Carpet and Flooring Reviews - Empire Today

Initially, I was somewhat pleased with my experience. I’d replaced the carpet in my entire house and had wood floor laminates installed.

No issue with initial scheduling. Paid for my pending service upfront, as well as, took a day off work for them to complete a two-day project. When my laminate floors were installed, they did not bring enough materials to complete the job. The installer was very apologetic and guaranteed I would be first to complete the job the next Saturday.

As a result, I’d scheduled some appointments for the afternoon to allow them time to complete the job that morning. I’d received a call around 8:00 AM that they were on the way and would arrive within two hours – between 8:30 AM and 10:30 AM. Well after me making four calls, finally on the fourth call now 1:50 PM, I’d learned that the installers who were to complete a paid job decided not to come to me first to complete an installation that should have been completed last week. They did not call to notify me of a change in my appointment nor apparently, did they care that I had other commitments for the afternoon.

Also, tried to email my salesman Howard Naylor but to no avail. This is totally unacceptable!!! Very, very poor customer service!!!

I guess they have my money, so customer service goes out the window. A very unhappy North Carolina customer!!!!

We had carpet, hardwood and PVC installed about two weeks ago and the carpet installers covered a floor outlet (mind you they took off the cover to the outlet and left it for me) but nonetheless covered it up. Who does that?

Then the hardwood floor installers stole decor kitchen towels when they knocked over a vase in the kitchen (where the flooring was not being redone so it never should have happened) and I'm assuming used the towels to clean up the spilt water but then never put the towels back. A section of the hardwood has a crack in it that we discovered while moving furniture back into the living room. In the basement (where I offered to move furniture but was told they would do it they lost one of my car key fobs. On top of all of this when you contact customer service they transfer you to a voicemail of management and left voicemail 4 times in the past week and still have not had a call back.

We are laying out over $8000 for the work we've had done and the lack of customer service is outright ridiculous. I'm honestly considering stopping payment on this until I get a response from a supervisor.

I definitely wouldn't recommend Empire to anyone in the future.

Well let’s see the installers Ana & Daniel are so beyond unprofessional. They showed up at my house at 1pm on Tuesday.

Took a lunch break at 4pm returned at 545pm. Said they had came back at about 5 but no one was home which was bs. Cause my son and girlfriend were here and they left their tool and rolls of padding at my front door holding it open. Anyways took them until 4am to not finish the *** job they did.

They ran out of carpet and have to return to finish one room. She told me they will be here today which is Thursday between 11-12pm to finish job. And it’s now 6:36pm and surprise surprise they ain’t here. I called her 2xs and they say they are close by and nope no show.

They left their piles of trash on my front yard and didn’t clean up after themselves on Tuesday. I was stuck vacuuming & sweeping up their disaster. And she said she didn’t know they had to move furniture so they used my son brother myself and son girlfriend to help move furniture!!! WTH!

I am in the middle of selling my home I have an open house schedule for Saturday & Sunday and my house isn’t presentable.

They didn’t finish carpet up to the walls there is a gap where u can see the uncarpeted flooring and the base boarders anywhere it transitions into another room the Carpet is lifted. A refund will be expected and ch 4 news has been notified and I am contacting better business Bureau.

Had carpet installed prior to listing our house for sale. The installers did not meet the original appointment time and when they showed up they didn’t have the proper materials and had to reschedule.

During the install furniture was damaged but no one took responsibility although the contractor offered to pay for the repair. They did not vacuum, there were staples left every where and left garbage all over our yard. We had to hire someone to come back and do a second cleaning before we could list the house.

No one from empire ever followed up to see how things went. I am now ready to replace the floors in our new house but don’t am very hesitant of getting a quote from them again.

Had to take the day off of work yesterday for our appointment with empire to carpet our bedroom, waited all day for them to come. First they tried to cancel because they had overbooked, but then they offered to do the appointment if we were able to stay all night for them to complete the job.

