Do not do business with this company! My parents recently hired Broadway Pools to build a pool at their newly purchased home. The experience was very bad. It took more than twice the quoted time to get water in the pool and the owner, Richard Leaf, has refused to finish the remaining items on the contract. On top of that, the pump stopped working less than two weeks after the pool was filled. Mr. Leaf has been rude, condescending and argumentative from the moment my parents pointed out the first problems with his work. He ultimately told my parents that the broken pump was not his problem.
The Broadway Pools contract has a line item that states that they consider the contract to be complete when there is water in the pool. Mr. Leaf uses this clause to justify his incomplete work. He believes that when the pool is filled with water he is completely exempt from completing any remaining work that was agreed to in the contract. He would much rather argue than finish the work to his customers satisfaction.
Unfortunately, my parents are not the only ones that have received this treatment from Richard Leaf. He has a long history of unsatisfied customers that all have pretty similar stories. Below is the link to his Better Business Bureau complaints. If you read them you will see people that all had similar problems with Broadway Pools. Notice the indignant tone of Mr. Leafs responses. It seems to me that he enjoys battling with his unhappy customers. He paints himself as the victim whose only fault is that he does too much for his ungrateful customers.
http://www.bbb.org/central-texas/business-reviews/swimming-pool-contractors-dealers-design/broadway-pools-inc-in-austin-tx-90042339/complaints#breakdown
You can Google Broadway Pools and Richard Leaf and see a lot more bad reviews on Yelp, Angieslist and other review sites. You'll also see some very suspicious positive reviews of the company. Don't be fooled by bogus reviews. I highly recommend using a different company to build your pool.
Richard Leaf and Broadway Pools...The review is not coming down. If you spent as much time doing work that is satisfactory to your customers as you do trying to get your bad reviews taken down you wouldn't have any bad reviews. You need to learn that you can't treat your customers as horribly as you treat them in this day and age. People will tell the world about the poor service you provide. You can't stop that. The emails that you wrote my parents are inexcusable. You threatened my parents and me. That was a big mistake on your part. You're lucky that the only consequence of your behavior is bad reviews on the internet.
I have been contacted by many of the other people that you have ripped off. You really need to learn how to do good work and satisfy your customers.
Have at it Richard Leaf. Are you going to have your divorce attorney friend in Houston file a federal lawsuit against me like you threatened my parents ? Do you even understand what a federal lawsuit is? Did you hire the same private investigator to find some "interesting things" like you claimed to have hired when you threatened my parents? Here's the problem with your slander case...everything I said is true. Your customer service is despicable. You don't deserve to be in business if you take peoples money and don't deliver what you promise. If people have a problem with your work you need to fix it, not respond to them with rude angry emails. That's how running a reputable business works. People need to know how you and Broadway Pools have mistreated your customers. You have an A- rating because all of the horrible reviews have dropped off of the BBB after 3 years, but the horrible reviews on Yelp and many other review sites still remain. At this point you can't write enough fake positive reviews to counteract all of the bad reviews posted by your previous customers. Anybody reading this thread can see how volatile and angry you are. I have been contacted by three of your previous customers telling me their horror stories of dealing with you and Broadway pools. I believe you have an extremely upset customer at this very moment, do you not? Feel free to file a federal lawsuit, considering your track record I feel pretty good about my chance of winning.
Anyway, as I said before...the reviews are not coming down. If for some reason they are taken down, many more will go up on other websites. You caused my parents a lot of grief with your rudeness, sloppy work and unprofessional behavior. That was a big mistake on your part.
p.s. Stop typing in all caps
You want pictures? Here are dozens of pictures from what looks to be another one of Broadway Pools unsatisfied customers.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/11474436@N00/albums/72157627355655908
According to Buildzoom.com, you've only pulled 3 permits this year. It's the middle of October! That is a record year for Broadway Pools?
