Empire Today Reviews

About that time my wife had returned home and we sat down and looked at three different carpet brands/qualities samples. He also brought in a sample of the padding. I insisted that I wanted the best padding and he said he had a higher quality but never showed it to me nor mentioned the additional cost. To me padding is of the upmost importance considering my home is over 100 years old and the old wood floors get very cold in the winter. The thicker the padding the more insulation. {I even considered keeping my original padding since it was purchased in 2009 and adding another layer}.

After my wife choose the carpet she liked we started discussing the price. He initially quoted {Wrote down the number on a blank sheet of paper} "$4750". I asked how many square feet and after he said about 7-8 hundred square feet. I nailed him down to 726 square feet. I took out my calculator and that came out to $6.54 a sq/ft which we both "Choked" on. He immediately came back with $3750 which is $5.16 sq/ft. That is when I asked the actual price per square foot for the carpet and for the padding each.

He hymn-hawed about this and that and said he might get us a better deal if we would commit to buying tonight and that he would call his supervisor to see about a better deal. We were not ready to commit and I sure as hell was not going to sign anything till it was itemized and could see in writing the actual "50% Off Carpet & Flooring, 50% Off Padding & Materials and 50% Off Installation". During the entire conversation my wife & I both said numerous times that we intended on getting quotes from other companies for our new carpet. I even took pictures of the carpet and the descriptions of the samples so we could compare "Apples To Apples".

After an hour of our evening discussing that we must have something in writing and that we did intend on getting other quotes, Ben was continuously adamant about getting a commitment and calling his supervisor for better pricing. We {my wife & I} came to the conclusion that the sale was not going to happen until we had other quotes and one in writing from Empire. Again, Ben was a real gentleman and was a joy to meet and is welcome back in our home anytime to have a glass of sweet tea and share stories.

This morning I received a call from Empire about additional savings. I discussed having quote in writing and was told that they never give quotes in writing. My concern is if a company is offering a sale such as "50% Off Carpet & Flooring, 50% Off Padding & Materials and 50% Off Installation", as a consumer, I would expect to actually see the initial price and the sale price on the item being offered. I HONESTLY BELIEVE THE ADVERTISING IS NOT ONLY FALSE BUT COULD BE CONSIDERED FRAUD if the salesperson cannot physically show it to the consumer.

It is so sad that a salesperson is put in the position that his integrity can be questioned because he does not have a means of backing up his pricing with physical documentation. I am sure that Ben is a man of high integrity but due to his inability to prove his pricing due to corporate policy, he was unable to actually close on this sale.

They finally called around 1 pm to let me know they would arrive at 2 pm. They showed up at 230. They said the install would take 4 hours. Originally 2 workers arrived but then the second one left shortly after arriving. They did not finish the installation until 10:40 PM!!! It took more than twice as long. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! I called the 800 number on the "We strive for PERFECT 10 performances and your complete satisfaction" paper they left for me. I was transferred over to Hank. I have left 2 messages asking him to call me back and have heard nothing. They don't strive for perfect 10 performances... They don't even make an effort. DO NOT purchase from them unless you have PLENTY OF SPARE TIME TO WASTE!!!

Once they started working right to finish, nothing but professional. I absolutely love my floor and it's exactly what I thought it was going to be. They did such a professional job that I noticed how it was different from the way it was done before. That goes with the molding that goes right around the corner instead of stopping and starting again at the seam. They did a fabulous job and they were very polite young men. I even told them I had a problem with a piece of wood outside. They said they had an extra piece of wood for me and gave it to me. He went right ahead and sawed off a little piece of board and gave it to me instead of throwing it out or taking it with them.

When I got to the beauty salon where I work, everybody is concerned about my floor. I said, "I could cry, it's so beautiful. They showed up with a beat-up truck." The lady sitting in the chair getting her hair done yelled out, "Empire!". Turns out they did her floor, too and she goes, "I love it." She was as amazed as I was. It was humorous and unbelievable.

I always tell everybody I love my floor. I show my floor off with my pictures on my phone and I'm telling people all over, "You want a floor done? This is how you want it done." They see it and they say, "Oh, my God! That is beautiful." I know what it's like to get bad contractors. It's really a gamble when you call somebody and you've never had them and I never had any family members that had Empire either. I was, "Oh, God, I hope this is right." and they were.

The guys that came in did a fantastic job. However they had to dig up the linoleum that was in the kitchen, which caused it to look like they had cut sheet rock in my house. And I had to spend two days cleaning every picture frame, every counter. I even had to wash all the dishes in my pantry because they took the door off there because they had to get in there to work under the floor. I think they should have come in and covered up with tarps so I cleared most of the stuff out.

Another thing is that we do pay for having the furniture moved. And they told me that they would bring our furniture back in. I moved a lot of the stuff myself that they could have moved because it was bigger stuff. But I did it and they were ready to go out the door at 8:30 at night and I had to say "hey, could you guys maybe bring the recliner and stuff in because I don't want to drag that across the floor". I pay for that and they're not doing it. Of course, I know they were tired and they had worked until 8:30.

And then at this other time, when the serviceman was putting the floor down, we were going to have the big formal living room carpeted the next day. When he put the molding up from the dining room he said "I just want you to know that this molding stops right here and then you've got your old molding in the living room" which doesn't really match up, so it's kind of odd. And I said, "can we buy more molding to match that?" He said, "I don't know." And so I called my husband and I told the guy, "I've got my paperwork and we did pay for all these others to be done in the big living room." He hadn't a clue. He did not read his instructions or it was not clear to him.

When I talked to our salesman about what a horrible mess I had in my kitchen after they were done, I said that it was really unacceptable. Nobody wants to have beautiful floors and have to wash everything in the walls and the counters. It was horrible. And so he said "well they're supposed to bring in tarps and cover stuff up", but they did not. I know they get guys that don't understand a lot of English. I had a hard time communicating with some of the guys. I had to ask him three or four times "could you repeat that again" because I can't make clear what they're saying. But as far as the job that they did for me, I'm happy with it. I think it's beautiful and hopefully my husband thinks it is, too.

Also, the guys that came out here and put the carpet down, they were really professional because I was sick and I stayed in bed all day and they got their job done in no time, and they didn't make a lot of ruckus. They moved everything and put everything right back so they did a great job. I love the design of the carpet and it's really stain-resistant so that should be good. The color is good, matches up with everything and I'm real happy with it. It has absolutely met my expectations.

The installer says their paperwork shows 12x12 tiles when our contract shows 24x24. How is that possible?? They also told us that the tile doesn't come in the 24x24 size. But the sample we took a picture of clearly says available in 24x24. Finally, when they saw the wrong size of tile, the installer tried to tell us that the one we ordered was too big, and they probably wouldn't get it level. But that's what Joe sold us on!!! He told us that most places don't do it right, but Empire does the larger tiles and they are flat with no uneven surface. Who do I believe??? I'm concerned my floor will not look good or be installed correctly. Our POC Edgar says the order on his side shows a mix of 24 and 12 inch tile. How is that??? Initially, we were told at contract signing that we got $7k in financing, but when I called, they said we only had $3500.

The installers said they would need 3 days to install, but after the tile mix up they say they are now going to do it in one or two days. Does that mean they will do a crappy job just to get it done and leave? If it takes three days, then it takes three days. They said they would finish removing the floors Saturday but they didn't. Why couldn't they do that so that Monday they are ready to lay tile? This is not about the installer's convenience. It's about MINE! I have a tight work schedule, and must be back to the office Wednesday. I allowed for 5 days to complete the job. But now I sit here with my furniture all over the place and no progress is being made. And the only thing I got other than an apology was a 1.8% discount off of the hardwood floor. That's an insult.

So, as a result of your mistakes, and might I add that there were multiples, I have no choice but to cancel the hardwood flooring for my master bedroom. So my guests will see old ugly carpet for the holidays!!! But, I don't have confidence that you'll get it right, nor do I have another day for you to waste my time. The sale was great for you guys, but the customer experience has been subpar at best.

This morning (Fri) he had to drive back to Dayton to pick up luan and his paycheck and would be at our house at 10. We started making calls at 11:00 and he finally showed up at noon. I spoke with a "lady" in Customer Service and told her the story and her response "what do you want me to do about it"? I could go on, but I work for a living and have to get back to it. :(

My husband and I selected the flooring and we set the date for them to come out. It was a conflict with another time so they changed it to the following Saturday. Then they called and said that they couldn't lay the flooring until we got the whole account number and to let them know soon when I get something in the mail from the finance company. I was waiting and didn't get anything. The following week they called and said that they're sending someone out to lay the flooring. I was very happy and was like, "Look, I guess they got the information they needed."

They laid the flooring in October and that was bad so I hadn't made a payment as I don't know who to pay. I listened on my voicemail a couple of times as someone had called Empire directing to take me to collections and then I needed to give them the full account number which I didn't know myself. So I called them today and they said, "What, you don't owe us anything. You are approved." They told me who I was approved through for Tiva, for the amount of 6,000. "So you owe them, they financed you so you're good with us." But nobody has called and complained about anything. So I said, "Okay." and she gave me their number.

So I called and told Tiva about it. They said, "No, you don't owe us anything." We don't have any documentation saying that you had purchased anything." They said, "They had not found a bill. What were you set up for?" I said, "Twelve months before interest and I pay $150 already." And I was supposed to have $1150 balance. So she went back and forth she said, "Well, from my perspective you don't owe us and we haven't billed you. Your interest can't start and we have to be. And then we set things up, you'll receive the quote. Right now legally you don't owe us anything because they hadn't fix this thing." She gave the account number to me and said "call Empire back and give them that whole number," and I did.

Apparently somebody dropped the balls on Empire where they set to pay for it. Now they have the correct account number, they can only see the last four digits before and don't have access of it, I do. So I gave her that information and she had set everything. She said that in 24 hours they should have it. I wanted to pay it off, thinking it was $1150. She said "no, it was $1350" so that was the fees. Then I asked her about the $100 referral fee gift card for my daughter. She looked that up and saw her name but she wouldn't be able to get that as it showed that she got the floor and we only got an estimate, thus never received the floor. I told her that we received it but she said that would call back about it.

Then I went on to say, "Well, looks like you all should give me something for inconvenience to courtesy." From being called and harassed saying that we'd go to the bill collectors and all. She said that there were no records that they called and told that it was from the finance company. Then the finance company said no because they didn't even had that as their system showed we were only approved for 6,000 and hadn't seen a file bill from Empire. So it was just back and forth and here I am, wanted to pay it all and I don't have an invoice.

