Atlas Pools, Inc

I would give zero stars if the option was there. This firm was slow to respond and simply did not deliver what was expected in the design/bid process. They then sent me to collections for services never provided. I received ONE design with little to no revisions. NO MEASUREMENTS, and NEVER even received a bid for the work. They were slow to no response when busy, but then when their business slowed they came after the remaining half of a contract for services that were never fully delivered. Tulio and their office never once visited my home or met me in person. I wouldn't suggest anyone do business with this incredibly untrustworthy business.

Terrible experience with Tulio and Atlas. Job started off wrong as he misquoted every item costing us tens of thousands more than his original contract. His only excuse was just that he made a mistake and didn’t realize how expensive things were and/or measured everything wrong. He subs the whole job out and guessed what his vendors would charge vs actually getting a quote from them before he accepted our project. He is essentially a project manager since he uses vendors for the job and adds a mark up for himself. We were ok with that, however, half the time he did not show up when his vendors did so many mistakes happened. The coping completely cracked the day it was put in and he had to rip the entire coping out and redo. He said his guys started it when it was too hot outside as they got stuck in traffic that morning. Pool tile also had to be ripped out and redone. Mistake after mistake because he was not managing the project as he should have been. He would say one thing one day and the opposite the next. Awful communication. Seemed to have very little industry knowledge as he was a pool and spa cleaner, not a contractor until the last few years. Full completion of pool was over 8 months. We had to hire another company to complete the job(plaster the pool and add the turf). His clean up was beyond disappointing. During his excavation he tore down one wall and took out a bunch of the concrete walkway. The job he did to fix it is in shambles. He couldn’t afford to fill in 100 sq feet of concrete to bring it back to the shape it was in when we started the job. He had his guys spot fill so we have a bunch of different patches of concrete now. It being the side yard we didn’t fight it as we knew he was low on funds and we wanted him out of our hair. We have some other cracking, hopefully nothing else major as we would have to take him to court to get anything fixed as he does not back his work after the final payment. Buyer beware.

Here is our detailed experience with Atlas pools. This was a large expensive project for us. Initially, Tulio (owner of Atlas) referred us to Brad Morton to draw up the backyard design. Brad did a very nice job with the designs, but it did cost $5500. In contacting other contractors, the design generation was included with the bid. So, this was an additional cost. We gathered 5 bids in total. Atlas was the most expensive by at least 25%. But, my husband wanted to go with Tulio. Our project started around July 10th, I don’t remember the exact date. We used Atlas pools for our pool, spa, concrete, and outdoor kitchen. Altas uses subcontractors. In general, we were happy with there on time and show up rate. I would give a B+ on this rating. What I didn’t appreciate was the remains of food thrown all over the yard. We would have to go out at the end of each day and make sure there weren’t things (i.e. chicken bones) our dogs could eat on the ground. They also drank beers at lunch which I wasn’t fond of. I would find the bottle tops all over the yard. I also felt that I was often discounted for being a female. I was repeatedly asked when my husband would be home. The project moved very quickly initially and we were told we would have water in the pool by Labor Day weekend. This didn’t happen, it was late Oct. before the water went in. Tulio went on vacation around the week of Labor Day and the project came to a standstill for several weeks. We did take a vacation the last week of Sept and didn’t allow any work to be done while we were away. That week is on us. Tulio suggested we contact an outdoor designer for assistance with picking out stone, concrete, etc. This was very helpful as I was very overwhelmed by what materials to use. He also suggested a place for us to buy our BBQ island equipment. This was very helpful as well. Pool construction: I really can’t comment much on this as I’m not experience with pool construction. In general, our plans were followed and I’m happy with the overall look. Tulio was helpful in suggesting equipment needs, number of jets, and other things that we wouldn’t have known about. Outdoor kitchen/Island construction: This is where things fell apart. This was not a small undertaking and came in at total cost of around $40K. The island was supposed to have a cantilever (countertop level with a step up to bar height). When the initial construction was completed it became obvious something was wrong. The cantilever was way too high. Once the granite went on it would have been about 48 inches high, standard is 42 inches. Abe the builder said it was high because we had a high fridge. None of this was ever communicated to us. In general, communication on key details was lacking. In the end we made a compromise and dropped the cantilever. The whole island top is now around 42-43 inches high. Tulio was good about fixing it and I think we were more than fair in accepting a compromise. The whole thing could have been avoided if there was better communication. I’m still unhappy with the installation of the side burner. I was not set all the way back and there is a gap. It still isn’t exactly what we were wanting. Island building, I would give a C+. Concrete: We have a diagonal design in our concrete. There were some extraneous lines added that they said were needed for stress cracks. They look odd. We do have some large cracks that formed and I’m waiting on being fixed. Initially, they tried to fill in the cracks. This looked horrible. Now they are going to take out the cracked sections and re-pour it. The color will be off. Disappointing given the amount we paid. They’re saying it cracked because the day was so hot when they poured the concrete. Not really a good excuse in my opinion. I’m not a concrete expert but to me visually the concrete job looks sloppy. We did have a pretty large issue with one of Tulio’s contractors, Oscar the electrician. He was on the phone quite a bit while here working. I know because I could hear him yelling into the phone throughout the day. I work out of the house and am often home. Oscar told my husband he was going to show up on Sat. when he finished up Friday. He no showed. My husband was very upset as he changed his weekend plans to accommodate this guy. My husband confronted Tulio about Oscar’s being on the phone and no showing. We then received a ranting, cursing phone message and txt from Oscar. Here is the txt, I will only edit the foul language, “What its you f***ing problem with me, my phone its non of your business mother F***, you pay my bill” “Its my phone and I pay for it mother, I do whatever I want with my phone, my phone did you hear my phone”. We asked he not return to our property after this. I did say I would call the police as I found him threatening, scary and having anger issues. Tulio did keep him away. My husband will use strong language here and there to make a point, but Oscars VM and TXT were completely unacceptable. We had some contractors that we used outside of Tulio for various things and Tulio was great in working with them which we appreciated. There are a lot of little items in the end I just decided to live with but would suggest someone else be aware of. My window screens now have holes from concrete getting on them. I have tile in my kitchen that cracked from the pounding on the outside wall during the outside island re-do. The driveway is a mess. Tulio is working on cleaning it. Be prepared to send a ton of time cleaning or hire someone. None of the new appliances were left clean. I haven’t even tired to use them yet they’re so dirty. All my windows and screens are filthy. Tulio is very personable and we found easy to work with. I do feel he responded to our requests without a bunch of push back. He was at the project regularly and easy to get ahold of. In conclusion, todays date is 11/13/2017. Everything is almost done with just a few wrap up items left. If I had it to do over, I would not use Altas for the outdoor kitchen/Island or concrete. For the pool they seem to do a good job, but not sure it was worth double the cost of other contractors.

