True North Pools, Inc.

My husband and I have thought about putting in a pool for years. We met with several companies in the area, but never had a good feeling about them. We had heard enough of other people’s bad experiences to make us distrustful of slick salespeople, fancy drawings with hidden costs, and neglectful sub-contractors. We were almost ready to give up when I found True North Pools. From the beginning, I was impressed with Mike’s honesty, experience and pragmatism. His designer presented a beautiful drawing that creatively addressed every one of our wish list items and helped us find ways to bring it within our budget. It was not the least expensive proposal, but it was by far the best value – including beautiful touches like pebble finish and flagstone coping that were upgrades elsewhere. When construction began, Mike oversaw every phase himself, and communicated with us regularly. As newcomers to the process, I feel like we were constantly texting him questions, and he patiently responded to every one. When we requested minor changes in the design (adding decking, etc.), he made it happen and had good practical suggestions to keep costs minimal. I cannot say enough good things about every crew that he sent to our house. Their work ethic and expertise was incredible to watch. They arrived early and worked hard with little to no breaks in all kinds of conditions, including digging the pool when it was snowing! Each crew was professional and conscientious, and they delivered impeccable results. It was fascinating to watch the pool take shape over about 12 weeks and be able to appreciate all of the care and effort that goes into it. I think it makes me love the finished product even more! I am very grateful to Mike and True North Pools for making it such a great experience start-to-finish.

As a younger looking couple, my wife and I are used to not being taken seriously when it comes to large purchases but this was by far the worst. I had read a previous review about True North treating a customer poorly because they did not reside in a million dollar home but I am not one to judge on the words of others so I did not hold that against them. We met with Sally because a Facebook post had mentioned True North Pools and we had never heard of them despite doing a vast search of pool companies. Sally came to our home and was very nice during the initial consultation. I had detailed what we were wanting in my inquiry on their website and reiterated the same to Sally who seemed attentive and knowledgeable. She explained it would take at least 2 weeks to get the design which was no problem. When she came back to meet with us and showed us the design, we thought we were having a productive conversation about our thoughts. When she left she mentioned she would send us the proposal so we could work out a few items to make the design fit our wants and budget. Her initial proposal was not far off from our ideal price but included features we did not request and left off important ones. She had mentioned we did not seem as excited about it as she expected, and though we probably did not appear to be, we in no way said we were displeased with it. It was disappointing that the three things we said were most important were a fire pit, grill, and pool and had we not asked about the grill, we would have never known their "outdoor kitchen" does not include the grill. Also, the design she showed us was not what was priced out. She priced out concrete decking but designed it with upgraded decking. She said she did this because "it looked better". All of this did not make us NOT want to work with her and we were looking forward to receiving the proposal and working the numbers. However, Sally apparently lacks mind reading abilities and assumed we had no intention of working with them as the below attached text states. We even asked about timelines and how soon they would be able to start. We also informed her we had already submitted a loan application to help speed things along. None of this mattered since apparently not walking someone to the door (which I didn't even realize happened) means you have no intention of hiring someone. She mentioned having never been treated so poorly by a customer. This caught us by surprise because we felt we were very accommodating. She had mentioned her computer was dying so we offered several power sources and made sure to offer a seat that was closest to the outlets. I responded to her text explaining her assumptions were not accurate and explained we were not rude and asked questions/discussed the design. She did not respond back. Well Sally, I have never received such a rude message from a salesperson. If you choose to work for a commission only company as you pointed out, you should work on customer service.

Unlike the positive reviews, the experience we had building an in-ground pool qnd spa with True North Pools was vastly different. I hope you take the time to read this long review to avoid the costly mistake we made by choosing True North Pools. Jonathan, the salesperson, created an excellent design for our backyard (which is part of the reason we went with True North Pools), but once we signed the contract, Jonathan vanished, and it was a downward spiral from there. At our initial meeting, Mike, the owner, seemed disinterested in our project, at which point we probably should have taken this as a sign to back out of the contract. Our biggest issue with Mike was his lack of communication - he failed to respond to our calls, text messages, and emails. We had to be very persistent, and sometimes the only way for us to get in touch with him was to call from an unknown number. We signed the contract in April of 2019 and digging started in May, but our pool wasn’t ready to be plastered and filled until the end of September. Part of the reason for the delay was we needed to order a special glass tile for our negative edge spa. After not hearing from Mike for several weeks to a month, we finally heard from him that he forgot to order this tile. We understand that mistakes can be made, but a simple message letting us know what’s going on would have been appreciated. On a positive note, once the tile installer, Enrique, finally showed up to prep and tile our spa, he and his crew were fantastic. Enrique was willing to answer any questions we had and offered to have his wife visit us to help select a grout. When I previously asked Mike about grout, the only response I received was “It’s just grey.” We were later informed that Enrique’s wife had offered to meet with us earlier to select a tile and grout. Enrique and his crew did leave us with an absolutely stunning spa, but we can’t say the same about the crew who installed our travertine paver patio. We had to pay an upgrade for the travertine since we wanted a size/pattern different than the typical French pattern. This was not mentioned during contract signing, and we specifically told Jonathan that we did not want any hidden costs. The patio crew has had to come back multiple times to level pavers, fix low spots, and replace a few damaged pavers. Each time they came, we had to point out each specific paver/area that needed to be fixed and tell them what their scope of work was. Even after guiding them, they still missed areas. It was very frustrating to have to baby-sit these crews while trying to work. Over a year later, this is still an ongoing issue with a significant portion of the ivory travertine permanently stained with red clay by Mike’s crews. We also have what appears to be a rust stain on our plaster which Mike has not addressed despite us sending him several follow-up emails. I could go on and on about the issues we encountered with True North Pools. Long story short, Mike never showed care or concern for our project. Not once did he reach out to us to see if there were any issues or questions. We were always very polite and beyond patient. He never came to inspect the work done, and I don’t think he has even seen the “finished” product. My husband was left to figure out the parts and supplies needed for the final pool set-up, so the pool wasn’t even fully operational until October. Moreover, my husband noticed they installed the wrong pump as indicated on our contract and had Mike replace it. If you took the time to read my review, I hope you strongly consider looking elsewhere for someone to install your backyard oasis. My sister recently had a pool installed by a well-known company, and her process went much more smoothly than the nightmare we went through. Lastly, True North Pools may give you the lowest bid, but it will end up costing you significantly more to fix everything.

Worse experience of my life and I regret ever calling them. If you are considering a pool installation do not contact True North Pools. Our problems began after the deposit was paid the owner and salesman became unresponsive. We would be told a start date only for that date to come and go with no word. Any information I got I had to repeatedly ask for. True North pools employees rarely showed up to supervise the project which left me doing their job. Sub's would show up and have to ask me and my wife what their scope of work was although True North Pools was paid do be there. I spent a lot of money trying to fix damages they left to my property and the traverntine deck. True North pools made us feel that since we did not live in a million dollar house we did not matter and that any thing they did was doing us a favor. I could go on and on about the all the stuff we had the deal with but it would make this review several pages long.

It was a very good experience. The crew were always courteous, respectful and professional.

They did a fabulous job. They were very professional. They were timely and I had no issues with them.

They did an excellent job and I have been impressed with day one. They are very professional and committed to what they said they would do.