Mike Brewer dba: Sunset Outdoor Living Center LLC

Dont ever use Mike Brewer's pool service. Previously doing business as Advanced Pools and Spas, Lexington, SC. He changes name very frequently to keep a lo profile on the internet. WIll not return calls. Hires guys with warrants and cussed them out on your yard... Another lady had major issues with him and it made the news. - http://www.wltx.com/story/local/2012/06/11/1635270/

The sales pitch from Mr. Mike Brewer, SUNSET POOLS, West Solumbia, was very smooth, convincing, and friendly. I was referred to him by a neighbor and was previously doing business under Advanced Pools and Spas. My neighbor who also developed problems later such as settling, leaking liners, and non-responsiveness. These problems were eventually almost fixed but it was almost impossible to have Mr. Brewer return to the house. Once the crew got my site, Mr. Brewer became a loud, foul-mouthed contractor. He yelled and demeaned his employers in front of his customers and acted very unprofessional. From the word start, problems were incurred such as employees with active warrants, disputes with his sub-contractors, cracked waterfall features, problematic installation of the liner, cracked concrete on the decking. The timing of the installation was approximately 9 months. We started in planning in March and he started soon after. His sub-contractors left trash in my yard which the wind distributed to my neighbors, and left muddy tire tracks through out the neighborhood. I was very lenient on Mr. Brewer as I wanted the work to be done correctly and not rushed. He did not provide me the pool liner cut outs that I could use for liner repair if needed, he did not repair nor re-pour sections of cracked concrete. He did not respond to any calls to him or his wife, nor the note I left on his home door. While I was away on vacation for a week, my house was broken into to access power, as he continued to trip the breaker switch. I still have waterfall rocks that are loose and had to fix my own cracked concrete, and it still needs painting. I have spoken to other pool repair companies who know of his work and they are surprised that my pool was actually "finished". (Quotes added because it was not 100% finished and he refused to return my calls and changed his numbers) They advised he usually stacks the payments in his favor then when pressed to finish the job, just abandons the site and changes his phone number and company name. He actually made the news: http://www.wltx.com/story/local/2012/06/11/1635270/

