TEMPLE, Texas — At least six people across Central Texas have filed criminal charges against the disgraced pool company Moonlight Pool & Spa for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in customer money and leaving dozens with unfinished work on their pools over a two to three-year period.
Among those left with unfinished work from the company is Susan Hendrickson, who paid Moonlight $121,200 as of this month for a pool she contracted back in February of 2022. Hendrickson said there are about $55,000 in repairs that need to be made for the pool she paid for to be fully functional.
"We're hoping to all band together and get one attorney that will represent everyone," Hendrickson said. "There's at least 50 people that have either an issue like mine, where the pool is usable but there are issues that need to be fixed and haven't, but there are so many people with just a cement hole in their backyard."
Hendrickson said she's contacted an attorney and there are several members of the "Victims of Moonlight" Facebook group that are looking to organize a class action lawsuit eventually. However, Hendrickson said all cases have been filed individually to this point.
Hendrickson said she has strands of text messages and email correspondence that went unanswered while communicating her concerns with the company during the time her pool ran into issues.
"How do you take that much money from someone and not even fulfill the end of the contract?" Hendrickson said. "They've cheated people out of a lot of money and while I do have a functional pool, it's not what I paid for and it's not what was guaranteed to me in a contract."
Hendrickson said the owner of Moonlight has called multiple people about filing bankruptcy, though it's unclear if the filing was under the company's name or under his own name, according to court records with the Texas Secretary of State's Office.
Holly Meyer is from Belton and contracted Moonlight about a new pool for her kids to enjoy roughly a year and a half ago. She said they came back with the best price out of three other bids for her business.
"They started work and within a couple of months we had a pool and everything was working and going great," Meyer said, though the satisfaction was short-lived.
Meyer said the pool was swimmable, but plastered and marbled incorrectly. A step, she said, the company admitted to her in writing was not done properly.
"We’ve been in contact with them to get the plaster redone since October of 2022 and their response was 'We’re going to get through this next swim season'. That has come and gone," Meyer said. "Now we’re in 2024 and we still have the same issue and no responses from anyone at Moonlight."
Meyer said her family paid about $125,000 for their pool initially and got an estimate of $50,000 for the repairs to be made. She said they have charges pending against the company for theft of services and misappropriation of funds.
Meyer said jail time should be on the table.
"They knew exactly what they were doing when they would ask people just to hand over their money for these pools," Meyer said. "we're not looking for overpayment, we want our pools fixed and we want our homes back in working condition where we can enjoy them and for them to have jail time. That's what they deserve."
A former employee of the company said he was told on at least one occasion to leave a plaster and re-plaster job unfinished because of personal disagreements between Moonlight management and the customer.
6 News has reached out to Mikeal Rem and Kevin Lock with Moonlight, and though charges have been filed, neither the company nor its employees have responded to our request for comment.
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