Pelican Pools, LLC

I am [redacted] ***, President of Pelican Pools LLC and I personally contracted with this customerI will address the correct facts of this complaint first and then the falsehoods in this complaintThe pool in question had been leaking previously, was nearly empty and unused for quite some time prior to our contract and the structural shell had considerable crackingAs I do in every similar case I explained to the customer that we are not responsible for the condition of the pool shellWe employed industry standard methods,(which are successful in roughly 80% of these similar cases), to prepare the surface for replastering and seal the existing cracks with construction epoxy prior to the application of the "Bond coat"It was made clear to the owners that there was a chance that the structural shell of the pool was incapable of holding waterIn an email dated 7/12/the owner informed me that " I got your information from [redacted] pumping and he told me he told you about our mess of a poolThe pool is nearly empty and will be completely so soonIt is crackedit had a major leak and needs replastering." On 7/16/she wrote "another company had recommended a "rubber liner" under the plaster coatWhat do you think about this and what would it cost"My response was to tell her that an elastomeric coating underneath the plaster would add $to the cost and is advisable on shells where we know the water loss is substantialThe bond coat we use prior to plaster is a waterproofing layer anyway and most pools with a mild amount of water loss are cured without the elastomeric"I gave her my opinion that it was advisable, I gave her the priceHer next response was only to tell me what color they chose for the plasterNothing about the elastomeric Next lets address the mottling of the colored plaster she is referring toEvery hand trowelled colored plaster has variation in the colorThere are lighter areas and darker areasIt is the nature of the productIn restaurants they call this a faux finish and peoile love itIt is an artistic element in the pool plaster as wellSome people just don't get itOne major motivation to adding the color to their plaster is the fact that they are on well water that has a very higfh mineral contentThe Iron and Manganese in their well water reacts to chlorine by turning a rust/brown color and it stains the plasterThe plaster coloring helps to disguise the staining but there is need of chemicals added to the poool to help remove the metalsThe cartridge filter we installed is more than sufficient for a pool with 13,gallons In fact the specs say it can filter 45,gallons in six hoursThe problem is the water conditionThis rust created by the oxidized metals requires regular cleaning and maintenanceSomething that was explained to this customerWhen she called and asked that the old filter be lft thereit had already been removed and dumpedShe was too late with her request As to my employees and their inability to speak englishI insist that my workers not discuss the work they are doingMany times customers will try to get on-site people to do work that is outside the scope of the contractThey do speak englishI ask them to pretend not to so that the customer has to communicate with meThat way I keep contol of what is to be doneThey also were able to understand her attitude toward them and they did not like it Now to the falsehoods in Ms [redacted] 's remarksI reviewed my email contacts from her and did not receive the emails about water loss that she is referring toShe claims we did not show up to winterize the poolThis is because she never called to ask to have the pool winterizedShe knew she owed the $and I have received no contact from her until her call weeks agoShe informed me that she had drained the pool days earlier because the pool was leakingI asked her why she drained it before calling meShe said because she did'nt want it leaking anymoreWhen I told her that pool plaster needs to be maintained full of water or the plaster will crack she said it's already crackedAt that point I realized the pool shell had not held and that there was nothing I could do for herI was unable to make it back from Santa fe before dark the day she called and after reviewing her situation and the fact that she never fully paid, I decided not to make a site visit

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: The response that Mr [redacted] sent in response to my complaint has numerous inaccuracies The pool that he "repaired" last summer did NOT have a leak previously As a matter of fact, it was drained by the company [redacted] Plumbing that was mentioned by Mr *** The reason we had it re-plastered was that the pool had been sitting with stagnant water for over a year, and there was dark staining of the plaster It was for purely cosmetic reasons that we wanted the plaster replaced The only visible major cracks were located at the top of the pool on some of the tiles We had a supply of extra tiles in our garage, and Pelican Pools used those to replace the damaged tiles I did have other estimates from other companies for working on our pool, and some did mention placing a rubber liner, but Mr [redacted] told us that since there seemed to be no structural damage to the pool, that it would be a waste of money Third, when I picked the color of the plaster that I wanted for my pool from the website that Mr [redacted] directed me to, it mentioned nothing about a "faux finish." I do not like faux finishes, as they look very cheap, and if he had mentioned that that's what the finished product were going to look like, I would never have told him to proceed At any rate, it is not a "faux finish," it is a poorly executed