Call Kurtis: Where's Our Refund?

Christine and Russ Karr have transformed their Roseville backyard into a tropical paradise. But that paradise is lost on the trouble they've been having with their granite BBQ countertop.

Fading, cracking and lifting are some of the issues the Karrs have noticed since they had the countertop installed in 2006. The Karrs paid Granite Transformations more than $7900 to cover their kitchen and bar-b-que countertops with the same granite. They were told it would hold up outside. After all, it came with a lifetime warranty.

Christine says they voiced their concerns about the stone being outside. "We specifically said 'This is going to be outside, it's in full sun, it's not covered.' And they said, 'Absolutely not, it's no problem. We do it all the time.'"

The Karrs say within months of installation they saw a difference between the granite inside and the granite outside. Christine showed us a side-by-side comparison.

"You can see that this is very bleached out and faded," she says. She also showed us how the seams are buckling.

"It's just absolutely falling apart, the glue's falling out," says Russ.

The Karrs say Granite Transformations came out and said the countertop is beyond repair. The couple pointed to their lifetime warranty and the company gave them two options: get their money back or have the counter replaced. But the new one would not come with a warranty.

"Whenever they told us they'd replace it once but, and their words were 'you're on your own' I ... I felt pretty violated at that point," says Russ.

In 2008, the Karrs said they asked for the refund but wanted more for demolition. The company said it would consider it but the Karrs never got any money back.

"Anytime we would make an attempt to contact we would get nowhere," says Kristine.

When you exhaust all options you can complain to the Contractors State License Board. Or you can file a claim against the contractors bond. It's a kind of insurance the state requires licensed contractors to have in case customers are left high and dry.

The Karrs knew their options, but decided against them.

Russ says, "I really didn't want to do anything to hurt their business."

We called up Granite Transformations trying to figure out the holdup and the company told us:

"At Granite Transformations, we always strive to provide the best customer service we can. The franchisee of the Rancho Cordova location recently returned from a vacation and planned to provide the customer the full refund requested. After receiving a call from the CBS Sacramento station, he decided to courier the check by end of day today instead of mailing the check this Friday as previously planned."

"We apologize for the delay in providing the customer a refund and accept all responsibilities for administrative errors on our part. We have since provided the customer with the full refund per our warranty agreement."

-Granite Transformations Sacramento

Christine tells the same day we contacted the company a courier dropped off an apology letter and a check for $3100.

"This is absolutely what we've been looking for," she says.

The Company refunded the money for the granite and threw in more than $500 extra to help with the demolition. The company says it stopped installing the granite outside shortly after the Karrs had theirs installed.