sdpoolguy,
You might look back thru a few pages. An earlier thread discussed this PB and several customers commented.
As always, it's a good idea to file a formal complaint with the CSLB. This can be done online. Contact the bonding company. Contact the lender. There are sometimes remedies in these areas. Be the squeaky wheel. Legal action is always available, but will most likely take some time. There are no good answers for customers wanting to complete their pools. Hopefully the pool industry in San Diego can provide advice and consultations for some of these homeowners.

golfgeek: I agree with your advice regarding the CSLB etc. However, the thread you refer sdpoolguy to is long gone. It disappeared off the site mid to late last week so it seems fitting to repost the warning that a co-owner of Hallmark is apparently continuing to sell pools under a new company name.

Thanks dogpaddle.
I don't usually look at old threads. Seems strange that it would be totally removed. Thanks for the info.

the thread's still around; thankfully the spammier parts were removed.

Here is a link that might be useful: san diego pb thread

Nope...different thread. There was one specifically on Hallmark's demise. A lot of people expressing their feelings about being left "high and dry", and rightfully so. I think someone might have been worried about a lawsuit, with some of the things that were being said, and it was taken off.

I too followed the Hallmark posting thread to try to get a read on professional pool building companies in San Diego. I'm looking for recommendations from highly satisfied or non-satisfied San Diego homeowners who may have had experience with any of the following companies: Mission Pools in Escondido, California Pools in San Marcos and Premier Pools & Spa in Carlsbad (new company to San Diego?) or do you have other recommendations for financially solid pool companies with integrity in San Diego?

-sdpoolguy
I have heard the same about "selling" the owner build to their old customers...from an old client having us finish their pool. The worst part (and reason most people pay PB to build their pool) is he is making them think the gunite company will carry the "lifetime structural". Just try to get the gunite co. to sign up for that one...

-poolsunset
I work for one that you have mentioned, and can tell you that Mission Pools and California pools are similiar in cost and products. Premier Pools is a larger company that is up in central Cal and is trying to get into the San Diego pool market. A high up manager from Hallmark opened the Premier office months ago here, and has recently hired some of the displaced designers from Hallmark.

If you want to protect your butt, regardless of which you choose, request a "performance bond".

I can't say anything about Premiere, but I had bids from both Mission and California pools (as well as Mission Valley, Sundancer, Sandpiper and Pacific Sun...thankfully, the Hallmark guy never came back with a bid so that knocked them out of the running).

I found that California was the most expensive by a long mile. The others were more or less in the same ballpark, with Mission being slightly more and Mission Valley slightly less.

I also work for a local pool company. I agree with "poolsunset" and would stay away from Premier. Good luck.

An excerpt from SD Union this morning:
"A consortium of swimming pool builders Thursday pledged to finish pools left incomplete by Hallmark Pools of Poway, which went out of business last month.

Don Burns, president of the Sacramento-based California Pool and Spa Industry Education Council, said his group has organized a state-monitored rescue of the pool construction projects that Hallmark left unfinished.

"We don't want the industry to get a black eye," Burns said. "Our goal is have responsible builders finish the jobs as close to cost as humanly possible."

Members of the consortium include Mission Pools of Escondido and other local pool builders, he said.

Customers who want to participate should contact Shelly Beard at the Contractors' State Licensing Board at (916) 255-4469.

Hallmark left dozens of North County homeowners with unfinished pools and several subcontractors unpaid, the licensing board's investigators say.

Various homeowners have reported that around 60 pools were left unfinished. Some of Hallmark's customers said they experienced "frontloading," a common source of complaints against swimming pool contractors.

Frontloading occurs when contractors take excessive down payments (more than 10 percent, or $1,000) or payments for work not completed.

The standard of practice in California is to pace payment along with completion of the pool step by step, Burns said.

Seventeen customer complaints against Hallmark were disclosed this week by the licensing board.

Under state law, the complaints can be disclosed because the board's staff has determined that a "probable violation has occurred."

The complaints allege lack of reasonable diligence, willful or fraudulent acts, abandonment of a construction project and departure from trade standards, according to the licensing board's Web site.

Violations, if found, can lead to fines of up to $2,000, orders of corrective action or removal of a contractor's license."

