Carpet and Flooring Reviews - Empire Today

I purchased window blinds from your company (first mistake) I had to have them repaired the very next month. Since then they have been out 2 times.

Now I made an appt for them to come back and fix them, never showed up, made another appt and they never showed up. I live in LA and my condo is in Palm Springs, I had to drive down there to wait for them and they never showed. Cost me gas, time off from work to sit there and wait for nothing. I called again today and wanted to make another appt, she then informs me that it would be a 75$ service charge...so what about my time and money that I spent waiting for them to show up.

I will never use your company again, and will make sure that my frinds and family dont either.. Empire Carpet Suckes!!!

I have been going round and round with Empire because of the *** carpet they sold me. The carpet is only a few months old and believe me, it looks years old.

The carpet on the steps are totally flattened down, not to mention the rest of the traffic area. The thing is, we rarely use the living room where this carpet is, and it looks this way. Plus there are only the two of us here as well, and not a family of kids to cause this. Empire sent someone out to check it.

At the time, the guy who checked it admitted to how it was worn. Yet, I get this report saying it looked ok and that he had used a carpet rake on it, and he never did anyway. It doesnt stop there. I got the report of someone else's problem instead of mine.

Wrong letter sent to me. Funny thing is, the other person had the same problem. So what does that tell you about Empire, huh? Tells me that they have a lot of people complaining about their product.

So I taked to the customer service person telling them they need to do something and she told me she would get back to me....and guess what....no call back. Gee, am I surprised? No. I am not going to sit on this and Iam going to pursue it.

Plus I called the other person who had the same problem, the one who they had sent the wrong report to, and she said she was going to complain further as well.

Empire, Im not done complaining.

People think twice if you call them

The Empire carpeting we purchased for our livingroom in September 2009 started shedding almost immediately. At first it was a few stray fibers, usually in front of the sofa where you put your feet. I assumed a "new carpet" issue, but the shedding has continued to the point where half our LR carpet has these fibers. We called Empire customer service and they offered to replace the carpet. This will be a chore, since our dining room set will need to be moved into our kitchen, and our LR furniture, including a bulky entertainment center w/ 46" tv and a fairly expensive glass curio cabinet will need to be moved into our DR.

Just wondering if anyone has experience with Empire replacement carpeting, and whether it was any better than the original. I'm afraid they're gonna give me the same quality stuff as I have now, which means I'll have the same problem come October.

Thanks for any advice!

Back in 2008 we decided to have our bathroom redone by Empire Today. The salesman came out and was very pleasant.

He went over everything that we would have done and the costs was $2700.00, so my husband decided to take out the charge card and we would pay it off within the 12 months so that we wouldn't have to pay interest. I sent in the balance of what we owed mid-last year but never closed the card out. We got a call in February of this year from the credit company stating that we had a balance of $1900.00 and the payment was over due. I pulled all the paperwork i.e.

contract, sales slip, etc. and started making calls. I spoke with a lady at the local Empire office and explained the situation to her and stated that this acct was paid in full. Something didn't seem right so out of curiosity I asked what the amount was that she showed for the contract price.

She said they had $3700.00, now how is that possible when I have a contract signed by both the salesperson and my husband along with the charge slip and the folder that all clearly show $2700.00.

I faxed evrything I had over to her and my husband gets a call from a Robert Wise stating that we added on wainscotting after the fact... umm I don't think so!! I told him that I was going to call the credit card company and also file a complaint with whomever I need to file one with because they are clearly trying to pull some sort of fraud.

I spoke with the creditor and they are doing an investigation and I have filed a complaint with the American Arbitration Association and also the BBB, I'm still checking to see who else I can file complaints with.

Robert obviously thought that he would be able to intimidate me and I wouldn't do anything about it. Boy has he got another thing coming, I'm hoping that by the time I get done with him he won't have a job anymore!!

Wow, I thought Bathfitters was bad...this was like deja-vu. Same high-pressure sales techniques.

Pressure to "buy today" and "install tomorrow", or in the next 3 days, before you change your mind/see competitor's prices. Can I just tell you that the price we started at and price we ended at was a difference of $4000? Four-thousand dollars! I wonder how many "nice" people who don't know any better fall for this ***?

They need to be shut down. The worst part?

Depite HUNDREDS of complaints, the BBB somehow gives them an A+. How is that possible?

last week during bad weather our basement flooded, so we are carpet shopping for our fixed basement! Make the appt, sales *** comes 1 he was LOUD 2 he treated us like we were dopes, then 3 was getting nasty with us...that was it for me I threw his A&& out of my house, tomorrow I call the BBB on Empire.

