Carpet and Flooring Reviews - Empire Today

When the Empire Carpet salesman Tony Tampa arrived at my mothers house he proceeded to give her an estimate for her family room and basement. My mother was so impressed with the salesman that she had him give her an estimate for the entire house. He provided her with his cell phone number if she had any questions. She contacted him a day later and said that she was unsure of making a purchase for the whole house, at which point, Tony said don't worry. He made assurances to my mother that it was no issue what so ever that she only get the 2 rooms done.

The 1st day of install when very well, my mother loved the install guys, she even gave them a TV that she had laying around. She was so impressed that she contacted Mr. Tampa the next day and proceeded to order the carpet for the rest of the house, with the stipulation that the same installers would be back to finish the job. Mr. Tampa assured her that the same guys would be back the next day (1st lie coming), however, when the next day came it was 3 different installers. The installers on the 2nd day were not as skilled with installing the carpet. The installers did not put thresholds between the carpet and the linoleum in the bathrooms, they just cut the carpet straight and butted it up to the laminate. They installed the carpet on the stairs crooked, it had a banana shape going up the stairs. They also did a poor job of mating the carpet up to a ceramic tile foyer.

Now the fun starts up, Mr. Tampa became unreachable entirely, he did not respond to any voice mail messages. He didn't answer is phone when calls were attempted from unknown numbers either.

My mother contacted empire customer service and finally was able to register her complaint after roughly 6 hours of phone play. Empire sent one of there carpet specialists to the house at which point he didn't necessarily feel that there was something wrong with the install. After my mother insisted excessively that the install was not acceptable he finally conceded defeat, he said that he would make the recommendations for repair.

Several days later repair men came to the house and reinstalled the stair carpet (crooked again), they put thresholds in finally, and they sent a carpenter to attempt to repair where the carpet butted up to the ceramic tile. The carpenter they sent said that if he did anything it would make it look worse.

Once again, empire customer service was contacted, after another 6 hours spent, my mother was able to get them to schedule another repair visit to fix the stairs as she was fed up with trying to get the ceramic tile issue taken care of.

Finally today the repairs have been made which is now 2 weeks after the initial install.

Original review posted by user Jun 02, 2011

Worst customer service. Empire boasted about their warranty.

When I tried to use it, it is denied. More than two months later, they finally called, said they "found a box of product" and will fix my floor. Guess the floor was warranty able after all; they were just giving me the run around. Unfortunately, one box is not enough to fix all the separation and fading.

Filed a BBB complaint. Empire said they left me messages that Empire "offers a replacement of the floor with a signed agreement for goodwill and customer service". Does this mean I have to keep my mouth shut about the horrible customer service in order to get my floor fixed under the warranty? Rebecca, I have left you several messages to figure out to what you are referring in your BBB response.

Seems you frequent this site, so check your voice mail for my telephone number and call me back.

I just want my floor fixed under the warranty Empire gave me. Thank you, Stephanie

Original review posted by user May 31, 2011

Please never purchase anything from this horrible & dishonest company!! We are a young struggling couple that wanted nothing but the best for our floor renovation but instead got garbage.

After taking consultant advice, which promised us "this was best floor that could withstand almost anything" we purchased "scratch-free" flooring. But not even after 24hours installation floor was chipped. After one-month borders started to break and it hasn't even been 1yr since we purchased and we have scratches, dents & chips everywhere. We take EXTREMLY good care of flooring because we own and want it to last but unfortunately even with specific instructions from company itself on how-to care for floors, it has been nothing but a disappointment.

I've never move any furniture around & I even ask my guest to remove shoes and I STILL find new scratches!

After several complaints, they sent an inspector, which "claimed" that we caused damage to floors. The experience with Empire Today has been nothing more but upsetting and waste of my money.

I am a former employee for Empire. At no cost should you use this company. Use them only if you want product imported from China, installed by day laborers, and you like to be over charged and lied to.

