Surfaces U.S.A.

Terrible awful customer service from manager Tom Cruise. Several months ago we purchased a granite top for our kitchen remodel. The granite top was beautiful and the installer did a fabulous job. We needed a back splash installed and Tom Cruise came to our house to give us a bid. It’s been over a month and I’ve left at least 8 phone calls asking for a quote to do the job. I even spoke to Michelle asking her if we offended Tom Cruise or if we did something wrong. Why hasn’t he returned our calls. She said he would call us that day. A week later he still didn’t return our call. The holidays are almost here and we need the backsplash installed by Christmas. At this point I am going to seek someone more professional than Tom Cruise. I am sorry to say but I would not recommend Surfaces USA because of the unprofessionalism of manager Tom Cruise.

I agree with a lot of the other reviews here/​customer service is definitely lacking. They were supposed to be looking for a slab for me to match some tiles I have and never contacted me. When I emailed to remind them I got no reply. Really? Sorry, but I Won’t do business with a company that can’t take 2 minutes to reply. Ends up I spent approx $ 20k somewhere else which I would have spent here if my business was a priority for them.

Mixed review for Surfaces USA. We purchased new flooring for both floors of our new home and worked with their sales person to schedule installation. The product was good and the installer did a fantastic job. Problem was that the job was taking longer than anticipated. Calls to the sales person would go unanswered forcing me to physically drive to the shop and get my answers in person. If this had happened once, it might be excused. Rather, it was typical behavior almost every time I called (4 – 5 times over a three week period). Moving into a new home and coordinating the work of several vendors is stressful enough without having one of those vendors be unresponsive. In the end, the work was completed (late) and looks great but the experience was not one I would wish to repeat.

OK, so I haven’t bought the tile yet, but I just want to give a shout out to Ivan, the Sales Rep. He took time with me, taught me about floor tile and design, countertop materials. He wandered around the store with me and my floor samples. He remembered my name and my ideas when I came in for a second visit. He’s great. A kitchen renovation can feel so overwhelming. I walked in fearing that I was going to spend a ton of money and end up with something that I didn’t like. After two 20 minute meetings with Ivan, I am certain that I have something that I will love.

Only 2 stars because of the customer service.
As far as showroom and selection go, it looks to be a pretty reputable place. I asked my salesperson to put together a estimate for a quartz countertop for a clients bathroom. She wanted to use this particular stone or color, otherwise I as a contractor, I would normally goto DalTile.
Ivan was his name, and other than not being less knowledgeable about stone than I was, I still asked him to put together a quote for the top. Which he said he would forward to his sales manager, who handles fabrication.
Week and a half goes by, not a call or email. So I called the sales manager directly (Tom Cruise). He said that he had not gotten any info from Ivan, but with all the measurements that I had, he would get that out to me first thing in the AM.
So it’s been 4 days now since that AM. Repeated calls, voicemails and messages from the secretary (who told me that he hadn’t forgotten about me, how can I tell?)
I’m a bathroom and kitchen remodel contractor, I order marble for a job about once a month. I would def not recommend SURFACES for work. I wish I could tell you what their work looked like, but somehow they couldn’t get a great potential client/​contractor a quote.
I think either they need to rxpand their staff, with qualified people, or corporate needs to head in a different direction.

Horrible customer service. I was not happy with the delaying work and slow response of the manager Tom and a girl Cassie who answered the phone took it personally and yell and talk over me over the phone which was unprofessional. It was a one week project but now its almost two weeks and still not done. Do not use them. Do your homework here before you hire someone.

We had a wonderful experience with Surfaces USA! We recently purchsed 2,400 sf of versailles travertine, they carry «Flava» which we love and couldn’t find elsewhere. They beat all competitors bids and the tile arrived in just 2 days. It was packaged very carefully, there were only 2 broken tiles… we would definately reccomend Surfaces USA to our friends! :-)

BUYER BEWARE!
Recently made a purchase of special order tile (no returns). I did inspect a few pieces from a box when I picked it up. When my tile guy came to install, he said at least half was unusable due to being scratched or chipped. Clearly not the same quality I had purchased from them two years ago through my contractor.

Okay selection but the service here leaves a lot to be desired. I walked in and wasn’t greeted for a good handful of minutes and once that happened, the older lady up front seemed to very bothered because I had asked her for pricing on a particle type of marble. Wasn’t very friendly at all and I felt unwelcomed, so I went next door. Blah.

