Aurora Pool Spa & Billiard Gallery

THEY ALWAYS SAID I HAD A GOOD AMOUNT OF STABILIZER WHEN I HAD NONE. FOR YEARS THEY DID THIS IN ORDER TO GET ME TO BUY MORE AND MORE SHOCK. THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN SHOCK I HAD TO SPEND. WHEN I FINALLY GOT AROUND TO SHOCKING IT UNTIL IT WAS AT A GOOD LEVEL IT ONLY TOOK A LITTLE BIT OF SHOCK WHICH WOULD LAST 2 WEEKS INSTEAD OF IT DIASAPPEARING AFTER A DAY.

Very poor quality installation, damages to property, leakage around lights, very poor concrete finish work, we tried countless times to get a manager to at least come look at it, never even attempted to come out. I have photos and messages to prove this. If they will fix the problems, I will amend my comments and review.

It was terrible. It was the worst service experience we have had ever. If we had a chance to start over again, would not sign with them.

It was & still is an experience from **** dealing with Aurora pool & spa on Central ave Knoxville

Bad from the beginning. They sent a guy out to excavate who was a decent guy and did pretty good work. Once it got excavated it turned out to that it was going to sit 3' above the deck. Then the dip $#$% Timothy Mathis "Bo" showed up who is the contractor on the project. He would not let me work with the excavator to go down another 2', he said I had to go through him. He was going to charge 100.00 per inch that they had to excavate down to. So they excavated down and fortunately didn't run into any rock. Then they built the walls and it rained everyday for 3 weeks. They did not come out to pour the concrete because of this. They could come out every few days to see that it was too wet. Well, after 3 weeks there was a day that it didn't rain so they poured the concrete then. It then dawned on me to see if they had received a permit like they said. They had not gotten a permit so I made them go get one from the country. Once the inspector signed off on the footers, they put the sand bottom in which was never very good. Again, Bo was the one who did it and I think he just stomped it down with his shoes. They decided to pour a pad for my pump and filter, however they built a form that was not square by any means and was just laying on top of the grass. They did not add any gravel under the form for drainage. I made them rip that up and replace it with a pre-cast pad and add gravel underneath the pad. After they finished "plumbing", I found several PVC joints that were not glued so I ended up re-gluing them. When they were completed, the contract did not include back filling the pool or any kind of cleanup. What a mistake for not reading over the fine details so I asked them what to back fill with. They said just to use the dirt that was excavated. I contacted the pool manufacturer about that and they said "DON'T DO THAT". You are supposed to use pea gravel for drainage and weight purposes. I ended up putting 7 tons of gravel in the fill. When picking up our chemicals, we were told 3 different things by 3 different people of what to do. We ended up looking online what to do and found a much much better pool service company. I would not wish my worst enemy. Whatever you do, DO NOT USE Aurora on Central Avenue, Knoxville.

Also Posted as a complaint on the BBB website on January 20, 2016

My complaint is essentially that Aurora Pool and Spa over the last six months has failed to adequately diagnose, repair, and practice timely customer service in the repair of my Jacuzzi hot tub. 

I originally purchased the hot tub new from Aurora a little over 10 years ago and they have been out to service the unit several times during that period.  They have always performed adequately and gave good service each time.  The last time they performed a satisfactory repair was in April 1, 2014 when they replaced a faulty recirculating pump and replaced the temperature control switch.  That charge was 573.54 and it had a one-year warranty.

In early July of this year, I noticed that the pump was only circulating the water on an intermittent basis and the Flow switch error indicator was FL1.  According to the owner?s manual and also a verification from the Jacuzzi hotline number the pump was supposed to be running 24 hours per day and could not be set for any other run schedule.   In addition, the FL1 indicator was that that the switch was failed but in the open position which allowed the jet pumps and heater to operate.

I tried to change the heater settings and turned the jets on and off a few times but the problems were still there.  I called Aurora and explained what it was doing and we scheduled a time for them to come out and assess the situation.  They came out on July 20, 2015.  According to my receipt the two technicians that came out were Brad and Jeffery.

They did some troubleshooting and said that the recirculating pump was bad.  I indicated that I was disappointed that the original pump lasted about 8 years and this one only a little more than a year.  We called the office and talked with Melissa (Service Manager) and she said she would see if they could give me a break on the price.  I also authorized the installation of a new flow switch just to make sure that this part of the operation was good.

