Carpet and Flooring Reviews - Empire Today

Last month I had carpet installed in my house by Empire. During installation, the carpet installers (some no names in an old van) damaged my walls and furniture. I witnessed the wall damage but they didn't even have the integrity to tell be about the damage to my entertainment center. After they left I even found a shoe print on my leather furniture.

But to add insult to injury, the disrespect of myself and belongings continued when I was told that they we willing to offer me $350 for my $1576 entertainment center when I called to report the damage. As if there careless and reckless behavior was now some kind of negotiation! When I called to speak with the manager, they refused to put me through and told me "they would pass it on!"

I am appalled by there poor customer service and disrespectful behavior. They should be ashamed at their behavior and poor workmenship. Save yourself hundreds of dollars and hire some unlicensed guy who operates his business out of his van because you will be better off!!

I Recently signed a contract to replace my carpet with Empire Today LLC, The company signed the contract and the next day four people came to my house and start taking of the carpet excluding the stairs and asked them why and they told they do not include the stairs, I showed my contract and start removing the carpet from the stairs then they stopped again and start talking with Lorey the work coordinator after spending half of the day ,they did they left my house after half removed carpet and stairs my house was messed for a week, I keep calling to the manager Robert that keep calling three times a day before i signed the contract did not answer my call even though i called 4 to five times a day, I left a voice message and he did not respond my call, I ever and never dealt a kind of company, I have all the contract signed by Empire Today sales person and after a week the company sales person told me they can only do the floor excluding the stairs the reason was the contract they singed was cheap, he asked me to pay extra $4200 for the stairs, He came twice and measured the floor and the stairs before he signed the contract, I asked him the contract he signed after talking to his manager was including the stairs he said his company do not want to do it, the Manager the work coordinator even did not apologize what they did to my house and the contract they signed, I have the contract they signed to replace the carpet with hardwood floor.

I' sorry about the day my husband and I let your salesman set foot in out condo. We have had nothing but problems with Empire Today sine the very day our laminate flooring was instaled.

After a huge battle with corporate this failing only agreed to credit us 500.00. Since that inital problem we now have a section of the laminate peeling away from the backing of the floor. We have been calling service since January. Our calls are never returned.

The month of April I left a message that I was going to get the media involved, still no call. I have had it with this company.

They only know haw to sale you a bill of goods and then getting them back to repair inferior products is neatly impossible. Frustrated & Pissed!

My experience with Empire from the start was not a very good one.

We are doing new construction, had a salesman come out and give us a quote. When I called him back to state we were ready for carpet, he didn't return my call. It was about two months later but we weren't ready yet.

Called Empire to find out he was no longer with the company and since over 30 days I could re-scheduled another in home quote.

Received the second quote and scheduled installation of carpet. On the day of installation they did not call us to give a window of time. I called the customer service department twice and the installer still never called.

They showed up around 3pm on that day only to find they did not have enough carpet! After speaking with their manager, "he stated that they were coming from Baltimore, MD which is an hour away from me". Said they would have to come back.

I told them I wanted to cancel the order since extremely dissatisfied with their customer service. I did not purchase any carpet that was on their special and was spending approx. 4k, so obviously they are not interested in my business.

Original review posted by user Apr 17, 2011

We had a "whole house" installation done in February, 2011. During the installation we discovered several pieces of jewelry missing from a closet that they should never even have been in.

We called customer service, the police, filed a report and did exactly what Empire told us to do. No confessions came from the installers and the police were unable to recover our stolen items, so Empire told us there was nothing more they could do.

Their lack of compassion and concern is disgusting. They did nothing to compensate us for our $4,300 loss.

Don't Use Empire Today!!!

I contacted Empire to get a quote for a 100 sqft bathroom retile.

The gentleman who came out initially quoted 3300 dollars for the quote do the math that is 33.00 per square foot of ceramic tile. He eventually came down to 1800 but still 18.00 a square foot for ceramic tile is ridiculous. That was the end of the conversation.

I got a call from one of your outbound sales rep who informed me they measured wrong and they can do the job for 700.

I agreed to it and he said he would have a sales rep show up to my house with the paperwork.

The sales rep came and was Very rude demanding that I turn on all the lights. It is my house and I will keep the lighting at what I need. She then measured and treated me like I was an ***. Reminding me that they had to rip up the tile. This of course I knew and I had discussed it with the previous phone call. She then told me that it would be 240 to rip up the tile and I would have to hire a plumber to move the toilet and sink.

I told her that was not acceptable and she then told me I was getting the tile at 45% of the regular price..

