Travertine Mart

Product:
We ordered 2 of the Travertine Mart products. The French Pattern pavers (1.25″ thick) and the 6“x12″ pavers (1.25″ thick); both in Premier Select Walnut. The French pattern pavers were beautiful with subtle variation and minimal blemishes/​defects. They were cut true to size and went down easily and maintained straight lines. The 6“x12″ pavers were a different story. Over half of the ~400 sq ft ordered were extremely pitted with over 20% mass difference between those that were pitted and those of «good» quality (and yes, I weighed a sampling of each type). They were not square, nor were they true to size, with variations of up to 0.25″ on length, which made it very hard to lay in a straight line for our walkways. While maintaining that they were the quality ordered and not a mix-​up, TravertineMart sent replacement pavers that were much better at no cost. That is why they get 1 star instead of negative stars.
Customer Service:
Terrible. Awful. Dreadful. Horrendous. Horrific.
Even though it appears that you can order through the website, you can’t. You must call to place the order. Not the end of the world, but then it just adds more sources of error. I told TravertineMart I wanted to pay via credit card on-​line and was sent the credit application instead to start a line of credit with them. One source of delay. Even though the quote and all email communication was done through my primary account, TravertineMart started sending emails on my delivery to my PayPal account email address which caused further delays. TravertineMart provided the incorrect phone number to the local shipping company which caused another delay in final delivery.
At this point, the pavers were not able to be delivered for the project start date. There were issues getting the pavers off of the truck (described below) and the only assistance that TravertineMart could offer was to hand unload the pavers from the truck. As a 5′ female, I didn’t think I would be able to personally unload 6 tons (yes, 12,000lb) of pavers that I had paid $ 1100 for delivery.
After delivery, the issue with the 6“x12″ pavers was discovered and brought to the attention of TravertineMart on Sept 16^th. We were asked to cut around the defects and use the pavers we could. Not sure if TravertineMart fully understood the uniformity of the defects even with the muliple pictures that were sent, but we complied. They also asked that we crate-​up the defected pavers so they could pick them up, meaning we’d would have about 3 – 4 moves of each of the pavers. Doesn’t sound like much, but with 280 defective pavers at 7lbs each, my back and biceps were burning.
After 33 emails, the replacement pavers finally arrived on Nov 15^th, and even though it was requested to be divided on 2 pallets, TravertineMart refused to honor this request. Since I live in Indiana, the weather turned cold and I’m guessing that TravertineMart has no idea how hard it is to lay pavers when the sand starts freezing. So the job that was supposed to start in August and last 5 weeks, has actually taken 14+ weeks because it took TravertineMart 8 weeks to send the replacement pavers after they had been notified of the defects and agreed to replace the pavers. The job is still on-​going due to freezing sand and snow.
Also something to note, the estimated shipping on the website with my zipcode, was $ 688, but the quoted shipping was $ 1100; an «estimate» should not be that far off. And, no matter how many times I told Kathleen that the prefered method of communication was email, she insisted on calling me and sounded annoyed that I wasn’t able to answer her phone calls. Remember the 280 pavers I had to crate up for pick-​up? TravertineMart decided that they wouldn’t pick them up. So, I unnecessarily crated 1950lbs of stone that is in my garage for someone to pick up that will now need to be moved yet again so we can at least get our cars parked.
Delivery:
All over the TravertineMart website they state that they are the «Nationwide Shipping Experts.» Not the case. Even though it was specified that the delivery be done with a truck equipped with a lift gate, TravertineMart packaged the pallets too heavy for the lift gate and pallet jack to handle and half the shipment was on broken pallets. The lift gate broke because of the heavy load and when I told TravertineMart, they told me to unload the truck by hand. That only shows that they don’t actually value their customers. The second delivery was better, but not because of TravertineMart. They used a different local delivery company that when they saw that the pallet of replacement pavers was too heavy for the lift gate, they divided the delivery onto 4 pallets. Good for them to notice instead of having another liftgate break. Too bad Travertine Mart didn’t honor my original request for 2 pallets.
Overall, don’t bother. Pay more for less headache and on-​time project. TravertineMart will just cost you more in the end.

hands-​down best place to buy travertine. beautiful product, best prices, largest selection and amazing customer service. highly recommend!

I’ve been doing business with Travertine Mart/​Wholesale Stone for years. Their product and service is second to none. If your looking for great quality and service at an excellent price, this should be your supplier. If you are a homeowner, I would encourage you to have your contractor, architect or designer contact them for your stone and marble needs.
Thank you Travertine Mart for many years of great service and continued success.

I dreamt for years about having a beautiful Travertine tiled master bath but when the time came to remodel and I found out how much really nice travertine costs, especially in New England, it seemed impossible. On the great «Gardenweb» site, I read many people had luck with Travertine Mart in Florida so I went to their website. I looked on Unilocal but didn’t see them thus this review. They were so professional, kind and timely with help and responses. Even though I am in Boston which involved a big shipping distance, the price was one fourth of what I would have had to pay from my local tile shops. The Turkish Travertine that arrived is like artwork, so beautiful – each and every piece. They also do pool pavers, mosaic, etc. They were so patient and helped me with ordering just what I needed. Great service, great prices. I would definitely use them again.
additional note: I just saw the one star review for Travertine Mart and want to add that when doing my extensive search for well priced and beautiful travertine, I was a little surprised that Travertine Mart seemed to do things the old fashioned way: by phone. I got to talk to real people, nice people who reassured me by sending photos of what my travertine would look like and who called me to say it was on it’s way, called again to make sure it arrived and I was happy, etc. They also sent me emails with the same information. But I wanted to know EXACTLY what my travertine was going to look like. A call from the owner explained that it is a natural product so no two tiles are exactly the same (I was ordering 18×18 tiles) some other products may have more uniformity. He explained what I knew in my heart: that the variations were what was so unique and beautiful about the travertine. Now, after my dream bathroom is finished, it all makes sense and I almost wish I’d listened more to him. The bathroom is the jewel of our addition. The artisan who did the tile work had been doing it 30 years and said it was his favorite bathroom because of the quality and beauty of the travertine. Sadly, I insisted the most uniform (plain) pieces be used for my focal wall. «Use the crazy ones for the steam shower ceiling and bathroom floor» I said. I was the crazy one. They were the most lovely of all the tiles and now everyone praises the steam shower ceiling and floor most of all! My contractor and the designer said they’d never seen such gorgeous travertine.
You’re getting an unbeatable price at Travertinemart and a quality product. Who cares if you have to talk to a person instead and see photos they take rather than deal with a slick website and slick people?