COUNTERTOP DESIGNS INC

Countertop Designs - customer service component of this company is so bad, I am surprised they are still in business.?? For Countertop Designs, after each interaction I thought, this experience just cannot get any worse but it did.? If you are wanting a company to install your countertops to stand behind their installed product material and work to address issues that may arise, do yourself a favor and run away from this company as quickly as you can.? They will absolutely not stand behind their product and correct issues with the installation.? This is my 2016 experience .? 1)??? Countertop Design workers scheduled to come to the house at 9:00 A.M.? to template/measure the counter area. They arrived between 11 AM and 12PM. The person showed us a post it note from the scheduling person that has 11:00 AM arrival at our house.? Apparently someone at Countertop Design changed the time they were to arrive but did not tell us. 2)??? Four days later they were scheduled to install the counters between 9-10 AM. No one arrived.? Called Countertop Design at 11AM.? The scheduled worker called us and said he would arrive by 2 PM.? By 3:00, no one arrived.? I called again and asked to speak to the owner. The owner said someone would be here by 3:30. The owner seemed to suggest the problem was mine for possibly insisting on a short timeline between measurement and countertop installation.? The owner said something like it's unusual to have such a short time between the workers taking measurements and the counter install.? I told her I took the dates the office employees gave me and did not ask for a specific date.? She did not continue with that line of excuses. I said it's Friday, the end of a long week, and the counters will take 3-4 hours to install.? That's a long day for the installers I said and I want my counters done by someone who is not very tired.? The owner said no problem, the installers are used to long days when they travel from Sacramento to work in the Bay Area.? Reluctantly I said ok.? By 4:30 no one arrived to install my counters. I called the owner and said it is not reasonable to expect me to have counters installed beginning at 5:00 PM or possibly later.? Reluctantly the owner said she would reschedule the workers for the next day.? The install took 5 hours.? If I had not insisted that they come another day, the installers would have been working in my house until at least 10:00PM on a Friday night. The installers were very efficient, and did a very nice job with the countertops and the sink cutout undermounting.? 3)??? Two weeks after the install, I noticed 1/4-1/2 inch light gray spots randomly over the white counters and backsplash.? The discoloration was not present initially . I stopped payment on the second 1/2 of the payment, wrote them an email with attached pictures showing the discoloration. ?One of their office employees came out to inspect the spots, used a cleaner to determine whether the discoloration was on the surface, and agreed the discoloration was below the surface and a flaw in the material. 4)??? Several days later the office employee who came to my house sent me a photo of a shelf made of the same material in the company office with the same discoloring in one area with the statement " I guess that is just the look of the material."? I said if that was the look of the material, should not the 2 samples that I was given have the spots so I knew the real look of the material when I selected it?? 5)??? A Countertop Design employee contacted the manufacturing company sales rep for the countertop material I purchased.? The sales rep contacted me and said they would replace the countertops and request 3-4 pictures of the discolorations. 6)??? I heard nothing from Countertop Designs for about 3 weeks, contacted the sales rep for the countertop material who stated that the material was delivered to Countertop Designs 7 days ago.? I received no contact from Countertop Design.? I emailed them asking to schedule the countertop reinstall.? No response for two days. I emailed again and did get a response.? The person said things were busy and would email with a date for the reinstall.? 