Empire Today Flooring Reviews and Complaints

My husband and I purchased hardwood floors through Empire Today back in December 2015. This past December 2017 I started noticing splits and cracks in the flooring.

I contacted Empire and they sent someone out to look at it. The person said they never saw anything like it. He said Jan 2018 is their slow time and someone would come out to fix the problem boards. At the time there was about 20 boards messed up.

In January the installer came out around 4 in the afternoon. By then there was about 50 problem boards. He said he could not do it because it would take to long and it looks like the entire flooring should be replaced. So I called Empire back.

They scheduled me for another date. The installer Rich Starkey came out to do the work and he also said it was a lot of work and he contacted Empire because he did not know what to do about all the problem boards. Finally after a few weeks Empire contacted the manufacturer. The manufacturer sent out an inspector to look at the floor.He tooks some test.

I asked him what is causing it. He said he was not able to tell me even though I was the customer. I have Made plenty of call to Empire (Kris Rubino) left messages and it took at times a week to get back to me. Finally last week Kris called and said the manufacturer denied the claim.

He said it was due to low humidity in the house. I asked him for the report . He emailed it to me. What he failed to tell me was that the inspector also said the flooring was not acclimated to the house.

This was not done prior to installing the floors. He said he would check with the bosses because he did not think it had to be done prior to installing. Tim Sherwin the regional manager called me and said it does not have to be done in my house because it was already done at the warehouse. I asked him for an email stating this and he said no.

He said the customer knows that it is a next day service. From what i have been reading on the internet hardwood Floors needs to be at the least 96 hrs acclimate in the house. prior to installing the hardwood. This was definitely not done.

If I ever have anything this major done I will check on the customer reviews before I sign the papers. I have been reading plenty of reviews about Empire and I now know I am not the only one with problems from this company.

If anyone asked me about my flooring I will discourage them from going with this company. I will let them know the terrible customer service that I received.

This is an email regarding my horrible experience with Empire, that I sent to the CEO: I am contacting you today as a valued and repeated customer with Empire Today. My husband and I used Empire to install laminate flooring in our kitchen this past summer, and were so pleased with the job, that we asked Empire to come out again to give us a quote to extend that same flooring into our living room.

The salesman came out on 2/20/2017 and we signed a contract to have the same flooring put in and scheduled an install for Saturday, 3/4/2017. My husband and I pulled up the existing carpet the night before the install. When the installers came on Saturday, they discovered that the salesman had put down the wrong flooring and it didn't match. That same day (Saturday), they returned to the warehouse to find that the flooring we wanted had been discontinued (Empire should have told us this before we ripped up our floor).

After numerous attempts to contact customer service on Saturday who could resolve this issue, Empire told me that their headquarters was now closed and would not be open until Monday. Imagine my frustration at this, as I am 30 weeks pregnant, have two dogs who now cannot walk about the house, since we pulled up the carpet and now have bare flooring with exposed nails showing, and have to now wait until the next week. I explained this many times to the Empire customer service, but no one ever offered me an apology or seemed to know how to resolve this issue. After I had to contact Empire on Monday, 3/6/2017 (as no one tried to contact me!), I again spoke to a supervisor who set up the salesman to come back and show us new flooring.

The supervisor also said he would call me back to discuss pricing, as I believed I was owed a discount and he was going to look into that for me. He never called me back. The salesman came out on 3/7, showed us flooring, and, since the flooring we wanted had been discontinued, Empire told us to pick new flooring for the kitchen AND living room so that they matched. We picked the flooring, signed the change of order form, but the salesman assured us that someone would be contacting us regarding the new pricing.

Fast forward to today, 3/10/2017, and, again after no one contacted us, I called Empire AGAIN at 3:30 pm, and spoke to the same supervisor, who said he would have someone call me back within the hour. Well it's 6:00 pm now, and there is a message from Empire stating that I am now getting charged, not only for the original flooring, but also for the additional flooring that I have to put in since empire messed up my original order. When I just tried to call them back at the number they left (for the Chicago/Milwaukee headquarters), their mailbox is now full. I am writing to you as CEO because I have tried all other possible outlets and no one can give me a straight answer.

In fact, it seems that no one knows what is going on, and they do not seem to care either.

