Granite Factory

Granite Factory installed our volga blue granite on Jan 12, 2013. I was initially pleased with the price and the experience. However, I cannot report a satisfactory long term experience. During the purchasing process, I asked if Granite Factory was a reseller or if they sold the granite directly. The answer I was given and the facts did not line up. The granite was actually furnished by a company called Factory Plaza, Inc in Illinois. Maybe they are owned by the same owners maybe not, I was just surprised by this. More importantly, however, was the crack that developed in front of my built in cooktop less than a year after installation. I visited the store with pictures of the issue and expected Granite Factory to visit my home to review the situation. Instead, I was accused of dropping something on the granite. Nothing was dropped on the granite. It cracked and Granite Factory has refused to even come and look at the issue. I am definitely not a satisfied customer. Erick the manager was hostile and refused to take any steps to resolve. Recommend looking elsewhere. Check out the other reviews on other places like BBB.

Had counters installed from here after getting quotes from several other area businesses. The pricing was straightforward, and they were helpful with all my questions. They were on time to the appointments, work was completed when I was told, and everything looks good. No issues.

Granite Factory was solely recommended to me by someone who saw them on the web. I admit. I forgot about Angie’s List and my other sources of referrals.
I rate the quality of the product and installation an A for excellent. I rate the sales method an F for misleading.
The quotes we worked with showed the sq ft of the granite (32.97 sq.ft.), in a separate area of the quote it showed $ 38 a sq. ft, it did not show the dollar amount for the granite, i. e sq.ft. X $ 38. It showed the sink cut out cost of $ 150, edging cost of $ 6 — $ 104 total (more on this later) and then the final total cost of $ 1,804.
Then their contract showed the cost of the granite $ 1,253, sink cut out cost $ 150, edging cost $ 104 and an «Additional: $ 297» line item for a total of $ 1,804.
Their quote did not show the actual dollar amount for the granite and no mention of the «Additional: $ 297» line item, but it did show the total cost of $ 1,804.
Just before the countertops were to be delivered I was discussing the great deal I got to one of my fellow Milwaukee Real Estate Association investor. I went to e-​mail him my quote when I noticed the «Additional: $ 297» line item on the contract. That is when I started to look more closely at the quote and contract.
Here are my issues:
1. First, I did not do the math on the quote and look more closely on the contract to see the discrepancies that I am about to
discuss. So shame on me, I accept the price I paid. Hopefully you will learn from my experience and that is why I am spending the amount of time I am to write this review.
2. The edging was quoted as $ 6.00 per linear foot. The price on the quote was $ 104. I had 15 linear feet, which should have cost me $ 90.
3. By not presenting the granite price on the quote, $ 1,253, it was not readily apparent that the granite price, plus sink cutout,
plus edging didn’t add up to the total cost on the quote of $ 1,804.
4. Because I did not do the math on the cost of the granite plus edging, plus sink cutout, I did not notice that the individual
items did not match the total project cost on the quote.
5. Because we did not do a line item check on the contract when the total contract price matched the quote price, we did not notice the unexplained «Additional: $ 297» line item.
6. When I called and spoke with the manager, Erick Kramarz, his explanation for the «Additional: $ 297» was that the computer calculates the costs, it is for sales tax (sales tax on $ 1,253+104+150 is $ 82.89), it is an additional warehouse cost, what does it matter as long as the figure on the quote matches the contract price and we are the lowest in town that is why we
get so much business.
7. I felt that the sales process was very misleading and deceptive.
8. Dividing the «Additional: $ 297» by the sq. ft. of granite we purchased raises the sq. ft. price of the granite from $ 38 to $ 47.01 which I know is not competitive with other sources.
9. Had the quote listed the «Additional: $ 297» line item amount on the contract as the cost of the kitchen sink, sales tax, delivery mileage, etc., this review would have a totally different flavor and rating to it. Although I doubt I would have bought from there if I saw the line item costs first.
In conclusion, as I said in the beginning, the finished product is excellent, the installers took their time and in my opinion did a
thorough and professional job. So we love the end results. What we totally object to was what we consider less than open and honest sales practices. For these reasons, we DO NOT recommend this company.
As a followup to Granite’s response on my Angie’s List review, yes, the quote price and the contract price were the same, but the «Additional: $ 297» line item on the contract was not represented on the quote.

I had an incredibly frustrating experience with Granite Factory. At first, I was impressed by the relatively straightforward pricing and process compared to other quotes I received, so I decided to use them to replace the countertops on my original, 1940’s cabinets. Everything was great until the installation day, when the installers were unable to deliver the countertops because the sink was physically too large front-​to-​back for the cabinets, which is something that should have been noted in the measurement. Someone was sent out to re-​measure, and said that the sink would definitely not fit, which would cause the countertops to have to be re-​cut. At this point, Granite Factory stopped returning calls. Two weeks after the re-​measurement, now seven weeks start to finish, I finally got a hold of Granite Factory, and was promised that «they were working on the math,» and they were 99% sure they could make it work. Upon calling a few days later after not hearing from them, I was told that there was still no answer and they’d know soon. A few days after that, I was told that they would not be able to make it work as-​is. They blamed my countertop depth for the mistake, not the fact that the measurements were not taken accurately. Since I had gone over two months without countertops at this point, and no discount was offered, I decided to walk from the deal. If your countertops are completely standard, and you don’t mind very poor communication, these guys might be fine to use. Otherwise, I’d strongly advise looking elsewhere.
Above is the original review, below is my response to the the manager’s comments:
I do rather resent being painted as a customer who was looking for things to go wrong with the process, as the manager of Granite Factory has implied. Giving the company a full month to sort things out beyond their contractual obligation to deliver the granite is quite patient, in my mind. Further, my cabinets, although old, are in fine shape. The granite installer I used after demanding a refund (this was agreed to very begrudgingly) had no issues whatsoever installing granite countertops in a timely manner. The fact of the matter is, Granite Factory did not take an accurate measurement the first time around, and expected me to modify my kitchen remodel plan by eliminating the granite backsplash that I had ordered. And no, a 20% discount after many weeks of frustrating, fruitless attempts to get in touch with this company, without a functioning kitchen in my home was not enough for me to continue doing business with them. If expecting my calls to be returned and guarantees to be kept makes me demanding or a difficult customer to work with, then fine, I guess I’m a difficult customer. But when I’m having something custom-​made for my house, I don’t expect to hear excuses like «your cabinets are to blame,» even though someone came out to measure them. I don’t doubt that there are many people who have been satisfied with Granite Factory’s work. I am not one of them.