7)??? The next day I received a proposed date for the reinstall with a few questions/ comments.? One comment/question was: "Do your countertop backsplashes have any of the discolorations? The reason I ask is because the 1 sheet of material the sales rep delivered is not large enough to remake the countertop and backsplashes. So we need to re-use the existing backsplashes." Apparently the sales rep sent 1 sheet of replacement material and rather than Countertop Designs asking for the amount needed to replace all the countertops, they are going to do part of the job and leave the discolored material in place for the back splashes .? Wow! I told Countertop Designs that was not acceptable but I should not even have to have the conversation with them about why leaving a discolored back splash is unacceptable.? The Countertop Design employee was in my house looking at the discoloration on the countertops.? The employee just did not request enough material to reinstall my countertops and wanted me to accept a partially discolored countertop. 8)??? When I made it clear that a partial replacement was insufficient, the Countertop Design employee said they wanted to send out their repair person to see if the discoloration could be buffed out. ?? That is the nice thing about solid surface material? said the Countertop Designs employee,? ? it can be buffed and polished.? The repair person arrived, and the discoloration could not be buffed out.? That was reported back to Countertop Designs by the employee. 9)??? That same day Countertop Designs employee called and began the conversation by saying ?did you get a special deal on the countertop material?? No I said, why do you ask? He said, I am just now looking at the paperwork and this job is really underbid. (this is the same person who came out to my house initially to look at the discoloration?..with the invoice for the job IN HIS HAND!!)? He then said I think I must have caught sales person XXX in doing something wrong in this bid.? We are going to have to make a business decision on this he said because this job is ?underwater?.? I said are you suggesting you are going to walk away from this sale and installation?? The Countertop Designs employee says well we are ?underwater?.? I said to him this was the price we were given.? The countertop material was defective, which is no one?s fault.? The manufacturer stepped up to replace the material.? Countertop Designs is the one not stepping up to do the right thing.? Is that what your Company stands for I asked?? The employee said I will talk to my boss and call back, 10) When he called back I said I am very disappointed with Countertop Designs.? You do not stand behind your sales and work, you are very willing to throw your sales people under the bus as an excuse for why you should not replace defective material.? I don?t want to continue this business relationship.? Just refund the ? of the total cost I paid and we will end this.? Countertop Designs would not do that- as their sales person wrote ? that is not how the world works?. I was getting a lecture about the world from an age 20 or early 30 ish something person!!? WOW!! We will rip out the countertop and refund your money or we can both walk away at this point. ? 11) Already their delay in replacing the countertops was getting to the point that I might not be able to keep the dates the plumber and tile person has reserved for the laundry room remodel---more and more delays.? In addition I purchased a new sink and was concerned about damage that might occur to the sink should they remove the countertop.? Certainly Countertop Designs would not pay for a new sink.? After consulting my attorney, we decided to leave the counters in place for now.? I told Countertop Designs to sign a letter of agreement that the ? amount paid would be the final price and send a paid in full invoice..? They have done that quickly to get rid of this issue I believe 12) The Countertop Designs installers did a very nice job; the company management is the worse I?ve ever encountered through a house construction and remodel in which we did business with many companies.? I understand Countertop Designs subcontracts countertop installation for Sears.? It is likely that this job was an annoyance for them and they did not want to deal with making my countertops install right even tho the manufacturer of the product did.? On YELP and Angie?s list, Countertop Designs gets mostly good reviews.? I can see how that would be.? It appears that those were reviews for installs with no issues.? However the critical reviews given to Countertop Designs are for instances in which there WAS an issue.? As one such reviewer stated ?they basically told me to go pound sand?? And that was my experience.? If there is an issue, and expect this company to stand behind your thousands of dollars job, you should not use this company.? Go to another installation company because unexpected things do happen.? Mine was nobody?s direct fault.? Manufacturing issues happen.? Addressing those is part of what a worthwhile business does.? Countertop Designs did not keep their end of the business transaction!

