Empire Today

I had vinyl flooring installed in my kitchen and living room areas this past February 2024. I was not present for the installation but my mother was able to be there. My mom communicated with me that during the installation, an installer by the name of Carlos helped himself to my mini fridge and also allowed his partners access. My mom offered them water before they decided to help themselves but apparently that was not good enough for them. Upon completion, I noticed that a few panels in my kitchen had scratch marks on them. I contacted customer service, and they ended up sending the same person back who installed the floors, Carlos. He informed me that the scratch marks were too "small" for them to be replaced. I do not care how small the scratches are, the flooring was defective. Their warranty states that "Every EMPIRE® hand tool is warranted by the manufacturer to the original purchaser for the reasonable lifetime of the tool solely to be free from defects in material and workmanship." Apparently this warranty is fraudulent misrepresentation as I was denied replacement services because of their faulty flooring product. I was extremely upset about the denial as being a teacher, I work very hard for my money and for a company not to care about their customers' satisfaction really was perplexing to me. I reached out again about a couple weeks ago to reopen my service ticket because I was not going to accept no as an answer. I called customer service only to get disconnected or reach a voicemail box that was full. No one returned my phone calls or attempted to reach out. I finally called back and asked that service ticket to be closed so they can REOPEN a new one for me. A person finally contacted me via email. The representative informed me that the flooring can fixed at MY cost. They want me to pay for their defective flooring. Can someone please explain this to me as I am at a loss of words. A manager by the name of Cristal D. Santana was very unpleasant, impractical, and highly unconcerned regarding my situation. I was in the need of having my bedroom flooring completed next. I am going to run, not walk, to a professional flooring company. Empire Today is a negligent "company" who will just take your money and leave you disappointed. Please go elsewhere!

They responded right away for the estimate but were not able to meet my timeline for the project itself.

On June 27th their sales rep Joe Klein came to my house to quote me on my floors. I needed tile installed downstairs, laminate upstairs, and carpet in two upstairs bedrooms. At this time I had already taken out the old carpet, so Joe saw the condition my bedrooms floors were in. Plus he saw that downstairs I had laminate floors over existing tile. To install the tile they would need to remove the existing tile. After a lot of back and forth we agreed on $20,000 to redo everything. On the contract it said $21,700. I argued with him for a minute that I was not going to sign anything until it said $20,000. He assured me to not worry about it that he had to file a change order to get the $1,700 removed and it wasn't possible to do that on the Saturday. I was hesitant but signed the contact and paid in full the $20,000 at that time. The next week their tiles guys came out. After looking at the floors for 30 seconds they stated that I needed to pay them an extra $3,500 otherwise my floors would not be raised to the proper height after they removed the old tile. I tried to call my sales rep Joe Klein several times and he never picked up. I paid them the $3,500 because I wanted the floors done properly. They actually did a good job installing the tile floors. Next up was the laminate floors. These guys came out and again, within 30 seconds of being at my house advised that I would have to pay them $400 extra to level the floor in 1 room and fix the risers on the stairs. The sales rep Joe saw the conditions of the floors when I received the quote. He never said anything about needing to level the floors. After some back and forth with the installers I agreed to pay them the $400 and they installed the floors. Finally we get to the carpet installation. The laminate floor guys had already advised the company that they would have to do some leveling of one of the bedrooms. The leveling was the exact same amount as the other room that they had previously leveled. The carpet guys actually brought 4 bags of self leveling. When they went up to the bedroom they were just going to start installing the carpet and do NO leveling. I stopped them and asked what about the leveling. They said that they were not planning on leveling and it would be an extra $750 to level that room. Mind you that the other room that had the same issue was only $200 ($200 of the $400 was for leveling the other $200 was for the stair risers). At this point I was sick of being charged more anytime they did anything. I tried to call their office and was on hold for about 15 minutes before finally just hanging up. I tried speaking with the carpet guys again and they said there was nothing that they could do, so I just told them to leave. I then called in an waited for 40 minutes to finally speak with someone. I advised that I would be happy for them to install the carpets and would even pay them an extra $200 to level the floors because that is what the other room was. They said they would have someone call me within 24 hours to discuss the options. After 48 hours I finally called back as I had not heard from anyone. When I called back they said that they were not going to do the carpet for anything less than $750. So I said I wanted to cancel the carpet, which was for $1,310.63. I spoke with a Carlos T., reference number S000405405, he said I would be refunded within 1-2 weeks. In 3 days I received $327.66 of the $1,310.63. I called in to find out where the extra money is and they advised I was not owed anymore money. After going back and forth with the customer service rep Valerie (ref: 1-4669267621) she said someone would get back to me shortly with more information. After nobody called me for 6 days I called back in. I spoke with Eva who explained that the issue was the Sales Rep Joe never filed the the change form. But she assured me she saw the notes on the account and I would be refunded. After another 7 days (today) I called back in to get the same runaround bs. After speaking with Orlando the call center supervisor (reference number: 1-4694784362) I was told he did not have the power to issue the refund and he could not get a hold of the person who could. He said he left a voicemail and I would get a call back on Monday. I am just sick of the run around and doubt they will ever actually refund me my $982.97. The next step though is going to small claims court to get this resolved. I would never hire this company to do anything on my house ever again. They are by far one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with. I would put them on the same level as Comcast. They just do not care, over bill, and give you the run around in the hopes that you eventually just go away.

