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Consumer Affairs


Kayak Pools


Consumer Complaints & Reviews

We had to replace our walls with lifetime walls in 2006. They are bowing out and the liner is going through the walls. The person who installed them has tried working with them. I can't get anyone to return my calls. I have sent emails with pictures and so has the installer. They wanted proof of purchase, which we have, but can't get them to call back.

I think they are waiting so it will be another year to raise the cost of walls. I can't get anyone to help. So I have a pool I cannot close and walls that are ready to burst. They want us to replace the walls at a somewhat lower price than before, plus we have to get a new liner and pay for it to be installed. From reading about other customers I feel the walls were poorly made and they don't want to fix the problem that their own doing. We would have rated the pools a 4 before the new walls, but now I would just give a minus rating.

I bought a pool in 2005, at which time, the salesman stated Waterwalls were 100% guaranteed for life. After 1 year, 3 walls were dented and Kayak replaced them for "free" - we had to empty the pool and refill ($400) and pay the East Coast Kayak contractor $400 for labor. At the time of replacement, the contractor told me that there was a bad batch of walls in 2005. Kayak knew this! In 2009, more walls started to buckle and in 2010, I now have 19 walls that need replacement.

I contacted Kayak and was told East Coast Kayak was out of business. Surprise! So, I set up a date with Kayak's sub-contractor who is only available by cellphone and fails to respond to 99% of calls. He told me he would be out 2 weeks after Memorial Day. I am still waiting after numerous changes of times when he would be out. His nephew told me he would be out next Tuesday or Wednesday in the middle of July. I emptied the pool and called on Monday and said "which day are you coming?". He said I need to order walls and then will come out. I called him on Thursday and he told me "did the walls arrive"? I said "no". He said he will check with Kayak.

I called Kayak (Michelle) that day and no walls were ordered by him. Nice! Empty pool, hot July, and no response from either Miller (contractors that work directly for Kayak) or Kayak. I have called and e-mailed Kayak over a dozen times and have been told they would "try" to help or they are just blowing me off. I refilled the pool (another $400) and am still waiting for response from someone to rectify. Their solution: order walls, find your own contractor and pay freight to return walls at a pro-rated amount!

About 5- years ago I had a Kayak pools installed. The water walls are failing and I called last year and was told I could either buy the walls and they would cover the re-installation or they would pay for the walls and i pay for the installation. I have since sent an email 2 weeks ago (today is 7-27-11) and I have yet to get a answer. I have a total of 7 walls failing and one of them pushing in 4 inches and soon to puncture my pool liner.

I bought a pool 16' x 24' in 6/08. It now has grass growing through the liner at the bottom. I am being told that the warranty does not cover this. Also, was told that this is the 2nd complaint they've had with this problem. I can patch the 3-4 places where the grass is coming through or I can purchase another liner for $799.00 plus installation.

Randy the Kayak rep told us that if we purchased the liner, he wouldn't "rape" us to have it put in. Unbelievable.

We purchased a 16x32 foot pool from Kayak East Coast in July of 2005 for $22,000. We had to have at least one waterwall replaced. This year, we need to eleven walls. Do not buy a pool from this company - their material is faulty. The first time a waterfall buckled, they told me there was bad batch of walls made. Seems like all of them are bad since then. We have always paid to have the new walls installed, and last year the men sent to reinstall the walls couldn't do the one with the return water jet because they didn't know how. What kind of lousy uninformed employees does East Coast Kayak employ?

Since the warranty is in the fourth year, we will need to pay 30% of the current retail price on each wall. Then we will need to pay for shipping to us and shipping back.

My 7-year old Kayak 16x32 pool's liner ripped in Feb 2010 and Kayak offered me a 35% discount on a new one which sells for $1,039, leaving me with around a $650 cost. They won't pay for shipment, pool water refill ($400), no labor. What does 30-year warranty mean? I have an empty pool, kids who can't swim in this hot weather and a terrible experience with this company that gladly took my 17,000 dollars.

Our pool was installed in August of 2008, after the guys who installed the pool left, I noticed that there were scratched is the paint on the deck. I contacted them and they would send a bottle of touch up paint. Never received it. Called back and never sent. Waited until the spring and the paint was starting to flake off, sent them pictures and customer service responded with they will replace panels,but we had to pay to have them installed.

I argued for 2 months about this and nothing was never resolved. In the fall of 2009, contacted them again asked to speak with the President of this company. When I talked with him, he denied us ever calling and didn't want to speak with at regular tone. After 1 hour of bickering back and forth, he said that he was going to bill us for the customer service time. Asked for the salesman name, they wouldn't give me any information. Told him he was a joke, their company sucked. Don't buy anything from this company, certainly from Kayak Midwest. Take your money and they run. No customer service at all.

I would not recommend Kayak Pools to anyone. We purchased our Kayak Pool 5 years ago. We were sold on the 30-year warranty and lifetime water wall warranty the salesman told us about. Two years after we purchased this pool for $19,000 and put their sign up in our yard for those two years, the water walls were bending in on the inside of the pools. I called Kayak customer service. They said, "Don't worry if anything happens, they're 100% warranted for life." Over the next two years, they started getting worse so I took pictures outside and sent them to Kayak. They replied that it must be an installation problem but "don't worry, their 100% warrantied".

That off season, they got really bad to the point they're about to bust the liner. So to avoid any questions, I hired the original installer to open my pool the fifth season. He said, "I've been putting these pools up for 15 years and theses water walls are failing and need to be replaced. They can call me and I'll stand buy my claim." I contacted Kayak once again and told them my 100% warranted water walls I've been telling them about for the last 5 years, now need to be replaced.