Stay away from Premier Pools. The son-in-law of the majority owner (Marsha A. Harrison) now works at Premier Pools. She and Aaron Temme(son in law) are largely responsible for Hallmark Pools demise. And my saleman Riley(SKI) Franks is at Premier Pools as well. Be aware, he is as bad as a used car sales man. SAY NO TO PREMIER POOLS!!!

I'm almost afraid to have a pool built now with the most reputable (or what i thought was the most reputable) company (Hallmark Pools) going out of business. What companys are the best out there now? Has anyone heard of Distinguished Pools?

You can request a completion bond which costs a small percentage of your contract.If your builder is not financially stable he won't qualify. The bond that all contractors have posted with the CSLB is only 12,000.
Hallmark Pools was featured in the Pool and Spa News as one of the largest builders in the USA in 2006 with sales revenues of 16 million dollars. Where did the money go?

-moorefam
As I posted earlier, and as "poolexpert" said, request a performance bond (completion bond) that typically costs 1% to 2% of the contract. If the "reputable company" is financially worthless, they will not be able to get the insurance for the bond...and then you'll know.
Not sure how you heard of Distinguished Pools, since you're wanting a new pool built and Dan (from Hallmark Pools)typically only does remodels. But, I have heard that some of the old Hallmark gang (and possibly the old owner) are trying to sell new pools under that name and/or license now.

Be thorough and make sure to compare all PB as well as you can. Also look at "Before you build a swimming pool" on the www.cslb.ca.gov website.

From what I've heard, Dan Ramos primarily did remodels in the past, but now that he started a new company (Distinguished Pools) just recently, he (or those who work for him) do/does new construction too. I guess Kelly Shawhan is working for him now doing the new construction along with Ray Gross (who used to work for Kelly at Hallmark Pools)? So is that legal that Kelly is still working with all those violations against him and with the CSLB investigating him/Hallmark?

I live in San Diego and we were hours away from signing with Hallmark but got a call from Mission Valley Pools (Mike Cunningham) who had my plans ready that day. He came over, showed me the plan and I was blown away. It has been exactly 4 months and we are plastering tomorrow. We had major evacuations here which set us back at least a week, but we still managed to stay on schedule. Once I get some pictures from my husband I will post here. The pool is 60x40 with a kiddie pool, swim up bar, rope bridge,poker table in the pool, 3 waterfalls, slide, grotto, sunken bbq island with seat wall and firepit, 2 beaches and 10x10 jacuzzi. We went with a acid washed concrete coping which turned out great and a quarzite stone (because we are going with the salt system). For any of you in San Diego, meeting with Mike Cunningham is worth a try.

Give John at Mission Pools a try.

We were very happy with Mission Pools. John Delay came up with a beautiful design, was honest, very thorough, and did not put the heavy sales moves on us. His site foreman Jonny was always available for us, and worked well with our landscaper.

We only wanted to go with one of the more experienced PBs in the San Diego area, not with the smaller outsourcing companies. I'm sure some are good, but after the experiences that two of our neighbors had, we only wanted the more experienced companies out. One neighbor had their PB charge $3,200 more for excavation, even with no rocks (how is that possible). Neither PB filled in the dirt over their pipes, etc., which cost another $1,500 for the landscape contracto to fill for the PB. One PB charged more for the back wall on the pool to be higher (how can they do that if the PB took the measurements?).

Anyhow, we had San Diego Pools, California Pools, Mission Valley Pools, and Mission Pools out to our house. All had good ideas, crazy pictures, and different reasons for this brand and that product. In the beginning, the pricing was close, with Mission Valley being the cheapest and California Pools being the highest. After reviewing the estimates in private, we really noticed just how differently each company "spells out" (or not) their cost for their product. We made a list of items that we for sure wanted included in each PBs second proposals...to compare. Johns (Mission Pools) original proposal was the most transparent, and revealed some items that I assumed were included with the other PBs, but as we found were not. Items like filling up the pipe trenches, installing the surface skimmer where the wind blows, proper plumbing of our freeform spa, included cost for the "standard tile", etc. We then saw each one again (to review the new cost with the items we wanted for sure),and then we saw that Missions Pools pricing was looking better. We were disappointed with the representative from Mission Valley Pools (He was even a family member)who refused to include the filling of their trenches and kept saying "don't worry about that" and "we are the same, but cheaper". My husband liked their portfolio (very much), but feared that they would play more games and just get their profit from somewhere else during the construction. We then went to the remaining three PBs place of business (we felt we should since we were going to spend a little over $75k) and that was the deciding factor. Our designer (John) showed us all the materials, surfaces, concrete colors, tiles, etc., and how the business operates. At that point, there was not a doubt in our minds that Mission Pools was the company that would offer us the most control of their product, was well organized, experienced, and financially stable.

