NEW AGE POTTERY

My experience with New Age Pottery was horrible. I told the owner of the company before buying the fountain that it was going to be acid-stained (not painted) to match a pre-existing basin in my front yard. The staining was to be done by an independent contractor introduced to me by New Age Pottery at their place of business, but I contracted with him separately for the staining work. The fountain style was selected based on a finished model in a display at New Age Pottery. The unfinished fountain was then delivered to my home and stained by the independent contractor before I examined the physical condition of the fountain. After the staining was done, I noticed numerous defects in the concrete from which the fountain was cast, including drip and run marks from the casting process, blemishes in the surfaces, visible rocks and stones in the concrete, and large, ugly seam marks from the casting process which defaced the ornamental lion heads that decorated the fountain (these were inch-wide seams of unfinished concrete with rocks showing, right through the middle of all 4 lion heads). If the fountain had been painted instead of stained, these defects might have been hidden; however, staining the concrete only made them look worse. Additionally, I was told by the staining contractor that the components of the fountain had been manufactured from different batches of concrete, so they could not hold stain similarly due to differences in densities and absorption rates of the concrete batches. The result was a horrible looking fountain that could not be used. When I complained to New Age Pottery, they denied any responsibility, asserting that it was the staining contractor's fault, which it clearly was not. They refused my request for a refund. I asked them if they would please have the fountain painted to hide the defects (like the model that was on display in their place of business) and then sell it as a used fountain and give me the proceeds to mitigate my damages, but they also refused that request. Ultimately, I had to discard the fountain entirely and buy a better quality fountain from a more reputable merchant. I lost the $1,300 that I paid to New Age Pottery plus $650 that I had paid to the staining contractor to do the stain work.