Design Monuments

Review: I purchased my Mother's headstone from Design in North Versailles on January 22, 2006. At that time, I got a Perpetual Warranty that states " should there ever be a defect in material or workmanship in one of our memorials, we would remedy the defect or replace the memorial free of charge without any time limit." Last year my sister and I noticed that the headstone was getting so black you could hardly read it. So around March of this year, I started calling Design. The first time I called, they said someone would call me back. They did not. About two weeks later I called them back. It was now April. They transferred me to George. I explained the problem and he said he would get back to me. Well, he didn't. So I called him again. Once again, he said he would call me back. Well guess what? He didn't. I called on July 1st. They said he was on vacation and would call me first thing Monday morning July 8th. Well, you guessed it. He did not call all day. I called about 1:30 yesterday and the woman who answers the phone (Ms [redacted]) said she would call him on his cell phone and leave a message because he might be with a customer. Well I never received a call back. I am done. I am telling everyone I know not to deal with these people. I have had the cemetery clean the headstone for a cost of $30.00. I just wanted them to reimburse me, and tell me if there is something that can be done to prevent this in the future. But I guess I am going to have to fork out $30.00 every six years or so to keep it from turning black. The cemetery said they have never seen this before and you know they have headstones way older than that. I just don't want anyone else to have to go through this. Please don't on buy your monuments there.Desired Settlement: I would like my 30.00 dollars and I would like a solution to the problem. If that means a replacement then that's what I want.

Business

Response:

See attached File

July 24,2013

Dear Revdex.com Representative:

We have investigated the above referenced complaint with respect to a cemetery monument sold to a customer by our firm that has blackened from its original gray phase. The Complaint goes on to outline attempts by the Customer to discuss the matter with our staff.

The Customer did purchase the monument from our firm in January 2006 and we had it installed on behalf of the Customer into the Cemetery. The monument is warranted against defects in materials and/or workmanship as the Customer states.

When our staff spoke with the Customer she was advised that the blackening of the granite was most likely the result of an environmental issue. The Customer was advised that having the monument situated under or near a tree (tree sap or bird droppings) or near a road (salt, soot) will cause blackening if not cleaned periodically. The Customer was also advised that grass clippings left on a monument will also blacken the finish if not removed and left to decompose.

The Customer visited our store and inquired about the necessity to periodically clean the monument. Again, our staff recommended periodic cleanings, as necessary, to combat the environmental issues (as outlined in the previous paragraph) that cause the blackening. Our staff provided the Customer with an estimate to clean the monument.

Our staff member did visit the cemetery to look at the Customer’s monument. That inspection confirmed that environmental issues (grass clippings) were the reason the monument blackened. The Customer’s monument, along with adjacent monuments which were not sold or installed by our firm, all were covered with grass clippings and the black marks on each monument were consistent with decaying grass stems. This particular monument is flush with the ground therefore grass clippings would not “fall off” the monument as is generally the case with an upright monument. In fact given the monuments slight indentation to the surface grass clipping would be more likely to accumulate. Several more weeks passed and the Customer called seeking reimbursement for the cleaning of the monument. The Customer stated they had someone else clean the monument at a lower cost than we quoted for that service. The first week of July, our staff member who was handling this Customer was on vacation and the Customer was so advised. To the best of our knowledge, based on a review of the incoming phone messages, no promise was made to the Customer that a specific individual would call at a specific time or day. The only promise was to assure the Customer their message would be relayed to our staff member. This Complaint followed immediately thereafter prior to our staff member responding to the Customer.