Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  07/01/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Southern pools took over a year to build our pool and outsourced all of their workers from different companies. Our pavers have been sinking since day 1. The company was told about the problem and had the company that installed them come back to correct the problem but it has continued to happen and now we are out of warranty. ************** is horrible to deal with and avoids the customer at all costs. I dont know what my options are at this point.

  Business response

  07/03/2024

  The customer filing this complaint has not reached out to our company since November 2022 when a Service/Warranty form was submitted regarding a loose housing on her pool pump.  That issue was quickly resolved.  We were unaware of any concerns with the pool until this complaint was posted yesterday...
  
  
  If the desired outcome of this complaint is for the pool deck pavers to be reset, why hasn't the customer called us, emailed us or gone to our website and completed our online Service/Warranty form?  Instead, she has chosen to weaponize social media and the BBB platform.  Why?  Because she knows that her failure to proactively contact us has enabled her warranty to expire -- so she is trying to use a negative review as "leverage" to have us perform service work for free.  She tried this same approach a few years ago with a previous BBB complaint.  In our opinion, the Better Business Bureau should be a resource -- a last resort if you will -- for customers who have first reached out to the company, but are not getting a response or a resolution.
  
  
  Deck pavers, as we educate all of our customers, are prone to sinking depending on lot and soil conditions -- which the company does not control.
  
  
  The customer signed a contract for the pool in February 2021 and took 4 months to provide us with a deposit so that we could begin working on the pool.  This fact does not get mentioned in her reference to a one year build time.  We also built her pool during COVID, so there were delays with materials, etc. (as other industries experienced), but we are proud of our build time -- and more importantly the quality of the pool.
  
  
  Our company uses a blend of employees and subcontractors to complete our projects.  We've been building award-winning pools for 27 years with that model and we share that information with every customer.  Her reference to this fact in her complaint has no direct correlation to pool deck pavers.
  
  
  As far as personal attacks on our staff, we feel this is a form of online bullying and has no place on the Better Business Bureau platform.  Nor does her personal attack have any correlation to the alleged issue she references.  We as a society can and should do better than this.

  Customer response

  07/03/2024

   
  Complaint: 21929385
  
  I am rejecting this response because: there is no attempted resolution to the problem stated only excuses which have been typical from this business which is why I opted this route instead of contacting the business in the first place. The fact that I contacted the BBB in the past just goes to show that this business does not value customer service only when money is owed or a complaint is left. Please let me know how you would like to resolve this issue which is the reason I am contacting the BBB.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

  Business response

  07/10/2024

  Our Service/Warranty team stands ready to assist all customers -- those both in and out of warranty.  If the customer will process a Service/Warranty claim via our website, which is standard procedure, we can actually get detailed information (pictures, videos, etc.) that will enable us to process a price quote and schedule an onsite visit.

• Initial Complaint

  05/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was charged 140,000$ and promised luxury service for a pool installation. They consistently missed deadlines, they never communicated and hilt elements of the pool completely wrong. Their job site was messy and they ruined my furnitures and broke my fire table. I have requested items to be fixed and they just abandoned the job site unfinished.

  Business response

  06/23/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2022/05/26) */ Southern Pool Designs has completed the pool; provided Pool School to the customer and passed the final pool inspection. The project would have been completed several months earlier if the customer hadn't wasted two months by writing bad checks. Under Florida law, it is both a civil and criminal offense to issue a check that has insufficient funds (ie. "write a bad check"). While we didn't pursue criminal charges, we did lose at least 2 months of billable time due to the bounced checks. Here is a timeline of the customer's payment activity with us: 10/26/21 - Customer was billed for tile draw 11/17/21 - Customer wrote the check out wrong 11//22/21 - Corrected check was secured, but bank notified us of customer's NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds) 12/6/21 - Customer wrote a 2nd check to us 12/9/21 - Bank notified us again of customer's NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds) 12/14/21 - Customer emailed us stating they had now initiated a wire transfer for the funds owed 12/16/21 - Customer contacted us to tell us their wire was "returned" and did not go through 12/21/21 - Customer's 2nd wire transfer finally processed The contract that the customer signed with us is a 2-way document. Both parties need to honor their contractual obligations -- which includes making timely payments. Unfortunately, even though we designed and built them a beautiful pool, they are refusing to make their final payment to us. The irony here is that the customer was never interested in the pool. A day after we completed the pool the customer put their house on the market.

• Initial Complaint

  03/18/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  concrete placed around the pavers for pool is thin and not really holding, One side already fell off and the pavers had to be adjusted when stepped on it and fell. Company will address that there's no retaining wall in my contract however they failed to communicate with me of issue on multiple occasions. Designer wasn't aware when she quoted me of the elevation and I had no idea when we started the project that we would have that big of a drop in elevation. I had two project managers come over for the first site visit (in MAY OF 2021) and took measurements of everything (including elevation) and inspected the property. THAT's when the conversation should have been had that it would be extra cost because we would need a retaining wall. No conversation was had. Then they sent a mason here to correct the mistakes the previous tile company made (after 3 months of my project being at a complete standstill) he also noticed that the way it was wouldn't work and wasn't safe. That information was to be passed on again to their GM I sent a final email myself to my project manager attaching the GM to it with my concern. Project manager acknowledged (GM once again did not) Finally reached out to the owner of the company with last resort for resolution as final inspection was made (which failed as predicted) and was once again advised that this wasn't part of my contract therefore I need to pay for it. I fail to see how the lack of their communication to begin with now causes me extra cost on something they should have dealt with in the first place. The lack of professionalism and communication with this is beyond unprofessional and When trying my final attempt to get it resolved I was answered with "I will be out of town tomorrow for the weekend. I'll address this when I get back."

  Business response

  04/22/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/04/01) */ Retainage is required or beneficial on some of our projects but at the encouragement of our customers we work to find alternative solutions because they typically don't want to pay for retainage. This is the case here. Our alternative solution is not meeting the customers needs and we have been giving them suggestions on retainage that should meet their needs. However, they now expect us to pay for the retainage and have used this BBB complaint as "leverage "to entice us to pay in exchange for removing the complaint. This is not only unprofessional, but we feel is unethical. On another matter, during the construction of their pool, the customer hired an unnamed company/individual to build steps leading off the back of their pool. This work was illegally done under our license and permit. The step work, under the supervision of the customer, did not meet safety codes and caused us to fail an inspection. The failed inspection cost us additional fees. The customer also used material that was ordered for the deck to build the steps. This caused us to order more deck material at our expense. We are currently pursuing our options regarding this clear violation. Any required retainage - whether needed at the beginning or end of a project - is the responsibility of the homeowner. This is clearly stated in our contract and on all proposals. We stand ready to assist the customer with their retainage as we prefer to focus on solutions. However we will not be unethically coerced to deviate from our contractual obligations.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