Thurman Pools

As last year, we had trouble getting ahold of Thurman. When we did, he told us everything we were to do to prepare for his crew to close the pool on the scheduled day. We did our part, then they did not show up as scheduled. We tried to contact him for two days, leaving repeated messages for him to call. He did not contact us. Very unprofessional. We are going to find an alternative or do it all ourselves.

We went through all the details with them about where we wanted the pool, the pool equipment and other details. The first days were fine and then it started going down hill. The workers would show up whenever. We had no idea from one day to the next if we would see anyone. The company does not communicate with you at all and getting information is like pulling teeth. When we did try to talk and ask questions we were treated like we were idiots by the owner of the company. We were told the job would take about a month to complete. The initial contact with them was a proposal on 7-21-2011. The contract was signed on 8-20-2011. The first payment was given when the pool was dug and it was on 9-1-2011. Final payment was given on 11-1-2011. We closed the pool as soon as it was filled and did not even get to use it. If there was a shortcut or less work they would take it. We wanted the pool filter and equipment to be on the back patio in the corner as we planned on placing a deck on the back of our home. The pool equipment was placed where they did not have to remove any concrete and in the way of where our deck was going to go. This was done while we were not home and had been discussed prior to placement. When we complained about this all we got was " Well don't know what to tell you". Should have pushed the issue but didn't. The first season in 2012 was HORRIBLE!!! a lot of tears were shed as the pool was hard to take care of. There was something coming in the pool from the jets. It was a white flaky substance. No one could tell us what it was or how to get rid of it. Thoughts were that it might be calcium because the calcium level in the pool was 1000. Many, many chemicals were bought with no help at all. I hand vacuumed every day although we had an automatic pool cleaner that we had purchased from Thurman when the pool was built. The pool cleaner did not work right and had to be replaced. I was sent down to Blue Water to take care of this myself, Thurman never came to look at it or bring me a new one. He just told me to load it up and take it to Blue Water. We had the problem with the filter from day one. We asked Thurman about it when he came to pick up the final payment and he wrote on our contract, "Note: Fix filter in Spring of 2012 or replace and plumb". This never happened and He would not return any of our phone calls. We were asked by many people if we had filled with well water. We had as we were not told by Thurman otherwise. We have well and city water and could have used city which would have saved some problems and hundreds of dollars on chemicals. Pool was closed down by a man a friend of mine recommended. When he pulled the plug on the filter to drain it a lot of sand come out. Enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket. The man said this was not right and only eater should have some out. He said he thought maybe the laterals inside the filter were broke. Called Thurman again and Thurman said the man that drained the filter unscrewed the large plug instead of the small plug on the top of the large one. He said the large one was for draining the sand and the small was for draining water. We took him at his word. End of this season:( Pool opening in 2013. Called a company to come open the pool. They showed up and when I went to uncover the automatic cover all the electricity would stop to the pool. The pool guy left and I called the electrician who did the wiring for the pool when it was built. He came right over. While checking the equipment the breaker would flip and then not work at all. He went to the automatic pool cover motor and what he came up with was very scary. When the motor for the cover was placed there was to much wiring underneath and the bundle of wires got caught and cut almost in half. Had the equipment not been working correctly and blowing the breaker we could have been electrocuted. When the electrician fixed the wiring he brought to me the cut wiring which he said had looked already cut in another area and some sort of a substance was placed around it in an attempt to fix it and reuse it. Not sure what all this meant but oh well another problem fixed! Pool opened and from day one pure h*** again!!! The water would not clear it was so cloudy you could not even see the bottom. Tried taking water samples to different placed and adding MANY chemicals. Water would still not clear up. Pretty sure it was the filter I called Thurman. He told me he did not know what to tell me and said he would not be able to get to it as he was way to busy. I reminded him of the comment he wrote on our contract about fixing the filter in 2012. He still would not help. I told my husband what he had said and my husband called him. Thurman listened to him and then said he would have to call him back. Thurman NEVER called and avoided our phone calls for almost a week. I got the paperwork for the filter which said it was a Hayward 26" filter and called Hayward. I was sent through the troubleshooting dept. and the man said it sounded as if there were laterals in the filter broke or it had been filled with the wrong sand. He advised me to call a Hayward warranty repair person, which happened to be Ultra Modern Pool and Patio. A serviceman came out and looked at the filter. He stated the multi-port valve was fine so it had to be the laterals on the inside. He said he would get the parts ordered and we could go from there. The man at Hayward (Derek) was very nice and apologized for the problems with the filter he stated he would cover it under warranty with no problems. The part was ordered and took a over a month to come in and then another week for them to come out and put it in. When the filter was opened up there was hardly any sand in it. The main laterals and the part that was ordered was fine but was replaced with the new one anyway. The lateral that was going to drain the filter did have a big hole in it and that was the reason all the sand kept coming out of the filter when draining it. This would take another 2-3 weeks to get someone back out there so we opted not to fix it at this time and use a small kitchen strainer when draining the filter. We are already into late July and had not been in our pool at all! In the meantime with all this, we had bugged Thurman enough to come out an take a look. He said it was not our filter and said he would pay to have one of the pool companies he is good friends with to come out and look at it. The man came out and said the same thing about the plug on the filter as