Customer ReviewsforRiviera Pools of Tampa, Inc.

This company should be shut down. My expirience with them has been one of the worst experiences I have ever had with a company in my life. They have made several irreparable errors in the construction of our pool. Starting with the planning process, two separate plans were made and later found to be not consistent with city code and unable to be build. Once construction finally began close to a year later they build our pool nearly a foot below the planned grade leading to major flooding issues on our property and we were left with the decision to demo the concrete shell potentially compromising the structural integrity of our newly built home or have them make modifications to the pool that beat case scenario leave us with a pool dramatically different than the one we planned to fit our family's needs and worst case scenario leading to multiple issues with the pool down the road given the modifications they were forced to make. Even given all of this they have been completely unresponsive, leaving the project sitting for weeks or months at a time. Render our entire backyard unusable and such a hazard that we have had difficulty insuring our home. I RARELY leave reviews, especially now as many companies are struggling with labor issues etc but this is warranted. I have come to find out way too late that they have a very poor reputation. Please avoid making the same mistake I did. Do NOT use this company for your pool.

All of us at Riviera Pools would like to offer our sincere apology for any frustrations due to time delays or lack of communication.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, pool construction is taking much longer then years prior to Covid. We wrote a letter explaining this, but can not paste here as it won't allow us to use so many words. You can read this in comments to BBB complaints of other clients. As for the pool elevation and the flooding issue, the pool was originally constructed above the grade of the yard. The flooding was not caused by the pool elevation. Flooding occurred because the alley behind the property was not draining properly. We met with the builder and clients and suggested that there was no reason to raise the pool as it would only displace the water and not solve the problem. Measurements were taken and we did admit that the pool shell was 3" lower then specifications. A couple inches of parge and the coping would have brought it pretty close to where it should have been. We always take our measurements from the existing lanai. Builder stated that it should be from floor elevation which made it 5" low. Nowhere near a foot? We decided to raise the pool 6" to maintain a proper tile line and give the customer what they wanted. The work was completed at no additional cost to the builder or clients. The structure is sound as proper pinning and concrete was applied. There was no drastic change except for the fact it was raised. Riviera is in contract with the home builder, not the clients. We have been in contact with them many times on this job. Just today, we were discussing the fact that we now need a retaining wall at the footer because the pool is too high. If we have missed any direct calls from the clients, we apologize, but it is customary to speak directly to the builder when they are the ones contracted. If the clients have any questions, they can call the office or call Tim B., the project manager, during working hours at 813-918-6037. Riviera has a very good reputation. Ask any of our clients that got pools built prior to 2021. We have been in business for 42 years and most of our complaints have come during the past year because most of our clients are just as frustrated as these clients due to delays. Riviera is working diligently to try to move projects faster, but as stated in our letter, some things are beyond anyone's control. Rest assured we will complete this and every project we have and hope that you will be pleased with the finished swimming pool for many years to come.