I have not been issued an apology. The only people who showed understanding and apologized where the installers, and it wasn't even their fault!!

I WILL NEVER USE EMPIRE AGAIN (and I have a lot of flooring left to do in my home). I would like to start by saying that the end result is beautiful and the installers were quick, professional and very helpful.

This is not where my problem lies. My problem is every other facet of this company. We interviewed/received quotes from several different companies. We narrowed down our decision to two.

We went with Empire (a slightly more expensive option) because we were told the floors were made in the USA as opposed to China. THAT was our deciding factor. The day the installers get here we notice the boxes all say "Made in China". Wait.

What? We call the salesman, no answer. I call the main office number and tell them our issue. What is their explanation?

"The floors are made in the USA but the boxes are made in China.". What? The boxes? This is the story you are going with?

Ok, the boxes. I make them promise that yes, the floors are in fact made in the USA. We google the name on the box, "Valinge". Guess what?

MADE IN CHINA- but I mean, we knew this. We call again and all they can tell us is there was no excuse for the lie and the customer service person trying to get us off the phone and that all we can do at this point is cancel the order. Well, that would be great and we could go with the cheaper option since they too were made in China if perhaps maybe all of our tile and carpet hadn't already been pulled up. I'm hosting a party in 4 days!?!?!

How long will it take to get floors? What the...fine, just put it down. Half way through the installation I look at the padding and I ask "Is that the upgraded padding that we had paid for, you know, the quiet walk?". He tells me no, that this was the standard padding and that they don't use the upgrade on this type of flooring because it actually makes it echo even worse.

Now, rewind...sitting at our breakfast table, the day we signed the contract I ask "How much extra are we paying for the upgraded padding?". He tells me something like 20 or 40 cents a square foot and he had knocked down the price. Ok, cool. But now today when we call the main number they tell us we did not pay for upgraded padding.

What? We call the salesman he says no, we did not get charged for it. Ok, then why was the price we paid the same as when you told me you charged us 40 (or 20) cents a sq ft? Wouldn't that price drop?

He says we went over what all the costs were when we signed, and we did, but that's when he told me the price per sq ft. The floors are in, we received no discounts, no refund for padding. Also, when I call to complain I want results. I DO NOT want to hear anything about anyone losing commission or the contract we signed.

I know what we were told. I know we were lied to. I know we were blown off.

Lack of integrity, that is where my issue lies. Don't lie to me.

We have quite a bit of our flooring in our home by Empire Today. We will never ever use them again.

We spent just under $3000.00 in 2009 to put in a laminate floor in our kitchen. It is now junk! Doesn't last and then they want us to pay for a repair person to come out just to look at. Don't waste your money on this company.

If you want something that will last and a reputable company that will stick up for their products go elsewhere! What a waste!

Now we have to again purchase either a different laminate floor for our kitchen, or live with this *** we have. I'm so disappointed with Empire Today, especially like I said a lot of our home is done using their products!

Where to begin? My experience with Empire Flooring was far from acceptable to say the least!

To start, we had a salesman come to our house to measure and give us an estimate;

Sales pitch: I regretfully must admit that I bought-in; hook, line, and sinker. Alex really talked up the product very well and made us feel like we were getting a great deal. He also said that Smartstrand and Anso R2x are the same product. He said Smartstrand is the new name for it (found out later they are two totally different companies). I knew I was dealing with a salesman but, I did my research on costs and I thought the “ease” of the purchase and the all-inclusive (tear out, installation, & disposal) was a good deal. We agreed to a price and decided to finance through their company. However; once we began to sign paperwork, the Alex told us that he needed the down payment...which we never discussed. He said it was because they needed at least 10% of the purchase paid for installation purposes. I was caught off guard and questioned this, but I conceded because it went towards my purchase after all.

Installation (1st attempt): The installation workers showed up with a carpet that had a different style name than what was on our paperwork, although, the pattern was similar to what we ordered with the salesman. Because of the discrepancy, my wife informed the installer that she didn't think it was the right carpet because the name of the style was different than what was on our contract. He questioned her judgment and asked her if she knew what she purchased. She didn't argue back but requested he get what was stated on the contract. The installer made a call and said he had to go back to the warehouse to pick up the carpet listed on our paperwork. He also asked for her to clean out the garage so they could have room to work. He said he would call us with an update in regards to when he would be back. We didn't receive a call for the rest of the day.

