Riverbend Sandler Pools

I am a disgruntled neighbor on the street where Riverbend Sandler is installing a pool.  We have had many pools installed on our street and these guys are by far the most messy, disrespectful, dangerous and longest to complete we have seen.
* One month into the work they are still not close to done with construction.  From the day they started there has been a mess of gravel, dirt, metal pieces (including screws and nails) and wood all across our alley.  This mess has been continuous for the full month so far.  They have never attempted to clean it up. - we live in a nice neighborhood.  It looks sorely out of place.
* On more than one occasion they left the construction site with metal bars hanging out across the alley vertically at 4-foot high across half the width of the alley.  We have to get out of our car to move them to drive without it hitting our windshield.  A person on a bike would have lost an eye.
* They leave the construction site without any protection from someone falling in.  For the first three weeks there was no barrier to keep children or animals from falling in the hole.  On week 4 the fencing contractor added orange mesh.
* The pool quality looks disastrous.  It is the most poorly constructed looking pool I have ever seen.  It really looks terrible.
Beware, if you hire these guys you will make your neighbors very frustrated and the work may look pretty poor.  You may want to increase your liability insurance premiums as well, they are a risk to you!

Writing this review from the perspective of a neighbor of someone where this company was used to install their pool.
* Started creating loud noise at 6:30am on weekends with no consideration for the neighborhood. When I asked them to stop I just got a shrug of the shoulders.
* They left a mess in the Cul de Sac. Instead of removing muck and dirt they washed it further down the cul de sac with a hose pipe. I asked one of the guys if they were going to clean the mess up after them. He said yes but left it for my neighbor who was having the work done to jet wash the street. That was a couple of months ago. Work has now been completed and the cul de sac is full of muck that they have not cleaned up and is being carried onto my drive when I have to cross it.
I can't comment on the quality of their work but site Project Management seems to be lacking, and these guys obviously have zero concern for the neighbors or neighborhood when they are doing installations. If you are going to use these guys to install your pool you should be aware.

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Very happy with the overall work that has been done so far. (Completion date is expected around May 20.)
Our project manager is great.  Very responsive. Happy to answer questions/concerns.
We made it painfully clear to RiverBend that only a certain (and very reasonable) amount of our lawn was to be driven on. Somewhere along the way the subcontractors didn't get the message and drove ALL OVER my backyard -- messing with about 1/2 acre of grass. RiverBend felt it was quite unfortunate and offered to do some "repair" work. With the amount of money we've spent with them, we would have preferred grass replacement. Our yard will look pretty bad for a couple of months, but HOPEFULLY the grass repair work will get our lawn looking back to normal.
Other than the grass fiasco, we have been extremely happy with the service.

They failed to return numerous calls.

End product is what we expected, but pathway there was tumultuous that
led a 6-8 week project into 16 weeks.  The downfall was communications
between different departments and to us as well.  I expected better attention to detail and customer service.  Problems
were all managed with some pushing but the aggravation factor was higher
than expected.

#1 Drystack Stone for retaining/spa walls.  They have as showroom choice
and was ours.  When the masons came, they mortared the whole thing. We
were told "no one chooses drystack".  They offered a redo, a credit or
additional work for their mistake which we took the extra work.

#2 We picked out deck pavers site unseen. Were told on multiple
occasions samples would be brought to our home early on to make final
choice.  Needless to say samples not show up until 6 weeks into
construction when need to start this step, and unfortunately not what we
expected. So we changed course, picked new travertine stones and
salesman told us were available.  However, had to be ordered and
waited additional 2-3 weeks for those to come in.  On a positive note did
pleasantly end up with multiple size stone (which we were told not
available).  Was easily preventable delay if they had done what they
said they would do. 

#3 Built in Grill was built 6-8 inches too high at eyebrow singeing level so had to be
rebuilt.  Really seems like should have been done right in the first
place.  Was fixed - just aggravating

#4  Infinity edge was installed and not level.  Water was not flowing
over symmetrically so choppy.  When wall checked, we were told
it was leveled so implied not fix.  When you looked at the wall edge to the water line
(the ultimate leveler with gravity - right?), one side was obviously higher.  Had to push harder to get this done but
they did and not perfect but acceptable.

#5 Annoying items - When spa was "ready to use", did not heat up. Needed larger BTU gas meter into our house.  Simple fix but seems like a detail could have been forewarned about.  Also never received pool notebook we were supposed to
get at signing until all completed. (Learned this from Pool School guy after all done.) Also Leuter stone gets calcium deposits with hard water here so look hazy/dirty - would have been nice to know that from salesman.

All being said and done I do like the pool and deck we have but wish the journey was smoother.

see above

Riverbend built my pool in the Spring of 2012.  Their show room in Plano is a great place to touch and feel some of the materials they use, and see some designs/samples.  They have a good support system from top to bottom.  They built a solid pool for me, and I am very happy with the finished product.  They have great communication, and a solid build process.  Pool equipment is top of the line.  The design team, sales team, and construction crews were awesome.
My only complaint is the subsequent repairs that were performed on a few items, that were intially small, but after the repair were magnified.  I had one stone replaced because it was leaching out iron onto the RiverSand (pebblesheen).  The stone that was repalced was nice, but the grout was not the same color (white instead of cream) and the grout lines twice as wide.  Riverbend then attempted to apply muratic acid to the metal stain, and made the stain 3 times as big and much darker.  (Instead of using absorbic acid which would take longer)  They wanted to drain the pool and acid wash the entire pool to match this new dark pebblesheen spot.  Not very funny since I love my plaster color.  Lastly they tried to plug a few spots where the plaster didn't mix all the way, but the plugs do not match and are much bigger than the original white cement spot.
All in all, Ribervend Sandler builds a GREAT pool, but beware of the Repair Department.