finish, and there are many are that are missing pigment all together (please see attached picture)When I tied to tell his workers that I did not like the uneven coats they were applying to my pool ,they did not understand a single word that I was saying It would be ridiculous to think that a business has ethics that promote employees ignoring their customers' concerns by pretending not to understand the English language I genuinely believe that the employees were not acting at all, as they had absolutely no idea what I was asking I know this, because as a Hispanic woman who was raised by my grandparents whom spoke very little English, I had to understand a great deal of the spoken Spanish language, however, I cannot formulate sentences well enough to relay my meaning in Spanish If you want to verify this, I can have you call any number of my family members, or if you want to call me we can speak Spanish; we can converse, but I will be replying in English only When I was speaking to the workers, they were trying to ask each other in Spanish what I was saying, and had no idea I gave up, and contacted Mr [redacted] directly His response to that was to show up at my house and begin filling the pool with water through a filter that he had rigged up that would supposedly take out a great deal of the minerals in our water I asked him about the unevenness of the plaster, and he told me it was a pigment,not a paint, so it would even out when the water was in the pool It never did I will take his word that the filter he sold us is supposed to be adequate to filter a pool our size, was just going by what the other pool company said when they came to winterize our pool They said that the filter in question was about half the size that was needed for our pool, and that's why it kept shutting down As for the filer that was removed from our property without permission, it was still a good working filter, and my husband told Mr [redacted] that he wanted to keep it after it was replaced, but it was removed anyway I sent an e-mail to his asking where it was after they left our property, and he told me his workers disposed of it So, did not ask for it to be kept after-the fact, but my husband asked beforehand, and out request was ignored I contacted Mr [redacted] on several occasions about discoloration, water loss, winterizing the pool, only to have all my requests ignored Mr [redacted] has in the past told me that he does not get all of my e-mails, but I do not know if this is true or not As far as owing him money, he seems to forget that he took back several of the supplies he had purchased for us and promised to give us credit for He also forgot that he took our filter At any rate, last time he was at my house, he gave me the payoff amount of $ After the fact, he told me via e-mail that I owed him more money for supplies since he used his own time, gas, and discounts to get us supplies, but he forgot to give us credit for all the other supplies he took back I currently have a company at my house making the repairs to my pool I do not trust Pelican Pools to do a good job The pool company described the job that pelican Pools did as "substandard" and poor workmanship they also said that the light fixture was not correctly sealed, and that is one source of the leaking water The mottling of the plaster was said to be due to poor mixing technique, and uneven application It is true that I drained a great deal of the water from my pool because I feared that the water leaking under my housing foundation It was not completely drained, and the company working on my pool just drained the remaining feet of water from my pool yesterday When I contacted Mr [redacted] a few weeks ago ,I said that it was "ALMOST a week" since the I drained some of the water , NOT over a week, and most certainly NOT days So, Mr [redacted] admittedly admits ignoring my requests to come out and try to rectify the situation In my opinion, he is a very poor businessman Regards, [redacted] [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, the consumer must give a reason why they are rejecting the responseIf the consumer does not provide a reason if he complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: The owner of the business I am currently contracting with told me has had several interactions with Mr [redacted] over the years It is this new company who winterized my pool, and is doing the current repair work He told me it is such poor workmanship, that if it had been his company who applied this plaster, he would be redoing it free of charge right now He told me, "I thought [redacted] knew better than this." He said that the light fixture was never sealed, and that was a major source of the water leak It was sealed just a few days ago by this new company He is the one that pumped the remaining feet of water out of my pool, and said that it appears as though Pelican Pools used a white plaster that they mixed the colored pigment into unevenly He is going to re-plaster my steps since they are very badly cracked, but said he would not be able to match the plaster job because "[He] could not do that bad of a job if [he] tried" He is repairing my pool, so I no longer require Mr ***'s services, but the fact still remains that he did a very poor job, has poor customer service, and he trying to collect money that is not owed to him Not all of our conversations Mr [redacted] and my husband and I had were via e-mail If he will recall, he was at our house on several occasions and we conversed in person It was then that we agreed to have him do the work, it was then that he told us that it would be a waste of money to apply the lining under the plaster, and