Blankenship Pools, Inc.

[redacted], the founder and owner of Blankenship Pools was born and raised in Northern California and has operated Blankenship Pools for over 40 years. In all of those years, he has never jumped ship or left town. We at Blankenship Pools understand the frustrations that can arise during...

swimming pool construction. We work in our customers backyards and their backyards are part of their "castle". It is for this reason that we work hard to make sure people get the best communication from us to minimize disturbances or "areas of concern". When customers work and live in their home, this is especially difficult because the nature of construction includes "loud signs, vibrations, loud voices, and heavy equipment operation". In this particular situation, we did a solid job of communicating, but we noticed some frustration from the homeowner as we were in their yard frequently and they are avid gardeners and backyard enthusiasts. We tried to remedy this by significantly discounting some decking we installed, but the homeowner was still dissatisfied. Unfortunately, the amount owed to [redacted] was much less than disclosed and that amount has been satisfied and paid in full. It is our policy not to pay the plaster company until we have been paid in full as our company has experienced issues with non-payment over the years and found that there is no incentive for customers to pay remaining balances after the swimming pool is finished. This is such a case. We did not receive payment from the homeowner and so we did not make the final payment to the plaster company that installed their interior finish. We understand this can be frustrating for customers who withhold payment, but this is the only incentive we have as contractors to receive final payment when homeowners withhold payment.

Review: Blankenship Pools were contracted to repair the pool plumbing, resurface the pool interior and replace the pool deck at the same elevation as the surrounding lawn. At no time was there any indication given by the contractor that this could not be done. At present, the pool deck elevation is almost 1 ft. above the lawn elevation, presenting a safety hazard to normal individual and life threatening situation for a limited ambulatory individual **.My wonderful beautiful pool is now an ugly abomination with uneven decks,cracks. A detractor of property value.Project was started 2/5/14 and is still unacceptable.Desired Settlement: It is quite obvious that a professional evaluation must be made to address the pool deck concrete cracks, varying deck elevations, pool deck/ground elevation variance. The results of this evaluation will yield the scope of work for Blankenship Pools must follow to bring this project to a success completion.Simply, this pool must be brought up to a standard that makes it an asset to property value.

Business

Response:

We will attempt to enlighten you to all the pertinent information regarding the [redacted] job. Blankenship pools did all the work in the original contract but in addition did an abundance of work beyond the original contract. Please see attached itemized list of all extra work done at no additional charge!

After reviewing all the attached information I’m sure you will clearly see we did a very professional job for the [redacted]s. We also were in continual correspondence with them. Unfortunately, nothing was ever enough. The project turned out aesthetically and structurally just as it was described in the original contract.

Review: We contracted with BLANKENSHIP POOLS, INC. on July 31, 2014 to install a pool (began Sept. 4th) and was to be completed BY Thanksgiving. We paid this contractor all payments ON TIME. There was misinformation, miscommunication given upfront / during construction (verifiable by his employees) causing us add'l unexpected expenses re: fencing as well as many delays, many inconveniences. Towards the end so much had gone wrong that we withheld $1,000 to assure that he'd finish our job (rumor had it he was not paying his sub-contractors so we were worried he'd jump ship). We were given a brief instruction on how to work the pool / equipment as an employee is to come back in the Spring. There were pipes not wrapped so now they are totally rusted. However, we had decided to give him the balance to be done with him & deal with the loose ends ourselves; yet fortunately we picked our mail up that day first to discover a recorded lien is against our home now. The lien was from [redacted], who did our [redacted]. He DID NOT pay the sub-contractor though he was paid for it! So, we have a $4,472.00 lien against our home. Already we have received phone calls from another worker on another project (from seeing the lien in the paper) worried that he might not be paid. This is very embarrassing and frustrating since we thought we were dealing with a trustworthy company prior to signing the contract. Once a pool is started and it goes wrong, you are stuck! [redacted] told my wife he'd pay this sub last week and here it is one week later and he hasn't yet, so we are taking further action(s) to be sure this does not happen to anyone else...as well as other steps legally to get this lien removed from our property. We have 50+ emails exchanged during construction to verify these issues stated herein showing we gave ample time for this owner to do the right thing and he chose not to.Desired Settlement: All we want is for the owner of Blankenship Pools, Mr. [redacted], to pay HIS debt owed to the [redacted] - IMMEDIATELY so that the lien can be removed from our home.What makes this experience worse is that we had this pool installed for our daughter (26) who has severe brain damage and we are home 7 days a week caring for her. The stress of how this pool construction unfolded to date has been very hard on our family!

Business

Response:

[redacted], the founder and owner of Blankenship Pools was born and raised in Northern California and has operated Blankenship Pools for over 40 years. In all of those years, he has never jumped ship or left town. We at Blankenship Pools understand the frustrations that can arise during swimming pool construction. We work in our customers backyards and their backyards are part of their "castle". It is for this reason that we work hard to make sure people get the best communication from us to minimize disturbances or "areas of concern". When customers work and live in their home, this is especially difficult because the nature of construction includes "loud signs, vibrations, loud voices, and heavy equipment operation". In this particular situation, we did a solid job of communicating, but we noticed some frustration from the homeowner as we were in their yard frequently and they are avid gardeners and backyard enthusiasts. We tried to remedy this by significantly discounting some decking we installed, but the homeowner was still dissatisfied. Unfortunately, the amount owed to [redacted] was much less than disclosed and that amount has been satisfied and paid in full. It is our policy not to pay the plaster company until we have been paid in full as our company has experienced issues with non-payment over the years and found that there is no incentive for customers to pay remaining balances after the swimming pool is finished. This is such a case. We did not receive payment from the homeowner and so we did not make the final payment to the plaster company that installed their interior finish. We understand this can be frustrating for customers who withhold payment, but this is the only incentive we have as contractors to receive final payment when homeowners withhold payment.