Palapa Joes

We recently purchased a palapa from this company. We were so excited until we started to read their past reviews. I was hesitant until I reached out to one of their clients who had positive reviews, who put me at ease. Joe came out to install. The palapa was beautiful but it was definitely off centered. My husband had to call him out several times to come back and move it and each time he gave him attitude. My husband had to move it himself as we were having a pool party the following weekend. LESSON LEARNED… next time I just need to really read and trust reviews before deciding on a company or service..

I would put a zero if I could. I got a palapa put on about 4 years ago and it was supposed to be 100% waterproof. First rain it definitely wasn’t. They only put thatch around the perimeter didn’t put thatch on the top of the patio and it looked terrible. After arguing with him he put thatch on the top. I had to tell him how to waterproof it. It stayed sealed for about 2 years and has been leaking ever since.

What’s the point of having a website with prices less than half of what they charge! It’s ridiculous. The guy on the phone was also trying to convince that we should have them install it themselves for another $ 200 – 300. Uh, no thank you? It wasn’t that hard the last time we replaced our palapa cover. Also, we were even willing to go to the office to check on the quality of their palapa thatches in person, but they said they got nothing in hand, which I did find a bit suspicious… Either they don’t make the palapas themselves or they know the quality of their product is subpar.

Well, I’m happy to say… good thing I didn’t read these reviews before I called them! call on Sunday and it’s done today and it looks Great! Very happy with the guys that installed it. I would refer them to my friends: D

Oh wow. I see I’m not alone here. Robert overcharged me and I should have disputed it on my card but I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he would return the overcharge. 8 months have gone by. The overcharge wasn’t much but it’s the principle of the matter. It still has not been returned to me to this day.
The only reason I went ahead with the rethatch and paid his asking $ 550.00 dollars for dead palm leaves, is that he said that they give a 1 year warranty. Like I said it’s been 8 months. I have a 2.5 year old son where health is the number one important thing in my book. The thatch is full of mold and it was discovered by someone working in my yard. To think that my son likes to stand on the coping of the spa and that thing is molded over it makes me very angry. So at least it’s been within one year right? Robert refuses to cover it — he now claims he told me that a 1 year warranty does not apply to rethatches! SO WHY TELL ME VERBALLY BEFORE WE BEGAN ABOUT YOUR ONE YEAR WARRANTY??? Subliminal sales tactic? I shouldn’t even give free advice but: You want to make pennies think pennies. If you want to make millions, think millions — but to think millions you can’t nickel and dime people for little stuff, especially if you want future business, not just from them, but from their friends, family, celebrities they may know, you name it.
By the way: My original thatch never molded in 5 years. The cheaper thatch that Robert and his partner used molded within 5 months and was definitely lesser quality and even attracted moths.

I wanted to make some comments about Palapa joes and dealing with Palapa dealers in General. I recently had Two palapas installed by this company and structurally I dont think they could be any better. Aesthetically they look very nice but a lot of finishing details were not attended to and I will list them below.
One layer of thatch not two as they list on there website… They say with a hard roof you only need one but it doesn’t look as nice.
No Roping on joints … They say they dont do this any more because the rope looks dirty and weathered after a year or two… According to there website a palapa is not finished without the joints being «roped» In frustration I asked for them to give me roping to finish it myself and they thru me ten feet, and I am sure ill need 200 feet.
I also would say that the true great experience was not had here as there start date was missed by a week and there was no updating about scheduling until I called a number of times to find out where they were.
Now for general notes.
Make sure with any contractor you know in writing what the expectations are.
List Items or add pictures to your aggreement so all parties understand what the expectations are.
Have a timeline up front and make them stick to it or have a daily deduction penalty.
In general I would say this is a quality Palapa builder that lacks on delivering the final product that they sold you. I would not want my customers to want to write a reveiw detailing what I didnt do when spending another hour on the job doing the roping and installing a nother layer of thatch would have kept all this to a glowing reveiw.!!

Had a palapa installed in my business when they installed it they said they only had one layer of thatch and that they would be back next week to install it. Well a month later and given the run around they still haven’t came out to install the extra layer of thatch and second the table wasn’t installed properly it already loose an wobbly about 2 weeks in it. When I commented them on the table they told me to go to home depot buy some parts and to screw it in myself!!! What kind of service is this?
2months later and be given the run around finally had the table fixed but still no 2^nd layer of thatch installed (which i paid for).