I was a little worried that nobody sent anything saying that I neglected anything. I had to do the research and find out what's going on to pay my own bill. I'm also dissatisfied right now because of the price discrepancy. My daughter still hasn't gotten her gift card and looks like somebody didn't do the paperwork right on time. But overall, I'm satisfied with them as the floor is beautiful. The guy that came did a wonderful, clean job by himself although my husband didn't go to mass on Sunday because he needs to be there to let him do it. His staff didn't show up so he had to come for two days.

The installation manager has apparently refused to call me back since last Thursday. Yesterday the information was given to the regional manager. And guess what? Even with your promises of amazing customer service he has decided not to call me back as well. I called today to get some resolution to this problem and was hung up on when I explained that simply leaving more messages for people to call me back was unacceptable. Your company is now not only holding my floors hostage but my life as well. A person cannot move into a condo if there are no floors. So Empire Today, how can you have a great rating with the BBB if this is the treatment your customers receive?

Our installation date was scheduled for 4 weeks later on a Monday. The Thursday before installation was scheduled, I called and confirmed the date the installation was to begin. Empire called me the next day (Friday) and confirmed the installation date a second time. At 5 pm that same day, Joel from installation called and said the job would NOT be done on Monday or Tuesday. They could do it Wednesday. I told them this was unacceptable because we were going out of town Wednesday afternoon for several days and we had been told it would take 2 days to do the job. After countless calls the price was dropped $350 and we were assured the job would only take 1 day and they would definitely do it on Wednesday (2 days late). We had already torn out our floor ourselves, moved the appliances out, pulled nails, staples and swept everything up ourselves.

The subcontractors showed up this morning and were impressed they could begin their work right away. And we paid upfront as instructed. They brought in the flooring and had a laminate flooring instead of the expensive hardwood Brazilian Cherry floor panels we ordered. Of course the floor we ordered wasn't available for them to go back and get to put down. We cancelled our order with Empire. We will do our own floor this weekend. I would not ever recommend Empire to anyone I am friends with.

After going back and forth with Mr. ** we settled on a price $3,450 for having two rooms and a stairway carpeted and a landing area at the top of the stairs covered in engineered hardwood flooring. We picked an initial install date in October and paid the deposit and Mr. ** was on his way. A week or two later a business trip caused a conflict with the initial install date and I called Empire Direct at their customer service number 800-538-2300 to talk about rescheduling. I told the guy the conflict and asked him for a new date. He said he was reviewing the local installers schedule and he then offered me November 10 as our install date. He said that we could not push the date any further than the 10th of November due to their 60-day policy and I confirmed that I will be sure no conflicts arise for that day.

On November 5th I got an email from Empire asking for me to call and confirm my install date of November 9th. (Remember we agreed on the 10th on the phone.) I thought about it and moved my schedule around to accommodate the install on the new date and then called and confirmed the install for the 9th. I have pets and they occasionally have accidents on the carpet so I elected to remove the carpet from my upstairs on November 8th and coat the floor with an odor blocking primer.

The contractor who helped me with the coating asked if Empire would be installing a vapor barrier beneath the wood and I told him I did not know. I decided to call Empire and ask as he was going to install a tar paper vapor barrier if not. I was informed by the lady in customer service that my order had been cancelled due to the install date exceeding 60 days from the date of the contract being written. I explained to her that I had received a confirmation email and followed that up with a confirmation phone call only 3 days ago on November 5th. She apologized and offered me $150 total off of my order and said she would not be able to schedule the install until the 10th.

Considering that my upstairs was now uninhabitable and my pregnant wife and I had accepted the fact that we would only be spending 1 night on the couch bed in the living room I asked for a supervisor. Her supervisor came on the phone and was very apologetic. He offered an additional $50 discount for a total of $200 off on the total job and said he was able to contact the local office and ensure the install could go ahead on November 9th as scheduled and confirmed by both email and phone call. I thanked him and went to bed.

The morning of November 9th I received a call from the head installer, Lewis (not sure about spelling) and Lewis told me that unfortunately when my order was cancelled on the 5th (the same day I confirmed it?) my product was removed from their truck and not delivered to the local warehouse. This meant that the install would have to be pushed until the 10th to allow the product to be sent from Atlanta to Raleigh. I again was very upset and was offered an additional $200 for my inconvenience.

On the morning of the 10th I received a call at 8:00 from the local installers and they arrived promptly around 8:30. The installers verified the product with my wife and she then took them upstairs to show them the area that was to be carpeted. They then took a detailed measurement, something my salesman never did, and learned that they were short both carpet and wood. Also some of the items needed to complete the install were never ordered by Jerry. My wife called Jerry and he was very rude to her and refused to talk to her after he spoke with the installer. I called Jerry and left him a voicemail which he never returned.

I am now looking at the third night in a row of sleeping on a couch bed that is making my wife's back hurt terribly. I called customer service and they said that there is nothing more that they can do to compensate me for this horrible experience. At this point I really just want to cancel this order and never deal with Empire again, however, I am stuck as I need to get my wife back in a normal bed and allegedly they are coming back to fix this tomorrow. Only time will tell...

The customer service representative was rude. Then I asked to speak to someone else and she took down my number for her manager to call me, and the individual never did. I asked about a discount since there was a shortage brought to my home and now I would have to take two days off from work, and was told I could be credited $50. With an order for almost $2500, I was expecting better service than that. PLEASE, PLEASE do not use them. Call Lowe's or Home Depot - Worst customer service and installation process.

So the next time I have anybody come out to measure, I will be on top of them because money is hard to come by. My son also got the exact same carpeting and there was very little waste in his rooms. He got the exact same thing about two weeks before mine was put in. We're both very pleased with it. He had gotten carpeting from that company before as well. I've got one more room, and eventually down the road I'll probably have Empire come in and do it. I'm trying to get the place up to par. It gets up in my ears when they have a sale and I kind of get everything right.

They told me to give them 30 minutes and they would try to get someone. I had to call them back at 2:40 in the afternoon to find out what was up. They said next open spot for installation was the next Wednesday, really!! That's 5 days away and I don't have anymore vacation days. I was going to have my whole upstairs done after this but now am thinking I may go back to Lowe's. When you make an appointment with someone, keep it or don't make it and confirm it than back out at the last minute.

After months of arguing, we finally had them come to fix it last night. The price went from $90.00 to $100.00 and the 4 men who came to the house to fix it admitted that it was the quality of the work when it was first installed that caused the carpet to ripple. So, not only did we pay them to do a bad job, we had to pay additionally for them to fix the job they didn't do properly in the first place. Very disappointed. And it's too bad because there is another carpet in our house that needs to be replaced, but we will NEVER use Empire again, after this terrible service!!!

We opted to think about it and he left to only start to bombard my husband with calls. Price was reasonable for OAK and our square footage. We decided to go ahead and start the job. The crew came on time. We knew it has to take 2 days to complete the job. Our whole family including two small children resorted to upstairs due to the dust. Next morning while waiting for the crew to come back to finish the job, I noticed boxes from the wood in the corner that specifically stated - SPECIES: ELM. So it wasn't just the name of the sample, it was ELM, not an oak. I contacted Mike to get answers on what is going on and why he sold to us something that is NOT OAK. He texted to me "I never told you it's an oak floor." After lengthy arguments and him being extremely rude he just said "I didn't have something that you wanted." I asked him "so that is why you lied to us? You came to our house, looked straight into my eyes and lied to me?!!"

Then he started threatening me. If you don't have what we want just say so and leave our house, pretty simple! There are plenty of companies who have and can install what we were looking for. I didn't get the floors I wanted and wasted money and hopes. For the money WE PAID we should not be threatened, yelled at, lied to! Hundreds of complaints regarding this company are TRUE. Please look somewhere else and don't repeat our mistake or many others that posted here. If you still decide to go ahead with them - don't allow salesman Michael ** into your house. This is not the person you want to make a deal with and you will be hurt at the end. I will be reporting him to their corporate office. The only positive here - the crew was great and I wish we would hire them independently to install normal OAK floors from another retailer.

Luckily, a saleswoman called me about a special promotion, saying I would get $150 my order. I asked her if there was a minimum and she said no - I asked her again, and she assured me there was no minimum. I scheduled an appointment for the next day. The saleswoman just left without my having placed an order - and you'll never guess why... YEP, there was a freaking minimum. So I stayed home to give this stupid company another shot and they screwed it up... for what must have been the 7th or 8th time. No joke, it is literally the very worst sales/customer service experience I have ever had in my life.

They set up an appointment for October 28, 2015 but canceled that on October 26. Now, we are awaiting new grout color (Santa Fe) that I picked out to be delivered as this is a special order grout. October 29, Mr. Tim **, Regional Manager telephoned. Said that he called to tell me about the grout being on order. He then mentions that $1,000.00 in compensation would be hard pressed to happen, or something along those lines. I tried explaining to him the reasons why I'm requesting $1,000.00 off of my bill as compensation. I have had to take my house apart about five times in anticipation of them coming to correct this issue. I have had to write numerous letters, extensive phone time trying to straighten this out. Have had appointments canceled numerous times, dealt with people that had no idea what was going on, been stood up for appointments, etc.

Now, if and when they correct this error, my home will be a dusty mess. Have you any idea what dust digging up old grout in three rooms will bring? I do. Mr. ** kept reiterating "Ma'am, ma'am, I'm not trying to fight with you, I'm trying to be respectful, I just called to tell you about the grout." I said "I, too am trying to be respectful and not fight with you. I'm just trying to inform you of my reasons for requesting compensation." He said that he would not be getting $1,000.00 off of the price from the grout manufacturer. I said that that was not the issue. If this job had been done CORRECTLY to begin with, we would not be having this conversation.

My time, stress, letter writing, being stood up, taking my home apart numerous times in anticipation of them coming, canceled appointments, etc., those are the issues. It is almost November and there is still no appointment set up for this to be resolved. Not happy with this company at all. Can't believe that a nationwide company does business in such a slip-shod manner. Oh, I forgot to mention that the tiles are uneven and there are loose tiles as well.

