You should never have to excavate a pool twice.
But Hilltop Pools and Spas had to do exactly that, delaying construction by a week and costing the Jonesboro, Ga. firm an additional $5,000.
Many cities and counties in the Peach State have their own way of going about issuing permits and approving projects. It can be a byzantine process. Further complicating matters are the many new municipalities that seem to crop up overnight. Pool builders have reported that these new planning departments aren’t always dependable. Mistakes are bound to happen.
It’s a dilemma Hilltop Pools knows well.
After getting a permit approved, digging the hole, laying the steel and installing the plumbing, an inspector red-tagged the site. The reason? The pool was too close to the foundation of the home. You’d think someone at the county would have caught that before rubber stamping the plans, but no such luck here.
As CEO Matthew Miller likes to say, that’s just their tax dollars at work.
Hilltop had to perform a complete do-over, removing the steel and plumbing and digging again, this time just several feet further to satisfy the inspector.
When many builders would have been justified in charging extra for the county’s mistake, Hilltop absorbed the cost in the name of customer service. “I know that there was cost obviously involved in this,” the homeowner wrote as part of a GuildQuality customer survey. “Yet, Hilltop still honored our quote and commitment to stay within budget.”
Miller and his sister, Kelly Erjavec, who also has a prominent role within the company, credit their late father and company founder, Brian Miller, for instilling in them the desire to please customers no matter the cost.
“His legacy is that we’re continuing to operate the company the way he wanted it to be operated,” Miller says.
