Granite delay has me miffed

annie1956

13 years ago

a little vent here. I guess we're at the mercy of the fabricator who put himself at the mercy of the warehouse.

Beginning: We saw River Gold at the local granite shop/fabricator. They sent us up to the warehouse to pick it out. After reading these boards we go up there, camera in hand ready to pick "our" slab. This HUGE (must've been 3 football fields big - good thing I already picked what I liked before I went there or I would've spend all day in a daze) place - the girls walks you to the slabs and says these are the River Gold. There were about 10 in the lot. And no we couldn't pick one - too much to be moving them around. They were all from the same lot so they were all going to look similar. (ok - so we are agreeable people).

So - that was Saturday (10th). Monday the 19th they template with delivery on Monday the 26th. I get a call on Friday the 23rd - the granite has a crack in it and has to be returned. Am told new slab would be sent Monday/Tuesday this week and be in late this week. (Owner tells me this).

DH calls on Wednesday to check on things. Salesman tells him that the slab isn't even in yet! Not due in until today and we aren't scheduled for install until next Thursday!!! Apparently warehouse won't send down truck w/o full load (I think that's BS). DH asked them if they use other suppliers - Salesman said - yeah lots. So why didn't they get it from another warehouse? (duh-I don't know?)

So DH is pissed we have to wait another week. I'm miffed. And it just stinks that they have you over a barrel.

Or is there anything else I can do? They have 1/2 our money.

(thanks for letting me vent)

A

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Comments (5)

numbersjunkie
13 years ago
I think you should find another distributor AND PICK YOUR SLAB! Do not let them tell you they all look alike. Read some of the threads here written by people who didn't pick their slab (or did pick them and then had them switched by the distributor). When you pick them, take photos and get serial numbers if possible.

Most places will move the slabs around so you can pick what you like. It is not an unreasonable request.
ellendi
13 years ago
Yes, I agree with numbersjunkie, the slabs that do look alike are ones that were processed one after the other. As if was explained to us it is sort of like slicing bread. Each "slice" in this loaf will be similar. But, it you go back next time a whole new lot might be in and even though it is River Gold is might not look like the one you first selected. When we picked our granite, they gave us a sharpie and we marked our name on the slab. Even the color variation can be way different.
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User
13 years ago
My best granite fabricator's lead time is 4-6 weeks after template. He's pretty busy. I have another (solid surface) whose lead time is only 3 weeks. Due to the lessing popularity of Corian, he's not doing as much business as the first, as you can imagine. I had a fabricator start up in this town a couple of years ago with 7 day turnaround. He didn't last. Couldn't float the overhead of such a commitment long term. It's NOT "BS" that only full truckloads are shipped. If you start shipping partials, the price goes up and the business suffers. One tankload of diesel per slab is a pretty poor overhead expense unless the customer is willing to accept an upcharge for expediting the job. Longer lead times are more "normal" than shorter ones in the industry as some of the fly by nights are getting weeded out.

Overall though, jobs have picked up. More people are renovating and staying put than moving these days.

But, you should still be able to pick your slabs. They should allow you to do this as they already have time and effort spent on the job. And that's the same reason you should stick with them. They've already spent time with you and they have your money. They're not giving you an unreasonable scenario here, other than not being able to pick the slabs. Demand that, and everything else should hopefully be OK.
riverspots
13 years ago
As long as the slabs are from the same lot and in sequence, you'll be OK. Better that bookmarked slabs are used for seams than if individual slabs are handpicked. If you have reservations, ask the fabricator to see how the templates will be laid out on the slabs sent to them.

My fabricator is busy and runs a tight schedule-granite gets installed 2 wks to the day after templating. I suspect a cracked slab would have set the installation back a full two weeks. If you only have a week delay, you're doing good. In this economy, most companies are working with minimal staff and don't have the help to make extra deliveries or accomodate change in fabrication schedule. You certainly don't want the fabricator rushing, squeezing your job in between two others, just so you can have your counters a few days earlier.
annie1956
Original Author
13 years ago
riverspots - you are pretty much confirming what our fabricator told us. We were pretty agreeable (and could understand) the "same lot" concept.
But - the cracked slab wasn't our fault. What seemed to be irritating was that they just figure you will wait until whenever for them to get a new slab (turns out it is from a different lot anyway) and get it done instead of trying to find it sooner from a different supplier. The owner told us one thing (new slab would be in w/i 3 days and we'd be delivered w/i a week) when in actuality the new slab didn't get delivered until this past Friday (a week later) and they weren't going to install it until this Thursday. And that was with DH complaining about the time frame. It would have been longer.
I was afraid if he actually pulled back our deposit we would have been weeks without a countertop. So they really do have you by the ....
I'm sure it will all be worth it.

Granite delay has me miffed

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numbersjunkie

ellendi

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Granite delay has me miffed

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