Empire Today®

They did an Excellent job!!

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Prior to Empire Today coming to our home we had several estimates provided by other companies and had a general idea of the expected cost. Empire's initial estimate was $7000, which was at least $2000 above the 3 other estimates we received. Sales rep said he would and quot;call his manager and see what he can do.and quot; 5 minutes later price came down to $5000 but we had to install within the next week. We agreed to install in 2 weeks. I did some research on the product (mid-grade polyester) and pricing and decided to cancel. I called customer service and attempted to cancel and they offered to take off another $500. I said I'd think about it and let them know. I called back a few weeks later and they offered another $500 off. So, we went from $7000 to $4000 in a matter of weeks. Even at $4000 I felt the product was overpriced so I cancelled. We went with a different local company and it turned out great!

We purchased replacement carpet from Empire over two other vendors. They beat the nearest vendor by $300, the quality of the carpet was supposed to be comparable, mid-range carpet. Empire advertises discounts and their salesman sold us on multiple discounts, including next day service discount. Since he was the last quote we were planning on getting, and we were ready to move, we went with the next day service and his discount. Big mistake. First, I was told to expect the crew around 9am Friday morning. We were called at 9am by the warehouse telling us that 'the delivery truck was late' due to rain and that the installers would arrive between 11-12. Great, we are talking a big job, 4 BR, halls, closets, stairs, and family room. Complete tear-out, furniture removal, carpet install, and furniture replacement. The crew didn't arrive until 1:30pm after several calls to find out where the heck they were. On top of that, they sent a 2-man crew! This was at least a 4-man job. I was assured by the salesman (whom I also called) and the installers (when they finally arrived) that they could complete the install that day. The caveat was that it may take till 8pm to complete the job. At 7:30pm it looked like they had two rooms and steps left to carpet. I asked them how much longer they thought it was going to take and they said 3 hours. I was stunned. I have kids, all beds were dismantled, so we couldn't just say stop and restart tomorrow. 11pm rolls around and they were finally wrapping up. I did the walk-through at 11:15 and for the most part the carpet looked OK. Some seams I wasn't terribly happy with, and then I saw one ransition strip from carpet to linoleum in MBath. There had been 1-1/2 transition strip previously; they replaced it with 1/2 inch half round that didn't even cover the end of the linoleum. I could see the end of the linoleum curling up complete with staples. I asked about it and he said that he had the proper strips, but didn't have the gold nails to match the strip color, so he used that instead. Completely unacceptable. He said he'd have to return to finish the job, I said to cut me a strip. The job looked OK after that and I let them go. Word to the wise, check everything. I spent my time looking down at the carpet looking for seams, edges, and carpet related issues. Once they left and we went to put the blinds down, we found razor blades on window sills, one blade feel on my wife when she lowered the blinds in our room. We also found coke and Gatorade bottles on window ledges in two rooms, a monster energy can in our driveway, the card-board carpet spindle in our garage where they were cutting the carpet (it was raining), along with lots of fiber that was never swept out of the garage. They pretty much left the job site a mess. Finally, when I started putting things back, I noticed some wood chips under a dresser in the guest closet. The dresser had been placed on the floor molding so I thought a chip had resulted. When I went to slide the dresser off the molding, the top of the dresser came off in my hand. Apparently they had tried to move the dresser using the top as a lifting point and ripped it off. Never said a word. NICE! One other issue was the quality of the carpet. I vacuumed the carpet and each room filled my vacuum canister. The carpet sheds loads of fiber. If I drag my shoe, I can pull a wad of fiber up that looks like a cat’s hairball. My brand new Stainmaster carpet that I had installed in my previous home never did this. When I complained, I was told my carpet could shed up to 3-6 months. I may not be a carpet expert, but this seems excessive and was not my previous experience with new, quality carpet. I called in the complaint the next day (Sat), they gave me a complaint number, and said they would call on Monday. I received a return call as I was writing this review (Tuesday at 2:30pm). They are going to fix the transitions, look at the seams, and they requested a quote for repair of the dresser. Great, now I have to find a carpenter to fix things. Not much they can do about the rest of the experience. Next time I will go with the local mom and pop store and get my quality experience, $300 is worth that much. UPDATE: March 19th. After Speaking with customer service and complaining we received a call from the installation manager. She assured me that she would schedule a technician to come out and fix the issues we had. To date, no one has come or called to arrange anything. I received a routine call from the corporate office about the service we received. They took my entire story, but always wanted me to give them a rating for each phase. The short, no one has called. I would never recommend this company. They have failed at every level of checks on customer service.