https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/broadway-pools-inc
I am one of the owners of Broadway Pools and this man's name is on NONE of our contracts, we have never met him, spoke to him or seen him. He should not be allowed to state a complaint like this unless his name is on our contract, which again, it is not. He also lies and states that some of our good ratings on many sites are false, does he have proof? Of course not! I am asking that his man's complaint be taken off because he IS NOT a customer of our company and we done even know who he is, met him, spoke with him and he lives in California, not Austin, Texas. How can you make all these statements when you are not a customer and have never met anyone you are talking about. I am so tired of people taking advantage of sites likes these, there is no burden of proof, anyone can write anything they want and the businesses are at the sites mercy. How fair is this?
This compaint from CC Todd is wrong. He is not our customer, his name is not on any of our contracts and we have never spoke, met or have even seen him. He makes statements that he could possibly not know as I said he was never there.and we do not know who he is except he live in San Francisco, not Austin, Texas. He also states that some of are reviews on other sites are not true, does he have proof? No, he is just stating what he thinks. I am asking that this be taken down as HIS NAME IS NOT ON ANY CONTRACT WE HAVE, WE HAVE NEVER, MEANT, SEEN OR SPOKE TO HIM! Plus, he is making false statements about our reviews, which he has no proof. That is what I dislike about these sites, anyone, can say anything about your company and you are at the mercy of the website they put it on, there is no burden of proof and this is very unfair to a business owner. Everyday there is more and more of them and I have had some of these website owners that your competition can go in under a different name and change your phone number so you do not receive calls and state all kinds of bad things and you don't even know who it is. This is getting out of hand. So, I am asking since this is not our customer and does not even live in this state and is making false statements about our reviews as he has no proof be taken down. Thank you!
As I have stated above as the owner of the company, this man's name is not on any contract of ours, we have never met him, spoke with him or seen him and he lives in San Francisco. Since he is not our customer, this should be removed immediately. He is also stating that we have bogus reviews? How in the world would he have any knowledge of that? I think this complaint could bring big problems when someone who is not our customer is stating our reviews are bogus, I would like to please have this removed.
Ok Mr Todd, you are slandering our company and you are NOT OUR CUSTOMER, IF YOU CHECK THE BBB, WE HAVE AN A- AND HAVE TAKEN CARE OF ANY PROBLEMS THAT THE BBB STATES WE SHOULD. You are not going to slander us anymore as what you are saying is untrue, as alot of other things. We will begin to work on getting the slandering to a stop immediately and who are you to tell us this will never be take down, do you OWN THIS WEBSITE? YOU HAVE GONE TO FAR NOW. WE CAN PROVE YOU ARE NOT OUR CUSTOMER AND WE DO NOT KNOW YOU AT ALL. You are NOT OUR CUSTOMER, YOUR NAME IS NOT ON ANY OF OUR CONTRACTS, WE HAVE NEVER SEEN YOU, SPOKE TO YOU, NOTHING, YET YOU CONTINUE TO SLANDER OUR COMPANY. WE WILL BE TAKING CARE OF THIS IMMEDIATELY.
UPDATE: I must say that I owe a vote of thanks to the people of Austin and surrounding areas for once again blessing Broadway Pools with a record year for sales. It shows that people understand that the written word of liars like this Mr. Todd, who was not on our contract; who we never meet and who was talking about a project that I would love for him to have the guts to show in pictures and I will also allow the price that was charged to be published and the address which is far outside our usual territory. People would know that we charged these people $29, 900.00 for a 15 x 30 pool with decking in an place approximately 50 miles or more outside of Austin and the pool is gorgeous.. People are getting wise to the "no burden of proof" internet and know that there are a vast number of comments that are lies from people unhappy in their personal lives and in their own skin. I personally pity these people because obviously with our record year, he has had no effect whatsoever on our business and again WE THANK THE PEOPLE OF AUSTIN AND SURROUNDING AREAS FOR ANOTHER GREAT YEAR!
