Mcdonald Marble & Stone Inc

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Extremely poorly and I'm sorry this story is so long, but you have to read it to believe it. We chose McDonald Marble and Stone because their prices were competitive and we liked the no-pressure, "just the facts" sales style of the manager Kristin McDonald. However, our initial impression of her unfortunately hid a serious lack of professionalism with her company that would haunt the project and make installing the countertops the most stressful and single worst part of our entire home building project. Problems began when they delivered our large island granite slab and it had a crack running about 14 inches diagonally from the middle to the side of the stone and clear underneath it as well. This crack was visible when we went to their shop to pick out the stone and have it measured and we were alarmed, but Kristin helped us tape off our section away from the crack and told us we had no worries. So when the stone showed up in our kitchen and it's cracked we were very disappointed, but the real disappointment was when the installer tried to convince us it was just a "fissure". We are aware that granite that can have fissures which are a part of the natural character of the stone and usually run with the patterns of the stone (there are several in this stone now actually). But this was clearly not a fissure as it ran opposite the natural patterns and underneath the stone as well and every sub-contractor and visitor instantly asked "why it was cracked" upon walking into the kitchen. One of McDonald's own installers was overheard talking to another worker and called it a crack himself! Yet the install crew disputed this with us so we called the owner. She told us she would replace the stone and didn't really argue with us about it. We were happy she saw things our way. Unfortunately, it got worse from there. When the guy came out to replace the stone several days later he decided it was a good idea to argue with my wife and tell her again that it was not a crack (even though he had been ordered to replace it already so it was moot! Why argue at this point??). My wife told him she really didn't want to argue about it anymore, but he insisted on pressing the issue which really upset her...for no good reason! Not only that, but during the replacement install he damaged our island cabinet and trim work breaking two trim boards. He also tracked red clay mud from our front yard right over our new carpets in our bedroom, staining them on the very day they were being installed! No apology and he left without mentioning either. When my wife emailed Kristin she said she was so sorry and had never had a job go this poorly and would make it right. We understand things can go wrong and were at least happy she was admitting how poorly this was going and seemed to want to make it right. But when I got home that day I also noticed the sealant they had finished the stone with was done extremely poorly (their were spots that were thick, glossy, and glaring and other spots that looked like they had no sealant). This was supposed to be a honed and leathered finish with little to no gloss or shine and here were sporadic puddles of thick glossy sealant. It looked terrible. At this point our builder stepped in and called Kristin and told her about politely told her about the sealant issues and, in a very nice gesture, that he would take care of shampooing our stained carpets and repairing the island cabinets if she would just come out and simply look at the sealant job to see if it could be improved. The first thing Kristin did was snap at him and say that he could just get his money back and they would come and rip the stone out of our island again and be done with us. He was being kind. She was being rude and unreasonable over what was clearly a terrible experience of her company's own creation. We were ready to move into our house and didn't want to start over. Luckily, our builder called one of the stone companies he regularly works and they came out and saved the day for free! They instantly saw that the sealant was applied incorrectly and worked for a half day removing the old finish and spots were it was applied too thick. Our stone looks terrific now so thanks to them. We never heard from McDonald again, save the bill. So that's the story. Tell me how I am supposed to rate this experience and this company higher than a D? I just wish McDonald would have realized that giving up on a project is not an answer when the errors and mistakes are your own fault. Apparently, the customer is just a part of their process and not someone that comes first or even second for that matter.

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