If you are thinking of using Empire - run away - don't walk! The experience when the sales representative first came to provide a quote was really good. I don't normally put a deposit down right away, but I was impressed with the price and the 25 year transferable warranty. Originally I had decided to not only have Empire replace all the carpet but also the hardwood in the foyer entryway and downstairs bath, but cancelled the hardwood after being lied to by the sales representative that they would lift the toilet in the bath and raise the flange and install a new seal after they installed the floor. After I called back to confirm this, this is when I realized I had been lied to and was told now that they are licensed to do this and I would need to contact a plumber. I told the sales representative that this isn't what he told me; he told me to contact a plumber to obtain a cost and he would knock it off the price. I did as he said and told him a plumber is $129/hr so looking at 2hr of work. He said he was only prepared to knock a $100 off the price. I decided not to argue anymore and cancelled the hardwood. Yesterday, the carpet installers arrive - I guess a better phrase is the empire demolition crew. The sales representative included the cost of moving the furniture in the house in the price, and told me just to move all the other loose stuff throughout the house off the carpets, which I did. What I didn't plan for was for so many items in my house to be damaged. Below is everything that occurred: 1. 1and quot;x2and quot; piece of door frame was torn off wall in master suite. 2. Piece of baseboard moulding was torn off and now missing from top of stairway. 3. Upstairs bathroom (no flooring replaced in this room) now has gouges in the vinyl floor from a tool that I can only assumed was stepped on by one of the workers installing carpet immediately next to bathroom. 4. 2 Pictures nailed to wall in stairway were broken by workers while they took carpet up the stairs for installation. 5. Antique end table now has 1and quot; chip on one of its legs. 6. Dining room chairs (almost all of them) now have dings on legs due to careless stacking. This dining room set has only ever been used three times in 20 years and until yesterday looked in perfect condition. When I tried to speak to the workers, the answers I got were in non-English. I called and spoke to the sales representative to express my concerns and was indignantly told that and quot;Empire Today had the best installers that money could buy!and quot; Sure the carpet has new carpet, and now it also has damage that I now get to pay to fix, picture frames that now need to be replaced, and furniture that might be able to be professionally repaired. I wouldn't wish my experience with Empire Today on anyone - no one deserves to be treated nor have their possessions treated the way I was.

Went very well. However quality of product was not what I as expected. Told salesperson of concerns of the shedding fiber car pet and low and behold carpet sheds. Doesnt look like the grade that I may paid for. Installation went very seamless though.

