Once featured on HGTV, bankrupt pool builder accused of swindling customers
CBC
Dozens of Kurt Wittin's customers have called him a scammer, a conman, a snake oil salesman — and far worse. They claim to be out tens of thousands of dollars each.
The Winnipeg man is facing — and has lost — lawsuits from across North America. But it hasn't stopped him. In spite of all this, he landed a prime spot for his prefabricated pool business on a popular HGTV show Fixer to Fabulous in 2022.
"That is exactly what got me to sign a contract with him," says Winnie Lin. She paid Wittin $27,000 to build a pool out of a metal shipping container and ship it to her in Prince George, B.C.
CBC News contacted the trucking company Wittin told Lin he would use. A representative said the firm hauled two pools for Wittin more than a year ago and never received payment. The company says it, too, is owed more than $20,000 from Wittin, but does not expect to ever recover it.
In signing contracts and emails, Wittin has used slight variations of his name: Kurt Wittin, Kurt Witten and Kurt Witton. Doing so has made it more difficult for customers to locate reviews.
His company names have also changed and have included Kustom Container Builders; Seventeen Pools; 204 Container Homes & Pools, Swiss Coast Pools and Rockstar Entertainment.
Wittin mentions the HGTV program in his marketing materials and on his website, something customers across Canada and the U.S. said was instrumental in helping them decide to use his services.
One customer in Texas named Susan said she knew of many customers who'd lost their sizable deposits and still never received a pool. CBC News agreed not to use her last name because of the nature of work she does for the U.S. Government.
"I can think of any number of people who would like to lay hands on this man. And I'm not threatening violence, but he has screwed over a lot of people. And his day is going to come," she said.
She paid Wittin $27,000 US and has received neither a pool, nor a refund.
Facing a difficult diagnosis in 2020, Chantelle Delion, of Kelowna, B.C., wanted a backyard pool for her three children while she faced multiple cancer surgeries.
She found Wittin's Seventeen Pools online and said he was responsive, engaging and seemed knowledgeable. From her hospital bed, she negotiated a price of $45,000 including delivery — and the family opened a line of credit to pay for it.
Nearly two years later, the pool she had expected in 10 weeks is nowhere to be seen.
"There's never been any remorse that I've seen anyways. If anything, it's been him blaming us," she said. "Kurt knew what I'd been going through that year … it was rough."
