BLUE HAVEN POOLS & SPAS

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We contracted for weekly pool cleaning and maintenance. After two months, they failed to show up on at least two occasions that we can verify (we were home all day). When we returned from a 2 week vacation, it did not appear any maintenance was done (they did have access). For example, the salt was to be maintained at 3200, but on return from vacation, the chlorine was not measurable and the salt level was 600. Very disappointed and discontinued services after they did not respond to initial concerns.

Bluehaven designed and bulit my pool. They did a good job on the construction aspect of the pool but maintaining it is a different story. I will not go into great detail about their shortcomings as a maintenace provider but I can tell you I have put up with their incomeptence long enough. I was even billed for a three week period where their pool cleaner forgot to show up! Find a reputable hard working pool cleaner who takes pride in his work. This company's turnover rate is very high and you will be thoroughly disappointted in their attention to detail when it comes to maintaining your pool. Go elsewhere and thank me later.

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The salesman from Blue Haven Pools & Spas quoted me one price on the phone. When he got here for us to sign the contract, it was more. He promised all this stuff and we didn't get exactly what we wanted. We ended up with the pool he wanted, not with I wanted. I had some problems and it's like pulling teeth to get him to come out. You get a $300 discount and $200 in cash if you refer people to him. We still haven't seen the $200. Every time my husband calls the salesman, he says he's going to be in our area on a certain day and he'll come by, but he never does. I would tell people to make sure everything is clear in the contract before they start to dig. I mean, they have an A+ at the better business bureau. You don't have to have a license in Texas to build a pool, but they do. It's $43,000 and I should have what I want. It's a nice pool, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's not. But it's not what we were interested in getting.