Contact with salesman (Alex) and Empire: I called to express my frustrations about the installers not calling us back or following up with us to determine when they would be back. The customer service rep said he contacted the installers who said they left a message for us (no such message exists) and that they would be back the next morning. He also said a manager would call us back (ref #1-2134372591). That did not happen. I explained to the customer service rep that I wished I had looked at the many horrible reviews before making this big purchase. He acknowledged that there were a lot of bad reviews but stated that they "always try to make it right" (turned out to be a lie).

I then called Alex and he explained that there was a "glitch" in the computer system and that name on my contract was wrong. They did bring out the right carpet (the patterns were very similar), but he understood the confusion. While talking to me, he disregarded the input error of the order and focused on the installer's bad attitude. He said he couldn’t guarantee anything but that he was sure his manager would compensate us for our troubles and would send a new crew over the following day with the carpet we initially agreed upon.

Installation (2nd day): The new team of installers arrived on this day and stated they needed "Cash On Delivery" before they could start. Seriously? We had to make more phone calls and straightened that out as it was already financed. I have to say, this installation crew was friendly; however, after getting to almost 2/3 of the project completed, they said that not enough carpet was ordered! We had to make more calls and apparently there's a separation in sales and installation because they both appeared to want to blame each other. The installers had to install what they had, leave the job, and travel across town to pick up the carpet. Due to the lateness in the afternoon, we agreed for them to comeback the following morning to complete the install.

Installation (3rd day):

Installers arrived, finished the install, and left. Later that afternoon, I finally got a return phone call from a manager. She didn’t appear to initially recall the conversation we had the prior day about the shortage of carpet, but later said they sent out carpet without measuring because the cutting equipment was down. So apparently they were just sending out whatever and figuring it out later. She didn’t at all seem too concerned with our overall experience, and only said she would “talk” to all parties involved and was “sorry” for the experience. I asked about being compensated for the time we had lost due to rescheduling appointments and waiting for the completion of the project. She said she would bring it up to the other managers and would call me back on Monday (Never received that call). Huh, guess they aren’t too concerned about making it right.

Overall: I didn't feel valued as a customer. The salesman seemed to want to sell, the installers seemed to want to install, and we just wanted new carpet. We did our part in picking out the carpet and financing our purchase. The rest should have worked itself out...well, that's how it was presented to us at least. I'm one of those easy to please customers and I don't like to complain as long as I get halfway decent service. I would have to say Empire was far below my expectations and it's amazing to me that they continue to function with such dysfunctional internal communication and below average customer service. Still waiting for the manager's return phone call to happen...shows how important I am :( I would love to update my review by saying they "made it right", but I don't have much faith in that happening. I and anybody I know will not be using this company in the future. Save yourself the stress and use Lowe’s or Home Depot if you want to save money. Unless you want to take your chances with a company that states they will make it right instead of getting it right (and they can’t even deliver on that promise). Sorry Empire. You get a thumbs down…way down.

March 14 Had salesman, Mike, from Empire Today arrive and measure a bedroom that we wanted laminate flooring installed. He measured and we ordered the flooring and matching baseboards, oak colored. Had the job set for Sat.the 19th.Sat the install crew arrived, two Hispanics who could not speak English. They put the flooring down up to the old brown baseboards and then started to put quarterround up to the old baseboard. We stopped them and told them they were to replace the baseboard with new, matching boards. They shook their heads, picked up and left.The salesman then got us in touch with the installation coordinator, Tom. He advised that there had been a mistake on the order and that the install crew would return on Tues. the 22nd. with the baseboard.

