INSTYLE CHARLOTTE INC/INSTILE STONE CORP

Unprofessional! Use World Stone instead. Time from template to installation is longer than average. Vein matching quality was poor which generated multiple requests for template revision. The templates they provided for approval frequently had backward/upside-down pieces that required correction. Did not return phone calls/emails in a reasonable timeframe. Dented new vanity with installation. Did not use the sinks available as instructed during installation and did not include drill holes in templates, so they accidentally drilled 3 holes for each faucet instead on 1. When they had to correct this error by re-fabricating another slab, they created excessive construction delay by forcing me to re-template another virtually identical quartz slab. At the end of my project, I needed a 3” x 7” countertop side splash revised to a 3” x 11” piece due to a construction change. I tried to pay them to do this. They flat out refused and forced me to go to another fabricator, who was kind enough to generate this piece for me from a remnant for $37. I would not recommend this business!

Worked with Instyle store in Mooresville. Sean worked to find us just the right marble slab for our fireplace. Whole process went extremely well. Once marble slab was chosen, Instyle came to our home and made a template of our fireplace hearth and surround. We later went to their Charlotte location and placed the template exactly where, on the slab, we wanted it. Once cutout was completed Instyle installers came to install. Hearth and surround are stunning. We're so pleased, kitchen is next.

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Bad from beginning to end, hoping to get better and stuck it out a while then finally fired them.  We would have had a $10,000 job, for the house, but just couldn't deal with them. 

They will try to sell you 1/2 slab or full slab  wonder what happens to left overs you paid for, on the lot to sell to someone that needs small amount.  DISHONEST.  Told me they threw our leftovers away..we could have used elsewhere...do not use

If you see a good review, its from family or employee, I am sure.

InStyle employees are very professional in their communication and are punctual. I was a bit disappointed by the accuracy of the templating (inside cut-out for a rectangular undermount tub was not rectangular. Backsplash 0.5 inches too short. a few other things) and from which parts of the slab exactly our pieces were cut out, even though we came by the shop beforehand. Maybe just 5 inches here vs there but it makes a difference if you have sections with haevy waines.

Grant was fantastic from beginning to end. Extremely helpful and responsive. He went above and beyond to get the items we were looking for. The templates were very precise and the granite turned out beautiful. This is one of the best vendors we had the pleasure of working with during the construction of our home. I have done design work for years, wish I would have found this vendor years ago.

We had dealt with these folks before and they are easy to deal with.  The quality of the Marble, the beveling of the edge & around the bow cut out was perfection, and other than some confusion about the time they were to show up for the installation things went perfectly. 
When they did show up they came with an extra team who assisted in removing the old vanity top, disposed of it, and quickly installed the new Carrera Marble one.  They were very careful of the walls, floor, and cleaned up nicely.  We are very pleased to the point we recommended them to a number of our neighbors.

