I hired Diamond Pools of 26 Hamilton Drive Huntington, CT 06484 to install 1500 square feet of pavers around my existing pool, and John Dubyoski (owner) came with a 4 page contract without references or copies of his licenses which I requested many times. Ignorantly, I signed the contract which had a breakdown of 3 payments... Not realizing 95% of the money was due before a single paver was to be laid. I made the first payment of $11,400.By the time the next payment was due I had neighbors knocking on my door giving me their own nightmare stories regarding Diamond Pools. They had names of others who had huge problems with Diamond Pools. More importantly his employees were telling me they were not getting paid and when they did it was in quarters! We were even asked by his top guy for $300.00. Feeling held hostage or getting a terrible job we gave him the money.
At one point, John did rewrite his contract; "contract adjustment" was the title of the adjustment page that we in turn signed. This adjustment changed the payment plan to 4 payments instead of 3. Delaying at least some of the money until some of the pavers were laid. We wanted to delay the last payment in total but John said he would not continue so we caved and gave him more money. A week after he cashed the check for the 3rd payment and still had not returned to the job, he changed his mind and now wanted the 4th payment before continuing. It became obvious that he never had any intention of actually performing the work as stipulated in the contract and was attempting to lengthen the project in order to force us to fire him. At that point he would have 95% of the money without actually doing anything.
Continually and consistently John (Diamond Pool owner) incorrectly billed us for things he did not do at all or charged us more than once for the same supplies in different bills.in fact a retaining wall that was installed is the wrong color and we found out from his own employee that he used blocks he had from a previous job, which he was fired from. This tells us that he never had any intention of getting the materials of the correct color.
Workmanship is lousy at best. When a patch of pavers were laid they were on a downhill SLOPE not pitch, as he claimed. He claims to be a professional and therefore he should have noticed this right away and made us aware without continuing. And if the pitch to my yard was wrong it should have been brought to my attention when the job was originally proposed to allow for discussion and planning. Isn't part of doing the job properly to level it correctly and follow the code?
We were told the job would take 2 weeks; 2 months later I have my property filled with his equipment, a dump truck, a 25' enclosed tool trailer and a huge bobcat abandoned by the side of my in-ground pool. The yard looks like a war zone! Even before things went sour, he did not show up for over a week when the weather was beautiful.
He looked to get fired by not returning for weeks after having over $20,000 of our money. His contract states that he is not responsible for anything, so he took no effort to protect my driveway, lawn or sprinkler system which were all severely damaged.
One of the most frustrating things is that he knows that along the way things tend change during any project. He then uses those "change orders" to extort more money because he knows that either you pay the ridiculous amounts for materials and labor that he is requesting or he does not do it or does not continue, again holding you and/or the forward progress hostage. When he tried to rob us twice with these methods, we decided it had to end.
This company should not have a license to do anything. He has no regard for his customers, property or safety.
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