it was then that my husband asked him to leave the filter, and that he took back several supplies that he said he would credit us for It was also at my house that he gave me the balance for the work that he did, and I wrote him the check at that time After that, he came back and told me that he hadn't charged me for all the supplies, and he used his own gas and time to purchase them, so we owed him more money I e-mailed him about the credits he owed us, and he claimed to have never received that e-mail So, if he is trying to imply that no conversations occurred if they were not written, he is incorrect I never told his employees how to do their job, nor could I since we couldn't communicate in the same language, but as a consumer, I have every right to ask about something that was so glaringly obliviously wrong He said he asks his employees to pretend as though they don't speak English So, if this is true, and they actually so speak English, then it is poor customer service to pretend they don't so they can ignore customer's inquires As far as having his phone on him, I did call to ask about the unevenness of the plaster, and next I knew he was at my home filling the pool with water He said that the pigment would even out when the water was in the pool It never did So, I will admit to partially emptying the pool because I was fearful that the leaking water would end up under my home's foundation and cause structural damage However, I never would've had to drain water if the light had been sealed in the first place, thereby preventing substantial water loss Some of the plaster has hairline cracks that were caused by having the waterline low, but the bottom steps remained completely submerged until this new pool company drained the remainder of the water, and it is the bottom step that has severe cracks I am told that no major damage was done as a result of having the water drained, and most should be fine when it is refilled, with the exception of the steps Also, the unevenness of the plaster had absolutely nothing to do with the waterline in the pool If Mr [redacted] hadn't decided to ignore my attempts to contact him, as he has admitted to, then a lot of this damage would've been prevented To date, he can have no idea the condition of the pool since he has refused to respond to my attempts to contact him, and failed to come to our scheduled meeting since he "decided not to make a site visit." As far as owing Mr [redacted] more money, here is exactly what happened On 7/22/he gave me an invoice for $5,299.99, but I had already paid $at before he began work So, the remainder was $2, I accidentally wrote the value of my check for $2,699.99, ($over), and this is what was drafted from my checking account On 8/4/I received another invoice for $ I e-mailed Mr [redacted] to let him know that I would be sending $balance, since I had already made an over payment of $ He never responded to that e-mail, so I sent him a letter enclosed with the check He then told me that it just so happened that I somehow managed to write the correct amount of the check for $2,699.99, and I would still owe him $for supplies, and his gas and time Se seems to forget that he took back a lot of the supplies that he purchased because they were "not the right stuff, and never replaced or credited us (See attachment, but please forgive the quality as they are screen-shots) Regards, [redacted] [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, the consumer must give a reason why they are rejecting the responseIf the consumer does not provide a reason if he complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

With respect, I must disagree to the interpretation Ms [redacted] has given as to how I managed her project and to the level of professionalism and competence my employees exhibited at her site If she will refer back to her email to me dated July 12, 2013, in her own words, "The pool is nearly empty, and will be completely so soon, and is in need of may(sp) repairs It is cracked, it had a major leak, and it needs replastering." These are her words, not a vague memory of a conversation we might have had on the job site I provided repairs for her project that were required and mutually agreed upon and made no attempt to encourge unnessesary repairs I am dismayed with Ms [redacted] 's obvious disdain for my employees especially because I also have an email dated July 25, in which she compliments the work my employees had done to that point on her project My employees have worked in the pool industry for many years and are quite competent in the application of plaster material They are educated, professional, hard working menThey are, however, unaccustomed to taking orders from anyone who has never prepared or applied plaster to pool surfaces Ms [redacted] could not have known that she was questioning an application and process which these men have perfected and applied beautifully on countless pool surfacesWhy Ms [redacted] was attempting to communicate with my employees instead of with me, is a myster I have gone to considerable effort to ensure that my customers have access to me each day when I visit the site and because I provide my cell phone and email for direct communication No professional company would ask their labor force to address the concerns or questions of a customer simply because of the possibility for misunderstandings to arise whenever a third party is involved No, I firmly believe all communications should rest between myself and my customer and this has served me well for the years I have worked in the pool industry I respect Ms [redacted] 's hispanic heritage as my wife is also hispanic I can also share that