I was told this time for the first time in 5 years, "Oh, the water walls have a pro-rated limited warranty, and after 5 years, that's only about 10% of the original cost and you will have to pay shipping, installation and probably have to replace your 30-year warranted liner." In other words, it's your problem. This company is a sham and a liar. Do not under any circumstances buy a Kayak Pool.

We requested that a Kayak salesperson visit us to discuss purchasing an above ground pool. The sales person said we would receive a discount if we purchased that night only and the cost was over $19,000. He explained that the warranty was 30 years, which would pay for the cost. When the pool arrived and was set up, we received the manual which states the cost of replacement parts if there are issues with the pool. We had our first panel go out in July of 2008, we purchased the pool in October of 2005. The cost for one way of shipping for the part was over $250. That was not mentioned when purchasing the pool. We had our second panel go out in October of 2009, so they now want to charge for the cost of the panel and the return of the damaged panel and shipping of the new panel. Shipping cost is estimated at $500. Buyer beware of the warranty and unstated issues you will have. The cost of the pool is not worth it when annually you have panels going out. We missed 1 month of swimming last July and swimming in October. Didn't matter we were a few week into our 4th year, they still plan on chargin us for the panel. There is no warranty if they recoup the cost in selecting the carrier and cost of the shipping charges. You are not able to select a company to ship the panel.

I live in Texas and bought a kayak pool 2 months ago from Swim Texas. They service Texas. I can tell everyone I have had a wonderful 2 months in my kayak pool. And the people have been Great. Right from the start, with Bob the salesman, to Paul and his crew who set it up, to Steve the finance/owner, have all been wonderful. And the best part is , I have Not seen any complaints from anyone in Texas. So i would advise anyone in Texas to go ahead and call Swim Texas and ask to speak to Bob or Steve!!

Our lifetime warrenty Kayak pool's frame broke in two paces and blew out three water walls and bent the supports and the 10 foot deck. Because the local dealer went out of bussiness as well as Kayak pools they would not honor the lifetime warrenty. Kayak went back into bussiness but they supposedly did not buy up the warrenty papers so refused to fixz our pool. They also said they had no record of us buying the pool.

We originally were looking to buy a pool from Kayak Pools in May '09. After their demonstration we signed an application for financing and gave a $5000.00 deposit. With an overall credit rating of 810 on all three reports I didn't think financing would be a problem or I would of never gave that kind of deposit knowing its non-refundable after 3 days. Well it is July 7th and we still do not have a pool.

This company offered us to refinance our house at 2% less interest and incorporate the pool in it for the tax break. We said okay. that was the first week of June. This is July 7th and the refinance is still not done either. It is days before anyone returns our phone calls when we leave messages and when they do call or surprisingly answer the phone Its someone elses fault or they are trying to find out. Please help me I have lost $5000.00 and am afraid I could be near losing my house to a scam company.

In April of 2008 we purchased a pool from Kayak pools southeast. We order the pool to have a 5 and half foot depth on one end of the pool. On the day that the pool was being installed and water was being put into the pool it was discovered that the liner was not the correct one for the agreed upon depth. We reached an agreement that we would accept the liner the way it was and that Kayak Pools Southeast would in turn provide a cover for the pool, a case of Pool frog bac pac chlorine cartigages and closing the pool in the fall of 2008. To date they have still not provide the case of chlorine cartigages and the President Rick will not return my phone calls. I have tried to contact him on average once a month since july of 2008. The cost of the chemicals on the main Kayak pools site is 189.99 for a case of 12.

I have a letter that documents all that has happened. Basically, our pool that was installed by Kayak East Coast in November 2007 suffered damage this winter due to the poor engineering design and installation of our drainage system. As a result of this poor engineer design and installation of our pool's drainage system, we have a burst pipe and a torn pool liner.

My Kayak pool has a problem with one of the waterwalls. It tore loose from where it is attached. Kayak states that it has a lifetime warranty on all waterwalls. The break caused my pool liner to be damaged. The business which was a franchise of Kayak pools went out of business so I contacted the corporate office directly. They reviewed my pictures and stated that it was an installation error. They would not do anything about it. I would think that a company would have to stand behind the warranty even if the franchisees do not install their pool correctly. It would have only cost Kayak a few hundred dollars. They are not a good company to deal with. If I were you I would not spend your hard earned money on one of their pools. Now I plan to buy all my parts from other companies that sell parts for Kayak pools. For the few hundred it would have cost Kayak to fix the pool they lost all my purchases in the future.

I can't believe what I'm reading about a Kayak Pool. My husband and oldest son put my in. We did have a hopper end 8ft. and after our boys grew up and got married we decided to fill it in and that way our grandchildren could enjoy it and I could still swim. We have had our Pool for 24 years. We have put life time walls in and had I think 3 liners, I love my pool and can't wait to get in it with the grandchildren. We have a blast. Sorry so many of you are disapointed with your pools, maybe it was who put them in. The pool its self is great easy to clean and take care of. I still have people want to know where I got my pool.

I love my Kayak pool. Worth every penny! Very low maintenance and easy to care for. Purchased in 2004. Excellent installers. Even gave us pool school showing us everything we needed to know. We videotaped it and watch it every year to open & close our pool. Liner had a tiny pin hole near top and they immediately came out to patch. Have called several times with questions and they have always been incredibly helpful. One time I used the wrong type of lubricant for a large o ring causing it to stretch. They suggested I freeze it to shrink it before buying a new one and guess what it worked. They even saved me $$$. Consumers need to take responsiblitlity for the contracts they sign and do their research on what they buy. Don't blame the manufacturor for buyers remorse or subcontracted work.

