I should have listened to the previous reviewers. Upon entering the Durham location, the lady behind the desk never looked up, but continued to gossip with the man who was also sitting behind the desk with her. (I say gossip because I could clearly hear them talking about a girl they worked with) As we made our way around the room, she got up and proceded to tell us that we were free to look around, but she would recommend making an appointment with a design consultant if we "wanted help with designing our project". After telling us this, she went back to her seat and continued to talk with the man. We found the tile we were looking for, but didn't see the right color, so I went up to the desk to ask about it. She stated, "I believe I explained to you already that you have to make an appointment with a design consultant to talk about that. I can't help you with picking out the tile. That is what our design consultants are for, and they are not here today." So, I said we were just trying to see if they had that color. I also mentioned that their website was incorrect in their hours. She paused and said "If you had read our hours on the door, then you would have seen that we aren't open at night. Those are our summer hours which it clearly states on the website". (By the way, the website does not state the Durham location as having summer hours)
If Byrd Tile doesn't want to deal with the public, then don't offer a showroom for me to browse through. Why would you even open your doors if you don't have anyone to help your customers. If this is how Byrd Tile treats all their customers, then I recommend the Triangle area doing itself a favor and avoiding this store. If everyone stops shopping there then they will either have to change their tune, or go out of buisness. I'm a little bitter, so I vote for the latter.

Yet, they have a good selection and good design sense. If you can overcome the feeling that they could care less about you, and cater mainly to contractors and interior designers on large scale projects, Byrd Tile might work for you. They supplied the tile for my master bath renovation, and I might use them again. Promised delivery dates are sketchy, too. If you make an appointment you will get an hour of their time (recommended). Otherwise, they feel they're obliged to provide you with only cursory service.

I had a very small kitchen tile project and made an appointment to visit the showroom. They were friendly but seemed slightly inconvenienced, and left me alone to go through design books. When they called two days later, the receptionist quoted me a price that seemed extremely high, and ended up being three times the final price. I was pretty sure her explanation was mathematically incorrect, but she wouldn't budge. I actually had to ask my kitchen installers (Kitchen and Bath Galleries in the same mini-mall -- very good) walk down there, and it took them five minutes to tell her why she was wrong. I don't know if her first quote was intentional or just bad math, but why would you hire someone who didn't know the difference between inches and square feet to do the pricing?

I entered the showroom and did not see anyone working so I proceeded to look around. After 5 minutes a voice said, "Let me know if you need anything." I looked at the sales counter and a young woman was doing paper work behind the desk. I walked over to the desk and stood in front of her. She continued to work away without ever acknowledging me. I decided to just stand there and see how long it would take her to look up. After about five minutes she said, without ever making eye contact with me, "Feel free to take a brochure or make an appointment if you want to talk with someone." At that point I told her I was not interested and left the store. This is the second time I have visited the store and have been greeted by the same atrocious lack of customer service.