Color Stone Marble

[David Graham]

Hi,

I am looking to find some information on Color Stone International's marble. I had a sample of the Pure Black sent to me and it was perfect. So I decided to order two boxes. However, anything over one box and they ship only by freight, which would be outrageous for only ordering two boxes. So I dropped it down to one box so they would ship by UPS.

They advised against UPS because they won't take responsibility for damage and Color Stone makes me sign a damage waiver prior to shipping. I would order more cases and just have them ship by carrier, but I am worried about the product being consistent.

So here is my question. Is there anyone that has ordered from Color Stone often (or at least multiple times) and can vouch for the consistency of their marble? I would hate to order larger a quantity only to have many pieces unusable due to veining.

Thanks,

David

[mike wallis]

I've ordered several times from Colorstone and have gotten mixed results, very inconsistant. Even when shipped on a pallet the pieces always have scratches all over. In my opinion the scratches are there before there boxed up because they use plastic sheeting between the pieces. If you order via UPS your almost guarenteed to have breakage/scratching mostly because of how they package the marble. UPS only allows about 5 tiles per box so they have to breakup the box of 10 into a box of 5. When the repackage the box of 5 all they use is peanuts between the tiles that eventually fail once they are tossed a couple of times. Out of a box of 10 Im lucky to get one 12x12 without defects, this includes a white speckling hase. I really have to get creative on my cuts in order to get a clean piece.
I don't like customer complaints so im very selective, others may not be as pickey.
Take a day and visit you local tile/marble stores, its rare but some may carry the premium black marble with no veins.

[David Graham]

Thanks for the response. It makes me a little weary of ordering from them period now. The sample I received was in very good condition and perfect for engraving.

I have checked everywhere for a decent marble to engrave and no one has anything remotely close. Everyone says there is no such thing as a solid black marble. Of course, I have some so obviously it exists. I even took a sample (laser sketch) with me at one point. They claimed up and down it was granite. They usually try to sell me absolute black granite and the crystals/grains make for a poor engraving.

Thanks again for the info.

[Keith Outten]

Mike and David,

We just unloaded a pallet of black marble tile, this is our first shipment from a new vendor. The tiles are boxed in cardboard with five tiles to the box. I haven't opened a box yet but will later tonight. With these tiles we have five days to inspect them and the vendor will pay return shipping on any tile we reject.

The last pallet load of tile we purchased from Color-Stone International had over 60 tiles that were totally useless. That was our last order from Color-Stone.

[David Graham]

Thanks for the info Keith. I guess I will back off my order with them. That's unfortunate since the product seems to be of good quality. I'm guessing you wouldn't want to share your new supplier.

[David Graham]

Another question. When you say useless tiles. Were you meaning they were scratched/broken or they had too many veins/specks?

[Jackie Outten]

David,

The problem with the tiles was the they had pits in a lot of them that couldn't be polished out so they would not be suitable for engraving and the corners were broken off. We have a lot of customers who like to purchase the 12 x 12's and out of 60 tiles we could only come up with 2 pristine 12 x 12's. They would have taken the tiles back but I would have had to to pay to ship them back and I didn't want to have to box up 300 lbs of tiles. We were very happy with the first few shipments we received but after this last shipment the quality was just so bad that we could not continue to purchase from them. As far as they were concerned for the price we were paying, the tiles were of acceptable quality.

I believe our new distributor requires a minimum of 100 square feet purchase.

Jackie Outten

[David Graham]

Thanks. I was looking around and just found one that might work, but they too require a minimum of 100 square foot. It was at Stone Locator for a radiant black marble.


I didn't intend to purchase these to cut down and I don't know how long 100 square ft tiles will last me at this point. Do the tiles you fabricate have polished edges?

[Pete Simmons]

OK - I watched long enough. You are at The Place to buy Black Marble!

Get it from Keith. Every piece is perfect and my customers love it.

Only one who is not thrilled with it is my post office lady who caries the heavy flat rate boxes to my door.

Click on my name and goto home page. Look for my Laser site and look in the gallery for some examples.


No I do not get any kick backs from Keith, just good service.

[Jackie Outten]

Pete,

Thanks for the kind words. We appreciate it when happy customers such as yourself spread the word around.

Jackie

[mike wallis]

The time has never been better to buy from Keith, LaserSketch just raised there prices 20%!

[Debbie Sweet]

Dear Keith or Jackie,

I have emailed 2 times asking for pricing and info :confused: on your black marble but never get a response. Can please let me know through here or email me please. The university here has just asked me to take diploma orders during Homecoming and I need to be prepared!! Thank you
Debbie

[Keith Outten]

Debbie,

Below is the link to our black marble price list in the Northwind Associates Forum.
Sorry, I must have missed your email for some strange reason. Let me know if you need any other information.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=20487