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Greetings: This is my first venture over here...and I am in great need of sympathetic ears...and somewhere to vent!
Here's my tale of woe: We needed to replace our shower door (shattered, so it was no option)...and after a very frustrating experience with that (I won't go there)...the door was scheduled to be installed when...duh...I looked at the shower and realized the door was installed on the tile. The tile has issues going back to when we rented our home out and the renters' son apparently kicked a hole in the shower and it was patched (another story I won't go into...). Anyway, I suggested to my husband that it didn't make sense to have this door put on and then take it off again to redo the tile...right?
So, we delayed the installation...and I set out to get tile and have it done. Simple, right? (Is that laughter I hear??) After many frustrating experiences I won't go into, I found myself at a tile showroom. So, this is where the beautiful tile hides! Long story short, I picked out tile...purchased it...had it loaded (they do all the loading)...noticed that I was buying Italian tile (no wonder it was so expensive!) when I saw it on the boxes...felt very nervous about it, but was assured everything was correct.
You see where this going, don't you? The installers came this past Monday (lovely couple, no complaints there) and due to some just bizarre circumstances, I was gone almost the entire day. When I left, the old tile was being torn out...and I thought I'd be back before it really got going. Well, I returned and almost immediately received an emergency call from my neighbors' daughter...would I come and stay with her Mom (my friend for over 25 years) who is totally helpless in a wheelchair..by the way...from that wicked disease MS...as there had been a problem with her home health care helper...and she was alone and they couldn't get her on the phone (no wonder, she can't use it that I can tell)...I dashed over there to stay until the son came home from school...but he had baseball practice (poor guy, he already does more than most kids or adults could even imagine...I'm glad he can play baseball...he deserves a life, you know)...which turned out to be close to 5:00 pm...
Returning home, I saw the tile lady (sorry...what does one call folks??) with a piece of trim in her hand...and I said, "That's not my tile!" A look of sheer horror came over her face and we raced up to the shower...there...OMG...was my new BROWN shower!!! I just burst into tears. It's not that it isn't nice...it's just that the tile I picked out was very light. It's same the line...except what I have is the very darkest shade...and what I picked out was the very lightest shade.
And, worse (can you fell my pain?) is that I am a big gardener (why I'm on Dave's)...and I now have trim that has DEAD flowers on it all around my shower!!! Is that creepy or what?? Who wants brown flowers?? To make matters much worse, I now have to do the tub...and I just cannot get my head around going and buying more expensive tile...this time knowingly buying tile I don't like! Yikes. I am so sad...
More piling on...the reason I have the $$$$ to do this is because my DH spent six months in Afghanistan in harm's way...and this is some of that money...and look what has happened!
Oh yes. My tile installers said the numbers on my receipt match the numbers on the boxes. Like this is some consolation...because NOW I see on the bottom of the box some note about how nothing can be done once the tile is installed.
You know, if I was at the McDonald's drive thru...where mistakes practically always happen, I would have micromanaged every detail (you can bet I will from now on...), but I thought I was at some fancy we-know-everything kind of place.
I don't know whether I'm just mad or feel betrayed or hurt or what...but, it's not good. Thanks for listening/reading.
I still haven't gone back to the tile showroom because I can hardly talk about it. I'm hoping that they give me some sweet deal on the rest of the tile I need to buy (just grates on me to buy tile I don't like). The installers have already told me they will give me their discount (20-25%)...would have been nice to have known that first..but, anyway...so, I want something better than that ...like at least 50% Is this realistic?
Surely, this happens on commercial jobs and custom homes...who "eats" it in those cases? Plus, I was dreaming about down the road even tiling the floor...well, I can tell you...a brown tiled floor is totally out of the question!
Sorry about the big mess you've got on your hands here! If it's any consolation, the tile does look really pretty even if it's a little darker than you hoped! Unfortunately since you're the one who bought the tile and the number on the box matches the number on the receipt, you don't have much to go on for getting money back, discounts, etc except hoping that the tile company is nice and would like you to buy tile from them in the future, then they might give you something. It's definitely worth asking, I suspect ultimately it was probably the salesperson's fault, you showed them what tile you wanted and they grabbed the wrong box to ring up, but it's your word against theirs, plus they'll tell you that you should have opened the box and looked at it to make sure it was the right one. I expect most companies with decent customer service would offer you some discount on the remaining tile, but I wouldn't expect to get 50%. Maybe they will though, never hurts to ask!
