Empire Today

I should have read the reviews before contacting them. On May 9th, 2024 a representative from Empire Today (Primal Rathod 832-866-4826) came by my home for a scheduled appointment. He brought several carpet samples with him. I agreed to a carpet that match a color in my hardwood floors. The product, Allure-Facinate, is brown-gold and shown in the attached contract. That carpet was to be installed in the stairway and updaters, corridors, as well as the upstairs media room. The contract price, which included a second carpet type to be installed in a bedroom, was $4500, paid in advance. When the installers arrived on Monday May 13th, I noticed a much lighter product and brought it to the attention of the crew chief. He assured me that it was the correct carpet and that once installed it would be darker under home lighting conditions instead of the direct sun. I believed him and allowed him to proceed. Exhibit 1 is a comparison of what I ordered and what was installed. I complained again and the installer contacted the head office and I briefly spoke to someone who said the salesman should have told me that the actual color of the carpet might be slightly different from the sample. You can see from Exhibit 1 that there is a dramatic difference between what I ordered and what was installed. When the installer was finished, he asked me to sign the install completion certificate. He explained that it just covered the installation and had would not impact my claim about the color of my project so I signed. I contacted my the salesperson who agreed that there was a substantial difference after seeing the difference (see text message. I offered to accept a price discount because I did not want to go through a full day install again but nothing is being done. I believe that, because of my age, they just assume that I'm going to just let this go. I am requesting replacement of the carpet with something resembling the color of the carpet I ordered. One week later and still no one has had the courtesy to call. I have reported them to the BBB, FTA, and the TX Attorney General's office. Buyer Beware!

This is a horrible company. They are crooked, untrustworthy, and unprofessional. This is a big turd with sprinkles on it trying to pass as a cupcake.

The installers did a good job on the floor but somehow bent the mechanism for a recliner when they moved it out to the garage. The mechanism could not be repaired and needed to be replaced for $500. Empire offered only $150. See the picture below, the footrest is twisted and it won't sit up straight. That was unsatisfactory, but here is where I started wondering if I got a good deal or not. The installers left 4 1/2 boxes of the flooring and a lot of molding. I called to see what the deal was; did I pay for the surplus, did they want it back, or buy/credit it back to me. They said I hadn't paid for it; Empire just sends extra to ensure they have enough. Something isn't right. I don't trust them. The original quote was for $7,000. I offered $6,000, and they said OK. Now I wonder if I should have paid them much less. Beware of Empire.

Disgusted, they were hard to deal with, because the salesman who came was drunk, they did a wrong measurement. unprofessional.

Dealing with these quys was more painful than dealing with the sleaziest car dealer. Like car dealers, the salesman has to check in with his manager to negotiate a price. Although he quoted a price of $5000, he wrote up the contract for $10,000 and then wrote on the contract that a change order would be submitted to lower the price to $5000. He said that the computer program would not let him enter the sale price and that the only way to get the lower price was to enter a change order. However, when they called to arrange for installation, they said that I would owe $10,000. After calling several people and threatening to cancel the order, I was told that the price would be the original $5000. The installers failed to arrive on the scheduled day, but did arrange to reschedule for the following week. They promised that I would be first on the list for that day, but they didn't arrive until the afternoon. When the installer arrived he again wanted to charge me $10,000. We again had to call several people and I showed him the original contract and paid the remainder of the $5000. The installation went well except that, while I was told it would be done in one day, it ended up taking two days. Since the work was finished I have gotten several calls from the company telling me that I still owe them an additional $5000. They tell me they have no record of the $5000 price quoted to me. I can understand why there might have been confusion about the price once but after I'd asked them to correct it several times and they agreed to do so, I don't understand why it hasn't been corrected yet.

We had to cancel service after giving them 600 down payment because they refused to honor our original agreement.

Great at every level.

Beautifully.

They did a good job. They were on time.

