Empire Today

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I called three weeks in advance for an appointment, the day and time roll around, I am waiting patiently. I call the customer service # and am told that no one was available for my appointment. NO ONE could be bothered to call and let me know that they were not coming. I don't care how good the "sale" is. I will not be using this company to re-floor my entire house.

I am writing this note to document the absolutely disgraceful experience I had with Empire Today.

May 10th: One of Empire’s “Flooring Consultants” came to our new home to measure and provide pricing. We informed him that it was critical that our carpet be installed in our new home prior to our move on May 19th. Obviously, it’s much easier, less work and less cost to install carpet when there’s nothing there. By the way, I won’t name the consultant as I happen to believe his intentions were OK. In any event, after checking with whomever he checks with, he assured us that our carpet would be installed on May 17th. We had actually priced carpet elsewhere and knew that Empire’s pricing was a bit higher. But, for the convenience and commitment to have it installed when we needed it, we decided to pay that premium.

May 16th: Empire’s Customer Service Department called to say we’d be getting a call in the morning to let us know when our installers would be there.

May 17th: I received a call at approximately 7:20 with a message that Empire would not be able to install the carpet today because they had no installers available. But no worries as they’d be happy to install it a few weeks from now. I was beyond frustrated and disgusted with the customer service representative who offered nothing other than dates two weeks from now. After I cooled down, I thought of a simple idea, why not ask if they could install it tomorrow. I called customer service back and after some holds and checking, I was told that yes, in fact, they could install it tomorrow. Again,I was told that someone would phone me by 10:30 to let me know when they’d be there. I also received a text confiming that my carpet would be installed tomorrow.

May 18th: By 10:30 I had not received a call from an installer. After calling customer service, I was told I’d be hearing from someone by 11:00. Still didn’t happen. At 11:10 I received a call from the Tampa office who informed that they would not be installing my carpet today. They had no installers. When I asked why I was told they would be installing, I was told that customer service just says that and they really don’t check with the offices who do the installations. Again, I was beyond disgusted. I cancelled my order.

This is a disgrace. It shows a complete lack of integrity and it’s the ultimate in bait and switch. I committed to working with them for the specific promise made that they clearly didn’t care about keeping. This company should not be allowed to do business this way with no reprucssion. I know I’m not the only dissatisfied customer as there are 524 negative reviews on the Better Business Bureaus website. I intend to continue to make this experience so others won’t be subject to the same disgraceful treatment.

The experience kept getting comically worse. After posting the narrative above, I was finally contacted by a real-live human being. He barely apologized before offering me $200 off to re-schedule the installation. I told him I’d check if we still wanted it and would get back to him. A day later, a completely different person called me and offered me an additional $150 to re-schedule the installation. Wow, they must really mark up the carpet if 2 different people can know the price off this easily. This past Sunday, I was sent an email to confirm an installation on June 1, a day I never suggested, asked about or discussed. I called yesterday to cancel my order and was told it was already cancelled. And finally today, I was sent a robotic customer survey to ask “Why I chose not to do business with Empire Today”. Pathetic.

About 5 years ago, I had laminate and carpet installed in my home. The installation went well and on time. However, during the past year (when there is no longer a warranty), the laminate started to spread apart in one interior section of the dining room. About 7 planks separated from each other on the short end. There is no moisture of any kind present in that area. Now, after calling since March (it's now June), we have finally arranged an appointment for the "inspection" of the problem at a service charge. The inspectors were to come out this morning, finally calling from 70 miles away to tell me they would be at my home in 1.5 hours. It is now 4 hours later and they have not yet shown up. When I called the 866 number to find out when they would arrive, I get a recording telling me that they are not available via voicemail and no human responds. I am still waiting to have this problem taken care of but will never do business with these people again.

We had a broken pipe flood our basement. I chose to put down hardwood in one of the rooms after it was all cleaned up. Empire told me laminate was better, so I tried to put that down. Then they told me that the floor was not flat enough for it so they told me to put in LVP (Luxury Vinyl Panel/Plank) which was also waterproof and had a lifetime warranty. Within days, moisture was coming up. I thought nothing of it as it went away. After we got a LOT of rain, however, the moisture turned into puddles coming up from between the slats along with some sawdust-like material, possibly glue. I called Empire and their expert told me that it had to be a crack in the foundation, but that they still put down a moisture barrier so it wasn't their fault - though he didn't CHECK to see if there was a moisture barrier installed. I called insurance and they won't cover a crack in the foundation. Empire calls me back and tells me I'm not covered under warranty and that their LVP is not water proof. I'm out $1300 and lots of time because of these jerks.

We spent $6300 for flooring most of which was for a waterproof luxury vinyl for our kitchen/dining area and our laundry room! I was very clear about the fact that I wanted these floors to be completely waterproof! The floors do appear to be but the quarter round they used around the edges is a different story! In the first place it looked very weird because they left our baseboards in place and put the quarter round in front of that! When I asked about that they said that was standard installation procedure but the fact is that this quarter round is very cheap and not at all waterproof! I use a mop with a sprayer to clean the floors and this has dampened the quarter round causing the paper covering that is on there to peel away. Several places have gotten wet and now will no longer be the matching color of the floor! I contacted them and they said they could fix it for an extra fee! We paid a lot of money for this flooring which is supposed to have a long warranty but their customer service is non-existent! I usually check these places thoroughly before doing business with any company but somehow I missed it with this one! I wanted to let people besides just my family and friends know about this company so maybe they will not make the same mistake that I apparently did! I gave them one star just because there was nothing lower!

I have had this carpet for 3 years now and I had to call Empire to come back to stretch my carpet. Now my carpet needs to be stretched again, it looks awful and I was told I had to pay close to $300.00 to stretch it again. I have owned carpets in the past and never had a problem like this. Why am I being charged so much for something that should not be. I live alone and certainly do not have a lot of traffic. I do not want my carpet to look this bad. I certainly paid enough for it. I will never consider buying carpet from Empire ever again.