First, i stopped into the owners shop and inquired about steps for above ground pools. He told me he had two types, I showed him a picture on my phone of the type we were looking for and wanted. He said he could get those. He qouted me a price installed for the steps. I asked him about leveling the ground and bring some sand in for my pool. he said he could do that for about 200 dollars. We went inside his office where hestarted looking for a book with the steps in it, he couldnt find it, he then said well its the same one you have on your phone. He even qouted the same modle numbner as the one on the web site, so i said ok, ill take it. He then said he had one half in his storeroom and would see if they had the other half at the warehouse. He orignially said the steps would be in on the following monday. In the meantime he was supposed to come out and look at the area to be worked. He went to get a work order and couldnt find one, he tore his office up looking for his work orders, he called mom who works the office for him and asked her where his work orderswere, she told him and he still couldnt find them so he wrote it up on another form. Just has he finished writing it up his mom showed up and he told her to take the payment, i was to pay 400 down and the rest upon completion of the job. So he was supposed to come by that thursday or friday to look at the yard, he was supposed to call first. he never showed or called that thursday or friday, by midday on friday i called him. he said he was running behind and stuck on another job and it would be next week. Well the next week i asked him to call first, he was supposed to come monday, he didnt show and he never returned my calls, then on tuesday, i called and left a message. Well a few hours after i had called and left a message, my wife who was in the back yard which is fenced in by a privacy fence, was in the backyard watering her flowers, when a man looks over the back gate and hollers at her..while he is trying to unlatch the gate, which i keep locked from the inside. Well the dogs are barking when they here him.. so i go outside and tell my wife to go in side with the dogs and i would take care of him. Who just walks into someones back yard with out first knocking on the front door to let the owners know he is there? He looked the yard over and said he would be back to do the job on thursday or friday, he said he was going to be working a job in the upstate wednesday and if he finished it wednesday he would be here thursday if not he would be here friday. As for the steps that were due in Monday, he said they had not come in yet but should be in by the time he got back. well thursday rolls around and there is no sign of him... until late thursday afternoon, he calls about 1:30 and says he is on the way. He shows up with a dump truck and and a trailer with a bobcat and 1 worker. I had showed him the first time he came where we wanted the pool, i told him when he unloaded we had decided to move it over about 6 ft and back about 5 or 6 feet. not that big a difference. I marked off the ground where we wanted it, he said ok and started digging. Well he started digging and pushing the dirt around, he was driveing wide open, actually reckless in my opinion, he almost hit his own worker 3 times and ran over one of our shepard hook plant holders that was beside a tree. I told him i 3 places he could spread the dirt, he looked at me like i was bothering him, but he dumped some of the dirt in the areas i asked and halfway spread it level. Half of the dirt however he had pushed up into a pile about 2 foot high that went most of the way around the pool area. I assumed he was going to move that dirt later and rack and level the area around the pool. Well after he got the area about level, he stopped and backed the truck into the yard and started dumping sand in the hole. he dumped and then level the sand. Then him, his helper , me and my wife picked up the pull which was empty and walked it over onto the spot prepared. At this point i then asked where the steps were. He said oh they didnt come in yet, ill have to come back next week sometime, i have to leave for WV tonight. I asked him so when you come back your going to take care of all the this dirt piled up everywhere? he said no..... that wasnt part of the job, no pool installer moves the dirt, he said ive been doing this for 18 years and me nor anyone else ever moves the dirt unless we charge extra, all the installers leave it like that. I told him ive seen other pool installers install pools, and ive never seen anyone leave the dirt piled up around the pool like that. i told him well what my steps, you were supposed to finish my job today and now your saying next week, because you have another job in wv to go to? He said i cant help the steps didnt come in, he told me originally it would take 2 days and now we are at 8 days and still no steps. As he was loading his equipment, i asked him where the steps were supposed to come in at, that i really needed them this week and not next, that if they came in friday i would go pick them up myself. he said he would call me if they came in. At this point he left. My yard looked liked crap and i still had no steps. The next day i called him to see if the steps had come in. He said he was in WV but the steps had come in and where at the warehouse, he gave me the location and i went to pick them up. When i got there and told them what i was picking up they said they had it. when they brought the boxes to the ramp it was only 3 boxes. i told them it was supposed to be 5 boxes, because when i was looking at ordering it offline it said the whole system was 5 boxes, it even said on the end of the box, that if ordering the dble system, 5 of 5 boxes, single system, 2 boxes and single with gate 3 boxes. They told me i was wrong and that was all there was. I told them ok but i would be back because i knew it wasnt right. I took the 3 boxes home and put it together and sure enough it was missing the inside steps. I called the owner back and told him, well at 4 pm he called back and said that the other boxes were there. i again drove all the way across town, a 30 minute drive there and 30 minutes back to the warehouse. When i got there they brought me 1 box out, i looked at it and told them the part number didnt match that it was a different step system, they told me no, that it was what i was supposed to have, i tried to tell them it wasnt but they insisted it was. i left with it and took it and put it together and of course it was wrong. i called the office number and got his mother, she said she would call him and tell him. Well after repeated calls with no call backs, he calls me back4 days later and says he is on the way to my house with the correct steps. He gets there and again without coming to the door and knocking and telling someone he is there, he is just backs up in the yard and starts unloading and bring step parts thru the gate. He brings it in throws it on the ground and puts it together. Then he looks around and says oh no, i dont have a the hardware set. its not in the box. he looks around likes he is totally baffeled, he doesnt have the parts. I also notice that the set he bought although is the same system it is an older model, the company told me when i was looking before that they changed the handrail design last year and all the new systems had the new design, i then remember that back when we started this he told me he had 1/2 of a set in his shop but then later told me he had to order the whole set because the box he had in his shop was missing the hardware. so im betting the box he brought to my house was the one he had in his shop was the old model missing the hardware and not from the warehouse as he stated to me on 3 or 4 times as he ranted about how bad the warehouse people were and how much he fussed at them for giving me the wrong stuff. anyway... at this point i asked so are you going to finish the job and take care of all this dirt you left piled in my yard, he said no, that that was what a shovel was for, my wife told him that was what we hired him for because we are both physically unable to do the work. he then proceded to get smart with my wife making remarks about our yard and our pool and that he wouldnt leave his house for less then 200 dollars a day. i had to step in and tell him to not speak to my wife in that manner. i then told him that we just need to settle up and he needs to leave. i asked what i owed him, considering that he didnt finish the job by leaving the dirt piled all around my pool and that i ended up with 1/2 of a new set and 1/2 of an old set with no hardware and that i had to make 2 trips across town and he was 2 weeks past the first agreed upon time time. He said that since i paid the 400 down, that he would settle for 300 for bal ance of steps and 300 for the yard work. i told him no, that i wasnt paying that, i told him i would pay 300. he got mad and after 5 or 10 minutes of arguing, he was saying he wanted 600 more, i told him i would pay him 400 more and that was it, and he needed to leave my property. He agreed and and as i wrote the check he kept making smart remarks about how good he was and how bad we were. I now since i am unable to, will have to pay someone else to come in and clean his mess up. Will never use or recommend him to anyone....