Tuesday arrived and the crew never showed up, no phone calls. We called Mike and then Tom who advised us that they were waiting for a particular strip for the closet sliding doors. They ordered the strip and Tom advised they would be out on Thursday the 25th. On Thursday we waited all morning and no show. We contacted Tom again and he advised that he had wrote down Thu. the 25th and in reality the 25th was Friday. He advised the crew would be here FridayFriday arrived and one installer from the original crew arrived to install the baseboard. He brought in a white plastic baseboard. We told him that we had ordered the matching oak baseboard. He became frustrated and left. Got ahold of Mike and Tom again. Told them of the white baseboard and was told by Tom that the white was the only baseboard that empire had. I questioned his truthfulness and his competency. Tom told me to "take it or leave it". I told both Tom and Mike I was contacting my attorney. A short while later the saleman Mike called and said that they had a deal for me. They were going to reimburse my account a whopping $120.00 and If I went to the Home Depot and bought the baseboard myself they would have an installer out on Monday the 28th. I did just that and bought matching baseboard.Monday,3/28, A different installer arrived and looked at the baseboard I had bought from Lowes. He advised that it was junk and wanted me to return the baseboard for a heavier unstained wood, stain the wood myself and then they would return and put it down. This installed also advised me that he knew for sure that empire had the proper baseboard and wondered why they would not send it out. He called Tom and was told that the oak colored baseboard and been discontinued. By this time I was so frustrated and pissed off that I told him to put the base that I had bought down I wanted to be done with this terrible company. I will definitely tell all my friends, family and all on my social media to never deal with Empire Today

We are dealing with very similar issue. I wish I had been there when the sales (***) man arrived.

My son explained that he called about the half off on floor and installation promotion. Wanted to pay no more than $2.00 sq/ft for laminate ( figured he would get a $4.00 sq/ft product due to the promotion. While he should have paid more attention to the final number he was preoccupied with his infant son and his dog and the *** man kept telling him about the great floor he was giving him and that he would "take care if him" - he took care of him alright - nothing but a scammer. Luckily the installation was completely *** so my son contacted me after trying to get someone to help help at Empire.

Did I mention that the contract was written up without any price break down on Wednesday and first thing Thursday morning guys came to install. If anyone ever feels the need to use these liars insist on getting a complete break down of costs and compare against the same flooring at other reputable flooring companies. Don't make make the mistake of allowing them to rush you through and push low grade laminates on you - especially not at pricing for solid wood fully finished thick flooring! We are hoping to get the two small rooms of flooring removed but though promised a call back by yesterday have not yet received a call today and it is now 3:50.

They close at 5. Bottom line - there are much better places to purchase flooring.

Use your local flooring people - people that have a good reputation in your area. Not this scam outfit!

My son had Empire come in to provide an estimate for flooring for our townhouse based on the 50% off on flooring & installation promotion currently running. He told the salesman he needed to pay no more than $200 sq ft which should have been fine - would have allowed him to get a floor normally priced at $4.00 Sq/FT now for only $2.00 Sq/Ft. The installation which runs $2.00 Sq/Ft at all other reputable flooring places would also be 50% off and now $1.00 Sq/FT.

What happened was anything but - while my son should have calculated the math, he was busy with his infant son while the man was there and the salesman told him he was providing flooring at that price and that he would "take care of him" etc.

What was he charged for 443 Sq/FT of low end laminate??? - $4027.48 - about $9.10 Sq/FT.

The installation occurred the very next day and was not properly done -that is when my son contacted me about this and realized the rip off. The salesman said that if the subfloor needed fixing that would be at an additional cost. Josh said ok. The installers arrived - one did not speak English at all and the other only slightly so there was very little dialogue - nothing about the subfloor. The laminate was installed and in places in squeaks and is like a trampoline. The quarter round is not the white glass requested on listed on the paperwork and they installed the quarter round over the heating vents. Additionally this laminate is of extremely poor quality. The salesman said the laminate is great with spills, pet accidents etc in response to my son's question about this (he has a pitbull & an infant son) the few rods that the installer did say was that any spills had to be wiped up immediately or the laminate will separate. This is not at all what we were told we were sold. We have made about 9 calls so far to various people. Christian from he Hackensack store installation dept came out Friday and thought the floor was good and kept telling us that they don't do anything with subfloors. Does Empire just install floors over bad subfloors? We are not in the flooring business - how do we know what is ok and what is not.

At this point we just want this flooring taken out and a full refund issued so we can purchase good flooring elsewhere - a reputable flooring company that is honest. I am now on hold over 10 minutes again for the 12?13? time between my calls and my son's calls. I am so done with Empire !!!!