Broken Tile, Broken Promises, Stolen Money
My order arrived in February and 47% of the shipment was damaged. Citadel Stone (Kareem Klisharo) admitted knowing about the damage due to “Turkish Customs Inspection”, said he had loaded additional material to make up for the damage, and offered to replace the damaged goods free of charge in a second shipment. He suggested I add to the second shipment to make up a container load. I added US$5500.00 of more stone and wired the funds for payment in full. He contacted me a few weeks later (after delays due to “Middle East issues”), and told me there would be freight charges of $8800.00 US dollars which included $4500.00 for inland freight and $4300.00 for ocean freight. Those rates seemed very high to me for a 20’ container. Through a contact in Turkey I was quoted $600-800.00 for inland freight and $2300.00 for ocean freight, for a total of $2900.00-3100.00. It became apparent that Kareem was attempting to profit on the freight to make up for the “no-charge replacement goods”. I told Kareem I’d arrange my own freight and he refused to allow me to do so. Importantly, there was nothing in writing between the Parties that stated the customer had to use the supplier’s shipping company. After going back and forth for several days Kareem issued an ultimatum — accept his freight charges and pay in full or his offer of no-charge replacement stone will be rescinded in five days. When I refused to be held hostage Kareem refused to refund my money. So where this stands today is I’ve placed and paid in full for two stone orders and received only 47% of only one order. My project has been delayed for two months at additional cost. Citadel Stone is now threatening ME with storage charges and legal action. I would never use Citadel Stone again, would recommend against anyone using this company, and am seeking other avenues to recover the monies I’ve paid.
