D. Cheryl Wilhite Deepvalley Trail PlanoDiana Cheryl Wilhite 3002 DEEP VALLEY TRL Plano is and rude uncaring and reluctant to pay. i have never met a more ungrateful human being on this earth. Plano Texas

to ms wilhite, i would sue Mercedes pools for defrauding you and for causing all the problems, or  possible problems, to your foundation and surrounding land. any business owner would never post such an immature and vulgar report such as mercedes pools. i will make sure when i have mine installed, the company i use has no affiliation with them

I have found this attempt at retailiation, personal slander, and distraction to the original issue of a complaint I filed with the Better Business Bureau of Dallas about some unprofessional and impcompetent customer service that I received from Mercedes Pools in Plano, TX. I am listing the letter and details below for you to make an educated guess on the reason the original complaint against me was filed and for you to decide if you would like to invest in a organization such as this. I wish I had more details beforehand - I would have gone elsewhere. I was fooled once but NEVER again. Read and discover the stress I went through and still am after 2 years with this company:

RE: BBB CASE#: 91079xxx - Mercedes Pools

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to comment on the response that is 72 days past the date originally filed in this complaint. I noticed that there were two attempts by the Dallas BBB to remind this business to follow up on the original complaint and because of the lack of response; this case was closed on June 24, 2008. There must be a significant problem that the owner's of Mercedes Pools is trying to overcome to attempt to respond at this time. They have a history of an alleged lawsuit filed against them from poor work that caused a $40,000 pool to slide down a hill from incompetent planning and construction. If I had known that at the time, I would have not selected them from a co-workers recommendation.

First, let me say that the documentation she provided you is proof that I was having customer service and warranty issues with this company (notice title of Third Attempt on this email and my discussion filing a BBB complaint at that time). Also as viewed in the copy of the contract that Alicia provided you, it says 24 Addendum from DCW, she knew there were additional items that had to be completed. I have included that addendum document with her handwriting that proves she was well aware of what was required to meet my expectations during this project. The project management checklist that Alicia included in her response is a document using MS-PROJECT that I HAD TO CREATE (see copy from me in the attachments with my name included on top) because I was having EXTREME difficulties in getting anyone from Mercedes Pools in completing the project in a timely fashion. I also NEVER received a project timeline from Alicia as is stated in Addendum # 2 it was because she did not know how to put one together.

Alicia and David are both highly electronically and computer illiterate and I had to document everything because their dishonest word, written documentation, and implied spirit of the contract was not being met. I have an email folder of ALL the documents between both parties to provide proof of the termination of the contract. I have included a sampling of the paper trail I kept so you could see the delays and timestamps of the delay in the project. As you will see in the attached email documentation the majority of responses were extremely brief and done from texting on their cell phones. I was still dealing with them until the end of September when I finally became exhausted in dealing with the incompetent and unprofessional customer service attitude. It was when I was eating at Country Burger back last May 2008 that I discovered that my pool images were being used for their financial gain without my permission.

Alicia over committed to other contracts when she signed mine and the word she gave me was that my pool would be completed in three weeks. It turned into not being completed until June 2 because I got tired of the delays and I had to create the project list to get them done I did not give them final payment until they followed the checklist. If they did not think my issues were valid, her husband would not have come and walked through the list with me at the first of June 2006. I had hired Mercedes Pools to remodel a pool that was over twenty years old and the age caused the equipment to fail and make the pool not functional and turn green. Yes, it was filthy, BUT because the equipment was old and it DID NOT work anymore.

I understand now why that Mercedes Pools was still available at the end of March 2006 to start my pool I found out later from a pool consultant that most contractors are filled for the season by the end of January. I should have know that availability was indicative of their past work history.