Richard Leaf and his company are both simply bad news. BBB of Austin has revoked his accreditation over non-compliance with several complaints. Richard and Cindy Leaf as owners of the company have abandoned my project and not met many components of the contract as it is reaching close to two years since execution. Everything this particular complaint is commonplace with Broadway Pools, Richard Leaf and Cindy Leaf where I too have been threatened in addition to being called a "liar". Google this man's name and his company Broadway Pools to learn more...
I agree totally with this customer and I have had the same experiences with this company. Do not hire this company to build a pool. The work Richard and Cynthia Leaf's company ( Broadway pools) did for us was horrible. Richard Leaf hires very cheap, unskilled labor. We saw one of them cutting the meat at Rudy's BBQ. The workers even complained to us that he had not paid them. I am wondering what he did with the money we gave him? Do not trust these people!
First, they excavated the pool (which was supposed to be done 60 days after excavation) and left a huge mound of dirt and rocks in our yard for over 6 months. After excavation, they hardly ever showed up to do work and then they stopped showing up all together. Richard Leaf made a bunch of new completion schedules and never stuck to any of them. After waiting more than 6 months for the pool to be built, we filed a complaint with the BBB. Instead of trying to take care of the problems, Richard Leaf threw a big temper tantrum and refused to do any more work. He called us liars, said he lost money on the job, and threatened us with slander charges. He must have a different definition of slander because everything stated was the truth.
If his actions are not enough to sway you, here is a list of everything that is wrong with this unfinished pool. The sidewalk is wavy and of different widths.It needs to be ripped out and completely redone. They did not put expansion joints where the coping touches the concrete deck and 3 of the coping tiles cracked right away. The coping is crooked and looks so unprofessional that it needs to be redone. The tiles around the hot tub were not cut right and some of the tiles were missing. The pipes used under the pool are way too small. There are more defects, but these are just the major flaws.
When Richard Leaf says to his customers that he lost money on the job, it is because the job was not done right to start with and needed to be redone. But then he does not redo anything anyway, so how can he be losing money? If you hire him, no mistakes will be fixed. You will also be waiting a very long time for a pool to be built. It is not worth the worry. Choose a better builder because this company does not care what customers think.
FACT: WE WON A JUDGEMENT AGAINST BROADWAY POOLS IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT! The judge was so appalled he awarded all of our money back. Of course, Broadway pools refuses to pay, stating they do not have the assets or the means to settle. Yet, they continue to conduct business. They take shortcuts and do not perform the necessary repairs even when requested. They installed a liner that was the wrong size, then blamed us, saying they would replace it if I gave them another $750. They installed the
liner over holes in the metal walls. The installers tried to cover the dirt holes with paint. They didn't show up with the necessary tools, nor enough vermiculite to complete The installation. They had to borrow our tools, paint and pool brush, which they ruined. The liner fell out from the top and proceeded to float in the pool. We had to purchase the bead lock and install, because they kept trying to use someone else's USED bead lock. They installed the liner over the hooks for the safety rope! Now the liner is getting a weird trail all over. Looks like trails of ink. Repeat we were award 3k+ and they refuse to pay claiming they don't have the money. Do you really want to do business with a company that doesn't even have 3k?
