Update 12/18/14: We just received word from Lowe's that Capitol Granite has refused to work with us any further. Apparently, once they learned that we reported their questionable business tactics to the BBB (the first time in our lives either my wife or I have ever filed a BBB report), they refused to perform our granite fabrication or installation. Fortunately, Lowe's was able to expeditiously find an alternate fabricator/installer who will use our selected slabs to complete the contracted work.
Original post:
Capitol Granite subcontracts for Lowe's of Charlottesville and is, at this time, their only granite subcontractor. As such, we have no other option for granite fabrication and installation which is quite unfortunate. Thus far, our experience with Capitol Granite has been atrocious.
In brief, our major grievances are (1) their front desk employee in particular has had a horrible attitude and acts as if inconvenienced by merely interacting with customers both on the phone and in person (2) we were incorrectly told we could only select from partial slabs or remnants rather than a full slab (3) we were first told we could select an alternate product more to our liking, but when the slab layout was sent to us the incorrect slab was used (4) Capitol employees denied making this switch and were adamant the slab we selected was used, until we reached the manager who confirmed the wrong slab was used as verified by the lot/product numbers in her computer - she could not explain to us why this occurred.
At this time, we have not received the partial slabs we selected despite having made a 160-mile roundtrip to select our specific slabs.
More details:
#2 - They informed us that because Lowe's calculates granite prices by square feet, we are not entitled to a full slab of granite and would have to accept remnants and/or partial slabs - in phone conversation with a Lowe's manager they vehemently denied this and were shocked to hear that we were told this by Capitol.
#3 - After we drove 80 miles one-way to select our Sensa Tanami granite (Lowe's name for Giallo Ornamental granite treated with Sensa's "senguard") we were disappointed to see that the lot for the Lowe's product differed drastically from the store sample. More specifically, the Sensa Tanami at Capitol appeared much more brown and was nearly indistiguishable from a less expensive (per Lowe's pricing) Santa Cecilia also on the lot. Because we were dissatisfied, the Capitol employee working the storage yard was kind enough to educate us that Sensa Tanami is just Giallo Ornamental with the Senguard applied - as such, he called Lowe's and received authorization to use a Giallo Ornamental slab to our liking and Capitol would apply the Senguard themselves. This process then became exceedingly complicated when the front desk staff informed the storage lot employee and ourselves that slab (and 2 others we liked as "backup") were all already claimed despite not being marked as such. This caught the storage employee quite by surprise, and increased our skepticism of the front desk employee's forthrightness. The front desk employee then went on to explain #2 above, which seems at this point to be an outright lie. We then settled upon 2 partial slabs with sufficient square footage and awaited the Slab Layout so that we could schedule installation.
#4 - A few days later, we were sent the slab layout by email. Upon reviewing the images, it was blatantly obvious to us that the wrong slab had been used for the layout. More specifically, the Sensa Tanami lot that we declined at the time of our in-person visit was used without our authorization, rather than the product we selected in person. The front desk employee was adamant that the layout was the product we had selected, even though it was clearly not. We asked to speak with a manager who ultimately admitted that the product used for layout was NOT the one we had selected, and that it was NOT consistent with the lot/product numbers entered into their computer. The numbers in the computer matched the partial slabs we had selected, but she had no explanation as to why they were not the ones used.
Our core issue with Capitol and why we would not recommend them to anyone is that their actions to this point in time have amounted to lying on more than one occasion during this process. They have made what we perceive to be duplicitous attempts to switch our selection with an inferior product in the hopes that we did not catch this switch and would approve the inferior product so they could get it off of their lot and out of their inventory.
Hopefully Lowe's of Charlottesville can find another reputable granite supplier in the area, as anyone interested in buying granite through them will have to go through Capitol Granite for the time being. read more