The Blue Haven Pools & Spas office that put in my pool in Sarasota now only has offices in Naples, Fort Myers & Estero FL (that I found). I called the Estero office which is closest to us and spoke with the Construction Coordinator twice. She did try to blame it on the patio lifting and therefore they would not fix the pool. I have seen concrete lift and our patio is as flat and smooth as the day it went in. I disagreed with her and she said she'd speak with her manager, Rick, who never did call back. Numerous calls were placed all in all over a few weeks to no avail. When the company left this immediate area, they gave us a list of companies and numbers to call if issues came up.
We tried the 2 numbers for pool cracking to no avail. No answers, messages were left with no responses. That is when I called the Estero office for help. It is still the same company and should honor the contract and warranty. I even emailed a copy of our contract and pictures of the cracks, per Becky's request. However, the patio is not covered (even though they put it in) and so the blame is being laid there. I actually found a website showing how a pool cracks relating to poor workmanship and our cracks look just the same. So, our pool shell is cracked all along the wall under the tiles which are falling off. That is how we found the cracks in the first place.
One last plea --- Please Be Ethical, Have Integrity, Honor your Lifetime Warranty and fix our pool !
NOTE...This company is NOT affiliated with the Blue Haven Pools located in Sydney Australia.
In 2008 blue heaven replaster my pool and retop deck, deck peal of after 2 years and pool cracked the to plaster after 4, didn't onor wararranty with some lame excuse, paid $9300.00 cash and now will most likely cost more, I was aspecting the job would last more.
I purchased the pool from Blue Haven Pools over 18 years ago, with a 25 year warranty. After years of phone tag and unreturned calls, I turned the company into the Attorney Generals Office. That finally prompted a response from the owner, who informed me that he no longer sold that brand of pool anymore. There has been a crack in the bottom of the pool for several years now, so we cannot use it. Mike came out at one point and I thought he was going to do the right thing and cover the warranty of the pool. Instead, he passed the buck to the pool manufacturer, who is also yet to act on anything. I keep getting blamed for not "maintaining" the pool, but who would maintain a broken pool? I am a single Mother and cannot afford to keep spending hundreds of dollars on water bills, to fill a pool that continues to leak. This has been going on for years now, and I refuse to be blamed any longer for it! Clearly, I didnt cause the pool to crack and I refuse to pay for something that is still under warranty!
When I placed order by the phone, the sales agent confirmed to me that a 15% discount applied the the whole order with three items. She gave me a order # and the total invoice.
When the invoice came in the e-mail, it was significantly higher. I called their customer service and asked for correction. The agent said that she would check the recorded conversation and then called me back.
No one call me back. A e mail was sent to me indicating one of the items with the 15% discount. not the whole order.
I called back again. "Scot" gave me the same go around that he would have to check the recorded conversation to investigate. When I pressured him whether he or anybody actually would check the recording, he addmitted that nobody propably would.
Of course, "Scot" said that he would call me back tomorrow with the result. He even challenged me to put my experiences with Blue Haven on the internet.
I would continue to post here and let you all know what the final solution will be. At the mean time, I would not recommend anybody buying anything from them. After all, the stuff they sell, every body is selling them. You would buy from a honest vendor with good service.
On December 19,2005 we contracted with Blue Haven Pools of Tyler, Texas, owned by BOYCE ELDRIDGE, to build a pool at our home in Athens, Texas. It is now February 27, 2007 and our pool is still not finished properly.
The quality of their work and customer service has been terrible, they have not honored their warranty, and they have done large amounts of damage to our property.
In December of 2005 Blue Haven salesman Steve Harris and his assistant Creig sat at our dining room table and painted a grand picture of what a great job Blue Haven could do building our pool. They also assured us that they could have it done in about 6 weeks due to the fact that it was winter and construction was slow.
They then went on to tell us that it would go much faster if we used their stone mason Shane Warren to build the retaining wall around the pool. They gave a good sales pitch and we signed the contract, not realizing the nightmare we had just gotten ourselves into. 6 Weeks soon turned into 6 months.
A few weeks after we signed the contract Blue Haven showed up to dig the pool. Instead of hauling off the dirt as they said they would in the contract, they left it piled in my backyard. This was a monumental pile of dirt considering that my pool is 40' x 24' and up to 8' deep.
Next they sent out their subcontractor Shane Warren to build the retaining wall that Blue Haven had designed to go around the pool. Warren and Blue Haven ordered the wrong stone, and then actually constructed the wall so poorly that it had to be torn down twice, and then eventually rebuilt with the correct stone by another stone mason that I provided.
Blue Haven had been paid largely in advance, and as soon as there was the slightest problem, they would disappear. I would have to call Blue Haven day in and day out asking why they weren't there, and when would they be back. I always got the response that "they will be ther tomorrow." They rarely showed up.
In the midst of the failed retaining wall attempt, Blue Haven decided that the dirt that they had excavated from the pool was in their way. So instead of hauling it off as they should have, they decided to pile it on my landscaping, destroying thousands of dollars in landscaping. The area was not small, measuring about 100 feet long and 15-20 feet deep!
Blue Haven had REPEATEDLY been told that this landscaping was not to be damaged, and considering that my backyard had about 1/2 acre of open area in which to build the pool, this was not an unreasonable request. They chose to ignore my requests.
At this point I had to threaten Blue Haven and Boyce Eldridge with legal action if they did not get the dirt out of my backyard. On the last possible day before legal action was to be filed, Blue Haven crews showed up and moved all the dirt out of my backyard. but instead of hauling it off, THEY PILED IT IN MY FRONT YARD!
Where it sat for months.
Killing my grass.I eventually had to have someone haul it off with a backhoe and dumptruck.
The pool was built very poorly. Problems that surfaced even before Blue Haven claimed to be "finished" included:
1. Cracked and Broken coping.
2. A $12,000 automatic pool cover that never worked properly.
3. Poor quality stone work.
4. Plaster that was degrading since day one.
5. They built a substructure for the automatic pool cover out of raw, unpainted angle iron and rebar. Now, anyone with common sense would know that putting exposed iron in a saltwater pool will cause rust. Obviously this started to rust almost immediately, leaving rust deposits in the pool.
6. They never even backfilled the retaining wall around the pool. My wife and I had to do this.
Damage to my property included, but was not limited to:
1. Thousands of dollars of destroyed landscaping.
2. They broke a retaining wall next to my house ( nowhere CLOSE to the pool).
3. They left huge ruts in my yard.
4. They left huge amounts of trash and refuse in my yard, including about 20 TONS OF STONE.
Poor Service included:
1. Blue Haven constantly promised to "be out tomorrow", but the only way we could get them out was by constantly calling and writing letters.
Side note: Blue Haven's contract states that any requests have to be in writing. Therefore as this nightmare drug on, I sent MANY letters to BOYCE ELDRIDGE demanding that the problems be fixed and/or the pool get finished. Boyce responded by trying to riducule me for sending these letters, and kept telling us they weren't necessary. Now that I see how they operate, I understand why he did not want a paper trail to exist that would expose what a poor quality operation he is running.
2. Some of their subcontractors drank on the job and left beer cans in our bushes.
3. Their workers decided to use our bushes as their restroom.
4. They left the unfinished pool 1/3 full of stagnant water and trash for months.
After Blue Haven claimed the pool was "finshed", 6 months after they started, we immediately began notifying them that many warranty problems existed and needed to be fixed. Their sales claim is that they provide "warranty service within 24 hours of the complaint." We COULD NOT get them to return to the property to do the repairs.
The pump has gone out on the pool, the plaster looks terrible, the coping looks terrible, the cover doesn't work right.
Basically, the pool is a piece of junk and a tremendous waste of money.
Blue Haven's salesmen, especially STEVE HARRIS, will tell you ANYTHING to get you to sign the contract. One of Steve's biggest claims was that " he would be involved from start to finish to make sure that everything went right." Once the contract was signed, it was like pulling teeth just to get Steve on the phone.