Installation of the kitchen countertops started on Good Friday – that went without a hitch.  The two fellows were very good and completed the job without incident.
The backsplash started on April 12 – they did get here earlier than anticipated – was told by Lorena that it would be later in the afternoon due to a big job they were on and would have to go back there on Friday morning.  I was surprised when they rang my bell at 9:40. James, I presume the supervisor, and two other fellows were here.    James laid out the staggered pattern along
with the brown accent piece.  He said that there would be 5 rows of brown accent on the bottom and four rows for the
top accent.   I asked James if he would have to roll out the refrigerator and he said no.  So, I told him that the peg board that is on
the floor in front of the stove is for when they moved out the stove so they would not chance marring the laminate floor. 
He agreed with me, then turned to the two fellows with him and told them, in their native tongue, what I said about the peg board.  
James hung around for about 30 minutes then he left.  The two fellows worked along, mentioning to me about heading off to lunch around 1:00.  They returned around 1:40 and they had another helper person with them.  Around 2:30, I came out to the kitchen to see how it was coming along and noticed the stove had been pulled out from the wall and the peg board was not under the
stove – it had been pushed out of the way.  I mentioned the peg board was there specifically for the stove to be put on it and they just stared at me.  The language barrier was enormous.  I took plenty of pictures in case the floor had been messed up from not utilizing the peg board.
They worked until arourd 5:15 and said they would be done for today. I asked when they would be back, the new fellow who came back with them from lunch said tomorrow morning – I asked what time and he said between 8 and 8:30.  
Saturday April 13, 2013
Well, it got to be 9:40 and I called both Instyle and Lorena asking where the fellows were to finish our backsplash – ended up leaving voice mail at both numbers.  Around 10:15, Lorena called me back and said they told her they ran out of the brown accent tile and could not finish the job until more was ordered.  I said to Lorena “then why did he tell me when he left last night that
he would be back here between 8:00 and 8:30?”  She said she did not know and she just heard that this morning.  I told her that you all take care of yourselves in your contract that I had to sign – if we were not ready we would be charged $50 an hour for the time they had to wait but when it is us that were left waiting – no compensation mentioned at all.   Also, I mentioned about telling James to utilize the peg board and he told the workers in Spanish about the peg board and if the floor was marred at all, they would have to repair it since I made it clear as to the use of the peg board.  She assured me they would make it all right.
She said she would have someone come back and put stuff back so we could utilize our kitchen while we waited another
week to get this job finished.  The fellow came back, put the switch plates back up, took his tools and materials
and left.  
Friday April 19
Received email from Lorena that morning with the time they were to come finish the backsplash – between
4:00 PM and 4:30 PM.  I was home by 1:30 in case they showed up early.  I called Lorena at 4:55 and left her voice mail asking her why no one was there yet and said that this is getting really old really fast –  5:22 – van pulled into the yard and four of the guys came out to finish the back splash.  They finished up (had to take out one tile and cut a new one to take its place) at 8:45 PM.  We thanked the guys, signed off on their sheet and they left.
While the workmanship of the backsplash turned out to be very good, the communications of the subcontractors really was non-existent except among themselves – it was difficult to talk or ask questions because English was very weak for them (at least that is the impression we were given).
BATHROOM COUNTERTOPS
The end of May I contacted Lorena to see about doing out bathroom countertops – she sent the estimate on the 28th and I signed it, mentioned we needed four sinks, so she updated the estimate.  They came out and did the template on June 5 and she said that June 12th would be the installation.  Templates went well. 
On June 11th, I sent Lorena an email asking if we were still on for the 12th – she said we were and Luis was doing the schedule and would call me shortly to schedule a time with me.   
Luis never called so I contacted Lorena Wednesday morning and said that I never did hear from Luis – she said that he must have had to leave before getting a chance to call me, but he did confirm with her that we are on the schedule and would be the second
stop for the day.   
I sat here all day on Wednesday – I got email from Lorena around 3:30 asking how the installation went – I wrote back that I don’t know because no one has shown up or called me.   She said that sometimes stops can run longer than expected and she would call them to see if they could have a time frame in mind.  My thoughts were that being second on the schedule doesn’t amount to anything.  They arrived at 4:40 PM and they were done at 5:50 PM.  
I told Lorena that it really did not make sense to schedule like they do, but she said they try to accommodate all of their clients’ schedules – it would be nice if their communications could be much better with their clients – I would put them in the same category as the cable guy who says sometime between 8 & 5 – it really is a waste of time to sit here just in case they come early because they certainly cover their butt as noted in my earlier encounter with our kitchen project.   If they have to wait for you, you have to pay them $50 an hour, but if you are waiting all day for them, you get no compensation for your time.  
The countertops went in well and look very nice, but I am very glad to be done with this company - it was frustrating to deal with the lack of communication on all accounts.  Maybe I'm being picky, but my time is worth something, too.
So, communications would be their biggest problem - tell me I'm second on the installation list, but maybe add that the first job is a big one and it may be late in the afternoon before they get over to your job.
 

They are wonderful. They are very professional and they take their time. They do what they are supposed to do. I got prices from several different people. Their quality is superior. They called me at 9 pm to see what I needed. I don't have any complaints.

Shopping at InStyle was great.  They were open on Saturday, have a well designed showroom, the workers were attentive, helpful and after checking in with us, left us alone to browse and brainstorm, but were accessible when we needed them to answer questions.  When one is going through the process of learning about tile and choosing colors/textures/materials for a remodeling project, while at the same time holding down a regular job, the Saturday hours were priceless, saving vacation time and allowing relaxed viewing and browsing of the different tiles.

They charged me about $2500 for that service. I thought that they did a great job and the countertops look great.

