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12 years ago

Joseph, here's some feedback on that site (only 7, but good points to ponder): Thisoldtile.Com - Houston

It surprizes me that the 1st 3 reveiws have positve feedback with this company. They simply want people to pay for something before they even know whether or not if they can help.
I have been in sales for over 25 years and know the value of good customer service and this is definetly not it. If I have a product that I have practically cornered the market on, I would try and make it as easy as possible for my potential customers to have access to it. I of course would make a "good" profit on it due to my investment, but I would not throw potential customers away by such a controlling or "gothcha over a barrel" type attitude.
I actually live about 10 miles from their warehose and was given their # by the manufacturer and was interrogated over the phone with questions about how I obtained their # and who gave it to me. He told me that he had the tile I needed in stock, but that I would still have to go thru the website and pay the $14.95 to even get a price on it. Can you spell "STUPID". What is the logic in that. He knows he has a sale and will not quote a price with out making me pay for the quote. I might understand if I have a hard to find tile, but in this case he knew he had it...
I will definetly not be doing business with this company and will tell anyone I know looking for discontinued tile to look elsewhere.
They may consider taking some sales and customer service 101 courses to help them with customer relations. They probably would not get reveiws as bad as this....
By the way I found my discontinue tile out of San Antonio with a company that had a very helpful attitude and took my information over the phone. I received it in 2 days. I paid a reasonable price for the tile and $20.00 for shipping. They did not have a $15.00 iniation fee for doing nothing....
Sorry for being so long on this reveiw, but it makes me mad when people like this try and take advantage of people...
m1t

Pros: none
Cons: takes advantage of potential customers

ETA:

Just as Archiebob wrote, I submitted an on-line request for a tile search. You must pay in advance for the search to be performed; I paid. It has now been a few weeks and I have received no confirmation, no response, and several email attempts have gone unanswered. This guy is a scammer!! I know that the tile I am looking for is one that he would have if he were running a legit business. My next steps will be to report him to the B B B and file a report with the Houston police.

Pros: None
Cons: Steals your money

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SShip

12 years ago

Come on.... There's got to be someone out there that will give an estimate without charging a fee. Not focused at you Joseph but at the company.

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thunderbird

12 years ago

They must think that there is enough desperation for discontinued ware that they can get away with it. That is just plain nasty. Looks like a looting job to me.

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joseph7384

12 years ago

Originally Posted by thunderbird

They must think that there is enough desperation for discontinued ware that they can get away with it. That is just plain nasty. Looks like a looting job to me.

That is exactly what they are doing!

Originally Posted by SShip

Come on.... There's got to be someone out there that will give an estimate without charging a fee. Not focused at you Joseph but at the company.

I'll keep looking before I let these creeps hustle me!

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waterotter

12 years ago

Clearance and Closeouts with free shipping on qualifying orders......

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MissTerraK

12 years ago

Originally Posted by joseph7384

First time in 40 years that my basement flooded due to the heavy rain we had a few days ago.

My theater room had carpeting that we tore out and discarded the night that it flooded but the rest of the basement is tile, I have an old box with a few tiles in it that I found.

Luckily the brand, series and color were labeled on the box, the bad news is that the series is dis-continued so I've been surfing for a while and came across a site called this old tile that claims they have that series but no mention of lot color or quantities.

I have to submit a request form which is $14.95 non-refundable to find out if they can fulfill my order with no assurance that they have the quantities that I need.

I know it's only $14.95 but why get scammed even for a dollar if you can avoid it. It just seems it's not the normal business practices that most businesses apply, searching inventory comes with the territory.

I've been a contractor for the better part of my life and if I told a lead that I can come out and give an estimate for x amount of dollars, they would probably just hang up since estimates are usually free.

If someone can take a look at the site and give an opinion on if it looks legit or not, it would be of great help.

It just seems like something that a internet marketer would do.

Discontinued Daltile, discontinued American Olean, and others. Specialists in discontinued tile

Run, Joseph, Run!

Terra

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seasoned

12 years ago

joseph7384,

I'm surprised that tile was hurt, unless it wasn't glazed. After 40 years, ESPECIALLY if it isn't glazed, it may be hard to find good tile that matches. Maybe you should just redo the whole thing.

And did you fix whatever caused the leak problem?