I have since discovered that this type of situation is evidently a nationwide problem with Blue Haven Pools. They get the money before they finish the job, do an awful job, and leave the consumer hanging in the wind.
Blue Haven has designed their contract in a way that to get any kind of legal remedy, one must follow a very lengthy and expensive arbitration process to get anything done. Generally it costs more to go the arbitration route than it would cost for the consumer to just pay a quality company to come fix Blue Haven's mess.
Unfortunately for Blue Haven of Tyler, I started the arbitration process against them back in August of 2006, and intend to make them do the right thing.
Blue Haven of Tyler and BOYCE ELDRIDGE operate a deceptive, poor quality operation that I feel borders on criminal.
One problem after another with Blue Haven. Sleazy operation from the moment they get your money. They tried to con us out of an additional $4000 engineering report for County permit process. I found out that they used the wrong address to justify this little slip up. No apology. No ownership. They put the wrong tile on our pool then blamed us! As it turned out the tile company changed their tile scheme and they reimbursed us but Frank Firetti wasn't even at fault yet he was hostile toward us instead of trying to find a solution!!?? The day before the final piece (plaster and water) we got an enote saying the payment in full is due before they can start plastering. (They want all the money so there's no recourse if anything goes wrong)
Problem in this case was they couldn't do simple math. The balance remaining was $4400 in their favor with new charges that magically appeared including charges for the plaster subcontractor and threats that if we don't pay it would take 6 additional weeks to get the sub to show up. We felt over a barrel and they would not take our phone calls to remedy. When the plaster sub showed up he was adamant he wouldn't start unless we gave him a check in full. We were months over schedule so figured we'd resolve it later and wanted the sub to not delay. Then we found out they had the wrong material for the job. Unbelievable!
We sent them away. Miraculously, blue haven took our calls when they didn't get our money. The sub somehow made room the very next day with the correct materials and at that point Blue haven relented on their little math error too but still wanted payment in full instead of the normal 10% remaining balance until final inspection. I thought we were almost done with them with the only remaining pool school on the equipment normally done within a few days. Weeks later after numerous calls and blue haven avoiding and hanging up on us, we finally got them to show up. (After algie started forming) Very unhappy with blue haven!! But don't take my word for it, do your homework, read all the other reviews, ask the pool supply companies. Blue haven has a horrible reputation!! I really can't believe Frank Firretti is still in business.
On December 19,2005 we contracted with Blue Haven Pools of Tyler, Texas, owned by BOYCE ELDRIDGE, to build a pool at our home in Athens, Texas. It is now February 27, 2007 and our pool is still not finished properly. The quality of their work and customer service has been terrible, they have not honored their warranty, and they have done large amounts of damage to our property. In December of 2005 Blue Haven salesman Steve Harris and his assistant Creig sat at our dining room table and painted a grand picture of what a great job Blue Haven could do building our pool. They also assured us that they could have it done in about 6 weeks due to the fact that it was winter and construction was slow. They then went
on to tell us that it would go much faster if we used their stone mason Shane Warren to build the retaining wall around the pool. They gave a good sales pitch and we signed the contract, not realizing the nightmare we had just gotten ourselves into. 6 Weeks soon turned into 6 months. A few weeks after we signed the contract Blue Haven showed up to dig the pool. Instead of hauling off the dirt as they said they would in the contract, they left it piled in my backyard. This was a monumental pile of dirt considering that my pool is 40' x 24' and up to 8' deep. Next they sent out their subcontractor Shane Warren to build the retaining wall that Blue Haven had designed to go around the pool. Warren and Blue Haven
