This is our honest opinion and unfortunately negative review of Lido Pools and its owner, Josh.
This review is an opinion of services rendered by the above company and meant to be viewed by others looking to hire this company. We do not recommend the services provided by Lido Pools based on the work completed on our property.
We gladly await the large rebuttal that will surely follow claiming none of this is true and that we received stellar service and a beautiful finished product. We also await the threat of legal action due to maliciousness or slander.
We hired Lido Pools in March of 2022 as our in-ground pool required a new liner and we wanted to have built in steps added to the shallow end. Josh was pleasant to deal with in the beginning stages and even quite boastful at his previous installation of Ontario's first private lazy river. He went on to let us know that he doesn't normally take on small jobs such as ours so we were quite lucky to have him. He even noted that our job was an easy and uncomplicated one. This attitude and friendliness quickly faded as we began to grow more and more frustrated with Josh's unprofessionalism in the lack of communication and failed promises.
I want to start out by saying the entire experience wasn't horrible and we do want to give praise to the lead installer on our project, Mark. He was wonderful throughout the process as Josh began to stop answering phone calls or text messages and made Mark be the go between. On several occasions we felt terrible for Mark as he was sent alone to complete everything. Josh initially sent his son, Jordan to work on the pool and he was less than helpful, making more work for Mark. Josh tried to smooth things over by saying that he was trying to teach his son the business etc., but we found this unacceptable as things were not completed properly in the process of teaching. My husband came home one evening on a day where Jordan completed work and found that the pool had not been cleaned, the seams that were to be taped and prepped were not done or the tape was already blowing in the wind. My husband ended up spending hours cleaning up the bottom and walls of the pool, sanding the areas, priming the pool floor with galvanized paint, re-taping and prepping for Marks installation of the stairs. On one of the days, Jordan arrived to our home without proper equipment i.e. a wheelbarrow, to begin the concrete pour in the steps and in turn ended up using our plastic garden cart which was punctured and ruined. He also ran out of tape one day and was just generally unprepared for the days work ahead. After having him work on our pool multiple days, we told Josh that we no longer wanted Jordan to learn on our pool as the work is subpar and unacceptable.
We have photos of the work from beginning to end which show errors in the stair installation with the pipes and metal not laying flush to the pool wall to which Josh replied all part of the process when prompted about fixing it. Unfortunately, Josh never took any responsibility for the mistakes made and certainly made no effort to ensure they were fixed prior to completion. The metal we questioned that was not flush to the pool wall was never actually corrected as they figured it wouldn't matter once the concrete was poured. The metal edges of the stairs were never smoothed out so jagged edges were apparent upon inspection before the liner was placed in. We come from a construction background and that was absolutely unacceptable.
We had been informed that the liner could potentially be ready before Canada Day but that did not happen. Then it was scheduled to be dropped in on July 9th, and no one showed up. After sending a text to Josh regarding how frustrating this was, he replied that Mark had told him there was a birthday and not to come etc. This is where communication is PARAMOUNT. Communicate with your own clients and DO NOT rely on your workers to do this for you. So many aspects of this client/work relationship could have been so different, had Josh cared enough to communicate with us whether we were happy with his work or not.
Finally on July 15th, 2022 the liner was ready to be dropped in after we sent Josh a message indicating if the work was not complete by the 15th, then we would proceed with another company. Not only was the liner two weeks later than the date we were originally given, but it was also the wrong colour. On May 28th, 2022 I sent an email indicating which colour liner we had chosen. On June 5th, my family informed me that I had sent the wrong colour so I reached out to Josh to hopefully change it. He acknowledged and said it was no issue and to please send another email with the correct colour which he acknowledged and apparently ordered and kept on file.
On the final installation day, Mark showed up alone to do the work. Surely this is not a one-man job!!! My husband, my two daughters and a family friend of ours all showed up to help. We had to use our own tools (shop vac) for the most part and had to send our daughter to a pool company 20 minutes away to purchase items that were to be supplied by Lido such as the main drain, main drain gaskets and skimmer screws. My husband worked alongside Mark for 7 hours in the direct sun. Never once did Josh show up to help Mark, inspect the work or to have a face to face conversation about our concerns. My husband is in his late 60s and should NOT have had to do any work for a company that we were paying to complete everything.
*Please note, none of the steel edges that have gaps or jagged edges were smoothed or made flush prior to felting the steps.
Josh's attitude went from professional, to very annoyed, to finally lacking any customer service skills or compassion at all as he barely communicated with us. We sent lengthy letters via text expressing our frustration and lack of satisfaction with him only to get condescending messages back such as; As for satisfaction, its an amazing fit and your steps and bench look awesome so don't know how you could be anything but ecstatic about that. In the end, the wrong liner colour was installed and Josh took zero responsibility for that mistake, and made us feel as if we should be grateful because it was an amazing fit.. This is one of the main reasons we felt justified in writing a review for anyone looking for a company to build or repair a pool to read beforehand.
Please beware of our experience with Josh of Lido Pools. Based on the positive reviews this company isn't all bad, however our pool completion process was less than stellar. We felt like the guinea pigs for this project due to the shoddy manufacturing of the stairs and we are clearly paying the price now as my husband has had to break out the concrete on our deck above the new steps in order to access the old pipes. Lido Pools did not conduct a pressure test to ensure everything was working properly and did not catch the crack in the old jet where the eyeball screws in. It seemed that Josh no longer wanted to communicate with us as the liner had finally been dropped and did not care to take the time to ensure proper installation. The old jet is located on the wall of the pool (pictured) had been cracked due to over tightening when trying to attach the new pipes and joint to fit the new jet head, located in the new stairs that Lido built and subsequently there is barely any pressure coming through the new jet located in the centre of the top step. (pictured)
As a result of the mistakes Lido made in the liner colour and the missing parts that we had to purchase ourselves, we did deduct money that Josh never disputed. However, we are now out of pocket, thousands of dollars to repair the damaged piping/jet as well as concrete repair.
Again, Id like to note that this is our personal experience with Josh and Lido Pools and in our honest opinion, we would never recommend him to any of our family and friends because of this.