APACHE STONE IN PHOENIX - NO THANK YOU!

It has been over two years but the bad feelings remain toward Apache Stone of 22040 N. 21rst Ave., Phoenix, AZ. It bereaves me to rehash my experience with this business, but every day I am reminded of them when I look out upon my yard. I am sure of the fact that never in my life have I been subjected to nor have my friends who accompanied me to this business or overheard the tape recordings of my conversations with the personnel there EVER witnessed such rude mistreatment and total disregard for a customer.

In planning the landscaping for my yard, I had determined I would start with 3 tons of rock to spread around the perimeter of my property under the trees. I wanted solid dark brown rock there and would put down another 4 to 6 tons of smaller white rock in the interior portion of the yard and separate them with a brick walkway. The first place that appeared on the internet under landscaping rock was Apache Stone and one of their offices happened to be just minutes from my house so I drove right there, looked over the small blocked areas of rock samples surrounding the office building and decided that the solid dark brown rock located just left of the office entry door was perfectly suited for my landscaping plans. Most landscaping facilities have the sample boxes labeled but I did not see labels on these boxes. I entered the front office and saw that I was the only person there except a man who was on a computer at the desk. He said "Someone will be with you in a moment." Okay, five or ten minutes passed and I began to speak "Excuse me, I just need to order some..." when another man came from the back office looking at me and then at the man on the computer and then at me. I said "Hi,I'd like to order some landscaping rock for my yard to be delivered as soon as possible." He asked me what I wanted. I told him that I did not see a sign indicating the name of the rock in the display boxes outside, but that I wanted the solid dark brown rock that was in the first box directly to the left of their office entry door and I pointed at it through the door. "What is the name of that rock?", I inquired. The man says "Apache Brown?". I said "Yes, if that is the dark brown rock right there (again pointing), then that is what I want", rather surprised that he didn't even make the effort to walk outdoors with me to verify. He asks "How much?" and I told him I would like to start off with 3 tons. I paid for my order and was given a receipt that he had written up. The following day a truck from Apache Stone showed up but I could see before the driver was able to dump it that the rock in the truck was not what I had ordered. I told the driver such and he said he was just the driver. I asked him to call his boss and tell him the rock was not the right kind. He put me on his phone with the same man I had placed my order with the previous day and I informed him the rock on the truck was not the rock I ordered. His reply was "Maam, you ordered Apache Brown and that's what you got." I told him the rock on the truck was not brown at all, it was pink and the rock I inquired of was solid dark brown. I asked him if he did not remember my pointing to and stating that I wanted the dark brown rock in the first display box directly left of the entry door to the office there. I asked him to step outside and look at that rock and asked,"Is THAT Apache Brown?" He replied, "I don't know maam, I just started working here. All I know is you ordered Apached Brown and we delivered Apache Brown." I said "Yes, but YOU told me that rock was called Apache Brown, sir. The rock I want is solid dark brown, this rock is pink and if it is called Apache Brown, I can't imagine WHY! Is your Apache Brown rock actually PINK?" His reply: "There's nothing we an do about it maam, you got exactly what you ordered." He refused to go outside and look at the rock I had pointed to and in fact went on to say that the rock in the display boxes outside were not for sale and the rock for sale is in the giant bins around the back of the building! I asked him why, when I was placing my order, had he not then taken me to those bins to select the rock I wanted. He repeated "You ordered Apache Brown and that is what we delivered." I was incredulous, "So you don't intend to correct this error?" He repeats the same thing again. The driver took the phone from my hands, hung up and told me I would have to call on my own time and he dumped the rock in my yard. I called the store and asked for the manager; well it so happened that the man with whom I had placed my order WAS the store manager. I asked him who his supervisor was and he gave me the name and cell phone number of the sales manager who I promptly called. It soon became apparent the man had already been groomed for my call because he literally began YELLING at ME before I could even get my first sentence out. My God, I thought, this is just unbelievable, these people are deliberately running me down. Why don't they just correct the order? I went online and looked at their website on which are breathtaking displays of installations they have performed on multimillion dollar homes around the country. Okay, I thought, so I'm nothing to them. My satisfaction is not their concern. I am an ant in their big world and they ENJOY crushing ants. Then I read the autobiography of the company's founder, who immigrated to this country with nothing and through years of labor and the sweat of his own brow had built the Apache Stone Co into a highly successfull business. I thought, this man did not work his way from the ground up treating people the way his personnel were treating me and I know he would not approve of it at all. This was the person I needed to communicate with but there was no contact information for him anywhere, and no one at the Phoenix store would give me any more information than what was on the website. I then telephoned another store location and related to the manager there what had happened and asked him if he would tell me the name of the solid dark brown rock that his company makes available and that most likely is displayed at his store. Is it Apache Brown I wanted to know. He was very nice and apologized for the way I was being treated and he told me they had a solid dark brown rock called Saddlebag Brown. I asked him what Apache Brown looked like. He said it was pinkish in hue, with some pieces with brown in them, or steaks of brown. I asked him how I could get ahold of the owner of the company and he referred me to the website I had already discovered. Well, my landscaping plans were ruined now and and I was stuck with 3 tons of the wrong rock on my property. I got a friend to go to the Apache Stone store I was dealing with to obtain the name of the dark brown rock left of the office entry door and to see if she could get the manager to tell her that name, which she did. Afterward I telephoned the store and a woman answered and said she was the "office" manager. I related the problem I was experiencing with getting my order corrected and she was very nice and said she would look into it and get back with me. Another friend and I decided to make a personal visit to the store instead and get her answer, thereby providing another witness. When we arrived, the woman I spoke to was talking to the store manager and they both came outdoors as we approached. I pointed to the rock I wanted and said "This is the rock I indicated I wanted when placing my order at which time this man, your store manager, told me it was Apache Brown. He did not come outside with me to verify the name of this rock but afterwards admitted that he didn't know the name of this rock because he had just started working at this store. Instead of correcting his error, he lied and later said that you don't even sell this rock. This rock is called Saddlebag Brown and there upon the wall above this display box is that name." The man replied, "That name is NOT the name of this rock. That name plate is for the stone the WALL is made of." I replied "You have nameplates on that same wall showing various names, each of which apply to the rock in the display boxes below." Apparently you have no intention of correcting my order and I don't see what the big deal is. I live within 2 miles of your store, why don't you just deliver the Saddlebag brown rock I wanted and take back the Apache Brown rock YOU delivered?" I looked beseachingly at the woman who just looked down as the man said "There is nothing to correct here, you ordered and got what you wanted already." My friend could not believe his ears, nor could I. Thankfully, we had taperecorded the session as I also had done of all the later telephone conversations with this company's personnel.