The delay in response is to the original complaint is very indicative of how I was ignored and treated as a customer while I was trying to handle issues on my own. I was constantly ignored thinking I would just go away because of my forgiving nature. Alicia Dixon stated that I was happy when she last spoke to me and that is FALSE. The reason that I have not dealt with them since September 2006 was because I had to TERMINATE the final relationship with David Dixon and Mercedes Pools because of their blatant use of pictures of my pool (no third party viewing without my permission see Addendum Item # 18) remodeling on the front page their web site (they removed after three days after I had to remind them of the addendum that Alicia agreed to).

I had to call David and remind him that they did not have the right to use any images of my pool because of the agreed upon addendum checklist (which they used). Before that I had banned Alicia from stepping on my property in June 2006 from the scary nature of her personality and her poor customer service in abandoning me by stopping the cleaning of my pool and not telling her husband who at the time was trying to make up for all the problems that his wife created. I decided to terminate the contract because I felt that I was being used and that the lack of communication between the business side (Alicia) and her husband (David) was getting out of control and I felt threatened that I would lose the function of my pool due to retaliation. I have emails from David begging me to let him continue because of the need to support his children.

There was nothing free about this contract. In addition to additional $5,000 in expenditures not originally billed for in the contract to meet addendum requests, they tried to bill me $100 for warranty work from incompetent electrical outlet design (see the documentation sent by Alicia in response). The GCFI work had to be done because of the incompetent design done on putting regular open outlets on a fence outside that was exposed to the weather every time it rained it would trip the breaker system on the pool and shutdown all lights. Even their electrician contractor admitted that it needed to be fixed correctly. Why would they send someone when they knew they were not following their contract and completing the warranty issues?

List below are of some of the items of difficulties (I was having to prove) that was indicative of the poor quality of work and incompetent project management:

