I am not one for bad reviews but honestly, this company needs a lot of improvement. The experience started out by me calling the number on the website to make an appointment for a design consultation. We were told by the representative that they were not the cheapest company in the area. I do not for the life of me understand why I came across as needing the cheapest company in the area, but I digress. She then proceeded to tell me they were two months out as far as appointments, but that is OK we can wait. Our consultant came out to spend hours with us designing our pool, but no one bothered to tell us this was the plan, so needless to say we did not have hours and we started out on the wrong foot. Why not set the expectation so your client understands how this works? The only thing I was told on the initial call was I would be receiving a brochure in the mail which I would need to have at the consultation appointment. After he left, we felt a bit better as he did his measurements and assured us, we could have a call where we would design our pool. Within days the consultant and my husband and I worked via FaceTime to get a rendering of our pool using a cool software that even showed people sipping cocktails in our hot tub...cool right? We were excited again! Now the odd returns... Before choosing any materials, Blue Haven wants you to sign a contract? Wait, what? How can I sign a contract when I do not know the final cost? Oh, lol, the upsell game! No, not signing an incomplete contract that holds us to purchase, prior to picking materials. We asked if we could go to the local store to view materials so we can move closer to contract signing and getting on the dig schedule (as they were 2-3 months out). The consultant seemed perplexed as "most people just sign." I guess we are not most people! Our consultant said he would call ahead to the local store, so she knew we were coming. Great! Off we go to the store in Santa Rosa. The lady who runs the store was NOT HAPPY as she does not show us anything until we are at the contract stage. Again, we reiterated that we were not signing anything until we picked materials as we are paying cash. She made us VERY uncomfortable as it was obvious this was a new way of doing things for her. If she said it once, she said it ten times, "this is not how we normally do this". NOW we get it! You sign a contract only to go to the store and realize that everything that comes with the said contract is extremely low-end and not to our standards. Literally the lowest of the low of materials. Everything is an upsell and an addendum to your contract. Our pool quickly went from $62,000 to almost $80 in the blink of an eye, on paper, just by adding nicer tile, a few stones, and a different color paver! We were stunned! We walked out of that store in a foggy haze of disbelief and frustration. We had budgeted $75k but knew we could not get what we wanted for that amount and TRUST me what we wanted was NOT all that! We discussed on our drive home and called our consultant once we arrived. Explained how unhappy we were with the experience and asked for an updated quote based upon a few materials we had picked. Told him the workmanship we had seen in some of the photos at the store gave us pause as to the grout lines, etc. (we had built a pool previously so knew about materials). Could he speak to his manager about a smaller grout line as we knew 3" grout would chip and come apart? He seemed perplexed but said he would if we could send him an idea of what we were looking for. He did, in fact, speak with his manager and they agreed that yes, they could do a smaller grout line but the cost would go up as they'd be using more materials. The next step was a price for gray pavers, an upgrade of course. Crickets. Then we get a voicemail asking us if we are ready to sign our contract. Wait, what? We asked about another upgrade price. So... We left several messages, sent several emails but no response. We know we are not the easiest people to work with, because we have questions, concerns, as we are educated consumers, and again $75k cash for a hole in the ground! NEVER heard back until about 45-days later when we got an odd email from our consultant, who was in another country, and apologized for being a bit overwhelmed and needed a break. Trust me, we need a break too, a permanent one! Now they are a national company, and I am sure everyone hasn't had the same experience, but wow just wow! Approach with caution is all I can say! It's a marathon, not a sprint and you better have good running shoes! read more