Architessa

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Quick and efficient

I walked in and by chance Kathryn Scozzafava was the one who worked with me. She was absolutely unbelievable. She spent hours with me selecting tiles, which were in my budget. I was able to describe the feel that I wanted for the finished bathrooms and she helped me select everything. I was so pleased. I would highly recommend the products at Architectural Ceramics, but I would also highly recommend Kathryn. The other warehouse people were also very good.

It was an experience from hell. I am a designer, I am well aware of lead time issues with certain tiles. So I started out the process far in advance. I am new to the area, so I don't know the reputation of a lot of places. My experience with AC is that their staffs are incompetent. After I made my final selections and paid full amount for oder, the staff that I was dealing with told me nearly 2 weeks later that she misquoted me one item, and some other items were out of stock by the time they put the order through. So instead of ETA being 2 weeks, it would be couple months. When I went to her office to reselect, she told me that another item was also out of stock, and the new ETA would not be until the beginning of next year. That was when I got frustrated with AC. And it only got worse. After I promptly reselected the items, AC did not respond for weeks! Meanwhile, while they did not promptly respond, I tried to find the same stuff elsewhere. For the ceramic tiles, I went to Daltile, and the price was 1/3 of what AC quoted me for the same item of course. While AC told me the lead time was going to be 6 weeks for these Daltiles, Daltile had them in a week! But I stuck with AC because of couple other tiles, which were harder to find elsewhere. Finally the tiles came in after much frustration. Now I am waiting for my refund, which is another frustrating and long waiting period. AC do have a lot of pretty tiles to look at. But I would only recommend my clients to look, not buy. After I became Angie's List, I noticed similar postings. I hope the owner will get a hint and improve their staff's competence level.

They had a great selection and they were very helpful in color selection.

It was a mixed experience. I thought the service was quite good. The diversity of product was excellent. We had a little hang up. Some of the tile did not match and had to be reordered. We got the replacement tile and the sealant discolored the tile. The company wasn't very responsive in keeping us addressed on what was going to be done. They sent a representative out to check out the tile. We ended up ordering new tile.

I am a remodeling contractor. My customer picked out a tile from Architectural Ceramics, which I tried to buy.I contacted three sales people before I got a return call. When picking up material, I waited an hour in a short line. The pick up area is slow and disorganized. I ran out of time to go through entire order which was crated and wrapped. When tile was uncrated, I discovered almost half the tile was damaged. I returned with damaged material and was given a customer service rep, Karla. On the wall there is a list of 4 reps. which you are given one according to you last name. I do not think I would advertise this, it seems they have a lot of issues. Karla saw my tile and understood the problem. They took the damaged tile and wanted me to return the rest. They where going to return the entire order to there vendor. Karla said that they do a lot of business with the supplier and they should take care of this. When I returned with the rest of the tile, we try to get tile back in original crate. This was hard because most of the bottom of the crate was missing. Ray in the pick up area said they had questioned this at time of delivery to them. I don't know why didn't they inspect the tile when they took delivery, seeing the damage on a crate filled with a delicate material. I ask for an update on when my tile was going to be replaced. After a week I called and e-mailed for update. I finally got a return e-mail saying that when they get my tile in they will call and it will be beautiful, which did not answer my question After another week I called sales person to get an answer. Then I get an e-mail from Karla saying I need to select anew material that supplier will not inspect tile before it ships. At this point I start looking for another supplier for material., I discover that I could have bought this for a fraction of the cost from any other supplier. I send an email to Karla and sales rep demanding a refund. Still 4 more days and no response. Now I call the manager of the Bethesda showroom and he returns my second call.He finally gets my tile replaced after a month and 4 trips picking up and returning tile. I still never got a return call from Karla. I don't think customer service can be done through e-mails alone. They never offered to pick up or deliver any of the tile to offset this trouble. I am out a lot of time and fuel. Architectural Ceramics has a beautiful showroom but you truly pay for it!

I went to AC after visiting another retailer that sold tiles because it took too long to provide me an estimate. An interior decorator from Angie's List recommended them and AC was also on Angie's List. How could I go wrong? Well I didn't, my best purchase of the year. I had an idea of what I wanted and the design consultant discussed my purchase with me and gave me an estimate. After talking with him for a bit and looking at lots of samples, I settled on lovely tiles that were far less than I originally planned to buy. Quite frankly the tiles I wanted were really not right for my purpose. I have to give much kudos to David Benson, Bethesda Showroom Manager and Account Rep for making the right choice. He also referred me to two great companies for installation and some tile related work. He was very professional, took plenty of time answering numerous questions and never pressed the sale. If I need tiles AC is where I'll go. My highest recommendations to the company and David.

Architectural Ceramics was great to work with. I had no idea where to start and they walked me through the process of picking the tiles and granite. I love the tile and granite I picked. I highly recommend them.