I wish I would have read these reviews before we hired Riviera Pools to install our pool. As others have said here, Riviera Pools will NEVER call you to tell you what is going on, if you call them and complain, someone will show up to complete one (1 thing) and then no one will show up for weeks or months, until you call and complain again. We signed a contact in August of 2020, and in September gave them the first installment. Permits were not pulled until the following year. In February, they came, dug and we had a concrete pool, by March 12, 2021. Then we did not see anyone for months. We were then told our pool will be complete in 90 working days from the date the shell was poured. Ok that puts completion in July of 2021. In early May - 2 workers came to install coping and tile around the pool. In June a contractor came to lay the plumping lines, and because of Riviera's lack of employees they asked him to also dig for our screen footing. After two weeks it was done, and a week later concrete was poured for that. Then we received the dreaded LARGE PRINT YELLOW FONT EMAIL, telling us because of COVID, things were behind, and they had no time frame for our pool to be done. At the end of June was the first time we saw our Project Manager, Tim. My husband was quite upset with him, and probably used words he shouldn't have. Tim's response "I can get in my truck right now and leave here." I spoke with Tim, then, and he told me the problem now was that our pavers were not in stock. He called the office in front of me, the girl told him "the pavers are in the warehouse." Then Tim told me "no one wants to work, we can't get workers, and everything is on backorder. " He also told me "we are busy doing New Builds." So let me understand that - Riviera Pools takes new builds ahead of someone who sign their contract a year ago, of course they do, because they are getting more money for that?" A week later I spoke with Riviera's owner and he said "I can release the pavers to you and they can sit in your driveway until our workers come and install, probably a week." A month later, our pavers were delivered directly from the manufacturer in Brooksville. When my husband asked "Riviera told us there are back orders for pavers," the driver said "I don't know what you are talking about, we manufacture them fright here in Florida, and we have no problem getting them out." The pavers sat in our driveway for 3 weeks. August 31 - pavers were laid. I called Riviera Pools again to ask the timing of the rest of our pool and NOW was told, our filter was on back order, the screen company has us scheduled for October 13. On October 14 a worker from the screen company (which is contracted out from Riviera) came to measure and tells my husband "you are not on the schedule until November 14." My husband then spoke to Riviera's owner and he said again, "the problem is COVID, I have never seen anything like this, no one has product, everything is on backorder." November 15 - Screen company comes to install and when my husband mentions that they don't have any product they say "we have product to install your screen and we have had it." Electric, plaster/interior finish and pool filter are left to do. We have paid EVERY installment they have asked for, we have been VERY patient for over a year now. We are tired of COVID being blamed for everything. If my pool filter is on back order, and that is the hold up - GO TO A DIFFERENT company to purchase it. Every time I walk in my yard and look at 4 feet of 'green smelly' water in the hole I want to cry. The owner says "just pour some bleach in in." "Dear Riviera Pools - do you want a satisfied customer, or a dis satisfied customer?" All we want is a completed pool! At this time, I will be fair and give you one star, because the work that has been done so far has been great.

Please know that we are doing all we can to get your pool and all pools under contract finished as timely as possible. You probably would not have been able to read reviews like this back then, because most are recent, and they are all about time of construction. This is because all are in the same boat, not just your pool. And it is not only our company, or even our industry, it is everywhere. IKEA had a furniture shortage, Ford couldn't build trucks because they couldn't get chips for the computers, and recently, one of our trucks broke down. They told us it could be 6 to 8 weeks to get the part. When we say it is hard to get materials, it isn't all of them at once, but different things are near impossible to get at different times. We do look to other distributors to try to help keep the flow of construction moving. Covid is not the only reason for the delays, but it is the main reason. For example, let us talk about the screen since you brought it up. A few months ago, the screen companies could not get screen and some aluminum products. Because of this, a back log of people waiting for screens built up. Now that the product is available, like yours might have been, they must get to the ones that have already been waiting which cause you to have to wait for your turn to come. We have hired another screen company to help, but both companies are very busy and can only do so much. This is just one example of the hundreds of battles we are fighting daily to get these jobs completed. Materials are hard to get, when we have materials, there isn't enough skilled labor to handle all the work, so pools are taking much longer to build. Prices of materials and labor continue to rise. The longer it takes us to build a pool, the less we make. Believe us that we want your job done as quickly as you. Pavers are never stored at our shop. They are delivered directly to the job by the paver company. We do try to order them early and they store them at their warehouse for us. Flagstone notified us that paver orders are taking 8 to 10 weeks to fill so there is a backlog, but for the most part, pavers are usually ready by the time we need them. As for the tile guy doing the form work, back in the day, there was one crew that did tile, plumb and form. It is not unusual to have a tile guy form a deck and it probably helped move your pool along. As for new builds, all pools under construction are considered new builds until they are completed. Each stage has different crews, so one stage does not hinder another. If we send a crew out to dig, it doesn't keep the screen crew from doing their job. So new jobs do not affect the timing of jobs already under construction. If Tim was being yelled at, he was right to leave the job site. We are instructed to avoid confrontations. We are sorry that you are so frustrated and must deal with the mess of construction for this long, but we are on the home stretch and will complete the job as soon as possible. Thanks for stating the job looks great. Quality is our priority. We hope this letter helps you and others understand a little more of the complexity of the world we are living in today. We will complete all pools and we will do our best to keep the quality up and try to bring the construction time back down to normal. Thanks.