I spent a lot of time researching, and when I did get thru to the Corporate Office in Illinois, I spoke with a woman by the name of "Helen" was insensitive, and asked, "What do you want from us?" The initial restitution "offered" was a JOKE, when I mentioned reporting this to the NYSAG's office, another amount was offered. They are now denying they offered it. The follow up Call from the sales rep Rocco, today, THREE WEEKS LATER, was unbelievably rude. Not the persona that came into my home and made a commission. Horrible, Horrible, Horrible experience!!

I also advised them that my doors are scratched and so is the moldings and I mean really bad. I just paid to have the room painted. The regional manager stated, "We don't cover any of that." The tiles are lifted and I was told I was getting Porcelain flooring and they gave me Ceramic. Empire has very poor customer service, they just want your money and don't care about you. I didn't have pictures and the receipt with contract with me now, hopefully I can add later.

After my frustration I make another spot for Nov 17th. I NEVER get a call this time on when to expect the installer so I stay at the house the whole time until 2pm when the installer says he will be here in 10-20 mins. When they arrive they have me check to make sure the carpet is correct. When he come in I show them the areas and he says he is only suppose to do the living room, dining room and stairway but it was also to include for the 2 bedrooms and hallway upstair. So needless to say I STILL DO NOT have my carpet installed and my place is a total mess since I had my knick knacks moved since Nov 9, sitting in my kitchen and laundry room. I WILL NOT EVER RECOMMEND OR USE EMPIRE AGAIN. Totally disappointed.

Well this day came and I had to call manager to see if anyone was coming she goes on to tell me that the material had not come in and if she could schedule for the following day which I agreed. The next day came and once again I had to call her she said that because of weather, material still had not come in, so me being the understanding person I am agreed to schedule the next day. Well the next day came and still same result, no install. She goes on to tell me that she understand my frustration and that she would take some more off the price so I agreed once again and now the date is set for October 10th which now is two weeks pass the 1st date I was given.

I received a call this morning confirming appointment for today and installers did show but in a beat up van which you couldn't tell who they worked for. It was 3 Hispanic guys, had me come look in back of van to see if it was my product, afterwards he came inside to see the areas he would be working on and inform me that he had to put wood down before vinyl which would be 500 to 600 hundred more dollars. I told him no, just cancel the job and why didn't the sales rep know this and why was I inform today. Which he couldn't explain, afterward he said well I know someone who could do your floor and I’m thinking what kind of people do they have working for them. He is not working for the company, he is trying to steal their business. I would not advise anyone to every use this company for anything. They need to just close their doors because this is just bad business.

About another week and a half later a woman named Janet ** called me and said that the carpet didn't dry correctly. So I told her that it sounds like a product defect because all three rooms were dried the same way. She told me that they can replace the section I tore out with new carpet, which was not even up for discussion because a 2 year old carpet even with cleaning looks completely different from a brand new carpet. So she then proceeded to say that they will pay for material and I have to pay a $400 dollars for labor. I told them that it was unfair that I had to pay again for a defect that their product caused and they should absorb the whole cost. She told me that she would need her supervisor to agree to this and that she would call me back.

One month later with 3 phone calls and 2 voicemails unanswered, I was finally able to talk to a supervisor named Linda ** that decided to tell me that they would lower the price to $200. I told her that it was ridiculous how they have treated me and that they should be ashamed of themselves. I had to get the carpet replaced because I had a huge hole in my floor for the past month and a half and I couldn't live like that anymore so I agreed to pay the cost.

A day before the appointment, they decided to call me and tell me that they overbooked and can't make it. They did tell me that they would now install it for free, which was the first decent thing that they have done for me. We rescheduled and the second time they came they told me that they were going to install gold or silver floor transitions, which I told them that there was no way they were going to do that because they originally installed wood transitioner and it was even noted on my original order form. So yes once again I had to reschedule. The third time they came out, I told them to come early but they gave me a window of 9-11 which they ended up coming at 11:30. This time they told me they couldn't replace the carpet because I needed my husband to remove the closet folding door. I told them the original time they were here that they removed it and put it back together.

The guy said he doesn't do that and I should call my husband. I told him that there wasn't going to be anyone here till 6. By this time I was so upset, I have missed 2 days of work for them and moved furniture twice by myself all for this crap. I called Linda again and left a message. The guys told me that they were going to go and I told them to wait till I got a hold of someone so I knew what was the next step, but before I could get someone on the phone that I was on hold for 25 minutes, they left my house. So now I still have a hole in my floor, I still need to miss another day of work and I have to put everything back and take it out again. AND STILL NO ONE CALLED ME BACK!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE AND STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!

By 11 a.m., and no call, can't wait any longer because I have errands to run. Clearly, the Empire company believes that their clients' lives revolve around them rather than the other way around. I have decided not to go through with the project because there seems to be a lack of consistency in the prices they offer, and their customer service leaves much to be desired as evidenced by not following through as promised. I am just happy that all this happened before the work started. Based on what I've read here, the quality of their work is also inconsistent.

About 8 minutes after 7pm, I called again. At this time, I was informed that the estimator, Chris, contacted the management office to inform that he was not able to make it to the appointment. Somehow the communication was not conveyed to me. That was completely lie and unacceptable excuse. I know in fact that the call center log every call in the system and know what is going on. Also, the estimator had access to my number as well to inform me. I cannot express how angry I am and very dissatisfied.

He wanted payment in advance before they begin the work. I told him I never pay for work in advance; I will pay after the work is completed. He connected me with the office girl and then to the manager. Both of them insisted that I pay in advance - this is how they know that I have the funds to pay for the job!! And what if I don't like the job they had done? The manager said, "They will do the job to the best of their ability." So I sent the three young men away with an apology. I forgot to ask whether they were licensed and insured. We are going to get the job done by Home Depot.

The salesman measured the carpet wrong and the carpet installers came and could not install because they did not have enough carpet. I said no to Empire sales because their price was too high they sent me a card in the mail "call and we will make you a better offer", so I called and they told me they would send someone to remeasure the whole house. I asked for different representative because the one they sent was having a hard time hearing and doing stuff. They sent the same man and he only remeasured the hallway. He said that's all he needed to do then the carpet was wrong, not enough. The trim they told was either white or oak. Well what they put down is cherry color and does not match the trim I purchased to put in my home. I told the vinyl guy that the trim doesn't even meet the new trim I put up. He just looked at me and I said "well now I will have to replace it and have to pay somebody to do it."

I am very upset. I called the sales rep. I called Empire twice. I talked with the carpet installers boss. I received a phone call today they are putting my complaint to their team. Well hurry my house has been tore up too long I cannot put things back in place because the floor needs to be replaced. Empire needs to stand up and take responsibility for their sub contractors. I want my money back and my floor replaced because I was supposed to have my house back together by now - 6 days tore apart. I am very angry. I used Empire in South Carolina and did not have a problem, so I thought in Michigan it would be fine. No do not use Empire. I will be contacting my attorney tomorrow.

Then at the end of the laminate installation, the installer tells me that they don't have all the material they need to finish the job, missing over half of the transition pieces and trim to finish - so they will have to come back tomorrow. Ok, a little annoyed now. How can you be so far off to not have over half of what you need? Next day comes, they finish the laminate. Overall happy with their installation even though it took longer than expected. Next day, (so this makes three days in a row for a job that was supposed to be done in one) the carpet installers come and install the carpet. Install took a long time for one area, like ALL day long for just my steps and a hallway, but was uneventful other than that.

Now, the real issues begin. Now it is Aug (little more than two months after install), we notice gaps in the laminate boards showing up all over our living room. I call the main 1-800-588-2300 and put in the request for warranty repair. Get a call back the next day from the local office in Manchester NH to set up a time have the flooring people come out on Friday, the 11th of August. I take time off work, and no show, call the main number again told them they never showed up. Got a call back from the Manchester office at 3 pm saying they are sorry and rescheduling for the next Friday, Aug 18.

Aug 18th comes, and guess what, no show again and no call or anything. Tried calling the Manchester office, 1-866-5882307, and it only ever goes to voice-mail, try it yourself - voice mail every time, whose customer service line goes to voice mail? Still haven't been able to get someone out to fix the floor and I realize now after reading some other reviews, I should have done some research before hiring Empire today.

Needless to say I was livid. This was totally unacceptable. They had our carpet on the truck but was told to try and repair it if we would let them first. I didn't and insisted I was told to replace and he did 1 installer with 2 little boys by himself. He did not do the bonus room. I told him he cut the carpet by the hardwood flooring in kitchen a little short and he shook his head no. Now the carpet is unraveling there... tack strips are showing and I complained and complained. Another 2 people come out, took pictures and finally a manager came out and said carpet was cut too short so needs to be replaced. It has been scheduled 3 times by Empire and twice canceled on the day of install and a no show on the day of install.

I will never ever buy from Empire again and NOT recommend them. They should take care of their customers that have already paid a lot of money for their product and quit giving them the runaround. You call them and can never talk to anyone... you have to leave messages and have someone call you back. They don't care... They get their money before install that's why 5 months after the fact we are still waiting on our carpet to be done right. We are still waiting 5 calls again now. It was scheduled for yesterday and they called and canceled again. Surprise surprise that's Empire!

We called about it and were told that "everything scratches" "even diamonds scratch" and they were not going to warranty the floor! We paid $8,000 less than six months ago and they are telling us it is not covered? That decision solidifies my efforts to not only never use this company again, but tell everyone and anyone I know to choose a much more reputable company that values their customers and more importantly believes in their product enough to recognize this particular floor is inferior! The last time we purchased a floor for our old house, they left us with some planks in case we needed them, this time they did not. I have a 3200 sq ft house, they only did the first floor, I will call someone else for the second floor.

Yes I do have dogs and one of them is a really old small dog that does at times have problems getting outside in time. But I don't see it causing the type of damage that we see. We paid the extra money just for this reason just in case our pets did wet on it. I will never do business with them again. I had carpet for over 20 years that was definitely pet stained because we had a dog that was very sick... It NEVER shredded or came apart like this carpet has. Anyone that considers doing business with them anyway, be forewarned they will not help you if you need anything from them. They won't even help us fix this mess. The sales people will tell you anything to make a sale. Also whatever they tell you get it in writing so you have something to fall back on. Just please be informed as to what they actually cover... We didn't and we are paying for it now.

