My wife and I own a beautiful loft in the Distillery District on the lake in the heart of downtown Toronto. We are meticulous homeowners and take incredible pride and ownership in residence.
We have two bathrooms - one powder bathroom on the main floor, and a full bath on the 2nd floor of our loft. In the upstairs bathroom our marble tile flooring and matching vanity had become honed and lost it's original lusture and shine.
We agreed to have the work done by David Vassos (Owner of Elite Marble Restoration) on Sunday August 7th at 10am which David suspected would be about 3-4 hours to complete.
David arrived on time on Sunday August 7th at 10am. Upon meeting David he was very friendly and very knowledgeable. He takes pride in his work and is very busy. He light sanded the etch marks and applied a high gloss sealant and polish and was finished the job in under 1.5 hours. David suggested to let the gloss dry and not walk on it for a few hours. From a distance things looked good, so we paid David in cash and helped him bring his tools and equipment down to his van. We offered to recommend him to friends and family, as well as throughout our condo as we are connected to property management and the board. We also said that we would recommend him and his services through my wife's parents who own a respected and large contracting company in Toronto.
Upon a closer look during the next morning (Monday August 8th) we noticed that 2 spots were missed completely and required a touchup (1) Back right vanity - does not have polish. (2) Right tile of toilet - a little more dull than other tiles around it.
We immediately contacted David. At first he suggested that if we tried to wipe/ buff the dull areas with a dry clean towel it should go away. However if it doesn't go away, he would be more than happy to fix it up next time he was in the area.
A few days went by and we wrote to David again asking a time that works and providing essentially any day flexibility and that we really wanted him "the expert" to come back to touchup the areas as aesthetically they were still honed. We suggested that we would like the areas touched up as they weren't done which we paid for.
Rather than providing times or flexibility, David suggested that he could send us some polishing powder. It was a great offer and option to provide some polishing powder, but unfortunately we don't have a buffer or the tools to do the work which is why we hired a contractor in the first place.
David's response on August 9th was "Let me see if I can work something out for Friday (August 12th). Also next time I am down there it wouldn't be a bad idea to have me clean and seal the main floor bath room. I can do it for $75. It will at least give you protection against any possible accidents.
On August 10th, we wrote back "My wife is willing to stay home to accomodate a Friday appointment between 8am and 11am. Regarding the floor seal, we would love to have it done, but as you can imagine we didn't suspect there would be (2) areas that would not be complete for which we fully paid for out of pocket and really don't want to spend more money at this time. However, we trust your opinion and if you recommend it we could potentially spend $50. Let us know".
David's response was "The earliest I could get there on Friday would be around 11. I am doing a job not too far from there in the morning. If not this Friday I am not sure when the next chance to get down there would come up".
Fast-forward to today Friday November 18th (3 months after our appointment with David) we have sent more than 25 e-mails, left about a dozen voicemails and not only have David not responded, but we still have an unsatisfactory job.
What is frustrating is that Elite Marble Restoration's website (http://elitemarblerestoration.com/index.html) quotes "At Elite Marble, we're committed to delivering outstanding customer service. Not only do the owners meet directly with each customer to provide a free estimate, they return to the site to complete the work themselves. At Elite, you're more than just a customer, you're part of an exclusive family".
We don't feel that this commitment has been satisfied and are sincerely hoping that there has been a communicational error or misunderstanding on why David has not responded to our various communicational attempts. We hope that we can find resolution and resolve the matter to finish the work which we hired David and Elite Marble Restoration for back on August 7th, 2011. In return, we would be more than happy to revisit our feedback.
If you have further questions, or comments, please don't hesitate to respond to us in a message here.
Adam & Jessica Fox
