Lionel Reddy of A to Z Pool

Further to innumerable problems and non completion of the first pool contractor we had to look for another contractor to finish off the fibre lining, water feature and pool plumbing outstanding.

To this end we contracted with Lionel Reddy of A to Z Pools who appeared to be very genuine at the outset.

Let me emphasize at the outset that one could construe that seeing as we are onto our second contractor that we could be seen as the “common denominator problem” in the relationships and that we could be the real problem. I want to assure you that this is definitely not the case so if you ever dealing with this contractor do not let him use this as an excuse. I can assure you that we held up our end of the contract wrt to timeous payments and decency.

Getting back to the contractor in question, at the initial site visit and a subsequent one after the initial contractor he promised to complete everything at an agreed cost and MOST crucially offered FROM HIS SIDE and without any coercion from us to do the work without any deposit and that full payment will only be done AFTER completion. All proceeded well for the first week when he has mainly a single laborer prepping the pool and sorting the paving and marble plaster rim under the existing tile border etc. I must say that that laborer worked very well and neatly always cleaning up at the end of the day. The second week was more crucial in that the plumbing, fibre lining and painting would be completed. This was promised to be completed by Thursday, 24th December (one week , weather permitting). On or around the 14th Dec we received a lengthy WhatsApp message from the contractor explaining that he required a 50% deposit now as he had some setbacks with other clients “who burnt him” he also detailed what was going to be done of the remaining work and more specifically by what date each part of the work would be completed. He was prepared to work on Thursday 16 and Sunday to finish off by 24th December. Incidentally despite the rain on Friday 17th Dec, the contractor committed to still complete everything by 24 Dec. So even after the promises of a no deposit requirement we paid the deposit to Lionel over 2 payments on Wednesday 16 Dec and Sunday 20th Dec. We also settled Lionel for the payment of the lights on Monday morning 21st Dec after he dropped the lights off on Monday. Between Wed 16 th Dec and Monday 21st Dec, Lionel worked with a single laborer on Saturday morning for approx 4 hours doing the fibre lining, on Sunday for about 5 hours doing the electricals (because he ran out of resin to complete the lining the previous Saturday and could not buy any more as he only realized after 1 on Saturday. On Monday he worked for 3 hours doing the fibre lining again when at about 12h20 he stopped without completing the pool lining (which he had committed to have done by Sunday in his lengthy WhatsApp when he asked for the deposit) and said he needed to “step out for a bit”.

At 15h00 on Monday we called him and he assured us he was coming back. At around 16h00 he sent a short curt message saying he had and emergency and would be back the next morning early at 07h00 (not a minute past in his own words) Come Tuesday No sign of Lionel. We called with no answer. He did not take our calls. At some stage he send another curt WhatsApp to say “please don’t stress I will have your pool done.i called him later and he says he was his way but we asked him to come with the supplies and material that he did not have so It took him the better part of one day to source the materials.

It is tiring to detail everything suffice to say FROM OUR EXPERIENCE and in our opinion :

- this contractor over promises and under delivers - this contractor has no qualms about moving the goalposts and not living up to the agreement (promising no deposit but then asking for one midstream) - Not showing up for work without any explanations until you ask for one....he does not think he owes anyone any explanations - The average time to get to our site in the morning was between 09h30 and 10h30 in the mornings - as time progresses into the second week, the attention to detail, cleanliness etc falls away very fast ( he did not use masking tape to border the tiles completely, the tiles are covered with hardened fiberglass and the area around the pool was not swept up once in the second week leaving fibre strands strewn all over.

It has been a really disappointing experience moe especially as we have held up every single commitment from our side going beyond what was agreed to even pay a deposit of 50%. Simply UNREAL