Find another slab then ask for a refund, or buy that one from him and have it processed by different fabricator.

Duplicate

This post was edited by snookums2 on Tue, May 6, 14 at 21:31

I empathize, I totally get wanting your kitchen back, and to have planned it so carefully with the schedule and to then be...ignored. Check with some other fabricators and see if they can do it, and quickly. If the answer is no, then you may have to play nice with the current option. So sorry they did this, sometimes there just isnt enough wine.

Where are you located? Contractor licensing laws in your state may have limits on how long a contractor can delay a job. I take this kind of non-communication as a red flag. I would prefer to ask for a refund and walk away rather than deal with someone who annoys me before he even gets started.

scpalmetto:

Although it doesn't help much, this may be a symptom of being your own General Contractor. I know you said you had a GC, but if he were playing his role properly, you wouldn't be talking to subs let alone giving them deposits directly. That's a GC's job.

Think if you were this fabricator and you are overbooked. You've got 5 jobs overdue and 4 are for GC's that throw you 50k or so worth of work a year. If you've got to make someone angry, it might as well be the onesie.

This is a small southern town and we do things a little differently here. Our CG, who has thrown much work towards this fabricator, steered us to him. There are no local stone yards, We have to go out of town to pick slabs then the fabricator deals with the stone yard. If all this had to go through the CG it would involve a lot more expense and time. Also, we know all the other subs, we have used this CG any times, and although he is paying the others, it is not unusual for us to deal with them directly. It works in our situation while I can see where it would not in a less rural setting. This back up on the fabricators part seems to be a recent issue, he is also holding up the GC on several other projects including a multi million $ home; easily 50k in stone right there in one house. His reputation, up until now, has been flawless. The stone yard told me he is the most responsible fabricator they work with and as they are in a city, they work with many.
I suspect he has just overbooked and does not know how to handle it but then, neither do I. Sorry for the rant.

Sorry for the double post.

This post was edited by scpalmetto on Wed, May 7, 14 at 10:53

SC, you need to call this guy and tell him that he needs to install your countertop by X date or you expect an immediate refund of your deposit and you will be forced to take to social media to warn others in your area so they don't experience the same scenario. I don't care how much business this guy has from others who throw money at him all year, if his word is worth nothing, he is a lousy businessman and deserves to be exposed for the liar that he is.

I guess you can tell I have no patience for this crap!

" If all this had to go through the CG it would involve a lot more expense and time."

scpalmetto:

I have to respectfully disagree with half your statement. It would involve more expense, the GC's markup of the fabricator, but that markup would now make the GC a repeat customer of the fabricator, moving him up the priority list, and therefor saving you time.

Price, service, quality. You get to pick only two and you've made your selection.

That's just it, as I mentioned above, the GC was a repeat customer of this fabricator and a pretty big time customer for this little burg too. The fabricator has now lost all his future business so it makes no sense.

After calls from the GC, the plumber and tile people this morning, the fabricator finally called here a few minutes ago and admitted he would not be here to install today. He has offered us $1000 off if we wait until next Wednesday. We considered switching to another fabricator but our GC checked and none could do it any faster than 4 weeks and it would be difficult moving the slabs. So....., stay tuned.

Some homeowners are perfectly capable of acting as their own general contractor. I agree it's not for everyone and not everyone has the temperament for it, but not everyone has the temperament for dealing with a GC either. If people are working in my house, I am going to speak to them whenever I want to. I've seen as many complaints on this forum for jobs that have a general contractor as those that don't.

i too acted as my own gc but i was doing a very simple cab/counter swapout within the same footprint. luckily my kd coordinated the cab install and had a plumber they use for the sink hookup so it wasn't very hard for me.
i have no advice for the fabricator but we had to wait 2 weeks from template to install as that was the stated lead time. i had the plumber hook up a temp sink with the old countertop sink set up and it was well worth the extra cost. after i had a functioning sink & dishwasher, waiting for counters wasn't bothersome. can you do that? if you don't have an old sink counter top maybe plywood and a cheap used sink? not having a sink is truly awful!

I've covered the dining room table with a waterproof cloth so that is our work surface and we are using the laundry room sink and the GC has installed the oven and MW so we are functioning but giving someone a 12 week lead time and having them miss it by several weeks is just frustrating. My DH is disabled and all this disruption ha been difficult on him. My GC is always on time, he will call if someone is going to be 15 minutes late, so this is frustrating for him also as he recommended this guy and he cannot finish until the counters are completed. Although he was not paying him directly, he has been in constant contact with him over the past weeks.

I understand there are areas of the country where things work differently but this is the standard operating procedure around here and it usually works.

Frustrating for sure, hang in there until Wed and get the $1000 off...would be silly to try to get someone else on board now and start all over

Jellytoast: "If people are working in my house, I am going to speak to them whenever I want to"....while I agree with this comment to a point, I also don't agree....of course you can talk to someone working on your house, but you need to remember the GC that you hired (unless you are acting as your own GC) is someone the homeowner (or architect) hired to "manage" your project and trades people required to complete your project, by definition the GC is responsible for the overall coordination of the project

You as the homeowner need to remember that by you speaking to the various trades sometimes can cause miss-communication between the trades and the GC and that is the where the troubles/finger pointing has the potential to start

jellytoast:

It's not a matter of capability, it's a matter of leverage. You may be the most competent homeowner/GC the world had ever seen, but to the subs you are just one job and when that job's over, that's pretty much it.

