Outback Leaves FM Homeowners With Mess

It's a shame that things like this happen to people. My recommendation is to Ask A Realtor before you hire any contractors, service type people into your home. Realtors are in contact with hundreds of repairmen, contractors, inspectors, pool people etc per day - we hear the good stuff and the bad stuff about every industry.
Free Advice is PRICELESS !

Gary Ross is a lying piece of shit...also his phony Australian accent is a hoot....if you see him, hide your wallet and run!

Are there honest pool builders out there? I built three pools, one with Robertson, one with riverbend and the final in my new home was with Outback Design. The first two were disastrous and disappointing, my experience with Outback Design was great and I enjoyed it. I am also a business owner and know that pleasing everyone all the time is impossible but I cannot believe that people would write such vicious rhetoric, which reeks of vengeance.

Forget the swimming pool. It's a waste of water, energy resources, and they pollute with chemical outgassing and wastewater. Use the community pool or head to the lakes that surround us. Plant a garden instead.

I actually worked there for 8 monthes.... I could not believe his buisness ethics and poor craftsmanship. I thought things would improve, espicially with Gary's design and sales skills.... Unfortunaltey it did no, Gary is liar, thief, con-artist and many more that I will not mention. He screwed over many homeowners, employees & contractors. I have said for many years that we need state licensing & regulations to help prevent frauds like these.. I am still in the buisness and I can say that not all builders are alike, many are very similiar though... I have chosen to align myself with a company of strong moral & buismess ethics, community involvement and overall great swimming pool boutique to work with.... I am glad that Gary Ross is no longer an owner of any buisness, however I did hear he is working with a company call complete landsculpture.... so beware.......

We live in Flower Mound and are thinking of adding a pool. Any suggestions on who to go with?

NOT Joy Pools.

Is this guy still a crook or has he made-good with homeowners since the initial writing of this article? I can't wait to hear his accent.

We have interviewed about a dozen companies and have narrowed it down to Playmore, Riverbend and Claffey. Everything I read about Riverbend is that they are deceptive and liars, not sure if that is true. Playmore appears to be a small company so any comments would be welcomed. We are leaning toward Claffey pools and wanted to know if anyopne has any experience with them. Thanks for the help.

Mr. Satin's comments are a lie, Outback Design did not build his third pool, they did build him a Pavilion an Outdoor entertainment and Out door kitchen Center, Mr. Satin is a personal friend of the owner of Outback Design and obviously feels sorry this "rascal", and Mr. Satin was not that Happy with the work at the time and he refused to give his last check up until his demnds were met, this comes from the project manager that did his project, I would say that K. Pittman's comments are closer to the truth, the Pittmans will know who wrote this....and yes he does work for Complete landsclupture, no secret there.

I knew of Outback Design and there work was excellent, Joy does much in the area and while they are less elaborate they are also a good builder.

John Mathews wrote:

I knew of Outback Design and there work was excellent, Joy does much in the area and while they are less elaborate they are also a good builder.

Liar, liar pants on fire!!!!! Joy pools is owned by Mike Truesdel, whose ex wife named "Joy" worked for Outback Design for years and is an old "bed mate" of the former owner of Outback Design. Mike @ Joy Pools is a despicable human who beats on women, uses drugs and is a swinger, now if thats the type of people you want to build your pool then have at it.

Outback Design and Gary Ross were no more than common thieves who not only stole peoples money but also their dreams and their families dreams. I would beware of any person or entity that claimed that Mr. Ross and his team of thiefs did ANY good whatsoever, as a native of FlowerMound I can assure you all that the damage they did to people will remain for years to come. Mr. Ross hides out in his home in Flowermound on Burning Tree Drive, he sneaks out at night and avoids all contacts with people in the area, he is still under investgation by the Denton County District Attorney for numerous felonies.

Joy Pools does NOT do good work.

I don't know about Mike's personal life or the allegations made by "Charles" (above), but I do know that Mike smelled of alcohol on several occasions when he stopped by to hear my complaints on how poorly the pool construction was going...

Kim wrote:

We live in Flower Mound and are thinking of adding a pool. Any suggestions on who to go with?

Try BMR, while every pool builder their share of complaints I would say that BMR seems very sincer in attempting to meet the demands of its customers, and they are all ex Lewisville Fire Chiefs and firemen and very professional in the way they conduct business.

Don Satin wrote:

Are there honest pool builders out there? I built three pools, one with Robertson, one with riverbend and the final in my new home was with Outback Design. The first two were disastrous and disappointing, my experience with Outback Design was great and I enjoyed it. I am also a business owner and know that pleasing everyone all the time is impossible but I cannot believe that people would write such vicious rhetoric, which reeks of vengeance.

Well, I guess you are the lucky one. I have a feeling it did not take a YEAR for you to get a clean permit from the city along with the numerous other issues/complaints that we experienced with Outback Pools...more like OutOfLuck Pools....

He is not the lucky one Kendall P., you are, despite your numerous issues at least you got a complete pool, the deck may be ugly and the auto fill sucks but at least you were not left with an open hole in the ground like so many others were. Gary Ross (or "Clayton Ross-as he is going by now) is a low life scum bag if there ever was one, and to this day he has never taken the blame for all of his criminal actions, he would have you think it was his employees, but that was not true, he had good staff but he always tied their hands when it came to fixing a problem.
G'Day Mate!! Ha! Ha!
A Ross Hater.....

If you're looking to have a pool built go with Claffey, the safest option in my experience of shopping them all. Outback's design vision was far and away the best I saw, but Gary folded before we jumped. BMR, Pearl River all on the verge of crumbling away too. Riverbend... speak to Castle Hills people. Good Luck!!

Mike wrote:

If you're looking to have a pool built go with Claffey, the safest option in my experience of shopping them all. Outback's design vision was far and away the best I saw, but Gary folded before we jumped. BMR, Pearl River all on the verge of crumbling away too. Riverbend... speak to Castle Hills people. Good Luck!!

If you are going to speak bad on someone you should speak truthfully, while it is easy to say that Outback Design is defunct...your statements regarding BMR and Pearl River are without back up and truth, do you have some personal axe to grind with these two companies? or, do you have some back up to support your allegation? We are all willing to listen to your "back up", so....bring it on or shut the &%#$ up!!!!
Nice try Mike, but empty allegations just do not work for most of us.

Mike wrote:

If you're looking to have a pool built go with Claffey, the safest option in my experience of shopping them all. Outback's design vision was far and away the best I saw, but Gary folded before we jumped. BMR, Pearl River all on the verge of crumbling away too. Riverbend... speak to Castle Hills people. Good Luck!!

Mike, what planet are you from?????? Gary Ross has no "Design Vision" everything he ever did was a copy of someone elses work!!! Even the pools he had on his web site...most were stolen from a man named Lew Akins in Waco. And as for Claffey Pools, good people who do build a decent pool but brother "they aint all that", they are arogant and a bit full of themselves if you ask me, but ion all honesty thats just a personal opinion.