TIMBERLINE TILE OF CORTEZ INC

Tile chosen from store display, a single 12x12 tumbled travertine 1" by 1" basket weave- pattern, manufacturer cuzco. when the tile was installed, there were irregular variations in color of tile which have the overall appearance of the backsplash being stained and dirty. the tile installer got the tile from a distributor in albuquerque who got the tile from a distributor in denver. I contacted the distributor in denver (I didn't know at the time that the tile originally came from this distributor) to determine if the finish might have been the problem and to determine if there was any way to fix it. the tile installer cleaned the tile a second time to see if that might help. It didn't. Ultimately, the answer I got was that it is a quality control issue, the distributor does not look over a batch of tile to look for significant color variations, neither did the tile installer nor did I. I was told that color variations are random and that this is inherent in working with travertine. bottom line, I'm stuck with an expensive backsplash that appears blotched and looks like it's been splashed with food or cooking oil. In hindsight, I have not figured out any way I could have protected myself from this as the problem wasn't evident by looking at the single sample in the store display. It wasn't an option to look over each tile and pick and choose to eliminate color variation outliers once the tile was delivered. Furthermore, I didn't see the problem until the tile was already installed. The tile installer said he had never worked with that particular tile before. I would NEVER recommend the use of this product for ANYTHING. I also believe that one of the responsibilities of a good contractor is to have your back. The distributor and the installer were very nice people but the bottom line was "sorry, luck of the draw".