Mod Pools (Modpools) Suck
See Demand Letter at Bottom and STAY TUNED for the fireworks.
This company has always been annoying, especially if you need any help after the sale - I swear it's like a company of 4 people and their customer care call center has a young person or two taught in fine art of never actually answering your questions, passing the buck, or otherwise being unhelpful. I used to tell Trent in the office I didn't trust them, and I felt we were always a pool away from getting screwed somehow. Our clients never know what we have to deal with to get their pool delivered, or the 100% due before it leaves their shop. The site work, crane, logistics, etc... is all our responsibility, so the idea it's quicker, cheaper and easier, like most things modular, are mostly unmet promises. Currently these assholes have $85,000 of my money and my container pool, which they claim they can't ship because of new tariff rules and logistics.
Really, the company is about mis-representation - that pools are made in days (3 months more like it), that install is easy (getting a crane on a residential property is impossible in many cases), that they pay for tariffs (not from what we've seen), that they are helpful after the sale (hardly), that you can do it for under $100,000. The list goes on and on...
The question regarding criminality and possible fraud is how are they staying in business and selling pools when they openly admit they can't get them across the border. Knowingly promise what you know to be false is pretty much the definition of fraud, especially when it is not a one off action but your standard operating procedure.
One review, and I'm sure there are many like it -
Jimbo macgraw
5 reviews·5 photos
Edited 5 months ago
Another unsatisfied customer…Purchased the pool for over $100kIt arrived months late in October 2025.Now the window cracked down the middle and Modpools will not cover replacement.Brand new never used.Run for the hills from these people. Looking forward to the next documentary about this shady company.Update:Local glass company replaced the window for $4k vs the $18k Modpool quoted. Glad we can use it now!But then heater manifold has a leak upon start up(video)If you decide to gamble against the house on one of these products highly recommend getting everything in writing. They decided to pay only half of tariffs as a cherry on top!Cool concept but they are still figuring it out which they clearly realize. I’ve had better warranties from pawn shops.
Another Review
Attention Future Modpool Customers:After our disappointing experience with Modpools, I feel obligated to share our story so others can avoid similar frustrations.Our Modpool has been installed for less than six months, yet we've only used it a handful of times due to multiple defects. What we thought would be a dream addition to our home has become a nightmare.Heat IssuesLiving in the desert, we expected Modpools, which are advertised for both cold and warm climates, to handle summer temperatures. However, our pool regularly reached 107°F, making it unusable during the entire summer. Modpools never informed us that a chiller would be necessary in order to safely swim during the summer. Adding a chiller requires reworking new equipment, increasing monthly operating costs, but Modpools has not offered any concessions. Not once did they tell us we needed a chiller for warm climates when we were selecting our pool. It’s false advertising to say the pool is usable year around in all climates.Paint FailingShortly after installation, the pool walls turned pink and began exuding a powdery substance. Although Modpools blamed algae, our pool company disagreed, noting the issue was likely the paint leaching into the water. Two local technicians confirmed the paint was faulty. Modpools refused to honor their warranty, instead offering to send more of the same failing paint or charge us for repairs by sending somebody from Canada when “they happen to be in the area.” They blamed us saying improper chemical use even though we had a professional service provider and chemical records indicating nearly zero chlorine at the time it started turning pink as we were relying on the UV system.Other IssuesThe pool’s window seals are deteriorating, water jets are leaking, and rust spots are appearing, all within six months of installation. Despite numerous attempts to address these concerns, Modpools has been unresponsive and unhelpful.We invested over $115,000 in this project, and now we’re left with a pool we can’t use. The lack of customer service and support is disheartening.If you’re considering a Modpool, I urge you to read reviews and research carefully. We regret being swayed by glossy photos and flashy marketing. Don’t make the same mistake.
Here's there website, which features a pool we delivered and installed. Easier to be a happy end user when you had nothing to do with the erraticness of the production and delivery process.
November 2, 2026
VIA EMAIL AND TRACKED INTERNATIONAL COURIER
Andrew D.R. Delmonico, Kuhn LLP 100 – 32160 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford, BC V2T 1W5 adelmonico@kuhnco.net
Modpools Inc., Attn: Paul Rathnam, Authorized Signatory 5784 Glenmore Road, Abbotsford, BC V4X 1X7 customercare@modpools.com; levi@modpools.com
Re: Notice of cancellation and demand for refund — 20′ widened Modpool for 3 Rivka Road, Saugerties, NY. Agreement signed May 13, 2026; Purchase Price $[84,000], paid in full. Cancellation under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §§ 2.711 and 2.616; notice under § 17.505; presentment under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 38.002.