At 10:45am after waiting again, I received a call stating my job was cancelled again. I spent all morning moving all my furniture out of the house in preparation. I lost it and went off on the guy who basically hung up on me... I called my salesman to complain and he said that I should of went somewhere else. After calling Empire and demanding my deposit back, I was once again "assured" by Marco that the job would be done Thursday morning. Thursday morning I got a call from the installers and they arrived early and did a good job (sub-contractors from Rhode Island).

They did the entire upstairs and took extra carpet for the 2 stair runners. They said Empire would call me the next day to let me know when they would be back to finish the stair runners... as I expected, no phone call. I called numerous times and spoke to someone who said that they could not reach anyone in the office to get an answer. I was once again assured that they would call me back which they never did. I've emailed them, called them to no response... This company does not care about their customers at all!!! Do not use them ever and spread the word to everyone you know to go elsewhere. If I don't hear back from them soon then I'm demanding money back to have someone else finish the job. Empire you really suck!!!

I have had several conversations with Customer Service and Management, calling over eight times now with complaints and attempting to rectify the problem. After having to wait three weeks for an appointment for a contractor to make right the situation, they have not shown on two separate appointments now, as I have cleared my schedule and waited endlessly for their arrival. TWO NO SHOWS IN A ROW! Every time I speak to Customer Service, the employee places me on hold for long periods of time to get a hold of a manager, most of the time who never actualizes. Instead they leave voicemails for people who in turn have a clerk or phone representative return the call with a new date and time to sit and wait for nothing, without any true resolution to the problem.

They are so not worth the convenience of having them come to your home with samples of their flooring. The salespeople are just that, awaiting their commission. Once they have your money, no one wishes to speak to you. Go with a more reputable company. Save yourself the headaches and the rudeness and the absolute unprofessionalism. This company does NOT care about customer satisfaction or the customer in general, as much as they state that they do. They take your money and then treat you poorly, without any regard to your time, energy, or life.

They, in my opinion, are a total joke of a company, and they should not be allowed to get away with treating people in this way. There is so little one can do about the shoddy work and attitude that some companies instill in their employees, other than to write posts such as this. My only other two actions I can take are: to complain with the Better Business Bureau, which I intend to do and to hire a contractor to fix the problem myself and hope they reimburse me (which they won't), and then sue them. Perhaps I can have the cost of repair reimbursed to my credit card by going through my credit card company instead of Empire Today. Who has time for all that? I work full time and am a full time student, and have much better ways to spend my time. Don't do business with this company. They truly suck.

Again, after sending them numerous pictures of the problem areas, etc, etc, they said they would replace the carpet but it would cost me $250 because their mill said it looked like a pet stain or something similar... I said, "Fine, just get it done." As others have noted, a group of non-English speaking guys showed up to do the job. And today in the mail I received an "Accommodation Agreement" which apparently I was supposed to sign before they replaced the carpet... I am glad I didn't sign it since it basically says I am never to tell anyone about this, and bring no claims against them in the future, etc, etc, etc.

While I am very pleased with the actual carpet, the installers managed to break a small plastic piece that is essential to rehanging the bi-fold doors to all of my closets. They told me that they couldn't rehang the doors because I would have to have them trimmed at the bottoms in order to fit with the new carpet and padding. They never even attempted to rehang the doors to see if they would fit but, as I would later, discover... this was because they had broken all of the parts needed. The installers were in a very big rush to get out of here, saying they were tired. The next day, I hired someone to come in and trim all of the doors and rehang them for me. That is when we discovered all of the broken parts. I had been in contact with the GM over other issues and proceeded to send him pictures of what his installers had done. He told me to get them fixed and send him the receipt and he would take care of it.

It took four days to get the parts (they had to be special ordered) but finally my 8 sets of bi-fold doors were reinstalled. This was back in June 2015. In the middle of July, I received a phone call from Empire stating that they figured they were paid in full and that they didn't owe me any further money either. After arguing with the person, she said she would get back to me. Later that day, I received a voicemail stating that she was wrong and that they still owed me $150 and that the accounting department would be issuing the check that same day. It is now the middle of August and I still haven't been compensated for the damage the installers did.I have tried to get in contact with the GM on several occasions but he is ignoring my calls.

I am fed up with trying to deal with them and am actually considering taking them to Small Claims Court. I think that it is disgusting that they would treat a senior citizen in this fashion. Oh... did I mention that they also charged me $150 to move furniture? It is clearly stated in their contract that furniture removal was included in the price of the carpeting. I, did however, finally get that money back. I would NEVER recommend this company to anyone. They are overpriced to begin with, tell you it is "Buy 1 room, get 2 rooms free" but when questioned about the price per yard of the carpet, I was told they don't sell it by the yard but by the job.

They could not get a hold of the sales person but they went ahead and removed the carpet. When I asked about taking care of stains they said absolutely not. They went ahead and installed the carpet. Then it came to the vinyl floor. I said that they were to pull up the old floor. They said there were no instructions to do so nor could they. They needed to put down sup floor and then the vinyl flooring. I had to give them a ride to the lumber yard to pick up some sup flooring as they did not have any. They put down the vinyl and the transition from the carpet was about 3/4" with the carpet edge. They had to leave that, tell they went to Menards to get a different edge strip. When they left after day one I had such a mess. When my wife came home she notice that the vinyl was not the one we picked but it looked good so we did not have them replace it.

The following day the installer came back and installed the carpet edge strip. A representative from Empire came out and apologized. They compensated me 500.00 off my bill. At this time I was done but I had my carpet clean from Zerorez. I went about two mounts longer than I was supposed to and after they were done the carpet still looked broken down. It was not fluffy like where the less traffic areas. I paid the 75.00 for Empire to come out and they took samples, checked my vacuum cleaner. The person from Empire told me that Zerorez was not good way to clean the carpet that you need a hot water injection like Stanley Steamer. Empire would not even send in the samples stating that I was over the allotted time to have it cleaned. I talked to a Mike in customer service and he said he would send in the sample.

I called back some time later and he said that Phoenix carpet denied my claim and that he would check and see if Empire could help me out. Months have gone by and I called and tried to reach Mike but could not. The lady I did get in touch with said that if the manufacturer will not warranty the carpet that Empire cannot do anything. I said to the lady "so Mike lied to me about seeing if Empire can help me" and she replied no and I said "well if you said there is nothing Empire can do and Mike said he will check to see if Empire can help, what do you call that?" I hope this helps someone so they don't go thru what I did. What I learned is to keep your business local. I tried to save money with Empire but it did not work. I will be ripping up my carpet and have Carpeting by Mike from Somerset WI install it.

We were told that our job would take the whole day and to expect and early time for installation, due to the amount of carpet purchased. They called one week later (the day we scheduled the deliver) and said our time would be later in the day (I should have known something was wrong). I was told the amount due for balance (the total amount, which I expected). Then they showed up in an unmarked van with only the family room carpet. They said the other carpet was special order and had no idea when it would be in.

Then they expected me to pay for the family room carpet and installation (about $400)... which I refused because I had one check made out for the entire balance of the entire order (which I was told to have by the company that morning). They installed the family room carpet and the following day, I received a call that said they were taking me to collections. I explained that I never said I wouldn't pay. I would pay when they delivered and installed my entire order. I knew that in paying for the family room, I wouldn't see the other carpet for quite some time. Remember I have been living on a cement slab without carpeting due to water damage. Empire knew how important the installation date was to us!

I will now need to take a second day off from work. They shouldn't have even showed up and they should have waited for the entire order to be present. Actually, they should have been upfront in telling us that the other carpet was special order and we wouldn't have chosen Empire at all! I will never use Empire Carpet. Back to Smart Carpet.

The first day I noticed they had taken some food which they denied but I found wrappers in the yard. They also helped themselves to a bagel and some lemonade. He went to another part of the house and got my broom and I have never seen that again. Also when I was told the job would have to be completed on a Sunday, I asked him not to come until 9:00 am and he showed up at 7:00 am instead. The installer took three days to do the work and at the end, his boss and the manager from Empire came to see the job and he was fired and I was told the whole job had to be completely done over. Three different days I asked the guy to lock the door when he left and somehow he didn't do it. My house was left open for hours each time.

I was scheduled for the following Thursday for reinstallation and was told I'd get a call on Wednesday to confirm everything. The call did not come. I left a message and Brian, the installation manager called me at 6:30 the next morning to tell me someone would be there before 10:00 am. I got a call from the installer at about 10:15 that he was on his way. I left my house unlocked to go to work as he told me he was down the street. Apparently he got into an accident on the way and my house was left unlocked for 4 hours until I got home from work. Nobody came to do the work that day or to lock my door and I was not informed until 2 when I could get home.

When Brian came to inspect the original botched job, he took notes and told me that it was going to be really messy to pull the tile out and that he would instruct them to bring plastic to cover my kitchen door and that they would bring new quarter rounds and a few other things. When they finally arrived, Brian had not given him any instructions at all. I was told that Paul's supervisor (the contractor) would be present during the entire re-installation. I never saw him at all.

Three days into the reinstall, I was told by the Customer Service department that there was no reason for it to go another day, but at 1:30 pm it was nowhere complete and the installer wanted to quit for the day. He had told me the previous day that he had personal business to take care of. I told him that it was not acceptable and told him to stay and finish. He got really mad and it was obvious.

I work from home and had to cancel clients several times because of this issue. I teach yoga and fitness training. I told him several times that I had yoga clients coming at 4:00 pm and it had to be somewhat quiet for an hour. I thought that due to the trouble I've gone through it was not too much to ask. As soon as my yoga clients got there he pulled his saw in the kitchen and started to cut tile. As many know it is a loud whining sound. My clients walked out to the driveway and he was there with a smile on his face asking if I wanted him to stop. Both of my clients said that it was so obvious that he had done this to be a jerk. They left. I was so upset that I called him out on it and he left - job undone and a huge mess. So I was left with a half done job - and a huge mess. I will never let another person from that works for Empire ever into my house again. Luckily, I have not paid a dime yet and won't.

I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I have gone through. In my many years of owning homes and having work done on them, I have never experienced anything as bad as this. They lie to get the business and then you experience a series stressful and many times expensive chain of events. DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY.

Within 3 days, the floor turned black where a dog peed on a chair leg. Then the wood buckled up because they did not put down any Luan prior to installing the floor. I complained and after 2 weeks or so they came, laid down the Luan over the new floor and put down another floor on top of it all. Within 2 or three days the floor turned black. They no longer return my calls nor answer any emails. I spoke with other flooring companies trying to track down the issue and fix it. None of them had ever seen this issue.