I contacted Empire Floors because their website ad offered 12 months interest-free payments. Their sales rep, Andrew Eckerman provided an acceptable estimate of $5500 for a hardwood installation in 3 bedrooms and an upstairs landing. He informed me he needed to run my credit check through GE Capital Retail Bank. He said GE Capital is Empire’s main lender but they also have 3 other potential lenders I could use. I told him I had a credit freeze in place and asked whether I needed to unlock the freeze for the credit check. He assured me I did not. Although my credit record is excellent, my application was subsequently declined by all four lenders. I emailed Ms. Lisa Cooper who manages Empire’s customer credit applications. Ms. Cooper was extremely rude and dismissive and informed me I must pay for the installation in full. It wasn’t until I involved several senior Empire executives in my subsequent correspondence with Ms. Cooper, including Tim Sherwin (Senior Regional CS Manager), that I received any attention. Mr. Sherwin was initially very solicitous. He offered me a $500 discount on the project in return for my payment in full. I initially accepted his offer. But then I learned that the reason my credit had been turned down by all four lenders was because they had been unable to access my records due to the credit freeze!! So I had been both misinformed AND needlessly subjected to four separate and potentially damaging credit rejections. It got worse. I decided I WOULD take advantage of the interest-free payment promotion, defrost my credit freeze and have Empire rerun my credit application again. I unlocked my credit freeze with both Equifax and Experian but not Transunion (I simply didn’t have the code for this and it would have taken a week or so to obtain it). Then Empire told me GE Capital ONLY processes credit checks through Transunion! I told them to use one of their 3 other advertised lenders – presumably at least one of them would run my check through Experian or Equifax. It was only THEN that Empire admitted that the 12-month interest-free program wasn’t even offered through any of the other 3 lenders. It was only offered through GE Capital! Again, I had been misinformed and misled by their sales rep. By this time I was dealing with Ms. Tina Binette (Director, National Customer Service) and it was she who admitted this critical piece of information. SO ESSENTIALLY THEIR ENTIRE PROMOTION WAS A BAIT ‘N’ SWITCH: Promise customers THREE lender options for a 12-month interest-free program, when really there's only the ONE lender who only processes applications through ONE credit bureau. This is clearly illegal and unethical. I immediately contacted Mr. Sherwin and expressed my dismay at this new information. I asked him to comment. He did not respond. Two days later I cancelled the contract and requested the return of my deposit. At this point, Mr. Sherwin’s tone was barely civil - i.e. a one-liner email without even the courtesy of a salutation. Clearly I’m one customer he realizes no amount of soft pedaling will salvage. BTW – most of this occurred on the day before and after the installation was supposed to take place. The reason the installation didn’t go through as planned was because the wood didn’t match and had to be reordered. That same day the various lenders’ letters arrived stating the reasons for the credit rejections. Meanwhile, my house had been readied for the installation and was a disaster zone. I have absolutely no regrets about canceling this installation despite the inconvenience. One has only to Google Empire and read the countless fiascoes described about this organization to realize that my own experience was a well-dodged bullet.

They gave us a great deal and price. Everyone was does very well.

So far they are doing a great job and have gotten all the work down well. They are very timely with everything and have moved things for me that are large. They normally call before they are going to come out to verify. They also email out to confirm the date and time agreed upon.

I contacted this company for flooring in my new home. They provided a quote and agreed to my limited schedule. They did the install on a Saturday (completing the job on Sunday). The salesperson promised a lifetime warranty (including flood damage). Fast forward 5 years and I have a piece of molding with water damage. I called for a replacement piece of molding and was told my flooring is no longer carried and there is a $125 charge to install the replacement. My contractor replacing the leaky door will install the new molding if I have the 36" piece.

It was a very good experience and I chose them because they had a sale.

We met with Sharon Mullins, the sales rep on Sept 27th. We chose engineered hardwood to replace the carpeting in our living room, hallways, and kitchen. Sharon explained the process in detail and was open to negotiating her initial estimate. We teasingly referred to Sharon as a and quot;rookieand quot; because she mentioned being with Empire for one year. Sharon proved to be an expert and knew the answers to all our questions. After we agreed on a price, and received 0% financing for 18 months (yippee), the installers showed up 2 days later as promised. The installers, Winston and his team, were terrific. They were extremely friendly, personable and very professional. They said the job would take 2 days. They called half way through the second day to say the job would take an extra day because they discovered an overabundance of staples on the flooring after they tore up the kitchen linoleum. We were grateful they took the extra time to remove every staple and do the job correctly. When we met with Winston after they completed the work, we were ecstatic. The flooring was more beautiful than we imagined. The workmanship was flawless.

