We hired American Pools & Fountains/American Construction Group (ACG) to build what we thought would be an amazing pool complex in our backyard. The project included a large shotcrete pool, spa, pool deck, outdoor kitchen, fire feature, and a large pool house including a bathroom. The owner, Mr. Bill Foster, promised to deliver the entire project by Memorial Day 2021. They broke ground in October 2020, and the project is not yet complete 20 months later and more than a year after the promised delivery date! That in and of itself should tell you all you need to know about this company. The only part of the project that was at all functional in 2021 was the pool (mid-August) - everything else was incomplete as we entered the winter. They refuse to give us an honest answer as to when they will address the outstanding issues.
ACG constantly blames weather as the reason for the prolonged timeline. Bad weather cannot possibly explain a delay of a year, especially when much of the work is not weather dependent. The real reason for the delay seems to be their constantly starting new projects and neglecting ones that are in flight. Their billing schedule seems to be extremely front-loaded, which appears to incent them to start new projects to get large payments and leaves very little incentive to finish the jobs once most of the money is collected. We have paid them 90+% of the total contract. They simply have little incentive to be responsive to us. In talking to some of ACGs workers, it sounds like there are numerous projects throughout northeast Ohio that are going through similar experiences.
While the delays have been upsetting, the quality of the work ACG delivers is infuriating. There has been little to no oversight on our project (i.e. no foreman or project manager regularly on site directing work). We could fill a small book with examples of substandard work they've done on our project. Instead, I've attached several pictures/captions to this review that illustrate several of them. One example: they poured the concrete pool deck without sufficient manpower and without a pump truck, which resulted in the stamping not taking on many parts of the deck. They had to tear out and replace part of the deck, and even after that there were still large portions where the stamping looked awful and the color of the deck was inconsistent (see attached pictures for examples). We had to hire our own concrete contractor to address these issues, as ACG took no action to correct them this spring, despite multiple assurances they would do so.
As if the above isn't bad enough, key employees at ACG have repeatedly failed to provide complete and truthful information regarding the construction process. They have repeatedly assured us that work would be completed by certain dates only for it not to occur. They have also repeatedly asked us for payments before they were due by representing that the work would be completed in short order. They have also attempted to overbill us on several occasions by submitting charges that did not tie with actual work done. For example, when they billed us for tiling the pool, they represented that a four-man crew was there during the tiling process and billed us accordingly. Due to covid, I was present during the tiling work and most of the time there were two men there, and occasionally three. This amounted to extra charges in excess of $4,000. When confronted, ACG quickly backed down and reversed that charge. Similar circumstances occurred on other aspects of the project as well.
The pattern of behavior we witnessed throughout the process led us to do background checks on the owner of ACG (Mr. Foster) and the Office Manager (Ms. Perez - previously Shaffer). Here are a just a few examples of what we found:
* https://info.bwc.ohio.gov/news-and-events/news/022120Fraud
*https://www.cleveland.com/akron/2015/02/streetsboro_woman_ordered_to_p.html
These are not folks you want to entrust with your hard-earned money.
We've had to involve the Better Business Bureau as well as our own attorney to try to move this project closer to completion, with limited success. ACG's attorney has been unresponsive on many occasions and when he has been responsive, he has made commitments on behalf of the company that the company later denies. This is sadly the kind of experience we've grown used to with this company.
As it stands, we've had to hire our own plumber, landscaper, and mason to complete work that ACG failed to do. It should be noted that this work was completed in a matter of weeks after ACG was unable to complete it over the course of more than a year.
In summary, working with ACG has been an awful experience. This project, which was supposed to bring our family a lot of joy, has instead brought us nothing but stress and anxiety over the last 20 months, with no end in sight. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this company. read more