sj oldfield

The bloke from the council rocked up just as I was reversing off the drive, on my way to work. Got out the car to enquire as to who he was, and he explained he was here to approve shire. Told him I was just on my way to work and could he call another day. He said, 'dont worry, I will just peer over the fence'
Strongly advised him not to do that as Lampard and Chelsea were in the garden and they would throw themselves at the fence to 'get him'
Ok he said............and sat in his car where he 'approved' the pool!!!!!!!!!!!

sj oldfield

Update............got home from work monday and the pool is in.
Told to quarter fill it with water, which we start to do.
We then look at the pool and see 3 small jets either side of the pool. Look at our contracr. We wanted a water feature and had opted for 6 fountains, that sit just outside the pool and squirt water up and over the pool. Can see straight away that these jets are in the wrong place.
Mick immediately turns the water off as he is also getting pissed off. We decide that if we can get get it sorted they can have their pool back!!!!
Call the head office who state we had ordered and paid for spa jets, I promtly inform them that the salesman showed us the water feature jets and thats what we ordered...........they then replied the watre feature jets were $1000 and we had paid $600 for spa jets. Told them that I already had a spa in my garden so why would I want to pay $600 for additional jets!!!!
I then added that we had been mis-sold and intended to pursue it.
Next day get a phone call saying they would put the fountain jets in at no extra cost..........................

harveyhare

Sandra when its all finished invite them round and drown the bastards

Di

Scossie

Hi Sandra,

Sorry to hear a bout your bad experience.
As you know, I quoted for your pool last September but you chose to go with another company. Fair enough...

You'll see in our quote that we state that if we encounter any unforeseen things, (Rock, Services etc.) during the dig then there will be an extra charge. We have to state that otherwise as a small company we would end up in financial strife if the cost blows out.
Imagine it happening on 5 jobs in a row! We'd go under!

As themerlin said, the dig is really the only thing where there could be a major additional cost cos you just don't know what you'll hit until you dig.

I have to say that on most of our jobs we've been lucky and there have been no additional charges needed.

I'll give you a run down of the way we do things...

Bobcat: We have a deal with our bobcat guy that he charges us the same for every job whether it's a 4 x 3 or a 10 x 4 pool. (I quoted you for a 6 x 4).
Sometimes he wins on the deal and sometimes not but it pretty much evens itself out. What I'm saying is that he can't charge us extra so we never need to pass on the charge.

Tip fees: A strange and bizarre thing indeed! Unavoidable though, no matter which pool company you use. They are a pain for us as it's hard for us to explain to customers why they are charged, and I don't blame them for wondering!
Generally there are no tip fees if the dig is clean sand.
If the bobcat has to take away grass you get tip fees.
I remember telling you this. I must admit though I've never heard of someone being asked to hire a bin like you've had to.
Tip fees will also be charged if there is rubble of rock in the load.

I don't know about other companies but we don't make a cent from tip fees. They are charged to the bobcat driver from the tip when he offloads, and we give our customers the option of paying them directly to the bobcat driver on the day or paying them to us. If it is the latter then we then just pay them to the bobcat driver.

Boards for your driveway: We normally provide them free.

Bobcat guy getting you to move the pool: This is not only leaving yourself wide open to grief from the council. I'd also say that he was just trying to make life easier for himself. He has to dig a ramp for himself to get in and out of the pool which is normally about 2 meters long. If he's working by the hour then it may have been less awkward for him to get you to move the pool. In any case there is no way he can authorise a 2m move of the pool himself without the pool company's permission.

As for Centurion's comments that we're all rip off bastards, if that's what you think.... Fine....
Nothing like a bit of generalising and stereotyping is there?

We've ripped ourselves off trying to do the right thing by our customers more than the other way around in the last couple of years!

Anyway Sandra, now that the dig is over everything else should go pretty much as quoted for.
PM me if you want with the name of the company you went with & I'll probably be able to tell you what they're generally like....

Cheers... John....

sj oldfield

[QUOTE=Scossie;4546031]Hi Sandra,

Sorry to hear a bout your bad experience.
As you know, I quoted for your pool last September but you chose to go with another company. Fair enough...

Hi scossie,

I did get your quote, then Mick decided he wanted to go for a longer pool rather than a shaped one.
I did email you asking for a quote...............but didnt hear no more..............I presumed you were too busy!!!

Scossie

Hmmmm.... Very strange!!!
I actually sent your quote off twice...

Anyway... I've sent you a PM.

sj oldfield

Wednesday morning get woken by the dogs going berserk at the door.........its 6.45am, and I HATE being woken early. Chuck some clothes on, open the door. Young bloke informs me he is here to do the 'pencil compacting'. Open the garage door to let him get on with it.
Ten minutes later he is back. He tells me there is not enough water in the pool, and the backfill hasnt been done yet so he can not do the compacting.
I was half asleep when I opened the door so didnt really listen to what he says.

Apparently the pool people had sent him around to compact the soil that was still piled high all around the garden!!!

Bordy

Air Con in Scotland.

Things have changed since I moved.

Centurion

Seems to be the opinion of most people I have spoken to that have had a pool built and my own. That said, I'm sure decent companies do exist and no doubt yours in one of them. I think the major problem is that its not really spelt out to people what they may end up paying in terms of extras for circumstances out of the ideal, coupled with sub contractors who really just want to make life easier for themselves doing a quicker job and a lack of a single point of contact overseeing the whole project.

Building a house was easy. The pool. Sheesh...I'd rather just dig a hole myself and lin it with binliners next time. At least I'd only be able to blame myself.

I think its just one of those trades areas where there are a lot of unprofessional companies and best of luck to you if your one of the few others and I'm sure you'll do very well for it

themerlin

it will be worth it in the end :0

CadburysFingers

Its pretty simple really, if it says in your contract you are liable for unforseen circumstances, then you may struggle, if it doesnt mention anything like that, then its also simple, dont pay them a penny more than you agreed, you will have all the power once the pool is in place (I presume you did agree a payment in stages deal) When the final payment is due, knock off all your additional expenses and give them the balance they are owed.

We had similar experiences with electrical contracters, and a smart wiring company.
Both ripped us off by charging us for their mistakes,
Both were paid EXACTLY what we had agreed beforehand and not a penny more,
Both said they would sue to recover the balance,
Both didnt sue, just threatened, thinking we would buckle!
Just stand your ground.

CadburysFingers

Lucky Sandra, its now 10 weeks since I asked you to do us a quote, and I havent heard from you since! Obviously we have someone else doing it now.

Scossie

Sorry about that mate.
I don't seem to have any record of you contacting me.
I always respond to enquiries. Particularly from people on BE.
How did you contact me? Was it an e-mail from my website, PM on here, phone call?

CadburysFingers

I contacted you by a PM on here (which you DID reply to) then I emailed you with more details (to the email address you supplied in your PM answer) which I didnt get a reply to!

Scossie

I've sent you a PM mate.