Empire Pools, Inc.

We paid in full and they have yet to return almost years later to take care of a number of things They don’t answer or return calls Very disappointed!

My wife and I built with Premier back in 2012, with our house being completed in February of Kevin and his wife were accommodating at first and seemed nice enough, but he was basically never around when construction was actually going on and we have experienced many issues with basic expectations that should have never occurred or at least been rectified when we contacted them numerous times for assistance The only thing they really stuck to was once the year after completion came, they never acknowledged a single issue we came to them with One example would be a basement egress window that was never set properly We had horrible ice build up and the window even broke under pressure because of this We had it checked out by a window company and they verified the issue We tried calling, emailing and even stopping by to Premier's office trying to get resolution to this clearly construction issue and they completely ignored us We also just tried selling our home and had an accepted offer until the inspection was done and we found out that none of the areas exposed by EIFS throughout the entire exterior of the home were ever sealed, the deck was put on improperly and in an unsafe manner, and that the egress outside that basement bedroom window was never set up for drainage properly, leading to leaks in the wall We once again went to them to ask for assistance for their clearly construction related issues, and heard absolutely NOTHING back Not even a "Hello, but sorry..." Very poor customer service, poor follow up during construction, and incredibly poor customer relations once they have been paid I would not recommend them to anyone

Review: On April *, 2013, I had [redacted] and [redacted] from Empire Pools give me a estimate on re-doing my pool liner as well as convert my existing filter from chlorine to salt water. I had two other estimates but decided to go with them for the following reasons:

Price was cheaper

Told me the liner would only take 7-9 days to make

Guaranteed the whole job would be completed within two weeks

After the estimate I gave a $1000 deposit to secure the job. I came in the following day to pick a liner at the store in Port Jefferson N.Y. After picking the liner I didn't here from Empire Pools for close to three weeks, They finally started the job after the job should have been completed. They sent two guys to my house who had no clue what they were doing. They began the placement of the liner after three days of continuously running a vacuum to remove the wrinkles, they hired to measure the pool for the liner. The father son team told me they had only one vacuum instead of two sucking the air out of the liner. They told me it should have taken hours to vacuum not 3-4 days. This cause my electric to be running excessive amount of time.

The following day Empire Pools came back and added a second vacuum. A day later the liner was looking better. They then full the pool with water two days later I woke up to the water three feet lower. I called Empire Pools who took two days to show up, By then the water was almost gone. (Keep in mind this is 20x40 pool. which is huge). When they finally came there, their exact words were your 1 in 1,000 people who get faulty liner and they need to rip it out and start all over. I told them it was unacceptable what they did to me and requested a refund of my deposit. They refused and said they would keep the deposit, if I went with another company, all they did was give me a $250 discount for my troubles.

At this point my heat and electric bill was sure to be out of control but they had me against the wall and I had no choice but to go forward with the second liner. They said in 5-7 days everything would be completed and the owner himself promised to oversee it personally to make sure there is no more problems. Approximately 10 days later they began the remaining half of the pool to start over. The next morning I woke up to a flooded back yard. The worker put the hose on the beach sand next to the pool instead of the street all the sand was flooded from the back yard through the fence and into the front yard through the fence and into the front yard, My lawn was flooded with sand which caused significant damage.

Once again Empire Pools gave us some excuse and apologized. The next morning they put in the new liner once again after the job was completed. They left a note for me to fill the pool and the process started again, once the pool was filled I continued to wait day after day for my pool to be completed. On May **, 2013, I had enough it was the Friday before Memorial Day. I had a party on Sunday for the holiday with 150 family members and friends I called [redacted] from Empire Pools at 8:30 a.m. I explained to him it had been 58 days since I hired them to the job and I had a huge party on Sunday he told me he's all booked up and he'll do what he can. I told him if It wasn't done by today don't bother even coming and I would bring him to court. He began cursing at me and threatening me, He said if I didn't pay him his money that he would come by house everyday to make me suffer, He then began to call me a jew boy, as a jewish person I was mortified to hear someone attack not only me personally but my religion.

The attack was vicious and hateful so I immediately called the police and filed a complaint. After the complaint the harassment didn't stop both him and his brother continued to call and threaten me. I have recorded voicemails and messages to confirm I had no choice but to call the police again. They have been warned to stay off my property and stop the harassment or they will be arrested.