Of course you can speak to the subs, you just can't tell them what to do.

No need to educate me about how the whole general contractor thing works. I know how it works, which is why I prefer to act as my own general contractor. As I said, I agree that it's not for everyone.

TB, those are unprofessional people you don't want to deal with anyway. They are not all operating under the men's club.

I don't see why people need to hire a GC to replace a counter. I would guess most people don't. And if you think they are not dismissive of small jobs, you are wrong. You will find that with GC's too.

Your GC promotion campaign will only work with, as yet, inexperienced people.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Wed, May 7, 14 at 14:11

"Your GC promotion campaign will only work with, as yet, inexperienced people."

snookums2:

You caught me. You're right, I just make up this stuff to entertain myself. I've never seen a single example of this happening in my 30 years as a sub and a GC.

Sorry.

OP - sorry you're dealing with this.

This is my #1 beef and has also been my experience when dealing with all sorts of businesses in my town: say what you do and do what you say. Don't ignore my calls, don't say you'll call back and then don't. If you can't deliver what you promised, TELL ME! If you don't want a job - TELL ME! Don't make me wait around and guess.

It's not just business, it's common courtesy. Nobody is too busy for that.

"You caught me. You're right, I just make up this stuff to entertain myself. I've never seen a single example of this happening in my 30 years as a sub and a GC.."

I don't know what this means. Make up what and no single example of what happening?

SCpalmetto, did you get your counters in?
I suspect you're not too far from us. We chose the Soapstone from India with the green cast for our perimeter, and I put Winchester Sudbury Gloss in our master bath.
We've had major issues with the granite supplier here, AGM, and their fabricating shop. I will be so glad when the last of the counters goes in, my kitchen island. They were out to install the counters almost 2 weeks ago, and brought all except the island. Honestly, I worried about that island. I'm worried that I'm going to get a call soon telling me that I need to chose something else. If so, it will be the third "something else" with them, and each one I've had to discover on my own. I'm thoroughly disgusted with them.
OTOH, the granite, limestone, soapstone and quartzite they've already installed in the rest of the house is fabricated very well, fit very well.
What Winchester tile are you using? Is it for your backsplash?
The tile place ordered and delivered approx 30% more tile than was needed for our bath. Yet on the inexpensive porcelain tile for our entry and laundry floors they shorted us by 30 sf. I'm probably going to have to sell the excess tile on Craigslist since I don't think they're taking back the overage.
We're building on Lady's Island. Are you close by?

Hi neighbor, I am looking across the water at Lady's Island as I sit here. We are on Dataw. Small world! I've probably seen you at Publix. LOL

I bought my stone at Vitoria in Charleston and it was fabricated at the other local place - FINALLY. I am not totally thrilled with the way it came out, the seams are not great, but I am learning to live with it, the issues seem small now that it is in.

The tile is for the backsplash and it is a subway in Orford, it's a sage green. Winchester already had some on the ship from England when I chose it so it should be here shortly. Where did you get your tile?

Tile came from Creative. Our builder subs the install on shower and bath installs to them, and I've got to say that we were wholly unimpressed. I had them rip off half a wall of my shower and redo it. I had them reset the shower drain and recut tile around it twice. Upstairs tub enclosure with a rope liner had to be done twice and honestly the job is sub-par. I'm happy with my master bath now, not at all happy with install upstairs.

Our honed marble backsplash tile is Jeffrey Court and is coming from a place on Hilton Head. I got the recommendation for a tile setter for that from our KD who is meticulous, so I'm hoping for a much better install. Installers name is Andrew. Who did you use as GC? Our builder does a lot of work out at Dataw. We love him and are overall very pleased w our build. He's the one that drives that bright yellow vehicle. And I've got friends out at Dataw, and we've been in that marina several times on our boat over the last several years. We're building at Coosaw Point. Email me from my profile page.

OK, I am feeling dense this morning and cannot figure out how to email you through your member page. Maybe it will be easier if you can email me.

Sorry to hear about your unimpressive installations. I know the best guy in town is backed up by 12 weeks. I have heard good things about Andrew though. I think he used to work for Creative. Who is your KD? DDC?

Just went into my profile page and checked the box to allow emails. Evidently it unchecked itself recently. I've gotten email from users before, didn't know it had changed.
BTW, yours is unchecked, or I would have emailed you already. ;)

Andrew works independently and as a contract worker sometimes for Creative. So who is the best guy in town?
Where did you get your tile? I thought Creative was the only dealer for Winchester around here.

OK, I was sending you an email when it up and went off all by itself. If it sounds half baked - it is. LOL (problem with actually using a laptop on our lap is that it is easy to hit the wrong keys.)