After reading reviews and meeting with Bal at Prostone we decided to go with them to install our kitchen countertop and breakfast bar. We had contractors in our house doing other work and wanted the countertops to be installed while they were there so that the contractors could do the necessary plumbing etc after the countertops were installed. This occurred in late November 2011. We were going away for 1 week and so we wanted the measuing and templating done before we left so that they could then get the countertops cut and ready to install when we returned. None of this happened. Not only was our experience to this point not like any of the other reviews the whole company seemed to be completely disorganized. They couldn't commit to scheduling the templater had to remeasure. In fact up until Xmas they couldn't find granite the right length to complete the job without adding unnecessary seams in our countertop. Which incidentally they were prepared to do until we refused to accept it. Bal was the assigned sales person and he was too busy getting new business to attend to his new customer! Finally after a month an acceptable piece of granite was found but the price went up by over $1000. We agreed to the higher price just to get the job done. Unfortunately after closer inspection of the granite type we decided we didn't like it and decided to change the kind of granite we were using. The granite we went with in the end was Uba Tuba which is $9 less per square foot according to ProStone's pricing than the Black Pearl we had originally selected. However when we made the change to the lower priced granite the quote remained exactly the same as the inflated price they were going to charge us for Black Pear!. I refused to pay the higher price as I had been told many many times by ProStone that Uba Tuba costs less than Black Pearl. We had wanted to continue to work with ProStone but called another supplier who immediately provided a price that was $1500 less and completely in line with what we understood ProStone's original costs to be. From the start I felt like this was bait and switch in terms of pricing. They quote a low price to get you in the door but then can't find granite at that price unless you want to have extra seams in your countertop. We ended up having to pay the price for the template and a restocking fee to ProStone to walk away from the job and still saved money going with someone else! Beware of ProSTone. I am very skeptical of their business practices.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $5,000.00
- Company Response
It’s very unfortunate that the author of this review had to cancel her order with PRO STONE and we do empathize her feelings behind writing this review. We here at PRO STONE, believe in selling quality product ,hence we import major stone supply from Italian suppliers, directly from their quarry locations(without involvement of any middleman).The stone we import are majorly 3cm SOLID thick stone and mirror finished in Italy. This is how we differentiate ourselves from rest of the market. Generally in the GTA, most of the granite dealers deal in ¾ inch or 2cm thick stone and they add a same thickness in the front as a buildup to make it look thicker i.e.4cm thick or 1-1/2 inch thick. In our case, we don’t do that, as we work on 3cm SOLID thick stone and we fabricate the counters 100% on CNC machines with no extra charge for edges, cutouts and design shapes. Many a times the granite shopping experience turns sour for following reasons –
1. Lack of proper product knowledge
2. Lack of proper market research
3. Improper quote comparisons [Thickness (3cm SOLID thick or 4cm- Buildup Edge) pricing].All these three factors are very important to understand, as our market; unfortunately, is unregulated, also the price and product variance is huge. In her case, as per her request, we had to order 2cm SOLID thick material from a local granite wholesale supplier and because she didn’t like the stone she ordered, we had to return the same stone back to the supplier(twice, but we charged her only once), which attracted re-stocking charges.Also,all this process happened after, measurements was already done by our measuring professional(who measures digitally by laser equipment).We quoted her “our” price based on the material she chose to order from a local wholesale supplier. As per her, our pricing is way more expensive than the fabricator she worked with but surely, quality comes with a price. There are many fabricators running their operations out of small 1000sq.ft industrial unit, while we fabricate our countertops in an automated 23,000sq.ft manufacturing facility. Our pricing maybe out of her budget and its unfortunate, although we helped her in her initial selection process and she is not happy with us now .We are still in business and would be in the business at the same location in the future too. This is just an unfortunate incident with misunderstanding due to lack of product knowledge on the review authors side. We are glad she got what she was looking for. We wish best of luck and will be happy to serve her in the future too.