PONDS BY DAVID

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We never get an advance notice of Ponds by David coming to make their cleaning. We had already terminated our bi-weekly cleaning from them for several reasons: blocking our garage in the morning when it was time to leave for school and work, shoddy and quick scrubbing of the fountain portion of the pond, and generally a sense that we were being way over-charged. We kept them for the twice yearly draining and cleaning, as they were the ones who installed the pond (according to documents we found in the home after we purchased it). We arrived home one day and my wife pointed out that the fountain was spewing water. Upon examining it, the PVC pipe that comes up from the underwater pump that is suppose to connect to the intake at the base of the fountain had come loose. It was spraying water against the side of the block fountain, causing the splashing my wife had noticed. It then struck me that the pond was clean--no debris, algae, or anything in the water. Plus, the water level was a foot below where it should be. That was the only way I knew that Ponds by David had come to clean it, as the day before it contained some leaves and debris on the bottom. I changed and went out to work on the pond. When I removed the pump, I was alarmed to find the filter attachment that guards the pump's intact was missing. Needless to say, this is a very important piece of plastic. And it isn't small either. The water was clear but no filter. Luckily, I just happened to look behind the pond on the ground and there it lay next to my skimming net. So the maintenance man who cleaned the pond had not properly secured the PVC pipe from the pump into the fountain. Plus, they had neglected to put the filter guard back on the pump. Both of these things should be second nature to any pond maintenance personnel. Had we not caught it when we did, the pump would have eventually drained the pond and probably burnt out the pump. Worse, had we been out of town, this oversight would have been a glaring notice to any bad guys in the area that the house was currently unoccupied. This negligence is unacceptable.

Ponds by David didn't have a very good crew. They were always late, and I couldn't speak with them because of a language barrier. The quality of the pond was fine, but they were very slow.