Carpet and Flooring Reviews - Empire Today

My fiance and I just moved into our new home and needed carpet in various places of the house. We had Empire come out to give us a free measurement and price quote.

They measured it at 1288 sq. ft. and only offered polyester carpeting. Why do they not offer nylon...the better carpeting?

Anyway, we decided to check out another company near our home.

When they came out to do their measurements, it was measured at 984 sq. ft! Over 300 sq. ft.

difference?! They are telling people they need more carpet when in reality they don't need it. There are obviously people out there who trust them and don't measure themselves to double check.

If you go with Empire, then you should definitely measure yourself first to see how much carpet you actually need. We didn't use them and I suggest the same for you.

I am very upset, I would recommend to never use them. My father is dieing and need to sell our home to move my parents in with us;they won't refund the deposit.

I had put down 847.00 towards a 2500.00 order! They have no feelings are cold and calculating people.I will never, ever use them again.>>>>>!!!!!!!!! Empire Today has no feelings in regards to their clients. They will not return my deposit.

I have gone to corp level and they are still telling me no.

I wish I would of went on line first before I placed an order. I am so very upset with the disrespect they have for people.

Thank you to all those who have previously posted complaints about Empire.

I called and scheduled a same day in home estimate and then decided to check the internet for reviews of Empire. There were so many negative comments I decided to cancel the appointment.

Upon canceling I was offered a $50 credit to reschedule "right now." When I declined to reschedule I was told I would have to hold. After 5 minutes I realized how ridiculous it was to have to hold for a cancellation. I hung up, called the number again and of course, all operator's were busy... The line was picked up at one point and immediatly put back on hold.

Their system recognizes your phone number and I'm sure they had no intention of answering my call. I decided to try cancelling one more time because I really don't want anyone from Empire showing up and their phone system immediatly disconnected my call. It will be interesting to see if someone shows up today despite my attempts to cancel. I feel like I dodged a bullet.

Thanks for the warnings! Next time I will check reviews first, duh!

I chose Empire because of the "next day installation" and they matched the Lowe's price. What I didn't know was the poor quality of their installation crews.

I was having a whole house replacement, they chose to do the lower level first. They completed this in about 3 hours. I came home to find closet doors not reinstalled, the track doors guides missing , radiator covers not reinstalled and AC vents just put back in place and not fastened. In one closet the never bothered to secure the carpet to the tack strips and the seams were horrible.

They left saying "its cutting into my golf time" and didn't even bother to clean up after themselves, just swept debris into my finished basement.

The second day the foreman called saying he'd be late, when he arrived he aboslutely reeked of marijuana. He did one carpet seam that was hideous and spent the rest of the day saying he had to do something else leaving two inexperienced carpet layers to finish the job. 13 hours later they got done, still left a mess and the workmanship was totally unsatisfactory. I'm on the 5th week of trying to get my carpet installed correctly, and the 3rd attempt to get the stairs right.

If you are thinking about buying from them make sure you get certified installers and you have plenty of time on your hands to deal with all the corrections you'll need to have done. They may get it right in the end, but its just not worth the hassle.

I called empire for a carpet quote...the salesman was 2 hours late...he offered me 3 rooms of carpet

for 2600.00...then immediatley said a today only special for 1700.00....my wife said yes...only to findout that this was the original price and salesman marked way up to see if we would ***.

I have had the carpet now since march and the carpet is matting in the living room and the seams are starting to show in the dining room...i can't believe a carpet could have issues in 3 months.

This whole experience has been pathetic,i wish i would have checked the complaint section before i purchased to see the amount of mishaps that

Empire has had....I am very disappointed.

Andrew

Chicago,il

8 months ago I had Empire install new carpeting in my home. While the installers were here I told them that I could see all the seams.

They said that as I vacuumed they would disappear. They have been here several times and tell me that it is normal. The carpet is matted down and looks like it has been here for years. They sent an installer here two weeks ago and he said that the seams were not right and that they had to contact the manufacturer to see if they had the same dye lot.

Someone would call me in 1 to 3 days. I still have not received a call. The carpet looks horrible.

I am very unhappy with the carpet and the service. All I get is a run around

Completely dissatisfied!!! Paid too much compared to competitor pricing.

The sales rep- guaranteed that this was the best price that was out there. What a lie!!! Other companies charge almost $3,000 less!! Then they won't match OR take care of you in anyway.

They did however call me back when they stated they would but it was for nothing. They wouldn't give me a detailed bill with included the individual breakdown of laminate per square foot, sub-floor, labor, etc... They stated that they only dealt with package rates! Corporate office pretty much said that there is nothing they can do!

