I hope this review saves someone their deposit money. I should have seen the red flags from the beginning. The first red flag was I had to continue to follow up on the initial appointment for the estimate. I had to reach out after there were 2 no-shows. Once Nick was finally able to keep the appointment. We had agreed on the service that was required and agreed on the price. He was quickly eager to book my appointment and needed a deposit to hold my appointment. I sent my 200.00 depoit via Zelle. (He uses zelle because you are not able to contest the fraud.) Red FLAG #2 The Zell account is not his. It belongs to his partner. RED FLAG #3. His words, "CASH IS KING." I completely understand the springtime appointments do fill up quickly. After getting my invoice, we agreed the opening date would be Sunday, May 18th. Red Flag #4 Well, the time of the appointment went by, and Nick never reached out saying he wasn't able to attend. I had a follow-up asking if he was still going to do repairs today. I asked when we could expect the reschedule. He stated the 25th. Once again zero communication. If you are running a business as a business owner, you have one job. Communicate with your clients. I requested a refund, and I was told this wasn't possible. I wish I had read the google and yelp reviews before having Pool Duck out and give him my money. I have reported this business to the Better Business Bureau, Zelle, my financial institution, and the required government agencies to flag this business as fraud. I hope this saves someone from this scammer who is quick to take your money and no show. read more

Paid a deposit. Received the date to have pool liner replaced. Guy shows up and tries to upsell a liner for $3300 that I found for $700 on EBAY. Date of service passes. We contact Nick and are practically reprimanded for reaching out to find out about the date. Guy cries about the weather and proceeds to set up two more days that he absolutely no shows. Contact him to say look you're obviously not coming and we'd like our deposit back. They say ok and proceed to block me from Venmo after saying we'd get the money in seven days. Guy is awful at running a business. Wish I could give zero stars. read more

I am not one to leave reviews unless i truly feel it necessary and in this case, the yelp 1 star reviews are the most accurate to our experience. I also posted this on Google because of how terrible of an experience we had and i would not want any one else to contact this business and get treated so poorly. Even his replys on the google review were hostile when my husband and i have been nothing but respectful. We contacted Nick last year to fix our rusted pool wall and replace our liner. IF location was an issue then he should have said that last year when he installed the liner. We thanked him and told him we appreciate him driving the distance and he replied something along the lines of, no worries and that he services all over the Midwest. At the time, we thought he did a good job because he had closed our pool and the cover was on and we did not see the liner once. He promised us that the floor of the pool would be even and wrinkle free and when we took the cover off this month, his big ass foot prints were at the bottom of the pool. It looks hideous. I can provide pictures of his footprints. Right after he was done with the job, he was quick to schedule us for an opening this April, so we had an appointment scheduled since last year. I raved about his work that same day he left until he decided to not follow through on the appointment and was left to open the pool ourselves. He left us in the dark to install the skimmer and return holes. I know this sounds easy for some but we are new to owning a pool. For pool liners and big jobs, he's more than happy to accept the jobs because it's higher in cost but when we needed the help to open our pool he would rather cancel and take a higher paying job. Here's the screenshot of me messaging Nick if he was able to show up for our first appointment, he politely asked to reschedule and I understood. The second time, he was supposed to show up and never did nor did he send a message. Third time, I messaged him and even noted that I'm sure he was busy and still no response. And that's when I asked my husband to call him. The day before the appointment that he scheduled, he messaged nick and again canceled. That's when we told him how unprofessional he has been and we were never once rude in any way. We told him we may as well do it ourselves and he basically replied, "yeah, it's easy." Excuse after excuse and showing his true colors. Just wish we could've gotten a bit of honesty and an upfront response. If he didn't want to work on our pool then he could have easily communicated it to us. We now will have to have our liner replaced PROPERLY after he charged us a shit ton of money. He is rude, dishonest and is money hungry. Do NOT hire this man. 0 stars. read more

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Terrible experience if there was away to give less than 1 star I would. Do not recommend, scammer and a liar. Will tell you one price, then texts you later saying price is actually much higher. Won't give deposit back after changing price. Avoid this business. read more

Terrible experience. AVOID!!! Unreliable, did not finish the job and left the fitting broken so that water was leaking. Could not run the filter. read more