The folks they hire for installation did a great job. The organization and planning went terribly. The work order I signed had a Friday as both the start date, and estimated completion date, for all 3 flooring jobs. When that Friday rolled around, the crew that came to take care of the laminate and LVT came to tell me they weren't given a diagram, and they concluded they didn't have enough supplies to do the LVT job. I talked to their manager about rescheduling that service, and came to find out the carpet job wasn't scheduled to start until Saturday. The sales rep, and clearly the work order, had my carpet installation scheduled to start Friday. I ended up sticking with that schedule and not cancelling since I received a discount (another saving grace), but then of course the carpet installers didn't show up early enough to finish their work, so they had to come back on Sunday. I also had to call Empire since the LVT installer never showed and I come to find out there was an emergency and they had to reschedule the LVT installation for Monday. So a project I was initially told would all be done on Friday lasted until Monday.

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Installation no problem. Finance: Approved with Synchrony Bank Fl. Bank sent Credit Card. I cancelled card and was told that once Empire sends bill then I would get monthly statement (billing). I did not want CC since it is temptation. I did not know that this was the way this bank operates. Wanted Installment loan. After Empire sent bill to bank it was rejected. Rec'd call from Lauren Baker, rude and a non people person. I could not discuss with her. She would not listen; kept telling me this, that, whatever and I could not discuss with her. Wrote letters to VP Accounting, Collections, Sales, HR. Cust Svc, outside sales on situation and financing. The officers of the company ignore my letters as if I am no one just a number. Wrote these people many letters at my cost. Empire could care less if they lose a customer. If Ms Baker would have listened situation could have been cleared up. I have asked that Ms. Baker be released from employment. In a letter to the Chairman of the Board today October 14, 2014, since no one of position will contact me (President or Vice Presidents and ndash; 4 of them) requesting he fire Ms. Baker and return my $1300.00 due to the problems Empire has created.

It started with our sales representative, Barry. He was very punctual and professional, and he really knew his products! He was able to give us exactly what we wanted. The price was a little higher than our other estimates, and the interest rate that their finance company (GE Money) charges is ridiculous, but sometimes you get what you pay for. The installers were right on time, and Miguel and his crew went above and beyond to give us a high quality install. The floor came out GREAT!! They fixed and sealed a few cracks in the foundation and leveled the floor, which was no easy task. They even moved our furniture out of the way and put it back exactly as it was when they finished. We liked them so much that we are going to use them when we tile the next room on our list in a couple of months.

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We went with Empire after a glowing recommendation. We are pretty unhappy with our experience overall. We felt that the whole process was shady and there were tricks around every corner. We felt the sales person was extremely dishonest and tried to raise the cost of our deal every chance he got. We had agreed on a price based on an estimate 2500 sq ft. When he measured my house I was excited as he told me it was on only 2200 sq ft of carpet. He then tried to explain why he was going to raise my price based on 2900 sq ft. At this time it was basically too late to cancel and we felt trapped by this unexpected twist. If this mark up is industry standard, it should have been explained to us before-hand. If it is not, then it is plain fraud.
The final straw was when the carpet layers showed up with a different pad than we had been showed by the salesman. To their credit, they did get the right pad, but only after a lot of arguing. Instead of dealing with the mix up (or fraud) on their end, they forced my wife to speak to the salesman on the phone while he told her she was mistaken. My wife was able to describe the pad we were promised and the only pad we had ever seen or were shown, whether it was what was written on the invoice or not. We were shown a pad with a blue cover and they brought one with a black cover. Had my wife not been very vigilant, they would have installed their worst pad although their salesman promised another. The first thing we said to our salesman was that we wanted a pad with a moisture barrier. That was priority.
We do like the color of the carpet, but feel the installation was sub par as well. There are several places in our carpeting that make funny noises when you step on it, noises you would not expect from carpet.

UPDATE***************

After reading this review, I was contacted by Empire customer service. I have adjusted the rating to show their responsiveness is responding to my complaint. Empire came back out and fixed all of the creaks and noises under my carpet--the pad was damaged in many places (I am not sure how normal this is). Their customer service rep was fantastic and I might consider using them again just based on this response. She dealt with the complaint on the installation problems, but left the fraudulent salesman issue unresolved. The rep was horrified to learn of the square footage calculation game the salesman undertook and told me they do not calculate price in such a way. I still think what happened to me was nothing short of fraudulent and had Empire given me say a $1000 - $1500 refund to account for the fake calculations of their crazy salesman, I would be completely satisfied. However, I am still considering filing a complaint under the TX consumer protection laws with the TX Secretary of State with regard to that fraudulent behavior.

