Nationwide Pools Keith Loring Stuart Deceptive, horrble work, rip off Tampa, Florida

This is the original BBB report: Went into contract for a new pool on July 3, 2012. Todate the pool is not finished. Won't return calls or give definate answers. Went into contract on July 3, 2012 for a new pool. Gave a $3,000 deposit. Was told that the pool would be complete by end of August. After several calls to the company on when they would begin construction they finally did on August 8th. During construction they broke my fence in 3 different places, ripped out my irrigation system, broke the pipe to the irrigation system on the conservation land right behind my home, and completely ruined my neighbors back yard with their equipment.  I was given promise after promise on when the completion of the pool would be. I recently found out that the retaining wall failed the engineers inspection. Called several different people at the company (construction manager, sales manager and company phone) and kept being told that someone would be out there the next day. No one would ever show up. Called construction managers cell, managers cell as well as company voice mail Friday the 14, Sat 15th, Sun 16th and Mon the 17th. I informed all parties that the pipe that they broke on the conservation area behind my house was flooding the area and needed to be fixed before a sink hole was established.

Was finally given a call back on Mon afternoon from the construction manager saying that he had been aware of the broken pipe and meant to fix it. He also informed me that someone would be there the next day to take care of the problem- todate (September 19, 2012) no one has come to fix that or any of the other issues. I have a half done pool that has now turned into a green mosquito infested swamp. I have requested several times for them to come and drain the shell that they have built and am only told time and time again that someone would be there- only to have NO ONE show up. Had to take the day off of work to allow the electrician into the home to access the electrical panel - he showed up on Monday, Sept 10 and only ran some wires on the outside of the property- never came into home to run the electric. This company has failed to deliver what they had promised, they will not return calls, will not commit to a completion date, has not fixed any of the broken items that they broke and mostly has not completed the construction of a fully paid pool. However they did take and cash the full payment of $33,000 for a pool that I do not have. Furthermore, was told several times by the sales manager that they were BBB certified and was even given documentation showing that- only to see on this site that they are not. 

This was their rebuttal: Mr. Hxxx was notified permitting could not begin until we received his property survey. The start of Mr. Hxxx permitting process was delayed by Mr. Hxxxx by not providing a survey. Nationwide's office staff placed several calls to Mr. Hxxxx, his builder, and his title company trying to track it down for him so he would not have to pay for a new one. The survey was finally provided by the title company two weeks later, allowing Nationwide to start permitting. Mr. Hxxxx was notified this was going to delay the start of the project beyond original projections. Mr. Hines was notified his fence removal for access and underground sprinkler lines were his responsibility. The retaining wall did not fail due to sub-par quality, in fact Nationwide received comments praising the quality of the wall. The inspector simply asked Nationwide for an additional wall permit, despite the wall being on the original pool plans. Nationwide submitted the paperwork immediately, and resumed work the very next day it was ready.

This caused a delay of a few days, and Mr. Hxxxx was spoken to on every business day, updating him on the status. Mr. Hines was notified and signed paperwork acknowledging his irrigation lines may be damaged. Our equipment went through his neighbors yard because that was the access point arranged by Mr. Hxxxx. Mr. Hxxxx asked us if the equipment would damage the grass and he was told yes. Nationwide' Call Log shows Mr. Hxxxx was spoken to on Friday the 14th and Monday the 17th, keeping him updated. The office is closed Saturday and Sunday. The pipe in the conservation area, although not Nationwide's responsibility has been fixed for a while, Mr. Hxxxx just didn't realize it. When asked about draining the pool, he was notified that at that point in construction the ground water needed to rise in the shell, and it would be cleaned out and sealed prior to the interior being finished. The electrician doesn't always know if the wiring has to go through the home until the wiring is being done. It wasn't necessary on that day, and Nationwide apologizes if this caused an inconvenience. Nationwide did tell Mr. Hxxxx that they could not give him a exact final date (due to weather and inspections), however we was told approximately when it would be finished. His pool has been under construction for 7 weeks, and will be completed next week. He was told to allow 8 weeks for completion. Finally, it was never told to Mr. Hines that the Tampa branch was "certified" with the BBB, just that we are rated by the BBB. In fact, he was given a copy of our paperwork with the BBB so there would be no misunderstanding. Nationwide has always been polite,responsive, and professional with Mr. Hines, and will continue to do so.