They finally showed up after 5pm and then promptly left, because they had not already cut the carpet with our measurements, refused to do it in our large finished basement, and it had rained earlier in the day so they could not do it outside. They gave us the number to their home office to reschedule, but they were already closed for the day. Called customer service and they had absolutely no ability to help. All they were able to do is attempt to reschedule for a few weeks away.

We have had to delay finishing our hardwood floors now for days until this gets figured out. This whole experience has been completely off putting and unprofessional.

We just ordered two runners for our stairs, and it is the worst experience I have ever had with a company. I have a page and a half of errors, too many to put on here.

Their subcontractors don't show and don't call you to let you know they can't make it today. Empire does not call you to reschedule, you have to call a customer service rep and they put you on hold. They can't call you back, and they can't e-mail you back, so you just have to wait. Best the rep can do is put notes in the system for managers, and they won't give you number to managers, who are the real people who make the decisions.

I wanted my money back but they said in the contract that subcontractors can make errors so there is no kind of money back program. Best you can do is yell at the reps but that gets you nowhere. It is a total scam with the worst customer focused business model I have seen.

We had used they about 8 years ago for simple carpet and they were good, but they have really gone downhill since then, and I would absolutely not use them. Go to a local place and spend a little more for better quality.

The quote was never written correctly from the first visit. Very unprofessional installation workers.

The manager of the Orlando market Joe never followed though and would not call back.

Joe offered a small refund for all the trouble but I never seen any refund. The installation to this day is not good quality and my carpet is not level due to poor installation.

Customer service just gives people the run around. Empire in Orlando is very unprofessional!

Would never recommend to anyone.

My family and I called for a free estimate back in February , we where told that ALL NEW customers would get $500.00 off their orders if they never order from Empire before. We had a very nice salesman named Tony come to our house and he gave us a price for the flooring.

I called back and was told that NO ONE AT EMPIRE ever heard of this offer and spoke to a supervisor named Jennifer and I felt like I was speaking to a stonewall and she promise to investigate this matter and get back to me and I never heard back..... I wrote to to the CEO Mr. Weinberger and my letter was thrown in the garbage. I must have spoken to about 10 lost souls at this lying company.

I spoke from executives down and never heard back. My advice to the public is stay away from this company of lairs and a company who will not back up their claims or products. Go to Home Depot or Lowe's you will have a company that will support their customers and will you never be treated like garbage.

My friends advised me to report this matter to the Attorney General's office of New York and the BBB and Consumers Affairs dept. Empire Carpets are crooks...

On April 2, 2018 I met with a salesman of Empire Today to select carpet. He was pleasant, professional and helpful.

Due to a busy install schedule the carpet could not be installed until April 13th. I agreed to the date and 1130 install time. I had to take the day off work for the install and it was important for them to be punctual. The scheduler called me at 10:30am and stated that they were on the way. At 11:30 I called and again, I was told they were on the way. I waited all day and did not receive a call until 330 from an installer that claimed he was at my house when in fact he was not! I continued to attempt to contact a manager and did not receive a call until 530pm. The manager identified himself as Chris Miori. Despite being a manager Chris was unable to provide me a reason why they were a no call no show. He was unable to provide me any information at all.

Chris claimed he was only able to offer me a $86 dollar credit. I was shocked after taking a day off work and a no call no show that $86 was his offer of resolution. After all Chris is the General Manager, he should be able to do more and must have some idea of what happened, but apparently not. I declined use Empire Today and told him we could cancel the contract. I told him I would go to RC Willey or another reputable company in the area. I told him I did not want to continue doing business with them and canceled the order.

The following day I received a call the following day from another manager. He was apologetic and stated that he could have an installer there on April 19th. An installer would be there between 300pm and 500pm. He explained that Chris was aware of this and was hopeful to retain the business. In addition I was told they would also give me an area rug, and an additional $50 off. Specifically the rug would be a piece of carpet that could be used as a rug but due to the company not having a binding machine it would not be binded. I agreed to give the company another try.

