"Ordered 24m2 of "ultimate" travertine …"

Ordered 24m2 of "ultimate" travertine as well as Tilemaster standard set adhesive. First issue was upon delivery seeing they'd replaced the Tilemaster (which is amazing stuff, very good reputation in the tiling industry) with grey rapid setting Larsen adhesive ... first of all, grey should never be used on travertine (or any light porous tile, secondly Larsen does not hold a candle to almost any other adhesive, and third I'd specified a lightweight standard setting adhesive ... this was not that.

The travertine quality was fair, but next time I'm going to a local distributor who sells a superior product for the same money having looked at the crates he had in stock. There were a fair few issues with the tiles I received, from many chipped edges, to tiles with very large voids that were only suitable for use on the wall, poor quality honing and many dark stains from something in the crate during shipping.

The tiles were sold as not commercial grade, and with very little filler - some of the tiles had a lot of filler. The colour was also much darker than suggested by both the website and the sample given.

Another point on samples, I'd suggest ignoring it and travelling to see actual crates of stock to gauge, as this would give a more accurate picture of the product you will actually receive.

To their credit they did arrange to collect the adhesive and promised a refund, although over 2 weeks later that still hasn't arrived.

I've uploaded an album of images of the problematic tiles we received: https://imgur dot com/a/9zbYm it should be noted that roughly 70% of tiles were of acceptable quality, but a chain is only as good as its weakest link. Our tiler was very good and managed to make the tiles look OK when installed, although we did have to source similar tiles from a local supplier to make up the numbers.

I did email Travertine Direct with my concerns, but never received a reply.

"Superb tiles at a great price"

Superb tiles at a great price. We needed nearly 50sqm of floor tiles and as you can imagine shopped around for ideas very carefully before settling on Travertine, so all that was left was who to buy from. I always try to buy locally but they couldn't supply in time so took the risk of ordering online....good choice.
A slick website is just that, a website, but it does help with the visuals of your choice. I rang in with a few questions and they were extremely helpful and after a little negotiation we made our choice.
We settled on the slightly more expensive Anatolia range and it is just stunning. Very little filer and wonderful colour, as described and they selected a perfectly matched load. All well crated with not a single damaged tile, which is a little unusual. I also bought the grout and adhesive which matched perfectly. Delivery was exactly when they said it would be and the courier was very helpful. First class and will use again

"Slick site but delivered defective tiles and refused to honour obligations"

I had some reservations about buying travertine tiles online because of the quality problems others had experienced. But this company provided a good quality sample and the price was much better than the local retailers. The delivery was efficient and the tiles appeared to be OK, but when the builders were ready to use them after a month's storage in my garage the majority were stuck together so tightly that they couldn't be separated without breaking the tiles.

The company's customer service department, escalated to the Managing Director, denied any responsibility for the problem, and misrepresented their own terms and conditions while trying to get out of their obligations under consumer legislation.

The tiles had been shipped wet and the cement used to fill the natural holes in the stone had bonded to the adjacent tiles while drying. The company had made no attempt to prevent the tiles sticking together (some companies use separating film), nor had they provided any warning that this might happen so that the tiles could be separated on delivery to prevent the problem.

It was only after extensive correspondence, backed up by legal advice, that I was able to get the cost reimbursed. I remained out of pocket, 'though, for the delivery cost of the replacement from an alternative supplier.