I am a retired auto and truck mechanic. I know the value and importance, of reviews, whether they are good or bad. In the fall of 2023, I contacted Nick the owner of Pool Duck and Spa. Explained that I wanted a new liner for my pool. He came out to my house looked the pool over. He gave me a price of $1,300. A deposit of $500 down and the balance when the job was completed. He said I needed to drain the pool, and remove the old deck, which would be a substantial savings for me. So when I had those items completed, I called him and he came out and spent the day replacing the liner. When he said the job was done, I noticed the liner was crooked at the top, almost all the way around the entire pool. He said that when we filled the pool in the spring, the wrinkles would work themselves out. During our talks, he also informed me, that he also does paver repairs. The pavers in my yard have sunk due to ground settling through the years. He said the cost for that job would be $1,000 with a required deposit of $300. He explained that if I cancel the job, the deposit is not refundable. Keep in mind, that he has told us, that he does not like to do credit cards or checks. He prefers cash. His motto is "CASH IS KING" I filled the pool in the spring and then there were several concerns. 1. The skimmer was not installed properly and leaked. The attached fitting at the skimmer was damaged and I could not connect the pump to it. 2, The return fitting had the gaskets improperly installed. So I had another pool company come out to my house to correct the leaks. Cost to me was additional $500 After filling the pool, it is now 1/2 way through June, and NONE of the wrinkles have come out. This new pool repair company said they will come back out in the fall and correct yet another bad repair. Waiting until fall, because the pool will have to be drained to reinstall the liner correctly ; The day of the paver job, he sends me a text stating that his helper has quit and he can't do the job, because he has so many pools to do now. He gave me the option of getting back the $300 since he was canceling, or if I want to wait, when he gets caught up maybe he can work something out. I waited but nothing transpired. I notified him by by text to just give me back the deposit. He said he normally doesn't give back deposits but in this case he will. That was back in the spring. We are well into the summer now. 5 text messages later, still no refund. Lie after lie. He gave me his word he would come by the house with the money. another lie!!! I had someone else come to do the pavers. He explained at that time that there is no way any company would touch that job for $1,000, as it would be a 2-3 day job. So $500 to correct the incompetent pool job, and someone else to do the pavers at $2,000, and as of June 25,2024 Nick and Pool Duck refuse to return my $300 deposit for a job, a that not I but he canceled on. If he is so desperate for money that he cheats to get it, he should sell his business and work for someone else. I have no idea how Nick can sleep at night. I have seen on the website many other complaints of similar nature. He comes back with a flimsy excuse as to why he justifies ripping people off. I am a Christian man. The Bible says the vengeance belongs to God, and He will handle it. You may get past me and other people on this earth, but you will not escape God and His Righteousness. read more

Pool Duck offers excellent service and has a great staff. I highly recommend them! The owner's bring an assurance that they stand behind what they say. Call Pool Duck today! read more

I called Nick and hired him to change the liner for my pool After the liner was changed he said to fill it up halfway for the winter and in the spring the wrinkles around the one edge of the pool will straighten out. We did exactly what we were told, and the wrinkles have not come out As a matter of fact, now, the liner is wrinkled all the way around the pool company had to come out and redo the skimmer because it leaked because the seals and gaskets were on the wrong side and now we have got lumps from the sand underneath the liner we've investigated this with several other Pool companies, and since the Sand is not level underneath the pool. They said that just adjusting the liner at the top around the pool would not straighten up the surface of the liner that the liner would have to come out and then they could reset the liner after smoothing out the sand, but that they would not guarantee this liner now that it's been in there for a year so now it's gonna cost me another $700 for a liner plus the labor to have someone else do the job but at least now the company that's going to do it is going to do it right And out of five stars, I would give Nick and his company a zero I could not recommend a company less than what I would this company Plus, he had told me that he did Pavers and at the first I was going to have him do the pavers in my backyard and then he had told me that the guy that worked with him to do Pavers had quit and he would have to reschedule and I had already given him a $300 deposit and he said that normally he does not return deposits All I kept getting was excuses just beware before you hire this man to do anything other than to tell you what time it is And if you need to know what time it is, it's time to look for someone else to do your work at your house and not use Pool Duck read more

