California Pools & Landscape - Surprise

Having never built a pool, we knew we wanted a company that we felt confident knew what they were doing and offered a great finished product. We got a couple quotes and ended up going with California Pools to install a pool additional patio space and landscaping. Our designer, Jacob, was patient and thorough and did a great job designing a space that fit what we were looking for. Throughout the entire process we were kept in the loop and the project progressed quite quickly. Stephen was our supervisor and he was knowledgeable and very responsive anytime I reached out with questions. In the end, we got a great backyard that looked even better than we imagined.

I wanted to be able to give a good review. We started with our designer in Jan 2025 from Ohio. We were building a house in AZ and knew we needed both our front yard and backyard landscaping done and we wanted a pool and spa. Our designer was phenominal and I would give him 5 stars all day long!! I had contacted several pool builders and ultimately went with California because of our designer and how much he listened to what we wanted and had great recommendations since we were not as familiar with the climate and differences between the midwest and southwest living! We moved in the beginning of May. The day came to meet our project manager, Dylan. He was extremely unprofessional, unqualified for the job and a poor communicator. He asked what will it take to get 5 stars at the end, my only comment to him was I expected communication and for the project to stay on schedule. Well, neither of those things happened. What he said would be a 12 week job took 20 weeks. I guess I should be glad ours was completed in such a "quick" timeframe as Dylan would tell me, because another member of our community started at the same time and still has a shotcrete hole in her backyard. It was excuse after excuse, if i wasn't texting on monday or tuesday to find out what was scheduled for the week i'm not certain we'd even be done. The fence took 2 weeks to have put back up. Every morning for 20 weeks, i woke up wondering if there were a bunch of men in my backyard at 6am. I understand the need to start early because of the heat, that wasn't the problem, but dragging the project out caused our schedules to be out of whack for far too long. When the shotcrete guys were there I was so excited! Then they discovered the spa was off by 2" and they couldn't do the work. Had a pre-wire been done (Cal Pools doesn't want to pay for it) they would have discovered the error before the concrete truck was there! Cal Pools had to eat that cost too. Then we had to have plumbers and steel guys back out to adjust the spa. The pavilion was delayed because the City of Surprise kept sending back their permit request because they couldn't submit it properly, then they couldn't send it electronically and waited days to figure it out. Then the inspection on the pavilion indicated the post needed grounded, so more delays waiting for electricians to come out again. It's the most unorganized company we've worked with so far in the Valley. We had a change order that ended up with a less than $500 balance and they refused to move forward with shotcrete until we paid it. I asked to square up at the end because I knew there would be additional change orders. Guess what we had 2 more change orders. Then when the project was done I received a check for $800 that had been over paid. These are terrible business practices. We live in a new build community and a lot of folks are asking who they should use. I can no longer recommend California Pools because of the lack of organization of the project and lack of concern from their management. I am pleased with how my back yard turned out, our designer nailed our vision perfectly. We've had to have service out a few times already and often they leave the pool in a state that we don't know how to get it back to normal and have to call for help. The "orientation" we received at 5:30pm at night in the dark was pathetic, they did end up sending out their lead tech to review things with us again and we've made sure we understand how everything works because we want to minimize the number of times we have to call them back out and deal with whatever mess is left to clean up after their techs are here. What really bothers me is that at no time did anyone above Dylan, our project manager, contact us. We had no one to voice our concerns to. Our designers manager did call us but his voicemail basically said he had nothing to do with the project management piece.

We love ?? our backyard transformation by California Pools & Landscape! From the moment Cody Risdon entered our home and we discussed our vision of an oasis where our family and friends could create amazing memories with us, to the completion of our project, EVERYONE with California Pools has been professional, personable and showed great priority for EVERY detail! Stephen Dreher, our primary contact person, has been outstanding and never tired of our endless questions and overcame every obstacle along the way! We wholeheartedly recommend California Pools to anyone wanting their backyard dreams to become a reality! ?? A special shout out to Alan Vasquez who has been awesome with helping us maneuver some technical challenges, even on the morning of Memorial Day ????

California Pools and Landscape recently completed a remodel of my pool and spa. The processes and communications from the minute I first walked into the Surprise location to the work completion and turnover to the warranty department were all handled with the utmost professionalism and courtesy. Kudos to the CPL team, especially Christian Pierre, Stephen Dreher, Leann Madar, Nehemias, and Alan Vasquez. Each one of them made my wife and me feel like VIP's with every interaction. Their attention to detail and quality workmanship exceeded our expectation. We are very pleased with our decision to use CPL for our pool remodel and would recommend them to anyone considering building a new pool/spa or remodel. Than you CPL!

Our experience with California Pools has been excellent. Now that our pool has been in service for over a year, we especially appreciate the prompt and professional response to our follow-up service requests. Kathy and Alan have been great to work with. California Pools is very fortunate to have them as part of their team.