Steve

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joseph7384

12 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

joseph7384,

I'm surprised that tile was hurt, unless it wasn't glazed. After 40 years, ESPECIALLY if it isn't glazed, it may be hard to find good tile that matches. Maybe you should just redo the whole thing.

I have tile through out the basement with the exception of our theater room, that was carpet that I now want to replace with the same tile that's in the rest of the basement.

Originally Posted by seasoned

And did you fix whatever caused the leak problem?

Steve

The problem was that we had a lot of rain in a short period of time, the ground couldn't take anymore and it started flowing in from the threshold.

Originally Posted by waterotter

Clearance and Closeouts with free shipping on qualifying orders......

Went to that site already and about 50 other sites.

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AprilCT

12 years ago

Find and fix the source of the leak(s) first. Your next leak could be even worse if it doesn't get fixed.

Think about a complementary color and shape, as well as a border color defining the entrance to the area into the theater room, especially if your basement is pretty open and if just a doorway, use the border color to set off the doorway. Make it look intentional and lovely.

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thunderbird

12 years ago

Originally Posted by AprilCT

Find and fix the source of the leak(s) first. Your next leak could be even worse if it doesn't get fixed.

Think about a complementary color and shape, as well as a border color defining the entrance to the area into the theater room, especially if your basement is pretty open and if just a doorway, use the border color to set off the doorway. Make it look intentional and lovely.

Sounds like the source of the leaks was Mother Nature. Not much can be done about some of her temper tantrums.

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seasoned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by thunderbird

Sounds like the source of the leaks was Mother Nature. Not much can be done about some of her temper tantrums.

That's what SUMPS are for!

Steve
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Kay King

12 years ago

I don't think it's unreasonable to charge for this. I visited a china shop once that specialized in discontinued patterns and it was a complex and a bit messy business.

The only way for that big warehouse I visited to find a certain amount of a discontinued item was to search first by manufacturer, then by a year (or range of years) that pattern was produced and then physically look through inventory stored on huge numbers of shelves that went to the ceiling.

I don't know if they had a "search" fee or not but they did tell me there was a "minimum order amount". The reason for that was simply becuase so many people called trying to find one little saucer from 20 years back or a single plate to match a dinner service they inherited and the minimum order discouraged those inquiries.

The company is up front about the charges - nothing hidden or sneaky about the fee. If the tile is out of production and must be found by using a person to physically count how much is available, etc - they are using the fee to cover employee time.

----

I wrote the above before reading the rest of that website - and what I conjectured is exactly what is listed as the reason for the charge.

I wouldn't hesitate to spend $15 to find out if I could add matching tile rather than use a tile not my first choice or retile a much larger area so it would match.

I'm not a contractor but after Katrina there were some specialty contractors who were charging for estimates...because many homeowners only wanted estimates to get insurance money with no intention of hiring the contractor. There were too many real, paying jobs then for a contractor to spend days on end giving out free estimates on small jobs. Supply/demand reality.

In a specialty business I can understand charging for the time used to research inventory to see if there's enough of a certain out of production tile. Such businesses are often not bar-coded and computer efficient.

There are some good reviews, too, about this company. The bad reviews seem to be mainly from those who paid $14.95 and didn't find their tile - and from some who don't realize a discontinued item might cost more than it did originally because it's in limited supply.

Good luck whatever you decide.

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seasoned

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Kay King

I don't think it's unreasonable to charge for this. I visited a china shop once that specialized in discontinued patterns and it was a complex and a bit messy business.

Yeah, if they are selling to your need, EXPECT it to cost more. The $200 for 9 tiles may be misleading. They may have minimum orders, search fees, etc.... STILL, tile CAN be expensive. There may be tile out there that costs $1000 or more per tile!

HECK, with GLAZED tile, it could be in SEWAGE for a long time, and recovered. IMAGINE if you have a home in a place that was destroyed by katrina. Someone may realize that the tile were special in some way, protect them, and recover them. A store has to pay a premium for that, clean them up more, pack them, catalog them. They will also want a profit.

It is AMAZING what people do to recycle. I watched a show on a place buying old computer systems, etc.... They then destroy them, break them down into components, and sell the scrap at value. glass, plastic, copper, gold, silver, etc....

Steve

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seasoned

12 years ago

Originally Posted by joseph7384

I have tile through out the basement with the exception of our theater room, that was carpet that I now want to replace with the same tile that's in the rest of the basement.

