MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A local man is issuing a warning after a Mid-South company owner didn’t fulfill his promise to finish work on the man’s pool.
The pool in Marlon McKinley’s backyard is always ready for action.
“Family wise we use it just about every holiday,” McKinley said.
But these days it’s quiet, waiting for an upgrade that’s long overdue. It needs something to protect it in the winter.
“I needed a Rhino cover for my pool,” McKinley said.
So he called a guy who’d done some work for him before: Billy King with Poolside Services and Maintenance.
“He said he could take care of it. So I gave him a deposit down,” McKinley said.
McKinley paid $1,500 out of the total $2,000 cost of the project last November.
In January, King sent him a text saying, “If you could give me to end of this month to either return monies or service the pool, I can promise you either way you get what was promised.” He also apologized for the delays and asked for patience.
“I don’t know what happened,” McKinley said. “He just kept saying he ran into some problems or something and I told him, what’s that got to do with me?”
Months later, McKinley still didn’t have a new cover. He confronted King on his own but that didn’t do anything, so he called the WREG Problem Solvers.
“I just want my money back,” McKinley said.
We went to King’s address and asked about the status of McKinley’s home. He told us he couldn’t remember what happened, but did confirm McKinley paid him $1,500.
King promised he would take care of McKinley’s pool cover.
After he made that promise on camera, we thought he’d finish the job, but months later he still had not.
So we went back to ask again two weeks ago.
We found King’s company truck parked in the driveway, with his equipment in the back. After we knocked, we saw someone peering through this window, but no one came to the door.
We then went back again the next day. We didn’t hear from King until he called the day after that and left a voicemail, saying he wanted to set up an appointment to give his “side of the story.”
We called multiple times, but never heard back until the day before our story aired: Wednesday, July 22.
King did not want to meet in person or even record a phone interview, simply stating he thought his customer had already gotten someone else to install the cover.
King then made a new promise to pay McKinley his $1,500 back.
The Problem Solvers will follow this to see if it happens.
Meanwhile McKinley is issuing a message, wanting other potential customers to know his experience.
“I wouldn’t use him again,” McKinley said.