Any pictures kczsmom and socal_fun??? Inquiring minds want to see....

As soon as I can figure out how to get my husbands pictures on this site I will do it. Pebbletec tomorrow and then water on Friday. My favorite part of the pool is the table with 5 stools- we did a mosaic sun and stone around the edges and it is so pretty. Pictures soon I promise.

We were one of the many families abandoned when 20-year-old Hallmark Pools discarded its fine reputation to declare bankruptcy. All we had to show for our considerable investment was a gaping hole of gunnite surrounded by piles of project debris. And there we were, six weeks before Thanksgiving and expecting a houseful of guests.

As we tried to regroup and get bids we couldn't afford, we met Dan Ramos of Distinguished Pools. When he offered to bring together experienced teams to complete our pool with little or no markup, we, of course, thought he was too good to be true.

We would recommend Dan Ramos and Distinguished Pools to anyone who wants to build or remodel a pool or wants to deal with a savvy, moral businessman. It is rare today to find a man of such high character.

Well it's nice to hear that there's at least one happy previous Hallmark customer out there. I hear that Distinguished Pools (Dan Ramos) is where the owner of Hallmark (Kelly Shawhan) is working now (plus Dan Ramos used to work for Hallmark Pools for years), so they probably felt like they owed it to you!!
Just wondering how legal that is with Kelly Shawhan working for Dan Ramos now while he's got so many violations against him/Hallmark Pools?

moorefam: Sometimes it is hard to see the good when all you seek is the bad!!

Hey moorefam!

You are correct. The CSLB calls it 7121 in the B & P code. Otherwise known as "Prohibition against associating with suspended or revoked license". While Hallmark is currently suspended and not revoked, the code still applies.

There are currentl 35 "probable violations" investigations on file with the CSLB at this time. If what you say is true, I think a licensed contractor should be prohibited from associating with an officer of a company that has that kind of action against them. It's only a matter of time before another builder is going to report the association, then you'll have two licenses revoked and more homeowners damaged.

hey repairguy!!

Did you know that the B&P code also states that those persons are not allowed to even go near a swimming pool!! I mean they are supposed to stay at least 50' from any body of water that even resembles a swimming pool...crazy!

Or at least a pool that's not completed. HA.

hey repair guy get this..I was at an HOA meeting the other night and met a neighbor of one of the son in laws of the owner of Hallmark Pools she told me that guy kelly shawhan was removed from the board of H.P over 3 years ago so they could make a high paying position for their newest son in law.

Maybe this is why hallmark is out of business!!

Mission Pools - Stay away

Our familyÂs personal experience -
I called into Mission Pools back in April this year to request a repair as part of my tile on the right face of my Mission Pools spa was falling off. I explained this exact sort of thing had happened some time ago (2005) on the left half of the Spa and was repaired after my initial call as a warranty issue in 2005.
Now they refuse to repair the exact same of problem under warranty on the right half of the spa and have e-mailed me an excessively high quote for repair of $5,000!
This has now become a health and Safety issue as tile is unstable and a hazard to children and adults alike and a liability to our family and Mission Pools as Mr. Dunn (Owner) and their service department are aware of the situation.
I have been down this road once before at the time of the construction with Mission Pools. The Spa needed to be completely rebuilt (jack hammered out and completely reformed) due to a poor workmanship, structural issues and irregular forming. I had to go to war with them then and apparently I do now. Bruce Dunn wonÂt give you the time of day until you file a complaint with the California contract licensing board Â
Stay away!!