My Final Rebuttal:  It is true that we were aware that permitting could not begin until a property survey was obtained. However, Nationwide is failing to state that when told, at signing of contract, that we were unsure of where the recent survey was we were assured that they would call our title company and obtain such survey. On 7/11, I was contacted by Ashley Reza from Nationwide pools stating that the title company needed a letter of authorization from me. Immediately a letter was written, signed, and scanned back to Ashley.  On 7/20, I the title company stated that the survey had been sent to them a week prior. We did not hear back from them until 8/2, when Ashley was contacted regarding the color selection of the ledger stone. At that time she said that the fence would have to be removed as they were beginning construction on that Monday.  Their claim that we were the ones holding up the permitting is completely false. As per the permitting office for Hillsborough County they first filed for permits on 7/18.
 
However, said permits were put on hold since the plans that they drew would have the pool placed into our garage. The permitting office did not receive the corrected plans from Nationwide until 8/1. The final permit was issued on 8/3/12. So therefore, due to their poor plan layout description to the permitting office the permits were not able to be processed. This was their fault, certainly not mine.  At NO time was I ever notified that there was an issue with the survey nor notified that there was a problem delaying the start of the project.  Nationwide is correct with saying that we are responsible for the fence removal which was done as soon as we were told. We do not have underground sprinklers in the backyard and when asked about the side soakers we were informed by James Staten that the construction manager Tim would cap them off and not to worry about it.

When Tim came he said that he could not do it however an irrigation company would be called in to give an on sight survey to Nationwide. We were never informed the outcome of such estimate or survey. Again, Nationwide is not truthful with regard to the retaining wall failing inspection. According to the County Permitting Office on 9/13 the retaining wall was red flagged because Nationwide never filed for a permit for the footings. This delayed the project until 9/21. Again, this was Nationwide failure not mine. The statement that I was spoken to each business day is an outright lie. At NO time during these
days was I contacted either by email, cell, home or work numbers. It is unbelievable that a statement as to this would even be written.
 
At this time I would like to see Nationwide Pools telephone records showing that such communication was made. I will certainly provide all of my phone records showing how many times I tried to contact them and had to leave messages with no return call. I would also like to see the paper work signed saying that I agreed that my irrigation work could be damaged. The only paper work that was signed other than the contract was an access agreement allowing nationwide permission to access to the pool for construction. The irrigation line that was ripped out was on the side of my home and in no way near the access point. The irrigation system that was broken in the conservation area was several feet behind my home and to the right- again an area that should not have been used for access sincethe contractors used the access point to the left of my home. Again, I am requesting proof of telephone records to show that Nationwide contacted me on the 14th and again on the 17th of September as this is also an outright lie.  The conservation piping is certainly Nationwide's responsibility since they are the ones who broke the piping. The pipe was not fixed until after the filing of the first complaint with the BBB on 9/19. Furthermore, to date the pipe is still not completely fixed as it now does not run correctly and is flooding the surrounding trees.
 
As for Nationwide's claim that the pool would be completed at the 8 week timeframe, this would have been last week (10/8-10/12). To date (10/14/12) I still have an uncompleted pool in my yard. On 10/8/12 the County placed a hold on the permits because Nationwide failed to notify them of the name and company of the Electrical contractor.  This was fixed the next day; however it shows how unprofessional this company is. Furthermore, at many times during the construction both my wife and I asked about the gas piping to the heater. We were told that we would not have to do anything just let our gas company know that we would be heating the pool with natural gas. When the gas company was contacted we were told that we would have to hire a gas plumber to run the piping. This is something that Nationwide failed to inform us about. It just shows that this company is far from honest and fails to inform its costumers of the necessary costs and required customer actions. Let me repeat that as of today MY POOL IS STILL NOT COMPLETE!!!