Carpet and Flooring Reviews - Empire Today

I saw an Empire Today ad & called for an in-home estimate. When the salesman arrived he spent the whole time telling me how much better they were than other flooring companies & that I shouldn't be "cheap" & go with anyone else.

I asked the price difference between the midgrade & highgrade carpet & I was told "no more than 10%" (very sketchy).

When he finally gave me an outrageous estimate & I told him no thanks, he said he would call his manager to "see what he could do." Then he came back & said it was $400 cheaper & when I told him no thanks, he said he would forego his commission & *** an additional $200 if I agreed to the sale today. The whole thing felt like a scam.

We recentley were suppose to have vinyl flooring installed in the kitchen and two bathrooms. After completley empting out one bathroom and everything in the kitchen except for the stove and fridge, cause the sales guy told us the installers would move it, the installers arrived and told us they would have to come back to do the bathrooms because the wouldn't have time to do it that day.

Anyways in the process of doing my kitchen we were told they have been only doing vinyl installation for two weeks and was quite sure what they were doing, but eventually got the floor down and looked nice. as they were putting the fridge back they put a big tear in the floor, then another one and another one and ended up with seven tears in the floor.

The installer was more pissed that he would lose out on money then anything else and that he would have to come back and do the whole floor over and waist more gas for the trip back, then he blamed us and our fridge saying the wheels on our fridge were not down far enough and that we should think about fixing it. Well anyways I have called four times wanting to speak to a manager and they tell me either they are not in or that they are on a phone call and would get back to me within 24 hours well it has been four days and still NO RESPONSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Empire Today installed windows and gutters on my home. Their Financing is an absolute rip off.

Also not one of the workers spoke english well. Communication was very difficult. Maybe ICE should check this company out. Their ad is disceptive and close to false advertising.

No interest charges till whenever is a ploy. They don't tell you up front that if you don't make a payment that you will get a bill for late fees and all kind of stuff. An $8000 bill turned into $10500. Their sales people don't give you the whole story either.

They didn't tell me the interest rate.

I could have got a loan for much less. Don't use this company.

I set up an appointment with empire carpets via the internet. They were supposed to show up 2 days later between 3-5PM. They were supposed to give me quotes on flooring and window treatments.

The woman showed up approx twenty minutes late. She also did not have the samples with her for the window treatments.

Iexplained what I was looking for and she showed me some samples. I asked what a ball park figure would be for two different samples. She measured my house and proceeded to tell me that I would need 2100 sq feet of flooring. My house measures about 1700 sq feet. I understand you want some overage, but 400sq feet? She then told me the price would be $160 a case for one and $180 a case for the other. That did not include removing the old carpet or moving furniture, etc. that would be extra. I told her that I would have to think this over. She then told me that this price included the 60% off but she could call the office to see if she could get a better deal. I said no, that at those prices, even a better deal was not good enough. She left.

The next day I went to a local (San Diego) flooring store and found the same thing for $38.00 a case!

Do Not Be Fooled!

Don't get ripped off by Empire Today, do some online research first and you will see just how bad they are. Very, very poor quality products!! Their policy of installing the very next day isn't really a good thing, it's used to prevent the customer from researching what Empire Today is really about and also shopping around. In my case I requested and paid for premium grade carpet only to have cheap *** installed. After a year of no return calls, transfer to other customer service managers and the over all run around, they offered to sell me more carpet to replace the cheap stuff they installed. Needless to say I wasn't falling for that and giving them one more dime. I filed complaints with both BBB and Florida Dept. of Consumer Services with no results (neither did anything - joke) but it was important to me to warn other consumers. I encourage anyone that has had a bad experience with Empire Today to share it, maybe you can save someone else from getting ripped off.

Eric

Florida

this is the worst company to deal with trying to get a refereal fe " ha ha" they mean a gift card !!!! do not buy from empire ever!!!

they were 4 hours late and were there until 1:00 am too bad there is no such thing as calling the customer .

i had to call them several times to find out how much longer they would be!!!! tooo bad I work with a retail store in las vegas and the person i refeered works as a boss for a major company here so no more refeerals for empire we removed the sign in our yards right after they put them in the ground!!!!!!

I contacted Empire Today on August 28th for an estimate on installing some hardwood flooring. The sales rep that showed up was unprofessional, pushy and had a huge attitude.

I wanted hardwoods and he tried his best to talk me into purchasing laminate flooring trying to explain to me that laminate is better than hardwood. When I wouldn't budge on my decision, he proceeded to quote me on my flooring choice. The quote that I received was $800 higher than a local flooring company. The sales rep had the audacity to tell me that I was making a mistake by not purchasing from them and that his price was the best out there.

He proceeded to slam his samples on my existing hardwoods scratching them.

Talk about a company that is full of itself.

On July 6, 2008, I contracted Empire Today to install a bathtub liner as well as a door in our bathroom. On July 12, 2008, two installers came by at our house to do the work. However, because of the rain, they asked us to push back the installation on the following day. They came back the following morning and after spending almost two hours in the bathroom, one of the installer indicated that the bathtub liner could not fit. He also mentioned that he broke the water pipe so we cannot use it until it is fixed. I checked the bathtub liner and its size was the same as the existing bathtub. I am not a carpenter, installer or whatsoever, but I am surprised it took him a while to figure that the bathtub liner will not fit! Anyways, the damage has been done so I have no choice but to calm down and convince myself that everything will be fine.

We asked them to come back on July 19 to fix the water pipe and then the installation of the bathtub liner. We waited the whole day and nobody showed up! We have cancelled our plans for this appointment and nothing happened!