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it. Sigh. You make good points. This was a gucci sort of place with assurances from the sales lady (who did point out a 25% restocking fee...but gave me no caution that they might screw it up and therefore I should check...even though I told her this was the first time I had done something like this...)...and the warehouse people...did assure me that they had pulled everything correctly (you don't get to do this)...I believed them. My sin/ my bad. I think the problem is that the number(s) on the back of the sample obviously do not match the product in the warehouse. A problem for sure (they may know about it now as I was told I was the first one to purchase this tile)...seems like so many chances to catch this before installation, doesn't it...but it didn't happen.
In hindsight (always good), before they loaded it into my vehicle...I should have insisted on them unwrapping and opening the boxes...who knew. I mean, the warehouse people pulled, apparently, what was on my receipt. Let this be a lesson to anyone else! The tile alone...just the tile...was over 1k (installation was even more)...so, it's not like I'm sad over a little thing...it's a major major expense.
It isn't logical, I think, to expect a buyer paying mega dollars to haul it all home, unload it...open it...go OMG...pack it back up, load it back up and haul it all back. A simple check with the customer at the warehouse where I saw them with individual pieces...like coming over to me and saying, "This is your tile, right?" would have saved me much heartache.
Let it be known...just because it looks fancy and you spend a lot of money and they act like they know what they're doing...or even tell you they know what they're doing...they don't.
I agree that it looks nice but I feel your pain. I wonder if you could just get the brown flower bit changed - just have those particular tiles taken out and leave the rest? Maybe that would be enough to make it feel better to you?
If you find out that the number on the tile in the showroom doesn't match the number on the boxes you got, then you might have a little more leverage with them--I'm sure they'll still tell you that you should have opened the boxes to check before the installers put it up, but at the very least then it's obvious that an error on their part is at least partially to blame.
When I worked at a store that sold tile we had something like this happen. The numbers on the boxes were all the same and they matched the number on the sample...but they didn't match the sample's color. The sample was a dark cobalt blue with #XXX123c which is what was marked on every box. But the boxes contained tiles that were a foam green! The customers installers picked up the tile and installed it before the customer ever saw it.
When they called us about it we checked the sample against the boxes remaining in stock and found the same problem. After contacting the sales rep for the tile mfg. Their response was that they would replace the tile at no charge and pay the shipping. They did not agree to cover the installation/uninstallation/ labor. Believe me, after that we checked the actual tiles instead of trusting the numbers on the box. Then we had customers wanting a discount because the boxes had been opened...sometimes you just can't win...
Thank you guys for the replies. It is so nice to have others to chat with it about.
I like that! Quality Control indeed!
Hmmm, that's a thought...since it is all the same line, going up (or down) in shades, perhaps a lighter one with flowers that aren't brown might work. If it would blend. But, I could tell that at the showroom, probably. That's a good a idea. Won't hurt to look. The one I wanted was slightly off white with green leaves (not that you can tell, but this one actually has teal leaves...there is absolutely no teal in my house, but whatever) and a light peach flower. Very delicate, light...and bright. Not dreary dark brown...not helped by the fact that the corner is dark anyway.
I so hope you're right. That's what I'm clinging to... I mean, the error was made there...and mine was not catching theirs. It's all so wacky when you think about it too long.
Oh, I'm so pleased to hear that. That's encouraging! I mean, at this point, I think I might be willing to pay for the installation again, if I didn't have to pay for the tile...as well. What's another twelve hundred...ha. But, you know what, the more I think about it...a lifetime is a long time to live with something you despise. I mean, I just think dead flowers is bad juju for a gardener.
The one wrinkle is the shower door. So, I guess I better go to the showroom tomorrow. My new shower door is scheduled for Tues. If they work with me about the tile, maybe I can get that door rescheduled...again.
Thank you all so much. I feel much better discussing it with you! I actually feel a bit encouraged for the first time in a couple days! Maybe this will work out somehow after all.
OMG your story sounds like my luck you poor thing . But I have to tell you I love the color I would die to have that in my bathroom . Good luck sweet heart