To Whom It May Concern: Please note concerning Dugger: #1 This is the 2nd replacement liner that was installed by the company for these people, the 1st years ago. We were great for years; then what changed? The greed of the customer. Imagine this picture: these people came into court and they were fortunate enough to have the case heard by a justice of the peace that had never seen a vinyl liner pool before and knew nothing about its construction. The customer showed some pictures of some rust on a couple of panels (there were NO COMPLETE HOLES and besides the customers did not pay one dime toward anything to do with the panels) which the justice of the peace ruled the company should have corrected. First of all, it is not necessary as we did sand it down; 2nd the customer did not pay the company to do work on the panels and #3 the fact that the panels were not "pretty" is the beauty of a vinyl liner pool in that "pretty" is not necessary because there are X braces behind the liner in concrete footers (the pool was originally built by another company 10-15 years before this 2nd liner) and the thick vinyl liner covers the panels. There is no way any official that knew anything about vinyl liner pools would have ruled the way he did. The customer did not deserve anything. We have been doing liner replacements for years and have done hundreds and hundreds with about a 99.5% happiness score PLUS we are the only approved certified Fox Dealer in Texas. Fox has been in business for 60 years and we have a mutual great respect for the business each of us handles. We offered to work and compromise with the customer; however, their greed prevented it. Lastly, based on the fact this website has no burden whatsoever that anything these people say is actually the truth plus the fact we have done business with 100s and 100s of people successfully which is a success rate of 99.something % positive rating. Any company would be proud of these percentages as are we.
To Whom It May Concern: #1 we have no idea who this is and whether there is any basis for fact in any of these charges. Out of everything these people wasted their time writing there can be some truth to only one thing and it should be restated correctly. It is the last line: "this company does not care what 'lying greedy' customers think". In todays environment of snowflakes and greed and more and more people being totally sociopathic, we must trust in the Blessings of God and the knowledge that if we do the best we can and be as honest as we can than we will in turn be Blessed. We can live with that.
YOUR name calling and slanderous remarks will only get you deeper into failure. You thought you could just ignore us and the Judge. We gave you 2 years to do the right thing and you refused. As of yesterday, We have filed a complaint with the Attorney General. I have contacted Fox Pools and informed them of your business practices, and warned them to reconsider allowing your company to represent their product. Next step The State Board of Insurance will be hearing from me in regard to your general liability.
It is very unfortunate that you people are so unhappy in your own skin and seem to have so much time to waste on ridiculous lies like this. The right thing was for you to get nothing because you deserved nothing. Please by all means contact Fox Pools...location York, Pa. We have done business with them for over 10 years without a blemish. I think they will tell you the same thing. If you need the phone numbers for anyone, please let me know. Right is on my side and will prevail. Have a great day.
I've never seen a company with more pissed off customers than Broadway Pools, Richard Leaf! How can you continuously do such unbelievably shoddy work? I don't understand how it's even possible to screw up every job you get. Since I posted the story about how you treated my parents I have been contacted by numerous people that have far worse stories than ours. In fact, your piss poor work at my parents house may be the best work you've ever done. I've heard all kinds of terrible stories from your previous customers. When will you learn that you can't treat people so badly? Why is it so difficult for you to deliver what you've promised? In today's world you can't get away with having the reputation that you have. You seem to love getting in fights with your customers and painting yourself as a victim but you have to realize at this point that your poor business sense and lack of customer service is severely harming your business. I think the fact that you can't come up with $3, 000 to settle your legal issues shows just how dire your situation really is. Richard Leaf, do the right thing. Call all of your unhappy customers and go repair all of your sloppy work.
Do not do business with Richard Leaf or Cynthia Leaf. As you can see, they call their customers "liars" and accuse them of being "greedy" for demanding that they build a pool as contracted and paid to do so! Then, they try to hide behind the name of God. God does not look kindly upon those who take people's money when they know good and well that they will not do what they were paid to do.
Do not do business with Richard Leaf or Cynthia Leaf. As you can see, they call their customers "liars" and accuse them of being "greedy" for demanding that they build a pool as contracted and paid to do so! Then, they try to hide behind the name of God. God does not look kindly upon those who take people's money when they know good and well that they will not do what they were paid to do. Notice the pattern. They accuse every single customer of greed and never take responsibility, even to the point of blaming judges in a court of law. BEWARE of any pool company opened up in the name of Richard Leaf and Cynthia Leaf.
For everyone considering to build a pool, please do your research on a former pool company that was sued by many people. It was called wave Tec pools and the CEO was Richard Leaf. Stay away from this so-called builder.
Stay clear of this Craigslist add in Austin. This is Broadway pools.