Sales guy would not give me the advertised offer. (buy one room get two more for only $50) BAIT AND SWITCH. He said...his offer was "better". I felt like I was dealing with a used car salesman because he kept going outside to "call his manager" to get me a better price every time I told him his price was too high. He only gave me three carpets to look at. The installation was promised and confirmed...but then later, the night be fore the installer was supposed to come, the installation was cancelled and pushed out. I was furious, but there was no one to speak to locally, I just kept getting the national service number. I was told I would be the first stop on the rescheduled day, but that didn't happen either. The installers were very nice, but the carpet feels cheap and I feel completely ripped off. They had me by the balls and there was nothing I could do that close to Christmas to find another carpet and installer. Such as shame, Empire used to be a great company, but if you ask me, all the executives who think that treating a customer the way I was treated, should be FIRED TODAY!!

They did a nice job. I think that Empire is a big outfit but they do a good job.

Waited our 3 hour time frame salesman never showed never called, but did confirm the day before that he was coming. We had to reschedule and the next appointment date again waited our time frame and they never showed up again. Company is unprofessional and has no control over their salesman. They seemed to not care whether they show up or not. We are really interested in having this installation completed but it will not be with this company since they can not keep their appointments. I can not imagine what will happened once installation starts if we have any problems.

If I had stayed in the house I would have had hardwood floors installed by them. They were good. The salesman that came out was an older man and he was a cutie. He brought all the samples of carpeting and flooring. He was pretty cool. When they left everything was in pristine condition. Workmanship, quality, everything was perfect.

unknown

Replaced my laminate flooring. Picture perfect. Very satisfied!

It was a day long ordeal.  Actually, I liked the salesman but he did seem a little stereotypical.  I got excited and enthusiastic because he started out really high and kept coming down in price, saying he liked me and we had a lot in common.  Before I knew it, I gave him a deposit and arranged for financing.  He left after about 6 hours. 
With buyer's regret I went online to search for Empire Carpet reviews and I was horrified and how many entries I found about the quality of the work.  I felt like I had been 'schmoozed', so I cancelled after getting a quote from another company that was approximately $1600 cheaper. 

During the first two installations and subsequent replacement of a strip, the Installers were prompt, polite, respectful; did a nice job on installation.
However, less than a year later, the floors are expanding in various places along the seams.  I called Empire Today about this problem.  First comment was that it's most likely moisture, that I live in Florida and Florida is built on swamp so of course this would be a problem.  I pursued my disatisfaction with the regional sales manager, told him that I wanted the carpeting replaced with some type of flooring to specifically avoid damage from my dogs having accidents and told the sales person this when he came to my house.  I argued that the sales person should not have recommended laminate in the first place, that I should have been told about the possible damage that could occur and given the opportunity to make an educated decision based  on this information provided by a company that claims to be experts on flooring installation and advice in choosing same.  I would not have chosen laminate flooring.  The regional sales manager said no flooring product is 100% guaranteed against dog urine and/or any moisture, that the sales person was absolutely right in recommending laminate flooring, he would have recommended the same, that the sales person had no responsibility in telling me about the possibility of the damage I'm now facing and that it is not Empire Today's responsibility that I choose to have dogs in my home.  I was told by the regional sales manager that no refund would be given because Empire Today did nothing wrong.  The final offer was to replace the laminate flooring in my house with sheet vinyl (cheapest product for flooring) because it has no seams.  Had I been given the opportunity to make an educated decision by the sales person in the first place, I might have decided on sheet vinyl or stayed with the tile I already had, and saved thousands.  While all this was going on, I made inquiries to other flooring companies and staff at home improvement stores, all told me they would never recommend laminate for someone with dogs and worries about dog accidents and, at the very least, that the laminate could have been sealed to offer better protection.
Basically, I paid $6,000 for flooring to replace carpeting which I had concerns about because of damage from dog accidents and was sold the same product but in different form - laminate vs. the carpeting I already had.

The laminate is just fine, however the carpet is what I have issue with.  Where they cut the carpet looks like it is dirty.  I can see the seam, and it’s unacceptable.  If I had wanted to put up with poor carpet, I would’ve kept my old one.  I would not have them again. I’m going to seek another company to remove the carpet and install a new one properly.