Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Pond Contractor Review Section

I would like to see how others feel about a new Pond Boss area where folks list pond builders and locations and allow folks to post reviews. I went through a stressful pond building experience this year until locating a third pond builder in my area that could do a satisfactory job (actually they were great). This function on the Pond Boss site might help others find good pond builders in their area. The site does not need to take an official position, but rather just allow visitors to post their personal experience (a common practice with other products on the net). I do not have any idea if folks would find this useful or if it would be hard to implement, but it sure seems like a great service to me.

Personally, I think that sounds like a great idea. Plus it will be a repository for information if people coming looking for information.

Seems like that is a very often asked question and would be a valuable asset..... There is a place to find sponsor pond builders(resource area), so maybe that conflicts too much with those? However, there is a thread somewhere in the archives on fish suppliers (some not being sponsors) that is along this same idea of forum members experiences with them.

I am no expert at advertising, but I would think that a review section on pond contractors would increase advertising. If pond builders start finding out that they were found on PondBoss, then they may realize that potential customers are visiting this site to find contractors.

I think it's a great idea and I have a bad review ready from my horror story this year.

Do we have any legal experts that would either like to chime in on this or discuss it with Bob Lusk? I can see some liability issues that could come with unsubstantiated claims. I remember a year or two ago that someone really ripped on one of our member pond builders with unsubstantiated claims. Some of our newer members even jumped on the pond builders case before it was clear that the complainer had been fairly treated but still had complaints.

I brought up in the past that I would like to see pond Boss Certified builders. That would be all we need.

Personally I think it would be really hard to manage. Say a guy built 50 great ponds, and only 2 of those people posted here. One good, and one bad. He would show only a 50% satisfaction rating, and that's not fair when in actuality he had a 98% satisfaction rating.

I think the pool of reviewer's would be to small to get an accurate percentage, and I doubt Bob would stake PB's reputation on a builder he had no personal experience with.

Just my 2 cents.

I see where your coming from. I could have avoided most mistakes just by knowing about Pond Boss before hiring a contractor and breaking ground.

I don't think that PB would be held liable for someone coming on here and stating their opinion, weather it be positive or negative. I can see where things could turn south in a discussion real fast, but in general, people have a right to voice their opinion. It already happens here on PB every day. Heck, the internet was built on unsubstaniated claims! But seriously, I can see some contractor having his friends log on to "pad" his positive score or to discredit his competition. You'd always wonder about members with only one post that were giving feedback in that section. That being said, I say that it could be a useful tool for the future pondmeister.

2 cents well spent!!!

I prob could have flown Mike Otto in and build my 1/3 acre pond for the price I paid said and done.

"user" reviews are all over the net including those that sell products. You will often find a couple of bad reviews for every product and suppler. If a couple of bad reviews killed a product or vendor, no one would stay in business. The other thing is that a bad review for a good vendor often finds a lot of satisfied customers coming in to support them. If a site were liable for posted reviews, a lot of sites would be gone. I have both good and bad posts that I would add for pond contractors, but these are just my opinions.

IMHO, I think the negatives outweigh the positives. It would have to be quickly & closely moderated, and the moderators would be more overworked and want more pay. I think it's best just to go situation by situation...

rmedgar - Have you ever looked at these sections on other web sites? For example, look at the review section for products in Cabelas. They have some pretty negative and positive reviews for the same product, but they seem to manage. Removing vulgar language or personal attacks seems like the only thing off limits.

My best best advice is if you ever even hear about somebody thinking of building a pond refer them to pond boss first. I do feel the pain. I wonder if something like this is on Anjieslist.com I see commercials for TV?

Perhaps it should be just a list of known pond builders that are listed by each state. No reviews or comments allowed.... This is kind of what is in the resource area, just only a few are listed there. If a pond builder is serious about their business, why don't they advertise there? Maybe they don't know about it?

How would you really manage such a forum thread? Seems like it would only benefit if pond builders were listed by state, yet everyone would be posting separately and in a varied way to prevent organization.

Could there be a way that members could only post positive comments about pond builders? Members could at least have a list then to "interview" for their work to be done. The more positve comments shown, the more "likely of the possiblity" they will do good work. The lack of any mention of a pond builder, or lack of further positive comments might indicate that they aren't as good.

