Excellent craftsmanship and service throughout the installation of the pool and a deck. Jim and Tara have an outstanding work ethic and are reliable and trustworthy. I would definitely call them again for future projects. read more

If I could give Jim and his partner Tara 10 stars I would. These guys are absolutely fantastic. There knowledge in general construction and their experience really shows in their workman ship. Jim is by far the best at his trade. I will never go anywhere else for any future projects such as this. Installed a 12x20 doughboy pool extremely quick and it's perfectly level in every fashion. These guys really know what they are doing. Thanks Jim and Tara for your professionalism and for really paying attention to the little tiny details that many just do not nowadays. read more

Jim and Terah did a fine job installing the pool. It's only been in for about 3 weeks and I don't see any real issues. But a 3 day install quote turned out to be over 2 months. Then again I kinda knew that. Jim's business standard is he gets to it when he can, only because he's busy not lazy. I knew this and since he was the only game in town agreed. They didn't install the liner I approved. But turns out I love it! My only real complaint is oil stains. My newish driveway is not so newish any longer. They tried a product and power wash. Did not help. Remind him to put the cardboard under his leaking truck. Now I'm stuck trying to get ALL the stains out. read more

Stopped in with my grandmother due to their sign that advertises antiques. Turns out this was a unique business that specializes in pools and also sells antiques. I was interested in some items, but the lady was unable to work with me on the price unless I had cash. I understood and my grandma was even nice enough to purchase a different overpriced item since she doesn't get out much. I remained interested in the previous items an decided to make the trip up the hill, with cash in hand, to make a purchase. Upon arrival, I was unenthusiastic greeted by the same lady behind the counter. Amazingly the value of the items had appreciated in 4 days. After at least five minutes of conversation, I was unable to make a transaction and left beyond irritated. I offered a very fair price in "cash", but she refused to budge over $5. I understand this is a pool store, but the customer service I received from these two trips would discourage anyone from going to this business. Enter at your own risk. Also, don't advertise antiques when you sell overpriced reproduction pieces and other things you'd find at the thrift shop. read more

I asked Valley Center Pools for help in fixing my pump system. Lady said her husband would come by the next day. Next day - he didn't show up. He didn't call! I called Valley Center Pools during their posted business hours. No answer but I left a message. They never returned my call. Later I called again and spoke to the lady and she said she would find out and cal me back. She never called back. Later, I needed a pump cover replacement and took the broken item to Valley Center Pools. Lady took a photo of the part and said she would find a replacement. She never did! I found the part on eBay and fixed it myself. Totally USELESS! read more

We moved into a new house and needed a new pool service. We wanted to use a local service, because we like to support small businesses from our neighborhoods. My pool needed weekly chemical service, grout repair around the spa, and a new automatic cleaner. They said this was all the things they could handle. The second week they didn't show up for the chemical service until Friday, even though they were supposed to be there Monday. No one called me to let me know, so I called twice until it was finally confirmed they would come on that Friday. That same Friday, they were also doing the grout repair, so they were not able to run the pump, which was okay. But since they were 4 days late with the chemicals and probably didn't add the correct amount from the first week, my pool had developed some green algae on the steps and on the walls. I would've thought that since they were 4 days late, that they're employee would've spent the extra 15 minutes to make sure the algae issue was handled. Then on Friday evening when I got home to see the grout work, I noticed that only 25% of the work was complete. And on top of that, the work was horrible. The tile and grout guy came over on Saturday to look his work and agreed it was bad. They had quoted me $480 for the grout repair, which I thought was high, but I also wanted it done correctly by someone who worked on pools. The tile/grout guy was very nice and agreed to repair it, but I told him I had already had enough with this company. He then offered to clean my pool for me, because of the algae, but I declined, because I was already in the water doing it myself. My other issue in the short two weeks I was doing business with Valley Center Pools was the issue with the costs of their automatic pool cleaner. They recommended a certain cleaner and told me it was $516. I found the same cleaner online for $340. I'm sure as a pool dealer they have a wholesale cost lower than what I paid, but I felt I was being price gouged here too. I spoke with the Owner who apologized and made some excuses, but I was already done with their company. Too many issues in two weeks to get over. I ended up calling another pool company from San Marcos who came out the next day. Set up my new pool cleaner for me. Cleaned and skimmed my entire pool. Also told me Valley Center Pools had way too much chlorine in my pool. I guess they must have tried to burn the algae away instead of cleaning it properly. read more

I just had Valley Center Pools replace my liner in my above ground pool, install an automatic sweeper, auto chlorinator, and also do a probisil (cement)base under the liner. They did all the work I needed in two days and the staff was great. Jim, Mary, and Troy were all professional and answered my questions. They worked hard and didn't procrastinate on the work. The job was done perfectly and I am very impressed with the quality of work. When I had seen what was involved with all the stuff I had done, I am not even concerned on what I paid. The price was fine for the work performed. read more

