Hgb Stone

Countertops
Calgary AB T2E2M7
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HomeStars  >  Countertops in Calgary  >  Hgb Stone  >  Granite Counters
Shaun S from Calgary
Shaun S from Calgary
2 reviews Calgary, AB
5/10

Granite Counters

HGB has installed the counter we wanted. It looks great with a leather/honed finish (which I know HGB now discourages) and a broken/rough edge on the front of the kitchen island, an under-mount sink, and a tough granite stone with a softer honed/leather finish that we were going for. It's tough as granite with the look of black slate. Certainly the counter install, the counters themselves would rate at least a very good.

I would be remiss to mention that it was a process to get this was longer than we wanted as it did involve the BBB and a replacement of the first counters that were installed almost seven months prior - this was the bump down to good. I will say that I suspect that if we'd simply gone for a normal highly polished/shiny finish the team would have gotten it right the first time, though once our contract was signed and paid for (including the ~11% extra paid for something Andy forgot to put in the quote while he was dealing with what I'll simply call staff challenges at the time), we were even more set on the honed finish. The new Assistant Manager (Linda) was instrumental in getting this resolved - once she joined HGB in June the resolution was swift. The months before she joined were less so... so when you go in, ask for Linda and she'll take good care of you.

The good news, they now know how to do a good job on a honed finish. That said, the time taken in following up to get the resolution leaves me unable to rate the overall experience very good or excellent.

Approximate cost of services:
$4,000.00
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Company Response

Hi Shaun,
Again, I am apologetic for your past experience with "staff challenges". I appreciate your patience, it's been a pleasure working with you. I'm pleased that I could come up with a resolution.
Thank you for your business.
Linda

Previous versions of this review:

Shaun S from Calgary
Shaun S from Calgary
2 reviews Calgary, AB
1/10

Granite Counters

BUYER BEWARE! HGB provided a quote for granite to us November 3rd 2012. On 5 November they called to ask for over an extra 11% because they said they forgot to include something on the quote for the special type of honed finish, which being nice people we agreed to. The terms called for a “high quality finish” and full payment by installation (our bad for agreeing to this), which we completed. The installation went ok, the cuts were fairly accurate but left something to be desired, the rough edge on one side looks good, but the surface of the counters had some sort of sealer applied that left streaks all over the counters and marks on our freshly painted walls too. This terribly poor quality finish we're left with looks like the counters were wiped clean with greasy fried chicken) and they don't wipe clean even with any type of household cleaner and a lot of scrubbing. SIX months later, more than a dozen emails and a number of phone calls asking for their help to get it resolved and it still looks terrible. They tried to blame their supplier, the tried to blame us, they tried to get us to take time off work to go back to their store to talk to them about it. Tried to get them to call us on the phone instead or come resolve the problem to no avail. The BBB complaint was filed this morning and if that's unsuccessful our next stop is small claims court. Andy has weaseled his way around blaming everyone else. They're on their 4th customer service/receptionist in 6 months so they can't keep staff. Even after we researched the problem ourselves and sent Andy/HGB instructions on how to solve it they've ignored it. BUYER BEWARE! POOR PRODUCT FINISH! POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE! TOOK THE MONEY LEFT JOB UNFINISHED!

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Update in response to company reply below. 6 months of chasing, a BBB complaint, me posting online reviews of the experience, and a 5th service person and finally they say they want to get this resolved. They did let us know the honed finish would take more maintenance, they also said (and the contract specified) they would give us a quality installation to start from... still waiting on that. They've offered to cover labour to replace the counters with a different type (not the kind we contracted for and paid for) or to resolve or to strip and refinish -------------------------- the issue of an incorrect installation with streaks currently remains (19Jun2013) and the new person who seems to have started last week is the most responsive yet - this is promising. Apparently Andy has now committed to getting this resolved. To the "no responses", it's I who have spent 6 months chasing HGB, we go away for a long weekend and come back to accusations that now WE'RE the ones not responding after not replying to an email while we're away for 4 days. Truly a laughable, unprofessional, and unhelpful accusation. We have again asked that the streaks be removed - we again forwarded tips from other granite companies on how to resolve this correctly (the specific type of stripper required, and the correct type of sealer to use for this stone/finish). This review will be updated to reflect the ultimate resolution of this one way or the other. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------UPDATE 20JUN2013: The new staff member at HGB has been good, and has now promised to have the counters replaced (full replacement, not just labour). Looking forward to having this resolved. will continue to update this.

Approximate cost of services:
$4,000.00
What could this company do to improve their services?
Follow through on the "high quality" finish the contract promises and get their act together with their quoting so they're not coming back to ask for more money after the fixed price contract is signed.
Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
do not call HGB. do not pay in full before install complete. use a company that's not so new they have no ratings or reputation.