The technicians completed the repair and left.  I was given a discount on the pump bringing its cost down to 299.99 and the total repair was a charge of $ 464.29.

The next day I checked the tub and the original problem was still there with the same indicator of FL1 and the pump running only intermittently.  I tried changing the jet valve configurations and changed the temperatures a few times but nothing helped.  The tub jets were still working but nothing would clear out the error codes So I called Aurora back to let them know of the problem.  I asked to speak with the General Manager but Melissa came on the line.  I told her that I wanted to speak with the GM to resolve my issue.  She assured me at that point that she would get Brad back out there to resolve the issue.

At this point I need to add that I didn?t take detailed notes or even note the dates and times that I called Aurora or when they came out.  I could pull my phone records which would document the telephone exchanges with them over the last few months but at this point I will continue my complaint with what I know.

After my follow up complaint Brad did come out in a week or ten days to look at the unit.  At this point he said that the problem was a circuit board and that they would have to order one and replace it.  I questioned him regarding having to replace the recirculating pump if the circuit board was the original problem.  He indicated that he would have to talk with the Jacuzzi rep to see if this occurrence had come up before.  I am not sure how long it was but I had not heard from Aurora nor Brad in a few weeks so I called and talked with Melissa.  She said that she would contact Brad and let him know.  About a week or two later I got a call from Brad that he was on the way with the circuit board.

Brad came and installed the circuit board on what I believe to be September 4, 2015.  (According to a partial service order he left) and then quickly checks the unit and then leaves.  The next day the same pattern continued and the pump was not working continuously and the FL1 indicator would still come on when you started the jets.

After talking on the phone with Brad again he said he would talk with the Jacuzzi rep to see what he needed to do.  A few days later Brad called and said that he needed to be out at my unit and have the Jacuzzi rep on the phone to tell him how to change a jumper wire to correct the problem.  I am not sure if I was home or not on the day that he came and supposedly changed the jumper.  I do know that the unit temperature had defaulted to Centigrade instead of the Fahrenheit that I use.   I asked him to reset it and he did.

At this point the same pattern continued and I was losing my confidence in Aurora being able to solve the problem.  I am not sure without checking my phone records but I looked on the website and found out that John Gifford was the President of the Company and that Sean Gifford was a vice president or General Manager.  I called and asked for John Gifford and was told he wasn?t available and then I asked for Sean Gifford, only to be told that he was out for a Dr appointment and would call me back when he returned later that day.   I never received a call so after about a week I called and asked to speak with the General Manager.   At this point I was routed to the Service Manager, which turned out to be a different Melissa in the same position.  She also assured me that Brad would be contacting me to resolve the problem. 

At some point I had not heard from Brad but did get a voicemail from Melissa that indicated that she needed to go over the charges prior to her placing them on my credit card (Which was on file).  I did call her back the next day and she was not available so I left her a voicemail indicating that my problem had not been resolved and told her not to charge me until we get a resolution.  I believe the time frame for these calls were a week or so before Christmas.

I never heard from Aurora but when I got my credit card statement it had a charge by Aurora for $ 604.06 posted on December 1, 2015.  I have no clue regarding this charge since no one left a Service order receipt.  At this point I had lost all patience that I had.  I called Aurora the first week in January and asked for Sean Gifford again.  Sean did answer and I explained in detail my problem.  He indicated that he would pass this information to Doug, who is supposedly Brad and Melissa?s supervisor.  I believe that was January 8.

In the meantime, I decided to change out the water in the hot tub since it had been longer than 3 months and it was a relatively warm day.  As usual, I turned the breaker off during the refill and then the hot tub started working as it should be with the recirculating pump working continuously.

After that I began monitoring the circulation pump and Flow switch indicator and it seemed to be working correctly until I had a power outage.  I noticed that after the brief power outage that the pump was not working continuously and the FL1 indicator would come on when I turned the jets on.  I decided to try to reset the breaker to see if it would help.  And of course it did.  I monitored it over the next several days and everything was fine.

I got a call from Brad in the early morning on January 11 that he was on the way out to look at the problem.  I told him that the unit was working fine and what I had found out by turning the breaker off and resetting the unit.  I told him he was welcome to come out but that unless he could duplicate the issue it probably wouldn?t do any good.

I also expl