Custom Marble Design — Local services in Middletown

I am summarizing events related to my experience with Custom Marble Design. (CMD) I can provide additional information or clarification upon request.

We remodeled our kitchen in June- July 2012. CMD, as a sub-contractor for Lowes, installed the countertops and sink. In August 2013 we noticed the sink was wobbly and the sealant around the rim was turning black. To their credit, CMD agreed to come out and fix the problem.

Two men came out; one clearly more experienced, the second appeared to be an apprentice. The serviceman in charge told me he needed to place some wood blocks between the underside of the sink and the countertop frame for stabilization. He did this and then resealed the perimeter of the sink. To protect the sealant he placed blue masking tape across the top of the sink and left instructions not to operate the sink for 24 hours. This was about 300pm. He reviewed the placement of the support blocks with me.

The next morning I left for work about 1000am. Before leaving for work I ran the dishwasher. When I came home there was water everywhere. The cause? To properly secure the sink the serviceman had disconnected the wastewater piping from the bottom of the garbage disposal. This pipe also carries wastewater from the dishwasher.

When I called in the next day CMD defended itself by saying (a) I had not followed instructions about re-using the sink after 24 hours (b) had been informed and directed to the disconnected pipes under the sink and (c) they are contractually prohibited from doing plumbing work and “it’s carefully written in the contract”.

None of these defenses is effective. I offer the following responses. (a) Using the dishwasher isn’t really using the sink. Further, waiting another six hours would have had no bearing on the situation. (b) The serviceman defended himself by saying he “showed me his work”. While we may be in a “he said/I say” situation, I will claim with complete confidence that the CMD representative never pointed out that he disconnected the pipes, nor at any time did he ever say “you’ll need to re-connect those”. I would further maintain that reasonable person would conclude if a service person disabled a system in order to make a repair, with no attempt to re-enable that system, that there should be an explicit statement to that effect. I will swear on my children’s souls and bet my entire wealth that the CMD representative never did that. (c) The service contract does say that they will no plumbing work. Specifically the contract states that they will neither dis-connect nor re-connect any plumbing features. Therefore, why did the serviceperson violate the clearly stated conditions of the contract? CMD claims that disconnecting a system is “not the same as reconnecting”. This claim is indefensible. You cannot choose which parts of the contract you will follow and which parts you will not.

Based on my experience, I would definitely not recommend doing business with Custom...

I hope this review helps someone make an informed decision to not use CMD for their countertops, as there is nothing this company can do to make our situation whole. If you do choose to use them, you will need to micromanage the situation in order to get what you paid for. The office staff do not communicate with you and you will have to initiate everything.

On March 30, 2018, our contractor referred us to CMD to pick out granite for a kitchen remodel. They did not have a great selection on the lot, stocking mostly "builder grade" stone. The office manager, Tana, sent us to their supplier's warehouse, Bramati, in Frederick. We were able to find granite that worked with our cabinet and tile selections and put a hold on two slabs of Golden Pilsen granite. We paid for the granite on April 4th, 2018 through our contractor. The price of the slabs was over $10k. On April 12th, CMD sent someone out to template and we thought things were progressing. On April 16th, we called to see what the installation schedule would be, and Tana said she didn't know yet but thought maybe the week of the 23rd of April. We called again on April 20th as we hadn't heard anything more from CMD. At that time, we learned that the slabs that we bought and paid for, had been sold to someone else. Tana blamed Bramati for this. We asked her why she hadn't called us to tell us this and she did not have an answer.

We then drove back to Bramati to talk to the CSR who had been helping us. He told us that he had called CMD on April 10th to ask them if we still wanted to purchase the granite and Tana never returned his phone call. So, he sold the granite to a luxury apartment project. Our rep at Bramati then said Tana had tried to purchase the granite on April 13th, over a week from the time we paid and our contractor had notified them of payment. He told Tana on April 13th that they no longer had the granite, it had been sold to someone else. So, Tana knew as early as the 13th, that there was a problem, and did not have the courtesy to call either us or our contractor.

If we had not have called to check on an installation date, we probably would have never known this had happened, God only knows how long she would have strung this out. This company has not offered any sort of apology, and really, there isn't anything they can do to remedy this. Our contractor has called every warehouse in the tri-state area and no one has this rare granite. The fault lies solely with Tana and the poorly managed office.

I will make sure that all our friends, coworkers, social media etc., know exactly how awful this company is. If there were a way to give negative stars, I would do it, that's how unhappy we...

They rush through their work, make mistakes and don’t give a damn about their customers. I wish I had read these reviews before we contracted with Custom Marble. They were recommended by the company that installed our cabinets downstairs and we assumed they would provide the same quality of work. WRONG!! We met with the owner to do a layout of our granite and learned a lot about sister slabs and how to cut them so that the patterns match when they assemble the high and low sections of the bar. Problem was, this was not how the granite was actually cut when they brought it to our house! This is a downstairs bar, so rather than delay the process even further (we waited a month between their measurement and the first attempt at installation) we let them go ahead with the installation. When they attempted to place the high section, they realized that there was a problem with the backsplash piece and told us they would have to re-cut it and come back. They placed a 2x3 wooden post under the granite to prop it in place. They didn't explain why one corner of the granite slab stuck out from the wall 1 1/2 inches. It obviously looks like the slab was cut too short, but they said they would polish it and it would be fine. To make a long story short, they came back 3 more times and finally finished our bar in August (over 2 months from start to finish). They polished the corner, and it still looks like the corner was a mistake from cutting the marble too short. Then, when they removed the 2x3 after it had propped up the granite for 3 weeks, they saw that they had damaged our newly installed floor. Rather than tell us about it, the installer took a picture of the bar with the 2x3 leaning against it. When we realized the floor was damaged, we contacted the company and they blamed us for moving the 2x3 and damaging our own floor!! I finally spoke to the owner and he continues to blame my husband for damaging our floor and he thinks we are blaming CMS for it so we can take money from them!! When I told him that they were liable for the damage, he said that CMS will fix the corner and pay for the floor repair. That was more than a month ago. My husband has called and emailed several times to try to set up a service appointment and no one has responded. When he finally got through to the business manager, she said she would need to speak with the owner and has never called back. This is obviously not a reputable company. It is bad enough that they do poor work, but then to try and blame the home owner for damage they did is reprehensible! The only good thing is the marble that we chose is beautiful. I just wish we had chosen someone else...