Carpet and Flooring Reviews - Empire Today

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...

Original review posted by user Mar 04, 2018

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.

Back in September 2015 I hired Empire to install LVT . I have had moisture issues since the installation.

Empire denies that the moisture due to a water leak resulted from them. I paid an extra $1000 to have the damaged tiles repaired. The repair work was never done properly. Tiles are popping up everywhere.

It's a tripping hazard. I have been fighting this issue for two years. No satisfaction. They have offered me $1000 to make me go away.

The assessor they sent out 3 months ago gave me a written assessment of the shoddy work the contractors performed. His suggestion was to rip the entire floor up and redo it, or else receive a full refund. Empire is not willing to do any of that in spite of the written assessment one of their employees left in my home.

My assessment of Empire Today is to stay away from them! I am wanting to be fully reimbursed.

I recently had carpet installed at my home by empire. this was one of the worst experiences of my life.

first of all, they showed up with the wrong color of carpet different from the one I ordered. they insisted that that's the one I ordered.. secondly they took much longer than promised for the actual process. they did not tidy up at all and left the whole house in a mess.

the installers were surly and obnoxious.

based on my experience, I would advise any one contemplating carpet installation by this company to run far far away. ..

We met with Dinah to review samples and schedule our installation. Due to the challenges with the layout in our home we scheduled the installation over 2 days and included the installers to move the furniture.

I spoke with an Empire represenative 2 days before the install to confirm the plan. On the first day off the install we had prepared 2 bedrooms with only bed frames and matresses to be moved out. The installers arrived and I showed them the areas to do that day. They told me that they were only there for one day and that because the third bedroom was not ready they would not be doing the work.

I suggested they do the first bedroom and when working on the second room and stairs we would shift the furniture over so the last room would be available to carpet. Neither worker spoke very good English and refused to talk with me about completing the work. I had a call from Empire who explained that this was only to be a one day job, that Dinah was incorrect to schedule it as she had and that we'd need to reschedule. She also was unwilling to work with me.

The workers proceeded to leave the job.

Not only had this been a horrible experience but I'm out 2 days of work, I don't have my new carpets and my life has been unnecessarily disrupted by tearing apart my rooms. I've cancelled my order and will purchse my flooring elsewhere.

The team member that came out to my home to give me a quote preferred to tell me about his side business as a car salesman and tried to sell me a Tesla! Wow, My wife and I both had to remind him that we are in the market for new laminate flooring for my whole house.

We just bought a new vehicle six months ago! We were not offered a quote of any type other than being handed a tablet with a price of $6.40 per sq ft. I asked for some formal quote on paper and was told that Empire does not offer a quote, it is for visual purposes only. At $6.40 per sq ft for laminate, that is and outrageous price.

We were prompted about 6 times for a $25 deposit before we basically had to ask the guy to go. Once he understood that we are not going to make a deposit, he very quickly packed his samples and was gone, didn't even ask for directions out. I simply can't believe as a business owner myself, that a company this large operates in this manner.

An email through the Empire website resulting in no response after four days. I currently have an appointment with another flooring company that has already via phone exceeded the customer service of Empire

I would never recommend Empire, nor would I ever use again. First, their salesperson assured us the hardwood flooring we selected was very durable and would not scratch, even when we told him we had a large dog.

Well that was a lie. Our flooring already has scratches. Secondly, we have two areas which seemed "soft" to us. The installation supervisor came to inspect and told us they did need to re-do those areas because they were not level and would eventually crack the boards.

After having a *** of a time finally getting installers scheduled, we find someone to come to our house to let the installers in since we both work, and the installers tell us there is nothing wrong with it and the installation supervisor didn't know what he was talking about. So they didn't do the repairs (what a waste of time for the people we asked to come to the house to let them in) When we called supervisor back, he again told us they had to be repaired and they were not installed correctly. SERIOUSLY? We have no idea who to believe.

Supervisor calls us again today trying to schedule different installers to make the repairs. So, once again, we need to have someone take time to come to our house to let these people in and we aren't even a sure at this point if the floors truly need to be fixed. We at a loss for what to do. Who do we believe?

We are hesitant to let them even touch our floors again and worried what they will do to the a structure of our flooring. This company contracts with people who cannot even I agree if the installation was correct or not! Called corporate office trying to get someone a bit higher up to fix this entire mess. We haven't heard back from them yet.

HORRIBLE company! Sales people are misleading, installers can't decide what is the correct way to install floors. To really top it all off, the quarter round they use is not even stained wood. It is a piece of wood with a wood-like sticker on it!

HORRIBLE quality! I would never recommend EMPIRE, especially for hardwood flooring. As of today, I have not heard back from corporate headquarters, only the installation supervisor, whom I am not even sure to trust!

I would actually rate them 0 for sales, -0 for installation, and 0 for quality! A rating of 1 is too good for this company!