We bought the pool back in 7/2007. Upon opening the pool in May 2008 we noticed that the pool liner was pulling away from the wall so I called the 1-800 number and I was told that they had no one to come up here and fix it but that we can still use the pool so enjoy the summer. I told them that I thought it should be covered under the installation warranty and they said if it would be if it was installation related. So I just called again, since we are getting ready to close the pool, and NOW they said that the installation warranty expired at the end of 7/2008 and that it will cost me $300.00 to get it fixed. I really think that he scammed me in that he knew by blowing me off for 2 months they could make some money. I don't think that I should have to pay $300.00 because obviously 2 employees were incompetent in their job. 1) the installer obviously did not install it properly 2) the woman that I spoke to initially did not log my call. I am not sure what good it would have done for me to write it down if she didn't write it down.I may have to incure $300.00 in monetary damages to fix the pool or else it may very well ruin the liner and cost me about $600.00 in the spring for a brand new liner.

on the 13 of june at 7 pm we signed a contract at 7 pm at night the 14 and 15 was saturday and sunday so we tried to call all day on monday june the 16 and no return calls so that night we signed contract to cancell and sent it certified mail on tursday the 17 of june. kayak pools now say were in breach of contract for not going trow with letting them put their pool in our yard and it seems that a lot of people had not had their calls returned as well according to web sites. they sent us two letters saying we had to th 17 to rescin on one and the 16 on another. ln one letter they say we was approved for financing on the 17 and in the other they say the 18 . then in one letter they say they called on the 19 to say pool was in and we was ok with financing terms and in other letter they say they caled on the 23 to say pool was in and we was ok with terms... my thing is if we canceled contract on the 16 sent by mail on the 17 why would we say ok to financing on the 19 or 23 we never gave permision but for them to run credit throw one company and that company name was on top of letter head not to run it trow 5 or 6 companies..now they was us to pay 15 % for breach of contract and put a mechanics lien on our home. the cancelation letter was signed on the 16 and mailed certified well before midnight on the 17 what was our last day to resind. the salesman had us post date check to the following monday the 16 because it was after their normal buss hours and to write on top of credit check page do not run till june 17for them to drop his mechanics lien drop this 15% what is $2953.95 and to return my deposit and my lawyer fees and letter statting that no futher actions can or will be taked

After one year of research I bought a Kayak pool in 2000 becuase of its structure design and warranties. After one year rocks and sumps formed in the floor of the pool. Some parts were missing to the railing and notified dealer in Dallas, never returned my calls. After several years the liner started to rip. It was tearing at the seams. Notiefied corparate becuase dealer in Dallas went out of business. Corporate said that warranty only cover manufacture defects with the seams.This suppose to be a 30 year warranty liner. Corporate can not show me any wriiten statement to this fact. I have e-maile and call and they said they will return the calls. After awhile they stop all together leaving you high abd dry. The kick panel lifetime warraty are detiorating. Corparate said that the pool should not be in the graound and backfilled around the side. Who installed it? I did not. Supposely the dealer hired professional to install the pool. Sent pictures to corporate no response. Contacted the local Kayak dealer to have a service tech to check the pool at my cost. The dealer will not send a service tech must go through corporate. Dealer will get back with me. No response. It would be better to buy a cheap pool every three to five years then spend so much money for the Kayak pool. I would not recommend this pool to anyone. I am still fighting with corporate. Going through the BBB now, then to the State General's office, then Federal Trade Commission, I will not stop.Pool liner tearing at the seam and the kick panel are detiorating. Both have a good warranty, 30 years on the liner and lifetime on the structure.

3rd different complaint since installation in november and opening this year. My outside framing has pulled away from the deck flooring and is bowed out.All of the wood spacers used under the frame for leveling I presume have fell out. Once again 27000 dollars for a pool.I am not happy with your services.

Nothing! I bought my pool [16 x 32] 1n the late 80's from a private individual. Had to dismantle it to move it to my back yard. After 30 days/ +/- of preparation and erection of the framework, I started filling it with a garden hose. A Kayak dealer set me up with a 700.00 [approx]+ Kayak liner - I think 748.00 is closer. The only problem I had after that was trying to find a happy medium as far as the chemical application to insure safe swimming water. Sorry people. I can not find fault with the product what so ever. I love it!

We bought a kayak pool in 2007 and and Had an unusually harsh winter. We had a pipe freeze and in the spring we lost all of our water. As you can imagine we were devastated. I called kayak in Indianapolis and spoke with Nita in service. I must say, she was very professional, very sensitive to our problem and took of it immediately. We love our kayak pool and recommend it to anyone. Thank you

We purchased our pool for over $16,000. It was installed on 09/22/05. We completed all lifetime warranty information as submitted as required to insure we complied with the procedure so our pool would be covered. At the end of June, I noticed that one of the water walls appeared to be caving in and putting pressure on the liner. I immediately notified Kayak and sent photos as requested. I did receive a prompt phone call back stating that it was covered by the warranty. HOWEVER, what the sinister salesmen fail to to tell you when you sign your life away for this OVERPRICED pool is that labor is only covered for 1 year after installation. I was informed by Kayak's customer service representative that shipping was $110 and installation was $495. Close to $700 out of my family's pocket for a DEFECTIVE panel that costs $96. Either way, with or without the warranty, Kayak still makes money from their poor fabrication and screw-ups! You're better off spending $1,000 OR LESS on a pool that you expect to only get a few years out of. Kayak's National Sales Manager has YET to return my call after 4 voicemails regarding my concerns. Customer service stops once they get your money and install the piece of crap pool. We refuse to put a single cent out for the repair. We'll wait until the wall collapses and put a huge sign where the pool stands alerting everyone to Kayak's scam. I'm sure there are people out there who've never had a problem, but it's pretty obvious that there are those who have problems. DON'T BUY KAYAK UNLESS YOU ONLY EXPECT TO GET A YEAR OR TWO OUT OF YOUR POOL WITHOUT PROBLEMS. Poor warranty and they don't back-up their own mistakes. What phonies. Those adds they spend all that money on aren't worth the paper the ad is printed on because not 1 ounce of it is true. The epitomy of falso advertisement.