It went great!!
They came out and gave me a very reasonable estimate, showed up and finished as stated, did great work and even threw in extras at no charge that they thought it needed

Did not much forward.  BUYER BEWARE READ THE BACK SIDE OF THE CONTRACT.  The terms and conditions are downright scary as all liability is placed on the buyer.  They do not assume even the most basic levels of service expectations or quality.  Per the terms and conditions pool does not even have to hold water and you owe them.  Read the contract before hiring this comany.

I used another company prior for year and switched to them, it's like night and day.  The pool is sparkling clean every week.  They leave a note of what all they did when they are here and information about any testing.  The same technician comes every week, and he is very friendly.  He gives me a lot of information about what he did to the pool.

They are excellent!  They explained everything that they were doing.  The pool is of nice quality.  They were very conscientious about charging a fair price for the work they did for us.  

I have been increasingly disappointed in there service.  One time they left the garden hose running and it was not noticed because of where it was for 3 days.  Called to let them know and was told a manager would call back.  The never did.  Another time they said I needed a new heater because of rust and that they had shut the heater down because of fire danger.  I called the manufacturer of the heater and they said the rust described by the technician was normal and there was no fire hazard.  Another time I had called because grout in the stone on the edge of the pool was decaying and wood expansion joints on the deck were poping up causing a safety issue and it looked terrible.  They came out told us they did not do that type of work, even though they are the ones who installed it.  I will say when I have had a problem with a pump or some other mechanical issue they have been prompt and completed the work timely, including actually fixing versus telling me I had to replace a pump.  I am currently looking for another provider.

The woman I talked to was very personable and professional. She took all my information and let me know that someone named Greg would be calling me back to schedule an appointment to come out to do the bid but it would be at least mid-week next week. Everyone else I've called has been right out.

When I mentioned repair work in addition to the remodel, they stated it was a different department. Two weeks later, they then called me and stated they would be out tomorrow for an estimate. In the mean time, I had already had the work handled by another company. I was unimpressed with their service levels and they made me feel my work was unimportant and they had larger jobs to work on.

We've been using this pool company for several months and they provide great service.

After an initial mix up with the appointment date, the pool repairman showed up and ended up having to order a replacement Spa heater. The repairman was very detailed in his explanation and took a long time to explain what he was doing and insisted on sharing every detail. To this repairman's credit he worked with the original spa heater company directly to get a brand new replacement heater installed.

Setting up the appointment went fine. They offered to have the technician call when they are in route, which is very helpful. The estimate was detailed and ultimately right on target. Installation was much faser than I had expected. There was an issue with an air leak after the installation. When I called to get it fixed, I got a pretty good response time back. The installer tried some things with me over the phone first, but it didn't help. So, we setup an appt. for him to come back over and take a look. He was back at the house within a few days, and resolved the problem.

Great service overall. I couldn't schedule an appointment upon my first contact to them, but they did return my call by the next day to schedule something. My appointment was within a couple days after contact. The problems were fixed, on the spot. Hosing was replaced with a superior product, according to the gentleman. He also took the time to explain to me many questions I asked about proper pool procedures to see if we were doing things correctly. He also pointed out to me some things we should keep in mind about upgrading or replacing, and which ones were the highest priorities. He even knew the exact prices for everything I asked him about on replacement costs. I asked him about resurfacing the pool and pool deck options and said he would have someone contact me me for an appointment to get a quote. Haven't heard back on that yet though. Very pleased and will use them for our pool services in the future!

The crew arrived on time and went right to work. Everything went as expected and they finished, including clean up as promised. They provided two weeks of daily aftercare for the daily brushing and vacuuming and performed as expected. Very easy to work with and did a great job.

We have used this company many times and they are familiar to us. The arrived right on time. They did the work quickly. They answered any questions and were friendly.

Sales person Matt Toney very professional and knows his job. He knows how to keep the customer happy. Beginning of the project went excellent, on time, good feeling. At the middle of the project everything went south, when excavating to set gas line, the contractor negligently did not observed the power line or the phone line flags and subsequently left us with no phone, no electricity and severe damage to the electricity on and adjacent pond that we have in our property. A fatality was luckily avoided. Working with project manager was a problem, phone calls were not returned and the work was not well supervised, follow up calls after problems were not done most of the time. After the pool was completed we it had a water leak that was only fixed after many phone calls because Mr. K. Kleinman said that the pool had no leaks. We spent over $500.00 on water in one month due to the unresolved problem with the leak. Finally I contacted someone else in the company and the 4 or 5 leaks were fixed. Not until I sent a complain form to the company that Mr. Kleinman called to follow up on the pool problems. Having a large company like RiverBend Sandler build a pool is good to the customers, however they should keep a closer eye on their construction supervisors.

I think they did a very good job. They showed up when they said they would, their cost estimate was reasonable, and they did the work in a quality manner. They were very responsive.

Absolutely fantastic! Jason was always there if I had any questions. He gave me his card with his cell phone on it. He came out every day that I was home to make sure that it was on schedule. They actually came in after another pool place had gave me the run around. They fixed another patch job that had gone wrong.

Excellent! The person that did the repairs, Chris Zorbanos, has been here twice for repairs. He is five stars. Efficient and professional in every respect. I always ask for him because he does such a great job.