Don’t use them!!! Complete rip-off!!!

as a former installer for EMPIRE-i personally saw that their work quality is inferior....most crews that come to your home in the tampa, florida area are van loads of NON ENGLISH speaking Mexicans that DON'T know their head from their ... to do flooring!

you'll be lucky to get a crew to come out thats NOT under 4-5 taco choakers that cant even communicate with YOU!! ludicrous. the jobs i went behind these crews on to "fix" their so-called mistakes were always OBVIOUS mistakes that any real INSTALLER doesn't make!!!

always wise to TRULY SHOP AROUND for true unstallers! thanks.

Empire Today claims they have low factory prices, They are among the highest prices! Their Cherry laminate flooring looks incredibly cheap. My vacuum's wheels scratch the floor, a cup fell out of the dishwasher and it chipped, and now is has started to warp.

Their customer service clown admitted that their prices are high because they have next day service and move furniture. We had them come a week later and all they had to do was roll the refrigerator out, yet they still charged us for the services.

We were going to have them do our upstairs carpet, for $4,470, we cancelled after we saw the shoddy floor material and their lame installation, and had Home Depot do it for $1,800.

I have posted complaints on their EmpireBlog and all that shows up are 'Empire is great' raves, for some reason my blogs don't show up. They don't answer my requests as to why.

I recently left Empire and wasn't paid around $500 commission owed. I concur exactly with what another ex-contractor said in that they are a complete rip-off (whatever the market will bear).

They bury finance costs, area rugs, and whatever else they can get away with so I left with some of my dignity intact.

Stay far away from this company as they are nothing but an advertising jingle with low quality polyester carpet that they sell at nylon prices. If they won't even pay former contractors what their owed do you think they care about the customer?

I'm really surprised with the complaints, we did our hardwood floors with empire today back in 2006 and the floor is looking like new, we are really pleased but any ways I learn that the people that is not happy with this company they can also look on the NWFA.ORG for professional installers and companies they also provided really good service or if you already went through empire today and you have any problems try to deal with the local phone number instead of the 588 2300 because they probably can resolve your problem faster the local number you can find that in the yellow pages under empire today or the carpet shop

I had Empire Carpet come to my house and the slick salesman told me I needed 200+square yards and he then quoted me a price of 10,000 dollars.

The same Shaw carpet cost me 3,800 at Home Depot for 160 square yards. My savings are paying for my daughter's first year of college.

Empire advertised 50% off, the salesman didn't even bring that carpet in the house because of the poor quality. He then told me that another company would charge me 13,500 for the carpet and proceded to tell me how he would save me 3,500 dollars.

I worked for Empire Today for several years. In the last couple years it has been hard to get paid for the jobs you sell.

When a sales person comes out to your home, they are given a price range that they are allowed to charge. The sales person may be able to charge $24-$50 a yard. If you get a salesperson that can really sell you may pay more than 2x more then the people next door. Now the salespeople have to sell area rugs. It they don't sell a certain amount a week they are not given work the following week. The salesperson is taught how to charge for the area rug and make the customer think they are getting it for free. You can get the same area rug at Lams plus for a lot less.

When they do thier 50% sale it is only on 2 carpets; the cheapest carpet. They pay only about $4 a yard so when they have the sale you are only saving $2 a yard. For example you might pay $26 a yard vs. $24 a yard. The sales person is only allow to charge you $24-$50 a yard. There is really no sale.

The reason why Empire always miss thier appointments is that they only give appointments to the salespeople that are selling over 50%. So a saleperson may have my 6-8 appointments a day where they can not get to everyone and another salesperson is sitting at home with nothing to do. One of the general managers said at a sales meeting he would rather us miss the appointment (he used the word "burn) then give it to someone who is not selling at 50%. That is why they miss several appointments.

When a salesperson finally leave Empire makes up every excuse not to pay them. I had some sales that they gave to someone else. Salespeople have left the company being owe $1000-$5000 and they never pay them. They can't file a small claims because they don't register in the state and small claims will not let you file a case that is out of state unless it is an auto accident or tennat/landlord problem. You can't go to the labor board because you are an indepentant contractor. Since the sales people are i.c. Empire does not have to pay unemployment taxes or benefits. If salespeople are fired they can ot collect unemployment. If Empire goes through 1000 sales people a year(which is a very low count) and don't pay $2000 to each of them they are saving $2,000,000 a year.

Please don't do business with them.

BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE! I called and spoke to their representative named William.

I scheduled the appt and then proceeded to ask questions about the company. He became very rude and sarcastic. Stated he did not understand why I was asking questions about them. Then I asked if the representative that would come out to my home would have samples of carpet and give me final quote and he responded very sarcastic "That's why you have an appt".

I asked him why he was so annoyed with my questions and he said he did not understand why I was asking questions and I should ask the representative at the appt.

I told him that I just needed a little more info and I would like to have an idea of what to expect so I told him to cancel my appt. I am GLAD I did not do business with this company after reading all the complaints on so many websites!!!!!!!!!!