ordered the wrong stone, and then actually constructed the wall so poorly that it had to be torn down twice, and then eventually rebuilt with the correct stone by another stone mason that I provided. Blue Haven had been paid largely in advance, and as soon as there was the slightest problem, they would disappear. I would have to call Blue Haven day in and day out asking why they weren't there, and when would they be back. I always got the response that "they will be ther tomorrow." They rarely showed up. In the midst of the failed retaining wall attempt, Blue Haven decided that the dirt that they had excavated from the pool was in their way. So instead of hauling it off as they should have, they decided to
pile it on my landscaping, destroying thousands of dollars in landscaping. The area was not small, measuring about 100 feet long and 15-20 feet deep! Blue Haven had REPEATEDLY been told that this landscaping was not to be damaged, and considering that my backyard had about 1/2 acre of open area in which to build the pool, this was not an unreasonable request. They chose to ignore my requests. At this point I had to threaten Blue Haven and Boyce Eldridge with legal action if they did not get the dirt out of my backyard. On the last possible day before legal action was to be filed, Blue Haven crews showed up and moved all the dirt out of my backyard. but instead of hauling it off, THEY PILED IT IN MY FRONT
YARD! Where it sat for months. Killing my grass.I eventually had to have someone haul it off with a backhoe and dumptruck. The pool was built very poorly. Problems that surfaced even before Blue Haven claimed to be "finished" included: 1. Cracked and Broken coping. 2. A $12,000 automatic pool cover that never worked properly. 3. Poor quality stone work. 4. Plaster that was degrading since day one. 5. They built a substructure for the automatic pool cover out of raw, unpainted angle iron and rebar. Now, anyone with common sense would know that putting exposed iron in a saltwater pool will cause rust. Obviously this started to rust almost immediately, leaving rust deposits in the pool. 6. They never
even backfilled the retaining wall around the pool. My wife and I had to do this. Damage to my property included, but was not limited to: 1. Thousands of dollars of destroyed landscaping. 2. They broke a retaining wall next to my house ( nowhere CLOSE to the pool). 3. They left huge ruts in my yard. 4. They left huge amounts of trash and refuse in my yard, including about 20 TONS OF STONE. Poor Service included: 1. Blue Haven constantly promised to "be out tomorrow", but the only way we could get them out was by constantly calling and writing letters. Side note: Blue Haven's contract states that any requests have to be in writing. Therefore as this nightmare drug on, I sent MANY letters to BOYCE ELDRIDGE
demanding that the problems be fixed and/or the pool get finished. Boyce responded by trying to riducule me for sending these letters, and kept telling us they weren't necessary. Now that I see how they operate, I understand why he did not want a paper trail to exist that would expose what a poor quality operation he is running. 2. Some of their subcontractors drank on the job and left beer cans in our bushes. 3. Their workers decided to use our bushes as their restroom. 4. They left the unfinished pool 1/3 full of stagnant water and trash for months. After Blue Haven claimed the pool was "finshed", 6 months after they started, we immediately began notifying them that many warranty problems existed and needed to be
fixed. Their sales claim is that they provide "warranty service within 24 hours of the complaint." We COULD NOT get them to return to the property to do the repairs. The pump has gone out on the pool, the plaster looks terrible, the coping looks terrible, the cover doesn't work right. Basically, the pool is a piece of junk and a tremendous waste of money. Blue Haven's salesmen, especially STEVE HARRIS, will tell you ANYTHING to get you to sign the contract. One of Steve's biggest claims was that " he would be involved from start to finish to make sure that everything went right." Once the contract was signed, it was like pulling teeth just to get Steve on the phone. I have since discovered that this type of
situation is evidently a nationwide problem with Blue Haven Pools. They get the money before they finish the job, do an awful job, and leave the consumer hanging in the wind. Blue Haven has designed their contract in a way that to get any kind of legal remedy, one must follow a very lengthy and expensive arbitration process to get anything done. Generally it costs more to go the arbitration route than it would cost for the consumer to just pay a quality company to come fix Blue Haven's mess. Unfortunately for Blue Haven of Tyler, I started the arbitration process against them back in August of 2006, and intend to make them do the right thing. Blue Haven of Tyler and BOYCE ELDRIDGE operate a deceptive, poor quality operation that I feel borders on criminal.
Blue Haven Pools and Spas Reviews
The Blue Haven Pools & Spas office that put in my pool in Sarasota now only has offices in Naples, Fort Myers & Estero FL (that I found). I called the Estero office which is closest to us and spoke with the Construction Coordinator twice. She did try to blame it on the patio lifting and therefore they would not fix the pool. I have seen concrete lift and our patio is as flat and smooth as the day it went in. I disagreed with her and she said she'd speak with her manager, Rick, who never did call back. Numerous calls were placed all in all over a few weeks to no avail. When the company left this immediate area, they gave us a list of companies and numbers to call if issues came up.
We tried the 2 numbers for pool cracking to no avail. No answers, messages were left with no responses. That is when I called the Estero office for help. It is still the same company and should honor the contract and warranty. I even emailed a copy of our contract and pictures of the cracks, per Becky's request. However, the patio is not covered (even though they put it in) and so the blame is being laid there. I actually found a website showing how a pool cracks relating to poor workmanship and our cracks look just the same. So, our pool shell is cracked all along the wall under the tiles which are falling off. That is how we found the cracks in the first place.
One last plea --- Please Be Ethical, Have Integrity, Honor your Lifetime Warranty and fix our pool !
NOTE...This company is NOT affiliated with the Blue Haven Pools located in Sydney Australia.
In 2008 blue heaven replaster my pool and retop deck, deck peal of after 2 years and pool cracked the to plaster after 4, didn't onor wararranty with some lame excuse, paid $9300.00 cash and now will most likely cost more, I was aspecting the job would last more.
I purchased the pool from Blue Haven Pools over 18 years ago, with a 25 year warranty. After years of phone tag and unreturned calls, I turned the company into the Attorney Generals Office. That finally prompted a response from the owner, who informed me that he no longer sold that brand of pool anymore. There has been a crack in the bottom of the pool for several years now, so we cannot use it. Mike came out at one point and I thought he was going to do the right thing and cover the warranty of the pool. Instead, he passed the buck to the pool manufacturer, who is also yet to act on anything. I keep getting blamed for not "maintaining" the pool, but who would maintain a broken pool? I am a single Mother and cannot afford to keep spending hundreds of dollars on water bills, to fill a pool that continues to leak. This has been going on for years now, and I refuse to be blamed any longer for it! Clearly, I didnt cause the pool to crack and I refuse to pay for something that is still under warranty!
When I placed order by the phone, the sales agent confirmed to me that a 15% discount applied the the whole order with three items. She gave me a order # and the total invoice.
When the invoice came in the e-mail, it was significantly higher. I called their customer service and asked for correction. The agent said that she would check the recorded conversation and then called me back.
No one call me back. A e mail was sent to me indicating one of the items with the 15% discount. not the whole order.
I called back again. "Scot" gave me the same go around that he would have to check the recorded conversation to investigate. When I pressured him whether he or anybody actually would check the recording, he addmitted that nobody propably would.
Of course, "Scot" said that he would call me back tomorrow with the result. He even challenged me to put my experiences with Blue Haven on the internet.
I would continue to post here and let you all know what the final solution will be. At the mean time, I would not recommend anybody buying anything from them. After all, the stuff they sell, every body is selling them. You would buy from a honest vendor with good service.
Do not make the mistake I have make.
On December 19,2005 we contracted with Blue Haven Pools of Tyler, Texas, owned by BOYCE ELDRIDGE, to build a pool at our home in Athens, Texas. It is now February 27, 2007 and our pool is still not finished properly.
The quality of their work and customer service has been terrible, they have not honored their warranty, and they have done large amounts of damage to our property.
In December of 2005 Blue Haven salesman Steve Harris and his assistant Creig sat at our dining room table and painted a grand picture of what a great job Blue Haven could do building our pool. They also assured us that they could have it done in about 6 weeks due to the fact that it was winter and construction was slow.
They then went on to tell us that it would go much faster if we used their stone mason Shane Warren to build the retaining wall around the pool. They gave a good sales pitch and we signed the contract, not realizing the nightmare we had just gotten ourselves into. 6 Weeks soon turned into 6 months.
