AOK Pools LLC

Back in July/August 2011, my motor for my pool filter went out. I contacted Jeff, the owner of AOK pools, and he came to my home and diagnosed the problem and ordered the motor to fix my problem. He was not as reliable or as punctual as I would have liked, but he did get the motor installed and it worked throughout the rest of the season. It did end up being slightly more than he said it would be however. During the time that he worked on my motor, we discussed a pool cover that he said he had left over from another job. He offered me what I felt was a good price for the cover so I agreed to purchase it from him. He also offered to sell me a pool pump that he had and again offered at what I felt was a good price, so I purchased it also. The very top of the tiles in my pool had received some grout damage due to some issues with installation the previous year, so Jeff agreed to temporarily fix that issue when he closed the pool, and then he was going to correctly fix the issue next season at the opening of the pool. When it came time to close the pool, I began attempting to contact Jeff to set up a time to accomplish this. He was quite difficult to contact, and even more difficult to pin down to a specific time. Once he got the extra parts to install the cover, he did come to my home and began the installation process. I reminded him about the grout and he stated that he was getting the proper color grout for my pool and assured me that it would get done before the closing process was completed. The grout job was never done, even though I paid for it. He just adjusted my invoice to look as though I did not pay for the grout job. In the interim, one of my dogs chewed on one of Jeff's extension cords. I felt terrible about this and agreed to replace the cord. Instead of allowing me to purchase another cord of equal value, he went out and purchased a very expensive cord and expected me to pay for it. I had looked at the damage on the other cord and questioned him about the equivalency of the cords. He stated that he would show me on the cord the proof that the expensive cord was indeed of equivalent value. He never did so, and I never paid him for the cord as a result of him not proving the damaged cord was a really expensive cord to replace. I would have been more than willing to pay for a cord of equal value, but I do not believe that is what he was trying to charge me for. Once the pool was covered, the pump needed to be installed to maintain the proper level of water in the pool, since the cover is mesh and water does go through it. Once I was able to get Jeff to put in the pump (again, he was not easy to reach or pin down to a time), the pump itself did not work. He initially mentioned a need to check my breakers, so I was able to obtain a tool to check the breakers, the outlet, and the extension cord itself. All checked out to be in working order, so Jeff was supposed to figure out the problem with my pump and put in one of his pumps in the interim. At least a couple of weeks went by with no working pump returned, and I would occasionally attempt to contact Jeff about this. He would only return a few of my messages, and there was always an excuse as to why my pump wasn't ready. He also never did install the other pump that he was supposed to use until mine was fixed. I finally decided to just ask for my money back on the pump so I could get a working pump. It was at this time that he began saying that my extension cord had somehow damaged the pump. I cannot say whether or not this is factual, but I can say that the cord was never mentioned as the culprit until I asked for my money back. I finally parted ways with Jeff, and he refused to pay me for the pump, stating that I had never paid for the extension cord, so he was considering it a wash.

We went with Jeff because he quoted us a great price for the work. The work was not terrible, just not that good either. We ended up with bubbles and wrinkles in the new liner, which make the pool more difficult to clean. The filter and chlorinator both work perfectly as installed and he did a good job on that. My main complaint is that Jeff is not a very good communicator. When we had questions or problems, he was difficult to reach and he did not communicate some minor information that would have been nice to know, such as the trim piece that holds the liner could not be replaced as we assumed it would be. We ended up with a beautiful new liner and old, cracked trim holding it in place. An extra $500 was added to our original quote to do some concrete re-working at the bottom of the pool, but what actually got done is dirt and debri were shoveled out of the hole and it was filled with sand rather than being reworked with concrete (that we were charged for). I don't mind that it was filled with sand because that doesn't hurt anything with a lined pool, but I didn't appreciate paying for poolcrete that was never used. During the draining process he modified our new vacuum hose to fit a sump pump (ruining it) and later we found that a garden hose we used to fill the pool was missing. He agreed to exchange the vacuum hose with another that he had, but never did. After calling about the missing garden hose, he never returned my call but instead never sent me a final bill for the salt that he put into the pool. This did even out the cost of the ruined vacuum hose and missing garden hose, but was not the most professional way to handle the situation. Personally, Jeff is a likeable guy and I might use him again for pool equiment service or maintenance, but not for what we initially hired him for, which was the liner installation.