It is with great difficulty that I write a review for Blue Haven. The people that work there are very nice. My pool was built just over a year ago and is beautiful. The sales/design person, Creig, was awesome and there is nothing but positive remarks for him. The entire project of the pool installation and all of our contact with them since regarding warranty work, maintenance, etc has been riddled by non-responsivesness, extremely poor communication, lack of follow-through, poor punctuality....I could go on and on. Also, it is hard to get a straight story from anyone. They employ a lot of "smoke and mirrors" to explain why they don't show up, don't do what they say they are going to do etc. Also, the departments don't seem to talk to each other at all. You can tell the same story to three different people, and none of them ever talk to anyone else about what they are doing or what they have done. Add a very high personnel turnover rate to all of this....and let's just say "good luck with getting anything done within any reasonable time frame". If you wait to hear from them on anything, you may well wait a very long time. There were the usual delays that occur when building a pool. They say they will show up Monday, you don't hear from anyone for two weeks. You call them and get the standard "yes, we were just about to call you we will be out there Wednesday". This cycle often repeated itself. The project manager turned over at least twice during out build. I discovered this each time by seeing no progress on my pool for a couple of weeks and then calling to inquire. I would then learn that whoever it was is who had been managing the project was "no longer with the company" and the new person is scrambling to figure out the schedule. This happened twice. Then, after repeated delays, we were told it was almost done and we would be swimming by the weekend. The guy even came out to start the process of getting the water cycled! Hallelujah! The joy was short lived, as at the last minute, they noticed that during the gunnite process, they had failed to do the acid wash. That meant an acid bath that would take "an additional 3 weeks" was needed. Well, it would only take two weeks but the only person in the company who knew HOW to do an acid bath was out for the next week so they couldn't get started until he got back because no one else knew how to do it. This seemed rather concerning. If this is "standard operation", why didn't anyone else know how to do it??? We pitched a fit, and low and behold, the one guy that knew how do to an acid bath came over and the acid bath WAS started. I think it only took two weeks after that.... and during that time our pool looked like a black swamp with a pump in it. They made it sound like this was the plan "all along" but when I called the front desk, the lady had never even heard of one. In fact, no one that I talked to had ever heard of it. My landscaper, who has witnessed hundreds of pool builds, had never seen such a thing. After some inquiring, I then got the story that they had meant to do the acid wash way back when, but that they "didn't want to kill the neighbors grass" so they decided against if. Funny, they do acid washes all the time and I have never heard of the problem of killing the neighbors grass. I felt like I was being told a tale. In actuality, I finally did learn that they meant to do the acid wash, but didn't bring a drain hose long enough so they couldn't do the acid wash. Hmmmmm....okay. So upon discovering they couldn't do the acid wash, they just left and never said a word about it to anyone, apparently. It was not until they were about to start cycling the water and we were supposedly within 24 hours of swimming in the pool that they discovered this. This is a great example of the total lack of communication within the company and with us that has plagued our relationship. Another time, when one of their guys was out for another reason, he realized that the spaces between the concrete hadn't been filled (we had no idea) and this was supposed to have been done a long time ago. Call me dumb, but even after all of our frustration, I decided to enlist in their weekly maintenance service, as we know nothing about pools. I thought it would be at least a good start and was hoping that if I did use them, they might be more responsive if we needed them since they built the pool. I have nothing but good remarks about the guy who comes weekly. He does come every week and does his job. But their general service is a problem. In fact, the manager of the service recently quit. Go figure. Prime example. They were supposed to clean our filter cartridges on a regular schedule. Well, about 8 months goes by and they have never been cleaned, which doesn't worry me too much but I notice that black particles are starting to blast into the pool through the pump and in fact, clog the in-line filter in the pool cleaner. I report this, and am told that the filter cartridges need cleaning and he (someone other than the weekly guy does this work) would come out later that week. Well, it rained the day he was going to come so of course he didn't come. I figured he would be out the next day....or at least the next week. But he didn't come the next week, nor the next week either. Meanwhile, my pool is spitting black stuff. I finally call. Oh, they forgot all about it! They weren't going to ever come, apparently, had I not called. So finally, they come to clean the cartridges. By then they were so dirty that they ended up giving me new ones....no charge thank goodness. But what has this done to my equipment? Mysteriously, within two weeks the pressure valve on the filter goes out and starts spewing. Not sure if this is related. Well, of course getting this replaced took 3 weeks. Luckily, they gerry rigged the leaking valve so that it wouldn't leak...but it took them 3 weeks to put a new valve on. I just don't know why this takes so long. It's called Fed Ex people. So most recently, we discovered a spot at the outside bottom of the hot tub that was seeping water through the stone. Pool is one year old at this time. In fact, we had been swimming in it one year to almost the exact date (thanks to the black swamp delay). So the first guy comes out and is very nice, we drop the water line and he watches it for a week to try to figure out where the water is coming from. At the end of the week, he thinks he knows and will be back. Don't hear from him again. So I call. Sometime later, another guy comes out. He looks it all over. He hasn't even talked to the first guy. It's kind of like starting all over again with new people all the time. So he comes once or twice, says he will let me know, yada yada yada no one calls etc. I call again and again, get run around, I start hearing "let me talk to the owner to see if we will cover it under warranty" and I am thinking "I payed 68K for this freaking pool that has been in operation barely one year to the date and you are thinking of not covering it???!!!" But to their credit, they never talked about not covering it after that. The last time I saw the guy he says " I will call you tomorrow". I have done business with them long enough to know that he won't. He doesn't. I wait a week or so...maybe two weeks, then I call him. What does he say...of course! "I was just about to call you". He tells me the stone guy will be out next Monday. Do you think the stone guy comes Monday? No, he does not. So the next day I inquire, am told the guy is going to get supplies and is coming tomorrow (Wednesday) instead and they are going to have to tear the whole waterfall out . Wednesday at 4:30, three guys show up, look around and leave. Thursday one guy shows up and is gone in about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I have no idea what is going on. I was expecting major stone work to have been underway since Monday. So I finally have my husband call as I am so sick of having to call and text to find out what is going on. Turns out, they decided the stone work might not need replacing and that it is just a grout problem and in fact, the guy that came thursday regrouted the area. He also told my husband that he had already explained all of this to ME earlier and if "he should just call my husband from now on instead". Please. I have all the texts. He made me sound like an inept liar and nothing makes me madder. We are not difficult people. If anything, we can sometimes give people the benefit of the doubt when we should not. I am thrilled that we don't have to tear the waterfall out of course, but was anyone EVER going to tell me about the change of plans? I canceled weekend plans thinking my pool was going to be under major construction. I could have rescheduled had anyone even given a thought of keeping me updated. My pool is beautiful. I love it, a true work of art. But this company, that is another issue. I am really not sure how they have stayed in business this long. I gave a C rating to professionalism because it is a mixed bag. The people are very nice, and seem professional, the work seems professional. But the unresponsiveness, lack of follow-through and lack of communication are big failures. To their credit, we have not had to put up a fight over paying for any of this stuff. They have honored their work and equipment warranties. But NOTHING can get done in any kind of reasonable time frame, they WILL NOT call you back when they promise that they will, they DO NOT show up when they say they will, they DO NOT communicate well within their organization or outside, they have what seems to be incredibly high turnover so there is no continuity. Individually, the people all seem very nice and customer oriented. The services just don't back that up.

ALittle slow to respond initially, but once they did the work went fast. The technician was very knowlegable.