We requested an estimate from a representative at the local Home Show that we attended. Salesperson was scheduled and arrived on time. Representative at the Home Show scheduled the appointment, but otherwise, was not very informative re: the products available. Sales person was very personable and helpful in discussing our needs and then providing suggestions and samples for us to view and choose from. Salesperson clarified the 'free services/products' offering. Once choices were made and salesperson measured our rooms, she provided an estimate that intitally was 2x other estimates that we received for similar, or same products. Even after calculating additional 'special manager' and 'end of month' discounts, the pricing was still 50% higher than our other estimates. We did not contract with this vendor for the product or installation, and notified the salesperson, and why. Salesperson was very professional and accepted our decision graciously. We would not use this company in the future because of the pricing issue, which appears to be consistent with other Angie's List findings.

The quote was outrageous, we had someone come out and do it for $2000, Empire quoted us $6000. Someone can come out and be nice, but if they try to push you across the coals, that ain't cool. I doubt the person is even there anymore.

I haven’t had any issues with this company. I hadn’t yet moved into my home, so we didn’t have any furniture to move (making things easier). The workers were professional and friendly. They arrived promptly as well; exactly when specified. Overall, a good experience!

They are a total rip off. Their sales people are independent sales people who could care less. All they are after is commission. The guy that gave us a quote was $4,000.00 more expensive than the people we went with. I told the guy that, and he said I was getting what I paid for. It was still the same high quality brand. They tried to play the sales game with us.

Very professional service- prompt, knowledgable and informative. Discussed the options and details so that we knew exactly what we were to receive. The representative was able to work out additional discount due to size of the job- and could have arranged for installation within a week. We chose to go with finish-in-place flooring which Empire doesn't offer.

Exellent service and product. I love the carpet. The sales representative was very patient while I chose the perfect color. I love the carpet. Very high quality and installation.

The salesman was very professional and worked to get me as much of a discount as he could. The team that installed the floor was A1! They were terrific! I love my new floor!

Our new carpet looks great. The guys were right on time to do the job and were very easy to deal with. Any questions we had were answered and I feel the price was very much in line with the work done.

They did a really nice job. They actually came out to our house and sold us the flooring directly. I was very pleased with the installation. They had the product on hand, and it only took them about 5 hours to install it. I wasnt so thrilled about how expensive it was, and I felt salesperson had a high-pressured sales pitch, at first. Although, we do enjoy the flooring very much and will continue in years to come.

The sales representative was friendly and knowledgeable, but he did give us the hard sell. We were ready to buy so that did not matter to us but I imagine it may be difficult to get them out of your house w/out purchasing. When the installers came, they did not speak English and they had not measured the carpet correctly so we have a (almost unnoticeable) seam in the carpet. They also forgot to bring the correct color tacks for the dividing strips that lie in the doorways. The Good: we are very pleased with the price and purchasing process. The sales representative knew his stuff and was very honest with us. Buyer Beware: Plan to supervise the installation very closely.

The salesman was very unprofessional, he had ZERO knowledge of our flooring needs or the products he was selling, and ONLY kept pushing the laminates, even after we had told him we werent interested in laminate - WAY over $10K for 650 sq ft of flooring - and that WAS the laminate - would have them come out, but it will probably be a waste of time!!!

THEY ARE VERY PUNCTUAL WHEN THEY START THE JOB. THEY ARE THERE WHEN THEY SAY THEY WILL BE. THE WORKERS SEEMED VERY CONFIDENT ABOUT THE JOB THEY WERE DOING. THEY WERE PROFESSIONAL AND MADE SURE THEY DIDN'T LEAVE ANYTHING TO CLEAN UP.

THEY GAVE ME A GOOD PRICE. THEY CALLED ME SIX TIMES WHEN THEY GOT LOST ON THE WAY TO MY HOUSE. THEY WERE MEXICANS AND COULD NOT SPEAK ANY ENGLISH. THEY WERE NICE AS COULD BE TO ME, WE JUST COULD NOT COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER.