TILE GUYS

Based on glowing recommendations of a major tile retailer in Atlanta, I hired this company to retile our bathroom. My husband and son did the demolition, so they had a clean slate to work with. They began installing the marble tile and mosaic at the agreed time, and completed the work in less than a week. John Bogigian, a co-owner, oversaw the installation, and after allowing the floor to dry for several days, John returned to apply the penetrating sealer. By the next day, it was obvious that there was a major problem with the sealer, so I called John to ask him to come to look at the streaky, mottled surface. He came to see the floor and acknowledged that the sealer was faulty, but promised to fix it, "even if they had to tear out the tile and start over." He returned a week or so later, and tried (for about 2 to 3 hours) to remove the sealer, with very little success. He returned a few weeks later with a rep from the sealer manufacturer, who also acknowledged the problem with his product, and who recommended a more aggressive stripper. A few weeks later John visited with the recommended product, tried for less than an hour to strip the surface, but it wasn't effective. He said he'd talk to the rep again and get another stripper. He made one more attempt (less than an hour), and was again unsuccessful. During this process, there were several occasions when he didn't show up for scheduled appointments, and the excuses were "Oh, I forgot," "I came but nobody answered the door," "I called ahead, but got no answer," or some similar excuse. He later would say he'd "gone to the wrong house," etc. I called the other co-owner Scott Pass and left messages asking that he itervene, and although he never called me, John would get in touch shortly thereafter. I never challenged his obvious lies, as I had paid the entire fee once the tile work was finished, and didn't want to antagonize him - I had no leverage. In November, when John became totally uncommunicative, I again contacted Scott, and he said he was aware of the problems with John and obviously needed to intervene. After a couple of false starts, Scott came to the house and said that the sealer was an obvious problem and he'd take care of it. He brought a contractor recommended by the sealer manufacturer to assess potential remedies. The contractor told me that resurfacung the marble would cost $1,000, but that there was a small amount of acid etching caused by a solution my cleaning company used, and that accounted for about half of the cost. The spots were clearly visible when you entered the room, so I wasn't hiding anything. I wasn't aware that there was damage, and thought that the spots would come uo when the sealer was stripped. I e-mailed Scott, and said I'd talked with the cleaning company and they were willing to pay $450, and asked Scott to contact me about an equitable settement of his portion of the remediation. He responded that he wouldn't do anything further, and that the acid etching was the sole damage, although the contractor specifically said that there were two separate problems! I threatened to take him to small claims court, but to my dismay, discovered that he'd dissolved his corporation in 2009, no longer occupies his listed business address, has no business license, and has scores of residential addresses listed on line, so it will be very difficult to sue him. I'd have done much better due diligence if the tile distributor's showroom manager hadn't raved about this company. Fortunately, the cleaning company will defray almost half of the remediation cost, but this has been a nightmare. Learn from my mistake, and NEVER HIRE THE TILE GUYS!!!!!!!