CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — A metro Atlanta couple says they were left with an unfinished pool after the contractor they hired stopped showing up.
That’s when they realized that even though the company name was different, it was the same man who was the focus of a Channel 2 Action News investigation in 2021.
“Started out great,” Cherokee County resident Shadrick Jefferson told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray.
The Jeffersons found the pool builder for their Canton home on Angi, formerly Angi’s List, last summer.
“When we hired him, our number one focus was time. We wanted to ensure that he would be able to complete it within 90 days,” Jefferson said.
They paid $69,000 to Water’s Pool Design, but by last winter, the pool was still far from finished.
“He would never show. We’re texting them, ‘Hey, are you guys coming out?’ ‘Oh, man, it’s raining.’ I’m like, it is sunny out here,” Jefferson said.
That’s when they started googling and realized they were dealing with the same Richard Anthony Tracey who was the focus of a 2021 Channel 2 Action News investigation.
“I looked at my wife and I was like, oh boy, this may be the guy that has been ripping people off,” Jefferson said.
Before his current company, Water’s pool design, Tracey used a variety of other business names, including Mountain Springs Designs, Southern Pool Crafters, Southern Pools and Spas, Better Pools and Spas, and Original Pool Designs. He has also used the name Richard Tracey and gone by his middle name, Anthony Tracey.
But regardless of the business name, stories from customers are similar.
After starting their pools and getting their money, work eventually slows and then stops.
It happened to Laura Briley in 2021.
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“You think he’ll be back, but he won’t,” Briley told Gray in 2021.
When Gray reached Tracey by phone, he blamed Channel 2 Action News for complaints about his work.
“I’m hearing from customers again who say you leave in the middle of building their pool,” Gray said.
“Well, that’s absolutely a lie, and sir, you are the one that has encouraged this,” Tracey responded.
But when Channel 2 Action News reached out to Angi to see how Tracey got back on their list of vetted pros, they told us in a statement that: “Richard Anthony Tracey was banned from our platform, but he recently obtained access by intentionally misrepresenting himself. We are continuing to investigate this issue and have removed his new company.”
“If you want to know the truth, look for the truth, mister,” Tracey told Gray.
But customers say the truth is clear from the facts.
“I’m cautious to say I don’t think he’s just a bad business guy. I think he has developed a career in knowing what he’s going to do before he starts,” Jefferson said.
Tracey has filed a lawsuit against the Jeffersons, claiming it’s them who owe him money for the unfinished pool.
“They were just trying to get me to do as much as I would do without, you know, quitting. And then finally they said, ‘Oh, we don’t want you to finish, we’re going to pay someone else to finish,’” Tracey claimed.
The Jeffersons did have to pay someone else to finish the job. They paid another pool contractor $37,000 to finish the work they had already paid Tracey $69,000 to complete.
“He will always say, ‘Are you cancelling everything?’ No, we want you to finish. But as you think about it, we can’t keep a hole like this close to the house, unfinished, ungraded, it becomes a liability. Right? We have dogs, we have kids, we have family members coming over. It’s a safety concern,” Jefferson said.
Tracey has also filed a defamation suit against one of the homeowners in our original investigation. He claims that a former customer is convincing other customers to cancel contracts.
Angi has now once again removed Tracey’s new company from their platform.
The Jeffersons have filed a police report with Canton police.
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