It went perfectly. They gave me a good price, they installed it when they said they wood. They where good.

They did a fantastic job and I would absolutely refer them! The quartz looks very nice and we're completely happy with the work! It's a quality job and a quality product for a reasonable price. They came out and did the template and within a week they were finished with the installation.

Good: Helpful sales personnel, accurate cut, including around some tricky curves. Not-so-good: Didn't call as promised when top was completed, sales personnel didn't know how to turn on lights in fabrication area, where their corian was stored.

dThe quote indicated that I would receive all remnants of the Cambria. We agreed upon a time for the measure and in response to a query, the time was moved earlier slightly but a time that I could still make. I arranged to leave work shortly after lunch and I rushed home, arriving a few minutes before the specified time. The guy there for measuring had already been there half an hour and asked my husband a few questions but my husband did not know the answers. I indicated that I would like as narrow an edge as possible on the solid surface and as small an overhang as possible on the Cambria on the island. The countertop installation was fairly soon after the measure on a Thursday. This time, the workers arrived at least half an hour after the indicated window for arrival but that was not a big deal and the workers were pleasant just as the measure guy was pleasant. They brought remnants of the Corian but did not bring the remnants of the Cambria. The Corian edge was a drop edge and 1 1/2 inches even though at least some fabricators will do a 1 1/4 inch edge. Since my countertops are low (I am short, I really think the 1 1/4 inch would have looked better but perhaps this is "too custom." The island, where I had requested the smallest overhang possible, has 1 1/2 inch overhang on each side, making the refrigerator a very tight squeeze to move past, there is slightly less on the front and back and there is a significant lip although I thought we had agreed that a lip was not necessary. There is a 3/16 inch jog up in the backsplash where it comes out from the cabinet to the window edge. This is not unsightly, just seems a little odd, perhaps it matches the height on the other side of the window between the cabinets. I emailed that I had not received the remnants of the Cambria. On Friday morning, I received the large remnant of the Cambria but not the smaller remnant. On Friday evening, after letting the glue dry overnight, I started to put things into the cabinets and discovered that one cabinet would not open at all. I thought it had been glued shut but actually, it had been screwed shut. I emailed to indicate the problem and to remind about the missing Cambria remnant. I again tried to call on Saturday morning for both the cabinet issue and the missing remnant. On Monday, contact was made on the cabinet issue and Countertop Designs was again reminded about the missing remnant. Personnel came out on Tuesday, pried up countertop to remove the inappropriate screw and they removed about 1/8 inch off the top of the Kraftmaid base filler pullout because it would not otherwise clear the 1 1/2 inch lip on the countertop. So now, the cabinet opens. The missing remnant is again mentioned in an email on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I am informed that the remnants would have been instinctually disposed of and that they would have been removed from the premises the day before. These remnants would not have been useful for countertop, being only about 18 inches wide in the narrower dimension but useful to me. All told, I would have paid a little over $200 for this material that was useful to me; delivery to me was indicated in the signed agreement and multiple reminders were provided to the company before the material was apparently disposed of. I have yet to receive the remnants of this material that I think is owed to me. The quality of the workmanship of my final product seems fine; my design requests were apparently "too custom" to accommodate but if one didn't have specific ideas in mind, I think one would be happy with their "design."

They were punctual, cleaned up after themselves and did excellent work. We couldn't be happier with the finished product or with their level of service. We would definately use them again.

Finally got an answer which then turned out to be too expensive.

My experience went very well with Countertop Designs. I found them through Angie's list and would recommend them to others. I thought they were very helpful in providing information and design ideas and eventually I picked the perfect choice for my kitchen. Every time I visited the store they were friendly and helpful. Their phone service was always prompt and if a question could not be answered they would call back. The workers who came to the house were on-time and efficient. I am very happy with the product - it is exactly what I expected.

They took measurements and went back and made it. They brought it and installed it in a week. They were really great and did a perfect job. We will be using them again when we?ll be having our kitchen done.

From Casey, up front, to Matt,the lead installer, we think we made the right choice for our project Everyone at Countertop was first class, they never pressured us or tried to sell us something we didn't want. We just kept going back to the showroom getting more info before we made our choice. They sent back one order because it did not meet their high standards. And every assurance they gave us they backed up with performance. Bid was a little high but superior service made up the difference. Start out with Casey for information and help and finish your job with Matt (who wouldn't install unless it was done RIGHT) and you'll be happy you chose this company.

Clean showroom with many product samples to view. I was able to see many of the products in a full counter, not just small samples. Once I selected a product, an exact written quote was given to me. Person who came to measure was polite and professional. Eric, the installer, went beyond the call. Not only did he do a great job of installing the counter, I had a farmhouse sink that went between 2 sections of counter. He caulked and set the sink. I also had a cook top. Not only did he cut the opening, he also had to modify my cabinet, which he cheerfully did. Finally, I had a section of chopping block with a square edge. He routed the edge so that it had a curve to match the edge of the Corian. I love the material, but I will return to this company for their excellent service and professional attitude. Every person I came in contact with was polite and ready to help. Try to request Eric to install your countertop. He's the best!!