SUNLIGHT CERAMIC & STONE

he was patient, carefully analyzed all aspects of proposals under review, knew my installers, and fulfilled the role of my liaison as if we're related--even my spouse complimented his manners. This means a lot to the less exemplary guy seeking to improve his social skills.

I ordered and paid for tile and delivery. When I called for delivery I was told it would be sent out. It was NOT, it was not even in the state. I was mislead repeatedly, lied to and finally had to threaten a lawsuit to get delivery. When the tile came it was only half of the shipment and was two weeks late. When a week later the second half came in we had to pick it up. Over three cartons of the second shipment were broken and unusable, I called and asked if I could swap it out for good tile. Yes, of course, got there and was told it would be next week before the tile would be in. I started crying and finally got some mercy and tile arrived two days later. By this time, I had tied up the tile installer for over three weeks. Background: We had agreed on a start date of Sept 13. Our new home closed early so I called and asked if they could deliver on the 12th. "Sure, no problem, but it will be in the evening." My installer drove to my house and waited - no one ever showed. The next morning we got a call saying the delivery man got tied up and couldn't make it but would be there on the 13th. My tile installer waited at the house all day and no tile. Again, no phone calls, finally that night I was told it would be delivered on Sunday. Tile installer went to house. Again, no tile, no calls. On Monday the installer drove from my home in Green Valley to the store in Tucson (20+ miles). When he got there the woman I ordered from (Melissa) was in the owner's (Khalid) office and she was crying. The owner told her (my installer heard this conversation) that she would have to call the installer and tell him that the tile was not in the state and might be available by the following Friday (one week late). She came out of office and my tile installer approached her and told her who he was. Of course, nothing was her fault, etc. etc. By now, my installer has spent hours waiting for a delivery that wasn't even in the state. When it did arrive it was only 1/2 the order and again we went thru the nightmare of trying to get it delivered. When the plank tile for the kitchen finally - at least two weeks late - arrived it was the wrong color and not what I ordered. After working with the owner for a week he suggested I cancel the kitchen tile portion of the order and that he would return that portion of my payment. Re: the refund for the kitchen tile. I was promised the refund over the phone, a week later the refund had no materialized, so I called - again, no problem, will be done, etc. etc. Finally another week passed, I drove to the store and said I wanted the refund done NOW. The owner equivocated, "I think I already did it" etc. etc. Finally ran the refund. It has no yet posted, but hopefully it will again something like three weeks after the promised date and I hate to drive to Tucson. Totally unprofessional, he finger points at his employee, she calls him cheap. This was a horrible experience and I would never recommend or use these people again.

I walked into into store to compare prices and look at their tile selection. There were three sales people that I could visibly see, two who were talking with a customer. I walked around the store for ten minutes looking at the tiles that were up. No one offered to help me and many of their samples were on the ground in piles and in the corner of the room. I am not sure if they were remodeling or just setting up, but things appeared out of order and I was unable to find a selection of tile that I was looking for. I walked out after looking around for 15 minutes and would not go back.

I highly recommend you think twice about using SCS tile. I purchased tiles from SCS, which were very affordable. That is the only redeeming quality about the business. Everything else is horrible. The manager (Kalib) is nefarious and a cunning individual. He give me an estimate for a fairly large tile project in my home (approxiimately 1300 sq ft) and quoted me a price around $3 per sq foot. However, the price was not inclusive of anything and to my dismay I found this out after the fact. Additional costs will include all materials, shipping fees for materials, and additional labor costs once they begin to prep your floor. I proceeded with having SCS prep my floor and begin tile work. The punctuality and work ethic of the workers is horrendous at best. They will show up at the job site anytime from 7:30 am to 11 am or later. The would work, somedays, for only 3 hours and end their workday. It took the workers 2 weeks to simply prep my floor. I was originally told that the whole job would be done in about 5 days. When they finally got around to placing some tiles--they did such a horrific job that I made them stop after having only laid down approximately 3 sq feet of tile. The tiles that were placed were lopsided and not leveled. I proceeded with hiring a new tile crew and company. I strongly recommend against hiring SCS tile for labor work.

I really enjoyed my experience with Melissa, the sales rep at their store on 22nd street. She was friendly and helpful. Since we were re-tiling our whole house, I was being very picky about the tile I would choose. My first time there she had me follow "policy" and pay a deposit for the tile samples I checked out. But when I returned them in excellent condition, she let me take my next few batches without charging. She was great about informing me when samples came in, and knowledgeable and helpful concerning the different types of tile and which would be best for my situation. Most importantly, their prices were MUCH cheaper than all the competition - and I went to EIGHT other tile/flooring stores in Central and East Tucson, and took home samples from five of those. Time and time again I saw that SCS tile had the best prices for the quality, compared to what the other places were offering. Often I accidentally brought home the same tile samples from SCS tile and a competitor, and SCS was often 50 cents to $1 per square foot cheaper than their competitor! When you are doing a 2000 square foot home, every dollar counts! I did not like communicating with Khalid, the warehouse manager very much. He is a brusque guy and difficult to understand. But the price is right for having to deal with that.

On 04/19/2011, I went to SCS Tile (aka Sunlight Ceramic & Stone, among others) recommended by my contractor in order to get a good price. Trusting my contractor, I brought home four samples of 1'x1' tiles: two quoted @ 6.99 and two quoted @ 7.99. The owner, Khalid, charged me $30.00 for the tiles, but only gave me the invoice number, not the actual invoice. Other companies have let me borrow for free, and I have faithfully returned them. He also informed me that since he didn't have that amount in stock, he said he'd have to add a freight fee. I thought this unusual but not unacceptable. On 04/22/2011, when I returned the samples to SCS and wanted to place the order, Khalid asked for the invoice # and then refunded my $30 in cash. I wanted to order 200 sq. ft. in tile, and selected a nice random mosaic travertine that was one of the $7.99/ea tiles. It was also one of the tiles he'd have to special order. He wrote up the invoice for $9.99/ea plus $119.00 freight. I challenged his price, so he looked up the original invoice. It showed the $7.99 price, so instead of adjusting the price, Khalid explained that was the price for a different tile - one I hadn't even looked at, let alone tried at home. He also explained that in order to give me the "good" price, he was only making about $0.40/ea. Wanting the tile, I went ahead with the order thinking it was probably still a good price. Today, June 14, 2011, I see Lowe's has the same tile on sale for $7.48 - regular price $8.54! I feel I've been swindled with a "bait and switch." Neither my contractor nor I will be shopping there again. Advice: Always investigate; verify what others say; don't fall for "bait and switch"! And don't shop at SCS Tile!