Jim at Valley Center Pools is awesome! Me and a couple landscaping guys decided to try and install an above ground pool on our own, and ended up getting it 2 inches off on one side. Seeing how this can potentially lead to a pool collapse and injuries to my child or wife, I needed a pro to get this resolved as I could not take anymore time off of work for this project. I called Valley Center Pools since no one else in all of San Diego county does or has experience with above ground pools. Jim was good enough to get us worked into his busy schedule and come out and took down and reinstalled the pool from the ground up. The pool is now perfectly level on all sides and he has been extremely helpful with questions I have had after the fact. Jim's rates are fair, given the amount of work and expertise needed to make this problem go away and me not have to worry about it. Highly recommended! read more

I LOVE Valley Center Pools! I found them when I needed a pool pump installed. They were the lowest price by far, and I was very impressed with the quality of the work. Jim is honest, knowledgeable, and most importantly takes major pride in his work! I have since used them to replace my backwash valve, skimmer and return line. Again, Jim went out of his way to make sure everything was done to the highest quality. He is so knowledgeable and does his best to save the customer money, sometimes, I am sure, to his detriment. I won't use anyone else when I need work done on my pool and highly recommend them!!! read more

Jim took amazing care of our pool needs and did a great and timely job. He is a model of business integrity: fair prices, hard work, and a quality outcome. read more

My husband and I needed tile around our spa re-plastered. It was old tile, which we loved and wanted to keep. We had many people come out and no one wanted to take the time to pull off the old tile and put it back in. Everyone wanted to remove the tile completely and put something different in. Which is not what we wanted. I called Jim and explained our conundrum. Jim sympathized and came out with his tile guy, Jose even though we were out not in the area they normally work. Within a week our spa was restored and looked even better then imagined. Jim was honest and Jose was efficient and the quality was wonderful. Finally a company that offers quality and customer service at a fair price! We will absolutely use them for any future pool repair needs read more

I spoke with a woman today at Valley Center Pools to find out how much it would cost to have a vinyl pool installed. She told me that to have one of their pools installed would be $20,000. (If you shop around, you can get a concrete pool installed for that price.) I told her that I have ordered a polymer pool system and just need it installed and she told me it would cost $12,000. The pool I ordered only costs $5,600 and I was told I should expect to pay the price of the pool for installation. I proceeded to tell her that the price they were charging is more than double what I had in mind and that it would be cheaper for me to fly out a few guys from the east coast to do the work. She hangs up on me. Bad customer service, price gouging and if you're thinking about installing one of their pools for $20,000, consider a concrete pool. There are companies that will do it for that price but you just have to shop around. read more

DO NOT Use Valley Center Pools! We were told by a friend to use them and shouldn't have listened. We were in the middle of Escrow to purchase our first home and our bank wouldn't sign off on it till the pool was clear. It was a bank owned property so we needed to get it done ourselves because the seller bank wouldn't do it. We were quoted $600 to $700 by VC Pools. He said that he could just set up an external pump and it should be clear within a week at most. (The existing pumps were not working.) 12 days later the pool was still cloudy and they charged my card $1090.67 without an invoice or a phone call! I called to ask what was up and was told the pool was too far gone to clean via just pumping and that they would need to drain it completely, scrub and refill for which they would charge me an additional $520.00. When I started to get upset that they charged me over $1000 for something they quoted me only $700 for Sherry got all indignant and said we were getting a great deal and I shouldn't complain. Escrow needed to close asap so I went with having them clean the pool. I was ready to get someone else but my husband wanted to give them another try because of our friend. Bad idea. They emptied and cleaned the pool and Escrow closed a week late. My husband scheduled another service visit to fix parts etc on the existing equipment and pumps. He came out a couple times while we were in the process of fixing things up before we actually moved and my husband met him there to fix various things and I thought maybe I had misjudged them and our pool was just a very extreme case. The last time he was out we had moved and I was home. He spent the first 20-30 minutes of his time on the phone either working with one hand or just standing there. I thought it might be work related but then I overheard him talking about how the US government was building concentration camps in the Arizona desert. Yeah, not professional! Even with the small town attitude of Valley Center I thought it was tacky. He was suppose to fix all the valves with new O-rings and fix the leaks on the solar. When he left he said he didn't have all the O-rings so asked my husband to stop by the shop to pick it up and put it in himself. My DH stopped by the very next day, during business hours I might add and the door was locked and no one was there nor did they answer the phone. So he went to another pool shop and bought the O-ring to fix himself. The solar leak hadn't changed so whatever he did to "fix" that hadn't worked at all. When we received invoice (I know, shocker we actually got one this time.) It didn't break anything down but just gave a total. I wanted to know so I called. Was told she had to call me back. When she called back she gave me the break down etc of parts, prices and work. I had told her about the O-ring my husband was suppose to come get and she was just silent. No explanation or okay we will take it off the bill. This time my husband completely agreed we will NEVER use Valley Center pools again!! Go to Leslie's Pool supply in Escondido, much better service! read more