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Damage Policy

The Builder Depot stands behind our product and business we have built spanning two decades. We want to take all the stress out of ordering online and treat our customers as we would expect to be treated ourselves. There are great savings to be made with online orders and we want you to feel safe and secure enjoying those savings. We ship all over the country, from Georgia to Seattle and every point in between.

Many of the products that we ship are fragile by nature, and on occasion damages can take place during transit up to 5% can be damaged and we consider this acceptable (and below we explain this in more detail). If you receive any damaged tiles in your shipment, please follow the policies below by calling or emailing us right away and we will ship out replacement tiles immediately if it exceeds 5% of the order, at no additional cost to you.

Reporting a Damaged Shipment/Order

  1. Accept the shipment.
  2. Sign drivers receipt but clearly write "accepted but damaged" on the drivers slip you sign (take a picture of it coming off their truck if possible - damage on their vehicle speaks a thousand words).
  3. Provide The Builder Depot with the required documentation. a. POD (Proof of Delivery Receipt) - The document you signed showing you wrote "Accepted but Damaged" b. Pictures of Damaged Tiles c. Number of pieces damaged. d. Send to damageship@thebuilderdepot.com (or your salesrep you dealt with).
  4. The Builder Depot will ship your replacement tile immediately if it exceeds the 5% requirement.
Please note that it is acceptable up to 5% of your order/tile to be damaged, chipped, broken or scratched; polished instead of honed; honed instead of polished (please do not make us write every possible scenario and be reasonable).

Not everything will be absolutely perfect (there I said it - we will do our best but we are not perfect). Chipped tiles are not a complete loss they can cut and installed where cut pieces are needed. Our quality of stone is very high and prices very low. To compensate we do cut and produce the stone tiles faster than most companies. Therefore there can be some imperfections, scratches, chips and even a few mixed up pieces. We estimate that risk to be up to 5%.

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This 5% is of the entire order. If you order multiple products totaling 1,000SF and 4 tiles are damaged then that is 0.4% this is completely acceptable.

Another example 30 Square Feet of Arabesque Carrara Mosaic and 3 of the Arabesque pieces are broken (not sheets), there are 28 pieces to a sheet. 30 x 28 = 840 Pieces. That is 0.35% damage. You do not need to call us in an absolute panic :) You can let us know, as we love feedback and love to hear from our customers. But the pieces can be removed off the meshed fixed with good tiles, the broken ones can be cut for end pieces.

Tiles can be broken during transit. A broken tile can still be used. Tiles will need to be cut during installation to finish the ends, use the broken tiles or trim pieces for this purpose. Mosaics can get some damage in shipping. We ship mosaics UPS or FedEx. Unfortunately it seems that UPS/FedEx considers "Fragile Handle with Care" as just a suggestion.

While this is not the safest way to ship it is the most cost effective for smaller orders and we have yet to have damage greater than 3.5%. Mosaics can be removed from the mesh. They are designed that way. For example there 42 pieces of 2" Hexagon on a sheet. If 4 tiles are damaged on a 10 sheet order this represents less than 1%. We are not going to ship you 4 new sheets for 4 damaged Hexagon mosaic pieces (in the same way if you have an accident and dent someones car door you do not have to buy them an entirely new car, you replace the door - if anyone has a better analogy please let us know).

In fact for this damage of less than 1% we are not going to do anything. We are not going to do anything unless the damage is over 5%. (Example A: 20 Sheets of 5x5" Hexagon. 7 tiles to a sheet equals 140 5x5" individual hexagon tiles, if 5 tiles are damaged/broken we are not going to be able to help as this is less than 4%. Example B: Same as before 20 sheets shipped except 7 tiles are now damaged. In this case we spring into action and ship out three 5x5" hexagon tiles - actually we'll send 5 just in case more damage occurs in shipping).

Reasonable is what we are looking for. Please be reasonable with claims and help us keep our costs low for everyone.

Damage occurs in shipping and during manufacturing. It is not extreme it is generally under 5% more than 5% then we are here to help. It is a shame we even have to bother with this page, as the reality is if you stick with what we and the North American Tile Council recommends "over ordering by a MINIMUM of 10%" and you will have more than enough to complete the job.

Note: Please report all damage within 10 days. We loose any power to claim the damage on your behalf otherwise. If you file a claim for damage (for example) 4 months later UPS will argue (and successfully): The builder dropped it. A member of the household dropped it. Something fell on it. Any number of possibilities. In a reasonable world a reasonable person would side with their argument. Imagine this is your company and someone comes back six months later to say something has broken I want a new one. So please simply open the boxes and check. Then we can get any damage replaced at the cost of UPS without any difficult conversations that need not transpire.

We would love to have your feedback on this policy. Is this acceptable? Should we change any of it? Is the math correct - we have used a lot of percentages. Let us know website@thebuilderdepot.com