Above Ground Professionals

Review: On 5/18/14 Above Ground Professionals, Inc. (owned by [redacted]) drove to our home from Green Bay WI to our home in Merrill, WI (about 115 miles) to install a 24 ft round pool that we purchased from Placeway Pools Spas Patio in Wausau, WI. He brought 3 workers with him. Prior to 5/18/14 I spoke with [redacted] on a few occasions and per his request gave him my email address so that he could email me information & his contract. I never received any emails from him. He arrived on 5/18/14 and to start working. The first thing that he was upset about was how wet our soil was. He did ask me a few days earlier how wet our ground was, I did tell him that we just dug up 2 clothes lines poles about 15 feet from where the pool will be and the ground didn't get wet until about 2-3 feet below the surface. While here, we heard very vulgar language towards the 3 other people working for him. My neighbors and family that were around watching, were witness to this. One of my neighbors text me and asked what that guys problem was because she could hear him from across the yard in her kitchen. There were several children around from ages 2-14, I felt this was very unprofessional. [redacted] at one point came up on our deck, yelling at my husband because his dump truck was stuck in our yard, my 12 year old daughter called me (I was gone for a few minutes) scared and crying because he was yelling at my husband. We got the truck unstuck using his skidster and our pick up truck. The yard was very dug up. Before he pulled the truck onto our yard, we mentioned to him to stay on the gravel, not the yard because it was soft, this is where we run the runoff from our sump pump. After the pool was installed, I paid him $1,400 cash, as requested. He counted the cash in front of me and said that I was $100 short, I disagreed, but paid him the extra $100 by check because at that point, I just wanted him away from my home. When I asked for a receipt, he said that he'd email me one, but I insisted he write me a receipt, which he did using a receipt book that I had at home. We didn't discuss, prior to the installation of the pool, who is responsible to clean up the boxes, the pool came in and the extra piles of dirt all over the yard. Since Above Ground Professionals installs pools for a living, I assumed that the yard would have been more cleaned up than it was. Part of the flyer that we received prior to hiring Above Ground Professionals, stated that we will receive instructions on pool care and maintenance. [redacted] spoke with my husband for about 5 minutes on how to work the filter system. This is not what we were expecting. Since we didn't know anything about the filter system, we went to Placeway Pools during that week for instructions on the filter system. About a week after the pool was up and filled, the water level was down about 2 inches, we filled it back up and less than a week later, it was down another inch. I contacted Placeway Pools, wondering if this was reasonable water loss and they stated that it was probably was not. We found an area on the outside of the pool that was wet, so we started watching and then collected some of the water pooling outside of the pool, only to find out that it was pool water, there was a hole in the liner. I called [redacted] and asked him what we were to do since there is a leak in the liner. He said that it wasn't him and the liner must have come with a hole in it and then quickly said "have a nice summer" and hung up. I didn't have the chance to ask him about the receipt and contract that he was going to email to me so I called him right back. He commented that if I want the receipt and contract, then I will have to pay him the taxes for the installation. I said that this portion wasn't my responsibility and that I already paid him $100 more than he asked for. He hung up on me. I called Placeway Pools to see if there was any way that they could help us and they offered to call [redacted]. They left 2-3 messages with no call back from Above Ground Professionals. After investigating, we did find a hole in the liner that wasn't near the seam and repaired it per Placeway Pools instruction. While investigating about the hole in the pool, we found that there was a stump that [redacted] never removed under the center of the pool, it was poking through the liner, but had not poked a hole at this point, but was stretching the liner by pointy edges. I contacted Placeway and they said that the stump should have been removed. On 6/22/14 we drained the pool and on 6/24/14, the owner of Placeway Pools and the Wausau store manager came over to patch the hole properly and remove the stump that was under the pool. We removed what was about an 18 inch stump. We built our home about 18 years ago and clear cut a woods area, so I'm sure that is what the stump was from. We had no way of knowing what was under the dirt, prior to Above Ground Professionals started the installation. There was a large expense on time and money for both my husband and myself and Placeway Pools to drain, fix and refill the pool with something that the installers should have fixed in the first place. I have photos of the area of the pool that was leaking, photos of the stump before and after we removed it along with a copy of the sales flyer that was given to us prior to us hiring Above Ground Professionals. This was one of the worst experiences of anyone that I have hired.Desired Settlement: I feel that [redacted] (not the 3 employees) acted very unprofessionally both the day that he was at our home and during the 2 conversations following the install. He should have stood behind his work and if he wasn't so angry, then maybe there wouldn't have been a hole in the liner and the stump should have been removed. He did state on his flyer that additional charges may apply for yards with obstacles such as trees, stumps, yard buildings etc. but never mentioned the problem to us while he was working. I would like $1,000 returned so that I can cover our personal expenses and some of the expenses from Placeway Pools. I arrived at the $1,000 figure because I called a different pool installer and asked what they would charge for this situation and their fee was $900 plus the $100 that I had to pay to have 4 yards of black dirt delivered to fix our yard where his truck got stuck.