your giving me a panic attack. I did not use benchmark but I picked my stone from OHM. I keep thinking the same thing, what if they dont use the slab I picked..what if they pick a crappy one from a different lot...etc...
I cant wait until this is done with.
Im sure we are both being paranoid, Im sure everyone probably has the same feelings. IM SURE your stone will look gorgeous when it's all done. Hang in there

Uh...first rule in granite: be present when they template the granite. I would not accept the granite that you have installed now. I would want it all redone. There's no way that they can guarantee anything if you have movement as you're suggesting. You need to call the fabricator so you can work this out. Peruse these posts and find all the rules we've written time and time again so people don't make mistakes ordering, templating, and knowing WHEN to accept a granite as installed.

jess, call tomorrow. They cannot guarantee a match to your granite now, especially if it's to abutt another piece.

I would be very nervous..we had picked out our 2 stones and when we went back to put the template on the stones they had another half piece sitting there that they wanted to use instead of cutting the 2nd stone..well it did not match at all and they were trying to convince us that it did..I asked them to put the 2 next to each other and they were not even close..mine was brown the one they wanted to give us was pink which i def. did not want..I am so glad that i took everyone advice to go and pick out the stones and be there when they place template on stone...even now i am weary about when they come to install..hope they do a good job..

When we first picked out our stone and put the deposit down, they went through the ceremony of putting your name on the slab. Ha! that meant nothing. I was insistent about picking the part I wanted on the peninsula so I had to go revisit "my slab". It was not our slab. They convinced me that it was by saying that it is part of the same lot and they are all identical like a slice a bread. I felt so uneasy that I sneaked back in to take a picture to compare with pictures we took from our original slab. To my surprise, that slab was different from the one I saw last. huh? I told them I wanted to see the exact slab that was going to be used in my kitchen and that's when they told me that they just take the next available slab based on the schedule so it doesn't matter if your name gets put on a slab, that slab will go to the next job scheduled. He guaranteed me that our job was next so I was looking at my slab. It worked out because I happen to like that slab more than the original but what if I didn't? Granted, they were all in the same family but to me a slab is like a painting. You fall in love with certain variations, pattern, coloring that may not be present in the next slab depending on stone. I came very close to showing up when they were actually cutting my stone, (which I would recommend to anyone that is really concerned) but definitely try to "visit" a few days prior to fabrication and ask to see the stone they are going to use for your job.

jf595...you're so right. I put down $4,000 to "HOLD MY SLABS" until they were ready to fabricate. I needed 5 slabs and those jerks used one of the MIDDLE slabs that was supposed to be for my 4'x 8' island!! Plus, anything else they had was too pink. SO................... I told them if they didn't come up with the EXACT slab to cancel the order and refund my money. I told them another guy had a granite I liked equally as much and maybe this happened to lead me to the other guy. Guess what? They found my slab. How do I know? Because, I too, had taken photos and had a spectacular pattern in the granite I wanted captured in my island.

We got our granite from OHM also. From what we found, and based on what our fabricator told us, I would say you should have no problem trusting OHM, but I will say mistakes happen. The sales person from our fabricator said one slab. But when it came in and he saw the slab he said get the second one. Unfortunately OHM pulled the wrong sequance. We found it when we stopped by to check in with the fabricator. When we pointed it out, they quickly called OHM and got the next slab in the sequance for us. Like I said mistakes happen. Since OHM numbers the sequeance of the slabs you should have made note of the numbered slabs you wanted. Thats what we did and thats how we knew they were out of sequence.

The end result, an almost perfect match at the seam on the flow of the granite.

OK just wanted to update. Benchmark did a great job at coming together and refabricating this piece from another stone in that lot-and it's a great match. Seam looks good (colors look odd in the pics-different flashes):

The real color is probably somewhere in the middle.

And the counter no longer looks orange now that it's all installed-and I can see the movement I remember from the stone. It looks beautiful, and I have to give credit to Benchmark-they stopped production on other work, and stayed late, and forced the rest of my install in the next morning.

I am loving my kitchen-just wish I could get through knob hell, LOL!

It looks fantastic! Im glad everything worked out. Not sure what kind of knobs your after but check out my thread from this morning re: knobs. Here is the link to a great web site I found. The quality is excellent, they have a nice weight to them and they dont feel cheap. I saved a lot of money, over half of what I would have paid through Top Knobs.

Here is a link that might be useful: knobs and pulls