In calling sales rep, said he would make contact w/ His mgr and get back w/ Me in am. Also told me had talked to crew and that there was feces all over and they would not do the removal. My hubby and I removed all the hair and mess we could, called and had to leave a message to sales rep, told him "I know we both wanted a smooth transition to continue w/ Our work," that I was available for anything he needed done, that 'clean up' was done. That was 2 days ago, still waiting for information.

Guess I could sue for breach of contract, but thinking price is high for a 50% discount. Lesson learned, you don't get something for nothing. All workers could not speak English but one. They are the ones that created the situation, since I had asked if there would be any problems or situation, to let me know, instead they went and created their own story. The rug is going to be thrown out, so there is no longer a health issue either, so??? This is Friday, will give them till Monday, give me time to think this out also if no results have not been made. Today is Friday 7/31/2015, they made their sale on Wed, will see what happens by Monday.

Little did I know every install would do with them would have similar issues and more. My second install, now working for Empire, they installed carpet in 4 bedrooms. The installers left a one-inch gap from the wall in one room, tack strips poking through (which punctured my foot, and a horrible seam. They came out and fixed all but the seam, saying it was the type of carpet I ordered. What I never understood was why was half the length of the seam done perfect? So, if you don't mind them coming back to repair what they screwed up in the first place be my guest, however I suggest you read on to see how bad it gets. My third job and most egregious was for tile and carpet on the wood stairs they installed years before. The tile was done first, the installers took no care in covering up cabinets when removing tile in my kitchen and scratched my new and professionally painted cabinets.

They do have a disclaimer about baseboards but this was much higher than baseboards, some as high as an 1 foot! See attached for a few pictures. I complained and was told they'd cover the cabinets in the bathrooms, they didn't, until I raised a fuss. Nor did they cover my carpet going into one of the baths and they got thin set all over the carpet I had put in less than a year earlier! I called to complain again and while doing that the installers used a rag and water to rub it into my carpet. I was told I'd be reimbursed, but I didn't pursue it as I didn't want to create any hassles with the company I worked for. I did after all enjoy my job. As usual the installers had to come back as there were numerous tiles that were so bad. See pics of a few When the installer came to carpet the stairs he said he'd have to rip out the wood. I knew wood stairs could be carpeted over, but he insisted.

I had to call the install dept to have them tell the installer it could be done. Was this guy hired yesterday or what? I was also charged in full that morning before the job started, but it was less than a day so I thought no big deal. Read on... My fourth and final install was for hardwood and tile in a home we just purchased. The day of closing a drunk driver ran through the front room. I had to change the order to remove the front room, then add it back in when the room was repaired. I also made a change to remove and replace tile in a laundry. The installer, who mostly does wood, complained it was going to be a hassle to tear up and thinking I might do some renovations in the future in that room I removed it from the order, but I did leave tile in the kitchen on the order. For that I was called a sales rep with half a brain by the general manager in an email he copied to numerous people in the company. See attached.

But that wasn't all I was charged in full $10517.00 again for the job before it even started a breach of contract and against the law in California. See attached charged June 4 job not completed until June 19! The job was not completed for 2 full weeks! Additionally, they ran out of product, not uncommon, and the installer was enraged so he left the warehouse leaving some of the product behind and couldn't complete my daughter's room as a result. No one could tell me when the rest of the product would come in. So I told install to go ahead a tile the kitchen since they didn't know when the wood would come in. It was confirmed and when the day came it was a no show. I was told they had no installers available that could get through the Temecula border check point. So they're known illegals? In the meanwhile I had a painter start painting. I informed the install manager they'd be finishing up that Friday 3 days.

On Friday I was out when the installer arrived. He walked into the front room where the painter was, took pictures and said "I can't work like this" and took off! He could have finished my daughter's bedroom and my office, which were on the other end of the house and separate from the painter. I called to complain and instead got a tongue lashing from the assistant install manager and general manager saying they got his pictures and that I couldn't expect him to work around the painter. So, I texted pictures of the areas to the general and install managers of the clear path the installer had and the areas, that were nowhere near the painter, that he could have done. I never did get an apology from anyone! I might add the painter was done by 1 pm that day! Almost 2 weeks later and my daughter was still without a bedroom!

The following day the installer ran the security gate in our community and refused to pull over until he got to my house! He exited his truck in a rage swearing at the security guard. I came outside and calmed him down and explained to security he was working for me. Had I not intervened he would have gotten a ticket and possibly arrested. The wood turned out fine, but after a great deal of stress and aggravation. I ended up canceling the tile order and turned in my samples. Bottom line is if you want the risk of them having to come back and fix what they screwed up, having them damage your property, out of inventory, being charged in full before the job even starts then Empire's the company for you! If not avoid them at all costs.

Thursday came. I called at 3:30. Asked when are they coming! They called the installer and said it will be late but they are coming, no show! I called the salesman. He told us we didn't call for a appointment! I told him the man's name and time called so he just said "how about Monday!" We agreed! They came on Monday and didn't have enough carpet to finish so had to reschedule the next day am. I got home and they did not put a transition piece from carpet to hardwood floor! I called the salesman - told him he promised they would put one in on Tuesday when they come out!

They came out and told my wife that he couldn't put it in because he didn't have any glue! For one thing!! You don't use glue to put a metal flange to concrete with glue. They had a young boy about 16 or so and two men who couldn't speak any English and the kid was rude to my wife! I called the salesman again. He said he would check into it! Now almost 6 hours later no call from him Empire! Never in my life have I had to pay before we got service. Had to pay in full before they went to work! If I was there I would have told them to keep moving and don't stop here again! Was going to have hardwood put in 4 more rooms upstairs and hallway! Not with them. BE AWARE OF EMPIRE.

They finally sent someone out and he admitted the job had lots of gaps and some boards (cracked) needed to be replaced. I'm sure they knew it would involve removing almost half of the floor boards. After a long while of not hearing from them, I called them again. They sent a man with a camera who took pictures of the shoddy work, and admitted the work was not good because of gaps and noticeable nails all over the floor. Yes, they called after I left several messages. They even sent more guys (I'm thinking they will actually fix the floor), but these guys told me they didn't do the job and I needed to get back the guys who laid the floor & they wanted to know the names of the workers who did it, and of course I didn't know.

I hired Empire Today to do the floors. That's all I know. They discussed charging me for repairs and I recognized one of the original installers. I told them to leave. Even though the lead guy did fix the cracked threshold and stated they should not have put down a cracked board. I even took off work before the guys came because they were suppose to come that Tues. of that week and the manager of the warehouse was yelling at me & telling me they were busy & that date to come out was on a Saturday. Of course, after waiting over half the day for the workers to show up, I called again and asked where they were. That's when the manager yelled & then apologized because he said he was thinking the date was for that Saturday, not that day - Tuesday.

Since I was renovating my house, I let time slip by, but I called them so many times for a couple of years. They never kept their word about getting back in touch with me, so nothing was done. Carmel with Empire was nice but I think it's a game to get people frustrated and to give up. They don't want to make good business deals. She made me run around, wasting business’ time & mine, because I had to get a repair quote for her (knowing she would not honor it) and then say she didn't get it. So I resent it 2 more times. She called back to say they don't carry the floor boards anymore because it’s discontinued, so I told her the repair estimate I got from other company could find it. Then she said they had to use their own boards from their stock but they don't have any.

I feel that the cracked and spaced boards should've had immediate action because Empire Today, the company, is who I hired and should have jumped to fix the floor. Aren't they concerned about their reputation? Obviously, they don't care and continue to take advantage & deceive people. It would be a lot easier for them to stand behind their work, no matter how long as it takes. They overcharge on their jobs and they don't care if customers are satisfied or not and I believe that's why follow up to customers aren't done. They send laborers that speak little or no English. I want my floor fixed without the pretense of trying to work with me. I do believe a class action lawsuit would put them in a place to realize we aren't throwing our money out, but to make you at least halfway accountable.

I will contact the State Attorney's office and BBB to file complaints. I will contact anybody who can help me to get part of my money refunded or fix my floor. If anybody, after all the complaints filed, use Empire Today, especially those commercials on TV, do not use them. Empire Today is AWFUL!!! Save yourself the headaches and frustrations and follow those many who have basically the same problems with Empire. And don't think they will stand behind their products and your experience will be better, because it won't be. Please listen... STAY AWAY FROM EMPIRE TODAY!!!

Original Review: July 22, 2015

The Empire customer service called and said salesperson 15 minutes away. Took off work for 10 am to 12 noon window. Finally came 50 minutes later and 15 minutes past noon. Never introduced himself. Never apologized. Told him to begin to measure and we looked at carpeting. Gave us an astronomical price! Lucky for us today only 1/2 off. Told him still too high. Called his manager, gave us a number $100 over his counter his manager gave him. I saw it on the paper! I asked our square footage. "Never mind, you don't need to know." Well, he added 100 sq feet to our bid.

The ONLY way I could get an estimate was to pay 10% down and sign my life away. So I did. Called for a sales manager to call me after he left. Three days later not a single call back from Empire. I cancelled the order within twenty four hours. HORRID experience. It was like bargaining in an open air bazaar!! Luna is no better. Used them two years ago and an arrogant man came with ONE Sample. I should have known better to even entertain using Empire, owned by the same company

The installer was at my house July 28th and inspected my furniture and my house and the flooring to make sure that they have ordered enough carpet and to see how they would move the furniture. They were supposed to install the carpet the next day which would have been Tues July 29th. Based on his suggestion he said for us to start August 1st so that he can bring more people and that they can finish the job sooner on Saturday. I said okay.

They started the replacement of my carpet August 1st 2014. Two people came and literally hostage my house. They were using laundry room door and front door to come into my house. They put all the heavy furniture with no coverage on my front entry, which is marble which was in perfect condition before they started working.

They moved the rest of my other furniture in my kitchen and in my breakfast area and we were held hostage because we couldn't use our kitchen and refrigerator and front entry. So, we were literally living on the front yard or backyard. We were not able to get into the house to see what was going on, or in some case use the restroom. At 7:30pm on Friday, we were informed that they would be back Saturday and he would bring 4-6 people to finish the job. They put some furniture back and some furniture on my front entry.

