We sent three slabs of our quartzite to the fabricator early in our build. Same thing. Fell in love with the slabs and our house colors were designed around the colors in the slabs. Thankfully they did get the right slabs, but when it came time to use the third slab for our outdoor area, we were told the slab had cracked and broken.

I asked for pictures showing that it had. They instead showed me remnants. Remnants that it was clear that it had been cut and used. They hounded us for payment we still owed them. We never paid them the last amount. Told them to show us the broken slab with pictures. Five years later, and I'm still waiting on those pics.

Your slabs are gone; forget about them please. I'd take pictures of the replacement slabs.

Yes, I am guessing “my” slabs are gone and the slabs that they are trying to pass off as mine I don’t like. I’m still waiting to hear back what fabricator is going to do about this

Are there any other stone yards in your area? Maybe check out their Taj Mahal slabs to see if you like them as well (or hopefully better) as the ones you had?

If they sold your slabs, I would be so mad that I would have a hard time giving them my business.

The part that makes me the most angry is when they try and sneakily give you slabs they know are not the ones you picked and then think you won’t notice. They must have a big laugh whenever they actually get away with it.

They will apologize profusely and claim it was an honest mistake, but I have no doubt it was done on purpose.

They probably busted another customer’s material and offered your beautiful slabs to replace it.

Or maybe someone wanted to buy some Taj but they didn’t like the color or variation of what was available. Instead of losing the sale, suddenly someone says they by chance a few slabs of Taj in the back of the yard “hiding” that are just perfect for them. 🙄

I just hear stories like yours happening way too much for it to not be a purposeful “mistake”.

Cpartist that was so smart to insist on pictures. I can just imagine them saying, “Just give it up dude. No way you’re conning money out of that bada$$ lady with the New York accent.” Lol!

If you have the control #s of the slabs you reserved and can, therefore, prove the ones they're trying to foist on you aren't the slabs you put a down payment on, then they should, at the very least, refund 100% of your money since they're the ones who broke the "contract".

Like others said, I would not trust them again and would not want to reward them with more money & work!

(I also think it was deliberate, not a mistake, since we have heard the same type of story over & over & over here over the years.)

It happens. Probably someone who does more business with them (Builder or designer) talked the fabricator into selling them your slabs.

As @Buehl said, this kind of thing has been reported on this forum many times. I will say though that 5 months is a long time to hold slabs. Typically these holds are for a month or less. That is not an excuse for the stoneyard. It's only a lesson to others reading this thread that either try to make the hold time shorter, or don't reserve slabs so early in the project, or if you do reserve them very early, keep coming to the stoneyard every couple weeks to check on your slabs to ensure that they know that you are keeping tabs.

Very often this turns out to be a happy accident. I cannot tell you how many times people report this issue happening, and then report back that they found other slabs that they like even better! Therefore my recommendation is to get a refund for your deposit, and go shopping for more Taj Mahal elsewhere.

Of course, no one ever got back to me today. I will keep you updated - thanks for the advice.

I would hop in the car and take a ride to the stone yard.