Stone Source

The customer came in and wanted to select a slab to coordinate in her existing kitchenShe was looking for a full height backslash to go with her quartz countertopShe looked at material with Natalie initially, then later came in with her husband and they both loved the Calacatta Vagli stone Natalie rang her up, went over our paperwork, all of which is attachedNatalie was not their designer, was never even in the customer's home and is not responsible for making a decision The selections that Natalie had suggested the couple declined, but they both fell in love with the Calacatta VagliThe customer came in and nested the material - which means she selected exactly how it would layout with our production manager.When we went to install the material, we broke one of the piecesOur recourse is to cut a new piece and set a new installation dateBUT when we were installing it, she also decided that now she hated the way it looked and is putting the blame on our salesperson Natalie for a "poor design choice"The customer selected the pieces, and chose a product they lovedThey now regret their choice.She came in to select new material, the new material is not something that we stock, we priced it out for her and discounted it since we had broken a piece and because she was not happy with her choiceWe have large selection of material that we import, and we gear our customers towards those as they are the best valueTo buy an entire slab to remake a small piece, is something that costs us a lot of money, and we priced it accordingly.She was not happy with the discount that was offered and is trying to come up with any excuse not to take responsibility for her selectionsIf she selected a replacement out of our in-stock material, we could provide her with a larger discount.Attached are the contract, nesting paperwork, measure paperwork, etc that she signed off on before we cut her stone

Stone is repaired all the timeFrom the time it goes from quarry to factory where it is cut into slabs & polished, to arriving at our warehouse, after fabrication, and after installationWe have often repaired slabs that we sell, counters that are installed, even have repairs in our own showroom displaysThis is the industry standard and you can check with the Marble Institute of America of which we are a memberRepair is perfectly acceptable in the industry if it is unnoticeableMIA - http://www.marble-institute.com/consumers/See the homeowners guide to countertop installationPage refers to repair of cracks

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/05/13) */ [redacted] purchased on a radio auction a certificate for $She then signed a contract for countertopsIn this contract - it states "You have furnished the job measurements & selected the options from which we have estimated your stone requirements & cost, and you have reviewed & approved the estimateThe cost includes the stone, cutting the stone to fit straight counter lengths only, cutting for & mounting certain sinks & cooktops, finishing of cut edges, & installation of the stoneBacksplashes are not included in the cost unless specified in the invoiceIf you require additional material for your job than material specified in your invoice, the additional material & installation costs will be added." When [redacted] provided her original dimensions in order to receive an estimate via email - the drawing she gave does not show a upper bar piece behind her countertopIt has text stating "contiguous shelf/counter in front of the counter - from which any person looking at the drawing would deduct that it referred only to the countertop drawnI attached a copy of this drawingThe material she purchased we were in short supply of - the day it was sold we looked at the project, determined it would work, and moved forward with the saleWe arranged a field measure for her and set up an install date as wellAfter the measure when we reviewed her job - we realized that the upper bar was not in her estimate, and that we did not have enough material to complete the upper bar as a seamless pieceOur contract also states that all counters have seams, and that seam placement is at our discretion"Regardless, we sent [redacted] the layout for approval, the layout is attached as wellShe stated that she would like to have the upper bar as a seamless pieceFor this we informed her that she would need to pick a different material for the upper bar, or a different material alltogetherWhile this wasn't ideal for her, she agreed to come look at stones that might coordinateThe issue became that she does not think she should have to pay for the additional square footage (sf) she is wanting installedThe upper bar is an additional 14sf that she feels she is entitled toShe signed a contract based on her square footage that she reviewed, approved, and we allocated that materialWe were limited on this material..so if it we had known about the bar top before her job was started our response would be the same as it is todayShe still would have had to pay the additional for the top, she still would have to choose a different option to make the upper bar top seamless We have sent over multiple estimates with different options and updated information and tried to resolve this - however she simply does not want to pay for material she wants to have installedWe too would rather not work with someone who simply wants something for free, but we already have significant costs Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/05/27) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I will be going forward with the installation of countertop minus the bar as I don't really have any other choiceThe crux of the matter is two foldI had no idea that StoneSource didn't include the bar in the originally estimate and had I not objected to a seam being placed in the middle of the bar I wouldn't have been notified that I now owed them an additional $700+When I "signed the contract" I signed in good faith that the company was reputableAs a reputable company I would have expected that when the measurements exceeded what they originally thought I would have received a call questioning what happened and that there was going to be a substantial increase in priceThankfully the seam brought about conversation which led to me learning that they didn't know about the barRegardless, I accept that Stone Source assumes no responsibility in the error or the lack of communication regarding the fact that after measuring it was discovered an oversight or lack of communication in what I wanted, the result being an increase in the amount of money that would be about 1/more than I had originally plannedI will go forward with the work but I am absolutely not satisfied with Stone Sources response or business practices Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/05/29) */ The customer was notified about the seam placement and the increase in sf AT THE SAME TIMEThey did receive a call/email about what happened as soon as we had the opportunity to review all their paperwork It is very clear in the contract that the customer is responsible for paying for the sf that is installed Regardless, we don't want to work with someone who is clearly unreasonable and we will not be moving forward with the projectWe are giving them a refund for the charges on our end, despite excessive costs we incurredWe just spoke to [redacted] directly on the phone and told her this, and she was happy and thanked us for doing thatWe also spoke to the radio station that offered the gift certificate and they also agreed to refund the amount paid

