OntarioMom: Thanks once again for the reply. My wife and I first went to Stone Innovations and talked to the nice lady at the counter, she was very helpful and eventually showed us the dozen slabs they had in the back but recommended other slab locations. She answered all our questions and invited us to have them give us an estimate when we found the granite/quartz we choose. We then drove to Granite Worx where we spoke to Rob and toured the dozens of slabs they had and again we were asked to allow them to be there fabricator by giving us an estimate. We were told that type of granite we looked at which had blotches were a grade four to five and would cost approximately $70-$80.00 per sq. ft installed. We didn't find anything we liked there so we went to our last slab place. One the way home we stopped off at MSI International and had to sign in and were led to the slab area. They don't fabricate but did mention it would take approximately 1/2 hr to tour the 4 rows of 3 cm granite rows. In a matter of 10 minutes were were ready to leave as there was nothing that caught our eye. There is no pricing on any slab, only grading which I'll assume the fabricator then prices out our requirements. Next week we'll try, HillTop,and Interstone.

Congrats!!!! As to why he changed his tune: Well, he's getting the slabs for free, right? And as far as what actually happens in a dispute, here's the explanation. It's a temporary credit that the CC company issues to disputer's account. The merchant only gets the payment reversed if the CC company decides in the disputer's favor. So no payment is withheld. "How does the dispute process work? After gathering information and any documentation you may have, we issue a temporary credit to your account while we investigate the transaction. We then notify the merchant of your dispute. If the merchant responds, we evaluate the information provided. If we decide in your favor, a credit is issued to your credit card account from the merchant's account and the temporary credit we had issued is reversed. If we do not decide in your favor, the temporary credit we issued during the investigation is reversed. If the merchant does not respond, we decide in your favor and a credit is issued to your credit card account from the merchant's account and the temporary credit we issued during the investigation is reversed."

Personal experience here, but please note, not all businesses are created equal. We had several bids on a granite project here, and we chose the guy we liked the best (local, friendly, hungry) with the cheapest bid. Holy hell broke out! He really had no idea what he bid on, but he stuck by the contract, and he did eat his profits in overtime and extra expense. It was a learning experience for him, but he was gracious. If he ever gets a project like we gave him, I'll bet the bid will be on the high end. He took photos of the finished thing, and everyone who visits calls this their favorite room. Custom is custom, but a contract is a contract. They should eat that extra slab in my opinion. Our project was difficult because of an extreme curve intercepted by posts. The granite cracked twice, and the wood backing it popped off like a boomerang! Tough project, but been in place for a year, and all is good. Oh, here is a link to what they did at our house. They were all out here last 4th of July trying to finish prior to our guests coming! They did go the second mile, and I would highly recommend this company local to us! Here is a link that might be useful: Granite Bar Top

Here's the dealio on the "dissappearing slab" issue - CA$H IF YOU paid someone to secure THE SLABS that you originally fell in love with and those slabs got "lost" after you wrote the check - then something ELSE is stinking like a red herring in Denmark........ Terilee: IF you paid your contractor a deposit to "secure" the slabs - and then the slabs were "lost" - your contractor is at fault and should do things to "fix" the issue - like pulling your slabs out of his ARSE to make you happy.... The problem here is that contractors get paid the deposit, then they don't apply those same funds to securing the slabs in question - they use your deposit money for something else. So then.......... the slabs that YOU fell in love with are still "available" (even though YOU put down a deposit to "lock the up for you") anyone else can aquire YOUR chosen slabs........ Your contractor usually has five days - from the time YOU sign on the dotted line - (affriming that yes in deed - THESE are the SLABS FOR ME) until he has to EITHER issue a Purchase Order to the distributor to have YOUR slabs shipped to his shop, or pay COD to hold the slabs or have them delivered to his shop - in accordance with the time line on your project. IF NO MONEY IS PAID to the distributor - he's NOT going to hold any slabs for anyone - no matter how much in love you are with your Delicatus.... THAT's the way this business works. They will NOT hold a slab with out some money being thrown into the mix. No tikki - no washi!!!! This could have been the case here..... maybe - maybe not -the fact of the matter is now - you have to FIND your slabs all over again, and this time - MAKE SURE that the slabs you pick are the the slabs you get. I'd stay away from using the grease pencil all over tha face of the slab as some stones will absorb the grease pencil and it'll be hard to remove all of that residue - kind of defeats the purpose - you'll get your slab, but it'll take an hour or so to get all of the grease pencil off the face - I would write it all on the BACK of the slab instead - as it's a really good idea, just not (IMHO) on the polished face of the stone..... does that make sense? Anyways - hth - Like a great Urologist told me a long time ago: This too shall pass........ hth kevin