I have to say they made it right and worked to keep my business

I was scared when I read the Unilocal reviews for Surfaces USA!
My husband and I were shopping for a granite counter. We traveled many stores and didn’t see the rock we wanted, until we got to this shop. We fell in love!
We made our purchase, scheduled the work and then… the crew didn’t come out to measure on the expected day. All of a sudden communications became difficult. That’s when I went to Unilocal and thought OMG!
Well, we decided that we were committed and we’d use these reviews to our advantage. We had started to experienced problems so I stayed on them. Called to double check dates and times to expect the work crew.
I was also hyper alert to the work crew that came out. I wasn’t going to have problems with ‘him’. Well, I have to say, they must have a different work crew or more than one, because we had Oscar and boy he was very friendly, very attentive to our needs and desires. Oscar was able to accomodate everything.
We definately experienced a ‘ghost town’ response from our salesman, Tom Moore, after the sale. He wasn’t available to take my call, or he, «would get back to me» and didn’t. But the saving grace was Cassie — she became my go-​to person and all my questions were answered.
Five Stars for Oscar!
Five Stars for Cassie!
Five Stars for my brand new counter top — it’s beautiful!
Five Stars (unfortunately) for the typical salesman philosophy!

After seeing this review, my original salesperson at Surfaces U.S.A. offered me a 10% discount for our troubles. She said she hadn’t been made aware of my issues – which considering the numerous calls/​communication going back between us and the business sounds surprising… but in any case I was happy to get a couple hundred back for the issues we had. Thanks Unilocal!
So am adding a star to my review because it does seem like at least with some effort you can work with the people there to achieve a resolution which has to account for something. Still, the main guy I dealt with for their field work though should probably be replaced or reprimanded.

What I Need: Locally manufactured concrete or ceramic floor and wall tile.
Why: Need the «earth» element to improve the feng shui in my room remodel and want a locally made product to keep fossil fuel expenditure for shipping to a minimum.
Having spent hours upon hours online researching local concrete/​ceramic tile manufacturers, Husband and I finally agree that, as terrible as the prospect of shopping for tile may seem, it is finally time for us to suck it up and see the products in person.
Maybe you’re wondering why it would take so many hours to find a local tile manufacturer. Yeah, that was surprise to me as well. However, I have learned that the closest tile manufacturer to San Diego (excluding art tile makers and glass tile makers) is based in the Los Angeles area, is called Arto Brick and makes only concrete tile not ceramic.
Only four local distributors carry Arto Brick products: Thompson Building Materials, Classic Tile & Mosaic, House of Tile & Marble, Olsen’s Tile & Stone.
We go to Thompson Building Materials first. They’re great. We learn a ton about Arto Brick there. (I’ll review them later.)
Then we head over to House of Tile & Marble. Since we already know a lot about Arto Brick, I decide to make a broader inquiry which goes like this:
Me: «Hi, do you carry any concrete or ceramic tiles that are made in California, Arizona or Mexico?»
Sales Associate: «No. Oh wait, we carry Arto Brick.»
Me: «Oh, yes I know that brand. Would you happen to have color samples I could look at?»
Sales: «No.»
Me under breath to Husband: «Aren’t those Arto color samples sitting on the floor over there?»
Me to Sales: «OK, well do you carry tiles from Arizona or Mexico?»
Sales: «Why would you want tile from Mexico? I don’t carry it because I don’t like it.»
Me: «Um, well I’m trying to be green.»
Sales: «Well, Arto Brick doesn’t make green tiles.»
Me: «No, I mean «green’ as in eco-​conscious.»
Sales: «If you’re going to buy from Mexico, you might as well buy from China.»
Me: «China is a lot farther from San Diego than Mexico so it would use a lot more fossil fuels to ship the tile here.»
Sales: Blank stare.
Me: «OK, well do you carry anything other than Arto that is made in the United States.»
Sales: «No. Why don’t you go to the shop next door? They sell Mexican tiles.»
Me w/​fake smile: «OK, thanks.»
Sales: «You know what you should do? You should go online do a Google search.»
Me: Time to sign up for Unilocal and enter a review.
For anyone who cares, the best source of info about locally or domestically produced tile is the website for the Tile Council of North America:
And the brands that display the most information about their «green» practices are Iris US and Mohawk.