Oasis Outdoors - my biggest financial mistake
The project was a San Juan pool install with a paver deck and screen enclosure. The cost that I agreed to was almost $80,000 including sod at the end. I will keep my personal feelings out of this review (there are many) and keep it objective. I will focus on the multitude of lies, delays, poor professionalism, and poor workmanship that I have experienced over the the course 5-6 months.
Oasis claimed: It will take 5 weeks from the time they broke ground. Reality: After 5 months they walked away, I am in my 7th month trying to fix their biggest mistake.(more below). I clearly said on multiple occasions that I am not rushing to start, but cared that once they started, they finished the job as promised.
Oasis claimed: Text us and we will respond. Reality: They went weeks without responding or showing up, or saying that they would show up and not do so. I heard from some of the guys that they had too many jobs started and they were going to job sites in rotation. I was told so many times that "we'll be here tomorrow before 10" or "we're on our way" and no sign of them for 1-2 weeks.
Oasis claimed: They don't use subcontractors, it's what makes them special. Reality: The electrical, concrete, paver, screen enclosure, sod were all subcontracted.
Further detail: The paver crew did sub-mediocre work, drank beer in my driveway on at least one occasion while working, left garbage behind each day, had an attitude when I directly asked to fix some issues, and then complained about me calling them out on their poor/rushed workmanship. Also, 3 contractors told me that they were paid late and had a tough time reaching Oasis.
Oasis claimed: They had installed hundreds of pools and know what they are doing. Reality: They started installing pools on their own in September 2018 and had installed some as subcontractors. But the mistakes that they made show they don't know what they are doing. There are many examples, some were addressed on the 2nd or 3rd attempt, but the biggest issues are:
1) The retaining wall was framed with 2x6's and as we all know, lumber is not perfectly straight and level. Imagine what it looks like now! They should have used concrete blocks or at the very least, if they were going to pour it, they should have used plywood or something straight.
2) The pool is not level, there is a 2 inch difference between one end and the other. When I brought it up, I was sarcastically asked: "What do you want me to do, pull it out?"
3) Rebar shavings got in the pool which was then filled. Metal staining quickly appeared and was ignored despite almost daily text messages that it was getting worse. After 2 weeks they dumped different cleaners after searching on YouTube in front of me, and then walked away after another couple of weeks, leaving me with an acidic pool. San Juan rep came on site and confirmed the issues. So we have a brand new pool, that we paid 80k for, unlevel and filled with brown and white stains over the light blue finish.
I have documented this entire project with pictures, text/call logs, when they showed up and how long, all ready for legal action. The owner knows the technical/theoretical side of the work well enough to seem knowledgeable, but has no decency or empathy towards his customers. He stole 6 months of my family's life, he created so much stress and anger, and now that it's all done, I am stuck with an unlevel pool that may need to be re-coated at my expense (roughly $10,000).
Mr. G.L. please don't bother to respond just to save face, you and I both know how you have dealt with me and treated this project and from what I have heard from 2 other customers that you currently have under contract that I was able to find, I should consider myself to be lucky because things only got worse with your projects. I hope you either take your responsibilities towards your customers seriously and stop making empty promises or find a new line of work. I wish you as much success as you have shown me respect and have valued my business.
ALSO: If you pay attention to the positive Google reviews, they come from the owner owner himself (GL), a family owner (also GL), and his right hand man (CT). There are also 2 recent reviews from people with only 1 review where images are posted during construction. Care to guess how real they are? If this review prevents one person from not choosing Oasis, it was worth my time writing it.
UPDATE: I first posted this on 12/5/2019. 3 months, 5 pool cleaning companies later, and almost $2,000 later, I am still unable to remove the metal stains that Oasis has left me with and they are only getting worse. No one has been able to figure out what caused the stains and why they will not respond to the various types of treatment. read more