On Oct. 7, 2010, I placed an order of Emser tiles (384 sq ft of "Eclipse Steel", 126 sq ft of "Eclipse Cotton" and 12 sq ft of "Strands Oyster" through a tile broker called Coliseum Tile for a total of $2, 699.92. On Oct. 16, 2010, I also placed an additional order of 12 sq ft of “Eclipse Cotton” for $61.24. The name of the representative from Coliseum Tile is Max. This complaint is in relation to the Emser Eclipse Steel and Eclipse Cotton tiles – total of 522 sq ft ($2663.96). After I placed the orders through Coliseum Tile, my contractor picked up the tiles from Emser Tile (San Leandro, CA location) to install on our floor and walls. I randomly opened a few boxes and looked at the top tiles to confirm that the tiles were right and good to install. After my contractor installed approximately 250 sq ft of the Eclipse Steel and Eclipse Cotton tiles, I saw that around 40% of the tiles have major quality issues, primarily high color shade variations within each tile. Some tiles even have more than 3 very obvious color variations. I picked a few unopened boxes of tiles and checked tile by tile in each box, and found close to half of them had the same issue (high color variations within each tile) and they were mostly hidden underneath the top tiles that had no issues. I am not constantly monitoring the contractor installing tile by tile. I trusted the company’s quality rating on the tile and am very disappointed that I was given tiles with much lesser quality.

The Emser "Eclipse" tiles are advertised to have the lowest variation in color shade, V1, on a scale from 1 to 4, with V4 being the highest color shade variations in the tile. The Eclipse tile that is displayed at the Emser Tile showrooms (both the San Leandro, CA and San Jose, CA locations) also has no color shade variation, close to being uniform in color. On Oct. 29, 2010, I contacted Emser Tile San Leandro location and discussed this tile issue with a representative named Jeremy Brown. I forwarded him a photo of a discolored Eclipse Steel tile and he noted that the tile is not meant to have such a high color variation. On Nov. 1, 2010, when I followed up with Jeremy, he mentioned that some tiles in the region also had the same quality issue, but did not get back to me on resolution. I also contacted Max at Coliseum Tile to seek resolution/refund for the Emser tiles, and he has not responded to my request.

I had purchased the tiles based on the low color shade variation as advertised (and displayed in the showroom), and had received low quality and discolored tiles which is not acceptable. I also now have to pay additional labor cost to remove the tiles and re-install new ones. I have lost trust in Emser completely.