Ambiente European Tile Design - Seattle Showroom

I would use them again. The work went very well.

Three weeks ago i went into their show room and spoke to Dan their designer about a bathroom remodel. he promised me an email with a quote but never heard back from him. I called Matt their project manager to see if i could get a quote. I offered to provide measurements but he insisted on doing the measurements himself. he showed up the following day as agreed and measured the bathroom areas to be tiled. he assured me of a formal quote within a few days. It has been three weeks and nothing. why on earth would you waste everyone's time and not bid the job? I refuse to chase after a contractor to do work for me. Crazy way to run a business.

Melissa came by to see our bathroom remodel in its almost done state, but we were looking for someone to tile the floor and shower stall. We had several other companies and individuals give us bids and ideas about what they would advise. Melissa came again with Udo, the owner of Ambiente, to ask him a question about our interestingly configured shower stall. We received their bid and it seemed reasonable. Their storefront is very near our house and we knew they had been in business for quite a while, so that set us at ease. I didn't have a final floor tile picked out, so Melissa brought several samples by that she thought I might like. I chose one of them and like it very much. The tiler came each day for several hours to work. He taped a paper runner over our hardwood floors and worked very neatly. Each day I came home to marvel at the progress. We had a niche built in and didn't know what to use for shelves. Melissa found us some quartz to use that she provided at no charge and it looks wonderful. There was great attention to detail, and even though we were a little job for them, we never felt unimportant. I would unhesitatingly recommend this company.

Great

Overall, the experience went very well. The tile is beautiful, but expensive. The cost of the installation was half of what other companies' estimates were. The approximate cost includes the tile as well as the installation. The installation process went smoothly, and I'm satisfied with their services.

We made an appointment for someone to be at the house at 8 AM. When no one had shown or called by 10 I called them. They appologized that the technition had gotten behind schedule (for an 8 AM appt?) and they said they would send someone else by 1. When 2 came and went and still no show I called again. I was told that the technition was lost and trying to find our home. He arrived at 2:30. When he got to work he realized that he didn't have any grout with him. I ran to the hardware store and bought some. The cleaning and grouting were completed and we made another appointment for him to come back and seal the counters. When he came back to seal the counters he realized that he didn't have any caulk with him to complete the job. Rather than delay the job or run to the store that minute, I agreed that I'd finish the work. After he left, we realized that something caustic had been spilled on the door of our brand new dishwasher. We called and were informed that the cleaners and sealers could not have caused this problem. Then we go the bill. It was for about 3 times as many hours as I had expected. I called to get a more detailed accounting of what was charged for. I got a call back two weeks later informing me that a mistake had been made and the technition had charged the hours from another job to my bill....oops. They said they would send us a new bill. A few days later we got a voicemail from the accounting department wanting to know why we had not paid the bill. They obviously don't talk to each other in the office there. Then we go the revised bill. It was still wrong. The number of hours had been reduced to 1/3 of what they were before but there was a big math error in the bill. They had added our deposit to the bill rather than deducting it. Another oops. We are now awaiting a final, correct bill. I am making sure to get everything in writing because I do not trust these people in the slightest. This is an addition to the prior post....the rest of the story.... We did finally get a corrected bill for the work that was done. It was less than 1/3 the original, grossly inflated bill. I put a check in the mail the next day. Today, about a week later, I received a certified letter from a company representing Ambiente putting us on notice of Ambiente's right to place a lien on our house because the bill had not yet been paid. I called and was told that the records show that the bill has been paid in full and they weren't sure why we go the certified letter telling us the bill had not been paid. This just adds significant insult to the whole process. This was a simple job that should have been easy to do and easy to bill. This company struggled through every phase of the process and made it a highly unpleasant experience for us. It is easily the worst customer service experience I have had for many years. .

From the beginning we had expressed our concerns that this was to be a quality job. $33K for 600 Sq ft is outrageous, but they guaranteed quality. When the job was finished, they had done a spectaular job with the exception of a few spots that were sealed into the tile by the workers. I was quite happy at first. Then why all the bad marks? It's what happened afterwards. The floor immediately cracked everywhere! The floor heat failed in the bathroom and there were a few items that required them to come back and finish. I held back a little over a thousand dollars to insure they would return and finish. Ambiente refused to return. Before the final bill I spoke to the owner who stated over and over they would fix everything but in fact ignored every attempt to reach him. I pleaded with them to come an see the issues and to work things out. I didn't want this to spiral out of control. They filed an illegal lien against my house for the last few dollars of the work they refused to complete! After that I had to get our lawyers involved which made them remove the lein. We sent them a large document filled with pictures of cracks and stains and of work left undone. They ignored that. Then they harassed me to pay again. I even began the process of filing a lawsuit to stop them to which they ignored even that! The day before we were to begin the final process of the suit because of total inaction of Ambiente, they called and said NOW they want to fix the problem. What a joke!

I went in to Ambiente to look at a sample that we had pretty much decided on. I wanted to get their opinion as they are the only dealers of this material. We were ready to give our contractor the go ahead to work with this material and Ambiente. (They only quote on this material to the contractor.) The woman helping (or shall I say not helping) us was extremely rude. She didn't know any of the qualities of the material (durability, heat resistance, installation factors). I may try the other locations but will definitely not go back to the store on 65th.

It went badly. The first order was incorrect and we had to return about a third of the tiles for reorder. The second order was also incorrect. We finally received the proper tiles nearly four months after beginning. In our view this problem was caused both by our "consultant" not submitting the order properly (despite our giving her a detailed drawing, with tile counts) and the manufacturer also getting it wrong. But the most frustrating part was dealing with Ambiente. Because the sales people are independent from each other, there was very little support from others in the store: "That's [name's] order - you'll have to talk to her when she's here." We experienced this three times. I run a service company myself and if anyone on my staff ever treated clients this way they'd be in trouble. I think the business structure there does not lend itself to good internal support. Our need was simple but no one seemed willing to do a little paperwork for a client of another.

BEAUTIFUL TILE SELECTION, IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET ANY TYPE OF TILE IMAGINABLE. VERY HELPFUL STAFF AND PROFESSIONAL INSTALLATION. IN HINDSIGHT OUR CHOICE WAS TOO EXPENSIVE FOR OUR BUDGET, BUT IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL.