Carpet and Flooring Reviews - Empire Today

Original review posted by user Oct 08, 2017

After many emails and photos the original installers returned. I had requested that they not return several times.

I had said from the beginning if they thought the installation was done correctly I did not want them back. But that did not matter. The installers were argumentative and even suggested we call someone else to fix it and bill Empire Today. They reluctantly did the work they were sent out to do.

They removed some of the white caulking and replaced some of the qtr. Leaving white caulking and covering it with clear did not work and mitering should have been done at the corners. So it looks better but it is still unprofessional. They also did not take any responsibility for damage at installation.

Tiles were knocked loose and fell off later and chips in the baseboard were new. They did remove the cement from the walls and the door.

I had vinyl installed and it came in one big roll that was difficult to move around, this is why there was other damage. Here are the photos after it was fixed.

We got our floors about a month ago and I am so disgusted. I don't normally post too many negative reviews, but we have been getting the runaround with this company for as long as we have had the floors.

We had two segments done. Laminate throughout the house and tile in the bathroom. It took almost a month to get the crew out here to do the tile, but in the end it looks awesome. The problem is with the laminate.

The crew took a four day job and turned it into a 2 1/2 week job. They were so far behind schedule that they slammed the last part of the floor in and now the strip are all rising at the seams. We understand the idea of a floating floor, but the floor is so bad that when you walk on it EVERY step is a horrible squeaking noise and pinches the bottom of your feet. The raised spots are so obvious that people have commented upon entering our house for the first time.

We called Empire and asked for a different person to come out and check it and they sent the guy who did it. Of course he said there was nothing wrong, but it was our fault. We have spoken to so many reps at Empire and they just keep saying someone will call in 24 hours, but no one calls. We spent $12000+ on our new floors and they are terrible and Empire doesn't seem to give a crap.

On the plus side, our salesman, Brandon, was awesome.

He answered all our questions and made us believe we had made the right decision. Too bad Empire doesn't respect or stand behind their sales team.

Believe the bad reviews. They are terrible.

I am glad I found out before buying anything from them. They didn't show up for the initial appointment and then both customer service people could only offer "no problem" rather than "we apologize for the inconvenience." I can only image the problems with actually working with them. The second one I spoke to actually just hung up on me rather than apologize. I read the bad reviews but thought they can't really be that bad...now, I think they probably are.

Go to Home Depot or anywhere else. Dont use Empire.

The discount is not worth the total lack of customer service. These guys suck!

Called Empire out got a quote got financed they came out and OH MY GOD didn't want to move furniture and told me I have to take apart bed which none of this was explained to me previous, came right past my front door taking pictures of my home without my permission I called their customer service the installers cursed them out in my home and was hollering at them when i don't do that in my home with my wife there said they not doing it and left. Terrible.

tried to call salesman he never called back. A friend of mine said the same thing

Terrible job , some of the mistakes are small and some are just terrible work . They were to send someone out to check work but never did , wouldn't want to use them again.

When I would ask the installer to fix something or the color didn't match , he would just say it did . Installer just showed up one morning and was knocking on my bedroom door , still don't know how he got in to my house , it was early , 7:00 AM Sunday morning , after I had been working all night .

I don't think Empire does the work , I think they sub it all out . All around , just plain terrible doing business with them .

I am only giving Empire Today one star because the poor contractor who has installed our flooring has gotten just as much run-around as I have and the work he has done is good. BUT.

We were supposed to have our floors installed 8/18/17. I am STILL WAITING for this job to be completed and it is because higher up’s (who orders the materials, the sales guy? He certainly ordered the wrong material from the start as far as I can tell!!!) are not competent enough to order the correct material to provide to their contracted installers. I have had the same contractors in my home many times over the last couple of weeks.

They ordered too much of one type of flooring then not enough of another; over and over! My son’s room is still not complete!! They were supposed to finish the installment (just a few feet of quarter round!!) this morning but when they got there they had the wrong color material so they will have to come back AGAIN. This is NOT the installers’ fault as far as I know.

They work for this massive company and are only supposed to install the material provided to them. How can they install the material if it is not ordered appropriately? It is September 5 now and he will have to come back AGAIN to finish! I will NEVER recommend this company.

VERY unprofessional.

The sales guy comes in and makes his sale then it all goes to ***. I am VERY disappointed.

