Hi all,
This site has been extensively helpful to me in the past, and I was hoping to get some clarification from some someone who is knowledgeable in automatic pool covers.
This might be kind of a long story so I apologize in advance.
We have an inground fiberglass pool with a top track automatic cover system. We recently redid all of the decking and also decided to redo the coping, which was a concrete skirt, immediately surrounding the pool. The previous pool cover, track system, box cover, and all related mechanisms were Coverstar. The person we hired to do the work has done our openings/closings/repairs for the past 3 years. He does new construction and major renos of old pools and we trusted him. We ultimately decided to order a new pool cover, track, and box cover. This was not part of the initial plan but the contractor pointed out that we would would have the expense of reinstalling the existing cover if we did decide to keep it, so he told us if we ordered a new one he would give us $1,000 off of the install. He told us to look at Coverstar.com to pick out some samples and we picked up a sample book from a pool store nearby to see samples in person with all of the other material we were using. We decided we would do navy for the cover and chrome for the tracks and box cover.
His portion of the project took about 2 months. Portions of existing concrete were 10”-12” thick in some parts and he has to get creative to get it off of the shell without damaging it. We aren’t happy with the concrete job he did and it’s my understanding that the whole thing would need to be redone to be done properly. One of the sides is wavy and it’s supposed to be slightly curved and I guess if he grinds it down to get the shape right, we will see gravel chunks.
Anyways, he started to install the pool cover, tracks, and box cover the other day and I immediately noticed that the color of the cover was off. He tried to gaslight me and tell me that’s what I ordered. I asked him where he ordered the cover from and he told me a local pool store. So I went to the pool store and the woman told me she’s the one who ordered it and that she ordered Navy Blue. After doing some investigative work, come to find out this cover is not from Coverstar, it is from Automatic Pool Covers Inc. I have never even heard of that brand, or seen a seen a sample which was a critical piece I needed to order a new pool cover. She gave me the samples for APC and Coverstar and I went home to compare.
The APC Navy Blue is definitely lighter than the Coverstar Navy. I determined the cover that was installed is slightly lighter than the APC sample, although I do think they sent Navy Blue and maybe the dye lot was off? Regardless this is not what I agreed to order.
After further investigating, I discovered the tracks are Coverstar and the box cover is APC. So basically my pool guy is trying to Frankenstein the pool cover setup. I have no idea when the tracks or box cover were ordered. I went back to the pool store and they were able to provide an invoice for the pool cover, but not for the tracks or box cover. So I suspect the tracks and box cover could have been old parts my pool guy either bought from a dealer or had sitting around.
The box cover is not installed but the Navy Blue APC cover is functional (although hideous IMO). I guess my question is, is it normal to mix and match different brands of pool cover equipment in this way? If everything was new, I would think it would void any warranties should something go wrong or be defective. The other thing the pool store was trying to tell me was that APC and Coverstar use the same fabric, so in theory their versions of navy should be the same. I suspect this was a lie to smooth things over because I did talk to Coverstar and they did say their fabrics are different. Does anyone have any knowledge of the fabric manufacturing of these companies?
I called out the pool guy on Wednesday and haven’t heard anything back yet. I suspect something shady is going on but I was hoping to get some input from an expert that might know more before we take the next steps in legal action. We do plan on calling another local company to get a written assessment but would prefer to get an idea of where this is all heading.
Oh, and he obviously misaligned the track and drilled visible holes in my concrete
We were charged $4500 for the cover, track, box cover, and the shipping expense that goes along with those. No idea if that’s in the ballpark range because these companies are not customer facing. Can attach photos if anyone thinks they’d be helpful.
This site has been extensively helpful to me in the past, and I was hoping to get some clarification from some someone who is knowledgeable in automatic pool covers.
This might be kind of a long story so I apologize in advance.
We have an inground fiberglass pool with a top track automatic cover system. We recently redid all of the decking and also decided to redo the coping, which was a concrete skirt, immediately surrounding the pool. The previous pool cover, track system, box cover, and all related mechanisms were Coverstar. The person we hired to do the work has done our openings/closings/repairs for the past 3 years. He does new construction and major renos of old pools and we trusted him. We ultimately decided to order a new pool cover, track, and box cover. This was not part of the initial plan but the contractor pointed out that we would would have the expense of reinstalling the existing cover if we did decide to keep it, so he told us if we ordered a new one he would give us $1,000 off of the install. He told us to look at Coverstar.com to pick out some samples and we picked up a sample book from a pool store nearby to see samples in person with all of the other material we were using. We decided we would do navy for the cover and chrome for the tracks and box cover.
His portion of the project took about 2 months. Portions of existing concrete were 10”-12” thick in some parts and he has to get creative to get it off of the shell without damaging it. We aren’t happy with the concrete job he did and it’s my understanding that the whole thing would need to be redone to be done properly. One of the sides is wavy and it’s supposed to be slightly curved and I guess if he grinds it down to get the shape right, we will see gravel chunks.
Anyways, he started to install the pool cover, tracks, and box cover the other day and I immediately noticed that the color of the cover was off. He tried to gaslight me and tell me that’s what I ordered. I asked him where he ordered the cover from and he told me a local pool store. So I went to the pool store and the woman told me she’s the one who ordered it and that she ordered Navy Blue. After doing some investigative work, come to find out this cover is not from Coverstar, it is from Automatic Pool Covers Inc. I have never even heard of that brand, or seen a seen a sample which was a critical piece I needed to order a new pool cover. She gave me the samples for APC and Coverstar and I went home to compare.
The APC Navy Blue is definitely lighter than the Coverstar Navy. I determined the cover that was installed is slightly lighter than the APC sample, although I do think they sent Navy Blue and maybe the dye lot was off? Regardless this is not what I agreed to order.
After further investigating, I discovered the tracks are Coverstar and the box cover is APC. So basically my pool guy is trying to Frankenstein the pool cover setup. I have no idea when the tracks or box cover were ordered. I went back to the pool store and they were able to provide an invoice for the pool cover, but not for the tracks or box cover. So I suspect the tracks and box cover could have been old parts my pool guy either bought from a dealer or had sitting around.
The box cover is not installed but the Navy Blue APC cover is functional (although hideous IMO). I guess my question is, is it normal to mix and match different brands of pool cover equipment in this way? If everything was new, I would think it would void any warranties should something go wrong or be defective. The other thing the pool store was trying to tell me was that APC and Coverstar use the same fabric, so in theory their versions of navy should be the same. I suspect this was a lie to smooth things over because I did talk to Coverstar and they did say their fabrics are different. Does anyone have any knowledge of the fabric manufacturing of these companies?
I called out the pool guy on Wednesday and haven’t heard anything back yet. I suspect something shady is going on but I was hoping to get some input from an expert that might know more before we take the next steps in legal action. We do plan on calling another local company to get a written assessment but would prefer to get an idea of where this is all heading.
Oh, and he obviously misaligned the track and drilled visible holes in my concrete
We were charged $4500 for the cover, track, box cover, and the shipping expense that goes along with those. No idea if that’s in the ballpark range because these companies are not customer facing. Can attach photos if anyone thinks they’d be helpful.
