For the quick scanner - basically I think they are likely a good technical company if you have no issues, BUT if you have ANY issues at all, it is a nightmare. And by any - this includes them SELLING THE STONE SLAB YOU PICKED OUT AND PAID A DEPOSIT FOR, which is what happened to us.
I give them a 1 instead of a 0 because the stone itself is fine, and the cutting was well done and the installers were very professional. Also, the office assistants are very responsive, but cannot provide any resolutions or real information.
Our experience started off well, when we met Girish at the end of last year. We fell in love with a natural stone slab and put a $1,000 down-payment to hold 2 slabs (because of the size of our counters we needed a second one for the smaller back area). We submitted our designer's drawings so they were certain what size we needed, and proceeded to plan all of our kitchen around that stone. We shopped for cabinets, flooring and paint based on the stone - and carried around a heavy sample of the stone for months.
When we contacted ProStone in March, to alert them that the renovations were underway, we were told that Girish didn't work there, but that we still had our 2 slabs on hold. Louise tried to help as best as she could and was responsive to every email and call I made. But for any decision, she had to ask Bal, the owner.
After several emails and phone calls, the measurement worker finally came, and that weekend we went in to the warehouse to review placement (because the stone was so varied in colours, we had to choose where each part would go).
We were shocked to walk in and find that they had SOLD OUR SLAB! There was a second slab - similar, but not the exact beauty and detail as the one we chose, of which there was less than 1/3 left. And the remaining slab wasn't enough for our kitchen. Because it was a natural quartzite, no other stone in their warehouse compared.
Kugan, the head carver, came out and worked with us to figure out how to stretch the remaining stone and still get our counter. Ultimately it meant cutting the bar overhang down by 1" and having a seam by the stove -not our dream, but we had to make it work.
They then proceeded to charge us the new counter price ($12/sq foot more - a difference of over $800) - this was later corrected when we requested it, but I feel it should have been obvious and never been an issue in the first place.
When I asked for compensation for the smaller bar overhang and ofr accepting the 2nd slab, rather than the one we actually chose, Bal (the owner) agreed to making ours a "rush job" (for which they charge 15% usually). However, due to a family emergency (which I understand and do not hold against them), he was then out of the office for a week. During that week, I was told day after day they would come back and the install would happen in a day or two - so I would take time off work to accommodate the install and let my contractor know so she could come and install the backsplash... and it wouldn't happen. This happened two or three times. I was also told that the job was started already, and later that it hadn't been started yet. After nearly 2 weeks, I asked for a refund and was told I couldn't do that either, until the boss was back. I was stuck.
I understand there was a death in the family - and I'm perfectly willing to accept a delay for such a tragedy - but the fact that staff continued to tell me it would happen in a day or two was really unacceptable. If I had known there was a death and to wait a week, I would have been quite happy to do so. Miscommunication made the situation much much worse.
There were little things all the way along too - like we were asked three times about what edge profile we wanted, but had been told on our first visit that we could ONLY have one profile because of the nature of the stone and the risk of breaking it. I am still not sure if that was true or not. Every time I said that this was why we had chosen that profile, we were told "oh, right"... disconcerting.
All of this left me quite uncertain about their professionalism and frankly about how it would look, or if we would even get our counter, so I declined to pay the final amount, which they request 3 days before installation (before you've even seen the final product - until the day of install). I was told I could only do this if I paid by certified cheque or cash (which we did).
The stone was finally installed 2 weeks later - I have to say the installers were polite, friendly, clean and very helpful - but when they put it down, it was obvious that the seam area did not match at all (see photos).
Again I spoke to the owner, expressing how unhappy we were with the mismatched area - an area right by the stove, where I will see it every single day. As compensation, he only would give a $250 rebate (on a $6,000 piece of stone, plus extra labour because of the size, and taxes - all done it was over $7500). He suggested he'd already provided a discount on a second hole we needed cut, which was NEVER mentioned to us in any of our conversations or visits as having been requested or discounted. It was never on any invoice or receipt. It only came up when I requested compensation for their error. And he suggested that it didn't match because of how we wanted the stone cut - which is ridiculous - we would have listened to another suggestion if it would have meant not needing to have a mismatched seam - who would agree to a mismatched seam?! No one provided another solution or we would have surely done it.
Also, through this experience we were constantly fed excuses (he actually tried to blame the missing slab on us not providing the drawings in time and as the reason they didn't save the stone - which wasn't true, we provided them the first visit, and doesn't account for them selling the actual primary slab we chose) and did not take responsibility or apologize for their mistakes. If at any point they had acknowledged their mistakes and been remorseful, it would have gone a long way. We were made to feel like it was our fault somehow, even though we put a large deposit down and submitted our drawings on day one. No one ever acknowledged that all our issues would have been solved if they hadn't sold our slab!
I cannot recommend this company to anyone, I'm afraid. If you do, and there is an issue, expect not to be dealt with fairly, dishonesty, and I would highly discourage anyone from paying upfront. Also, double check everything, including costs, before you proceed with payment.
