I don't know what to tell you, except, "I feel your pain!"

We had all our patio and pool decking replaced earlier this year. We also felt like we had done our homework and chosen a reputable company. We believed we had found a company that could not only handle the decking project, but would be able to do an upcoming renovation on our pool.

We were mistaken. I have never been as frustrated by anything as I was by the lack of communication and poor business practices of the company we used. Much of our frustration could have been eliminated if they just would have returned a phone call, but that seemed impossible.

Shortly after our deck was installed (it took 2 & 1/2 months!), we developed a leak in a return line. We never could get the company to return our calls, much less take a look and give us an estimate for the repair and refurbishment of the then 2 month-old deck. My husband did talk to a manager one day, and all he found out was if we had anyone else do the repair, we would void the warranty on the deck.

Rock, meet hard place! We lost water from the leak for two months, and finally decided we had no choice other than to find another company to repair the leak and fix the deck. I didn't know what else to do, and we certainly couldn't just let the pool leak all summer.

We were very happy with the company who did the repair, and we've already had some discussions with them about the work we want to have done on the pool this winter. Unfortunately that work will also include some repair, because we've developed a hairline crack in the deck which has no warranty because we had the leak repaired by another company.

What did we learn? This is just my opinion, but bigger and more expensive isn't always better. We just don't feel like we got what we paid for. The customer service we received was practically non-existant. Communication was great while we were in the "shopping" stage, but once we signed a contract things went downhill fast. I think choosing a big company that focuses on building high-end pools was a mistake...our project just didn't seem to be a priority with them, and a repair didn't interest them at all. I will talk to a lot more previous customers in the future, and I'll make sure I find out what kind of projects the company did for them. That's how we found the company that did the repair...through a friend who had similar work and renovations done about a year ago.

Sorry for the rant...I just read your post and thought, "I know just how they feel!"