They do not care about customers, and pay the sales reps to leave positive comments on websites like this. All to fool the customer.

Working as a rep is a joke. You have to be an independent contractor and not an employee. You MUST sell the appointment on the first time or they wont give you anymore appointments. Any discrepancies are charged to the rep. Even though they are fake. They have a rating system from A to E for reps. A reps get leads as they are the biggest liars. E reps don't get anything and they expect you to go door to door. So they have to lie to the customers to keep getting work. They have a constant hiring and training plan to cover appointments. Making an appointment with them is condoning this type of behavior and should not be.

Go to your local company as you will be a great deal happier!!!!

We had carpet installed over a month a go and we are still working to get the issue resolved. After nine appointments, endless calls to empire today on our part, disputes filed with the better business bureau, and wells fargo, our carpet is still not fixed. The first batch had a defect.

We now just had 1400 square feet of carpet installed again on Monday. This time it is not the same color (not even close) or the same product (appears to be a cheaper carpet when we purchased the best). Not to mention damage done to our furniture and newly replaced baseboards after the first installation.

Our local office gave us a $380 credit for almost $4000 dollars done in work. That is not even a missed day of work for my husband who works on straight commission. Again, he missed nine days (between half and full days missed).

Now we have in another call for this go round of carpet. We also have about 10 seems that are so apparent on this light colored carpet that we did not purchase. My husband and I have both been in customer service for over 15 years and it is apparent with Empire Today the customer does not come first. Sad to say because we used them based on a referral. I also did not find it amusing when the customer service rep laughed when I told him that these appts were affecting our daily life with our 4 year old son who we constantly had to make arrangements for.

I was just about to call Empire Today for an estimate but I stumbled upon this site with all of these complaints. It is a bit shocking. I can now say I will not be calling them. To have so many complaints, makes me wonder how they are still in business. And to see what people have gone through, what an unnecessary headache.

Everyone should become a member of Prepaid Legal Services. That way you can have an attorney deal with the idiots at Empire and help you get most, if not all of your money back.

Thanks for the warning!

This company - Empire - sold and installed inferior quality carpeting and padding and refused to make good on their warranty. After numerous calls to them and inspections by their independent contractors we were told we were at fault for not maintaining the product in a cleaner fashion.

Eventually - soon, I hope, we will replace the carpeting with other flooring from a more reputable firm.

This will come after wasting nearly $3,000.00 on the product they sold and installed. It is blatantly apparent that they are not interested in customer service or satisfaction at any level and instead will go out of their way to prove the customer is always wrong.

Empire Carpet is a scam. I had carpet installed last year @ March 2010.

No interest for 1 yr. I've never received a statement from their finance company (Wells Financial Service) nor did I receive any emails about the loan. I phoned Empire on April 5, 2010 inquiring about a statement and the rep who went by the name "Kalil" stated he would send it out. I never received one.

I phoned again in May, no statement was sent. In Mar of 2011, I've been receiving calls daily to make a payment.

I explained to the reps what happened,and I would be willing to pay only if they start the special over because of their negligence. They are not willing to do so.

Original review posted by user May 11, 2011

Empire Today Customer Service is awful. We ordered and thought it would be a pleasant experience. We were completely wrong. We did wood floors and a two day project turned into four. The job could have been finished in a day and a half. The first day the installer was there for a total of three hours because empire did not ship enough wood to complete a singe room. The second day the wrong material was ordered. Finally it was installed. We thought our carpet order was going to be ok but the same problem. Not enough material was ordered so the one day project turned into two.

Since the project extended beyond the estimate my wife needed to call off work and we lost wages. Empire did offer compensation but no where near the amount of the lost wages. To make it worse, we were told in the estimate that if we received a lower quote it would be matched with no problems. We received a lower quote and sent it to empire but then we were informed that there are several stipulations that must be met. Meanwhile we were told originally it would be matched no questions asked.

Avoid a headache and avoid empire.