On April 19th I waited for the arrival and once again no one showed up at 300pm as Chris and the other manger promised. It was not until 800pm that the installer showed up after a plethora of calls to Chris. Once again Chris despite being the manager had no explanation of why they did not show up. The installer who clearly was unaware of all the issues began his work and was very polite. A few minutes into the job he alerted me that he was not provided enough material for the job and would have to come back another day, but he would finish what he could with the material he had. At 930pm I told him that my family needed to go to sleep. I attempted to call Chris but he did not answer. The following day Chris informed me that he was asleep when I had called. I was shocked by his response of sleeping when his customer and his installer were still dealing with the job.

The following day Chris explained that they needed to send the installer with more material. He was scheduled a third time for Saturday April 21st.

Throughout the process I spoke with a manager located in Chicago by the name of Angelica. She attempted to bridge the lines of communication and I was told since she was from corporate that she had more authority to help rectify the situation. I felt this was ridiculous for many reasons, she was in Chicago thus a time zone challenge, and second, Chris was a local General Manager of the area. Additionally the communication between the Chicago corporate office and local office was inaccurate, they were not communicating. This was evident after Angelica was able to provide me with an additional $50 discount, for a total discount of $130, when I was presented with the bill from the installer he was on the phone for 20 minutes because the discount was not reflected on the account.

It took four weeks to complete the job. One no call or show from an installer, and two additional trip to complete installation. Two days of work that I took off for installation and countless calls between local and corporate management. The rug they promised was a piece of uneven, odd shaped scrap that was left over from the my job, this piece would have been discarded after the job.

Upper management is clearly insulated by lower sub-par supervisors. When problems arise lower supervisors are neither empowered nor savvy enough to authorize compensation or solve the problems. Amazingly Chris the local General manger failed to even follow up or come in person to check the work that was performed after all the problems.

The company touts affiliations of reputable business agencies and services but in no way shape or form shares the levels of commitment and service. My hope in taking the time to share my experience is to prevent others becoming victims of Empire Today. I would sooner walk on a dirt floor before using Empire Today for any flooring needs.

Because they use local contractors, installation results may vary. But the corporate office is the same and if you should happen to get a terrible contractor like we did -- you're out of luck.

The first issue came when we tried to use their price match guaruntee. They wouldn't honor it until after several phone conversations with a very rude Kevin Konfirst, who is some sort of inside sales director.

Last year we has laminate floor installed in our home. The installers came and the job was not done well. There was bubbling and the seams did not connect well and it was generally shoddy. They came out to try to repair it, but it needed to be replaced. Many calls to Empire Today finally got a new crew to come out and reinstall the entire floor. This was a massive headache in and of itself.

After the new floor was installed, we noticed immediately that the seams were bubbling up and that the floor looked terrible. After waiting for over a month for a manager to come and inspect the flooring he did. We didn't hear from him for another month. Call after call finally ended with us being told today that they decided that the floor wasn't defective.

This is insane. But they did offer to replace the entire floor again (but not give us a refund). So, there's nothing wrong with it, but we'll come fix it anyway? We just want a refund at this point. Worst experience of this type we've ever had.

They sent out an "independent" inspector who was so incompetent we couldn't even get him to come on a day we were home. Scheduling was a nightmare and we never heard from any of them again. Then I complain again and they act like they tried to contact us but we never heard from them. The said that our new floor of LESS THAN A FEW WEEKS OLD was water damaged. But they'll send the "independent" inspector out again. Insane.

My husband and I purchased hardwood floors through Empire Today back in December 2015. This past December 2017 I started noticing splits and cracks in the flooring.

I contacted Empire and they sent someone out to look at it. The person said they never saw anything like it. He said Jan 2018 is their slow time and someone would come out to fix the problem boards. At the time there was about 20 boards messed up.

In January the installer came out around 4 in the afternoon. By then there was about 50 problem boards. He said he could not do it because it would take to long and it looks like the entire flooring should be replaced. So I called Empire back.

They scheduled me for another date. The installer Rich Starkey came out to do the work and he also said it was a lot of work and he contacted Empire because he did not know what to do about all the problem boards. Finally after a few weeks Empire contacted the manufacturer. The manufacturer sent out an inspector to look at the floor.He tooks some test.