He as went as far to demand who else we got estimates from and there phone numbers because he wanted to see if they really gave the quotes that we told him that we recieved....NEVER AGAIN! Buh Bye Empire

Empire Floors is Shady......make sure you get other estimates don't believe the sales rep. ours told huge lies about one of their competitors saying not only trashing the competitors product but saying that the government stepped in and wont let them finance so we would have to have cash to use them.....and after all of this and i agreed to pay them almost 2500.00 for vinyl they blew me off on installation day...then rescheduled and said they weren't able , and them jacking up the already absurd price of the job by 900.00.......Buyer Beware! I cancelled....

From Wikipedia.com on the internet, describing the company:

"Empire Carpet is the historical, commonly-known name for Empire Today LLC. Empire Carpet was founded by entrepreneur Seymour Cohen in 1959 as Empire Plastic Covers, a private, family-owned business in Chicagoland from a small office space. Owner Seymour Cohen decided to expand its product line in response to growing customer request. In 1965, Empire Plastic Covers changed its name to Empire Home Services, adding carpet to their product line. Over the years, Empire's product line grew, as did the company's national presence, and the company name was changed to Empire Carpet. In 2007 the company adopted its current name - Empire Today."

Here's how Empire Today's scam actually works against YOU and YOUR FAMILY:

Their TV Commercials advertise "Three rooms carpeted for the price of one!" The fine print -- unreadable on most older TV sets -- show that the offer is only for the "basic product", meaning their cheapest one. When you call for an "in-home appointment", they'll soon send a salesman to your house. BEWARE! This man has a hidden list covering their cheapest apartment-grade carpet -- normally selling at Home Depot or other local stores for seven to nine dollars a square yard -- that starts at about $5.60 a square foot, or 49 dollars a yard (!) down to over $2.00 a square foot, or $18 a square yard! He'll bring a sample stack of several low-grade carpets, then try to start out at the highest, most outrageous price, gradually coming down under protest to only twice what the product is really worth, including padding and "free installation." Unless you ask, you won't even be shown any decent grade of carpeting.

If you haven't shopped in reputable carpeting stores lately, are physically impaired or don't speak English very well,, it's difficult to determine carpet grades by sight, especially when the samples are heavily bound at the edges to prevent customers from seeing the thickness of Empire's very poor backing materials. "Made by Mohawk!" is the theme, but consider that Mohawk, like all carpet manufacturers, make all grades of carpeting, ranging from barely acceptable to very good. Empire's carpeting, as initially offered by their salesmen, is generally of very low quality. The convenient "in-home" sales make customers think they're in control in their own homes, but actual sales data proves otherwise, because most good people avoid offending friendly strangers. It's hospitality, right?

"Sign right here": at least until this month, Empire's sales agreement, which customers must sign, made it illegal to complain to the Better Business Bureau, which is why Empire can claim an "A+" BBB rating! Instead, the agreement specifies that all complaints must be made through the "National Arbitration Forum", at a consumer cost of $460 to file a claim of over over $1500. What is not disclosed is that the National Arbitration Forum, or NAF, agreed to cease all arbitration throughout the United States in a Minnesota court case in July of 2009, because NAF was owned by a loan company, and had an almost 100% record of finding against consumers.

Regardless of glowing promises, you can find the real nature of this company by looking on the computer: go to Google or some other search engine and type in, "Empire Carpet complaints" or "Empire Today LLC complaints." There are many hundreds of unhappy customers who've been sold substandard, shoddy merchandise at high, outrageous prices, and the company has consistently refused to offer any compensation for overcharges or provide fairly acceptable warranty service.

Spread the word among your family and friends --

DON'T PATRONIZE THESE SCAM ARTISTS, or you'll probably be both sorry and very much poorer.

had appointment for carpet installation on 3-17-2010. moved furniture outside for installation.

took 2 hours. nobody showed up. called customer service and they could not find my order. waited till 3;30 with no call.

will never do business with empire. now i need to move furniture back in. I guess my $5,000 dollars was not enough to warrant an apology. i bet home depot or any other carpet store would love to have my money.

too bad empire!! maybe next time you'll take more care of your costumers who are willing to pay top dollar for your so-so carpet

I purchased floors from Empire Today. I paid almost four grand. First the sales rep lied and said it would be done in one day and the quality of the floor was great. That it would not buckle scratch or warp.