my wife is able to converse easily in english with my employees and they with her Ms [redacted] is unwilling to understand that when my employees are working, they remain focused and diligent in their task and are unaccustomed to defending the very process which after so much time and experience has become second nature to themThe finished product, as was explained to her, always appears differently when the pool is filled, but remains true in color and textureMs [redacted] confirmed her approval of the plaster once the pool was filled With regard to an email she allegedly sent requesting the whereabouts of the old filter, I have received no such correspondence Further, her insistence that she contacted me on several occasions regarding discoloration, water loss, or winterizing the pool are just not based in fact Ms [redacted] 's complaints, if they were valid and had been made known to me prior to this complaint, would have been addressed, contrary to her assertion that she was somehow ignored However, in the many attempts I have made to collect a balance for work done on this project from Ms [redacted] , it would appear I have been the one to be ignored as I have been unable to connect with herMs [redacted] was provided with an accurate and detailed invoice which she has refused to pay Because I have no way of knowing how or if the pool was winterized corretly, if chemicals were monitored and applied appropriately, and how routine maintenance was conducted, it is my belief that her current problems more likely are a result of inappropriate care by the customer While I am unaware of what company she has contracted to work on her pool now, nor if their methods may result in unnecessary work to be performed in an attempt to achieve expectations which can not be met by this customer, I stand proudly by our work A comment made of "substandard" workmanship or the alleged insinuation that poor technique was used in mixing and application of the plaster is inaccurate but from what I understand, a common practice among some companies to secure workI can only say how perpelexed I am that Ms [redacted] would choose to lodge a complaint with no basis in fact and further, that her motive for doing so is beyond my understanding

I am [redacted], President of Pelican Pools LLC and I personally contracted with this customer. I will address the correct facts of this complaint first and then the falsehoods in this complaint. The pool in question had been leaking previously, was  nearly empty and unused for quite...

some time prior to our contract and the structural shell had considerable cracking. As I do in every similar case I explained to the customer that we are not responsible for the condition of the pool shell. We employed industry standard methods,(which are successful in roughly 80% of these similar cases), to prepare the surface for replastering and seal the existing cracks with construction epoxy prior to the application of the "Bond coat". It was made clear to the owners that there was a chance that the structural shell of the pool  was incapable of holding water. In an email dated 7/12/13 the owner informed me that " I got your information from [redacted] pumping and he told me he told you about our mess of a pool. The pool is nearly empty and will be completely so soon. It is crackedit had a major leak and needs replastering." On 7/16/13 she wrote "another company had recommended a "rubber liner" under the plaster coat. What do you think about this and what would it cost". My response was to tell her that an elastomeric coating underneath the plaster would add $675 to the cost and is advisable on shells where we know the water loss is substantial. The bond coat we use prior to plaster is a waterproofing layer anyway and most pools with a mild amount of water loss are cured without the elastomeric". I gave her my opinion that it was advisable, I gave her the price. Her next response was only to tell me what color they chose for the plaster. Nothing about the elastomeric.
    Next lets address the mottling of the colored plaster she is referring to. Every hand trowelled colored plaster has variation in the color. There are lighter areas and darker areas. It is the nature of the product. In restaurants they call this a faux finish and peoile love it. It is an artistic element in  the pool plaster as well. Some people just don't get it. One major motivation to adding the color to their plaster is the fact that they are on well water that has a very higfh mineral content. The Iron and Manganese in their well water reacts to chlorine by turning a rust/brown color and it stains the plaster. The plaster coloring helps to disguise the staining but there is need of chemicals added to the poool to help remove the metals. The cartridge filter we installed is more than sufficient for a pool with 13,000 gallons In fact the specs say it can filter 45,000 gallons in six hours. The problem is the water condition. This rust created by the oxidized metals requires regular cleaning and maintenance. Something that was explained to this customer. When she called and asked that the old filter be lft there. it had already been removed and dumped. She was too late with her request.
    As to my employees and their inability to speak english. I insist that my workers not discuss the work they are doing. Many times customers will try to get on-site people to do work that is outside the scope of the contract. They do speak english. I ask them to pretend not to so that the customer has to communicate with me. That way I keep contol of what is to be done. They also were able to understand her attitude toward them and they did not like it.