OH, OK!

The problem was that we had a lot of rain in a short period of time, the ground couldn't take anymore and it started flowing in from the threshold.

Do you not have a sump?

Steve

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joseph7384

12 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

OH, OK!

Do you not have a sump?

Steve

Embarrassing to say but no. The home was a brownstone previously renovated by the original owner and it had no sump and overhead sewers.

Here in Chicago the drainage tiles for the sump are usually installed along the inside perimeter of a house and I'm not going to tear up my basement but I can dig along the outside of the house for the drainage and it would reduce the cost by only breaking the floor in the equipment room to install the well for the sump pump.

I can also install a second well with a shredder pump for the downstairs bathroom.

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seasoned

12 years ago

Originally Posted by joseph7384

Embarrassing to say but no. The home was a brownstone previously renovated by the original owner and it had no sump and overhead sewers.

Here in Chicago the drainage tiles for the sump are usually installed along the inside perimeter of a house and I'm not going to tear up my basement but I can dig along the outside of the house for the drainage and it would reduce the cost by only breaking the floor in the equipment room to install the well for the sump pump.

I can also install a second well with a shredder pump for the downstairs bathroom.

YEAH, I don't know HOW one would work INSIDE the home. OUTSIDE the home, the idea is to make it easy to drain into the sump, which has a pump that pumps water away from the home. The idea is to keep the water level below the home. If it stays too high for too long, the cement suffers and water can go through or over the basement. Of course, any water in the basement wouldn't be drained.

Oh yeah, and airconditioners and new heaters condense water and you have to have some way of getting rid of THAT also!

Steve

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Dennis Gaskill

12 years ago

Joseph,

Not much good said about the company here:

Thisoldtile.com in Houston, TX - Reviews and Directions

Slow service, outrageous prices ($200 for 9 tiles).

I wouldn't do it, but that's me. I have a friend who owns a flooring store. I could ask him if he knows anything about them if you want. Let me know.

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bizgrower

12 years ago

Of course the good reviews could be ... um well... un-vetted. It's the Wild Wild Web.

Contact the manufacturer and get the contact info for other distributors' who have
better business practices.

Visit your city's "Tile Row". (Denver, CO anyway - and I'm sure other cities - have a few
blocks together where a lot of tile and marble sellers do business.) If one does not have it,
one or two of them might know installers who have been around a long time and have the
older stuff laying around.

-----------------------------

Probably do want to repair/tamp down and build up the soil around your home now.
Making sure it drains away properly. Perhaps install a French drain and maybe swales.

Dan

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seasoned

12 years ago

Originally Posted by bizgrower

Of course the good reviews could be ... um well... un-vetted. It's the Wild Wild Web.

Contact the manufacturer and get the contact info for other distributors' who have
better business practices.

Visit your city's "Tile Row". (Denver, CO anyway - and I'm sure other cities - have a few
blocks together where a lot of tile and marble sellers do business.) If one does not have it,
one or two of them might know installers who have been around a long time and have the
older stuff laying around.

-----------------------------

Probably do want to repair/tamp down and build up the soil around your home now.
Making sure it drains away properly. Perhaps install a French drain and maybe swales.

Dan

Actually, contractors would have used the stock by now. The manufacturer likely won't make it, and lots used to be VERY important, so don't expect the new product to be identical. Distributors ALSO would clear things out. And many sellers of surplus may not be official.

Steve

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bizgrower

12 years ago

Originally Posted by seasoned

Actually, contractors would have used the stock by now. The manufacturer likely won't make it, and lots used to be VERY important, so don't expect the new product to be identical. Distributors ALSO would clear things out. And many sellers of surplus may not be official.

Steve

Actually, I've had tile and brick work done on two different properties. One built in 1964 and one built in 1971. Several installers (I received at least three bids for each project) did have old stuff laying around and were able to match the tile or brick. Good installers do keep stuff around for this very reason. Ditto for distributors if all they have left is enough for one or two rooms or less.

Also, I was not saying the manufacturers would still be making it, just that they should be able to provide contact information for better distributors. And then those distributors, and his local ones, might be able to help him directly or by referring to installers likely to have old stuff.

Dan

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I could use some advice from the OT brain Surgeons!

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