Saturday Morning they came back around 11am and there were about 4-6 people working. We stayed outside again and blocked out again hoping that they would finish the job today. Around 2:30 when my husband left the house to get something to eat, the installer came to me to tell me bad news, that they cannot finish the job today. This was because the carpet he had was different than the carpet he had yesterday. The color is the same, but the lot # is different. He wouldn't be able to match the seam and that I would be unhappy.

All my upstairs furniture, they shoved it in the balconies of my master room and my daughter’s balcony, and he said that he feels really bad for us because he has to bring back the furniture to the room, but can't put the furniture back because he will be coming back on Monday to fix the problem. He brought everything from the balcony and shoved them more into the bathrooms and we were all blocked out of our closets and showers, and restrooms and changing clothes. Everything was shoved in a small place. The only place we were able to use was the downstairs powder room, which has no shower. And we were able to only use the kitchen and family room. He said he feels really bad, but Empire would take care of you and give me some kind of credit, which they did not do that yet.

He came back on Monday August 4th, and he said that he will fix the problem for me. He has the right carpet he said and he left Monday around 8pm and he wanted a signature from my husband, and checked marked for where we would survey him. I told him I am not happy with the carpet change, and furniture was very much damaged and the seam of the carpet all over the house was very much visible. He told me the carpet is not thick enough for my home, and will shed. So basically, Empire needs to re install the carpet again, and he would come do the change.

Knowing that he knew from the beginning that the carpet is not thick enough, and knowing that the carpet they gave him was not the right carpet, and also knowing that he would have to come back and re install new carpet because of this. Saturday August 2nd, 5 people had to sleep in the family room on the floor with no pillow and blanket since we had no access to anything in our house and everything was locked out. We didn't have access to tooth paste and toothbrush and had to go out and buy them since the no access.

We had to use the powder room downstairs to brush our teeth. Based on his suggestion we had to call Empire Today and tell them what was going on immediately. And since August 5th 2014, we are calling Empire and letting them know what happened and what’s going on and little by little that 4 door stoppers were missing in my house, the base board was brother, doors were not closing. Baseboard and walls and paint have been damaged, and also couches. Also formal living room couches and glass dining table has been chipped at so many places.

The house was painted in Nov of 2013, and most of my paint upstairs had been damaged, including the kid’s bedrooms, master bedrooms, etc. All paint is damaged, and all bedroom sets also have been damaged. The installer did not put all the screws on the bed, and the bed was loosened. The formal dining room and buffet which has been covered with sheets since we moved in have also been damaged with scratches and dents. The chairs and coffee table and side table have scratches and also book case and office and room desks have been broken.

Also master place fire place marble have been damaged, and also the casing around the patio door because of the moving of the furniture. He broke the casing of the patio door in front of my husband, and told him he would come back and fix it but never did. All my marble have been scratched and chipped where the carpet meets the marble.

There have been so many damages on the marble that I cannot describe anything. The staircase has been deeply scratched and it is so excessive that I do not know what to do about it. Small picture frames in the hallway fell and damaged the frame and also the wall. And bigger tapestry pictures have been broken due to being fallen.

We have been following all the installers instruction to put things in box, and put the small items away, and I have 3 or 4 days to put things away. He never told us to remove any picture frames. Empire changed my flooring of my 5 bathrooms with the tile, and he also damaged the tile which was connected from my daughter’s room to the bathroom. There are so many chips in my kitchen flooring, and breakfast area. Pieces of the tile are gone, and he came back and shaved some of the pieces of the tile in my kitchen and laundry room to make the pieces straight. He did the same to my daughter’s bathroom, and for it to not be noticeable.

But, I have more carpet there, more than tile, which you are supposed to have more tile than carpet. Due to the rolling in of the heavy carpet, my washer and dryer have been scratched and paint has been damaged. We have sent pictures to Empire, they have sent supervisors to my house to look at the damages, and each time they tell me they are going to fix the damages of my kitchen flooring and marble. They said they are going to order marble “to replace your chipped marble,” and someone is going to come and paint where has been damaged and change the flooring for kitchen and laundry room with the same tile of the bathroom.

When the painter came to look at the damages, he said he has to paint the whole house to make it all even. For the stair case, even with sanding and staining, it will never go back to when it was normal in the beginning, so little by little they changed their mind, after all the promises Howie (installation supervisor), me to directly and Janet (Cus. Serve. Rep), to fix everything, they have only decided to give me 10% of the purchase price, which is about $830 dollars, and I rejected the offer.

They reported this to installer insurance company, and they came over and looked at everything, and rejected the damages due to previous existing damages. What I want to ask them is, if the damages are pre existent, the first of installer should have told me and had me sign some sort of paperwork. The first installer came to inspect my house on July 28th, and if there were any pre existing damages, he should have taken a picture, and sign something like two other installers that came and changed the carpet again.

Most of my furniture were new, and were kept really well since they were covered until the first installment. This tells any logical person, that there were no pre existing damages, and no furniture damaged. If so, he should have said something about it. After the second installer came to inspect the house, and when he was changing the carpet, while he was dissembling my bedroom set, purposely put the foot board and head board in the wrong place for me not to see the damages on my cherry wood furniture. I have trusted Empire due to the false advertisement on TV due to what they have promised.

For the second time the carpet has been changed for the second time in Nov. 12th of 2014. The second carpenter took an hour to look at the furniture and the damages and let me know the damages have been done previously to show me that they are previous damages, and he would not be held responsible. He did a terrible job of carpet installation. The cuts were horrible and easily seen and it took him 3 days to finish the job. He left the Friday at 4pm and said that this was the best he can do.

Meanwhile we are paying for the carpet every month through Wells Fargo. We asked Wells Fargo to help us to get our money back through them, and Wells Fargo is not helping us and we are disappointed with Wells Fargo because they are telling me to deal with Empire and not them. Wells Fargo is a credit card company, and I don't know why they want us to deal with Empire, and not Wells Fargo to get my money back for an unfinished job.

Anyhow, now the carpet has been changed for the 3rd time. The supervisors name is Juan, and he came over. He said that everything is wrong with the carpet and it has to be changed for the third time. On June 10th, the carpet was finished. I called the next day. We still have a problem with the stairs, with the size of the nails, and the carpet is pushing out on both sides.

I hope to never do business with Empire again. My life has been changed since August of 2014. I am still dealing with them and getting nowhere. I am calling them daily. It is frustrating not to get a response from them. I am only getting an email once in a while, and keep getting promises made but not getting any of them.

I took a day off of work and scheduled it for the following Friday, again NO SHOW!! I called them and said wth?!? This was 4 appts, no show. So they said they were so so sorry and would give me a 25% discount for my troubles. So scheduled for the following Saturday, AGAIN NO SHOW!!! 5 appts they never showed up for!!! Idk if it's that they don't like to service the Bronx?? Since they can't advertise that, I assume they just make appts and never show up! Wasted so much of my time and so stressful!!!

Being in the legal field this was completely unsatisfactory knowing I would have no evidence of the verbal cancellation. I again asked if order was formally cancelled and not until then was I told no and that I needed to send Notice of Cancellation to their Illinois office as stated in the contract paperwork. So in other words, rep said it was cancelled, but not really? Ended up having to pay $135 to send same day telegram to Illinois office.

This is the 21st century and yet Empire Today has no e-mail option to either send Notice of Cancellation nor to confirm? Check their website and you'll notice there is no e-mail address provided. Quite obvious they intentionally make it difficult to cancel. If you still decide to use their service and then need to cancel, be sure to dot your i's and cross your t's and get something in writing!

A year later, we are paid in full. The carpet is super cheap, the tile they swore was the hardest to damage is absolutely not. We have two marks in it, in the kitchen. Done by dropping small kitchen object that were not sharp. The top of those tiles is like paper!!! The laminate is basic. I could have bought better quality at Costco. It warps if I use the wet Swiffer. The solution from the customer service guy… "stop washing your floor so much". ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! To top it off, they don't do stairs so our little 8 stairs landing was left up to us to figure out. I cannot recommend them to anyone. This has been a very costly floor that will probably have to be done again in 5 years. Next time… I'll do myself.

Original Review: July 11, 2015

First experience with Empire, showed up on Friday. Was told would be completed in a day. Didn't finish (kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway) about 1/3 of living room. Told would only be about an hour's work and would be back Saturday... Ok. At 8 AM no one called salesman. At 10:30 AM, told first stop delay was to pick up materials... 1:30 PM, called customer service to be told someone would respond to me within next 24 hours. Would not tell me how or who to contact in Charlotte, NC office. I can say right now not happy with the fact they didn't bring enough materials for job. Also learned from a dear friend who used them same thing happened to them... First why walk through house and draw out rooms if they can't measure and know what is needed. From getting no help with customer service and sitting here with 1/3 of a room incomplete, would not recommend them. Please keep shopping.

I took off from work and rushed to home and found they had completed around 100-150 sq ft work and the hardwood was installed uneven with sharp edges on each and every joint. The installer said, "it's the material" and he is not happy either so I have to talk to customer service. He took few pictures and sent to the customer service, and at first customer service was trying to blame sub floor is not leveled and the installer had to use a leveler to confirm the floor was fine. Then the customer service offered another salesman visit with a better product.

So the next day a salesman shows up with another set of sample, and I tried to show him the work so far done, and he said he don't care what the work so far done. He was asked to sell me an upgrade product. His attitude was they are doing some favor to me for my mistake, and if I pay more money they shall upgrade the product. Then when I google them, I saw all these negative reviews. If I have seen these reviews before, I would have never gone for them. Their commercials are cheating and people can easily fall for it. I called and left message for cancelling the order. I will make sure I won't use them again, even if they do free.

I am still waiting when a man calls my phone from the Empire Today 800 number and when I said "hello?" he just kept saying "yes" and that went on about 4 times. So I call the same number back and of course it goes to the automated call center and the rep again gives an attitude saying she doesn't know who called and if it was the "rep", it would've been a cell phone number and not an 800 number. Empire Today is so unbelievably unprofessional to say the least and all the crap they say on their commercials are false advertisement. NEVER will I give them business. It started off poorly and I just know if their customer service is this crappy, their product will be too. I wouldn't take the chance!

Tonight I talked to the same phone person and he forgot all about our previous conversation. He again tried to force a sales rep to meet with me. He even put me on hold to call the sales rep who supposed didn't have the measurements anymore. I asked to talk to a supervisor. He refused to connect me to one. After demanding again he put me on hold. When the phone picked up again I got the same guy pretending to be a supervisor by the same name. He thought I was dumb enough to not recognize his voices. With all of these things happening it proves to me it is a company with no integrity and no customer service. So I want to let others know this is company to avoid giving your hard earned money to.

