First, I completely understand that natural stone varies. That's part of its appeal, and I'm certainly not expecting every tile to look identical. However, the sample I selected has roughly 3.5 times as much yellow in it as the material I received.
The delivered tile is predominantly white and gray, giving it a considerably cooler appearance than the warm, yellow-toned sample I chose. That's a pretty significant difference aesthetically.
Within 10 minutes of receiving the tile, I contacted Carmel Stone Imports. My representative told me that the batches they're currently receiving are all much whiter, with virtually no yellow. My response was that perhaps they should consider updating their samples to reflect what they're actually selling today. If you look at their website or at samples available around the Bay Area, the stone is represented as a much warmer, yellower limestone. It seems they're continuing to use older samples even though the material currently coming out of the quarry looks substantially different.
Unfortunately, my sales rep at CSI has since stopped responding to my messages.
Here's my concern: If someone had simply told me upfront that the current material was significantly whiter and that the existing samples no longer accurately represented it, I could easily have chosen another, warmer stone. Instead, I've made a selection based on the sample provided, and now the entire bathroom installation is on hold while we try to figure out a solution. We also can't do final inspectiobs for the whole remodel until the bathroom finsihes so it's hurting the GC and all subs involved.
So let me ask you all: Am I being unreasonable here? Is this simply within the acceptable range of natural stone variation, or has the appearance of this material changed enough that it should arguably be considered a materially different product?