We first contacted Instyle to remodel our master bathroom. I visited the store, talked to the saleperson who came over to my house and measured and ordered the tile. Everything fine so far. While I waited on the tile, the salesperson that was helping me, quit working at Instyle. The next person i talked to, no a salesperson, but an employed contractor of Instyle sent one worker to my house to do the entire bathroom renovation. The worker whom it was very hard to understand, showed up late the first day, stkayed a couple of hours and left saying he had to go back to Instyle and he would come right back. He did not show up until the following day, late again, and by himself. He proceeded to tell me a story about a friend who had an acccident the previous night and said he had to go see him, but that he would come back in the afternoon. He never showed up. I decided enough was enough. Without any luck, tried tor each the contractor, who had failed to come over to see the 'construction site' as he called it, meaning my home. The following day when i finally reached him through the receiptionist, he said he did not know of the worker's whereabout and that he would try to find him. He also promised to send a crew and not just one person. When he finally showed up at my house with the other worker, he did not even introduce himself. When I asked him if he was the other crew member, he told me who he was. The person who i'd been talking to on the phone. The person who did not come over to see my ouse for three days, the person who did not know of his worker's whereabouts and the person who promised to send a crew and didn't. By now, my bathroom was destroyed. Half shower wall done, half jacuzzi wall done, jacuzzi in the middle of the bathroom, brand new, high end and very expensive faucets scratched and bent (they did not have the right tools). I had to order new ones. Tile, garbage, equipment spread all over the floor. I needed them to continue, since i had already purchased the tile and invested so much time and money and worst of all we were so close to Thanksgiving. For a fulll week i had the same worker, who was finally found. He showed up late every day would take a couple of hours off, come back, leave again. He always had an excuse. He was waiting for a helper, he was waiting for more tile to come in, etc.. By the middle of the week the worker took off nd said he would come back later on. He didn't come back until about 7 pm. That's when my husband told hidm to take his tools, to leave and to never come back. My husband and i tried to call the owner the compnay, Leonard (sp?). We were unable to reach him for days. However, my husband did talk to the contractor who had been completely unprofessional thus far. He said hw sould come by the house with a new crew of at least three and that he promised they would get the job done in 3 days maximum. Three days went by and my bathroom was still a mess, not rnearly done. By then it was Thanksgiving week. I had relatives from out of town visiting and my house was a coomplete wreck. There was dirt, tilel and mud from the front door througth the living room, through the den, and all the way to the master bedroom. We called the owner. Left several messages. He did not return our calls. I was finally transferred to him. I wish i had never talked to that man. I explained to him our situation, the behavior of his workers, and the fact that the job that was promised to be done within a week was taking six long, painful and frustrating weeks of dealing with inept employees and dealing with him, the owner, not wanting to take responsibility. To say the least, he was less than sympathetic. When I told him we deserved a discount, he rudely said he would refund me my money and hung up the phoone. To this day, we are stilll paying for that horrendous service provided by Instyle. I recently had to call another company to reinstall the kitchen sink which Instyle had installed previously. The kitchen sink was literally falling off of the granite counter. As if this was not bad enough, we found out recently that the ot and cold water lines had been 'crossed' An additional $1400 in repairs. We tried to forget this horrrible experience, even though we never received our refund check in the mail. It was truly a nightmare that we had to be reminded of a year later because of all the additional repairs due to Instyle's negligent, inept, shameful and irresponsible behavior. I am sure we are not the first ones to have such experience with Instyle. I do hope i willl save a lot of people the grief of having to deal with Instyle.

I spent a couple trips with Erika to look for slabs of granite. She then did a layout to help determine the needed number of slabs. For the wet bar, I just wanted a black galaxy remnant, but long enough to avoid seams, and sparkly. When the perfect piece came in, Erika set it aside for me. I also had trouble getting our contractor or plumber to handle the kitchen sink, and Erika stepped in and said they would take care of ordering it and holding it for us. Everything went smoothly. The granite looks fantastic and I can highly recommend Erika. The installers were very good as well. My only complaint is that it took a while for them to come back and do a touch up on the caulk, but it did get taken care of in the end. I highly recommend them.

When we started working, originally we paid for the tile in full and the granite was paid in three installments. The final payment was supposed to be picked up from our home. We gave it to one of their workers, but they claim they never received a check from us for the final payment. We had to stop payment on that check and issue a new check which was mailed directly to the company. At that time we had problems with the installation of the granite. We were told we needed to have supports for the granite, which we provided. They told us the supports weren't good enough. We had to pay our contractor to come back out to install the support for the granite. Then they didn't order the tile correctly; they ended up being short on the tile. Originally they told us we would only have to provide one payment for the tile. They then told us we needed to make an additional payment for the tile. They hounded me for the payment of the tile and then tried to charge us for additional work.