My husband and I had Chad P. come to our home and tell us about Kayak Pools. It sounded great! We sighned the papers thinking that it was to see if we could get the pool financed and was told that we had three days to cancel the order. Chad was great, very nice, we had no problems with him at all! I called on July 8th and spoke to Craig telling him that we really wanted the pool but wanted to wait until next year to purchase one in order to raise our credit score. Craig said that I could give it another day to think about it. My husband called him back on the 9th and told him the exact same thing! We were very impressed in the pool and wanted to buy one the next year. On the 21st I recieved a letter from Kayak pools saying that we had not told them until July 17 that we did not want the pool. That was a lie! It said that because of a breech of contract we owed them 3099.99 dollars. When I called to speek to Craig twice I was told that he was away from his desk. My husband called and spoke to Jason L. in the Legal Department and told him what happend and he said that Craig was with a finance department and did not work for Kayak pools. I had my neigbors call Kayak pools from thier homes and ask for Craig and they got through. So much for him not working for them! My husband also spoke to Jason L. again and asked for a bill so that we would have proof of payment and he said he did not have to give us one. When he was told that we would not pay until we recieved one, Jason said that he would put a lien on our property. I called to speak with Richard L. the president three times, leaving a message for him to call back, I have heard nothing! I am glad that we didn't buy the pool after reading all of the other complaints. $3099.99 for nothing is better than what we would have been paying for a greater amount of nothing! If this company had a pool that was as great as they say, they would not have to take peoples money in return for them being told no! Good buisness comes with happy customers. After reading all of the compaints on the internet about Kayak Pools I now have a greater knowledge of how they make a living. Doesn't seem like they have any idea on how to do buisness without hurting people. Read the contract and do not sign until you are sure that you want one. This company would rather take money away from your family than earn it by selling their pools!

I would just like to offer some advise to those of you sitting with useless Kayak pools, we have owned our second hand Kayak pool for 8 years, prior to that it was 2 counties away and we purchased from the original owner who had it in their yard for 17 years. We installed it with only a new liner, and new hardware (screws & bolts), a couple years ago we replaced the walls the aluminum tracking that holds the walls underneath and I can honestly say that besides upgrading a few things here and there due to just giving out we have not had any issues....however all parts and liner that have been purchased have been done so NOT through the kayak company or a kayak dealer... I order all my replacement parts from Pool Supplies, they are in New York and easy to deal with. The staff are there to help and even allowed me to have my own freight driver pick up the walls and aluminum tracks so that I did not have to pay their shipping freight charges... just called and gave the salesman (that I dealt with from order to pick up and always returned my calls) my driver's name and phone and they contacted him to give directions to thier warehouse and all was good... It is not as pricy as the kayak dealers and have not had any issues with the liner that I see most of the comments had with the REAL Kayak liners...so my advise is just go elsewhere to service and take care of your pool there are companies that ship the items all over the US and they are easy to deal with and their products don't seem to have the Kayak issues but still work with the pool. Don't let Kayak make you believe they are the only store in town to get a properly fit liner..at least ours has been great....check out the internet for other stores selling replacement Kayak parts.. Good luck!

Purchased a maintenance free pool from them in 2007. Delivered in a timely manner and installed within a week of delivery. Unfortunately they did not finish installation until 10:00pm at night and had me sign the agreement that everything was good even though I could not see a thing. They told me that if there was any problem with anything just call them and they would come and take care of it. I filled out every one of their warranty cards for the liner, pool, motor, everything. It was supposed to be 10'ft at 4 feet and 10'ft at 5 feet. The measurements are nowhere near that, but I can live with it. The major problems are a deck that gets scalding hot. It is so bad you cannot step on it without shoes or sit on it without a chair. When it came to closing the pool for the winter the manual was so confusing I called for help. Several times of calling and getting no answer only machines, I finally got a hold of someone who said that they had no one to come and explain because it was seasonal work and the season was over. I closed the pool up the best I could, which I knew was wrong but it was the only way I could do it. This summer after hooking everything up I called Kayak to have someone come and inspect it to make sure everything was okay because I had leaks from everywhere. They said they would but they didn't know when. I was surprised when they called back and said they had someone that could come right away. I had to leave for work so my friend and my mom were here to talk to the man. He said I must have lose O rings when I put things away and he fixed everything. When asked about the difficulty with winterizing the pool he said that the manual is worthless and that I did not have to put away the motor and filter just cover them up. As for the drain hoses, I would lose most of my water even though they sold me an Aquador so that would not happen. Their manual is the worst written book I have every tried to understand. I paid $14,000 for this pool so that I could relax my muscles due to MS and Lupus. I wanted better customer service when explaining how to take care of this investment. The man who came out said that this time he wouldn't charge me but next time it would be over $200. My representative told me that it was free inspection and maintenance as long as the warranty's were sent in. I have copies of all the warranty' so they aren't getting a penny out of me.

We bought our pool at the end of the pool season in 2005. When we opened the Pool in 2006 we had 2 water walls buckling. We called the dealer Kayak East Coast and they were great they sent a service team out and replaced the walls and offered to pay for the water to refill the pool. In 2007 near the end of the season we had 4 more walls buckling this time when we called we were told our dealer could not pay to replace the walls any longer that we had to contact the manufacture which is also Kayak in Lancaster NY.

We called Janis and were told that first we would have to send pictures and she would get back to us. Janis only works 3 days a week and 4 hours a day and it took over a month of constantly calling and fighting with her to get them to repair the walls. We finally had to pay for the walls in full so they could ship them to us and we would only be refunded when we paid to ship back the defective ones. When the service guy came out he told us that Kayak put out 2 years of defective walls and we were ones that have walls from those years. He also said we should have all of our walls replaced but Kayak won't step up and fix the problem. He also said there are alot of unhappy pool owners that are having the same problems as we are having.