   Now to the falsehoods in Ms. [redacted]'s remarks. 1. I reviewed my email contacts from her and did not receive the emails about water loss that she is referring to. 2. She claims we did not show up to winterize the pool. This is because she never called to ask to have the pool winterized. She knew she owed the $400 and I have received no contact from her until  her call 2 weeks ago. She informed me that she had drained the pool 10 days earlier because the pool was leaking. I asked her why she drained it before calling me. She said because she did'nt want it leaking anymore. When I told her that pool plaster needs to be maintained full of water or the plaster will crack she said it's already cracked. At that point I realized the pool shell had not held and that there was nothing I could do for her. I was unable to make it back from Santa fe before dark the day she called and after reviewing her situation and the fact that she never fully paid, I decided not to make a site visit.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
The response that Mr [redacted] sent in response to my complaint has numerous inaccuracies.  The pool that he "repaired" last summer did NOT have a leak previously.  As a matter of fact, it was drained by the company [redacted] Plumbing that was mentioned by Mr [redacted].  The reason we had it re-plastered was that the pool had been sitting with stagnant water for over a year, and there was dark staining of the plaster.  It was for purely cosmetic reasons that we wanted the plaster replaced.  The only visible major cracks were  located at the top of the pool on some of  the tiles.  We had a supply of extra tiles in our garage, and Pelican Pools used those to replace the damaged tiles.  I did have other estimates from other companies for working on our pool, and some did mention placing a rubber liner, but Mr [redacted] told us that since there seemed to be no structural damage to the pool, that it would be a waste of money.  Third, when I picked the color of the plaster that  I wanted for my pool from the website that Mr [redacted] directed me to, it mentioned nothing about a "faux finish."  I do not like faux finishes, as they look very cheap, and if he had mentioned that that's what the finished product were going to look like, I would never have told him to proceed.  At any rate, it is not a "faux finish," it is a poorly executed finish, and there are many are that are missing pigment all together (please see attached picture). When I tied to tell his workers that I did not like the uneven coats they were applying to my pool ,they did not understand a single word that I was saying.  It would be ridiculous to think that a business has ethics that promote employees  ignoring their customers' concerns by pretending not to understand the English language.   I genuinely believe that the employees were not acting at all, as they had absolutely no idea what I was asking.  I know this, because as a Hispanic woman who was raised by my grandparents whom spoke very little English, I had to understand a great deal of the spoken Spanish language, however,  I cannot formulate sentences well enough to relay my meaning in Spanish.  If you want to verify this, I can have you call any number of my family members, or if you want to call me we can speak Spanish; we can converse, but I will be replying in English only.  When I was speaking to the workers, they were trying to ask each other in Spanish  what I was saying, and had no idea.  I gave up, and contacted Mr [redacted] directly.  His response to that was to show up at my house and begin filling the pool with water through a filter that he had rigged up that would supposedly take out a great deal of the minerals in our water.  I asked him about the unevenness of the plaster, and he told me it was a pigment,not a paint, so it would even out when the water was in the pool.  It never did.  
I will take his word that the filter he sold us is supposed to be adequate to filter a pool our size, was just going by what the other pool company said when they came to winterize our pool.  They said that the filter in question was about half the size that was needed for our pool, and that's why it kept shutting down.  As for the filer that was removed from our property without permission, it was still a good working filter, and my husband told Mr [redacted] that he wanted to keep it after it was replaced, but it was removed anyway.  I sent an e-mail to his asking where it was after they left our property, and he told me his workers disposed of it.  So, did not ask for it to be kept after-the fact, but my husband asked beforehand, and out request was ignored.  
I contacted Mr [redacted] on several occasions about discoloration, water loss, winterizing the pool, only to have all my requests ignored.  Mr [redacted] has in the past told me that he does not get all of my e-mails, but I do not know if this is true or not.  As far as owing him money, he seems to forget that he took back several of the supplies he had purchased for us and promised to give us credit for.  He also forgot that he took our filter.  At any rate,  last time he was at my house, he gave me the payoff amount of $505.73.  After the fact, he told me via e-mail that I owed him more money for supplies since he used his own time, gas, and discounts to get us supplies, but he forgot to give us credit for all the other supplies he took back.  
