Do NOT shop at Tile Outlet. The employees are rude, dishonest, and have no clue as to how to run a business. Unfortunately, there is no 0 rating, so I had to give them a 1.

I was referred to the Tile Outlet by our contractor to purchase travertine for our kitchen floor. After selecting our stone, the saleswoman took out her calculator and determined that we would need 29 boxes to complete our job. She said that since we would be laying the stone at an angle, we would need to order some extra stone. Given that I am not a flooring expert, I took the saleswoman's word and placed the order.

After our floor was installed, we had 9 boxes of leftover stone ($50 per box). This is where it gets good. When I went to Tile Outlet to try to return 7 of the leftover boxes, here is the exchange that took place:

Salesman: Can I help you?

Me: Yes, I'd like to return 7 boxes of Travertine. I placed my order based on your recommendation and I have 9 boxes left over (that's almost 50% too much). I'd like to return 7 of them.

Salesman: We don't take returns on natural stone.

The salesman then turns his back on me and walks away from the counter. That was the entire exchange.

Several arguments later, Tile Outlet agreed to give me store credit. Since I don't have any tile jobs in the foreseeable future, store credit is completely useless. At the end of it all, they refused to give me my money back and I am stuck with 9 extra boxes of travertine.

What is truly amazing about this is that Tile Outlet had a simple business decision to make. They could give me a $350 refund and I would be a very happy customer that would recommend their store to everyone or they could refuse to refund my money at keep $350. Unfortunately, Tile Outlet made the wrong decision and I am now a very angry non-customer who will tell everyone NEVER to shop at Tile Outlet. At the end of the day, what Tile Outlet thought was $350 in their pocket will turn out to be thousands of dollars in lost sales. I know a lot of people doing big remodel jobs and I know a few contractors.

I do a lot of tiling, and I have spent a lot of money at this establishment over the last 3 years because they are conveniently located and they have a fairly wide selection. My experience is that their customer service is passable in terms of them helping you find what you want efficiently once you have picked it out on your own. However, their effectiveness at establishing customer relations is abysmal due to the passive and dismissive attitude toward clients, inflexible return policy stated on the invoice accompanying every sale, and unwillingness to volunteer their help. I am a 230 lb ex-football player who has no problem moving a ton of tile into the back of my truck. But rendering no assistance to the ladies who I see shopping here? Shame on you guys.

I happily spend my money with competitors (and often do when I have the chance to get outside the city, but at least on the North side these guys do dominate a particular niche). If only someone opened a store across the street from them with the same selection and prices (actually pricing would be easy to beat, and taking a service-oriented approach would be even easier). I'll bet TileOutlet would reanalyze their approach to customers then.

Also, I should add that you will find much better priced grout, thinset, etc... at equivalent quality if you go to somewhere like Menard's. Also, sometimes stores like Home Depot undercuts TileOutlet by a huge margin on particular types of stone and tile. TileOutlet has a wider selection though.

Summary: Great place to look over the range of selection that is typically out there on the market. Buy it here for convenience and typically you will get a competitive retail price ("outlet" is not to be confused with "wholesale"). Shopping around can find you a better deal on some tile and stone, and most grout, thinset and accessories. They show little interest in customer service. Review based on 3 years of experience, most recently in Dec. 2008.

We looked at Home Depot for marble and Tile Outlet LTD (Tile Outlet Limited) at 2434 Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647 had a much better selection for reasonable prices. We have shopped there several times and contractors have recommended Tile Outlet for the probably the best prices so we went in good faith with a good attitude to make a $200 purchase on Christmas Eve 2008.

Earlier we called and asked how late the store would be open and were told 3 PM so we arrived at 1 o??????clock so we would have plenty of time to shop for a $200 purchase. We were to only customers in the store and the 8 or so employees were tossing around a football to kill time until closing. After we brought several selections of tiles to the counter we needed about 20 more pieces of upscale marble to complete our purchase.

We selected several and wanted a similar footprint on the tiles since they were being installed on the front mantle of a new exotic fireplace. We opened a few boxes to select the final 20 tiles and were told that we cannot open the boxes, and that we have to buy full boxes only unopened.

Tile Outlet LTD receipts state ??????Please inspect before installation. Variations are inherent in his product. Customer is directed to select several samples from each box of the actual job lot and then determine if product is acceptable before installation?????? That is what we did as per agreement.

At exactly 2:40 the manager turned off the lights in the store and we could not see what we were selecting. No further words were exchanged but their body language was that we were no longer welcome, so we quickly brought our final tiles to the counter and politely asked to add up our purchase and paid cash without a ??????Thank You?????? or any eye contact from the employee.

They quietly and quickly loaded the tiles in our car without a word. I said ??????thank you?????? and was going to

I purchased two boxes of glass tile and realized I only needed one. It was well over the 20 day mark on returns. I hadn't looked at my receipt. I called Chicago TIle Outlet and spoke with Derrick. He was awesome! I was able to return to boxes that day!
Thank you so much!

Tile Outlet is not a store with sales people, good lighting and pretty samples of stone and tile for you to browse at your leisure. It's an outlet, the place where end of run and overstock merchandise is closed out and sold, so of cource there's no returns on unused tile, there's no one there to design a computer model of how different tiles will look in your kitchen or bathroom. What it does have however, is a great revolving selection of high end materials at deeply discounted prices. If you are self-sufficient enough to make up your mind on something and have a back strong enough to haul stuff away you will be pleased with your experience and will come back the next time you need stone or tile. I've used Tile Outlet for my house and my family has shopped there for years and highly recommend it.