Dear Mr. Delmonico and Mr. Rathnam:
As your firm requested, I am directing this to counsel, with a copy to Modpools. This is the last letter Catskill Farms will send before filing suit. It sets out the undisputed facts, the contract terms, and what it will take to end this.
1. The facts are not in dispute
- On May 13, 2026, [Buyer legal name, exactly as on Invoice no. ____] (“Catskill Farms”) and Modpools Inc. (“Modpools”) entered into the Agreement for one 20′ widened Modpool, built to Modpools’ Revision 2 drawings dated June 26, 2026, for 3 Rivka Road, Saugerties, New York 12477.
- Catskill Farms paid the full Purchase Price. On August 21, 2026, Modpools confirmed receipt of the final wire, wrote that “everything looks good with the CBP,” and offered to ship on August 28. On August 25 we confirmed delivery for the week of September 14.
- On August 27, Modpools put shipment on hold, citing a new U.S. duty on Canadian-made pools that it says took effect August 22.
- On September 10, Modpools confirmed in writing that the pool “has been manufactured and is complete.”
- Today the pool is more than nine weeks past its agreed ship date. Modpools has not shipped it, has given no delivery date, and has refunded nothing. Its only explanation is a pending request to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for a valuation ruling, with no timeline.
2. The contract puts the tariff on Modpools, and Modpools has agreed in writing
Section II9 of the General Terms makes tariffs in effect at the time of shipment the Seller’s sole responsibility, never charged to the Buyer. Modpools’ own August 27 email confirmed that the delay “does not change your Purchase Price” and that tariffs “remain the responsibility of Modpools.” Modpools’ website advertised that it absorbs all current tariffs for its customers, with no surprise charges [Exhibit F, dated screenshot].
Modpools’ October 23 email states the real reason for the hold: it is waiting “before proceeding with shipments that could otherwise be subject to substantial additional tariff costs.” The pool is finished and can cross the border now. Modpools is choosing not to ship it because a cost it agreed to carry has gone up.
3. Force majeure does not excuse this
Section IV covers delays caused by circumstances beyond Modpools’ reasonable control. Nothing is stopping this pool from entering the United States. Imported goods are routinely entered on payment of estimated duties, with any valuation question resolved afterward. A voluntary request for a ruling that might reduce Modpools’ own duty bill is a business choice within its control, not a border closure.
The Agreement is governed by Texas law (Section VIII). Under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 2.615, increased cost does not excuse a seller’s performance, and a seller cannot claim excuse for a risk it expressly assumed. Modpools assumed this exact risk in Section II9. And even where a force majeure clause applies, it allows a delay of reasonable length, not indefinite retention of a fully paid product with no delivery date.
4. Cancellation and demand for refund
Modpools agreed to ship on August 28, 2026, for delivery the week of September 14. It did not, and it has given no delivery date since. The pool was ordered for a specific house on a specific schedule. That window has closed, and a pool delivered now is of no use to this project.
Catskill Farms therefore cancels the Agreement under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 2.711 for Modpools’ failure to make delivery, effective on your receipt of this letter. In the alternative, if Modpools maintains that its delay is excused under Section IV or § 2.615, this letter is Catskill Farms’ written notice under § 2.616 terminating the Agreement because of a material and indefinite delay. Either way, Modpools keeps the pool and returns the money.
We demand a wire of $[84,000] to the account the payments came from, received no later than [November 23, 2026]. On receipt, Catskill Farms releases all interest in the pool, which Modpools may resell.
Section II[6] does not change this. Its non-refundable language addresses a Buyer who walks away for its own reasons, not a Buyer whose Seller failed to deliver. And forfeiting 100% of the price for a pool Modpools still holds and can resell would be an unenforceable penalty under § 2.718.
If the refund is not received by that date, Catskill Farms will file suit for the full Purchase Price, incidental and consequential damages, interest, and attorney’s fees.
5. Notice under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (§ 17.505)
This letter is also written notice of Catskill Farms’ claim under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §§ 17.41 et seq.