I currently have a company at my house making the repairs to my pool.  I do not trust Pelican Pools to do a good job.  The pool company described the job that pelican Pools did as "substandard" and poor workmanship.  they also said that the light fixture was not correctly sealed, and that is one source of the leaking water.  The mottling of the plaster was said to be due to poor mixing technique, and uneven application.  It is true that I drained a great deal of the water from my pool because I feared that the water leaking under my housing foundation.  It was not completely drained, and the company working on my pool just drained the remaining  2 feet of water from my pool yesterday.  When I contacted  Mr [redacted] a few weeks ago ,I said that it was "ALMOST a week" since the I drained some of the water , NOT over a week, and most certainly NOT 10 days.  
So, Mr [redacted] admittedly admits  ignoring my requests to come out and try to rectify the situation.  In my opinion, he is a very poor businessman.  
Regards,
[redacted]
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, the consumer must give a reason why they are rejecting the response. If the consumer does not provide a reason if he complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

With respect, I must disagree to the interpretation Ms. [redacted] has given as to how I managed her project and to the level of  professionalism and competence my employees exhibited at her site.    If she will refer back to her email to me dated July 12, 2013, in her own words, "The pool is nearly empty, and will be completely so soon, and is in need of may(sp) repairs.  It is cracked, it had a major leak, and it needs replastering."  These are her words, not a vague memory of a conversation we might have had on the job site.  I provided repairs for her project that were required and mutually agreed upon and made no attempt to encourge unnessesary repairs.   I am dismayed with Ms. [redacted]'s obvious disdain for my employees especially because I also have an email dated July 25, 2013 in which she compliments the work my employees had done to that point on her project.  My employees have worked in the pool industry for many years and are quite competent in the application of plaster material.  They are educated, professional, hard working men. They are, however, unaccustomed to taking orders from anyone who has never prepared or applied plaster to pool surfaces.  Ms. [redacted] could not have known that she was questioning an application and process which these men have perfected and applied beautifully on countless pool surfaces. Why Ms. [redacted] was attempting to communicate with my employees instead of with me, is a myster.   I have gone to considerable effort to ensure that my customers have access to me each day when I visit the site and because  I provide my cell phone and email for direct communication.   No professional company would ask their labor force to address the concerns or questions of a customer simply because of the possibility for misunderstandings to arise whenever a third party is involved.  No, I firmly believe all communications should rest between myself and my customer and this has served me well for the 35 years I have worked in the pool industry.  I respect Ms. [redacted]'s hispanic heritage as my wife is also hispanic.  I can also share that my wife is able to converse easily in english with my employees and they with her.  Ms. [redacted] is unwilling to understand that when my employees are working, they remain focused and diligent in their task and are unaccustomed to defending the very process which after so much time and experience has become second nature to them. The finished product, as was explained to her, always appears differently when the pool is filled, but remains true in color and texture. Ms. [redacted] confirmed her approval of the plaster once the pool was filled.  With regard to an email she allegedly sent requesting  the whereabouts of the old filter, I have received no such correspondence.  Further, her insistence that she contacted me on several occasions regarding discoloration, water loss, or winterizing the pool are just not based in fact.  Ms. [redacted]'s complaints, if they were valid and had been made known to me prior to this complaint, would have been addressed, contrary to her assertion that she was somehow ignored.  However, in the many attempts I have made to collect a balance for work done on this project from Ms. [redacted], it would appear I have been the one to be ignored as I have been unable to connect with her. Ms. [redacted] was provided with an accurate and detailed invoice which she has refused to pay.  Because I have no way of knowing how or if the pool was winterized corretly, if chemicals were monitored and applied appropriately, and how routine maintenance was conducted, it is my belief that her current problems more likely are a result of inappropriate care by the customer.  While I am unaware of what company she has contracted to  work on her pool now,  nor if  their methods may result in unnecessary work to be performed in an attempt to achieve expectations which can not be met by this customer,  I stand proudly by our work.   A comment made of "substandard" workmanship or the alleged insinuation that poor technique was used in mixing and application of the plaster is inaccurate but from what I understand, a common practice among some companies to secure work. I can only say how perpelexed I am that Ms. [redacted] would choose to  lodge a complaint with no basis in fact and further,  that her  motive for doing so is beyond my understanding.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
The owner of the business I am currently contracting with told me has had several interactions with Mr [redacted] over the years.  It is this new company who winterized my pool, and is doing the current repair work.  He told me it is such poor workmanship, that if it had been his company who applied this plaster, he would be redoing it free of charge right now.  He told me, "I thought [redacted] knew better than this."  He said that the light fixture was never sealed, and that was a major source of the water leak.  It was sealed just a few days ago by this new company.  He is the one that pumped the remaining 2 feet of water out of my pool, and said that it appears as though Pelican Pools used a white plaster that they mixed the colored pigment into unevenly.  He is going to re-plaster my steps since they are very badly cracked, but said he would not be able to match the plaster job because "[He] could not do that bad of a job if [he] tried".  He is repairing my pool, so I no longer require Mr [redacted]'s services, but the fact still remains that he did a very poor job,  has poor customer service, and he trying to collect money that is not owed to him.  
