World Of Granite

They were hired to fabricate the granite countertops for our kitchen renovation. We were promised direct hands-on input as to layout of the slabs and how they would be fitted in our kitchen. The slabs were delivered to their facility and at no time were we invited to the layout of the slabs. We trusted their professional expertise until the slabs were delivered in our kitchen. The adjoining center (and center of attention) piece was obviously put in backwards. The light areas in the stone were placed against the dark areas and vice versa. It is extremely obvious in one area in particular (almost black vs. white) The sink was already cut out so there was no turning back. We immediately spoke out about our dissatisfaction with the placement of said piece to the installer. Rita, nor her husband, Paul, would return our call the entire time the installers were finishing the job. Rita and Paul (World of Granite) would later claim that the slabs were flawed. Why Granite Retailer and the fabricator both didn't catch this flaw in the beginning is amazing to us. The installers immediately left the premises for "lunch", when in reality, went back to the warehouse to bring us the "flawed" piece......knowing we would not be happy with the seam by the sink. My wife was handed a receipt to sign and was asked for a check. It turned out the receipt was a letter of acceptance, which she didn't read in detail and in all honesty she was very excited to finally have counters in her kitchen. We tried to dispute the install as being botched and perhaps a refund of some kind should and could have been offered. We were threatened with a lien and lawyers when we threatened to stop payment on the check. Paul the owner finally did come out and look and take pictures after acknowledging I had a legitimate gripe on the phone. His explanation was the slab had a natural fissure and this fissure would have ended up over my dishwasher and potentially could have opened up in the future. My response was why wasn't I informed when said fissure was discovered? A phone call at that time was critical as I could have purchased another piece of granite to blend the seams better. No answer or response was given leading me to believe the fissure was discovered late in the fabrication process, something the slab warehouse manager described as " a fabricator oversight". In the end the receipt / letter signed by my wife was a letter of acceptance and legally I don't have a leg to stand on. This is not how customers and homeowners should be treated especially when dealing with expensive "no room for error installs" such as granite.