A Bear Pool Innovations

From our first call, to the first design meeting, to our first dip in the pool - it went great!   The whole A Bear team is first class.   They designed a stunning pool with lots of flashy features - just what we wanted.   Lots of technology which they have walked us thru so we can operate all the features.   Workmanship on all parts of the construction are excellant.   Building a pool is a dirty job, but they kept the jobsite clean. They finished on time!   A great experience.

unknown

This is our first pool ever and we were concerned with picking out a pool builder as we had heard so many bad stories.  Thank goodness we choose A BEAR POOL as the pool turned out to be OUTSTANDING!  The design and advise they gave us was great.  The response to our questions were quickly addressed and any issue we had was taken care of.  The warranty for most items lasted 3 years and we had a pump go out at the 3 year mark and they replaced it without any problems.    We are thinking about moving but the pool keeps us here.  If we move next year closer to work, I would ask them again to put in  another pool for us.

My husband and I originally met with Jeremy, the sales person and design person.  He was very polite and helpful in coming up with a design we liked and agreed upon. The final job, I believe was a good product, but there were challenges during the process and we did have to have them come out and even out the water fall as the spillway was not even and didn?t flow properly. The job was not well supervised and Mr. Hebert was slow to respond to our concerns and errors in the process.  He took the problems lightly and made us seem we were inferior and not worthy like his big million dollar projects he had going on.  He preferred to speak to my husband and didn?t do well communicating with me when I had questions.  I had to give the questions to my husband. (My husband is now deceased and cannot comment on the project). During the laying of the hot tub, the concrete was poured backwards.  We noticed and it was not caught by the company or supervisor.  We had to call them out to redo the spa.  When they did the brick patio, the brick installed was a white /beige instead of the pink brick that matched my house.  Again, this was not caught by the company and I had to call multiple people, take pictures, etc before we had them come out and fix the mistake.

Stressful process, poor communication during construction.  Overall finished product very pretty.  Very nice when bidding the job and designing, but not as good a customer service after the contract was signed.

unknown

It took them about 6-7 weeks. They are very good. Their pricing is good and  they provide a higher level of service. I did not have any problems with them.

The service turned out fine. It took them about 3 months. They are very responsive before I signed the contract, but afterward they were not very responsive and it took them over a month to start the job.

It took them over 3 months to complete the job. They were $30,000 over budget and 6-7 weeks after the time limit. The end project was wonderful and the work was nice. I did have some problems since then and they have not returned my phone calls. There were some things on the project that was left undone, but they promised that they would re-due them. They said they would seal the coping to enhance that, after they talked me into keeping the travertine, after I mentioned it was not c. The brand new heater on the pool doesn?t work, automatic fill does not work and some of the tiles have cracked. They have not called me back after I have called them numerous times. They do high end jobs. They also built me an outdoor kitchen too, but after I wrote them the last check and I feel like they disappeared.

I have contacted them repeatedly about the problems with my pool.  They sent someone out to look at it but he did nothing.  I still have no way to drain my pool and my underwater lights do not work.  Also, the autofill mechanism they installed has never worked and I have to run the hose if I need water.  We did figure out how to run the heater, but I should have been shown this in "pool school", but they never showed up to give me my basic instructions on how to run the pool.

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It is easiest to provide a copy of the email that I sent to owner, Scott Hebert:

Scott,

I wanted to take a few minutes to let you know how disappointed we have been with A-Bear Pool Innovations. We found you on Angie's List, which I refer to all of the time when making decisions about contractors for our house. We subsequently discovered that we knew some of your previous customers (and potential customers), which made the idea of working with A-Bear even more desirable.

