This is one of the toughest reviews I have written. I have been sitting on this for nearly two years, trying to figure out how I would write it, if at all. You see the issue is that Seattle Granite Countertops (SGC) and the installers are sort of separate entities, but they really need to be grouped into one review. SGC is good. Jarren is knowledgeable and their pricing is competitive. They can be a little gruff if you catch them on a bad day or ask too many questions, but that seems to be the norm with anything related to home remodeling and construction.
The counters were cut and installed at our house. The first thing I noticed was a huge gap along the area where the backsplash would go on one of the pieces to the left of the stove. It went from small to large (nearly an inch at it's widest point). I showed this to German and he said the wall wasn't straight. Okay, that's possible I guess. He also said that the backsplash would cover up the gap. Having never installed a backsplash myself and not wanting further construction in my kitchen, I reluctantly paid them cash and sent them on their way.
As the days went by, the more and more this crooked piece bugged us. It just didn't sit right on there. I called Jarren and he said the same thing that German said to me: the wall is probably off. However, I told Jarren I had taken some measurements from the front and sure enough, it was off there too. It was nearly 1/2 an inch off in the front. The whole piece was sitting crooked on the cabinet box. How could this be? Well, they hand-cut the granite with a cutting wheel and what appears to have happened is they cut (and notched) the adjoining piece incorrectly, forcing this piece to only fit crooked. I took a bunch of pictures and measurements and emailed them to Jarren. I had to follow up a couple times before he finally conceded that it was installed crooked.
We arranged a time for German to stop by and take a look. I double-checked the date and time. I made it clear that I wanted to be there, so timing was important. Well German and his installers showed up a couple hours early, catching my wife off-guard. They knocked repeatedly on the door. She was not ready for them and I was not home yet. Oh, and we had two sleeping kids upstairs. My wife let them in and showed them the problem. She had to argue with them a bit. They went out to their van and waited for me to come home. Their "fix" was to add black caulking to the gap. We agreed that if we did not like this then we wanted the piece replaced. I have no idea why we agreed to this idea. After all, it was clearly crooked from the front. How would adding caulk and reducing the gap in the back solve our issue? It wouldn't. All it would do is make it possible to install the backsplash without a gap.
In my opinion the disconnect between SGC and the installers is unacceptable. Where's the quality assurance? Is it the customer? That's dangerous. There should be spot-audits before and after some jobs. And if there's a costly fix like this one, SGC management should drive out and look at it. They can write off the mileage. The installers are crucial. They could make or break SGC.
I called Jarren and made it clear that we did not like the caulk fix. This is where he started to get defensive. I told him I had another tile guy (who also does granite) come by and see if he could/would do the backsplash install with the caulk in place. He repeatedly shook his head and wondered not only why they attempted a "fix" like this, but why they did butt-joins on some of the prefab pieces. This extra set of professional eyes was confirming what I expected all along; the installation work was shoddy. Jarren did not like this. He went off on me on the phone. I had to use some old police techniques to calm him down (lower my voice to barely audible, speak rationally, no emotions, etc.). Maybe he was having a bad day. I had never had an issue with Jarren up until this point. I think he was just flat-out sick of dealing with us. And he repeatedly defended his installers, which to be honest kind of pissed me off. I mean what more was it going to take to get this done right? I took 20 pictures, numerous measurements, a PowerPoint, 5 emails, and placed 15 calls. Does SGC think I really want these guys back in my house for 3 hours to rip off the old piece? Heck no!
After getting things calmed down we came to agreement to again have the installers come out and fix this issue. It was now nearly one year after the initial installation. They came out but were a few hours late. It took them about 2 hours to rip off the old piece, cut a new one, and install. What no one told us was that new batches of granite come in after the old is used up. This piece was a different pattern! Crap! So we now have a properly-installed piece that looks "off." I told Jarren but that was the end of it. As much as I want to, I cannot recommend SGC due to their installers. read more