A few weeks after we signed the contract Blue Haven showed up to dig the pool. Instead of hauling off the dirt as they said they would in the contract, they left it piled in my backyard. This was a monumental pile of dirt considering that my pool is 40' x 24' and up to 8' deep.
Next they sent out their subcontractor Shane Warren to build the retaining wall that Blue Haven had designed to go around the pool. Warren and Blue Haven ordered the wrong stone, and then actually constructed the wall so poorly that it had to be torn down twice, and then eventually rebuilt with the correct stone by another stone mason that I provided.
Blue Haven had been paid largely in advance, and as soon as there was the slightest problem, they would disappear. I would have to call Blue Haven day in and day out asking why they weren't there, and when would they be back. I always got the response that "they will be ther tomorrow." They rarely showed up.
In the midst of the failed retaining wall attempt, Blue Haven decided that the dirt that they had excavated from the pool was in their way. So instead of hauling it off as they should have, they decided to pile it on my landscaping, destroying thousands of dollars in landscaping. The area was not small, measuring about 100 feet long and 15-20 feet deep!
Blue Haven had REPEATEDLY been told that this landscaping was not to be damaged, and considering that my backyard had about 1/2 acre of open area in which to build the pool, this was not an unreasonable request. They chose to ignore my requests.
At this point I had to threaten Blue Haven and Boyce Eldridge with legal action if they did not get the dirt out of my backyard. On the last possible day before legal action was to be filed, Blue Haven crews showed up and moved all the dirt out of my backyard. but instead of hauling it off, THEY PILED IT IN MY FRONT YARD!
Where it sat for months.
Killing my grass.I eventually had to have someone haul it off with a backhoe and dumptruck.
The pool was built very poorly. Problems that surfaced even before Blue Haven claimed to be "finished" included:
1. Cracked and Broken coping.
2. A $12,000 automatic pool cover that never worked properly.
3. Poor quality stone work.
4. Plaster that was degrading since day one.
5. They built a substructure for the automatic pool cover out of raw, unpainted angle iron and rebar. Now, anyone with common sense would know that putting exposed iron in a saltwater pool will cause rust. Obviously this started to rust almost immediately, leaving rust deposits in the pool.
6. They never even backfilled the retaining wall around the pool. My wife and I had to do this.
Damage to my property included, but was not limited to:
1. Thousands of dollars of destroyed landscaping.
2. They broke a retaining wall next to my house ( nowhere CLOSE to the pool).
3. They left huge ruts in my yard.
4. They left huge amounts of trash and refuse in my yard, including about 20 TONS OF STONE.
Poor Service included:
1. Blue Haven constantly promised to "be out tomorrow", but the only way we could get them out was by constantly calling and writing letters.
Side note: Blue Haven's contract states that any requests have to be in writing. Therefore as this nightmare drug on, I sent MANY letters to BOYCE ELDRIDGE demanding that the problems be fixed and/or the pool get finished. Boyce responded by trying to riducule me for sending these letters, and kept telling us they weren't necessary. Now that I see how they operate, I understand why he did not want a paper trail to exist that would expose what a poor quality operation he is running.
2. Some of their subcontractors drank on the job and left beer cans in our bushes.
3. Their workers decided to use our bushes as their restroom.
4. They left the unfinished pool 1/3 full of stagnant water and trash for months.
After Blue Haven claimed the pool was "finshed", 6 months after they started, we immediately began notifying them that many warranty problems existed and needed to be fixed. Their sales claim is that they provide "warranty service within 24 hours of the complaint." We COULD NOT get them to return to the property to do the repairs.
The pump has gone out on the pool, the plaster looks terrible, the coping looks terrible, the cover doesn't work right.
Basically, the pool is a piece of junk and a tremendous waste of money.
Blue Haven's salesmen, especially STEVE HARRIS, will tell you ANYTHING to get you to sign the contract. One of Steve's biggest claims was that " he would be involved from start to finish to make sure that everything went right." Once the contract was signed, it was like pulling teeth just to get Steve on the phone.
