Oh my. That doesn't look good. Have you paid the remainder of the bill? I would not pay in full until the granite is installed properly.

I can't vouch for all fabricators but I fell in love with a Netuno Bordeaux slab that was already sold. Our fabricator told us that it was possible that they could do both of our kitchens from the three slabs that they had but they wouldn't know until the other kitchen was finished. We opted for a different stone instead of hoping there would be enough for both. I feel confident that there is no way our fabricator would sell our granite out from under us.

I'm sorry you are going through this. Hopefully they will make it right for you. Because the same thing happened to my neighbor ( she went back to the granite yard and her slabs were still there with her name on it - AFTER they already fabricated the wrong slabs...) so I knew to be there in person the day the fabricator picked up our slabs. I stood there, took pictures and waved to the slabs as they drove away. :-)

Stand your ground and make sure you get what you paid for!!

I am a fabricator.

"flipping slabs" as you called it is not a common practice and, in fact, there are typically systems in place between the slab supplier and fabricator to make sure mix ups (if thats what it was) like yours don't occur. For the fabricator there would typically be no incentive to change slabs because it normally would not reduce his material cost and it can have a big downside with respect to customer satisfaction.

From your description you not only did everything correctly but literally everything possible to insure your fabricator understood your preferences. YOu might try talking to someone at the supplier. they will know what slab they sent to the fabricator ?(unless they are the source of the screw up which is possible.)

regarding the gap in your pic; typically an 1/8" is considered acceptable. yours looks like 3X that.

you have good reason to be dissatisfied. A reputable fabricator would do whatever he could to correct the situation including remaking the tops if the correct slab is still available.

@holly-kay: We have not yet made the remaining 50% payment and are hoping the fabricators will come back tomorrow to fix whatever they can. If the workmanship still is not upto the mark, we will ask them to redo the work.

@gardenwebnewbie: Since we were newbies to the remodeling/contractor/stone fabrication industry, we put a lot of trust in the folks who we were dealing with. New lessons have been learnt through this exercise and we hope to not repeat them during future projects.

Your experience seems so painful that it's no wonder I can't move forward with my own project. I am thankful that your have shared your experience. Now I will know to ask up front the maximum gap they would tolerate. I will also take a camera to photograph the slabs. I can only imagine your disappointment. With all the technology available for templating, it's shameful that they did not make a better fit. The pick and switch is despicable.

Is it against the forum rules to state the name of the business? I am also from Massachusetts and would really like to know who did this installation so I avoid them. I had intended to go with Sudbury Granite and Marble. Their fabrication location has lots of slabs and I've been there when clients are approving the placement of the templates onto them. They have good reviews on Angie's list but two bad one-star reviews on Yelp. It's hard to trust anyone, sadly. If, perchance, your experience was with Sudbury, would you kindly make a coy remark?

Best wishes for a good resolution. I hope you can love your counters one day.

@sniff: It was not SGM. However, my DW tells me that she did contact them too and their quotes were very much in line with the ones we got from our fabricator. We did not go with them since they seemed a little out of our way. But having said that, all the other quotes we got from other fabricators were much higher (~$1-2K). Sadly, now we know why. Irrespective of whichever supplier/fabricator you choose, I would suggest following this checklist after you've narrowed down the stone you like. I wish someone had written these before we made our decision. I guess that is why they say "hindsight is 20/20".

Narrowing Down Supplier/Fabricator:
1. Get quotes from all fabricators in your proximity for all the reputed stone suppliers. Between the fabricator and the stone supplier, I think there is a many-to-many relationship.
2. Talk to the lowest two, mid two and the highest two fabricators on how they will template the work, perform the installation etc. That should give a good assessment of why the prices differ.
3. Ask for references of previous work done. Contact references and ask them to share experiences. If possible, schedule an appointment with the references and go see the fabricator's work. Keep an open eye on how the seams look like, corners were cut, allowed distance between the wall and the stone, quality of polish work on the stone, quality of edging, time it took to do the install etc.

Narrowing Down The Stone:
1. Once you've narrowed down to the supplier and the fabricator and are ready to put slabs on hold, take a camera with you and click as many pictures of the slabs as possible.
2. Wet a cotton towel/rag and dab the interesting stone(s) with as much water as possible. See how quickly it absorbs the water and changes color.
3. Clean the entire slab and run your hand over it to identify any physical blemishes.

