Tieing up loose ends

At 7:15 this morning the dogs were out back barking. Ends up the cleaning crew showed up, yet again, without a phone call. So we went ahead and let the dogs in. The guys were out there for around an hour or so cleaning, then took off. Since I could look outside and see the piles of 'form' material, and dried up cement mix still sitting outside, I went outside to see what exactly they had done. This crew apparently cleaned the inside of the pool. It was pretty much spotless...no more rocks, concrete chunks, or water in the interior of the pool.

I went ahead and went to work. About 10:30 Teresa called me to let me know that there was another Shasta guy out back by the pool pump. I can only assume that he was there to hook up the electrical to the pump. I'll know more when I get home.

About 1:00 Teresa called again to tell me that Rachelle had called. Rachelle is our new CSR at Shasta, although we also still deal with Karen. She wanted to know if the cleaning crew had been out yet to clean up the mess. And to remind us that the final stage can be scheduled once they receive our last payment. To tell ya the truth, I feel sorry for her. She's coming in at the end of this project, and it's been totally messed up. Anyway, since Teresa wears her emotions on her sleeve and has trouble being nice when she feels like she's getting the short end of the stick, I ended up calling Shasta back to talk to Rachelle.

I went over the list of items with Rachelle.

1. Guy out looking at pump, but not sure if he hooked it up or not. I'll Will check tonight.
2. Tile in the upper skimmer throat isn't finished. Tile guy came out and finished the autofill line, but not the skimmer throat.
3. Flagstone the wrong color.
4. Mess not cleaned up.
5. Backwash line removed from pump/filter.
6. We never received the amended bill for renting the submersible pump ourselves.
7. After talking with Teresa, we have no intention of giving Shasta the last payment for our pool until we see that they are our there finishing it.

Don't get me wrong, the past week has been AWESOME. More has gotten done since last Monday than the last 3 months combined. But...given their history with us, I don't want to give them the last payment and have them just disappear and forget about us.

And just to make sure we're clear, I'm more agressive in these blog posts that I am when dealing with the CSRs on the phone. I'm actually very nice...probably too nice most of the time.

After taking notes for the issues that I listed, Rachelle asked me if it was ok to put me on hold. A few minutes later Karen came back online and we talked about the list.

According to her:

• The tile guy needs to come back out and finish the skimmer throat.
• The flagstone is the correct color (more on this in a minute).
• The concrete people need to come back out and clean up their mess.
• The backwash line isn't needed with the pump/filter system that we had installed.
• Although we didn't get an amended bill, we have been credited $75.00.
• She isn't sure about the pump. I'm supposed to call and leave her a message.

• She'll talk with her manager about having Roger there when they come out to pebble-tech the pool so we can give him the check.

Ok, now about the flagstone color. When I was talking to her on the phone, she said there was really only 2 colors. The pamphlet that we got from the sales guy shows 12 different patterns and colors. The trouble with the colors they stained the flagstone with is that it is too orange. The colors that we chose were more brown so they went with the waterline tile.

Anyway, thats all for now. I'll probably have more to talk about tomorrow. :)

Cycolac steps done

Today the crew was back to finish the cycolac steps. Here are the photos of the finished product. Remember, they'll still get covered with pebble-tech.