My husband is so mad he wants to remove the pool. We bought the pool because of the sales pitch and the warranty and now we are stuck with a money pit in the back yard. Next year we will have the pay the 30% plus shipping, it won't be worth even dealing with the warranty. If there are more Kayak pool owners having the same problems I would like to hear from you, maybe there is something we can do to get Kayak to step up and replace all of the defective walls.

We purchased our pool in 2003. They delivered it (destroying the right side of my house in the process) and left it there until the last week in August (approximately 2 months). My family was going on vacation 2 days after. They realized they had delivered it to the wrong side of the house and proceeded to destroy the left side of my house when installation began. When we came back from vacation we had 7,500 gallons of water in our backyard due to a flawed liner. They came and fixed it 2 weeks later. So the 1st year we owned our pool we could only swim once. This year I have another 7,500 gallons of water in my back yard. My husband called the company and they sent someone out. They said it wasn't their fault since it wasn't on a seam and wanted $385 for the inspection, my husband told them to pound salt. We had to order the liner from them $800 but had another company (Chris Miller) install for half the price that Kayak wanted and was on time and did a great job. The Kayak warranty is not worth the paper it is printed on. Very unprofessional people, every single one that I have dealt with. We even heard one of the managers in the background use extreme profanity when he heard that we were not going to pay the $385. My husband wants to put an add in the Philadelphia Inquirer warning people NEVER to buy this product. I believe there should be a class action suit leveled against this company. We have lost $280 for water. $800 for the liner and $600 to have installed. Landscaping for the damage done to the side yard $400.

i bought a 12 24 pool free cemicals,cover , skimer. 20,000.dollars the pool was delivered it was used it took 2 months to get a new one that is all i wanted .the manerger danti--never got any were with him doug finally got the pool set up the crew left the water truck was filling the pool the liner fell off the top . the crew came right back took care of it the next day the pool was half empty I called it took 4 weeks they put new liner in i pay again 275 for water used it for 1 month had them close it for winter. when i opened it i noticed the liner seam spliting i called it took several months finally a new liner and made them pay for the water. I think the only reson they fixed it because the better buisness was involved and the sign in my front yard never deal with those people ever again only had the pool 4 years then it fell down last winter

Our liner was torn after taking it out we discovered corrosion (exfoliation) on every waterwall. Places were already blown out and other places on the way.We actaced Janice in New York who handles warrenty issues and sent over 100 pictures. After viewing them she told me areas exfoliated were just cosmetic. She would not let me talk to anyone else who supposedly viewed the pictures but she would let them know I was not happy. I informed her my husband and I are both Aircraft Mechanics and work with metal every day and we know what we are talking about. Now they say we will have to pay for shipping and installation for the new walls plus the walls will be prorated because the pool is 9 years old and we will have to pay 30% for each wall. I didn't know a lifetime warrenty could be pro rated. Also I know my pool is not the only one out there like this there are probably quite a few so maybe a class action suit would be the way to handle this with Kayak since they only seem to be concered about ripping off their customers and not standing behind their product. I'm not done fighting with them yet but a sign is about to go up in my yard advertising their pool in hoping to spare others a big headache.Exfoliation peels away the layer of aluminum and turns them to powder, in the meantime it leaves sharp edges where the metal is deteriorating, I believe this is why my liner was torn. It will cost $3089.00ace the walls which they want me to pay around $900.00 A hardware kit will cost $110.00, wall seam tape $8.00, coping kit $140.00, corner caps $8.00, return fitting w/gaskets $8.00, in wall skimmer $43.00, liner 700.00 all totaling $3948.00

Had a problem this winter (2007/2008)where a PVC pipe poped apart. This drained the pool and distroyed the liner. Called Nita in March of 08 at kayak pools expecting them to live up to there 30 year warranty since the pool was only installed in November of 06. Nita assured me she was working on it. Did har from her til middle of April and at that time I was told that I had to pay a $240.00 to have the Service man out to look at it. Service man came out 2 weeks later and said it was Kayaks fault. Gave Nita a week to respond. I did not hear from her. Emailed her and waited another week and still no response. My wife called still no reply. Emailed again and waited another week. Now I was mad and called corperate. She called my wife and said liner was on order. Kayak and nita provided terrible customer support. I will not ever recommend a Kayak pool to anyone and I will tell as many people as can on my bad experience. Because of poor installation my pool was drained and even damaged.

We purchased a Kayak pool in the fall of 2006. They came and set it up and because this was Oct. we were told to hook things up in the spring. When we did we ran it for 1 month before the frogger broke. They were not helpful at all and did not return phone calls, and then proceded to tell us that there would be a $200 charge for them to look at it. We waited for 3 weeks in the heat of June without any help.They told us this was not warrenty and that we broke it.In one month this brand new item was broken. Sorry to say that this was just the beginning of our troubles with Kayak pools. After fixing the frogger at our own exspense we encountered pipes that broke and connections that burst. After amounts of money and time on OUR OWN we closed it down. During the winter the liner ripped apart and 15,000 gallons of water appeared in our yard. I cannot tell you how disappointed we were. After phone calls to Kayak pools, they requested a picture,of the tear. Because they had told us when we purchased the pool that this liner had a 25 year guarantee no matter what. Well after a quick look at the picture they decided that it was caused by the weather and that it was not a covered warrenty. I am shocked and can't believe that they have no standards to back the products they sell. We are out a liner and now are responsible for the cost of a new liner, a $22,000 pool that is junk and a company that is lying to the public. At this time I am contracting to rent a huge billboard and post this statement, that Kayak pools are junk. Funny how they wanted me to put a sign in my yard advertising this pool.They have already ripped me off of my hard earned money and will not give any customer service. This pool cost $22,000, $1000 for a liner, $750 to put a new one in and $120 to replace the sand that washed away. The sad part to this, is that my husband is recovering from cancer and this pool was to be part of his treatment to a healthy life. To bad this pool issue has caused him undue stress.