I have since discovered that this type of situation is evidently a nationwide problem with Blue Haven Pools. They get the money before they finish the job, do an awful job, and leave the consumer hanging in the wind.
Blue Haven has designed their contract in a way that to get any kind of legal remedy, one must follow a very lengthy and expensive arbitration process to get anything done. Generally it costs more to go the arbitration route than it would cost for the consumer to just pay a quality company to come fix Blue Haven's mess.
Unfortunately for Blue Haven of Tyler, I started the arbitration process against them back in August of 2006, and intend to make them do the right thing.
Blue Haven of Tyler and BOYCE ELDRIDGE operate a deceptive, poor quality operation that I feel borders on criminal.
One problem after another with Blue Haven. Sleazy operation from the moment they get your money. They tried to con us out of an additional $4000 engineering report for County permit process. I found out that they used the wrong address to justify this little slip up. No apology. No ownership. They put the wrong tile on our pool then blamed us! As it turned out the tile company changed their tile scheme and they reimbursed us but Frank Firetti wasn't even at fault yet he was hostile toward us instead of trying to find a solution!!?? The day before the final piece (plaster and water) we got an enote saying the payment in full is due before they can start plastering. (They want all the money so there's no recourse if anything goes wrong)
Problem in this case was they couldn't do simple math. The balance remaining was $4400 in their favor with new charges that magically appeared including charges for the plaster subcontractor and threats that if we don't pay it would take 6 additional weeks to get the sub to show up. We felt over a barrel and they would not take our phone calls to remedy. When the plaster sub showed up he was adamant he wouldn't start unless we gave him a check in full. We were months over schedule so figured we'd resolve it later and wanted the sub to not delay. Then we found out they had the wrong material for the job. Unbelievable!
We sent them away. Miraculously, blue haven took our calls when they didn't get our money. The sub somehow made room the very next day with the correct materials and at that point Blue haven relented on their little math error too but still wanted payment in full instead of the normal 10% remaining balance until final inspection. I thought we were almost done with them with the only remaining pool school on the equipment normally done within a few days. Weeks later after numerous calls and blue haven avoiding and hanging up on us, we finally got them to show up. (After algie started forming) Very unhappy with blue haven!! But don't take my word for it, do your homework, read all the other reviews, ask the pool supply companies. Blue haven has a horrible reputation!! I really can't believe Frank Firretti is still in business.
On December 19,2005 we contracted with Blue Haven Pools of Tyler, Texas, owned by BOYCE ELDRIDGE, to build a pool at our home in Athens, Texas. It is now February 27, 2007 and our pool is still not finished properly. The quality of their work and customer service has been terrible, they have not honored their warranty, and they have done large amounts of damage to our property. In December of 2005 Blue Haven salesman Steve Harris and his assistant Creig sat at our dining room table and painted a grand picture of what a great job Blue Haven could do building our pool. They also assured us that they could have it done in about 6 weeks due to the fact that it was winter and construction was slow. They then went
on to tell us that it would go much faster if we used their stone mason Shane Warren to build the retaining wall around the pool. They gave a good sales pitch and we signed the contract, not realizing the nightmare we had just gotten ourselves into. 6 Weeks soon turned into 6 months. A few weeks after we signed the contract Blue Haven showed up to dig the pool. Instead of hauling off the dirt as they said they would in the contract, they left it piled in my backyard. This was a monumental pile of dirt considering that my pool is 40' x 24' and up to 8' deep. Next they sent out their subcontractor Shane Warren to build the retaining wall that Blue Haven had designed to go around the pool. Warren and Blue Haven