- Specific complaint: Modpools represented on its website and in its Agreement that it absorbs all tariffs with no surprise charges. It accepted full payment on that basis. It is now withholding the completed pool to avoid that cost, neither delivering nor refunding, while (by its own October 23 account) telling new customers that tariff costs are theirs.
- Economic damages: $[84,000] Purchase Price, plus $[____] in costs from losing the pool for the 3 Rivka Road house [itemize: site work and pad already completed, redesign, substitute amenity, carrying costs].
- Attorney’s fees reasonably incurred to date: $[____].
If this is not resolved within 60 days of your receipt of this letter, Catskill Farms’ suit will include its DTPA claims, including the additional damages available for knowing conduct.
6. Presentment (Chapter 38)
This letter presents Catskill Farms’ contract claim. If the amount owed is not tendered within 30 days, Catskill Farms will seek its attorney’s fees under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 38.001.
7. Forum
Section VIII requires that all claims arising out of or relating, directly or indirectly, to the Goods or the Agreement be brought exclusively in the courts of the State of Texas. Catskill Farms will file there. That clause binds both parties.
8. Preserve evidence
Litigation is reasonably anticipated. Modpools must preserve all documents and communications about this order; the pool’s production and completion; the CBP ruling request and all CBP correspondence; communications with its customs broker; its website statements about tariffs and their revision history; and every pool shipped to, sold to, or quoted for U.S. customers since August 22, 2026.
[Optional, recommended: “Catskill Farms’ public statements about this matter are limited to the documented facts set out in this letter.” Use only once the website page has been revised to match; see Case File tab.]
A refund ends this.
Sincerely,
Charles (Chuck) Petersheim Founder, Catskill Farms On behalf of [Buyer legal name] and individually [Mailing address] · [Phone] · charles@thecatskillfarms.com
Enclosures: Exhibits A–H (see Case File tab)
Excluding Us
It's hard not to consider monetizing your Catskill Farms house when you see the prices they go for, or the ease of selling, many times both. Our resales seem to go quick, and even those who own their home for just a few short years (a big no-no real estate just because the costs of transaction), even those peeps squeeze something out of it many times.
It's a familiar refrain - Catskill Farms' homes sell. Realtors love them. New buyers love them. And because we build and sell at a fair price, it does leave that potential for our valued homeowners to get out whole, or in many situations, with a tidy profit, and in some instances of fortunate timing, eye-popping profits. But I'd say the thing that matters more than profits is that they sell, at all, consistently. You don't have to play in this market long before you realize that is not a foregone conclusion. I think my clients who are selling are doing a good job listening to their realtors, pricing them right, not overpricing them, and that formula is working. There is still a deficient of houses in the Ulster market that match the settings, designs and quality of ours.
What is interesting - and this has been true for as long as I have been in business - to some degree people hate giving Catskill Farms the credit, in part or in whole, for any part of this process success. Many realtors won't post our names on the description, either out of pointed spite, or not wanting to give us free marketing.
But the marketplace knows what's ours and they react, and I'm sure part of the sales pitch is complimentary to our efforts, but many times the MLS listing exclude us, many times for some past brush up with me, doing the exact job that makes the initial success for our clients (a home with value and style and dependable construction). And when they go to sell, that same effort that positioned them advanteously in the first place positions them again nicely in the re-sell space. Having me to deal with is why the homes are valuable, because I pay attention and I care about them, more than I care about someone's feelings who is phoning it in. The standard we set and expect offends some people who work with us, and my willingness to sacrifice feelings for performance has been an integral part of our culture from early on. Not out of choice, but necessity, for survival.
The recent weird one is that this shitty company ModPools now has the Mini-Barn of Narrowsburg as its showcase home, with a link to its airbnb listing right on the pool's homepage - weirdly. Why, more on that later -stay tuned for a good old fashioned rant. Or maybe I'm too old for ranting - maybe it'll be wordful astonishment.
Some Catskill Farms homes being marketed and greedily snapped up.
Here's a farmhouse in Olivebridge we sold just a few years ago, with no improvements since we sold it, with 15% price increase, asking $1.3m, and just a few weeks on the market.
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Here's a barn, in the same area, in contract within weeks, for more than they paid.
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And another 2017 farmhouse that is now on the market - this one seems pretty underpriced to me giving its location, neighbors, parcel size and home size.
60 Dawson Lane, , Farm 44, MLS
And another Farmhouse on Dawson Lane for sale.
Our Town & A Little Life- A literary analysis.