I first met with Jeremy on July 11, 2013, when he came to our home in Telfair to take photos before he started on a plan for us. At that time, I was quite honest with him and told him that we weren't likely to put a pool in this year, but 2014 was a good possibility for us. I also let him know that we knew previous A-Bear customers, including one that is still used as a reference today (XXXX XXXXXX). We also know another couple that planned to sign with A-Bear just before one of them was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. Unfortunately, that diagnosis caused them to change their plans. Because we were not planning to build right away, Jeremy asked if he could have 1 to 2 weeks to prepare our plans, as some other potential customers were eager to get started on their projects. Understanding how I would feel if we were anxious to get started, I more than willingly agreed to the 2 week timeframe. I never heard back from Jeremy, so I emailed him on August 9, 2013 and stated that it had been almost a month since we met and asked him if A-Bear was interested in providing a rendering and quote for us to consider. To be honest, this is not typical for me. I would normally assume there was no interest and just move on to another company. However, because of your close proximity to Telfair, and the great recommendation that I received from XXXX, I really wanted to talk to A-Bear some more to hear about your products, pricing, ideas, etc. Jeremy returned my email on August 12, 2013 and offered to meet that Friday, or the following week. We had some vacation planned and other things to coordinate, so I did not respond until August 14, 2013 after we had time to thoroughly look at our calendars and pick a time that would work for us. I let him know that we would like to meet with him at 2:30 pm on August 30, 2013. Jeremy responded on August 16, 2013 and agreed to that appointment. I replied with a thank you and then sent another email reminding him that we also wanted to see some other pools that day (as he had offered) that were similar in size and scope to our proposed project. Apparently neither of those emails prompted him to put our appointment on his calendar.

When August 30, 2013 came around, we showed up at your office at 2:30 and told the lady up front that we had an appointment with Jeremy. We could tell by the look on her face that something wasn't right. She went to the back, where she and Pete (I think) looked at the Google calendar and did not see an appointment. She then called Jeremy, who acknowledged confirming the appointment with me, but he was apparently at another appointment and was not available. He offered to come to our house the following morning (Saturday), if that was convenient. We already had plans for the following morning, and we certainly were not impressed with Jeremy's follow-through at this point, so we told her that we weren't interested. Keep in mind that the appointment at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon was during working hours, which meant we both were away from work for an appointment that never materialized. The lady at the counter gave me your card and took down my information. It was my understanding that she was going to have you reach out to me. She asked us not to make any decisions until we had a chance to discuss this with you. I got the impression that this wasn't the first time Jeremy had let things fall through the cracks. It's been a week now, and I have not heard from you, so I figured I would send you an email so that you would understand how some of your potential customers feel. I also intend to add a review on Angie's List when I can get around to doing so.

We have already received a quote from Anthony & Sylvan and are meeting with Platinum Pools tomorrow afternoon. We will likely still look at one or more other companies before we make our decision, as we want to make sure that we are getting the best product for our money. Price is a consideration for us, but value is of utmost importance. I wish that A-Bear had been more customer-focused. We were eager to consider doing business with you, but the lack of effort and enthusiasm that we've seen while trying to earn our business has really made us wonder about the service and attention we might receive after the sale.

I was ver ypleased with Abear.  They create quality work....not the cheapest but very high quality.  ANything they or we did not l ike, they would promptly redo.  Our back yard is transformed!

We like the pool. They provided a good design but toward the end they did not finish all the little items. Took several months to get them out to finish the job! We had even withheld a large chunk of their payment. This didn't even motivate them to finish up the project.

From the first time Jeremy came to our house on his initial pool consultation, stepped into our rather large dirt covered backyard and pronounced "This is a pool guys dream!" we knew we had found the right guy. We had just purchased and moved onto our newly built house from Colorado. The inside was starting to look respectable, but now came the challenge of transforming our dreary backyard into the beautiful, private oasis we had always dreamed about. Our yard was such an important part of the decision for us to buy this house and move all the way from Denver. Our old house there had such a lousy, small, open yard and we really wanted to make something special of our new Richmond home. So, in other words, no pressure on our pool guy! Following our initial consultation with Jeremy and after getting pool consultations from other companies, we quickly acknowledged that Jeremy's design ideas and skills were so much in sync with our own. We felt very confident that he could effectively transform his design into reality. We were right. The pool and landscaping design and construction were both impeccable. Both my wife and I are so happy with the finished product, along with any family, friends or visitors who see our pool. They always ask us who built our pool and tell us how beautiful it is. I would not hesitate to recommend Jeremy to anyone who has the vision of creating a beautiful pool surrounded by a backyard sanctuary. the Burkes, Richmond, Texas

Pool Innovations did a good job of building my pool. It was just a regular circular pool and they followed my specific instructions so I was extremely pleased. They were always on time and I felt like they got the job done in good time. They were very polite and professional. The price was very good for the job that they did.