Premier Pools & Spas

In July of 2014 I contacted Premier Pools and Spas (at the time located in Allen, TX) remodel devision and spoke to James Ward: Director of Landscape and Pool Remodeling. James visited our home and listened to our vision and weeks later brought back a design and proposal. After negotiations and adjustments to the design we made a decision to proceed not with a remodel but with a complete demo of our existing pool followed by a new pool and an extensive outdoor cabana.
After deciding to move forward we made it clear to James Ward that it was imperative to us that we chose a company that was able to do both projects. Demo our existing pool and rebuild a new one as well as build a 30×30 (900sq ft) cabana with full bathroom, outdoor kitchen and fireplace to name a few. We wanted the space to be cohesive and felt that using one company we could achieve that. James assured us they could do it all! We held off on starting the project immediately for two reasons; 1. We wanted to finish out the remainder of the summer in our existing pool and 2. We wanted assurance from PPAS and approval provided to them from the city of Mckinney on the cabana. We were not going to proceed unless the full project was coordinated.
Initially we wanted to do the pool first and then start the cabana. However, as the weeks turned into months we became very worried that PPAS had no intentions on doing the cabana and didn’t feel they made any attempt to get permits on the cabana. Early December 2014 after several attempts by PPAS to start our pool we had Mike Ribnikar over to discuss our hesitation. We asked him what the status was on the city approval on the cabana and he claimed he knew nothing about the cabana but would look into it. We made it clear to him nothing was happening unless we got approval and seen plans on the cabana.
We were then contacted by James Ward stating that the city wanted us to attach the cabana to our home due to the size. I expressed to James why 5 months after signing we were just finding this out. My wife and I felt at this point that no attempts had been made and that they were only trying to start and finish the pool leaving us with no cabana. However, we decided to oblige and approved a breezeway connecting the cabana to the home.
Demo on our existing pool begin the first week of January 2015 and we discussed changes to the required breezeway roof and decided on no changes due to cost and aesthetics. We waited three months now April for anything to happen on the cabana and was requested by James Ward to pay a large payment of $ 30k+ for the cabana which we denied due to lack of work. After waiting another two months now may I got frustrated and walked into their office in Plano to find Mike Ribnikar.
At this point I was upset and asked Mike Ribnikar why my backyard has been left like boneyard for now two months since work begin on the cabana. Mike asked me to allow him to attend a meeting so he could get updated on my projects. I asked him why he didn’t know already and he had no response. He consistently tried to point blame on his project manager assigned to my project, Preston Rybar. I also pointed out to him that when I met with James Ward in July 2014 and himself later that same year neither of them mentioned that they were not Premier Pools and Spas and were actually just paying to use the name. They were actually Shan Pools, Inc. He also had no response.
After me walking into the store work begin rapidly but with several, several mistakes. Footings were poured incorrectly, framing for the cabana breezeway roof went into the side of my home rather than attach to my home’s roof, pluming for the restroom failed several inspections and no grading for the cabana was ever done leaving large footings exposed.
In addition once the cabana was framed the city failed inspection and the cabana sat and no work took place on the cabana for almost 4 weeks. When I contacted the city of McKinney I was told PPAS never submitted plans and were working off drafts. This required the city to put a hold on the cabana work.
Mike removed Preston Rybar from my project and assigned Sean. Sean has been the only positive thing about the project to be honest however, his involvement does not make up for the poor service, bad experience and false advertisement. It has now almost been 12 months since the project begin and over 18 months since we met James and we are no where near done.
They have had over $ 200,000 of our money, it’s been 18 months and we are still not done. In addition Premier Pools and Spas is not even a pool builder. They just get other pool builders like Shan Pools to pay them to use a name. See the article about a company paying to use the name and closing for not completing work.

Still not done, the owner Mike cancelled a meeting. Probably due to the negative Unilocal review. That seems to be his concern, what is said on social media. Sent demand letter, next step will be legal action.
Run from this company.
Do your homework before you sign a contract, have your lawyer look it over. Put in end date, within reason to both parties. Talk to people that have been happy or unhappy. Then check ALL of the reviews and make your choice. Local city groups on social media usually have great input without a monetary interest.

We have put in a couple of pools and this is the first time we have used Premier Pools. They started off being on top of things and keeping us posted but that didn’t last. They never did what they said they would, didn’t show up when they were suppose to and said it would take 6 – 8 weeks and it has been 12 weeks. This has been the worst experience with a pool builder so I can not recommend them. Jacob was our main go to guy and he just told you what you wanted to hear. Once they get your plaster payment which is the last one and there is still a lot to do but they won’t come back. If this is the service you get while your building it what makes you think they will fix something later on? They never did a final clean up and we are still waiting for them to do some things. There is so much more I could write but I think this is the most important thing so Please do your research and even if they are less expensive it is not worth the headache!!!

Let me just say first of all that it really takes a lot for me to write a bad review. I write a lot of good ones, but I do understand that occasionally I’m going to have a bad experience so I try to be sensitive to the fact that good companies make mistakes. I like to use positive reinforcement for the good companies and drive business their way rather than driving business away from the others.
But in this case… if I could give them a zero stars, I would. We inherited a pool in our home purchase that was built by Premier Pools and Spas in Allen. Shortly after we moved in, we noticed a leak out the back of our boulder waterfall. Fast forward almost a year later and it’s still leaking. In spite of my endless efforts to communicate with Mike, Debra, Jeff and the 3 different contractors they have sent out here who have failed to fix it. They don’t call me back, don’t show up for scheduled appointments, don’t follow up with anything and seem completely content with the fact that we have had water running down our alley for almost a year now.
My advice is do your research. And if you are buying a house with a pool, make sure and ask who the pool builder is and research them before buying.