I would talk to someone at American Standard that speaks English and see what they are willing to do.

On second thought, have your spouse call American Standard and have them calmly explain the problem while you cry histarically in the background. When your spouse reached amicable agreement with them, have a pre arranged signal that will let you know when to loudly break some glass and scream at the top of your lungs, and have your spouse anxiously say, "OH NO, OH NO, I HAVE TO GO!!!" and hang up.

quality control?

SOP

Be grateful it's not a prosthetic heart valve!

Yesterday, our plumbers trying to finish up found that their wholesaler sent us a TOTO control for a Geberit w.c. And the utility tub kit I picked up from HD was missing a supply line. (Let alone, user reviews show we'll be lucky if the included faucet doesn't fall apart immediately.)

If you are not willing to remove the toilet, clean the wax, re-box all the unused parts to return it and miss the savings you already had, then you have to fit within the "sytem" to find a solution.

You can call the store manager to explain and abide by their answer.

And/or, you can buy another off-the-shelf unit at full price, switching tanks, then return the new unit under the new receipt, and tell them it is defective because of mixed colors at return. This assumes it is a factory mistake, so the manager might even suggest a version of this without having to buy a new unit.

American Standard makes prosthetic heart valves??!!??

They flushed that idea.

@Mark Bischak, Architect Thank you for makingme spill my drink, as I burst out laughing at your awesome humour! Iclearly pictured the whole scenario, even tho it wont be realized.

@worthy Wanna bet Heart Valves also are made in China with even better quality control. Thank you, so much chiming in.

@3onthetree Great suggestion, but it isnt happening, HD is very accommodating , I am sure. Wanna bet, with my luck, the new toilet would also ne midmstched. We will live the mismatch, which may become new conversation piece.

By the way, the tank lid matches the bowl, go figure!

@Minardi Very intriguing thought you have, who knows, the mystery will reign for a long time.

I was thinking the same thing as Minardi. I've seen it so many times from all the big retailers and avoid any box not factory sealed. A couple of weeks ago I bought a 13 amp Dewalt angle grinder from a retailer that was on clearance with the box re taped, so I took it to customer service and opened the box in front of them just encase there was an old trashed out grinder sitting inside.

And was there? an old trashed-out grinder inside?

@outpaientzero…The box was factory sealed, hence my frustration. Lol..

I purchased an American Standard toilet either from HD or Lowes for my lake house when we were doing upgrades to the guest bathroom. It was a white comfort height two piece toilet with an oval seat - I think it was on sale for around $200?.

It sat for awhile - well over the 90 day return policy.

I had a handyman (who had good reviews + a couple neighbors had recommended him when I first purchased the lake house) install it. Apparently, he didn't notice that there were some very little odd blue streaks on a small portion of the ceramic base. I tried to clean them off - most came off - except just a few tiny ones. I thought that it was probably from the dye that AS used to check for leaks/cracks in their products before packaging + shipping them out.

The light tiny blue streaks weren't noticeable (no one would notice them but me - because I saw the original blue marks) - but made me concerned if that meant a crack would eventually develop.

I called AS directly - spoke with a woman in customer service. She confirmed that the blue was from a leak test. She also said that it was probably just in the finish - not an actual crack (which is also what it looked like to me after I looked closely).

Without any hesitation, she asked for my name and address - and said that she was shipping me a new toilet (both pieces) - just in case there was some issue in the future (although she was 99% positive that there wouldn't be one). The new toilet was delivered to my house within about a week.

It's now about four years later - the new toilet is still in the box (in my basement). There hasn't been a single issue with the installed one.

FYI - there was no hysterical crying or any sad story told in order to try to make her feel sorry for me. I would definitely recommend an AS toilet to anyone who needs an inexpensive new toilet.

No Diana, it was a new grinder. But I did buy a Porter cable 2 beam auto leveling laser level display unit HD sold for half price but couldn't get it working right. I called PC customer service and was told they aren't suppose to sell those display units because they are defective units used for display only. I returned it and told the assistant manager what PC said.
So I was going to buy the last boxed and re taped unit for 30% off, but at the checkout I opened it first and found a manual unit someone swapped for the auto leveling unit! I ended up buying a manual unit in the factory sealed box on clearance for around $350, but really wanted a self leveling unit. They were over $1000 retail at the time and didn't want to spend that much. This was around 2006 and when I swore to check anything That looked like it had been opened at the store and everything else when I got home.
FWIW, I bought two of those heavy duty grinders, only one had a factory seal and didn't open that one until I got home.

The bone/white combo serves a purpose in those older bathrooms that have both color fixtures. I have a kid that could use one like that

This is why it was on sale.... they couldn't care less, it's being sent to the manufacturer anyway if it's returned within the given time (30 days usually), it's being done all the time because they screw up not only toilets, but flooring and tiles, etc. This is why reputable contractors buy from reputable plumbing supply stores.

As the new toilet installation goes, the tank is always installed before the toilet is set in its place. After the tank is attached, the toilet is set.

Not to mention, the general practice is to open all the boxes to make sure nothing is damaged during shipping, all the parts are there, and, in your case, everything matches.

That said, buy the same toilet and put the old toilet in the box, the new toilet came in, and return it... Unless you get lucky, they will honor the return after the return time expires due to a mismatched product, but I doubt that because your sale is not in the system anymore.

Good luck

@dani_m08 Its so nice to hear AS came through, it cert helps to restore faith in big business. We have purchased 2 other toilets and various products from this company without any issues. We will continue to do so.

@RNmomof2 zone 5 Its not that bad, when all put together.

@GN Builders L.L.C Thank you so much for the detailed explanation and tutoring. i really appreciate your expertise on this and many other threads.

If you are painting the walls the same color as the paint swatch you have there, the toilet would be fine. However, what would it hurt to give AS a call!!!

@User Bathroom will be white. Ideally, AS would even send in a plumber to replace the tank. Why, DH doesn’t want to deal with the replacement hassle, what can I say, lol! Function over form…

You have my full sympathy. I have had LOTS of examples of faulty products and service in the past four years. Some were from the big box stores but others from places I consider a step above. I had TWO rolls of special order carpet that had partly cut backing. That's bad but I didn't unroll the carpet until I wrangled it upstairs. I contacted Lowes and included photos. They could do a return but not a price adjustment to encourage me to make a repair and deal with it. We eat the labor when we get stuff like that. Same thing with plywood decking. Some voids you will find only after nailing the piece down on the roof and walking on it. I gave up finding a square fiberglass shower basin and went with a cast iron Kohler only to find a very bad ding in the ceramic that was only visible after I dusted the warehouse grime off. I hired an electrician recently to install a new electric service meter socket and breaker box. He violated bold print in the electric provider's installation booklet and I spent $200 fixing his work.

When you get good service by a local company, go online and give them a review so others can find them. That's the best thing I know to do.

The replacement part, even items under warranty, is one thing. The ofher,more challenging, time consuming and expensive is the labour…

Receiving and inspecting all your deliveries is part of the building process. I would not say Home Deport of Lowes is better or worse, as it happens with all vendors.