o stars Please understand I never write reviews and always give people the benefit of the doubt and love supporting small businesses but I wanted to make others aware of this scammer. I know people will say it's my own fault for not doing my due diligence but that's ok I just don't want any one else to bet scammed by this guy. So With that being said.... Please never use Nick Pendergast with (Pool Duck) He seems very friendly and knowledgeable up front- but when it comes time for project day it is the worst possible experience I could have ever had. He deletes his company name and starts his business over multiple times but if you look hard enough you can eventually find all of his horrible reviews. I wish I did a better job of this myself. We hired Nick for re - leveling of the pool surface and installing a new liner. We instead received a damaged pool wall, waisted money on a new liner that he destroyed, and lost over 2 grand on the project plus the cost to fix / replace his mistakes. The project began when Nick said he would be out at noon for a job that would take a couple of hours. Instead Nick showed up with no helpers except his wife at 4pm on a Friday. Within one hour of beginning the project Nick had managed to knock down two large sections of the pool wall and dented many sections of the pool wall. I asked what happened and he told me oh it's fine the water will push the dents right out. Nick continued to work assuring me everything was fine but after two hours he hadn't had much done. Next thing I know he's pounding on my door and texting my husband asking for more money because the project was taking longer than usual and he has more work to do after he ran into some problems. He then starts talking about the rocks we have around our pool which we have in writing that he said that is no problem he can do the work with rocks around the pool. Nick swore up and down and promised it would be okay. He'd take care of us. Trust him, he's been doing this for years. Every time I went out there, him and his wife are arguing about one not doing their job correctly. We were at a loss, my husband and I had no other choice but to trust him at this point because he said he already started and has to finish or we will have a damaged pool forever. I told him he needs to come back when it's light out to finish and he said no he can't he has to finish now. I asked him to leave and he said no not until I finish and get paid. We kept checking in at multiple points and constantly were being bombarded with excuses. 11 pm comes and " he's finished" . We go out to take a look ... the majority of caps and things that need to be screwed in , aren't. The whole back wall is bent and looks like it is going to collapse. The top rail isn't even secured, and not holding the pool wall. Then we get hit with the I'll be in lisle next week, I'll just stop over and fix this no problem. He brought no sand , tools, lights to work in the dark, nothing and threatened us to pay him because he had been there all day. Like we assumed, it's next week and we tried contacting him and he's just completely avoiding the situation because he knows it's a disaster. I tried messaging him and now that he's got his money, he won't give us the time of day. I tried calling him and once he found out it was me, he immediately hung up and blamed it on poor service. I called back and he was very rude and unprofessional and after a minute he hung up and blocked my number. This man clearly does not care about his customers, or his work and is trying to scam people out of their money. We gave him just about a week to make this right and fix his mistakes and clearly, that's not what he is wanting. He will look into your face and lie directly to you, he will reply to this message trying to lie to defend it but I will attach pictures. Please be aware of this man and all of his fake pool companies. We will be reporting to the Better Business Bureau as well, so they are aware. read more

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Had a date and time set by Nick for some work done on some pool posts. After a no-show at the time he set, I phoned. He stated because of the rain, other customers were pushed back. I understand that completely, but he didn't phone to let me know, instead he blew off the appointment. When I phoned, he hung up on me. This was Sunday, June 30. He clearly doesn't keep accurate records, since he emailed me today, Wednesday, July 3, stating customers were pushed back because of the rain and he now will be there July 8 to install the liner (which had already been determined did not need to be done. Just work on the wall posts). I emailed back stating not to come. His response "sorry, can't help the rain so you leave a bad review. It's ok, that will be taken down. Have a wonderful day". So he likes to try to remove bad reviews....that says a lot to me. My issue with his service was NOT because I had to be pushed back because of the rain, I completely understand that. My issue was because HE set up the date and time and then was a no-show and no call to reschedule. Then being hung up on was an additional issue. Do NOT recommend this guy. He's unreliable and then makes a ton of excuses read more

Nick came out and changed my liner. There are alot of big stones under liner as I walked around pool next day, he broke my brand new pool ladder and showed me he did, yet I sent him the receipt showing it was only a few weeks old he refused to reimburse me. He was also going to come back next day for additional pool help, but he did not show up and I had to do it myself. I would not use him, I do believe he took advantage of me he promised alot of things and did not deliver on the. Beware. read more

Horrible experience. Hired to do some popped tiles and has no idea what he is doing. Came home to adhesive all over the pool deck and 3 of the tiles just hung on by tape. No grout or anything. See pics. When asked to refund our Cash payment less some for his time (trying to be nice), he said his website said no refunds. Basically stole $600 from me. This guy is a massive crook, stay away. Have full texts and pics to prove it. read more

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After having problems with the first pool installer Pool Duck was recommended to us. We got a call right away from Nick and set a date for service. Luckily for us Nick was able to come out a few days before our scheduled date. He was very professional and informative of the service he was going to provide and did a job well done! We definitely recommend him! read more