ordered the wrong stone, and then actually constructed the wall so poorly that it had to be torn down twice, and then eventually rebuilt with the correct stone by another stone mason that I provided. Blue Haven had been paid largely in advance, and as soon as there was the slightest problem, they would disappear. I would have to call Blue Haven day in and day out asking why they weren't there, and when would they be back. I always got the response that "they will be ther tomorrow." They rarely showed up. In the midst of the failed retaining wall attempt, Blue Haven decided that the dirt that they had excavated from the pool was in their way. So instead of hauling it off as they should have, they decided to
pile it on my landscaping, destroying thousands of dollars in landscaping. The area was not small, measuring about 100 feet long and 15-20 feet deep! Blue Haven had REPEATEDLY been told that this landscaping was not to be damaged, and considering that my backyard had about 1/2 acre of open area in which to build the pool, this was not an unreasonable request. They chose to ignore my requests. At this point I had to threaten Blue Haven and Boyce Eldridge with legal action if they did not get the dirt out of my backyard. On the last possible day before legal action was to be filed, Blue Haven crews showed up and moved all the dirt out of my backyard. but instead of hauling it off, THEY PILED IT IN MY FRONT
YARD! Where it sat for months. Killing my grass.I eventually had to have someone haul it off with a backhoe and dumptruck. The pool was built very poorly. Problems that surfaced even before Blue Haven claimed to be "finished" included: 1. Cracked and Broken coping. 2. A $12,000 automatic pool cover that never worked properly. 3. Poor quality stone work. 4. Plaster that was degrading since day one. 5. They built a substructure for the automatic pool cover out of raw, unpainted angle iron and rebar. Now, anyone with common sense would know that putting exposed iron in a saltwater pool will cause rust. Obviously this started to rust almost immediately, leaving rust deposits in the pool. 6. They never
even backfilled the retaining wall around the pool. My wife and I had to do this. Damage to my property included, but was not limited to: 1. Thousands of dollars of destroyed landscaping. 2. They broke a retaining wall next to my house ( nowhere CLOSE to the pool). 3. They left huge ruts in my yard. 4. They left huge amounts of trash and refuse in my yard, including about 20 TONS OF STONE. Poor Service included: 1. Blue Haven constantly promised to "be out tomorrow", but the only way we could get them out was by constantly calling and writing letters. Side note: Blue Haven's contract states that any requests have to be in writing. Therefore as this nightmare drug on, I sent MANY letters to BOYCE ELDRIDGE
demanding that the problems be fixed and/or the pool get finished. Boyce responded by trying to riducule me for sending these letters, and kept telling us they weren't necessary. Now that I see how they operate, I understand why he did not want a paper trail to exist that would expose what a poor quality operation he is running. 2. Some of their subcontractors drank on the job and left beer cans in our bushes. 3. Their workers decided to use our bushes as their restroom. 4. They left the unfinished pool 1/3 full of stagnant water and trash for months. After Blue Haven claimed the pool was "finshed", 6 months after they started, we immediately began notifying them that many warranty problems existed and needed to be
fixed. Their sales claim is that they provide "warranty service within 24 hours of the complaint." We COULD NOT get them to return to the property to do the repairs. The pump has gone out on the pool, the plaster looks terrible, the coping looks terrible, the cover doesn't work right. Basically, the pool is a piece of junk and a tremendous waste of money. Blue Haven's salesmen, especially STEVE HARRIS, will tell you ANYTHING to get you to sign the contract. One of Steve's biggest claims was that " he would be involved from start to finish to make sure that everything went right." Once the contract was signed, it was like pulling teeth just to get Steve on the phone. I have since discovered that this type of
situation is evidently a nationwide problem with Blue Haven Pools. They get the money before they finish the job, do an awful job, and leave the consumer hanging in the wind. Blue Haven has designed their contract in a way that to get any kind of legal remedy, one must follow a very lengthy and expensive arbitration process to get anything done. Generally it costs more to go the arbitration route than it would cost for the consumer to just pay a quality company to come fix Blue Haven's mess. Unfortunately for Blue Haven of Tyler, I started the arbitration process against them back in August of 2006, and intend to make them do the right thing. Blue Haven of Tyler and BOYCE ELDRIDGE operate a deceptive, poor quality operation that I feel borders on criminal.