Original review posted by user Sep 02, 2017

Customer Service has tried to resolve my problem since the installation date. My original concern was the white caulking and quarter round on brown floor.

I thought that caulking would be used in the area of tile in the bathroom, not around every corner. Which is very sloppy. Caulking is too generously used and it is white. I had wood floor installed downstairs and it did not look like this vinyl install.

I am sorry I had this work done without getting other estimates, but I believed that Empire Today would have experience with flooring that would be professional. The salesman said that caulking would be used, he pointed to the tile, and that it would be a thin bead. There is not a thin bead anywhere. The vinyl is installed in one large sheet and cement is used to glue it down.

The cement is on the wall in some places and on the door. The baseboard shows damage or cement in different places. I do not know how this problem can be resolved without more damage to the baseboard and other areas. The tiles in the bathroom came loose and fell of when I leaned against them while the last installer was there.

The tiles were not noticed as we have been out of town. I had listed my complaints before. Mainly I had been addressing the color not the damage. I should have included that also when I first began with the concerns.

I had submitted photos before. I will submit them again. The last email conversation said that they do not have the quarter round and caulking to match my flooring and that I would have to go to the store and buy them myself. Not acceptable.

Also the same poor installers were required to come back out to fix the problems. How could that work.

If they thought they did a good job why would I want them back again? A supervisor came to inspect but did not mention the damage, which he could clearly see.

We received a quote and subsequently a followup from Empire to lower the quote. The salesman was annoyed and never sent the updated document.

My husband spoke to him and he confirmed our install dates. The next day my husband followed up again for the updated paperwork because they were supposed to install floors that Monday (this was Friday). The salesman starting screaming at my husband and said he never locked in the dates. My husband yelled back that they had and we even changed our move date to accommodate the vinyl floor install.

WE then asked for his managers name because his behavior was completely unprofessional. He gave a name and then said "and don't f@@x+++ lie. He actually used the f word. I had my husband hang up and called the 800#.

It was a Friday night and they assured me a manager would call me back on Saturday. Have not heard from anyone.

Would never use them and will tell that to anyone that will listen. Horrible experinece

I am still waiting for my $2K refund to hit my account. Apparently Empire "couldn't find the payment" which is why my refund has not been processed (even though I received a confirmation email the day I made the payment and it hit my credit card immediately).

We had a pretty horrible experience with Empire and I will definitely not be using your company again or recommending you to anyone. This was a carpet installation for a business that was scheduled almost a month in advance of the installation. We set a date and asked Empire to confirm they were available to do it on this day, which they did. We then asked our tenants to be out of the office on that Friday and to disconnect and move all their computer equipment prior to the installation.

The day before we asked empire to confirm what time they would arrive for the installation. They informed us that we would have to call the national number in the morning, however it would most likely be between 8 and 10 am (this should have been a red flag - not sure why you are scheduling the installers the day of). We arrived at 8 am on Friday in preparation for the installation. I called Empire immediately to see when they would be arriving, I was told to call back.

This happened about 5 more times until I was eventually told that they did not have enough installers that day and that they would have to reschedule. I was pretty annoyed at this point, but I agreed that we could have the installation done the next day. I also made it clear that we needed the installation done before Monday morning since this is when the tenants were returning to the office. We live about an hour away from the office so we requested an afternoon installation with our sales associate, Gary.

Gary said this shouldn't be a problem. At 9 am the next morning we get a call from the installer saying he was at the office and ready for the installation. We were pretty confused and told him the installation was supposed to be in the afternoon, he then told us "it was not his problem" and to contact the national line. We then tried to see if someone else could come out and meet him last minute, however by the time I got in touch with the national line he was already at a different job.

I then called 5 more times (I seriously spent my entire morning on the phone with your company) to get an update on the timing of the installation. I then finally was told that they would have to reschedule again because we had requested a morning appointment (um what?!) and they did not have enough installers. I was pretty furious at this point. Your employees were rude, disorganized, and unhelpful.

I was also hung up on at one point when I asked to speak to a supervisor. When I called the installer back he said I had the wrong number. I have asked for my money back and I will never use your company again. We found a new local company who did the carpet installation the next day.

I lost 2 days of rent because of Empire and I have very angry tenants who had to be out of the office for numerous days. Hopefully you will learn from your terrible reviews and fix your company.

This was seriously one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever dealt with. I am hoping I receive my refund within the next couple of days and don't have to take this to small claims court.