No pictures.

But yes every natural stone has fissures and cracks.

I am a fabricator. It is normal for the stone to have some areas that are not glassy smooth. Given all the different materials that make up a typical tone countertop it's inevitable that sometimes there will be inclusions in the stone that don't polish to a perfect finish. Some stones get glassy smooth, many do not. The more exotic stones, which includes your quartzite, more frequently have surface irregularities.

My stone which is a different quartzite has areas in the light that look like polished glass and areas that look like they forgot to smooth it out. It has teeny fissures in places that if you run your fingers over, you can feel. All normal.

If they sent you the wrong cuts ... does that mean that you did not pick out your own slabs? Taj Mahal slabs can vary quite a bit in looks.

I had Taj Mahal installed about 3 months ago. My sink cutouts are perfectly smooth. No bumpy edges. Yes, you can see crackling in the stone, but they can't be felt. There is one fissure I can feel but it is near a corner at the end of the peninsula, so not an area that will be used for food prep. I paid a premium for a fabricator that has been doing this for a long time and produces great work. He is a bit flaky on scheduling, but worth the wait.

If you can already feel cracking, it might not take much to chip your sink edges if you bump into it with pots/pans.

Quartzite is a natural stone but much more easy to work with than marble, for example. It is easier for maintenance and much more durable, too. Fissures are normal but there shouldn't be many. Fabricator's skill and experience is very important here, as well as their tools. See what is acceptable for you. Also, when choosing natural stone, it is extremely important to choose your own slabs -- always, always choose the stone by looking at slabs, not samples. A sample cannot show you the whole surface. Colors and overall appearance will vary in different slabs. This means that different slabs of the same stone will look differently -- some will be lighter, some darker, some will have different shades and swirls of color. You should personally pick a slab you love.

You beat me to it Oldryder, thank you. I think what Aqua may have meant is it's easy to take care of once you have it installed.

My sense for Sarah's original question is that this is a fabricator error. Quartzite can be brittle, and from what I hear from Oldryder and others, it's super tricky and slow to cut.

Oldryder said

“A $3500 set of diamond CNC router tools will last for 20-30 jobs on typical stone. Quartzite can wear out a set of tools on a single job. “

Wow. I had no idea. No wonder fabrication for quartzite seems pricey.