I asked him what is causing it. He said he was not able to tell me even though I was the customer. I have Made plenty of call to Empire (Kris Rubino) left messages and it took at times a week to get back to me. Finally last week Kris called and said the manufacturer denied the claim.

He said it was due to low humidity in the house. I asked him for the report . He emailed it to me. What he failed to tell me was that the inspector also said the flooring was not acclimated to the house.

This was not done prior to installing the floors. He said he would check with the bosses because he did not think it had to be done prior to installing. Tim Sherwin the regional manager called me and said it does not have to be done in my house because it was already done at the warehouse. I asked him for an email stating this and he said no.

He said the customer knows that it is a next day service. From what i have been reading on the internet hardwood Floors needs to be at the least 96 hrs acclimate in the house. prior to installing the hardwood. This was definitely not done.

If I ever have anything this major done I will check on the customer reviews before I sign the papers. I have been reading plenty of reviews about Empire and I now know I am not the only one with problems from this company.

If anyone asked me about my flooring I will discourage them from going with this company. I will let them know the terrible customer service that I received.

Project manager (who had my flooring) was 2 hours later than installers and started the installation without showing me the product. Flooring was red, not brown and almost completely installed before I saw him or the flooring.

I am so disgusted. I've been trying to finish this project for 2 months now and to have this happen now after painting my whole condo, and with so much stuff in my living room for this long is just ridiculous. Looks like they switched the product. The name of the product was Newport, but they brought Bruce to my home.

I, in good faith paid cash for this project... Won't do that again! Waiting to see how long this will take and how they will handle this.

I want my floors replaced or to be reimbursed minus the installation so I can get this project done... I will try to update soon...

I have been speaking with customer relations for many months since the day it was installed. I did not like the installation from the beginning and wanted them to stop. The installers said they had to do the job and that we could complain later. (I should have sent them home without finishing).

Customer Relations have been helpful in trying to resolve my installation problem. It is very difficult to remove quarter round and caulking that was installed unprofessional and sloppy the first time.

Empire Today has sent crews out 4 times to try and fix the initial installation plus 2 supervisors. The original crew, that I requested not to return, came back to remove all of the white caulking and white quarter round. They also left marks from the old quarter round and left over white caulking in different areas. I felt intimated by this original crew when they returned. They really did not want to remove all of white caulking that was applied everywhere. See the photos. I was told by the salesman a small bead would be used by the bathtub areas, that was not the case. Caulking was everywhere.

In the original 15 page contract, I requested two bathrooms done with vinyl, which seemed like a good product. But a large roll is hard to manage by one person. The product is good but the installation was done unprofessionally. Glue and cement was applied to the walls and doors that should have been on the floor.

Right now I am negotiating a large reduction in the installation cost due to the many times I had to wait for a 4 hour window and it still needs a lot of work. My baseboards have been damaged from the previous white quarter round. The paint the last crew used was white and my baseboards are a beige color.

The old caulking is still showing in different places and by removing the caulking more damage was done to the baseboard and flooring. Empire Today wants to re-install the flooring with a good crew. I am done, and I do no have the time to spend the day or 2 with any more Empire Today crews.

I will have my local flooring expert put new baseboards in and do a professional job at a great expense to me.

Hope these details are clear to anyone following this installation problem.

This is how it looks today.

Toni Burke

Monday and Tuesday my floors were replaced. By the time of completion I still had no word about Wednesday which the carpet was to be done. The floor person then upon my telling him my concern. He called at 2pm and found out we weren’t on the schedule. So we were told that someone would be there in the am.

I called in the am to two different departments to let them know I had an appointment at 10 am and was going to be gone left my number and asked to please call me.

The driver came at 10:30 am and had to come back as I was gone. I did get an automated voice mail at 10:20. He came back at 12:pm and was so pleasant and accommodating. Which by this time I was disappointed that no one called me back. But Bruno turned my disappointment into joy.

His experience was appreciated. My carpet looks great and I’m very happy.