We purchased our Kayak pool in 2006 with the sales pitch that Kayak provided the best warranty & maintenance free pool. We had a tear in our liner over the winter and contacted Kayak Midwest. We were advised to email pictures of the liner and was told by Nita that this was ice damage. We were concerned how they could come to this conclusion by looking at pictures. We requested (Kayak did not offer) to have someone come out to take a look and we were told a service technician would come out for a $240 charge! The service tech contacted us to give us a quote over the phone of $2000 for replacement and repair of liner!! This is for a pool that is not even 2 years old!! He didn't even come out to look at the damage. We contacted a local pool company owner who came out free of charge and said the tear started at the seam. He advised us to call Kayak back since this should be covered under warranty. When we called Kayak Midwest, they referred us to their New York office and to speak with Janice in the Warranty Dept. We made several phone calls, which she NEVER returned and when she finally did, she would give us some excuse that she was working on it and that she would call us back. After 2 weeks dealing with Janice, she told us that we needed to contact the Midwest office! We were getting the complete run around without any assistance let alone decent customer service to resolve this. We've left several messages for Greg, who is the national sales manager for Kayak and the supervisor of Janice. And surprise, we're still waiting for a return call. They don't stand behind their warranty and I would never recommend a Kayak Pool to anyone! We will also let everyone we come into contact with to not buy a Kayak pool or even think about it! BUYERS BEWARE, don't waste your money!We've been trying to resolve this for over a month now and we still haven't gotten anywhere with Kayak. Luckily, the local pool company owner is a reputable and honest person who is going to help us out. We still feel entitled to a new liner from Kayak since our current one is a defective item. They refuse to return calls and it seems that if they give us the run around long enough, we will give up.

I bought my Kayak 16x32 pool 2 years ago never had an issue with it. When I was suckered into this pool I was lied to and deceived to think my so called 30 year warranty covered everything and anything and thats the KAYAK name.. Well now its 2 years later and my liner has a hole in it that is too large to repair. They said it was due to ice... I know Chicago has some bad winters but growing up my first family pool liner lasted 17 years.. Let me tell you the winters were much worse in the late 70's and all of the 80's. So I call them and as sweet as pie just send us the pictures so we can validate the warranty claim. Bottom line is they are rediculously priced and are not standing behind what the salesman said. EVERYTHING IS COVERED So my advice buy a DOUGHBOY or just an inflatable pool. Anything but a KAYAKI can either buy a one thousand dollar liner and pay to have it installed or claim it on my homeowners insurance. Either way I am screwed. I should scrap it and buy something with a REAL GUARANTEE!

Purchased a new pool liner in 2004 with a 15-yr warranty. The liner ripped at the seam which should have been covered and they came up with every excuse in the book,not to give me a new liner. What I was told was I could buy a new one with 15% off.I'm now think about buying green seeds. They are cheaper then a liner.

Once I ordered my Kayak pool and it was delivered they never came to install it. The pool sat in my driveway for months. I called several times and was told different days. I would take a day off from work on the day they said they were coming and they never came!!

When Gary came and gave me the sales pitch he told me the pool could go partially above and partially in the ground. I informed Gary that the only thing I didn't want was an above ground pool - he assured me that they would sink it three feet into the ground!

When they finally installed it, which was done on the day I told them not to come, it was done totally about the ground! Exactly what I didn't want.

When I called - Lord knows how many times - Gary said he would talk to Doug about redoing the pool and then I would call and Doug said he didn't know why Gary would lie and tell me it could go partially in the ground!!

I spent four months with the run around and then they finally said they would have it redone by the end of September. They said their workers were in Virginia - know if you have an irate customer wouldn't you help them first before sending your crew to Virginia?!?!?!

Anyway - September came and went - I finally contacted an attorney who tried several times to reach them but they wouldn't even return his phone calls or certified letters!!

I have had my own business now for 19 years and I must say that this is the most poorly run business I have ever heard of.

My husband and I purchased a pool from kayak last March assuming we would have a pool to swim in by summer. After getting the run around for several weeks on a delivery date then another date to install the crew finally showed up to put the pool in. The crew started to dig the hole and it didnt look anything like I had expected so I asked the main guy what he was digging. He said he knew there was going to be a problem when he saw my paper work and had seen they had sold me a pool that was no longer available.

I told him to stop right there untill I could figure out what was going on. After8 months of attitude from Doug, dodging of phone calls, Attorney fees, and aggrivation we now have a $ 17,000 litter box in the back of our beautifully landscaped yard. IT is a huge hole with the whole pool kit strewn about. We took out a home equity line of credit to buy this pool for our two little girls, and are paying 275.00 a month for nothing but aggrivation.

In July 2005, we ordered a 16x32 above ground pool. It was delivered and installed in late August. When the installer finished, it was 10 p.m. Because we couldn't inspect the pool, we signed the paperwork annotating it with a conditional acceptance that if there were any creases in the liner, they would return to fix them. They agreed and stated that any creases remaining should come out when the pools was filled. The pool was filled the next day, and not only did the creases remain, but one foot of the liner pulled away from the side. We contact Kayak to have the liner fixed. It took 3 weeks for them to come out and when they did, it was during the day while no one was here.
They re-attached the liner, but did nothing else. My husband contacted the company numerous times, and they finally said that we had to empty the water to fix the creases, so they would wait until Spring when the water level was low. It was arranged that they would put us on the calendar for March 2006. We started calling in March and were getting no response. Because we wanted larger decks, we went ahead and ordered them through Kayak thinking that when the decks were installed, they would fix the liner.
My husband dropped the water level to where they wanted it. The decks were installed the first week of May. We have been trying to get the liner fixed since then. They have made numerous appointments, and have stood us up for every one. We withheld payment on the decks until the liner was fixed. That hasn't helped. Here it is Memorial Day weekend, and I have no water in my pool because they keep promising to fix it. I'm not sure what to do from here.