Well first of all, it took four days to do. It was the workers first job, he had no help or supervision. The floor should of been installed better than it was. But I didnt complain about any of that cause I have five kids, who all had to stay in a basement for four days. One child had to have physical therapy at the house so I didnt have time for them to come and redo it all. I just dealt with the way it was.

The floor began to warp buckle and scratch. I tried contacting the company on several occasions and I was told someone would email or call me in one to three days. After several times of no responses, I call tried to call back and both numbers I had were disconnected.

I am furious at the customer service I have recveived. I spent alot of money and felt as if I was lied to about everything. I feel like they are a scam when it come to the warranty because they give you the run around. I still havent heard from them yet. If I dont, I am contacting my lawyer and the Better Business Burea. Do not get anything done by Empire Today. They are a joke!!

I purchased floors from Empire Today. I paid almost four grand. First the sales rep lied and said it would be done in one day and the quality of the floor was great. That it would not buckle scratch or warp.

Well first of all, it took four days to do. It was the workers first job, he had no help or supervision. The floor should of been installed better than it was. But I didnt complain about any of that cause I have five kids, who all had to stay in a basement for four days. One child had to have physical therapy at the house so I didnt have time for them to come and redo it all. I just dealt with the way it was.

The floor began to warp buckle and scrath. I tried contacting the company on several occasions and I was told someone would email or call me in one to three days. After several times of no responses, I call tried to call back and both numbers I had were disconnected.

I am furious at the customer service I have recveived. I spent alot of money and felt as if I was lied to about everything. I feel like they are a scam when it come to the warranty because they give you the run around. I still havent heard from them yet. If I dont, I am contacting my lawyer and the Better Business Burea. Do not get anything done by Empire Today. They are a joke!!

I obtained a quote from Empire. The verbal price that quoted was very high.

However, the sales rep wrote a lower more reasonable price on the contract. I agreed to pay the price as written on the contract. The Empire main office decided that this price was not correct and charged my credit card for the verbal amount quoted by sales rep. I disputed this charge as it was not in the amount of the credit slip that I signed (the contract and credit slip that I signed both have the lower price on it).

Now, they are threatening me and accusing me of fraud. They state I am obligated to pay the higher price and that I should have known it was an error.

We were getting comparative prices for a floor installation. Bogus figures were created by salesman to encourage sale.

Extremly high pressure "take the deal now. I can't come back". When asked for proposed figures, I was told that this was proprietary information. Absolute garbage.

Why get a bid if you can ponder it? The sales pitch was all packaged and designed to take advantage of unsophisticated and more passive consumers. I'm a psychologist and my partner is an attorney. We found his pitch entertaining but utterly lacking any credability.

Stay away from these guys. They are unscrupulous and dishonest

We had 2 previous estimates for carpeting our entire house. One person measured for 146 yards and the other 148 yards. Empire measured for 167 yards saying this would provide for the least amount of seams. The first two estimates were within $100 of each other. Empire initially quoted us over $9000 and then discounted the price to $5,600. When we said this was higher than the other two bids he said he could give us his lowest price $5,100. He then called to try to get it lower but said that was the lowest price possible. He said this because we had blurted out he was right on with the other 2 quotes. Our mistake.

When he first showed up we specifically said we wanted nylon twist and assumed this is what he was showing us. We found something we liked very, very much from a limited selection. We asked if it was Stainmaster and he said no Smartstrand which is even better and explained how easy it is to just wash off stains with warm water.

We decided to write the order up because he was including complete furniture moving and 3 installers something the other places were not.

When he left I went on line and found he sold us polyester carpeting which is known not to wear as well as nylon. I also learned that the carpet price of what we purchased was the cheapest carpet out there. There is a site where you can get whole sale prices of all carpets.

We really should have listened to all the negative reviews. We used the "cooling off rule" and canceled the order. They are manipulating *** artists and I truly don't know how they stay in business with all the poor reviews.

Beware! Empire Carpet sales contacts specify on the backside that customers are mandatorily required to have ALL disputes resolved by the "National Arbitration Forum" rather than tby he BBB or the Courts.

The truth is that the NAF agreed to stop arbitrating ALL contracts in the USA after 7-24-2009 because the NAF was owned by a loan company, and almost 100% of its decisions were against consumers! Any presently signed agreements may be legally invalid, and customers can actually take Empire to court where an arbitrator will be selected by a judge. Check with your attorney.

For details go to:

http://www.milberg.com/newsevents/publicationsdetail.aspx?pubtype=5280&pubid=1134