I’m reading A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Published in 2015, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, over 700 pages.
Last night with my main squeeze Jessica, we saw Our Town, a play by playwright Thorton Wilder, during the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, as well as one of its first productions, Our Town, 50 years ago, in Narrowsburg NY. Wife and daughter of Eric from G5 Insurance were out on the town as well and we ran into those fine folk at the theater.
Little did I know, since Our Town was written and first produced in 1938, and A Little Life was first published in 2015, that their stories are remarkably similar, in terms of just tracking this thing we call life. The journey of life, the wonder, the prowling sadness, the futility, the purpose and pointlessness. The striving to control and protect and predict and force onto it (life) a timeline to our liking, rarely successful.
For those who haven’t seen a production of Our Town, it’s a story set in Grovers Corner in New Hampshire, between 1901-1913. A Little Life, described as ‘devastating’, ‘astonishing’, ‘extraordinary’ and a ‘masterwork’ by critics, tells the story of 4 friends in NYC from their early Twenties to the end of their lives. Both narratives attach themselves to people and families and communities, and offer a landscape of timelessness, unmoored by references to historical markers like WWI or 9/11 - the danger of AI is I can't recall what above was mine, partially mine, or wholly borrowed.
Claude,ai, says of A Little Life - A Little Life follows four friends in New York over three decades, but its real subject is Jude, a brilliant lawyer whose horrific childhood abuse leaves him convinced he is disgusting and unworthy of love. The novel is less about the abuse than about its aftermath: a man surrounded by devoted love, from his friend and later partner Willem and from Harold, who adopts him as an adult, who still can't believe in it. Yanagihara rejects the redemption story. Jude never heals, and after Willem dies he takes his own life. Yet the book insists his life mattered, built from friendship and small acts of care as real as his pain. It asks whether love can save someone who can't receive it, and answers that it may not save them but is still worth everything.
I picked A Little Life off a bookshelf in a hotel in Sardinia (without permission) during last spring’s motorcycle ride, but it had to wait as I had to finish a few other books, including one I nabbed off a bookshelf in a Corsica (with permission) hotel - a tome of WWII, which was interesting in its own right as I learned of the immense dispropotion of the losses of the soviets compared the sacrifices of the West- it's literally like 5 to 1 or more, and the point of the book at times was that if the West was forced to make the sacrifices the Soviets did, Hitler would have no doubt prevailed since the West had no appetite for that type of loss.
While A Little Life is not redemptive, and there is no happy ending, I would argue that it has more redemptive qualities than perhaps the critics acknowledge - that life happens, and it can be pronounced and move in a positive well-rounded direction later in life and still be worth it and not ‘last-minute’ and not too late. I for one find myself disoriented as I exit a 24/7 work life with day to day hand to hand combat, intense problem solving and frustrations that sometimes mirrored the actual problem and sometimes far-exceeded them (an under-reaction was rare indeed), disoriented as a wholly unrecognizable person (in a good way) remerges from the ghastly effort of 25 years. Though, in case anyone thinks I’m getting soft, that would be a mistake - I’ll be hard and serious and mission-driven until the last nail is driven.
Claude AI partly agrees and pays me a compiment for being so smart and well-read! when I query it about the comparisons of the play and the book.
"Partly, yes, and it’s a sharper comparison than it might first seem. But I’d say the two books share a skeleton while having very different hearts. (I'm so affirmed!).
Where the comparison holds:
- Time as the real subject. Both follow a group of people across decades and let you watch them age, marry or partner, succeed, and die. The meaning builds from accumulation rather than plot.
- Ordinary moments carry the weight. Our Town’s power is in breakfasts, homework, and a soda fountain conversation. A Little Life does the same with dinners, apartment renovations, and Willem and Jude driving upstate. The small domestic scenes are what you mourn later.
- Timelessness. Wilder uses a bare stage and no props, so Grover’s Corners could be anywhere. Yanagihara does something similar on purpose: she strips out historical markers. There’s no 9/11, no presidents, almost no technology dating it, so the friends seem to live outside history. That’s a striking parallel.
- Looking back from death. Emily revisiting one ordinary day after she dies, and realizing nobody notices life while living it, is close in spirit to Harold’s final section, where he looks back over Jude’s life and sees what he missed.
The comparison holds too with the ever circling scent of death - from old age, suicide, from child birth, from a car accident, from illness. It defines and gives life its very shape.
