socal fun,
People dealing with Mission Valley Pools should be contacting the CSLB in additional to the local District Attorneys office.
I'm sure it's been tough on Mission Pools as well because the names can be easily mixed up.
It's pretty easy to use a new license, but it usually catches up when the fraud investigation begins.
NOTE to homeowners: Payments you make should not exceed the value of the work that has been performed. This is in fact California law. Your PB shouldn't have more than about 55-60% of your contract amount after the gunite is complete and try to hold on to a minimum of 10%, preferable 15-20%, until all punch lists are complete at the end of the project.

Wow!You learn something new every day. I just saw them in a neighborhood in Oceanside last year.They have always been one of the bigger companies in San Diego. I have only run up against them once or twice. I do a very limited amount of pools in the northern coastal San Diego area. I do most of my work in Orange County and Long Beach area. Whenever I did run up against them on a bid they were always bad mouthing the smaller builders, saying because we were small we would be out of business when the bad times hit. It just goes to show that it's not how big your business is it's how you run it.

golfgeek,
You are spot on... our friends contacted their lawyer (immediately once the news broke) and now are having Mission Pools finish up the pool. They are out about $30,000 based on what they have paid versus what it is going to cost to finish. Not nearly as bad as many others we've heard.

Pools94,
That seems to be the standard sales pitch when large companies are against smaller ones, huh? Ironically, Mission Pools actually had a similar line, but their solid reputation already had us leaning towards them. However, as you've mentioned, it really is how the business is operated on paper (i.e. cost plus margin, or tiered margin based on hard cost amount)... had our own little business before :) After hearing more and more about Mission Valley Pools ways of operating their "family business" (part of the sales pitch to our friends)... they may have been just taking what margin they could get that was lower than the competition.

Terri