If I recall correctly, isn't there a major driving force behind the scenes of Pondboss that is a pond builder? You sure wouldn't want to upset that source.

My comments may seem negative towards the idea, but I do like the idea. I just think it has to be done very carefully, if that's possibe.

I still don't think this will work for a few reasons. A lot of pond building experiences are arbitrary. If for example, a dirt guy comes in over bid, because he said found a vein of sand through your clay, are you happy he caught it, and pay the extra money, or do you feel like he should have factored that in. Did the owner get a core sample prior to starting? Did he have a clear defined contract? Was the owner aware of any watershed issues?

Online reviews like Angie's List, at least to me, are suspect unless there is a volume of responses. If you go to Amazon looking for a widget. If there is one great review do you buy that widget? I don't. I would be inclined to buy something that had 100 responses, and 2 of them were awful. At least the data set should be less skewed.

I think a new pond owner posting pics of his project, maybe relaying who built his pond without it being a sales ad, then PMing others if they ask, is the way to go.

In my particular example, I have far to much shallow water so the surface area fluctuates greatly throughout the year. Is that my fault, or the builder's? I think it's mine. He did exactly as I asked, but didn't offer any suggestions to keep this from happening. So am I happy with him, or disgruntled? It depends on the person writing the check.

Researching projects here on the forums, visiting several past projects of a dirt guy, and having a clear set of goals is the way to go to me.

Well I am glad many other sites don't feel that way since I have found such resources for other services invaluable. If the customer was unsatisfied (or satisfied) that is what I want to know since I am contemplating being their customer and want to know if I will likely be satisfied. That is what providing a service is all about - customer satisfaction! This reaction is very surprising to me, but opinions on satisfaction are never right or wrong (my premise for the suggestion), so thanks for responding.

RAH, conceptually I think it's a great idea, and I would love to have the info before I started a project. I would also love reviews for pond builders, feeders, fish food, breeders, etc. I just don't know how it could all be managed.

Fish trucks are a perfect example. There are many instances posted where guys got hosed by some generic "Arkansas" fish truck. It casts doubt on the whole industry and it probably shouldn't. Nobody ever posts about a good experience where they got exactly what they wanted and paid for. I've had one experience with a fish truck and it was a good one. I didn't post that, and I probably should have.

RAH, there are good points on each side. If I'm buying a $100-200 widget at Home Depot, I'm interested in the 10-15 comments and will probably be influenced. If
I'm spending $10-50K on a pond/lake, a list of pond builders in the area would be useful, but opinions (without knowing the complete history of the project) are just that -opinions, and can help or harm a person's reputation at the whim of the contributor.
I would rather talk to previous customers face to face, and get a better feel for the entire experience, if that is possible - and one should make that possible for that kind of expense. We are all different, and as my dear ol' dad use to say "if we all liked the same thing, then everyone would be living at our house"...

Agree 100%....However, I see that most who build a pond may be active on this site during that period of their pond building. Then they go on with life and may check back in every six months, or when some issue arises once in a great while that they need help with. Then go forward 5 years. Someone who is in the process of building a pond looks here for posts on builders and PM that member or starts a new thread and asks "who". They get no response because of that other member isn't active here.... then what does he do? He has to proceed with out any help. Well, I take that back a bit, because if the new guy is diligent, he will research everything to look for in a pond builder and this site is very helpfull in that capacity.

Some background. When I wanted to have my last pond built, the contractor that built my previous ponds had retired. No one on this site had any info on pond builders in my area (but maybe past visitors did and might have left a record of their experience). I would have found comments by past visitors of value just like when I hire a heating contactor, house builder, or a plumber. It might have saved me a lot of stress and cost as I cycled through two contractors that simply could not do the job. It is surprising that good contractors would not welcome such feedback and public comment. The fellow that retired, always made sure everything was right before he left, and even checked back to be sure everything was still going well after we had a flood. The fellow that fixed the problems with the newest pond (as best that they could be at a reasonable cost) will get my business as soon as I save up money for my next pond.