moppymo said:
It says it is warrantied for the original owner to be structurally sound for your entire life. It also says the gel coat is good for 7 years. 3 years unconditional and the remaining 4- prorated. That excludes discoloration, staining, fading, hairline, cracks, blistering, surface yellowing, covalting abd roughness due to water chemistry or material characteristics of the gel cost finish.
Barrier Reef is supposedly made by Viking but the Caribbean Bay Pool is not. It is made in Honduras and shipped into the USA. That concerns me because if there is indeed a problem-They are not here to fix it and if the installer goes out if business-I'm out of luck, right?
Given my
situation (and the supplementary information I've obtained in the process), I'm a bit of a cynic regarding fiberglass pool warranties. My main problem (badly unlevel pool, many cracks) is an installation problem, not a manufacturer warranty issue, but the manufacturer is getting involved on behalf of the dealer, and I'm seeing firsthand how it would likely go if an actual warranty claim was made at some point later.
If you read your warranty, it will undoubtedly have exclusions for stuff like "ground shifting, floods, settling, earthquakes, subsidence" etc. Floods and earthquakes are pretty easily definable events... I suppose there could still be an argument as to whether or not these were the cause of the damage, but I think it's pretty safe to say that if your pool has a big crack in it right after an earthquake or flood, well, "there's yer problem!"
The others are more vague, though, and give the manufacturer the ability to basically deny any warranty claim. "Sorry, the ground settled and shifted, that's why your pool cracked." Maybe that really is the reason, maybe it isn't... but they'll say with absolute confidence that it is, and thus the damage is not covered. Another powerful exclusion is of the installation itself. I have no doubt that, had I not noticed the problems with my pool initially and then tried to file a warranty claim after a year or two, my claim would have been denied due to improper installation.
Maybe in a way these things are not necessarily completely unfair... I mean, if a fiberglass pool truly is installed properly, perhaps it really is virtually impossible for it to just suddenly crack. So, any crack that does develop has to be the result of a bad installation or some massive external force. But regardless, it's a bad situation for you as a consumer to be in... essentially, the people who will have to pay for the repair or replacement are the ones who decide whether or not it's covered. Some go even further with making this perfectly clear... Barrier Reef's warranty states that they "in its sole discretion, will make the determination as to the cause of the alleged structural fault".
It's the same thing with the gelcoat warranty. Note, the exclusions you listed only apply when "due to water chemistry" (though it also says "or material characteristics of the gel cost finish"... not sure what that means). So, they'll fix these problems under ordinary circumstances. Or will they? I've been told by multiple sources that the manufacturer of my pool employs a "hitman" of sorts whose job it is to go to a customer's pool that is full of blisters and explain to them that the problem happened because their pH was briefly 7.0 or their calcium was 190... sorry, your warranty is void. True, it's not the manufacturer's fault if someone fills their pool with a 50/50 mix of water and muriatic acid, but rather than pay for an expensive repair or replacement, they'll cite water parameters that are just barely out of normal range as the reason for major gelcoat problems that most people would consider to be a manufacturing error.
I have no reason to believe that all manufacturers are this shady. Perhaps many of them (especially the more well-known brands) do firmly stand behind their product, to avoid getting a bad reputation. But what I've experienced so far has left me feeling that fiberglass pool warranties are just barely worth the paper they are printed on (hence my fight to get a proper installation... so that I hopefully don't ever have to file a warranty claim!).
--Michael