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/12/16) */ I would like to see a copy of your invoice as I cannot find anyone with your name, phone number, address in my system and have no records of this supposed installation on the 14/15th Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (2000, 7, 2015/12/22) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) Stone Source installed a backsplashThank you for making it right

HI [redacted] , First of all I'm sorry for the lack of response [redacted] apparently did not see this in his emails This customer we did have problems getting their job completed correctly the first time around at each step, but Cora was in touch with her every step of the wayWe arranged dates with them, and coordinated the job to completionAnd the finished product is the bookmatched layout that they wanted While I understand that this caused some delay, all the issues were promptly addressed and the job was completed as plannedWe do not compensate for "extra time spent" - the customer understands in their contract with us that they are acting as a general contractor Thanks,

I am rejecting this response because: As per other reviewers with problems from Stone Source, we have seen that they have shown no ownership for any problems that have incurred We feel they are being untruthful and unprofessional We are disputing the fact that we had to pay an extra $to get our $2700+ counter to look nice! So many things went wrong with our install and we have received no compensation for them! The picture of the nesting they wanted to fabricate out of the remaining piece of granite looked horrible! The two pieces came together with no flow and the pattern actually was chopped with different colors from one to the next Of course we were not going to settle on an expensive counter that looked like that! We have the email from Cora that happily tells us the counter could be done seamless! It was never our fault that it broke during fabrication We should not be obligated to piece together two totally choppy pieces The lazy susan was a gift which we didn't ask for But, since it now has a price tag attached we might as well be reimbursed the $as well To this day they still haven’t acknowledged that the install guys did not have enough help in removing the counter and sink Let me be clear-they were STRUGGLING to remove them! They were standing there wondering how they were going to get it out My father saw this and offered to help Clearly if he wasn’t there they COULD NOT have done it Why do they not take ownership for this and also for the fact that the install guys were going to leave without taking the old counter and sink with them and when my father happened to notice and told them, they proceeded to argue? Talk about unprofessional! The install guys also were asking where the sink holes should be drilled Per my discussion with the measurer it was written on the template and they were going to be pre-drilled I had to insist that they had the template somewhere and they should go off that The guy finally said that it’s probably in the truck and went to get it The attached email by Jeremy tells about the problem with the counter not being installed correctly with the sink Again, this is where they are being untruthful and unprofessional The nesting shows the backsplash seamless! Cora never discussed a seam with us! As mentioned already Cora said it should have been hidden behind the faucet if the fabricators felt it needed one See the attached email that was sent to Cora regarding this as well As mentioned, I sent the picture that shows the seam to the left of the faucet in plain site per Cora’s request but never received any acknowledgement or resolution regarding this After Cora clearly was not going to take care of our issues we attempted to take this to the next level, the owners It is when they state they returned all emails and phone calls! We have never heard back from Reena or Lenny after multiple attempts