Joe Cassara sees it all the time. It’s hard to convince a customer that quality and value are not synonymous with price. It’s even harder when you turn out to be right. But that’s what happened when he unboxed the crate on the granite headstone shipped from overseas to his business, Supreme Memorials in Brooklyn, NY.
A beautiful granite headstone with carved flowers, and saw blade marks across the face of the memorial. It was an order for a customer who had been shopping around online and, wooed by the lower prices of stones available via import, selected a granite headstone from China. Cassara explained that if she ordered the headstone and wasn’t satisfied with the result, there would be no recourse with the online company. She was undeterred, “It’s a good deal,” she said. As soon as he opened the crate Cassara saw the poor craftsmanship – a shortcut job to save time and money – and shook his head. He would call the company and report the problem, but he already knew what their answer would be – “It is what it is.” And he would have to break the news to the customer.
That’s the standard answer from online headstone vendors, even those from the US, and it leaves customers in the lurch every time, Cassara says. Cheap headstones, it turns out, can cost you a lot of money. Here are a few reasons why.
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