Warning: Buyer Beware- had to give them one star to post this
I bought tiles from Ceramic Tile World. Initially things were fine. The young salesman was helpful and made good suggestions. My main purchase was a tile that had a sign on it saying that it had been $4.99 a sq. foot and it was now $1.99.
Unfortunately, things really went downhill after this. My contractor/installer had a huge problem with the tiles because they were not flat; I didn't know this happened with tiles. While a certain percentage of all tiles, I learned, may be bowed, in the case of the tile from Ceramic Tile World, the majority were bowed. As well, many of the tiles were chipped or broken. It ended up there weren't enough tiles to finish the job and we returned to Ceramic Tile World not only to tell them that we were unhappy with the quality of the tiles but because the installer couldn't finish the job. (READ: renovation cost more money due to length of extra time needed to install tile).
This is when things got ugly. The older employee who "helped" us, first told us that Yes, the tiles were probably marked down because they were not good quality tiles. He then took exception to the fact that my installer/contractor showed him the bow in the tiles and told him he should be ashamed to even sell these tiles to me at ANY PRICE because the tiles were substandard. The older guy started screaming obscenities, he insulted my contractor (who is a consummate professional) and then picked up a box of the tiles and smashed it on the floor. I was ready to call the police because he was so out of control. I was afraid that he was going to hit my contractor.
We left with the box that he hadn't smashed. It wasn't worth it because I was afraid the next step would be personal injury. I've actually never seen anyone in a retail situation become so violent, confrontational and unreasonable. I didn't even try to get a reimbursement for all the chipped and broken tiles. The guy was a maniac and frightening.
P.S. The box that we left with was also full of broken and chipped tiles AND we did some research and discovered that the same tile is sold at Home Depot for $2.10 a square foot and the tiles are neither bowed nor broken. I wish I had originally gone to Home Depot to buy my tile. read more