A few out of state calls resulted in being put in touch with a woman who identified herself as the National Sales Manager and the person responsible for hiring the Phoenix, AZ store manager with whom I was having so much trouble. This woman was very interested in what I had to say as I explained my plight. She told me to rest assured that the situation would be investigated and resolved. A few days passed and she had not called me back so I telephoned her and left a message to please get in touch with me. A day later I received an email from the Phoenix store saying that I was to receive a free ton of rock delivered free of charge to my home. What the???!!! That's it?! Although I was grateful for a response, this answer was not a solution to my problem nor a solution to their problem either. There are universal laws at work here and one of them proves that a company who disregards customer satisfaction at any level does not maintain success. No one I talked to could provide me with an address to write to the owner of the company. The manager of the Apache Stone store in Phoenix SHOULD have walked outdoors with me upon my first visit there to verify the name of the rock I wanted to order. Instead, he made a wrong call, and bullheadedly insisted on sticking to it and sticking it to me. At no level throughout this company was I treated fairly nor was my problem ever resolved. You would think such a wealthy company would at least correct the order. There is something real wrong with these folks so unless you have thousands to spend, don't bother them, they are far too important for you or me...ants under their feet undeserving of dignity or respect or even common courtesy.

A couple of more calls to the National Sales Director were left unanswered so... I went down to Apache Stone to get my free ton of rock, whoopie-f. I'm looking around at the samples and the Mr. Manager comes out "Can I help you?" You look familiar." (This has all taken a couple of months now.) I reintroduce myself and tell him I am there to order my free ton of rock. He is oh so gracious and even walks me out back to where all the big bins of rock are kept, and gives me little bags to take samples home with. What good would a ton of any other rock than Apache brown rock do to enhance my yard that already has 3 tons of Apache brown rock dumped on it? So I go in the office and tell the manager I want a ton of SADDLEBACK BROWN. The next morning their truck arrives with a ton of APACHE BROWN rock. I had to laugh out loud. They were deliberately trying to rile me, to make me furiuos, but by the time you are 50 years old, you pick up on a few things and one of those things is that you can recognize an egomaniac when you see one and you can easily predict what their actions will be. The egomaniac manager HAD to prove that he had all the power here. Well, I came inside laughing while I emailed him my final message to wit: You seem to have made another mistake. You delivered Apache Brown again and I ordered Saddlebag Brown. It's okay though because I already knew you would deliver the opposite of whatever it is you thought I wanted and I understand. You poor baby, how do you handle being an egomaniac and having a woman for a boss? I also understand why you can't think straight, you aren't getting any air to the brain with your head so far up your a**. Rest assured that my experience with Apache Stone will be broadcast to every person that will listen and every person that will read of it on the internet. In the meantime, I suggest you rape every second of the little power you hold in your position as store manager at Apache Stone. I am sure it will be as shortlived as you are intelligent.

Comment On This

There are color variations in landscaping rock due to it being a natural product. Perhaps you should have done some more research before ordering, that way you would have known what ranges of color Apache Brown rock has and that you definitely did not want it. A few years ago, I had to deal with a landscaping rock company for my front and back yard. I went to several different places and looked at rock as well as thorough online research before making a purchase. I do not represent this company, nor did I ever purchase anything from them; just consumer-to-consumer, in my opinion, more research should have been done. Also, it's just literally a pile of rocks--how important is it in the grand scheme of things?