Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  12/14/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  What is disturbing about this complaint is I see another that is almost identical to our issue, that was filed back in June of 2024. We employed Five Star Custom Pools, ***** *******, in July of 2024. We are 24 weeks in & after months of excuses for going weeks without showing up, saying they will be here then not showing up, assuring us that things would be finished by a specific date & then it's not, telling us to "trust" they will do what they said they would do, never once cleaning up after the mess' they have left & property they have destroyed, he/***** tells us he doesn't have the money to finish the job & is blaming his *******, who he told us is "his guy". We have multiple times asked ***** to come out to our home to see the lack of progress & condition of the job & he has not. It was either I'm on vacation or ignoring the request. He hasn't been here to check on the lack of work in months. Our side yard, that he assured us would have no damage is an absolute disaster. We worked together prior to starting to come up with a plan so the side yard would not get ruined & his workers threw our gate & fencing on the plants & have left it a complete disaster. We gave him money last month for decking, concrete & artificial turf that was never installed. First he said it's in the warehouse, then when asked again where the materials are & letting him know we want them brought to the property suddenly he's blaming his *******/"his guy" for stealing it. It's one lie & broken promise after another. Now he's saying he cannot finish our job (I wish I could upload photos so you could see how our yard has been left) as he's out of money & has been stolen from. They cut our electrical running to the *** area & didn't cap it, left holes all over the yard... I could go on and on with so much more but I'm running out of space to type & the bottom line is we were scammed & lied to & it appears as though this is how he works. And his response will be ALL LIES.  

• Initial Complaint

  12/12/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I am filing this complaint against ***** ******* and Five Star Custom Pools. We signed a contract with Five Star Custom Pools more than a year ago for a pool in our backyard. The contract required paying them ahead of each phase of the construction which we have fully complied with, providing ***** *******, the owner of Five Star Custom Pools with payments made out to Five Star Custom Pools totaling approximately $90,000. He failed to meet any of the contract deadlines, and consistently and without communication delayed construction routinely. We are still waiting for the pool equipment and plumbing to be completed, which were paid for in January 2024! Mr. ******* repeatedly reneged on sending a qualified plumber and providing the missing equipment to complete the plumbing phase. His ******* looked at the equipment recently and concurred that equipment is missing and other items are not connected as they should be. Mr. ******* has now stopped taking our calls or responding to text messages. He does not call back when messages are left at Five Star Custom Pools. The final phase (pebbling the pool and spa) and cleaning up the area also remain incomplete. We were informed today by another party that he has moved his business to another location in ********* that he has not disclosed to us. I am aware of other homeowners who are experiencing similar issues with Mr. ******* and may have contacted you. There are complaints like mine on ****** Reviews and Yelp for Five Star Custom Pools. It is laughable that they have an A+ rating with the BBB.I want Five Star Custom Pools to complete the job (as identified above) no later than 12/31/2024 to our satisfaction. We will have their work evaluated by a licensed plumber and pool expert once it has been "completed".

• Initial Complaint

  12/10/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Five Star Custom Pools failed to complete our Pool and ran off with the money that we paid them. The contractor ***** ******* had us pay for everything upfront and had us make some checks out to him personally. The pool started in March and our backyard is a mess with no end in sight. The only thing he completed was a small section of a wall, the dig and gunite. ***** has failed to speak with us choosing to only text and provided us a contact to speak with. ***** how now also fired that contact and blamed that person for the failure in completion and time. Five Star Custom Pools and Jason ******* should not be able to conduct business as all of these items are a breech of contract and I believe their is fraud that is criminal.  

• Initial Complaint

  06/17/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We contracted Five Star Custom Pools to a build a pool in the back yard with the contract stating it would take 7-8 weeks to complete along with verbal statement by the contractor of this approximate time frame. The contract was signed on 11/15/23 and work starting on 12/27/23. We are now on the 25th week of this project on 06/17/24 and it is only about 60 - 70% complete. Weeks and months go by without any work getting done on the pool with one excuse after the other as to why no work is getting done. I have paid over 90% of the total to the contractor at $104,000 and the work has come to a standstill. All the permits are current and the weather has been good for many weeks so this is not an excuse for delays. This contractor has gone way beyond the reasonable amount of time to complete this pool so I'm reaching out to this agency for assistance on getting this contractor to complete the project in a timely manner or I will have to hire another contractor to complete the project and would need to seek monetary compensation from the current contractor.

  Business response

  07/24/2024

  This client asked us to start his project as soon as possible in December of 2023 and we
  warned Him that with the heaviest rain season we were having in a long time that it
  wasnt advisable to start right away but he wanted us to because he wanted to save money
  on the dig as they hadnt built any new homes yet next to his property so we could get our
  big excavator in there to save costs for him so we went ahead with it.
  Then as you know this spring we had many many wet days and was a scheduling nightmare
  for all companies in our industry and we communicated this to him as often as we saw fit.
  Then as weather started clearing and we were working on the project we hit many
  roadblocks as the customer changed pool decking style, tile and coping styles which causes
  a time delay because of back ordered materials.
  
