BUYER BEWARE: Unbelievably unprofessional, unethical and a terrible experience.

Before I share my feedback I’ll preface by saying, I have attempted to resolve this multiple times with the business and salesperson outlined here. Even to the point where the business owner did not want to hear my experience, the admin said I can not speak to him and she will pass on any messages.

The back story:

1: I rang Bali pools to come quote - they turned up as Cozy pools (Rodney the salesperson said Bali was too busy and we will build the pool under cozy.
2: When Rodney the salesperson showed up I explicitly told Rodney that I want a quote with ZERO surprises added to it as I was needing to lock in a cost of the pool, so I wanted to ensure if there was anything else he would need to know.
4: The quote returned at $86,000 with limited context.
5: I again made it explicit to Rodney that I was making a decision between Cozy and another provider and that price was an important part (not the only part) of my decision.
6: Rodney said the next steps were to go to contract where I had to pay a 10% deposit (even tho SPASA state that you should only be charing a 5% deposit for this amount)
7: I paid my deposit to move to engineering - I expressed my concerns to Rodney about having to sign a contract before drawings and engineering was completed (in case I couldn’t even build a pool where I am located. We are on a river canal)
8: I get a call from Rodney saying that the engineer concludes we need screw peers (firstly I was shocked they didn’t even include this in the quote as an allowance). The reply Rodney gave me was “Darryl (the boss) and I didn’t think you would need them. I asked how much they would be, he quoted me $30,000 for 6M screw peers.
9: The next day I rang Rodney and stated that the actual project manager whom Rodney said would be in contact within 1-2 weeks, hasn’t contacted me, it was already over 3 weeks at this stage.
10: When Mark (Project manager and brother of owner Darryl) arrived he said we have a problem. He said “Ive built dozens of pools around here and you won’t need 6M screw peers you need 22M” Of course I was shocked.
11: I asked Mark why would Rodney have only quoted 6M. The reply was, “well we will just start there and add if needed” (meaning, will keep adding to the bill)
12: I asked Rodney to quote for the 22M screw peers. The quote come back at a further $100,000 dollars.
13: So to recap, my initial pool cost $86000, but was now to be $186,000.
14: The $100,000 screw peer addition felt off. I rang 4 other GC pool builders to get a price on the exact crew peers that Cozy had quoted me. The quotes ranged from $19,000-23,000. AN UNBELIEVABLE difference from the $100,000 extra Cozy was trying to charge me. These pool builders were shocked. I was told I was getting scammed, & they should be reported.
15: Cozy then tried to offer me a 10k discount by allowing me to pay $30,000 of the $100,0000 in cash, however i had to pay immediately upon signing a new revised contract.
16: I rang Rodney and requested a refund. He said that ill get back the deposit minus about $350 for the engineering fees.
18: A week later i followed up re the refund and was told it will take 7 days
19: when the refund returned it was only part payment.
22: I emailed Maria and asked for a breakdown of what I have been charged for and why:
Sales Commission (Reduced Commission down from $5,007.00): $1,000.00
Engineers Fees: $750.00
Certification Fees (Reduced fees for partial works completed): $110.00
Cozy Pools Admin Fee: $450.00

24: I couldn’t believe I was being charged a sales commission fee and an admin fee, especially when this job would have never even went to contract if it wasn’t for the incompetence in the sales process to start with. I was told i should be happy with that, as they could have taken the entire 5k for sales commission.

A simple conversation from Rodney (sales rep) with their builder prior to rushing to contract would have stopped this situation from ever eventuating.

Approximate cost: $90000