We just had our above ground pool liner replaced by JP Pools, LLC from Plainville, CT and after this ordeal of dealing with this Company, I honestly feel like I have been ripped off royally and been treated in a way that no decent business should treat their respected customers. Let me clarify this: our pool liner started leaking last year so we thought it would be a
good time this spring to have it replaced. We get all our pool supplies from Leslie's Pools, so we went there to see how to proceed. Although Leslie's sells the liners, they do not install them and they directed me to JP Pools. LLC of Plainville CT, so I E-mailed this business, and the owner John Paradis stopped over a few days later to discuss the work and give us a quote. I had never been involved in something like this before, so I was not really well aware what was involved. John was quite late for the appointment, but excused himself saying he misjudged the distance from Painville, and he does not come to this area often. This excuse by itself should have raised an initial red flag, but we gave him the benefit of the doubt. Mr. Paradis explained the what would be involved and what options we had and how much he charges. Aside from the installation fee, which was 600, - for our 27' pool, less 50, if we went with a beaded liner, he also recommended to include the floor and wall foam (to insulate the pool and protect the liner), at an extra cost of 500, - total for our pool, less 100 early-order discount, and then 65, - for a new in wall skimmer installed and an additional 45, - for the winterizing kit installed. He guaranteed us that we did not need to get a truck of water (saving us 300, - he claimed) to set the liner if we also got the foam, since the foam allowed him to set the liner easily while city water filling with the hose. After mailing the 500, - required deposit and signed proposal and acceptance form, we agreed on an installation date and time. I stayed home from work that day, and after waiting and calling a few times Mr. Paradis and his son showed up at 3 pm that day, 2 hrs late, and then started to remove the old liner, install the foam and new liner and the skimmer, which all together only took them just about 2 hrs, maybe 2,5 hrs. My wife and I were surprised to see the foam they used, or maybe not really the foam in itself, but rather more what they had charged for it. During installation, I found out that this foam involves a roll of 1/8" vinyl foam that did not seem that expensive to me (I work in the plastics industry myself). For the money that was charged, I was under the impression (mistake from my part apparently) this would be a little more robust, especially since I have now found out (after realizing what it involved) that a 100' rollx48" vinyl liner wall foam like this just cost $42, - on the internet (and they only had to use one roll). I guess the difference is considered as the cost to install it, which took all of 30 minutes maybe, since MR. Paradis just used adhesive tape to stick it to the wall top, and not an adhesion spray which is apparently recommended for this. So it looks like we got charged ~$350, - dollars for these 30 minutes of labor by Mr. Paradis and his son. I also asked him where the winterizing kit was, and apparently that is just a cheap plastic cover on the skimmer and a plug on the pump outlet. I was starting to think now that I was ripped-off on this as well, since we were charged 45, - extra for these 2 minor items than cannot cost more than 5, - each in my view. The plug, he did not have with him he said so he told me he was going to bring that later.
When the installation was done, Mr. Paradis and his son took off for a few hours while the bottom part of the pool was filling, but when they came back, he said that the pool needed to be filled more and he would come back the next day between 10 and noon (since he needed to be in the area anyways), and set the liner and get rid of the wrinkles. After Mr. Paradis had left, I also realized that he had left us with the majority of the clean up, and it took me 30 min after he left to fill 4
trash bags to put in the old liner pieces and left over wall materials. Apparently that clean up was not included in the 2.5 hrs work for the 550 that he charged us to install the liner, and 350 to install the wall foam. The next day at 1pm, he was again late, and my wife called them since she needed to go to a Dr. Appointment at 2pm, but he was still not there when she left at 1:15. Mr. Paradis called me at work at 1:45 pm to ask me if anyone was home, and if he could take a credit card number to pay for the balance, which was 560, -. Since I knew that this was not long after my wife had left, I asked him if he was going to finish the job, and he said that all was set and he had been at the house since 1:30 and also installed the filter inlet connection on the wall. I asked him to send me the final bill and I would send him a check if the work was done to satisfaction, but the reply to that was that he does not send out any bills. Since he called me at 1:45 and stated he had been there since 1:30, I realized he had just been there 15 min so now I started to be a little weary, so I said I would send the final check if I found the work OK. He then said he needed to get some more wrinkles out and was going to do that before he left. 15 min later Mr. Paradis calls me back and says 'his feet are freezing' and he needs to get some boots at Home Depot and then go do another job, and he would be back in 4-5 hrs, which I said OK to (was thinking "what is up with that, this guy installs pools but does not even have boots"?). I suspected that this was just an excuse for him to come back and get his check, but it would give me the opportunity to at least see the final work that night. 4-5 hrs later, which now is 6-7 pm, no Mr. Paradis, but I decided to wait until dark for him before we would start dinner. At 8:30, no one had shown up and it was too dark anyways now to even see the pool in the back yard, so I assumed Mr. Paradis was held up and probably would show up the next day, so we start cooking a delayed dinner, during which at 9 pm Mr. Paradis (with boots on) shows up, and argues that he can easily do this in the dark, which I question, but then he argues that he is only an hour late (? - strange time calculus) and he did save us all this money with not asking us too get a truck of water to set the pool the same day...? By this time, I realize that this guy is full of it and is just interested in getting his money rather than finishing the job and give us adequate service for our hard earned money that we need to pay him, so I tell him that I prefer him to come back later so I and him can see out there, but Mr. Paradis tells me that he will not be in the area for a while and water already in the pool will turn green by then... So more excuses from him in an attempt to get his final check I believe, so I tell him to leave and come back. The next day, we do find that there are still quite a few wrinkles left in the liner in the bottom part of the pool, and late in the afternoon, my wife leaves him a frustrated message saying that if this will not be fixed soon we will not pay and seek legal actions. About an hr later Mr. Paradis calls us back and tells us he will be at the house in about 45 min. About this time later (first time he shows up on the promised time), he shows up with 2 other guys and they do get rid of most of the wrinkles (still a few left though), which took them about 30 min. He states that he could come over since he was in the Springfield area anyways, and he says that he could have done this the night before even when it was dark, since he knew where the wrinkles were and can feel his way around...??? This just confirmed my previous suspicion that this guy is full of excuses, and just was after his money the day before. My wife dealt with him now, since I was so frustrated with this guy by now, and was afraid I would loose my temper if I heard more of his excuses and statements. After they were done, he asked for his final payment again, and tells my wife that it is in the contract that payment is due at completion of the job (just read all the fine prints: it does indeed state 'balance paid in full on installation day', so my bad for not catching that unusual clause apparently). My wife also asks him about the wall inlet plug of the so called 'winterizing kit' that is still missing, but he then states that this
is just a $5, - item so we can hold back 5, - (on the total of 1060, -), and he will mail it to us. Luckily I had stayed away from this person now, because this was the traditional drop in the bucket (or should I say pool) that made me decide not to just leave this issue. Again this confirmed to me that this guy is full of excuses, and that we were overall ripped off, as he now has confirmed to me also that he charged 45, - for two 5, - items... We finally gave him his so desired check, and just
decide that we lick our wounds and move on, but buyer beware of this so called pool service company. Do your homework before you decide to hire these people, and get a few competitive quotes I would recommend. Maybe you will not only save some money, but also a lot of aggravation and poor customer service frustration!
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