On the day of the counter install, they informed us they had dropped and broke our new sink. The only alternative was to install it cracked and broken and they agreed to order us a new one. Over two months later, they received a sink and installed it. It was the wrong color. They have never installed the right sink for us and have not responded promptly to a complaint from the BBB. They have received a final warning from the BBB over this. They also did a poor job of cutting and polishing the countertop and did not secure our dishwasher to the new countertop as they should have. The office and installers have been terrible to communicate with. At one point the owner, Lennart Wiktorin told Alexandra, who works in the office, to fix this and even told her it wasn't our fault. She has lied to us and will not talk to us on the phone. I have called and emailed the owner and he refuses to reply.

I CAN'T BEGIN TO EXPLAIN THE DIFFICULTY I HAVE HAD GETTING A RESPONSE FROM THESE PEOPLE. FIRST THE DIFFICULTY IN GETTING THE TILE IN STOCK, THEN THE SCHEDULING OF THE INSTALL. THEN TO TOP IT OFF, THE REP OVER ORDERED MY TILE BY 30%; THIS WAS IN THE AMOUNT OF OVER $400. THEN THEY TOLD ME THEY DON'T TAKE BACK TILE. I UNDERSTAND NOT TAKING BACK OPEN BOXES AND EVEN HAVING SOME OVERAGE, BUT A 30% OVER ORDER IS UNACCEPTABLE. I HAVE BEEN WORKING SINCE NOV. 4TH TO GET THE CREDIT THEY FINALLY AGREED TO GIVE ME DUE TO THEIR MISTAKE. I STILL HAVE NO CREDIT ON MY CARD. TWO PEOPLE AT INSTILE TOLD ME I WAS DUE THE CREDIT, BUT ALAS...NOTHING. I HAVE PLACED A MINIMUM OF 4 CALLS ASKING FOR AN EXPLANATION. YESTERDAY THE MANAGER TOLD ME I'D HEAR BACK FROM THEM BY THE END OF DAY TODAY, BUT I HAVE NOT HEARD ANYTHING. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY. UNFORTUNATELY THE INSTALLERS DID A GOOD JOB FOR BOTH TILE AND GRANITE, THEY WERE PROMPT AND COURTEOUS, BUT THE OFFICE STAFF IS A HUGE PROBLEM.

COMPANY HAD LOWEST PRICE, BUT WAS VERY HARD TO DO BUSINESS WITH. WE WENT TO THEIR SHOWROOM AND PERSONS WOULD NOT TALK TO US AND TOLD US TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT. ANSWERS WERE HARD TO GET AND THEY ACTED LIKE THEY WERE TOO BUSY. THE MAN WHO MEASURED WAS NICE AND ON TIME, BUT INSTALLERS SPOKE SPANISH AND WERE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND. SOME GAPS IN THE SEAMS WERE LEFT AND WE WERE TOLD IT WAS NORMAL, IT WAS NOT. ALL IN ALL, THE PRICE WAS BETTER THAN ANYWHERE ELSE WE LOOKED AND THE WORK WAS DONE ON TIME, BUT WE FELT WE HAD TO LABOR FOR APPOINTMENTS AND INFORMATION. NEVER FELT LIKE THE COMPANY WANTED OUR BUSINESS.

GREG HELPED ME SORT THROUGH THEIR REMNANT PIECES WHICH THEY SELL FOR $45/SQ. FT. INSTALLED. YOU ARE ONLY CHARGED FOR THE AMOUNT YOU USE; YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY THE WHOLE REMNANT SLAB. (THE CONTRACTOR PRICE FOR THIS SAME GRANITE IS $70.) THE STONE THAT THEY SELL IS VERY UNIQUE AND BEAUTIFUL. THEY INSTALLED THE TOPS TODAY AND THEY LOOK SUPER. THE INSTALLATION CREW DID A GOOD JOB. THEY PUT DOWN LONG PIECES OF CARDBOARD TO PROTECT MY CARPET. I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THESE COUNTERTOPS!

THEY HAVE BEEN VERY COURTEOUS AND PROFESSIONAL AND THEIR PRICE IS VERY FAIR. THEY REALLY GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO MAKE IT A GREAT EXPERIENCE. THEY ALSO HAVE TYPES OF GRANITE THAT YOU CAN'T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE, EXCELLENT SELECTION OF MATERIAL.

EVERYONE WAS EXACTLY WHERE THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WHEN THEY SAID THEY WOULD BE. IT LOOKS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. THEY WERE HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL. THE INSTALLERS WERE HIGHLY SKILLED, METICULOUS, ETC. IT WAS DEFINITELY THE MOST SATISFYING REMODELING PROJECT WE HAVE DONE.