Original Review: July 1, 2015

Booked a consultation, and after waiting in the window they were going to come in, they called and said AFTER waiting 2 hours they weren't going to be able to make it. Should have been a sign. Once I did get the consult, I liked the salesman and feel like I got an average deal. They came and installed it. One of the carpet guys was especially rude - Telling me they were done with 2 rooms so I started moving stuff back in and they chewed me out because they didn't vacuum yet - then don't tell me you're done with the room! As long as the carpet holds up that doesn't matter as much.

The grout in the bathroom however, cracked after just one day. Called to schedule a fix, never heard back. Called again and they scheduled me for a tuesday. Make plans to stay home and they don't show and call to say they won't make it but will be there FIRST THING wednesday morning. Haven't heard anything by 9:00 so called in and said I would receive a call somewhere around 10. LOVELY. Just make me wait all day for the SECOND day to get YOUR mistakes corrected. Customers have no life right?

As for the idiot salesman that Empire sent out (maybe I'm the idiot for believing and listening to this jerk), he said that Empire makes their own flooring because they are so good and know the business. So why did the boxes of flooring say SHAW??? Also he told us Empire puts a coating of wax in between the floor boards which prevents any fluids or liquids from getting in between the boards. The Floor Doctor worker said that's absolute crap. There's already bowing, lifting, soft spots, and boards coming up, and I just got the floor paid off. I feel like such an idiot for going with this company and do not recommend them. I just fear for when the floor totally goes and they need to come make it right.

Anyways I lost my day of work and sales person said I can just cancel like if I never spended my 3 weeks back and forth on the line. Empire's problem is dealing with all kinds of contractors that don't want to work because they maybe don't pay them enough I guess then I ask my sales person how much if I did carpet. He only tells me that it's 566.00 cheaper than putting laminated floors. I told him how's that possible when you guys are advertising buy 1 get 2 rooms free and I'm only talking about 550 sq foot 2 rooms and hallway and 14 steps. I would never recommend them to anyone. They mislead customers or consumers.

Called her back the next day and left her a voicemail. Didn't get a callback. Kept trying over the course of the week and finally got her live on the phone. I had that conversation with her, she said she was going to contact a rep to come out to my home with some samples within a few days, and two weeks later, no one has come or called to make an appointment. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and gave her a few more days to see if she would call me back and did not. I called, left her another voicemail and she hasn't called me back. I decided to call their main number. Customer Service and explained to them what has or in this case has not transpired. The young lady that assisted me was very helpful, and she set up an appointment for someone to come by tomorrow 6/17/2015 between 7-9.

Why on earth I asked didn't ** (Orlando, Florida) follow through with her word. According to the Customer Service agent I spoke to today Ms. ** had marked my case closed. She never followed through and only called me that one time. Usually I take that as a sign not to do business with a company that hires unprofessional people such as she. Customer Service is the backbone of every business success. If they don't show up tomorrow, I will kiss that potential relationship goodbye and spread the word around.

I instantly got kickback when I said the trim was not removed and replaced when I called customer service. BTW the main number to call them at, everyone there is about useless. They don't put down everything in the notes and I had to keep reminding them to put specific things in there and would call next day and they still were leaving things out so I had to call them out every time. I got a pretty fast reaction after they said "we don't touch trim" and I replied with "It also states asbestos will not be touched" Be sure to call your local office if you dare risk using them.

I refused to allow the original installers back in my house. The first guy to come out and start fixing punch list items came with only half the trim needed and didn't know about the stairs. He then wanted to reschedule and completely avoided the stair issues of poorly installed carpet and a sloping nose where the laminate met the top of the stairs. He came back 3 hours later with no heads up. Luckily I stayed home.

He had to relay my guest room since original install didn't remove trim and laid up to it and nailed quarter round to it. He then installed new trim throughout my upstairs. After that the laminate floor looked good. Stairs and slope still needed to be addressed.

A week later another guy comes out to relay stair carpet and fix slope at top or so I thought. He shows up and amazingly he was NOT AWARE there were stairs. I explicitly listed these 2 items for repair. I am amazed at how poor the communication is at this point and we reschedule yet again. A week later a different guy shows up and fixes the stairs and slope flawlessly.

At this point I can say the install issues have been solved. The manager offered to get an asbestos abatement company out to give me a clean air certificate but I still have yet to see anything on that or be contacted by a company. The laminate, trim, and carpet looks good now after 4 different people have been to my house and nearly 4 weeks of back and forth emailing and rescheduling. I am awaiting a response from the manager to verify all is done and I will be requesting a discount. I don't think I'd use Empire again unless I get hefty discounts and can hand pick guys from the numerous ones that came out to fix things.

Original Review: June 15, 2015

First off let me say I had Empire at my first house to replace carpet in my living room with bamboo flooring. It was pricey but I did get a discount of 500 when calling to cancel. Overall it was awesome. A 4-man crew came out removed carpet, popped off the trim, floated the concrete and installed my floor in about 5 hours. It looked great and I said to myself, self you could use them again. Side note-I work 7pm-7am and this story contains asbestos.

Round 2- Sales rep comes out Wednesday at my new home which is a 2 story. Want to replace all carpet upstairs with a laminate that resembles what's already in the bathrooms. Find one that's almost the same color just not as wide. No biggie, I can live with that. I rave about my last install and how happy I was. Verify I will get the same quality again. Was told 1-day install along with being told trim would be removed and replaced as it was last time. Great. Signed for next day and got some pleasant discounts along with their buy 1 get 2 free sale. Still was 5g but they did throw in free carpet for the stairs since they don't do wood on stairs. Another great sales encounter with Empire. Now on to the install.

Day 1, The good - Removed carpet in hallway and 2 bedrooms. Come to find out I have asbestos tile in this old house. Installer gets manager on phone. I'm told it COULD be asbestos (It has sparkles and is the traditional 9x9 size of asbestos, it is asbestos). I have new options now. Halt install and get abatement company or lay over it. I'm fine with laying over it. Asbestos is an issue when it's demoed and broken up. Lay over it I say, well there's a catch. Since it causes a height variation they can either float it or break up the rooms in the doorways with t-molding and install the floor in each room separately. Normally they'd charge but they're doing me a favor so we can continue with install. Cool, let's do that. So far so good.

Day is ending and they tell me it's gonna take another day and they'll be back tomorrow. Ok. Due to the nails and tile delay in room I can understand. But I don't see why a 4 man crew wasn't sent like last time, especially since this job was nearly 3 times the size. Smallest room is prepped with underlayment and guest room is complete.

Here comes the bad. Trim was not removed and quarter round was nailed to the trim. There is now about a half inch gap from end of floor to wall and it looks awful. Who does this? I didn't look until after the guys left. I call customer service first thing in the morning to bring this to attention. They try to call the install office but can't get anyone on the phone. Installers are on their way though. I ask right away about the trim. "Oh we don't touch that," he says. Then why was it done on my last job and also stated by the sales rep it would be removed and replaced? It looks incorrect. And lastly why wasn't this brought to my attention before making such a poor decision to leave on the trim?

I'm already not going to get any sleep before my shift today and I am told I can either get really wide trim or redo the whole room and we can move to a 3-4 day install. I ask to just remove the trim from the other install areas and I can put it back on if it's going to be an issue and maybe I can find something that works in the guest room. Ok installer says "but you're gonna get a call from the office to confirm this request." NO CALL. Remaining trim was removed and broken and could not be re-used. Great, thanks. My wife comes home and sees it for the first time and she's not impressed with quarter round on trim either. But I was tired of being told all the things they don't do and figured I'd take it up with customer service and/or the installation office.

So now the 2 rooms are done and we get to the master. They find more asbestos tile in the closets. Well we are starting to look like it's gonna be a 3-day job now and they decide to disturb and remove the asbestos tile from the 2 closets in the room where my wife and I sleep. I have to leave for work and they still have hallway and stairs to complete. My wife will supervise the finish. 9 pm they are done and gone.

My guest room does not look good with the trim decision made solely by the installer. I have an itchy throat which I am not sure could be related to asbestos or not. I have no trim in the hallway or 2 rooms. But the install overall looks pretty good. The carpet lacks in that aspect and you can tell it was done when they were tired. I am awaiting a call back from them on how to resolve this issue and will be sure to update this when this matter is resolved. Also they don't check all the boxes on the certificate of completion so they may try to back pedal on that as well. I never got the call back on my initial complaint of the trim and request on trim issue with rest of house since they were backing out of what was told to me would be done to properly install the floor with a nice finish. I would have like to have spoken with a manager while the install was being done.

However, I wanted all the carpets to match, so we wanted to replace it. We brought the salesmen into that room, and said, "This is what we want. This feel. This padding, and we want that throughout the house". The salesmen said "No, problem, you want our 7lb pad. We can upgrade that throughout the whole house." Then went on to talk about how great it was and would feel. We were excited, couldn't wait to have everything installed.

First, they came to do the laminate floor. Barely spoke english, but I was ok with that as long as the work was done right. Not only did the put a hole in our wall, the trim looked completely ghetto. They didn't cut the corners, it just stopped. They also didn't fill any of the nail holes on the trim. It looked horrible. We called and complained, and they came out the following week. Same 2 guys who didn't speak English, and he couldn't even understand what wasn't done right. I tried to explain by showing him pictures. So they tried again. He did cut the corners this time, but it was so crappy that he had to fill every corner with this peanut butter looking putty. Literally just globbed it on and left it that way. It looked disgusting. Not to mention still left the nail holes.

So we called again. Now I cannot speak badly about the third crew to come, they did a great job. Wish they could have been the guys to come the first time. Now that's just the wood floor. Onto the carpets. The carpets don't even feel like we put ANY padding underneath. We might as well have left the wood floors! Feels like we did! So we aren't living in the house yet, we stopped over the following day to show the kids the new floors. Within 15 minutes of being there, my one year old was sitting on the newly carpeted steps, and got hurt from a nail cutting him down the back of his leg. We were furious! The poor kid was scared to sit back down on the carpet.