1) Said she used 11 tons of rocks to complete the outer edge. I knew that there was only 7 tons delivered. The rock wall edge was not as high as she visually explained to me it would be.
2) There was no work done for a three week period because another woman that had a higher profile financially in Dallas had demanded that her pool be completed.
3) The concrete resurfacing was not done to what Alicia and I had originally discussed. It was done in ONE color and I had asked for a stone pattern that alternately painted each stone in different colors. I also was going to receive the wrong stone pattern (blocks versus stones). If I had not walked outside after I got in from class, and stopped the project supervisor, it would have been done all wrong. I felt like I got a cheaper, quicker done version of what I really wanted and that I got cheated out of what I paid for the original bid to complete this task.
4) Alicia and David both had Lasik eye surgery during the busiest part of pool building season and shutdown operations for another week. David had complications and he was out for a few more days. This should have been done in the off-season. She was just using my payments to get personal luxuries that could have waited until the project was over. (Alicia was having her headaches long before my pool remodel started).
5) Design changes that were not approved by me were done or attempted (if I was there to catch them). Examples include 1) the seat on the curve was moved down to the right and made twice as large as I wanted, 2) the angle of the beach entry is too severe for normal exit from the pool (Alicia would not change this even after multiple discussions on site), and 3) Alicia attempted to add a multiple holes in the beach entry for water features that I had to have her pull out).
6) Green plaster color was not evenly placed next to white beach entry and it looks like a third grader was painting the pool. This could have been fixed if the project manager or supervisor cared about the quality of their work. They put water in the pool before I got home to cover up this issue and once the water is in the pool, this item could not be fixed without draining the pool and waiting several weeks for the plaster to dry.
7) The circulation pipes were not tested before adding water. I lost thousands of gallons of water underground which surfaced all the way down the side of my house and created algae on the surface of the dirt from the saturation of the ground. This was compromising the stability of the slab of my house foundation. It took Mercedes Pools 2.5 weeks before they were available to fix this problem.
8) The underground water circulation pipes from where they were turned to the new equipment location are less than 18 inches underground which does not meet code for freeze guidelines in plumbing.
9) The safety fences around the pool equipment and side yard was so poorly put together because of exposure of nails (I have pictures to prove this). Alicia and David agreed and had to have them redone.
10) Their crew supervisor was arrested during the project and Alicia had to bail him out of jail so their jobs could be continued. This was more lost time for project implementation during that issue.
11) The scary nature of Alicia's personality and temper came to fruition when she knocked on my front and back doors for 45 minutes when she found out I did not want her surprise water feature. I was trying to sleep because I was sick and I ended having to answer the door so I could get some rest to get well. Totally unnecessary after I told her in an email and mobile phone message to not bother me about this issue.
12) The new pool equipment was to be placed at the south end of the fence line and it ended up on the east side because of lack of being on site checking on the project and communicating effectively with her contracted crews. This eliminated complete access around the pool as I had requested.
13) I asked for PVC pipe to be run (at an additional) cost through the rock system while they were putting in the pipes for the waterfalls so I could add landscape lighting at a later point. This was ignored.
14) She stopped maintaining my pool (which is supposed to be done until all issues were resolved!) when I asked that she go through her husband for anything when I requested that she not access my property any longer. The pool became green with algae before I convinced her husband what had happened. I also found out from her pool maintenance guy that Mercedes Pools were using only one chlorine tablet per week anyway which DOES NOT meet the minimum industry standard requirements of 3 tablets for 15,000 gallon pool (my pool size). I felt like they were trying to cheat me out of potential money now if they wanted a future maintenance contract, I was not going to be able to trust that Alicia was going to do the right thing. You can view in the copies of emails that I supplied that I was now communicating directly with David only.
15) The plaster covering on the beach entry is so thin that it will have to be replaced before the actual life of the plaster is over.
16) The design of the rock wall was not planned effectively I now have 2 inch cracks between the rocks and the plaster (which is under the water level of the pool). I had to find out that the plaster should have been placed BEFORE the rocks were laid in order to eliminate or minimize water leakage from pool settling. This has cropped up in three different spots and I will have to have gone through a major expense in getting that fixed this off-season.
17) The gate on the pool equipment area has fallen apart because of the design of where the gate was cut out of the fence the closing metal of the gate was placed on the half cut of the edge of an unsupported board. This cut does not allow for the maintenance of the weight of the gate and the use needed to access pool equipment for weekly maintenance. I am in the process of getting new support to get this gate put back together now.
18) My ability to have piping to the sewage system to do my own backwashing of the filter was not replaced in new equipment placement. I had that capability in the old pool design. It is costing me extra money now to get this task done on a timely basis by an outside vendor.
19) When the pool was designed, I had to do the homework for the landscaping lights that were to be added and for the additional placement of plumbing for an exercise swim jet system. Alicia was going to stack everything in one three foot area that would not meet industry standards and codes. I had to send Alicia the web link to another company so she could get information on how to do this (another sign of computer illiteracy on searching the Internet for resources and inept project management capabilities). If I had not been on top of this, I would have even a bigger mess to deal with today.
20) Her husband David was continually sending pictures to his friends of my pool. This violated my agreed upon addendum of not using my images (I also feared that I would have trespassers coming to view my pool). He also brought the vendor of the exercise swim jets on site to take pictures because the supplier could not believe that there was someone who had wanted the power that I had requested. This was not approved by me before it was done. David later told me that the vendor was going to use my pictures in some magazine for potential future business.
21) David would show up announced on my property to check on my pool every single day. I was getting extremely tired of him spending several hours daily on my property because it invaded my privacy. He would bring his 16 year old daughter and sometimes her boyfriend. Her daughter would confide in me sometimes how crazy her mother was in over-reacting to basic teenage growing up pains and David admitted that Alicia had a tough life and it was sometimes difficult in working with her and her issues. When I was on site when the crews were working, I observed often when crew members would just roll their eyes and whisper when she turned her back. She would often yell at them before treating them like human beings. I think they only stayed working for her because they got paid and they could leave. I often felt that the appearance of David unannounced was because he needed some place to get away and possibly someone who would speak with him without yelling and intimidation all the time. You can see in the emails that I provide when David is begging for me to not terminate the relationship.
22) The pool design by the so-called expert (Alicia) overloaded my electrical system and I had to spend additional $1,000 dollars to have the electrical box turned correctly to the outside and larger fuses to handle the system. I felt like that Mercedes Pools should have incurred that cost to make up for the poor planning. When this was done, it was wired incorrectly and my air conditioning shutdown. I had to get an A/C man to tell me they installed the wiring to that circuit at 110V instead of the 220V required. This is shown in the email documentation I provided you. The heat and the delay were very stressful on my heart condition.
23) I was charged $3,300 dollars to hire outsourced contractors to place a gas line that was to be over 60 foot in length because of original remodeling plans in the design of moving the equipment. When the location of the equipment was changed, the project supervisor came and installed a SIX FOOT piece of pipe to the new pool heater. I was not refunded the difference in the amount of 54 feet of pipe and labor that Alicia hid from her husband. I felt like got cheated and mislead. That is why David installed the ceiling fan and outdoor TV because he felt bad that his wife had abandoned cleaning my pool and for the overcharges.
24) The new pool cleaner that I paid $600 dollars for ended up being a demo cleaner they bought from their pool supply friend. It was installed incorrectly into the wall (used a Hayward cable into a Polaris outlet). It cannot be unscrewed correctly to replace the rubber o ring that is needed every few years. I recently had to order $70 worth of parts from a local pool store to get the correct connection to make my pool cleaner functional. I trusted that Mercedes Pools was not going to shortchange me to complete their obligations and I found out the hard way again even after two years of continued problems that I was often mislead.
25) I found evidence of beer drinking that had been done on site by one of the contractors. Alicia responded to this issue because it was part of the items of the addendum. How can she deny that existed?

