were paid for!

Monday came and no call! My calls were not returned. I got through to Mr. Grenz the following day, and he had his partner call me back to tell me everything was scheduled for Mar 25 at 9 A.M. This person called me on that day at 9.40 to tell me he was delayed but would be coming at 10. At least he called, so I was encouraged that at last things were happening. He arrived on his own at 11.20 with just a backwash hose, and the excuse that Mr. Grenz was working on the problem. I was pretty annoyed, as I had taken the day off work, apparently just to take delivery of a $10 plastic hose!

Following that, I re-filed my complaint with the Registrar once more. I am hoping that they will issue a completion order and if Reflections Pools ignore it I can them make a claim against the State Recovery fund. This time I will not be withdrawing it.

I have since come across another victim whose pool was started last July and still is not finished.

I would not be surprised if Mr. Grenz starts up another company with his new partner, Nathaniel who claims he already has an established pool service company. I think he called it Desert Sun out of Scottsdale. The lengths this guy will go to to avoid his contractual obligations is just unbelievable. The bottom line is don't be fooled that just because a company has a license that it's o.K. Not all complaints appear on the ROC web page, you have to go into the office and ask to see the record.

Company: Reflections Pools
Country: USA
State: Arizona
City: Gilbert
Address: 213 E. Vaughan Ave, Gilbert, AZ 85234
Phone: 6027100676

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