To sum it up this company has been a nightmare. I had the worst experience imaginable. The party was a nightmare, we had a pool full of green slime with fly's and magnets swimming on the surface of the stale water. I had a new pool company come in due to the time of the year I can't get the pool done until July *, 2013 weekend (3 months of hell with no pool). They told me the liner isn't correct and they need to spend a half day fixing it.

The bottom line Empire Pools has cost me thousands of dollars in damages, as well as half the summer with no pool. I will be taking them to court. I hope this never happens to anyone else again Ever. Thank you for your help with this matter.Desired Settlement: I would love a refund for all the damages made to my property and the deposit I made for the the pool to get completed.

Business

Response:

[redacted] did not have the money to pay for the job. He said his business is failing and he needed more time to pa y. He said give him

about a month and a half and he might have the money. He said he hasn't made a mortgage payment in over 2 years on his home so we felt bad for him and only took $1000 deposit on a $7000 job. That was the reason he chose us was because every other pool company wanted the industry normal $3500 deposit. This is why the job is still unfinished because he asked us to wait. If he makes a payment the job can be finished in 2 days. Notice how in his long winded complaint he never states that anything was wrong with liner. Everyone knows that you have to pay for services rendered. The re is only a small a mount of work left so now [redacted] says he will call another company to finish because it will only cost $300 to finish instead of paying us the $6000. Seems apparent that is the true reason for complaints to get the job done at a $6000 discount. Not really sure who [redacted] thinks he is fooling.

Consumer

Response:

At this point I no longer want to pursue this matter. Beyond the fact, that I'm not happy with their services. my complaint # [redacted]

Review: not providing service as requested. Putting too much chemical in pool causing a health hazard. Chemical cause new liner to fadeDesired Settlement: I want cost of new liner to installed by another pool company at Empires cost. Owener should not be in business the way he treats customers. Support staff acts in the same bad manor as the owner. I want the last three serivce calls refunded. ($210)

Business

Response:

Called customer asked him if he knew any names of chemicals we used in pool or combinations. He answered honestly and said no. We took care of his pool for a total of 3 visits. We left chemicals 'for customer to add. It is impossible to bleach a liner after 3 visits. Tried t o offer advice to customer but all he was interested in was threats. If he needs help we would be more than happy to assist or give free advice over phone.

Business

Response:

Customer claims he was threatened over phone. I bet he has no proof his claim. That is because he was never threatened. Just trying to cause issues because he is unhappy. We have all seen this type of behavior.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

Obviously this company does not want to resolve the issue. I dont understand how they are allowed to not respond to the actual issue. They damage my pool liner and they need to pay to replace it. The businesses statements total lies. You may want to go online and read other complaints about this company. As Ive stated in my original complaint they should not be in the service business the way they talk to their customers.

I can send the pictures of the liner damage along with the date it was installed.

What are the next steps?

Sincerely,

Review: I made an appointment on Monday 6/** for Friday 6/** for a vacuum. I was able to get an earlier appointment with another company on Wednesday. called Empire back Thursday morning to cancel appointment for Friday and the man started screaming at me saying I was selfish and was cursing at me. I hung up on him and he called back. My co worker answered the phone and he told her "tell [redacted] he has something coming to him". he then called my cell phone and said "karma is a [redacted] this man threatened me twice and I intend on filing a police report b/c he has my home address. He was extremely unprofessional not to mention illegal in his approach by threatening me.Desired Settlement: Apology

Business

Response:

We never spoke with this person. He sounds like he is confused. Sounds like he really needs an apology. Hope he finds the company he feels upset him. Must mean a lot to him to complain. We feel sorry for him! Hope he gets over it soon. Life is to short.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[Your Answer Here]

