Pickleball has become all the rage, but when a neighborhood in Aurora tried to join in on the hot new trend, they got burned.

At 40 years old, the weathered and worn tennis court at the Willow Ridge community in Aurora doesn't have a lot of game. That's why, in 2022, an effort was made to give it new life as a pickleball court.

The court was covered with plastic "versa tiles" and, at first, it looked like the community got an upgrade that residents like Carole Scott had waited to enjoy for decades.

 "It looked great! It looked like a pickleball court," Scott said with excitement before her tone dramatically changed to disappointment, "but it wasn't. The balls don't bounce."

No matter how many times Scott and her neighbors tried to play pickleball, the new sports court seemed to fail. From inconsistent bounce-back to an uneven and cracking surface, it was seemingly impossible to play a game.

"There was a report that one woman had actually fallen and either broke or sprained her wrist," said homeowner Teresa LeGare.

That's when LeGare decided to do some digging by questioning the HOA about the then-board's decision to hire Texas-based playground company to install the $140,000 plastic sports court.

"When you're going to spend $140,000, I would've liked to have seen a contract. What are your terms, conditions, warranties? What are we getting and what's the playability of this product?" she said. "And they got none of that, and the board apparently didn't ask for it."

Frustrated with the lack of documentation and lack of a functioning pickleball court, Scott and LeGare both joined the HOA board. Hoping to find a solution, LeGare said she made several calls and emails to PlayWell's general manager and the local sales rep.

"They said, 'Well, you didn't tell us it was for pickleball. We didn't know that,'" explained LeGare. "And I said, 'You striped it for pickleball, so I don't know how you could claim you didn't know the purpose.' So, it became a he said-she said, David and Goliath situation."

Over the last three years, LeGare said she and the HOA kept trying to reach some sort of compromise with the company, but eventually their calls and emails went unanswered. LeGare reached out to CBS News Colorado in hopes we would have better success reaching the company's GM or sales representative, but our multiple calls and emails never received a response.

"It doesn't surprise me at all," said LeGare. "It's really disappointing."

And the community is at a loss, in more ways than one.

"We literally just pulled in a dumpster and paid a company, and it cost us $3,600 to throw it all in the trash," LeGare said of the plastic tile court.

It's a costly lesson learned, LeGare admitted. She and Scott equally blame their former board, management company, and PlayWell.

"It's a 50-50 kind of thing," said LeGare.

LeGare said she hopes this experience serves as advice for anyone living in an HOA to pay attention to board meetings.

"We all weren't really tuning into the board meetings and what they were spending and doing," she said.

And, LeGare and Scott both recommended that anyone looking to install a pickleball court should make sure they find a company that plays well with others.

"We were being the guinea pig for this surface, and it didn't work," Scott said.