World Wide Granite
About us
Family owned and operated World WIde Granite specializes in granite and tile. With over 20+ years experience combined, and using decades old techniqe of hand fabrication. We handle every project with the utmost care, knowing that our customers are our most valuable asset. We enjoying helping our customers to achieve the look they desire for any room. We do it all, from from an outdoor fireplace/BBQ area, custom steam shower or indoor water feature to a full kitchen remodel to accomodate your needs.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Natural and synthetic stone/tile installed. Kitchens, backsplash and many more applications., bathrooms, countertops, fireplaces, flooring
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 54% | ||
| 8% | ||
| 8% | ||
| 15% | ||
| 15% |
"There was an incorrect measurment made on the depth of the two peices on either side of the stove. When we caught this, we brought in more material and fixed our error at our expense. The size of the job had also changed to larger specifications than what was originally bid and charges were incurred for that as that is not only common in any industry but was outlined in our contract. The customer was unhappy to hear this, however told us to proceed further with the job. The customer had ordered two very small custom copper sinks online, and the fabrication done on the sinks were industry standard. Upon seeing the installed product the customers were very unhappy with the size and asked if we would re-fabricate new sink holes to a larger sink they would provide. We told them we would do this for a charge since the holes were fabricated correctly to the sinks the customer had provided. At hearing this the customer became very displeased and was from there on was near impossible to work with. In the end our company ended up taking a loss on part of the final balance since the homeowner had offered to pay only the original final balance and not the additional charges because they " felt everything you added, except vanity, was your responsibility, not ours". Our contract clearly outlines that when a customer submittes a drawing (finalized or rough) we have the right to charge more if the job changes. Saying that its our fault that we are charging additional material and shop time for something that is finalized by homeowners is wrong."
They did go ahead with the granite (which could have waited until the week before the tile). Lance and his guys came in and measured and templated. It was during this process that we realized they were templating for a surface mount bathtub... we had been very clear that the tub was to be undermounted. In fact, we had two other quotes that all clearly called for an undermount tub. Jessical claimed that we never told her that, and that to change to an undermount would be a $2400 adder! We hit the roof. First of all, there was plenty of granite, so no extra material would be required, so we're only talking about the marginal extra labor to finish the granite edge to undermount instead of surface mount... $2400? Really? I told Jessica that our other quotes clearly called for undermount, so she must have missed it in her quote. Her reply was that this was the reason she asked to see the other quotes... so she could be sure she hadn't missed anything. Well, of course we didn't show her the other quotes... the whole idea of getting more than one is to compare pricing and features, not to make sure a contractor does his/her quoting job correctly! After we refused to accept her error for the cost of $2400, and pointing out that we weren't talking about additional material (they confirmed this) and only the additional labor, magically the price of the change order went down to $1100. We still argued with it. First, we clearly asked for this in our quote. The written quote made no mention either way (undermount or surface mount), and in any case... let's assume they pay their granite guy $50/hour to finish the edge of the tub... at $1100, that's 22 hours to do the tub edge..... Really? No way. We called Keystone (who had done our kitchen the year before and we regret not going to instead of Worldwide) and they said the charge should be and quot;no moreand quot; than $300.00. We refused to pay anything based on this constantly changing quote, and the fact that it was supposed to be part of the bid.
We told Lance and Jessica that when our tile came in we would pick it up, we would pay the invoice cost for the granite, and take our entire job elsewhere. Lance called the next day and said they would undermount the tub for free if we would be willing to continue on with the job. We agreed.
So, the tile comes in towards the end of June, the granite is installed, and the clock ticks and ticks and ticks, while we wait for the tile guys... who had LONG been scheduled on our job for mid-July, Worldwide Granite just chose to ignore that and let us live in chaos for a few weeks.
Finally the big day arrives... the tile guys were to come in on Friday morning to prep the shower pan and do other preparatory things so the tile work could start Monday. I got a call from Worldwide's office saying that the tile guy couldn't get in the house because no one knew where the key was.... this was the same hidden key that Lance and his guys had been using since early June, and now suddenly no one knows where it is? Lance was nowhere to be found, and Jessica was and quot;out of cell rangeand quot;.. .could I please run home and get a key for them? I told them where the key was (again), and they supposedly got started. I came home a bit later, excited to see the progress, only to see that NOTHING had been done and no one was on the job site.
Guess what? The shower drain was supposed to be a 2-part, and even though our own contractor had installed it back in June, Lance was responsible for making sure everything was ready for the tile guys when they got there. The tile job lead told us that he had told Lance more than once to make sure it was a 2-part drain, and Lance had been in there a dozen times since it had been installed, and he never bothered to make sure it was ready.
This was a Friday, Lance and Jessica were completely unreachable. We were hamstrung (again). I called Jessica's cell and was disgusted to hear the message and quot;Worldwide Granite... where we leave no stone unturnedand quot; because they left darn near EVERY stone unturned on our job.
Now we were hosed until the next week, so the preparatory work couldn't start until Monday, it needed some time to dry (which is why they wanted to start on Friday to have a weekend for that process) and we're ANOTHER week to wait.