When we called to tell them their employers left nails sticking up everywhere and that my son got hurt because of it we were told "Well send us a medical bill." Is that a joke? My one year old got hurt as a direct result of their employees negligence. So someone came out to take pics of everything and nail down the nails that were sticking up. He too, could not believe the nail we showed him that hurt our son. He said that should have never even have been there. So at this point we are extremely dissatisfied, we get tossed around to different customer service representatives. Although some were kind, more than half were ignorant. Including the manager. My husband got into a nice feud with him. He told my husband they are not responsible for what the salesmen told us, because the contract says 7lb pad, and that's exactly what we got and to take them to court. Basically calling my husband and idiot.

Is the salesman not an employee for empire? How can they not be responsible for what he promised us??? He completely misled us, but that's just too bad for us. After refusing to speak to the ignorant manager of the Philadelphia office, the regional manager calls and is just as rude. Kept talking in circles and contradicting himself. He said he was calling to speak about the carpet padding. I brought up the issue with my son. He said I can't talk to him about that, he's calling to discuss the carpet issue. I say, "well who can I speak to, to discuss everything?" He says "well that would be me..." Yet, he wouldn't let me discuss other things. He said they were in the past and had been resolved? Well who the hell resolved it? Cause it sure wasn't resolved on this end.

He then asks me what type of compensation I want. I came back with 30% off the total price (they already said they would give me $400 for what happened to my son and aggravation from the whole wood issue). So with that said, I was asking for $1400 off of the carpet (we paid almost 6k for carpet alone). I don't think less than 1500 on a 6000 job is unreasonable. Cause we are now stuck with these horrible carpets we did not ask for. Apparently that's too much. So they come back with $700 for the carpets and $400 for my son. $700 for being completely misled by the salesmen? So we have to pay over $5,000 for carpets that are not what we asked for. And he said "I'm sorry you're dissatisfied, its the best we can do".

Their second option was to replace our padding. They've told us several times they do not have soft padding like we should the salesmen, that doesnt exist anymore. So they are offering to replace the padding with yet another padding we don't want.??? Ha, that's the best they can do? Absolutely unacceptable. I want them to come and rip everything out and give me a full refund. We were told they have the product we want, and that's what we were going to get.

Now after paying $6000 upfront, they come out, screw up, do whatever they want, and when you call and say that's not what you were told you were paying for, they say its too late. Because they don't have the product we thought we were paying for. Had we known that in the beginning, we would have went with a different company who DID have what we asked for. Please don't make the same mistake I did, READ REVIEWS. You'll see on here they have 1-2 stars tops! I guess I'm the idiot for reading all the "wonderful reviews" straight from their website. So obviously they aren't true... don't make the same mistake I did.. spend the extra money and go with a company who knows what they are doing and not just try and screw you out of your money

They had to call the boss for me to speak to me as he was the only one that spoke English. 5 o'clock they are here and I don't care if it is midnight but they are going to finish tonight. Biggest mistake is to pay up front but they won't do it any other way. So if you get them to do any work, tell them you want someone who speaks English and then tell them you want a finish date and time. My problem is that I don't have a man here. I am old and a widow, so they think they can get away with it. I never did ask if they had insurance but it must be through the company. These guys are outside contractors so they don't care. I am way over it and my blood pressure is up! It is not the installers fault, it is the boss' fault. He hires them and tells them what to do and when to do it.

When they came back, they made fun of my daughter, called her "stupid" in Spanish. They put molding on paneling with 3" nails and put two nails in my hot water pipe. Can't go thru their insurance because I, as the homeowner, was supposed to tell them where wiring and pipes are located. When did anyone tell me this? They never asked where they were located. So I have property damage and loss and am stuck paying more money to fix their mistake. Who nails 1/4 inch molding to 1/8 inch paneling with 3" nails anyway? Should have nailed to studs and used wood glue. Do not buy anything from them. I was told by salesman that there have been several complaints about installers yet they still use them. I don't even believe they knew what they were doing. I am not even sure all of three of the installers were legal.

The installers told me they would not do the installation because I had too much furniture. I was told I had to move the furniture out of each room. I was shocked! How was I supposed to move all of the furniture? Also, where was I to put the furniture? I talked with a supervisor because I was so angry. The supervisor verified that I was to move all of the furniture. I told him about the salesperson not showing up to help me. He said he would have the salesperson call me, but I never heard from him. Since that day I have priced carpeting at other businesses. I have verified they will move my furniture. NEVER USE EMPIRE---THEY LIE!!!!!

On installation day, the top guy was madder then because of the parking shortage and seemed to hold me responsible. No explanation, defense or suggestion was sufficient. Okay. Well after a while, I'm mad! I asked him if he was looking for a fight because he was so argumentative. Remember now, I resemble a 78 year old deceased woman, and here I am ready to take on an angry 30 year old muscle bound he-man. Guess whose gonna lose? Likely me the granny at the moment, but ultimately he the bull.

Fortunately for both of us, he backed down, but it was a little harrowing for a while there. I ended up fleeing the scene (calmly leaving, really), and came back a few hours later thinking the job was done and we would never meet again. Wrong! He was still there, working away, and was as kind and polite as could be. Seems we came to an understanding at last.

Final prognosis: the flooring looks great, but I didn't expect insults and battles and other scary possibilities when I first contacted this company about making a large purchase. Will I use them again? Probably, at least as long as I can withstand comparisons to the dearly departed and do verbal battle with tough guys who melt. Have a nice day!

This company is a joke. The flooring that was down was still good that we pulled up. I just wanted a change. They didn't even offer any options to help us fix this issue. I've learned a valuable lesson here. And this company is not low cost. I'm having someone come in and do the job. And I'm getting ceramic tile done like I wanted in the first place. Instead of the cheap vinyl flooring. Please read up on these companies before having something done. They will promise you the world and not deliver. There are good contractors out there that can do just as a good job has a big corporation. Support the small business owners. You get better work ethics. Thank you.

Different levels of management have followed up with me via phone calls to apologize for the inconvenience and to make sure I am satisfied with the finished product.

Original Review: June 3, 2015

My luxury vinyl flooring was installed on May 26, 2015 but the stairs were left incomplete with the installer giving me his assurance that he would be back to finish by Sunday, May 31, 2015. I have not heard a word from him. I have called Empire repeatedly and I get the same answer "The local installation manager will call you." Well he/she isn't calling me and I can only assume it is because they already have my money and I am no longer a priority. The first call I made I was on hold about 15 minutes and then I was assured that the local installation manager would contact me within 24 hours and get this taken care of. I was never contacted. The next call I made I was put on hold for over 30 minutes before I was even able to speak to a representative and then I was put on hold several times while speaking to the representative.

After several attempts the representative had contacted the local installation manager and was patching the call through. As soon as she said "Go ahead you're connected," the call was disconnected and neither one of them bothered to call me back. When I finally reached them again it was by pushing the prompt that said, "Calling to schedule an in home appointment," and what a surprise I did not have to hold. The representative said that it was noted on the account that I had been disconnected from the previous call in error. When I asked why someone didn't call me back she did not have an answer.

This afternoon I contacted the sales representative with a text message, she sent a text message back saying "I'll take care of it today." That is the last I heard from her and now she does not respond. This is the most unprofessional way to treat a customer that I have ever experienced. I am completely exhausted from making phone calls, being on hold for extended periods of time and then being disconnected and having to start the process all over again, all in an effort to get the job I paid for finished. DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER BUYING ANYTHING FROM EMPIRE TODAY. I am regretting my decision more and more by the minute.

Couple weeks later my window unit broke and I had water on the floor. Not worried because the floor was water resistant right. So I cleaned it asap. But noticed the flooring was starting to warp. At least I placed the added insurance on it to get fixed. Called Empire and they said they would send someone to look at it. No one person ever came. I called them back and they said they couldn't help me. So I was like "well I guess I'll stop payment until it's fixed." They said "No problem." It's been paid for so the company they got to pay the floor may have a problem with me not paying. Well I'm not paying for a floor I ended up having to replace myself with the same flooring from Home Depot for less than half the price.

So even though they weren't into vinyl a few years later, I had gotten tired of going to local flooring places (which I was trying to patronize) and being ignored, or given very high prices for product alone. And I was surprised that their selections weren't all that great either. I called Empire and they said they did do vinyl but it was evidently not as evident (now it's on their website) then. They sent the guy out and I picked the vinyl - again, not a lot of selection, but as I said, the local shop, with books and books to look through - they all looked similar anyway. I found a nice one (that my friend swore was tile) and have been happy with that ever since.

So I made an appointment to simply priced hardwood and another carpet. I had been doing research on engineered hardwood vs hardwood and checking out different prices online. I was expecting a very high estimate but I was quite pleased with the price for both an engineered exotic hardwood floor with a 50 year warranty (I'll be dead by then!) and the carpet. Again, I got personalized service and a patient and lovely salesman (said he was the same guy who sold me the vinyl flooring but it was so long ago...we've all aged since then!) I really have no complaints about using this company. Since I usually only come on sites like this to complain like everyone else, I thought I'd give a thumbs up this time (I was a bit surprised when I was researching and came across all these horror stories).

The installer showed up on time, came into house. Showed him the first room for install and was immediately told they would have to rip out existing floor and install a new subfloor for an additional fee of $1390.00. If we did not do this, Empire could not give us a warranty on the floor and would probably come up within six months. The installer called his supervisor, sent pictures, and his supervisor supposedly called corporate who then informed us that this is the price for the job and they couldn't do anything for us.

For a company who takes pride in customer service and their product, should train their sales staff to know how to check every detail of a possible new job, not to come in and sell it to make commission and leave such a huge error on their part. I called my sales rep while installer was waiting for decision from his supervisor, and surprising enough he really didn't remember selling job just one week earlier. Really!!! Told installer, "No way am I paying anymore," and cancelled job. I will not ever call this company again nor will I recommend them.

Notified them immediately and told them I wanted compensation for a two day job that has now spread to today May 24, 2015 and the discrepancies are still not fixed. The floors creak and the grout is still damaged, the floor has Boeing in it and the carpet is not complete. Acted day job turned into nine days of missing work and it's still incomplete. Somebody from Empire needs to make this right by compensating my time, frustration and their lack of finishing a job for which I paid for up front. If they do nothing by Wednesday I will be seeking council. Already had another contractor come look and they told me it's the worst installation of carpet and hardwood they have ever seen. The entire floor needs to come up and redone. Empire here I come and shame on you for your lack of customer commitment, taking my money and not delivering a solid complete job. Still not done and I'm furious. Your company is a joke.