Berkeley Design Center

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/07/27) */
The customer was fully aware that he was purchasing a tile that was 48 long and that there would be some lippage when installed. Please visit [redacted] for a good article describing what lippage is and...

how to minimize it. Regarding the origin of tile, in this global economy there is no way knowing which tile comes from where. European manufacturers have taken their technology to countries like China, Malasia, India, Turkey, Thailand and many others. Another good article on the subject can be found at http://www.infotile.com/pdfFile/advicetopic/XXXXXXXXXXXXX.pdf Our customer paid $5.50 per square feet for his tile and was surprised about the price since he thought similar tile was costing as much as $9 ~ $11.50 per square feet elsewhere. He took the samples of the tile before he purchased them and showed to his partner as well as the installer he said he was going to use. He knew that this tile was very recently brought to our showroom by two importers in Santa Cruz. He was put in direct contact with the importers who happened to be two brothers with an Italian heritage whose father was in tile business before they took over. I am nut sure what else could we have done informing a customer who comes into our showroom. We carry quality products at a reasonable cost and think that we do a reasonable job in helping people. I do not know all the circumstances regarding who he had as an installer and the subsurface conditions of his home, etc., but also looking at his other pages online, he seems to spend a lot of time writing about all the bad experiences he had in the past dealing with various merchants and service organizations.
One more observation, the address you have on your files is a different address than the one that was given to us. We believe the address you have is at least two years old and no longer belongs to the consumer who filed the complaint.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 9, 2015/07/30) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I was never put in touch in advance of purchasing the tile. I was only called by them to arrange delivery. I was denied a specification sheet and was told the tile was italian tile ( [redacted] the extraneous information that the importers were itaian american). The salesperson, Les, was not the east bit surprised when I said the tie was indian ( when I received it).I find it hard to believe that any reputable business sells anything without knowing where it was from. We all agree that I was not told that nor was I ever told that with globalization, one never knows. I find his lies difficult to accept.