IDS Group

Dear Renee, I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I have left a voice mail for you as nobody picked up the phone when I called and will respond to your concerns in writing. I'm going to explain few things:

1. Most likely you found us online or visited out site prior to purchase, if you did so than you should have seen the following written on the page - " 100% Authentic Polystyrene Ceiling Tiles made in USA". We make sure our customers clearly understand what they are buying. You have also received an estimate from us where it was noted again that these tiles were made of polystyrene and you have signed that estimate prior to paying and ordering tiles.

2. The tiles you have received are not Styrofoam, as Styrofoam is actually a trademark ( http://www.styrofoamcrafts.com/about.aspx#.Uc9_h5yne0I ), the tiles are made of polystyrene and it is a special grade of polystyrene specially formulated to be used in construction industry and ceilings in particular.

3. If you needed ceiling tile for your food prep area it means you need what is called "clean room ceiling tile" - our tile complies with the 4 main requirements in order for ceiling tile to be classified "clean room ceiling tile", which is - class A fire rating (certificates available upon request), white color, smooth surface, washable. If your fire inspector did not approve this tile this was most likely either due to the fact that you did not obtain fire rating certificate or simply happened to stumble upon inspector inexperienced with these tiles, however similar tiles have been manufactured in USA for the past 50+ years.

4. "Clean room ceiling tiles" are not the same thing as "Decorative Faux Tiles" as you are stating. Clean room ceiling tiles you can see on the following link http://colorado-ceilings.com/restaurant-ceiling-tiles.html Now, if you have purchased "Decorative Faux Tiles" and tried using them in commercial kitchen application that could have been your problem as IT IS A WRONG APPLICATION and we state nowhere that it would be acceptable.

5. Our customer service hours are Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm and we are proud of our people as they create a lot of happy customers every day, they do know our products really well and will guide you in proper direction based on your needs.

6. Over all this sounds like you just made a mistake in ordering correct product and failed to follow proper steps in timely manner to make a correction. We all make mistakes from time to time and blaming some one else always makes people feel better. We understand your frustration.

7. If there is anything we can help you with let us know, we will be glad to help!

To summarize the response to your issue please read and review the following as well as we highly encourage you to do a research before you try to blame someone:

Please be aware that FDA does not approve specific products for ceiling use, they do supply an outline of requirements that must be met by any ceiling tile installed in areas where food is prepared. All of our smooth surface polystyrene ceiling tiles are in compliance with Federal regulations for materials used in food preparation and serving areas. See the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food Code:
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/ucm188092.htm

You are filing complaints online but you actually have not contacted our office even once, that is a little strange! Designers & Sellers be aware!!!