Atlas Pools did a great job. They arrived exactly on schedule , were very professional and courteous and very tidy.

The service guy was very nice and preformed the job really good and efficient.

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Tulio came to my house for an estimate on Wednesday. He gave me a rough estimate and was supposed to email me the formal bid. I called on Monday to see when to expect the bid. They told me I should have it on Wednesday. Not only does a week seem a little long for a bid, I never received it.

I called to schedule an estimate for a full pool remodel.  The secretary called back within a very timely manner and scheduled the estimate for a 2 hour block of time.  On the day of the estimate, the 2 hour block of time came and went with no phone call.  Over an hour after the scheduled time, the secretary called to apologize saying that the estimator's truck broke down.  A phone call during the initial estimate time block would have been nice but okay, things happen.  So, I rescheduled for the same time the following day and again, the estimator was a no show and there has not been a call since.  If this is any indication of how the rest of the job will be, we will pass.  Very unprofessional.

I never got a call back. I guess they are doing well enough to not respond to a potential new customer who is prepared to spend over $100,000 on their project.

After I called, they came out within 24 hours. Gave me the price via email in 24 hours after that. Set an appointment which they reminded me of. Then followed up to make sure I was happy. It was perfect.

They responded quickly once I purchased the deal.  I appreciated that.

unknown

I recently purchased a new home and the previous owner let the pool go. It was very green and so I went online to get help. After I purchased the coupon from Atlas, I learned they couldn't get out to see the pool for 9 days. I had to go to plan B so I hired another company to come and assist. Today I reached out to Atlas and explained the situation and said that I am not looking for a refund, but if I could use the $49.00 toward supplies such as brushes chlorine etc... They said no. There out of pocket cost was zero, and since I know they sell supplies I was shocked. I just can't figure out why?

unknown

My experience has been very good. I would certainly use them again. They're knowledgeable and thorough about pool conditions and structure. I'm in the real estate business and I've used them to inspect pools for the sale of a property. If the pool had some issues, they come up with a list of repairs and possible things to look out for. They also give tips on maintenance and everything goes over with the new owner.

After contacting a half dozen pool companies, and receiving bids from three of them, we settled on Atlas Pools, owned and operated by Tulio. They were not the least expensive bid. We chose them based on their profesionalism and references. First, Atlas has a "real office." It's not operated out of somebody's house. They have a reliable, full time crew, not just workers that they pick up as work comes in. The crew was phenomenal. You'd be hard pressed to find a harder working crew of 7 or 8 guys. Impressive.
The pool was plaster, 25 years since it was installed. Atlas blasted out all the old plaster and took the pool down to the concrete. We chose the mini-pebble finish. It's lovely. New tile all around above the waterline. Redid the attached spa as well in the same pebble and tile. All new pool equipment...heater, pumps, filter, etc. Really transformed the place. In fact, a picture of our new pool is now in the tile supplier's catalog (okay, it's a small picture, but there it is...).
I can't say enough about Tulio. Easy to work with. Makes sure everything is done correctly and that we're satisfied. We signed up for his monthly service. Again, not the least expensive out there, but the pool guy takes his time to do it right, as opposed to the three or four we've had in the past who zoomed in and zoomed out leaving behind a marginally serviced pool. Plus, my philosophy is to give the monthly service to the same company that installed the pool equipment. That way there is no finger pointing in case something goes wrong. Nothing has gone wrong. The office staff is friendly, helpful, and again, professional.
Highly recommended.

 

• ThTh 

  Cleaned filter and rejuvinated our pool which had gone totally bad. Since moving into our new homw we have only used Atlas and have been totally pleased with their staff at the store and the various people whe have come to our home for maintenance. I would recommend them to anyoy of my friends and neighbors without hesitation.
Philip Kelly

From beginning to end, Atlas was very punctual and was in constant communication of all things pertaining to the job

Tulio is fantastic.  He showed up on time and provided a thorough review of my spa.  He knew his stuff and went through all of my systems in a professional manner.  I was impressed.

Entire process went very well.  Crew worked hard and turned up on time every day.  Each night they tidied up before they left.  Work man ship of job was great.  First class service from Tulio and staff.  They have serviced our pool for a few years.  And after this remodel - will continue to be our main point of contact for pool service and repairs.  Great JOB!

In general, Atlas has done a good job for me. Not all issues have been at an A level however. I have had some recurring small problems with the maintenance person who is dispatched to my house weekly. And my spa is still not working to my satisfaction. Except for the spa, repairs to various components of pool equipment have been handled with high quality.