Based on reviews we saw here on Angie's List, we were anxious to hire Larry Rowe to complete our pool and patio remodel. We had been looking for a contractor to fix the leaks in our pool, resurface the pool, change the waterline tile, install new pool coping, install a new pump and filter and install brick pavers on the lanai and pool patio. As of November, 2012, we had already received 5 bids from pool contractors, but there seemed to be issues with all of them, so we jumped on Angie's List to see if we could winnow the list down or find someone new. Larry Rowe had great ratings, so we called. It was the week of Thanksgiving, so he was not available that week and we made an appointment for the following week in the afternoon. The morning of the appointment, Larry called me to say he would be in our area that morning, and would it be okay if he stopped by earlier. I had another contractor at the house, and told him he could come after 11am. He showed up at 10:40am, about 2 minutes after I had watched the prior contractor pull out of our driveway. I took Larry out to the pool and patio and explained what we wanted -- I even had pictures. I was very specific, and also told him we had a budget, so were not interested in using top-of-the-line brick pavers. I also specified that we wanted the cement pavers, not clay, and also told him we wanted pool coping exactly like the picture I had shown him. During our 15-minute meeting, Larry fielded several telephone calls. After 15 minutes, Larry received a 3rd or 4th telephone call and said he had to leave to deal with another customer's issue. He said he would have a proposal for me within a day, which he did -- within 3 hours a proposal had been emailed to me. The proposal was very general, and only specified what the total price would be, without any breakdown for each disparate element of our project, and did not specify type, brand or quantity of materials. I emailed Larry back, asking for more specifics but did not receive a response until I emailed him a second time. His response gave some information, but no detail -- certainly not enough to determine what it was we were contracting for; we had some concerns because Larry's proposal was by far the most expensive (at least $2,500.00 more than the next highest bid). We waited a few months and called Larry again in February -- we had decided to sign a contract with him, but wanted to meet to discuss the details of the project he had failed to put in the proposal. He was a little annoyed but agreed to come to the house again. I again pulled out my pictures of what I wanted my remodeled pool and patio to look like, which Larry did not remember. As it turns out, Larry's proposal was for Belgard brick pavers (clay, when I had specified cement, and the most expensive pavers -- great quality, yes -- but we were looking for something cheaper) and included brick coping when I had told him (and showed him pictures of) precast concrete. Our meeting to this point had lasted less than 10 minutes. As Larry was explaining that the proposal price was going to go up because of the coping (he refused to use any other brick paver other than Belgard) when he received a phone call -- one of his drivers' truck had broken down and Larry had to leave. At that point, it was clear that Larry Rowe was not the contractor we wanted to work with, as we prefer someone who was going to actually listen and pay attention to our wishes and concerns, and who was willing to at least be sensitive to our budget. Accordingly, we did not hire him, and would not recommend him. In a strange way, however, he did us a huge favor: We started over, found a contractor, ended up paying $4,000.00 less than we would have had we hired Larry, and we got exactly what we wanted -- an absolutely gorgeous pool and patio.