Ed Gordon

23:12 06 Oct 17

Caveat emptor. I assume you all are adults so you can make your own decisions. But I wanted to share my experience with you. I value referrals and other’s experience above all else when researching something online.I purchased a home in 2016 that had a pool built by KB Custom Pools in 2014. Only 2 years old at the time. At that time, the option to purchase the transferable warranty on the pool did not seem to make sense to me, especially given the cost. It’s only 2 years old. Boy did I learn the hard way. Shame on me, I guess, for thinking that it is unlikely that a relatively-new pool would have structural/plumbing issues.In July, I received a water bill saying I had used 83,000 gallons! No way, I thought. Check the meter. They did. Not the meter. Ugh. I was out of town and did not return until mid-September so the water just kept on running. After I returned home and started looking around, I finally figured out where the auto-fill shut off was for the pool. Turned it off and it immediately started losing water. To the tune of 3 inches per day. So I dug out the paperwork on the house to figure out who built the pool. KB Custom Pools. I tried to contact them with the number on their website. Invalid number according to the message. I sent a contact message via a form on their site. To be fair, Bo contacted me the next day and apologized that their number didn’t work. I explained my problem. He remembered the pool. His very first response after that was “I don’t recall seeing a warranty transfer for that pool”. Uh oh. Not a good start. I asked if he could check it out and see if they could figure anything out. He said he would send somebody in 2 days due to expected rain. On the 2nd day, someone did show up from KB. The first words were “Wow, you have a serious leak.” Then “We need to drill holes and insert a scope to see what is going on.” Then, “I need to go back to the office and look at pictures.”And that was it. No further contact. I had to pester them to get a response. And the response I got was, “You have a plumbing leak.” And then some more about the cost of leak detection and possible repairs and no warranty, etc., etc.And that is it. “Sorry and good luck.”A product that should last for decades and it fails after less than 3 years. I have owned 5 pools and never had this happen. Almost every one of my neighbors has a pool and none have had any problems with movement or other “soil-related” concerns.The lack of concern about the product/service for customers, both current and inherited, is what surprises me the most. I don’t expect free repair. But I would like to think a company/owner cares about the people.You can tell a lot by how companies respond to the negative situations. I share my experience with you only to give you the facts of what happened to me and to encourage you to think about the what-ifs. Those things that shouldn’t happen, but if they do, how does this company handle them.I respect the nature of warranties and the businesses that have to honor them. Things happen. But in this situation, it is much more likely that this is a design/installation issue. Poor construction. So that is the message here. While the normal business practices may have been followed, there are clearly issues with construction and with how you are valued as a customer after that last check has been written.In my case, KB Custom Pools did not handle it well, did not help me, and is not a company I would ever do business with in the future. How you proceed is up to you.