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Complaint Details
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Initial Complaint
08/07/2022
- Complaint Type:
- Customer Service Issues
- Status:
- Answered
Lightning Pools installed a pool with final finish installed in August of 2021. The installation took double of time and issues. Site manager left the company during installation, then start up guy left as well. Right away we identified that pool finish was incredibly rough. We have everything documented in many emails. Kids are getting cuts from the finish often. We have pictures and witnesses of this fact. I have engaged StoneScapes for their 10 year warranty ON mini pebble finish as well. The representative that inspected agreed that finish is bad and should not as rough. On July 28, 2022, owner, Chip finally after months and months shows up to fix a bad StoneScape mini pebble finish. He drained my pool without pulling a ground water plug, fixed some small percentage of the issue at best... The assistant and him worked for an hour sharing a single little handheld 3/ 3.5 inch disk polisher and called me to inspect and then got upset when I said that hardly anything is fixed, proceeded to tell me how I am unreasonable, how they will not do anything else and pool is beautiful and I quote "not that bad" in rough parts. My kids have cuts from the finish bc the shells and stones stick out so much and if you hit a sharp corner with wet, water saturated skin CUTS & SCRAPES HAPPEN. They are small cuts and scrapes but there is BLOOD!! THIS is after we tried to fix it underwater and sanded each area they tell me cuts have happened. Cuts are mostly on their feet an toes, but fingers as well and my niece got a cut on her wrist. He tried to tell me that THIS IS NORMAL! ITS what you expect of mini pebble finish & kids he said. They basically drained my pool without real plan to fix it nor intent. Draining the pool cost 100s of dollars in water and chemicals. We then engaged his sub contractor/installer to come and do more polishing for a fee, he charged us $500 without doing much of improvements on the finish or the bad area that by the pool skimmer.
Business response
08/25/2022
Contact Name and Title: *********************, Owner
Contact Phone: ************
Contact Email: ******************************************************
Lightning Pools and Pavers completed this project during the very difficult pandemic when it took extra time to complete any project due to lack of materials.
The pool finisher, Top Notch Pool and Spa Renovation, installed the surface and came back to polish some spots the Alicics felt were too rough.
Lightning Pools returned in late August 2022, drained the pool and polish with a mechanical polisher all surfaces marked off by the Alicics. Several days later they paid Top Notch to do more polishing on their own request.
The Alicics have not paid in full for the pool work.
The pool finish is within industry standards. I have looked at the pool and it is beautiful.
*********************, OwnerBusiness response
08/31/2022
Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2022/08/25) */ Contact Name and Title: Chip P., Owner Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX Contact Email: **************@verizon.net Lightning Pools and Pavers completed this project during the very difficult pandemic when it took extra time to complete any project due to lack of materials. The pool finisher, Top Notch Pool and Spa Renovation, installed the surface and came back to polish some spots the ******* felt were too rough. Lightning Pools returned in late August 2022, drained the pool and polish with a mechanical polisher all surfaces marked off by the *******. Several days later they paid Top Notch to do more polishing on their own request. The ******* have not paid in full for the pool work. The pool finish is within industry standards. I have looked at the pool and it is beautiful. Chip P., OwnerCustomer response
09/13/2022
Complaint: 17912921
I am rejecting this response because:The pool finisher, Top Notch Pool and Spa Renovation, installed the surface and came back to polish some spots the we felt were too rough.Lightning Pools returned in late August 2022, drained the pool and polish with a mechanical polisher all surfaces marked off by the Alicic. They spent 45 minutes working with a ***** small ****** and then washed of rest of marked up spots and called us unreasonable. Next day we paid Top Notch to do more polishingTop Notch is their subcontractor.We paid them $500 and they have not delivered on promised improvement.
We have not paid last $1000 to Lightning Pools for the pool work due to contract stating we pay in full after all work is complete. They never billed us for final payment as Lightning Pools still has not completed several things including the rough pool finish, the faulty finish by skimmer and they ended up never installing final pavers and fence panel. (We did that outsell as it was a safety issue as we dis not want to wait anymore.)Due to having to empty the pool & refill it and balance the chemicals and due to payment of $500 to Top Notch Pool and Spa we have already incurred more then $1000 worth of cost. This was communicated to Lightning Pools.The pool finish is NOT within industry standards.NPI rep came for inspection and agreed that pool was too exposed and to rough in several places. None of it was fixed by either company.They say I have looked at the pool and it is beautiful.Agreed, except for skimmer portion it's a great looking pool, my complait is the the rough finish however.I have videos I can submit that show how rough this pool is. And pictures of imprints.I have also pictures of bleeding cuts as recent as 9/1.
Sincerely,
*******************************Business response
09/14/2022
Lightning is willing to have the *** rep return and review our claim that the pool is within industry standards.
Customer response
09/15/2022
Complaint: 17912921
I am rejecting this response because NPI was here in April. They determined that pool is rough. I have attached text messages from the rep.Here is a video I did to document state of the pool after Lightning "fix":
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8xCnmNfw9aG6uWtf6
I have also attached a recent picture of this month of bleeding cut from the pool. Mind you, we are extra careful not to touch sides or bottom of the pool especially in areas with problems which are very prevalent around the steps and the bench unfortunately.
Messages between **** NPI rep and myself are attached.
Sincerely,
*******************************
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