If I ever give Empire a second chance, I will never deal with that sales person again, Moe.

They did a wonderful job. The answered all questions, and everything was clean and well done. They were very helpful.

They did a beautiful and outstanding job. They were wonderful. They did an unbelievable job. We were so proud of the job they did. They were very willing to work with us. They knew exactly what I was looking for and I got exactly what I wanted. They followed up to see if I was still happy with the floors after a month. They did a tremendous job. I had a great experience with them. They gave me a product to take care of the floors for the first 6 months. They are really far and above more than I expected. They were professional. They want to make you happy. They cleaned up after themselves. They made sure that all of my furniture was protected and taken care of before they even started because it's so dusty when they are doing that work. They never left a bit of trash and never left anything dirty. Of course I need to clean and polish the floor really good after they were finished but they tried to do as much as they could to keep the house clean because the dust was just unbelievable. They were fantastic. We were very impressed with them.

She showed us plenty of samples of engineered hardwood and laminate flooring. After listening to their process, which is quite frankly the same that any reputable flooring company or contractor would give, she went into offering a more personal recommendation based on the amount of pets (4) and children (2) that we have in the house.
After wanting hand-scraped hardwood flooring for a while, she showed us some really good samples of hand-scraped laminate. Had she not gone into detail, we wouldn't have noticed the difference between each. She reassured us that it is sealed and it wouldn't let water come through and damage it. By the way, according to their warranty, if that were to happen unless it is due to flooding, it would be covered and repaired at no additional expense.
What we liked is that their price is all inclusive. We had received other estimates that would itemize everything and not tell us exactly how much it would finally cost due to the and quot; what-if'sand quot; that they could find once they pulled out the carpet. We know that it wouldn't be much of a surprise because this home is three years old. As any customer, we want to see final numbers.
Their samples looked just like those from a professional flooring store, not a big box store. We tried toys, pets, shoes, and keys on them. The hardwood floor did get scratched and that was a sample of what will definitely happen once my kids and pets walk and play on them.
There was no pressure from the salesperson. She understood where we were in the process, and while looking forward to a sale, she did not place any pressure or state that the special would only be available 'today', as some reviewers stated. She did call her Service Center to look into a lower price and check on availability of the floor we liked. They were able to go down $1,300 from the 50/50/50 special price, which by the way is valid for some types of floor. Again, they did not say 'do it today or else'. Their inventory changes from day to day, and as a business owner myself, a sale can only be as good as the motivation behind it.
We are still thinking about the investment at this point. We would like to find the same or similar floor (Accents Laminate) that would more closely match our $2,500 budget. Hopefully someone from corporate will read this and give us some further insight.
I can only speak based on our interaction with the salesperson today, but if their business ethics and practices are as outstanding as this experience was, we will definitely be doing business with them in the next couple of days.

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Angie's List Reviews

Empire Floors -- RUN AWAY - Never use them

If you are like us, we viewed the empire ad multiple times on the TV where it tells us we will get three rooms for the price of one. Sounded great. My wife has been on a terror for the last couple of years to pull the carpet up in our condo and replace with hardwood floors. Of course when the sales man arrived, the 3 rooms for 1 would only apply for this god awful laminate that no one would pick. Spoiler alert....bait and switch? We settled on a thick Bamboo and put all $4,800 on the credit card. We liked what we saw so much that when talking to a friend in Ohio (we are in Houston, Texas), he decided to order some laminate for his kitchen. I advised him that if he went on the website and scheduled an appointment like we did, he could save $50 and if he mentioned us, we would get a $100 referral fee.