Not all of our conversations Mr [redacted] and my husband and I had were via e-mail.  If he will recall, he was at our house on several occasions and we conversed in person.  It was then that we agreed to have him do the work, it was then that he told us that it would be a waste of money to apply the lining under the plaster, and it was then that my husband asked him to leave the filter, and that he took back several supplies that he said he would credit us for.  It was also at my house that he gave me the balance for the work that he did, and I wrote him the check at that time.  After that, he came back and told me that he hadn't charged me for all the supplies, and he used his own gas and time to purchase them, so we owed him more money.  I e-mailed him about the credits he owed us, and he claimed to have never received that e-mail.   So,  if he is trying to imply that no conversations occurred if they were not written, he is incorrect.  I never told his employees how to do their job, nor could I since we couldn't communicate in the same language, but as a consumer, I have every right to ask about something that was so glaringly obliviously wrong.  He said he asks his employees to pretend as though they don't speak English.  So,  if this is true, and they actually so speak English, then it is poor customer service to pretend they don't so they can ignore customer's inquires.  As far as having his phone on him, I did call to ask about the unevenness of the plaster, and next I knew he was at my home filling the pool with water.  He said that the pigment would even out when the water was in the pool.  It never did.  
So, I will admit to partially emptying the pool because I was fearful that the leaking water would end up under my home's foundation and cause structural damage.  However, I never would've had to drain water if the light had been sealed in the first place, thereby preventing substantial water loss.  Some of the plaster has hairline cracks that were caused by having the waterline low, but the bottom 2 steps remained completely submerged until this new pool company drained the remainder of the water, and it is the bottom step that has severe cracks.  I am told that no major damage was done as a result of having the water drained, and most should be fine when it is refilled, with the exception of the steps.  Also, the unevenness of the plaster had absolutely nothing to do with the waterline in the pool.  If Mr [redacted] hadn't decided to ignore my attempts to contact him, as he has admitted to, then a lot of this damage would've been prevented.  To date, he can have no idea the condition of the pool since he has refused to respond to my attempts to contact him, and failed to come to our scheduled meeting since he "decided not to make a site visit."
 
As far as owing Mr [redacted] more money, here is exactly what happened.  On 7/22/13 he gave me an invoice for $5,299.99, but I had already paid $3000.00 at before he began work.  So, the remainder was $2,299.99.  I accidentally wrote the  value of my check for $2,699.99, ($400 over), and this is what was drafted from my checking account.  On 8/4/13 I received another invoice for $905.73.  I e-mailed Mr [redacted] to let him know that I would be sending $505.73 balance, since I had already made an over payment of $400.00.  He never responded to that e-mail, so I sent him a letter enclosed with the check.  He then told me that it just so happened that I somehow managed to write the correct amount of the check for $2,699.99, and I would still owe him $400.00 for supplies, and his gas and time.  Se seems to forget that he took back a lot of the supplies that he purchased because they were "not the right stuff, and never replaced or credited us.  (See attachment, but please forgive the quality as they are screen-shots).
Regards,
[redacted]
 
 [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, the consumer must give a reason why they are rejecting the response. If the consumer does not provide a reason if he complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]