The warranty will not be valid on the liner because of the creases should something go wrong.

I would like to comment on Kayak complaints. I also dealt with Chris he was our installer. I found him to be very professional, timely, and I can call him anytime I need to to ask a question. He even gave me his personal number! I love my Kayak pool, I only wish I had gotten a bigger one! Thanks Kayak.

After pool was installed, the liner (vinyl) separates from the sides and bottom during any heavy rain. The separation allows water to wash between the liner and earthen bottom and sides, eroding the earth beneath the liner, further exacerbating the problem. The liner has since separated completely from the sides of the pool and is no longer able to be reattached. We have called and written Kayak over 15 times (dates, times, and details available), and recently sent them a video of the pool conditions, at their request. They remain unresponsive; the pool remains unusable. This has been an ongoing issue since April of this year (2005).

Our $30,000 pool is completely unusable. It cannot be filled with water (liner has separated from sides), and the remaining water in the pool cannot be filtered, thereby causing it to stagnate and draw mosquitos and other insects -- a definite health hazard.

In July of 2004 we had a kayak pool put in our back yard.The salesperson told us whatever we needed to know this specific person would help us.They were 2 weeks late in coming to put it in,suprised us by coming on a day we weren't expecting them. My husband works for the city of Maryville, that night his work was having a get together and we had to go. We paid a good deal of money for this pool, which was supposed to be maintance free, which all it has been is work, and now they won't come and show us how to close it up!

We have no idea how to close it and we read somewhere that if you don't close it up right it could cause damage to it!I don't think this is right of kayak pool!We really trusted them to give us a good deal! We have put our house on the line for this pool and now it may get ruined because they will not respond to our calls!

Purchased a 12 x 24 foot kayak rectangular pool May 20, 2004. Finally came and installed pool after several calls on July 20, 2004. Today is July 21st, 2004 and we had the pool filled at approx. 9:00am. Noticed a small leak from under the pool. Called the installer Jerry from Box inc. and told him we had a small leak under the pool and he needs to come out and check it. His first words were it wasn't leaking yesterday when we left. It only had about 2 of water in it when they left yesterday, He said he was in Va. and could not come back out until Monday.

I called the salesperson whom had said if there is any problems to call him. He sounded concerned and said he would call the owner right away and call me back. No call back. My wife called the main office and spoke to Alicia who advised my wife there were no supervisors on duty until after 3:00pm. I will have one call you In the past several hours the leak has washed the sand away from under the liner on one end of the pool, The liner began sagging until it busted, now I have water running down my backyard, the $150.00 we spent to have the pool filled is wasted. I have yet to receive a call back from anyone at Kayak, so the small leak has now turned into a large leak, a ruined liner and a mess in the yard. If it were taken care of in a timely manner it probably would have saved alot of problems for Kayak and us.

I own a 12 x 20 above groud Kayak swimming pool and I have had 2 major repairs made to this pool since 2001. On 4/16/01, I purchased a new liner from Kayak East Coast pool, which they installed, The liner kept slpping and I had low spots in the bottom of the pool. On 9/5/02, Kayak East Coast replaced the water walls as they were bulging. When they installed the water walls, they re-installed the liner. Towards the end of the summer of 2003, the pool started losing water. I closed the pool anyway and here it is the summer of 2004. When I filled the pool this year, the water walls and liner were not lined up. I called Kayak many times and finally a Kayak rep came to our house and said to my wife, it was an installation problem.

This rep said he would talk to his manager and call us back. I had to keep calling Kayak again and finally spoke to this rep and he said his manager said it we had to replace the liner at our cost. The warranty was not covered. This was not a matter of a warranty, the Kayak installers really messed up our liner when they installed the water walls. I have all my paperwork and feel Kayak should certainly fix my pool at their expense.

When I took these people to small claims, the Judge in Elkhart County gave them so many chances and repeatedly told them they had to have an attorney. That after almost a year in small claims, they filed bankrupcy and I was out a lot of money and have a bad pool. Small Claims Court is not a one day shot. At least not in Elkhart County.

After 4 liners there is a large rock that protudes out in the bottom. Damaged a lot of decking. Lots of screws popping out. Damaged wall panel, and third filter they brought out was also broke.

Bought a Kayak pool in 1999. Paid 15,000 for it and with in 3 yrs the liner was ripped and had holes. This is a liner that had a 30 yr. guarantee. We winterized and did everything as we were told to. Called Kayak and found out that it only covers manufacturer flaws which you chould notice in first yr. Told it would be 900. for a new liner. We can not afford that. I told them I would get one from someone else, as you can find liners online for Kayak cheaper. Their response was yes but they wont last as long and the warrenty is as good. Well as you may see I told them Id rather spend 400. every 3 yrs then 1000. and their warrenty dont cover anything anyway.

Also my pool is sinking. They installed it and prepped it, but they say that I would have to pay to have it redone as they cannot control the way it settled. Is that not the point of have it professionally installed so it is done right! This will be the 2nd yr. we havent been able to use our pool because of them. This company is out for the money, your better off going to walmart and buying a cheap pool you may have to replace in 5 yrs or so.

