Anyone know of, had direct experience with, a great fiberglass pool company in Southern California recently? I'm dying to get one installed, but options seem very slim and there are plenty of shady folks in this industry.
I've been researching quite a bit about pools, never having owned one, and settled on fiberglass as the best option for us based on objectively weighing the "Pros" and "Cons" of the 3 types, fiberglass, gunite and vinyl. However, researching pool manufacturers to identify the best ones has been more challenging, though it seems like Leisure Pools in TN may be the best in terms of pure manufacturing quality. However, Leisure Pools has a very non-traditional approach whereby the buyer, to obtain one of their pools, must submit to a process that has them playing a sort of general contractor to get all the usual finishing steps completed, like coping, decking, electrical work and permit pulling. Also, according to Luis Savastano, a VP of Sales with LP (but who works out of Orange County, CA) and with whom I've been interacting, says he does not have a direct installation team. Furthermore, he has told me they do not have any local dealers or installers in my area. Instead, he said, he works with 5 installation teams that travel nationwide installing pools and that they sell factory direct, with no local Leisure Pools dealer. With that approach, another worry I have is their licensing - are they properly licensed to perform such in my town and are they bonded and insured.
Seems quite unreasonable for a homeowner who would shell out about $60K just for the pool shell and equipment to be installed would also have to do all sorts of things on their own to "finish" the job...and, in fact, to prep for the delivery by having all electrical, gas (for the spa and pool heater) and permit work to be done in advance. I'd rather pay a bit more to have a true, competent and ethical pool company install a high quality pool and do all the other tasks as well, including hardscape, fire pit, water features, etc. I'd also prefer the ability to reach out to a local company who would be responsive if anything came up post-installation (or during installation, for that matter). Kind of sketchy to think of handing over so much money to a company who uses 5 traveling installation teams, with whom there'd be little, if any, recourse if something was done wrong/sub-par. Also, reading BBB complaints about LP is quite disturbing and Luis's response was, literally, "There are a few complaints out of 2,800 pools we sold last year it is going to happen."
LP may, may have the highest quality pool and best practices with regard to construction, but I feel they fall FAR short on the customer service end and with regard to how they handle installations. Luis is not the most pleasant to deal with, and this is with me coming very close to forking over $60K or more to them. Coming across as Luis does where he makes it seem like I'm an inconvenience for asking what I consider are reasonable questions about the process, pre-sale, is also disturbing and gives me a bad feeling in my "gut". This entire project we're doing, for our 2-yr old home, is planned for about $100K (other landscaping elements, apart from the pool and surrounding hardscape/fire pit are planned) and I'd have thought it would be easy to find competent, ethical pros who'd be happy to help...but it's not easy at all. Where are the "good guys" in this industry??? I'm getting close to scrapping the entire pool idea and just doing hardscape, but being 61 this year and with my sedentary type of job, I really want to get a pool so we have ready access to good exercise, in addition to the fun we could all have with it. But I'm not throwing away $60K for a mistake either, I work too hard for my money, as we all do!
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
I've been researching quite a bit about pools, never having owned one, and settled on fiberglass as the best option for us based on objectively weighing the "Pros" and "Cons" of the 3 types, fiberglass, gunite and vinyl. However, researching pool manufacturers to identify the best ones has been more challenging, though it seems like Leisure Pools in TN may be the best in terms of pure manufacturing quality. However, Leisure Pools has a very non-traditional approach whereby the buyer, to obtain one of their pools, must submit to a process that has them playing a sort of general contractor to get all the usual finishing steps completed, like coping, decking, electrical work and permit pulling. Also, according to Luis Savastano, a VP of Sales with LP (but who works out of Orange County, CA) and with whom I've been interacting, says he does not have a direct installation team. Furthermore, he has told me they do not have any local dealers or installers in my area. Instead, he said, he works with 5 installation teams that travel nationwide installing pools and that they sell factory direct, with no local Leisure Pools dealer. With that approach, another worry I have is their licensing - are they properly licensed to perform such in my town and are they bonded and insured.
Seems quite unreasonable for a homeowner who would shell out about $60K just for the pool shell and equipment to be installed would also have to do all sorts of things on their own to "finish" the job...and, in fact, to prep for the delivery by having all electrical, gas (for the spa and pool heater) and permit work to be done in advance. I'd rather pay a bit more to have a true, competent and ethical pool company install a high quality pool and do all the other tasks as well, including hardscape, fire pit, water features, etc. I'd also prefer the ability to reach out to a local company who would be responsive if anything came up post-installation (or during installation, for that matter). Kind of sketchy to think of handing over so much money to a company who uses 5 traveling installation teams, with whom there'd be little, if any, recourse if something was done wrong/sub-par. Also, reading BBB complaints about LP is quite disturbing and Luis's response was, literally, "There are a few complaints out of 2,800 pools we sold last year it is going to happen."
LP may, may have the highest quality pool and best practices with regard to construction, but I feel they fall FAR short on the customer service end and with regard to how they handle installations. Luis is not the most pleasant to deal with, and this is with me coming very close to forking over $60K or more to them. Coming across as Luis does where he makes it seem like I'm an inconvenience for asking what I consider are reasonable questions about the process, pre-sale, is also disturbing and gives me a bad feeling in my "gut". This entire project we're doing, for our 2-yr old home, is planned for about $100K (other landscaping elements, apart from the pool and surrounding hardscape/fire pit are planned) and I'd have thought it would be easy to find competent, ethical pros who'd be happy to help...but it's not easy at all. Where are the "good guys" in this industry??? I'm getting close to scrapping the entire pool idea and just doing hardscape, but being 61 this year and with my sedentary type of job, I really want to get a pool so we have ready access to good exercise, in addition to the fun we could all have with it. But I'm not throwing away $60K for a mistake either, I work too hard for my money, as we all do!
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
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