Although measurements were taken, the only inspection of our sub-floor was to ask if the floor was made of cement or wood. The product was not in stock and we were told that it should arrive in two weeks and installation should be done by Thanksgiving. Well.. not a prayer. At first, I didn't hear from the company or the salesman in three weeks. I call the salesman and he said he would get back to me; I was told it was delayed due to the weather up north. OK. Another two weeks passed and I again had to call the salesman. He will get back to me. The product is in and work can now begin next week (week before Christmas) but should be done by Christmas. Alas.

The floor layers were great and very professional. They were sub-contractors to Empire and I really liked them. Remember I said the salesman didn't check the slope of the floor? We later discovered that if the slope of the floor was too great, it would cause either some cement they call float to be placed or if too great, hardwoods could not be done. To our dismay both of these became the truth. When the Sub-contractors did come out told us if we wanted to put the bamboo down, they would, but they suspect the floor would come up in a couple years. He recommended we look at laminate as it has a tendency to follow the contours of the floor (not the same as) but similar as carpet does. Back to the salesman. He came out the following week, Christmas Eve and showed us some laminate samples, and a thick padding. We asked about the difference in pricing and he said he'd get back to us on price. He didn't and we later found out why. We selected one and the installation was scheduled for a week and a half later. Since the week before Christmas, half of our condo had the rugs pulled up and the furniture in those rooms pulled to one side.

When the installers returned a week and a half later, they had an almost paper thin padding and I told him that was not what the salesman showed us. He checked with his boss and of course that was what Empire told them to lay. He returned the next day with the rest of the laminate and correct padding and proceeded with laying float and completing as much floor as possible. Where the installation would have taken a week, because of the five bags of float and the drying needed it took six days. The installers were great, but we were all frustrated with the confusion of moved furniture and dust everywhere during that period. In the end, the floor look very nice, abet it was laminate instead of hardwood. No surprise the salesman never called to check on the progress nor give us the price difference. We expected a reduction in price. After two more weeks, I did get a call from a customer service man with an accent that it took three attempts to understand his questions about our service. He wanted to get thru his 25 questions, but I just relayed how unhappy I was and am still waiting for the salesman with the reduction.

Another week went by and I once again called the salesman. He didn't do aftermarket service, but he gave me a number of the customer service department; that's always a bad sign. I called and said that (1) I was looking for a price reduction from 3/4 inch bamboo to 1/4 laminate (2) no $50 check for online scheduling ( they recently deactivated that cone-on and ZGee, I gues you got stuck in between when the promotion was running and when the bamboo...err, laminate was finally installed... sorry)and (3) $100 referral check. Well she looked up our information and, OH my we had such a good deal on the bamboo.. it was quoted at the laminate price, so there would be no deduction, WHAT!!! I checked Empire competitors and the most expensive laminate was $2.89/sq ft or $2,800 for our condo the least was $.89/ sqft or $890 . I know installation was not another $2,000- 3,000. And she asked for the information about my referral, I emailed it to her. It's been another three weeks, AND OF COURSE I HEARD NOTHING. Write this experience off and tell everyone who will listen, plug your ears when you hear their commercial. Go find what you like and hire a good installer. NEVER USE EMPIRE.
Angie's List sure has them worried. Two days after this post I got a got a call from the customer service person. Of course, she said the same thing about what a marvelous price I originally had and that the laminate was priced right. (see the paragraph above to see my thinking on the matter). They will not be returning any of my already paid up bill. She said their executives reconsidered the online appointment and will be giving me that and the $100 referral fee would be in the mail and I should get it sometime in March.
The Referral fee came a couple days ago...still waiting on my on-line appointment... My attitude has not changed. Stay away from Empire.

Very fast efficient professional

We have had work performed by Empire Today in the past, in a different state, and were very very pleased. So the bar of expectation was already set high.

Our sales representative was friendly, knowledgeable and was able to provided next day service for installation.

The two man installation super team was on time, professional, efficient and did an AMAZING job. They even went out of there way to hand stain quarter round to properly complement the flooring, nice threshold work too.

Our new Brazilian Cherry LVP (Luxury Vinyl Plank) looks and feels wonderful.