The good news is that in the end, our countertops look good.
(Except for the bar top, which is horribly out of level. See update at bottom.)
However, there were times during the process where I thought I might blow my top.
When my wife and I first showed up at Stoneware we dealt with Sam, who was extremely helpful, knowledgable, and patient. He got us set up with the right stone and then handed us off to Nishar, the owner, who was initially quite amicable. Once he got our money, though, things changed.
In a nutshell, this guy's customer service and communication skills are some of the worst I've ever experienced. No updates, no status report, and certainly no callbacks. Ever. Not one. I travel a great deal for work, so needed to know when his guy would come out to template so I could be there. Getting a straight answer was liking pulling teeth, and every time I'd call Nishar he'd talk over me, spew random information about other peoples' projects, and insist that he call me back in 30 minutes. He never did. I had to resort to driving 30 minutes to the showroom to get any info.
Template done, I was told 5-10 days to cut and install. Seven days later, no call with an update or to schedule an appointment. And I'm due to fly out of the country in a week's time. So I called the showroom, but everyone there defers to Nishar, because he's the boss and makes the schedule. My wife called and succeeded in getting him to pick up the phone, but he was rude to her and eventually hung up. Nice.
It took me yelling at him to "stop talking and just listen, I need information" for him to finally stop stammering over me, and once he heard my tone he threatened to refund my money. This is two weeks and a dozen phone calls in. We didn't want our money back, and we certainly didn't want to be this stressed out; we just wanted an idea of when the installation might take place!
All this frustration and stress could be avoided if Nishar would simply relinquish his strangle hold on the business and delegate some responsibilities to someone else. The other employees at Stoneware are friendly and kind, and they actually call you back.
In the end, our countertops are nice, but not great. The beveled seams we paid extra for aren't as clean and invisible as the samples they showed us in the showroom, and some of the edges have uneven machining (one of them is directly above a switch on the backsplash, so it's irritatingly evident). I'd also wanted the bar top and countertop to be level, but they're about 1/4" off, and the overhang toward the counter is about an inch greater than I'd have specified if given the chance. Unfortunately the fellow that came out to do the template barely spoke English, so there was a communication barrier.
My recommendation is to spend a little extra money and go to a higher end showroom. You may spend more, but you'll save a great deal of time and frustration.
***UPDATE***
I penned the above review moments after having the bar top installed (it was installed a week after the countertops because the original piece wasn't cut properly) and I hadn't inspected it thoroughly b/c the installer said not to touch it until the adhesive had time to dry.
Well, now that the adhesive is dry we've started putting items on the bar top, including a round chap stick. And you know what it did? It rolled off the front of the bar. The bar top is NOT LEVEL. NOT EVEN CLOSE. I put a level on it and it's off by over 1/4" front to back... This is ridiculous, because I installed the brackets and shimmed the supporting plywood meticulously.
Looking under the bar top at the 5/8" ply, you can see that the stone isn't sitting on it flush. There's a bigger gap between the ply and stone at the back of the bar compared to the front. The installers used gobs of adhesive and then laid the granite on without pressing it down into place or checking for level.
I called Stoneware, refused to call Nishar's cellphone as everyone wants you to do, and instead got Solomon on the phone. He sent his installers out right away and they were able to remove the bar top and reinstall it, checking for level this time. read more