As you can tell from the response of Alicia, that she uses personal and SLANDEROUS attacks against me to distort the real facts (I only have 336 pages of email not the 500 pages that Alicia claims I still have ALL copies of any correspondence that I sent and received from both Alicia and David) of what the original complaint was about using my pool images for personal gain when they did not earn that right because of the requests in the addendum and in their poor customer service and treatment. I feel like I am having to deal with the maturity of a 12 year-old and not an adult and it is insulting to think that someone that is suppose to act like a professional and be an expert in her field respond in this manner. I bet if you offered her a Polygraph test, she could not deny any of the facts that I have offered in this response. It is obvious that the business end of Mercedes Pools does not communicate with the operations end of the business and it was not my responsibility to keep up with their personal and business problems in order to get my pool remodel complete. I should not have to continually pay for these issues with Mercedes Pools. Alicia once confided that she never had any close friends and at was at that point I knew I was in for a hand-full of issues and I needed to distance myself from her on a personal basis because of the potential for taking on in my life a mental case with unknown issues. I was ready to run but I was contractually obligated to complete payment and my pool was already destructed to a point I could not let them NOT finish my project.

The false accusations for taking pain medications are extremely false (wow, where did that come from again what does anything like that have to do with the original complaint?) I was and am still taking medications related to help my heart pump effectively (not FOR pain!), I never was bankrupt, my air conditioning did fail immediately after I bought this house (it was 14 years old!) and I replaced it using cash from my 401K (what does this have to do with the whole thing?). I was unemployed because I was going to school FULL-TIME in downtown Dallas and completed a college degree from a competitive selective Allied Healthcare school in Invasive Cardiovascular Technology. I was involved in schoolwork and clinical time, therefore I was not home to be over them all the time. I was also volunteering at the local hospital (how I met the person who recommended Mercedes Pools). I was employed again FULL-TIME in a local hospital within eight days of graduating with honors and another degree (and the issue that I never seriously worked).

I have enough project management experience and award winning customer service awards to understand basic common sense and skills needed to complete a construction project. I had traveled the world installing large million-dollar computer networks for EDS for 10 years. Managing projects have basic skills that apply across all industries. If you are educated enough in standard business practice is one would know how to build a real project plan and be on top of the current status of what the crews were doing and treat them like human beings not trash as I saw.