We signed a contract to purchase a pool 3-04. We put $100 down to start the ball rolling. The salesman said that if we cancelled, we would not get our money back after 3 days. It is now April, and we have the financing to get the pool, but we have decided that 19,000 is too much for a pool. We have tried to get out of this contract. Nicole said the only way to get out of this is to pay 15% of the price of the pool because of all their work they have already done. They have done no work. Just today we got a work order stating they can not do anything until they receive $4500. We have until 4-27 fo finalize the home loan (the right to cancel phase) They said they have already paid the commission on this loan. How can they do that when only $100 has been paid.

I do not see how a company can force upon you their product when no actual cost has been spent on their part. The salesman told us false statements, leading us to believe that the only thing we would be out of was $100 if we cancelled after 3 days. He told us a story how a customer of his cancelled after she already had her payment book, and ten years later she finally purchased a pool from them.

We had a salesmen come to the house to give us an estimate on one of their pools. This guy was real good with how he explained it all and we were confident that this would be a great addition to the back yard. We signed a contract and at that time I told the guy that unless the interest rate was good, I would not be taking the loan. It took some time for their loan company to get back to us.. much longer then the 3 days they put on the contract. We were denied the credit however Kayak still insisted that we pay the price for the pool. I fought them and fought them and they eventually put a mark against my credit for the amount of $2700. Now, what this is for is beyond me. The contract stated in his own handwriting that the contract was void if the financing didn't go through so how can they come after me for $2700??!!!

The end result is that I have a mark on my credit that I cannot remove. I have pleaded with the different credit bureau's and have been told that Kayak would have to have it removed. I sent an email to Larry somebody and he will not do that.

We purchased a Kayak Pool in 1995. At the time we purchased the pool, we were told that for as long as we owned the pool, Kayak would allow us one free move. Meaning that if we were to move, and wanted to take the pool with us we could. Since then, we have purchased a piece of property and are planning to build a new home. We listed our home to sell and decided that we wanted to take the pool with us since we had one free move available to us. When I contacted the dealer about arranging to have the pool moved, he indicated that he said, "I do not move any pool for free."

Of course I was very upset with this response. We paid a considerable amount for this pool and now they want us to pay $4,000 to move it when they misled us into believing that we had one free move available to us. We have always been very pleased with our Kayak pool and have had many enjoyable and memorable family moments in our pool. Obviously, or we would have let the pool stay with the new owners of the home. When people come to us and ask us about the pool, we have always recommended that they consider purchasing a Kayak pool.

If I had known that Kayak would not stand behind there word, we would have included the cost of the pool in the purchase price of our home. I never dreamed that there would be a problem, I quess I should have inquired about the moving of the pool prior to selling our home. We did not include the pool in the purchase, therefore we will have to pay to have the pool moved or leave it. This expense wasn't included in the "big picture". Now we will have to compromise on the size of our new home in order to finance the move of the pool, or write off the $10,000 plus interest that we had originally paid for the pool. The mark up on these pools I am sure is tremendous. All I want is for them to live up to what they said they would do and move my pool at their expense.

Salesman (from Kayak Pools, Pasadena, MD) made a verbal promise to move pool once for free. We discovered that unless that was written on the contract, it was not the company's standard practice. Company agreed Oct. 2001 to refer any calls for used pools to us to help us sell. March 2002, refused to do so. Sales Mngr. made a verbal offer to purchase the pool for $8,000, which I verbally accepted. I was informed April 5th that Kayak was not going to purchase at any price.

Contacted Kayak and they sent a salesman. Signed contract and was asked for a $1,374 deposit. The salesman informed us the contract was cancelleable and the deposit refundable until the day the pool was installed.

We applied for financing and we told we were approved. We kept inquiring as to the installation date, and asked for a breakdown of what we were getting with the pool since the contract wasn't specific. We also decided against the $2000 decking and asked them to take that off. They told us they did, but the price was still $21,500.

After a week or two of this runaround, we called them to tell them that if we did not get answers and a copy of the pool's specifics we would cancel.

Dante (at Kayak) laughed and told us you own that pool you will never get your deposit back and then hung up.

I called him back and only encountered his wrath. He continually screamed at us, used more profanity than I think I ever heard in my life. He hung up again.

We tried to speak with him reasonably but to no avail. He would scream, swear and hang up on us.

We hired an attorney, she and both of her paralegals have tried speaking with Doug Smith, the owner of that franchise. Dante will not allow them to speak with him. The attorney claims "this lunatic swears at us, screams at us, and then slams the phone down".

The Attorney tried to reach Kayak Corportate HQ in NY, and was told they needed to deal with Doug Smith at Kayak Pools New England for they have no control over Dante.

If we cannot even get help on something like this from Kayak Pools Inc. Corporate, how in gods name would one ever get anything resolved if something went wrong with the pool.

As far as the recission of the contract goes, they never informed us of it. We were told to ignore the small print about recission on the contract, because the deposit was refundable, and since the salesperson was not giving us a separate recission notice in 10point type, the contract meant nothing.

DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY. In doing more and more research I am finding many similar problems and also major problems with the pool itself.

I called to have someone from this company come out and survey are yard for a pool. He also gaves us his sales pitch. Before he left my husband and I had signed a contract to have a pool built.
We then called the salesman the next day and cancelled the order by leaving him a voice mail. Apparently, in the contract you must cancel by letter within three days. Ashamed as we are - we did not read the contract until it was too late. Are we bound to this contract?
I have sent in a cancellation note but it is postmarked after the three days. We have offered them $300 to opt out of the contract because they have not done anything. They will not budge; they say we will have to go through litigation all at our cost. Is there anything we can do? Do we have any rights or did we sign them all away?
We are now stuck with this company and must purchase their pool. We will have to take a loan against our home to pay them.

Contracts are real. They mean business and no one should sign one until they're read it and understood it.


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