Empire Stone

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I found Jose Gonzalez of 50 Prospect St, Somerville, MA 02143 through Googling for countertops in an effort to save money. A big mistake. When I drove to his dilapidated office, which he was in the process of relocating to 130 Smith Place, Cambridge, MA 02148, he gave me a very good price, $1,260, on installing granite countertops for my kitchen. He showed me a sample of stone which he said is the stone he would be using, and asked me for $600, which I gave him. His conduct was outrageously unprofessional, he joked about having s** with his girlfriends in my house and taking my money to use on a vacation. His niece who was present at the interview apologized for him and he said he was just kidding. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, we scheduled him to come in to measure my counters, and he showed up for that, but he did not make a template, which I found out later was a substandard practice: when you install a granite countertop you make a cardboard template so that the stone can be cut to fit the actual counter. We scheduled the installation for today, Monday, April 28, 2014. By this time I had read the almost unanimously negative reviews about him and I was very nervous. I explained to him that it was very important he come through because I am in the midst of a renovation and other work that comes next, like installing woodwork around the counter is contingent upon his doing his work on time. I also implored him to please do a good job, having read reviews detailing his shoddy workmanship and outright swindling of people, including reviewers who alleged that he took their money and then disappeared. This is exactly what he did to me. Two days before the installation, Saturday, April 26, 2014, I called him and reminded him we had scheduled the installation, and he said, and quot;So, you want the work done on Monday?and quot; and quot;Yes, we had scheduled it. Jose, it is very important to me that you do it Monday, if you don't, it's going to screw up the job.and quot; He said he would have to check his schedule, that he didn't have his schedule in his head, and that I could call him tomorrow, Sunday. and quot;Really, what time?and quot; and quot;Oh, any time.and quot; and quot;No, Jose, give me a time to call, and I will call.and quot; and quot;OK, how about noon?and quot; I called him Sunday, April 27, 2014, at exactly noon, and nobody answered. I called his other cell phone number he gave me, and nobody answered that, either. He called back later on that day, and promised that there was no problem, and that he would be showing up Monday as scheduled, and quot;in the morning between 10 and 12.and quot; I said I would have to be at work, but I could leave the house open for him so he could come in and do the work. At this point I was very uncomfortable and I basically begged him to please make sure he comes by. and quot;Don't worry,and quot; he said. and quot;You will come home from work and you can inspect the countertops and see that I did a good job.and quot; On Monday, April 28, 2014, I arranged for the apartment to be available for him, including leaving a sign on the door and leaving a schematic, including a blueprint of the kitchen faucet, so he would know where to drill the holes, as well as the kitchen faucet itself in the apartment. I also left my phone number on the note. I came home from work eagerly and nervously anticipating either a countertop installed well, a countertop installed poorly, or no countertop at all. I found no countertop at all. I called his phone numbers several times, both 617 625-9777 and 617 959-7437, and nobody answered. Nobody called. I am left with no work done, $600 lost, and no explanation. I realize by publishing this review I might make it more difficult for me to recover the $600, but I want other people to avoid the nightmare of working with this man.

The selection process was fine, and we were given a straightforward price. It was one of the better prices we had gotten, and we liked the granite that we chose a lot. From there, it went downhill. When they did the template, they were in a big hurry, and ignored some of the requested details. Our sink came with its own template, but they wanted the sink, which the guy forgot to take with him. I took it over to them the next day, and set a date for the installation in a week's time. I got a call from them a few days earlier than that date, wanting to come by immediately and do the install. We had temporary counters and sink in place to use until the install. but I rushed to get everything cleared away for them. They came, and were in a huge rush from the start. Some of the pieces had been cut inexactly One piece of backsplash was a bit too long, the other one a bit short. The sink cutout created an uneven overlap of the sink, and when they drilled the holes, they were the wrong distance apart and off center. They'd cut the two pieces of the counter inexactly in relation to each other, and shimmed up one end of the counter, making it way off level, which in turn left a gap under the middle of the backsplash. They threw on the sealer with all the dust from the drilling still on the counter, then took off in a hurry. When my wife got home from work, the smell was still overwhelming so we went out for dinner. When we returned, it still smelled terrible. We finally figured out that they'd dumped a big wad of epoxy resin in what they thought was a trash can, but was actually a bin for our dog's food. We threw all that out, feeling none too happy, and finally the smell dissipated. But the worst of it was Jose's reaction. First, he was upset that we hadn't given his workers a final check on the spot. His approach was to promise to fire whoever had done it, or to blame the tools at his shop for not working properly, or to say it must be our and quot;oldand quot; cabinet's fault. (The cabinets were brand new, and leveled exactly). The only concession he would make was to deduct a whopping $70 from the bill and act like we were bleeding him dry. He had no interest in coming to look at the job and see the problems, and never said a word of apology. He's a charismatic and smooth character, but in the end, just wants your money, with no concern for his end of the bargain.

The process was very quick and clean. I went to Jose's granite yard on Prospect Street on the Cambridge/Somerville line and picked out the granite from their huge variety of remnants from larger jobs. They came over and templated and the granite was prepared and installed in less than two weeks from the day I selected the granite. What a difference it makes over stained, chipped, dulled bricks.

The owner, Jose, is a character. He loves his business and you can tell. When I walked into his shop, he took me out back and told me to find a stone that I liked. There were scraps everywhere. Once I identified the one I liked, he took a look and offered up an estimate of $900 without looking anything up. It certainly was lower than all the other estimates that I had gotten (by about $300-400). My one big complaint about Empire was the fact that Jose way over-promised on arrival times: his guy was five hours late to take the template. On the day of installation, after waiting three hours and leaving multiple messages on Jose's machine, I finally got through to him and it was clear he had forgotten all about the installation. However, the fabrication of the countertop and installation were fine. It was just incredibly frustrating for Jose not to be truthful about when to expect his guys to arrive.

This company was great. Their estimate was several hundred less than 2 other quotes, and it took less than one week from selection of the granite to installation. The installers showed up on time, were friendly, informative, maintained a clean work area, and the quality of their work was great. We would definitely hire Empire again.

The quality of the work is great, and the selection of granite was vast. Jose is the owner and a bit of a wheeler-dealer. You don't get a break down of all his different granites and the price differentials, he prefers to be a bit more vague about price differences until he gives you a full quote. He will give you granite samples to take home, which was very helpful because the lighting in our kitchen is very different than the bright sun (most of his granite is outdoors) or his showroom lights. The price was lower than Home Depot by a couple hundred and the time from template to installation was ONE week, instead of the 4-6 weeks Home Depot offered! That alone is why I would go with Empire again. My only complaint is that the workmen arrived several hours late for both the template and the installation. Calling Jose didn't seem to help, "they are loading the truck" was what I was told, but an hour later they still hadn't appeared.

HAD A VERY COMPETITIVE PRICE, AND THE TIME FROM ORDER TO TEMPLATE TO INSTALLATION JUST OVER A WEEK, WHICH IS MUCH FASTER THAN WHAT ANYONE ELSE OFFERED. QUALITY INSTALLATION.

WE CHOSE EMPIRE LARGELY B/C OF THE PRICE -- THEIR PRICEWAS ABOUT $800 LESS THAN ALL OF THE OTHER ESTIMATES -- BUT WE WERE VERY IMPRESSED W/THE QUALITY OF THEIR WORK.