No, the MSI Genuine Stone Blue Sierra is not what we ordered or even saw anywhere at the store (the store is a pool contractor whole sale business that sells directly to the pool contractors only but customers are able to go into the store to see the products).
We saw a 4 foot by 6 foot wall of Stone Hardscapes Oceana. The woman helping, who is the main design person there, even pulled out Stone Hardscapes catalog so we could see every single color they offer as they did not have samples of everything. #1 - they do not sell a product called Blue Sierra and #2 - the only one we liked out of all of the samples and examples in the catalog was Oceana.
We went to that store 3 separate times to iron things out and make sure everything went well. I got a copy of her order sheet for our project.
When 2 pallets and 1 crate were delivered to our property, we immediately inspected the products. The way the items were packaged, we could only access the top box of stone and tile. We opened the stome box, examined it, checked the brand and name, which was correct - Stone Hardscapes Oceana. We also checked the ceramic tile. It was correct. I could see through the slats of the crate and the joint edges of the travertine coping that it was bull nose and silver. The other pallet of material was tightly wrapped in shrink wrap type plastic with 6 layers of product and the stone was on the bottom. We could not get to the products or even read the labels with how they were stacked and we did not want to completely dismantle the wrap due to storms that were forecasted in a few days with damaging wind and hail. Being that it was all ordered from the same place, at the same time, we had a copy of the order sheet, and we opened the stone that we could, we figured all of the boxes would be the same as the one we could access.
When I got home from a Dr appt, I saw the front face of the spa, into the pool, had ledger stone placed. It was dusk and hard to see clearly. It didn't look exactly right but again, it was dusk and yes, stone has variances, but we saw the box that was sent with the others so I would just look at it the next day.
However the next day ended up being late for me due to my back injury that was being more painful than normal so when I checked the stone in the sunlight, they had already covered just over half of the spa. When I looked at it, it was beautiful, but it was not looking like the stone we picked that had multiple shades and tones of browns.
Then I see a box on the sun shelf that has the brand "Genuine Stone" on it. That's when I see it is marked at Blue Sierra and there is no Oceana as even a color. So I have the guys stop working to check the boxes since they had now completely unpacked the crate and pallet.
We have 3 boxes of Stone Hardscapes ledger stone in Oceana. They are corner pieces. This is what we ordered. Even in this box, it varies some from what we saw in the store HOWEVER the general appearance with the warm undertones and browns were still there, which is why we picked it.
The rest of the boxes, which includes the other corner pieces and the flat pieces that are going on the spa and back of our wall, are Genuine Stone by MSI, which is not what we ordered.
I am not hung up on the name of the color. That's like saying just because Behr has a paint color called Shamrock and Sherwin Williams has a paint color also named Shamrock, that they would be the same color. No one is going to think that. They are different brands that happened to pick the same name for a color.
You can see in the photos that they are different. Ok they both have grey and white. So they are the same? That's like saying well this clear liquid in glass A looks like the clear liquid in glass B so they are the same. One is water and one is vodka. So I'm going give you glass A even though you ordered vodka bc they look the same So that should be good enough. I don't think you would be please (if you like vodka lol but if you ordered it, you wanted it).
I have done extensive research and what that has shown is that Stone Hardscapes is not affiliated with MSI in anyway. Stone Hardscapes lists their partners and distributers on their website. MSI lists all distribution centers on theirs and they are not the same.
Even the spec sheets are different. Oceana has color listed as white, grey, blue, cream. Blue Sierra has color listed as grey/blue, grey.
Ultimately at the end of the day we ordered specific brands and colors of items. If they truly were so close that it didnt change the entire appearance and look to the pool area, I would let it slide. I'm one of those people who orders a Dr Pepper and the waiter will cringe and say they only have Mr Pibb and I smile and say, that's ok bc they are close enough. I am not just splitting hairs bc I want a specific brand. Especially bc we love how the Blue Sierra looks and we are keeping it! We are having more ordered to replace the 3 Oceana boxes that we have and more pieces for our fire pit.
But I do not appreciate a company deliberately changing a product that was order bc they think the color is close enough. If you wanted me to buy the Blue Sierra then you should have had it in your show room. But they have ZERO MSI ledger stone in their show room. NONE. I was actually let down at the limited selection and colors that they had in their show room as another stone/paver place a few mins down the road had like 40 different colors, multiple brands, multiple types of stone, etc and just a bigger variety.
And semantics aside, look at the pictures. They are NOT the same. And I can lay out every single piece from all the boxes and none of the Blue Sierra look like Oceana. It isn't a variance thing where this one piece of Oceana and this other piece of Sierra Blue have this big difference in color. Every single piece is like that. We opened up and compared over 7 boxes.
Horner (the store) told my PB, yes, we sent two different brands that are called different colors, but still say they are the same. They aren't. Coke and Pepsi are a soda but they aren't the same. Ford and Chevy both have trucks but they are not the same. Medications have generics that have a similar chemical make up but they are not the same. Unless you got permission from the customer, who paid for what they ordered, you do not change it. Period.
) those are the same color. You PB needs to stop by the house and get two samples of the colors AND the boxes they came in to take with him.