This used to be a treat on my way home from work, a slice of moist banana bread, from an unlikely source, an Indian convenience store. Was $2, just raised the price to $3!. I can't believe all the things that used to cost $4 now costs $8+, like my bottle of water and peanut M&M's. Something has got to give in this economy.
Last fall was glorious and Catskill-esque as you dream about, and this year is more of the same, with the bright daily sun coloring the leaves even more brillantly. Last year I had that, then went to Costa Rica after Thanksgiving and came back to a winter that never left.
Spec homes and Eagles Nest 2 has left the building
I’m a spec home builder, a gambler. Have been for 25 years, a quarter of a century. Spec homes are homes built on speculation, meaning before a buyer is located, before a contract is signed, a house being built with the funds of the builder/developer - borrowed or accrued. It’s a risky business for a few reasons: it’s expensive to build a home, the costs associated over and above the construction such as interest on the construction loan, utilities, taxes commence and continue until the house is sold, the sale date and thus return of your working capital and hopefully profit is undetermined. In sum, you tie up a bunch of money on a hunch that what you will build will sell. And many times, it’s not just one house but a series of homes, or a series of homes and the infrastructure therein. So to tie up a million is easy, to tie up ten’s of millions is not that hard either (not my level but easy to imagine).
I’ve been building spec homes forever. It’s what I do, in all sorts of vibrant and sluggish real estate environments. Sometimes the market actually changes underfoot during the 8 month effort so what was true when you started is new longer true when you finish. It works both ways - the market can get harder, sales slower, an emerging or matured buyers market. Or the market can improve and accelerate, the most vivid example being Covid, when I would go into contract on a house in July and by the time I sold it it was worth 25% more but I was stuck at the price point of the original deal structure - that was never that fun, but great for the clients who saw $100k or more in appreciation before they actually owned the house, and to be honest, a sale is a sale, and lots of time the cost of construction hadn’t started its 50% increase climb so the profits were still there even at the lower price.
Some of those people who made deals with us in the spring and summer of 2020/2021 have made a lot of money on our homes - half a million dollars in some cases on homes they owned for a few years - good timing for sure, but amazing homes without a doubt.
I venture down this line of thought because we just sold a house in north Fremont NY which was a pretty big gamble even for my risk-tolerant, market-knowledge self. It was 9 acres or so, on an open hill, with a good vista view. I paid $90k for the parcel which is possibly the most I ever paid for a piece of land in Sullivan County, and then selected an improved version of a modern home we had only ever built once, in 2015, that Erik Freeland resold for $1.8m earlier this year. The home is bigger, ranch-style - meaning a larger house footprint, meaning higher foundation and roof costs. We got it started last November and then bam, winter came December 8th and never left us, so it sat there until spring.
The house is unique - Unique for us, unique for the market. What I’ve seen over the last few years is that interesting construction sells, especially if priced right. I haven’t had the time or office personnel to experiment too widely so we stuck to our fun, interesting and tried-and-true models for a few years as I put humpty dumpty together again. But my business success for the longest time was based on my willingness, and ability to be creative and take chances with our designs. Which is actually really hard - a lot easier to just build the same house- interesting or not - over and over again, on single parcel building lots, with no efficiency of scale or piggy-backing of one site's effort to another.
So I bought an interesting piece of land, built an interesting house on it, experimented with interesting design ideas inside the home, spared no expense in terms of completing the home (landscaping, etc…) - really, just maximized my knowledge - both market and creative.
And the first couple that saw it, bought it. No delay, no realtor, no marketing effort or expense. Monetized that mofo. As I look at the profit and loss of that job this morning, it’s not a homerun by any stretch, but it’s a solid return, a return that didn’t really have the margins for a long or expensive sales cycle. The deal took no more than 35 days from first showing to sales transfer. So, it’s done. A successful high stakes gambit into the ethereal world of real estate speculation, in the middle of nowhere, with a new design, and a lot of fun design experimentation. It takes balls and it can go south very quickly. But it leaves you wondering what the free-market would have supported for the home, under the guidance of a good realtor.
So thank you Marco and Michele for just being really nice people, serious and trustworthy, partnering with me, who can be said to be the same under the right circumstances. It was a relatively easy lift from a relationship standpoint compared to most of our sales, designs and construction relationship lifecycles since they were buying a completely finished house (sans punchlist) compared to a 8-14 months build process, but win is a win, and this was a win all-around.