Lance and Jessica had gone camping for the weekend and were not at all available. I have no issue with a couple wanting to take a vacation, but when they had a job like ours, fraught with delays, frustrations, mistakes, you'd think they would make sure SOMEONE was left in the office who knew what was going on and what should be done in case they were needed. This is no way to run a business.
Other frustrations included the original plan to have a step up to the tub. The tub is a big soaking tub now encased in tile, and the original plan was to have a long step running the entire long side, curved, like the edge of the tub. This was going to be some pretty intricate tile work. We eliminated it due to space. The savings Jessica gave us: $83. Really? It takes 22 hours at $50/hour to edge a granite tub deck, but eliminated hours of intricate tile work on a 6-foot long curved step only saves $83?
Then there was the toe kick. The quote called for tile toe kick and quot;on all exposed wallsand quot;. But when they were done, Jessica charged us an extra $300 to put the tile (that we had already paid for) on the toe kick under the cabinets. Isn't that already an and quot;exposed walland quot;? And again... how does eliminating that intricate 6-foot long curved tile step reduce $83 but putting up tile along 9 feet of undercabinet cost $300?
We opted for an upgraded grout on the tile that would not require resealing, and were happy to pay the additional cost of materials (something less than $100). But then Jessica charged us $300 for additional labor to work with that grout...! We check with the the tile guys and they said it was and quot;a littleand quot; harder to work with, but we still don't believe $300. We were there they day they did the grout... two guys were there for five hours, which included set-up and total clean up (for that was the final day), and even at $60/hour, there is NO WAY it took them an additional 5 hours to work that different grout.
In the end we paid both of these astronomical charges, with the expectation that the upcharges for tile labor (toe kick and grout) were to be passed on to the tile guys who did the work and not retained by Worldwide Granite to line their own pockets. Whether they did that or not, we will never know. But we paid it, largely because we were SO DONE with our association with Worldwide Granite, and decided it was worth a few hundred bucks to get them out of our lives.
The tile guys were great. They did an awesome job, were clean, conscientious, artistic and did a beautiful job. We would use them again (Northwest Tile and Marble out of Brownsville), but we would NEVER use Worldwide Granite again. We used Keystone (out of Salem) in our kitchen last year... they did a beautiful job and we should have used them again.
We do NOT recommend Worldwide Granite. Although we are happy with the result (largely due to the materials choices we made and the great work of Northwest Tile and Marble), the process was agonizing, we felt that we were not treated fairly, and we believe that the upcharges were an ongoing effort by them to correct their mistakes on the original bid.
"I would like to address a few of the less paltry issues in this novel. Lets refer to your closing statement “If you decide to use them, be VERY careful and ,make sure you understand what they have included in their quote… but more importantly understand what they have left out.” We were very clear during contract what finishes were to be done, hence the written bid. When the bid clearly outlined the vanity sinks to be undermounted and yet the tub did not have this same description, I would think it would raise concern. After all this is your project and the bid is written to make sure that what we are understanding you want is really what you are saying. I asked to see other bids not the pricing. Homeowners commonly make mistakes when trying to compare bids. Since you had dropped the designs our showroom offered and used another companies/designers time and ideas and price shopped them for a satisfactory quote (this should have been a red flag for anyone on staff), we needed to order direct from factory. We had put your job on the subcontractors schedule at the appropriate time, however when the tile didn't port on the expected arrival we were forced to have him bump your job to the next available opening. This was unfortunate and I know I apologized more that enough for that. Its construction and sometimes deadlines cannot be met due to circumstances that are out of our control. Charges and fees. The slab that had been hand selected had a rather large area in it that you absolutely did not want to use. We were unwilling to use that piece which would have been easily seen at the front of your tub to see everyday so when you you did not not want to pay for additional material we did the less desirable option and installed it in two pieces. We ended up doing this at no charge because we value you as a customer and went with "the customer is always right" thinking and erred on the side that although this was not our fault we wanted to appease the situation. I am unsure where you are getting your hourly rate fees, we are a “custom” shop and charge what is industry standard. Is this a formula you use when buying a home or car? This is unfortunate for both parties, ultimatley you ceased communication and we were left to finish the job by dealing with your spouse who had negotiating power but not decision making power and this led to a final offense. Yor job did turn out beautiful I wouldn't have expected any less."
"THE GRANITE COUNTERS ARE COMPLETED, THE HOUSE ITS SELF IS JUST IN THE FINAL STAGES. THE SEAMS ARE A REFLECTION OF THE MATERIAL THAT THE CUSTOMER PURCHASED ON THEIR OWN. THE MATERIAL CAN BE WARPED OR CUPPED AND WE AS INSTALLERS HAVE TO DO WHAT WE CAN WITH WHAT WE ARE SUBJECT TO WORKING WITH. THE BACKSPLASH WAS NOT AS GOOD AS IT COULD HAVE BEEN DUE TO THE SHORTAGE OF MATERIAL BY THE TIME WE GOT TO THIS POINT."
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