Lets do the math that is 1600 for CERAMIC TILE. that comes out to 16.00 a square foot. GRANITE AND MARBLE ARE LESS EXPENSIVE. I told her i was not willing to pay the money. She said fine and stormed out. I AM CONTACTING MY LOCAL ATTORNEY GENERAL BECAUSE I FEEL THAT THIS WAS BAIT AND SWITCH, OFFERING ONE PRICE AND THEN REFUSING TO DO IT FOR ANOTHER PRICE.

First off, I am pleased with the sales rep (for the most part) and the price. He was able to beat a few other estimates I had done.

The installation is my problem. They said it was Hollywood style stair install, which is the MAIN reason I went with them. It isn't, its striaght out and down. They tried cutting my gas line, which is inactive to the fireplace, and couldnt get it down far enough, so they made *** in the carpet for it, and now its a sharp edge sticking out of the carpet with a rusty edge (I have a young child), and they did the same thing with an old cable that I didn't use.

They tried cutting it, but then left it sticking out of the carpet. Oh and I was promised lips between rooms, and there are none, which is fine, it seems securely fastened down between them, but when you say something, do it! The sales rep should have communicated my specific wants to the installers.

SO I'm not sure where the problem lies, but I am not happy. Awaiting a call back from the office

Had an Empire Carpet salesman in the Cleveland area come out to give me an estimate. They gave me a two hour window of when he would be there which is understandable as they may not know how long they might be at a potential customer's house.

The salesman got there thirty minutes into the time window which was great. He took measurements and discussed pricing and gave me a price. He heard of another estimate I received so he was "trying" to get his estimate close to that. When he got to a comparable price he acted like he was doing me a favor and then kept saying, "if I give you this price can I get your business today?" My husband got home and looked at the estimate and asked if we could have some time to think about it.

The salesman was pissed and told us he wouldn't have wasted his time had he known that my husband had to approve! He kept looking at his watch stating that he did have another appointment to go to (which appeared to us that he was implying that we were wasting his time). My husband and I went to another room to discuss the price and the salesman came by and handed us an estimate $300 less than the first estimate and told us that it was good for 30 days (clearly he was angry). He then stormed off without saying another word.

Now I actually worked in sales, and I've never heard anyone condone the tactic of acting like a customer was a burden. At then end, it almost came across as bullying. It also looks pretty terrible to drop the price $300 at the end, giving off the vibe that he would have "overcharged" us if given the opportunity. I understand that this is the livelihood of these salesman, but this guy did no help to himself or Empire Carpets because of how he acted.

We had other companies come by and give us estimates and none have had salesman like this. We are deciding on our company in the few weeks and Empire Carpets is not in the running.

Scheduling an In Home Estimate only took a few minutes, The time it took to fix all of the errors, and chaos caused by Empire Carpet took up time myself, and my wife, and my father took off from work. Every room in my home was taken apart and left in pieces for four days.

The Bottom Line:

During the sales inquiry, I was judged by my age/and appearance whether I would be able to be approved for a loan for flooring in the home that I own. Turns out I was approved for the full amount.

During the sales inquiry, I asked if the "uneven" flooring needed to be removed. The Empire Representative said, "No". On the 2nd day of installation I was informed my floors were uneven and empire raised my prices even though the original salesman.

During the sales inquiry, our Empire Representative scheduled our Hardwood Flooring and Ceramic Tiling on the following day (wednesday). The following day Empire had the Ceramic and Hardwood flooring contractors re-routed throughout the day. We never had our installation completed on that day (Wednesday).

After never showing up to our home during my usual work day; Empire refuses to reimburse me for any of my lost time. Even though they scheduled an appointment with me and never showed up.

On Thursday, My pregnant wife and I were in the hospital for a baby delivery..

On Friday, the Ceramic Tiling contractor came and finished his job. But the Hardwood Flooring installers informed me that the documented job Empire told them, was not right. Empire is now requesting that I pay more money for the miscommunication with the contractors and the Empire Representative. After a 2 hour phone conversation with the stubborn Empire customer service I saved myself from these overcharges.

On Friday, the Carpet installers came to our home and said it was impossible to do there job since Empire over booked our installation days. They left and we had to reschedule once again for the following day

I know that some of my accusations against Empire are minor but every single irritating moment plays an effect on my views of Empire Carpet. During this process I have learned that Empire hires outside contractors to complete the In Home installation. In the future I plan to eliminate the middle man and work with the contractors directly rather than Empire Carpet.