While Gib-San delivers a quality product, they are a very difficult company to work with. We embarked on a complete reno of our front and back gardens, which included a cement pool. Our project manager was pleasant and assured us that Gib-San would take care of everything, including permits, based on our architect's drawings which had been approved by the City. What we quickly learned is that the customer is expected to continue making payments without a sufficient amount of work being done. Weeks would go by without any trades at the job site yet we were constantly being asked for more money. (Covid was the favorite excuse and was legitimate at first but a year later, they were still trying to blame the lockdown for their lack of production). Repeated requests for a schedule of work/timeline were ignored. Eventually, we demanded that the project manager be removed and we stopped making payments. It was the only leverage we had. The COO stepped in and apologized profusely for the lack of progress and assured us he would get the job done. The project was completed but failed inspection on 3 points. They eventually passed the pool closure inspection but we still needed a building inspector to close the permit for changes made to our garage, which was part of the pool design. For whatever reason, Peter refused to acknowledge that a bldg inspection was needed but we weren't going to make the final payment until all permits were cleared. So Gib-San had their lawyers start threatening us with a lien. Gib-San unfortunately failed to share key info with their lawyers like the fact that they had failed a previous inspection and that they did, in fact, make changes to our garage. (Note: one of the glowing reviews on Google, which have since disappeared, was written by their lawyer). Still, we made a payment to show that we intended to pay in full as long as Gib-San fulfilled their obligations. They eventually acknowledged that they needed a building inspection but filed a lien anyway. We were present for the inspector's visit, along with Peter, which lasted all of 15 minutes. As Peter was leaving (he hadn't acknowledged our presence even though he was on our property) we said to him, "That's all you had to do." His reply? "We didn't know." How does a so-called master pool builder not know what inspections are required?! We made the final payment but Gib-San, through their lawyers, tried to make releasing the lien contingent upon us agreeing that we would not make any negative comments about them. Of course, that was not enforceable, and the lien was released. Please think twice before hiring Gib-San - the difficulty in dealing with them is not worth it.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $150,000.00
- Company Response
Feedback is very important to us. As you are an active client with us today we feel your concerns could have been addressed much quicker by bringing them directly to our team. We value the relationships we build with our clients, some of which have in place for 50 years. You have direct access to many members of our team in several different departments and trust you will use these resources to your advantage in the future.
To summarize your concerns written here we see there are concerns with the below areas:
Our payment schedule
Timing and progress of work
Permitting
Payment schedule – Our payment schedules are based on the progress of work. Each progress phase is assigned a value and this is cleared noted and discussed with our clients when the contract is signed. It is mutually agreed to and this applies to all of our contracts.
Timing of work – Our business differs from other construction business as we typically cannot start and complete our work at our discretion the work space is occupied with other trades. We are often the first trade on site and the last to leave as the application of the plaster surface is the last and one of the more critical steps in the process. This final step is often regulated by the final fence inspection which we must rely on city inspectors to complete before we can add water to the pool.
Permitting – Our team was not under contract to take care of everything including permits. Permitting is a service we offer but not one that we were hired to complete as per our contract for this specific project. The permit referenced was opened by the homeowners hired Architect. Gib-San completed the work as specified within the information provided. When Gib-San was hired to build the swimming pool, there was an active approved pool enclosure permit that was submitted and completed by the homeowner’s Architect. During this project's inspection phase, the inspector did not pass the permit done by others. In addition, the other permits taken out were not taken by Gib-San but by this architect.
We requested payment and invoiced for work completed, and we did not receive payment until 8 months later for the balances due. Every invoice and work order is documented in our accounting system. Receiving payment was incredibly challenging. We needed to utilize and engage several members of our team, from sending emails, making phone calls etc. to no resolve or willingness to pay for contractually executed work. As per our legal counsel's advice, to get paid, we sought options to receive payment. We have over 150 employees whose families and livelihoods depend on payments being received. It is our fiduciary responsibility to ensure we collect money for work that we have completed.
We care about our clients and their projects immensely. There were challenges presented along the way to all parties involved. We followed through on all that was in the contract.