  Thats Being said we are moving along and almost complete with the project, we have to
  plant some shrubs he bought, set the equipment and plaster the pool and then we can close
  out the project. When items are backordered and we have to move him out of the schedule
  , it causes scheduling issues because we cant schedule him until its in stock and then once
  we do that we have other scheduling commitments to meet so we have to squeeze him in or
  else we have other clients very mad as well.
  
  His pool is almost finished I would say another two weeks to completion and it is going to
  look amazing.

  Customer response

  07/24/2024

  I am rejecting this response because:
  It has now been 7 months since the dig on the pool began back in December 2023. Rain cannot be accepted as an excuse now as it has been many months without rain and hardly any work has been done since April which was when the concrete decking was done around the pool. The concrete decking around the pool was not an alteration but exactly what I had talked to the contractor about since the beginning. This was done in 1 week back in April. The only alteration that I made was to raise the deep end of the pool by 1 foot with gunite which was done back in February. The contractor has been stating for months now that they will show up to complete the pool plaster and install the equipment which is a lie as they never show up when they say they will. At this point I have no idea when this pool will be completed as they just keep giving me one excuse after the other and have proven to be very unreliable. The contract stated 7-8 weeks to complete the project and its now been 28 weeks or 7 months with no end in sight for the project to be completed as the pool sits idle without any significant progress for months on end. The pool is sitting unfinished in pretty much in the same state as it has been since April with no plaster in the pool or any equipment installed. 

  
  

  Business response

  07/25/2024

  I understand the customers point of view but he needs to understand when there are changes made in projects like raising the pool depth after Gunite is shot already, tile changes on the spillway, coping was ordered and then was backordered and we kept getting run around from our distributor and finally we had customer choose another choice which we ordered , then the customer asked us to install the coping different then we originally planned so we had to use double the amount then accounted for because we had to make a lot more cuts and use more material then originally ordered then that second order had a delay by distributor, now only thing left is planting some shrubs and setting equipment and then plaster pool. 
  

  When we have a certain schedule set for a client and then we veer of the original schedule due to many changes it causes delays that are uncontrollable. Imagine if this customer was one of the other clients that had a pre set schedule and then was told that their schedule is delayed because another client decided to make changes and we had to go back and do the other clients job and then would get back to their job. I would have every customer emailing the bbb complaining , so the way we handle these situations that we feel is the most fair is that we keep everyone elses schedule as planned and we squeeze the customer who had self induced changes to the scope of work as time permits. I know its frustrating and I get that , and I have guys working overtime to get their equipment installed this week so we can plaster next week.

  Very sorry about delays but its just something that occurs when scope of work changes like it did in this project unfortunately. I promise you will love the finished product as you can tell the quality of the work is not compromised at all

   

   

  Customer response

  07/31/2024

  I am rejecting this response because:

  As of this on 07/31/24 Five Star Custom Pool has not made any progress on the pool or made any attempt to schedule further work. It sits unfinished and unusable with plaster not done, equipment not installed, and no landscaping done. I've been having to hand water my trees and shrubs in the back yard for months now so that they don't die as the drip lines were cut and pulled out when the dig began and they have not made any attempt to connect them back up. It's now been 7 months since the project began back on 12/28/23 and was told that this would be a 6-8 week project. This is not a big or complicated pool build being a rectangular 15'x23' in size including the spa and 5' depth on the deep end. Five Star Custom Pools is attempting to pin the blame on me for the delays because of changes that I have been making which is simply not true. The only change order that I made was raising the deep end of the pool with gunite by about 1 foot which was completed back in February. They are claiming that I changed the coping choice for the spa which is also untrue as I had that picked out in April and it was not done back then. They asked me to pick out a different coping in May and then again in June and proceeded to install a different coping than what we had agreed to which was supposed to be a wider coping so as not to have visible seams present along the surface. They ended up bringing out and installing a narrower coping than what we had agreed to which did require visible seams along the surface and I ended up agreeing to this so as not to have any further delays. Ongoing delays is exactly what we have though and the coping on the spa isn't even completed on one side albeit only missing a couple of pieces that would not be in the way of work continuing on the pool. At this point this feels like a scam as I have not received what I paid for having paid 95% of the total cost of the project and being left with an unusable and unfinished pool after 7 months of waiting. The contractor keeps claiming that they'll show up in the week to continue the work and even claiming that they have the material ready on the truck or sitting in their warehouse ready to go but no one ever shows up.

  
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