I have a king-size bed and it is up on a basic metal bed frame and I do not sleep on the floor (and again, what does this have to do with violating and addendum agreement?). I was making a career change from the computer field to a calling that I had to complete in the health care arena. I have a work history that spans over 34 years. I even worked during the entire four years my first time in college when I received my first four year degree. I was unemployed after the 911 attacks because the company I was working for at the time moved the majority of their telecommunication services back to Japan. In between that and school, I worked as a contractor doing computer support and I worked at the Ballpark in Frisco with the RoughRiders as an usher and by picking up trash after the games to earn some money.

I have worked seriously and still do not understand why this comment from Alicia would have to do with Mercedes Pools capabilities of following the addendum in not using my pool images for their gain (distortion to the facts, again?). Being overweight has nothing to do with illegally using my pool images for their personal gain (Alicia needs to check the mirror before you start talking about someone else very unprofessional on her part). At no time during the project that locks were left on the gate that kept them from getting to the property. I had them put locks on the gates with their combination so once the pool was getting functional, I had to protect my Homeowner's Insurance liability because there were many curious young children that lived in my neighborhood.

I did change the combinations on the locks when I had to inform Mercedes Pools of complete relationship termination because of continued addendum violations and in fear of potential retaliation. I completed my contractual obligations by paying Mercedes the full amount in the contract. Alicia's lack of mental control was unpredictable and I was in fear of what may happen. Seeing her response is proof of her unstable personality and inability of accepting the original complaint and that she knows that I am correct in protecting my privacy and legal rights. Her lack of advanced education was proof in her inability of putting together a documented project plan that is normally a basic item supplied in a $54,000 project.

Also the lack of proper use of basic accounting and billing, programs, email, and digital image electronic transmission software (David had to bring me CD's to cover one of the addendum items that I had listed) on the computer that is basic on all computers in 2006 and today is indicative of the lack of basic business skills and advanced education that could enhance business and communication skills for positive people interactions.

Mercedes Pools is lucky I did not file a BBB complaint and take them to court two years ago from all the previous listed issues (there are more details I could get into if necessary). I feel Mercedes Pools continues to abuse my rights as a consumer by using the images of my pool for their gain. I should be compensated for past and current business because they are using the images of my pool to enhance their business when they did not earn that right because of not following the addendum (which they acknowledged continuously throughout the project by reviewing this checklist) items completely and for the poor customer service that I received once I paid them. Mercedes Pools was taking my money and running from their obligations to do the right thing at the end.

And now with the false and slanderous accusations made in the response, I have documentation to take this further if need be. Mercedes Pools is not a member of the BBB anyway and for such a long delay in response to the original complaint, so what is their concern in having this complaint removed or their right or have it removed? I am suppose to be dealing with a mature adult and responsible business owners, but the false accusations make one question the person allowed to do business as a service agent. Do they have the proper business permits in Collin County and did they file for all of the appropriate permits to complete all the tasks to remodel my pool (I never saw any documentation and did ask if they needed any permits Alicia said no because it was a remodel and you don't need permits to remodel anything). Their store front is using a UPS retail outlet as their mailbox address.

It would near impossible to track them if they deserted their business responsibilities. Others should be warned that the potential for negative issues could occur let the consumer make the correct decisions based on facts of past experiences from those who stand up for their rights to maintain their integrity as human beings who want to be treated with dignity. I will do what it takes to prevent the future use of my pool images for any third-party application and will continue to monitor this situation until I get final satisfaction that Mercedes Pools get no more financial gain because of the way I was treated. I will place these people in my prayers to hope someday they achieve the peace in their souls to treat people with respect and always do the right thing above all. God Bless all. I have attached multiple pages of documentation for your review in seeing the patterns of issues and the timestamps involved in the delays. If you need further clarification, please feel free to contact me at any time.