AMERICAN TILE INC

AWFUL!!! Gwen and Guy Desrochers own this company. Gwen runs the showroom and Guy does the installation. On November 2 I went into their showroom to order the replacement tile. Gwen pulled up my original order on her computer and claims she copied and pasted the order onto a new PO and submitted it to what she claims was the same distributor from four years ago. I paid $650 as a deposit using my Visa. Gwen said the tile should arrive in 5 - 7 days. The tile arrived much later, due to what Gwen claims was the tile distributor waiting until they had a full truck to ship. And when it did arrive, Gwen claims two of the boxes on the pallet were mangled. She claims she called the distributor and was told they would overnight replacement boxes. After calling Gwen twice to see if the tile arrived, she said it had and I made arrangements for her husband to install the tile. He and his helper arrived on time and began their prep work. Then he brought in a box of tile, opened it, and realized that it was the wrong tile. It was a matte finish and not the glossy finish I needed. He called Gwen with me standing there and I heard him asking how she could have made such a mistake. She claimed to not be able to find her original PO but that she would investigate. Despite numerous phone calls and emails where she rambled and made excuses, she never accepted responsibility for the inaccurate tile. She then claimed that the distributor said they never carried that tile in a glossy finish. With time of the essence, I asked what she was going to do to rectify the situation. She said she would re-order the tile (which is scarce because it has been discontinued) and shipping would again take 5 - 7 days. (She had not factored in Thanksgiving so shipping would have taken much longer than she said.) She also asked for the remaining balance of $655 owed for the tile so she could place the order. I gave her my Visa - again - all the while listening to her (and Guy) complain about how they were going to have to eat the original tile order. Very inappropriate and unprofessional of them. After thinking about the lack of integrity shown by Gwen, I contacted her the next day to request that she pay for overnight shipping. She said that was impossible, as the tile was on a pallet and had to be trucked in. Excuse me - a pallet can't be loaded into a plane? I then told her to cancel the order. She said she could not cancel the order because her credit card had already been charged. Say what?? Legally I have three business days to cancel. Gwen must have realized how lame that excuse sounded so she emailed me and said she would refund the deposit of $650 to my Visa but from the $655 she was going to subtract the cost of the time and materials incurred by Guy and his helper at my house. First, Gwen ordered the wrong tile and refused to take responsibility for it. Second, if either Gwen or Guy had looked at the tile when they accepted delivery of it, they would have seen that it was the wrong tile, and then Guy would not have come to my house. Since Gwen did not have authority to use that money charged on my Visa for anything except paying for the tile, she was breaking the law. I told her that I was going to contest both of the credit card charges with Visa, which she claimed was me making threats to her. At that point I just had to laugh. Shortly thereafter she sent me another rambling, almost incoherent email saying she would refund all my money but if I didn't pay the invoice she would put a lien on my house. Legally I don't owe her that money but to be rid of her I paid it. I have all her incriminating emails should anyone like to see them. Beware of this company!!!