Pool predicament
COMPLAINT: Raymond Mickolas, Greenfield, Wis.
"I hired Mainstream Inc. to remove my old pool and to install a new pool, plus a skimmer. They drove sand into the backyard and weren't careful at all, tearing up my yard, hitting a gas line and getting into my neighbor's yard. The company is unresponsive to any of my messages, e-mails or actual conversations."
DESIRED RESOLUTION: "I want $500 - the amount it cost me to hire a landscaper to level the ground."
RESPONSE: David Murray, president, Mainstream Inc.
"The pool installation contract the member signed says the installer shouldn't be responsible for damage the installation causes to existing lawns or any other property. Even with that clause, the excavator offered to fix the lawn, but the member said a relative was a landscaper and he'd get him to fix it. Mainstream Inc. has no responsibility to repay the member."
STATUS: Stalemate
Car crunch
COMPLAINT: Aaron Colcord, Milwaukee
"I hired Russ Darrow Honda for an oil change and a tire rotation. I'd previously purchased a 'car care' service when I bought my Honda Accord, which cost me $600 and promised all the repairs for the first 35,000 miles were prepaid. On my second visit - at 10,000 miles - they charged me $84 for the oil and services. They said the 'car care' service was worth only $30 for a service."
DESIRED RESOLUTION: "I want a $600 refund."
STATUS: Penalty box