Ready To Order Stone:
1. Make a note of the slab number. If possible, take its picture too.
2. Make sure the supplier gives you a "hold confirmation" in writing, identifying the "full" slab numbers.
3. Ask them to mark your preferences on the confirmation if holding more slabs than needed.
4. Send a copy of the confirmation to your fabricator.
5. Re-affirm your preferences of slabs on hold and your requirements in terms of workmanship. Tell them clearly that you are not going to pay if the work is not to your standards.
6. Negotiate the deposit amount (In hindsight, our 50% now seems higher). Insist on making payment by "Credit Card".
7. MOST IMPORTANT: Be present physically when the stone is being delivered by the supplier to the fabricator. Make sure they are sending the slabs you want and they still intact.

Ready for Fabrication:
1. All edges touching any part of the granite should be firmly in place when they come for templating.
2. Keep an eye on how they are templating. You should be able to tell if they are focused on doing a good job or not.
3. Repeat the quality of workmanship you expect WRT gaps, edges, polish, seams etc. IMHO, on the fabricated stone, the edges touching the walls should be as straight as possible and the exposed edges should match the stone surface in terms of appearance, color and feel.
4. Re-iterate that you are not going to pay anything more if the work is not to your standards.
4. MOST IMPORTANT: Ask fabricator to not cut stone unless you've confirmed one more time which slabs they are going to use.
5. If possible, keep a close watch on your work by visiting the fabricator atleast once or twice before installation.
6. Take a tape measure and measure each cut slab to ensure it is the right size and will fit almost perfectly.

Ready for Installation:
1. Ensure the slabs are still the same.
2. Video record the entire installation process. This will help you replay what steps were done/missed.
3. Do not accept any BS on anything you do not like.
4. Make the remaining payment again using Credit Card.

I heard more than once that slabs get switched, either by stone yards or fabricators.

In one incidence the buyer noticed even the associated stock number label was being switched. The chosen slab had a special pattern and it was recorded on photos. But the pattern was missing from the delivered slab.

oldryder said "For the fabricator there would typically be no incentive to change slabs because it normally would not reduce his material cost ....." Yes, this may cover normal cases but one scenario came to mind - what if the buyer paid fabricator a fixed price including labor and material, then the fabricator getting a reduced material cost on a slab with flaw.

No matter how good a system is, it cannot prevent human errors such as stupidity, mindlessness, carelessness, greediness, or who knows what. Unfortunately nowadays it seems as a consumer, we have to triple check every details at every step to do work that is supposed to be done by suppliers.

MM99, thank you for the detailed checklist. It is very helpful.

Did you go back to the stone yard and verify if they delivered the right slab? Please post back and let us know how you resolve the problem.

@azmom: I did confirm with both the fabricator and the stone supplier that the stone that was shipped was indeed one of the two we had put on hold. Again surprisingly it was the second from our preferred list that was ordered and not the first one ! No one is able to tell why. The paper trail has probably been falsified by either switching slab labels or simply sending the bad stone in place of the good one with the invoice showing the label of the good stone.

The scenario you mention is exactly what we suspect too. There is strong smell of a nexus between this particular stone supplier and the fabricator where the supplier offloaded their bad stone to potentially gullible customers like us. The fabricator also made more money than usual because the supplier sold the stone, that "no one would've bought", for a discount.

As others have cautioned too, we are holding onto the final balance payment until the issues are fixed to our standards.

Thanks a ton for your concern and support.

Oyyee..not good. I am from western MA near Springfield. Our KD uses Discover out near Worcester. They were wonderful to work with even though we found a crack on one of the vanity tops. They took one look and immediately took it back. It was a remnant piece and they ordered a new piece for us even though it was not a color in their vanity top program. Their installers were wonderful. They knew exactly what they were doing. I hope it wasn't them.

Good luck with your resolution.

I read your post and it brought up yucky feelings from our first attempt to pick out stone. Yes, our granite fabricator used our stone for another client who loved my slabs I had paid in full for. We had pictures and could prove the remaining slab remnant and 2 other granite slabs were "imposters". She just lied her way through it until we showed her pictures. I had good pictures and a lot of them. And then when I asked for money back the check I got was overdrawn. Lovely experience. It was resolved and the fabricator I switched to was very good and honest. I hope your situation is resolved. I feel for you.

MM99
Hope they take care of it for you
Wondering if it was stone cobblers in Worcester by any chance?
Thanks

@ctbert: Its not the folks from Worcester.

Thanks.

@momand3boys: Its not the Discover folks either we are dealing with.

@maggie08: Thank you so much for posting your experience. It seems like we are not alone and others have been through the same hellish mess. I am glad to hear that your issues were resolved to your satisfaction. We are hoping the same for ours.

Thanks to all once again for their continued support.