Whoever wrote the response is lying about not speaking to me. I called their business on monday 6-** and spoke with a very nice woman to make an appointment for friday 6-**. I called the company back thursday morning 6-** b/w 830-9am to cancel the appointment. I spoke to a man with a gravelly voice (probably the owner who I assume wrote the company response). He is the one that was very nasty on the phone with me, then after I hung up on him, called back twice, once to my office (he spoke to one of my coworkers) and again on my cell phone to threaten me. He is either flat out lying about not speaking to me or maybe he threatens so many potential customers throughout the course of his day that he loses track of who he threatens. However, the animosity and insults displayed in his response suggest that he knows exactly who I am.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Review: I wasn't even sure what to pick as the "Primary nature of your complaint" as there are so many. First off, I ended up paying almost 1,000 USD more than I originally was originally told I would have to pay (I have a the contract where it states the total amount of the services rendered would be $25000) and that wasn't an estimation, it was an approximation as the paper says. I had to call this company almost everyday to get them to come to my house to start/work/complete the job at hand. To make matters worse, on two occasions when they said they were coming out to my house, I waited for them, ALL DAY and they workers never showed. When I called to complain about this, I was treated with utter disrespect. One of the gentleman that works at the front desk even left me an irrate message screaming that he wouldnt come out to finish the work until I payed the $350, which I told him I would pay him once he came here as this was yet ANOTHER unexpected "unforeseen" expense,and I didnt want to pay until I saw a detailed/itemized list of what I was paying for. This was the second or third time some unaccounted for expense came up, so you can imagine my frustration. They made me pay for copings, which they told me originally didnt need replacing and then after the work started they removed the copings, then charged me for new ones. After a couple days of arguing via the phone, the owner called, apologized and said hed come out and finish it, which they eventually did - however Ive since had to pay for another company to come out and fix their work. During the process, they said my main drain wasnt working so they closed it off, however it was done inappropriatley and now the filter doesnt work. I called Empire Pools but theyll only fix it if I PAY THEM MORE MONEY, WHEN THEY WERE THE ONES WHO DID THE JOB WRONG AND CAUSED THE PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! So now, after two months of this, I have to pay another company to finish what they wouldn't even though they were paid more money then they originally told me Id have to pay. Not to mention they helped themselves to the tools in my storage shed (without asking for permission first, I am the homeowner) and left said tools all over my yard. They even left my pool cover on the grass, killing it, even though I asked them to please fold it up and put it in its place, something I paid for in my contract ("clean up"). Lucky for me though, it only took a couple phone calls to get them to clean up their mess, which was also done improperly as my dog managed to almost swallow a screw from the pile of old ones they left by the filter! I have never had such an unprofessional experience with ANY COMPANY in my entire life. They never even cut off the main pipe to the drain they closed which is causing me issues and now I have to pay another company to come fix that as well, since EMPIRE refuses to do so without receiving more money. RidiculousDesired Settlement: I would like them to refund me the money (I have the receipt) I had to pay another company to come and finish the job. Its imperative that this be finished because the pool isnt in working order at this time. The new company said the problem is a direct result of EMPIRE doing the job improperly. I hope this matter can be resolved as quick as possible as its the summer and Id like to get to use the pool at some point. If EMPIRE does not reimburse me for the repairs needed to correct their sloppy, inadequate, unfinished job, I will be proceeding with legal action. I have faith that they will do the right thing.

Business

Response:

This customer's version of events is the total opposite of what actually happened. We would never treat a customer like she describes. If she has a valid issue all she needs to do is notify us. We have not been notified of any issues until receiving

this complaint. We have called several times to offer our assistance but never received a response to all of our messages.

Review: I have been a customer of Empire Pools, Inc for over 7 (sesven) years and contracted with them to replace an inground pool liner. After having the first liner installed, it proved defective a manufacturers defect which required a second liner to be ordered and installed. Empire installed the second liner but, as they were "cutting in" the returns, skimmer and pool light, failed to secure the pool light in a workmanlike manner. The light was not wired correctly as it stayed lit 24 hours a day nor was it secured correctly to the pool light fitting in the wall and was falling out of the pool wall. I called Empire to alert them of the issue and was told not to worry about the safety concerns I had (electrocution) and that they would be over to correct the issue. Two days had passed and the light fell out of the wall, exploded when the hot light (from being on) became exposed to the pool water. Again I called Empire, alerted them to the issue and was told upon their arrival that the cost of 450.00 would be required to install a complete new light package. Their mistake and they want to charge me for a repair as a result of their incompetence. I expect Empire to remedy this issue at no cost to me as it was thier doing and their lack of a timely response when I alerted them to this issue.Desired Settlement: Empire should acknowledge their error and repair the pool light at no cost to me.

Business

Response:

Customer states pool light shattered from being to hot. That is impossible! Pool lights can not shatter from getting to hot. If they did you would hear injuries all the time. The lens on a pool light is 1/2 thick glass. This is why we didn't replace for free. Leaving a light loose does not result in a shattered pool light bulb and lens. Customer is dishonest!

Business

Response:

Spoke with customer last week. We are replacing his liner due to scam delar agreed we would work it out when we replace liner.

Consumer

Response:

[redacted]:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is a first step in resolution. If Empire and I can come to a reasonable solution - we haven't as of yet, **-AUG, 2013- at that point I will consider a satisfactory resoultion to have been reached.

Sincerely,