What did they say when you showed them the pictures and informed them the slabs were different than the ones you had chosen? I suppose it could happen. I have not heard of it happening often, but anything is possible.

This just happened yesterday. Our sales guy said he’s looking into it and would come back Monday. So we’ll see!

I am a fabricator … and I have to comment on this. Picking slabs several months in advance of a job can cause several problems. I suspect the slab supplier had a problem with a job and had to "steal" your slabs to help out a different customer, probably thinking you'd never notice. Picking slabs months in advance creates the risk that matching material will be unavailable if a problem in fabrication, transport, or installation occurs. Slabs or parts can break without any mistake or error by the fabricator and, of course, it's always a possibility that an error will occur. If a customer insists on picking months in advance we add a slab to cover problems to the cost of the job. It might mean we lose a job but that's better than doing an entire job over at my cost because matching material was unavailable months after the slabs were selected and the job fabricated.

Old Ryder - agreed not ideal that so much time passed between putting a deposit down and fabrication (we’ve had a lot of unforeseen project delays). I agree that the supplier likely did “steal” our slabs because they thought we wouldn’t notice. I also think the slab was likely returned because of the rust marks. It just feels really unprofessional and it makes me wonder how often this type of this happens in the slab supplying world.

It is unprofessional and in my experience uncommon but that might be more due to the fact that I am a very large customer relative to a homeowner so the slab supplier is not likely to do anything to really irritate me. I also don't leave slabs at the supplier for months; once the slabs are selected and I have a down payment I get the slabs delivered to me.

Yes it happens a lot. Always take photos of your slab.

It can happens in busy stone yards and we've had people complain about it in the forums before.

My slabs sat for months, but they sat at my fabricators workshop and not at the slab yard. Once I paid for my slabs (5 quartzite slabs) my fabricator picked them up a day later. We had some changes in the scope of the project so the fabricator had to keep them for much longer than planned, but they were safe on his property.

it doesn’t happen “a lot”. It’s pretty rare. Not if you use actual professionals instead of low budget fabricator guys with no principles.

When it does happen in a professional fabrication shop, it’s a mistake, not deliberate. Things like the writing has worn off due to age, or the storage fees tallied up after purchase have not been paid and have eaten up the value of the stone so the purchaser no longer actually owns it. Stone fabrication shops don’t hold things indefinitely without charging for that taking up space.

If you buy slabs at a wholesaler, you’d better already have hired the best fabricator that you can find to transport and store them. At a wholesaler? Anything is game at a wholesaler slab yard. Their customers are really the fabricators. Not you.