"We recommend not putting soapy water in the sink" was the reply from Erin the Customer Service Manager for MR Direct. You'll never guess why we purchased a beautiful copper sink for our brand new kitchen so imagine my surprise when I was delivered these completely idiotic words from this company. What did Erin think we were going to use the sink for? Decoration? Here is a definition just in case there is any gray area on what a kitchen sink is for and I quote from the dictionary:
Kitchen sink (noun) 1. a sink in a kitchen for washing dishes, vegetables, etc
Let's go back to the beginning shall we! My wife and I were so pleased with our purchase of our beautiful hand hammered copper sink, so when our general contractor finally put it in after a few weeks of washing dishes in the bath tub we jumped right in. She took out the green environmental friendly dish soap from Costco and proceeded to joyfully wash the dishes all the time admiring the craftsmanship of the sink. After the water was drained out of the sink, she noticed a white film where the water had been, completely covering the lower half. I told her that perhaps it was temporary and it would be gone by morning. Much to our disappointment the white film was still there (and is still there). Keep in mind that the sink did not come with any care instructions i.e., do's, don'ts, congratulations on your purchase and here is what you need to know. Zip, nada, nein, cipher.
I called MR Direct right away and spoke with Dawn in customer service and explained what I was looking at and asked for her recommendations as I'm sure we are not the first to experience this. I receive a rather unexpected answer from her as well only not as ridiculous an answer from Erin the customer service manager. "Gee, you sure have hard water in California!" Huh? Yes we do have hard water but it's not so hard as to do this to a sink after just one sink full of dishes. (Anybody notice a pattern here?) It would be one thing if their website had a "How to take care of..." webpage.
They do have one for cleaning which is absolutely useless of some arm and hand rinsing and wiping it down...no kidding unless you're an alien from another planet I'm sure cleaning a sink is pretty much done the same all over the world. Dawn proceeded to tell me to wait a week and see if anything changed. I agreed and proceeded not to fill up the sink, but use it just to rinse and clean the dishes off under running water. Bear in mind I live in California as Dawn stated and we are in a serious drought so leaving the water running is not exactly being a good steward of the environment.
A week passes and nothing has changed except a few areas in the bottom which appeared to be recovering. I called backed as agreed upon and spoke with Dawn and sent her pictures of the still white sink. My wife and I at this point are feeling a bit of anxiety because the granite was being installed in a week and the sink will be permanently entombed between the plywood and granite of our 60k remodel. Absolutely no help, commitment, apology, recommendation, suggestion in any way shape or form. What a complete and utterly useless customer service department! Dawn told me she will pass my concern to Erin her customer service manager promptly. Concern is understatement - eff ewe!! Two days go by and no call back from Erin.
After calling and leaving messages on Dawn and Erin's voice mail I receive a call from Erin three days before the point of no return on a solution. Talk about a completely worthless customer service manager. After explaining to her that we were hoping for a remedy of some kind as we very anxious for a solution as to getting rid of the white stain, and Brainiac sat on the other end of the phone completely silent offering no other advice, solution, remedy, how to, or acknowledged in any way shape or form a willingness to assist and proceeded to tell me in so many words, you're screwed. Better to remain silent lest you open your mouth and prove yourself a fool! Refer to the opening statement of my review if there is any doubt as to the intelligence of MR Direct's customer service department. You might say this a not so nice review but when you screw me and my family...shame on you!! You get what you give!
Sincerely,
Eric & Suzanne read more