We called the customer service and we were told that a plumber would come at our house on July 26. Thank God, a plumber appeared our door on that day. He opened the faucet to check the leak and the water started to drip at our ceiling. It damaged the electrical wirings at our dining area. Things are getting worst!

To fix the water pipe, he got rid of a portion of the ceiling to replace the broken pipe. He fixed the water pipe but he broke two things: (1) ceiling and (2) electrical wirings.

We called the customer service to file a complaint about this incident. Per customer service representative, the bathtub liner is out of stock and we need to wait for a couple of days. She cordially offered to schedule an appointment to fix the ceiling but we declined. We want to make sure that they install the bathtub liner first before fixing the ceiling to avoid duplication of this incident.

Days, weeks and then a month have passed but we never heard from Empire Today! This is a nightmare!

On September 3, 2008, we called the customer service to make a follow up. Thank God, the bathtub liner is now available. An appointment was made on September 10, 2008 between 9:00-10:00 am EST. It is now 11 am and I am still waiting for the installer. I took a day off from the office just for this appointment. I hope he will show up anytime soon!

Empire carpet,wut should i say ? fraud,scam,any thing bad is empire.imagin you pay up to $2500 for just 80 yrd of carpet,although the carpet wont last more than 2 month ,to look old and bad.all of thier carpet is stock . I am an installer who worked for them,and used some of thier carpet to my house,let me tell you they are very bad,and dont you ever buy from these scammers they are very bad , way bad,the carpet is no good you pay too much money for *** watch out,and be carfull

I contracted Empire to install the flooring in my new condo in Fl, I pay on July 17 08, they have been taking 1.5 months to get the permit from the city, they barely answer my phone calls or give me an explanation and now that I want my money back they seem not to be willing to give it back.....

I want to find a lawyer and sue them. I could not rent the apartment in one and a half months because of their delay!!!

They are irresponsible and do not have an idea on how to conduct business.

On 9-3-08 my wife & I saw an empire commercial and said we shpould call to re-surface our 12'x26' bedroom in IN. A "sales rep" (all sub-contractors - not Empire employees) showed up the next day and gave us a quote of $1175 for that size room, charged by the SF (he offered us a $150 "discount" coupon against the purchase).

It seemed that Wall to wall carpeting for a room that size should cost less than $1035, so and I called around to other installers and they were about 30% less charged by the square yard. I couldn't reconcile the cost for such a small space, and I don't ever remember buying carpet by the square foot, on square yard. When I called EMPIRE (588-**** - the only number you can find manned at a call center - they say the company is based in Northlake IL, but you won't find a way to contact the headquaters) and asked to speak to a supervisor to determine if I was getting ripped off, the supervisor Rick, told me he couldn't tell me how they charged for their carpet, because that was "up to the sales rep" who he confirmed was not an Empire employee. He flat out said he couldn't help me, and that I should speak to the 'sales rep".

I told Rick the supervisor that I would cancel my order, and tell everyone I know that EMPIRE has no intention of standing behind their products, and they could be considered part of a "bait and switch scheme" where they advertise 60% discounts on television, but their "sales reps" don't have to povide the discount or conform to any company standard.

I cancelled my order, and called my bank to put a stop on the cradit card. IF YOU BUY FROM THESE GUYS - YOU DESERVE WHAT YOU GET !!!

Stay away from Empire Today. They lure you in with slick commercials and some nice customer service up front, but they *** on the back end.

Don't sign the contract because the moment you do, the service goes to pot. No returned phone calls, estimated dates for measurement and installation aren't met--without even a phone call. They are awful and I will never use them again. I stupidly declined a competing offer from a local guy and now I wish I can gone with him.

Bad, bad, bad. I cannot begin to express what a frustrating experience this has been,.

They promised next day delivery. My wife and I took off from work to get the room ready for new carpet.

Moved the furniture, un-hooked the surround sound stereo, got a friend to help move the TV and other heavy furniture ... and waited, and waited, and waited. At 4 PM we called them and were told "How about tomorrow?". When we told them that was not acceptable they told us the carpet was a special order and it would take 2 weeks.

We canceled.

The price was not really that great .... we shopped around and saved over $200 for the exact same carpet at Home Depot.

I too was impressed with the advertisements for Empire carpet and flooring. I finally decided to give it a try and called them for the free in home estimate.

I have to say that the sales man was prompt and courteous. He did measure all my rooms and spend a good amount of time showing me samples of carpet in his mid range. I personally didn't think the carpet felt all that great compared to the carpet I already have, but he assured me that would be different after it was down with the padding. I liked their financing package and agreed to the sale.

I specifically asked him how their prices compared to Home Depot and other companies. He told me that they were the same except that Home depot would charge me to move all my furniture and extras for steps mouldings etc...

Well, after reading the reviews online I decided to cancel the order and think things over a bit more. I called Smart Carpet and Flooring for another in home estimate.

I spent over 3 hours with the salesmen and in the end I was able to not only save over $1000, but included in that price was my Master bedroom which I had to exclude previously due to cost. I am going to receive a carpet with a longer warranty as well.

I guess the moral is. Do your research, haggle a lot, and speak spanish.

Oh yeah, two days after cancelling the job I received a call at 7 am from a spanish speaking installer telling me he was going to be there in 40 minutes. I told him not to come and that I cancelled. He said ok so I hung up. Then he called again and I told him the same.

When I hung up I called cust. service. She told me that my cancellation had not been completed. Then she told me that they would take 800 off the price if I still would consider using them.

Too late honey! So thats the long and the short of it.