Empire Today

Installed Wood Laminate Flooring & Carpet. Highly recommend Empire flooring! They were super fast, like lightning speed fast with delivery and installation of my flooring. Salesman Jason was awesome to work with. Both times i called for consult appts he was professional, accommodating...

They were super efficient. They were her on time. They took the old tiles out in really good time. They didn't leave a mess. Very pleased. Money wise, on their products, exceptional. They are coming in to do the carpeting on the stairs. They were just very professional from the time the fellow came over to take our order and work with. The guys that came in and did the work they were efficient, they did a great job and it didn't take them that long. Compared to other companies out there they were very well priced.

Contact Empire and they had a sales rep out the next day
(Saturday). He arrived on time, was polite, took measurements, selected the laminate
floor, and received a price quote within two hours. Received a call the
following Monday from Empire asking if I wanted to go ahead and have a
financing representative drop by to finalize and schedule installation. When he
came, I began to get that uneasy feeling when he said he needed to take
measurements, and then I could pick out the flooring. Wait! I just spent two
hours on Saturday doing this part. When I voiced concern, he told me there
would not be any more hiccups, and even discounted the final price a bit.
Feeling a bit better. He advised that installation would begin on Thursday and
last through Saturday. I let him know I had a medical appointment Friday
afternoon that could not be rescheduled, and the installation crew would need
to accommodate. He let me know it was not an issue, and to tell the lead on the
installation crew when they arrived.
 Thursday came, the crew was on-time, and things seemed to be
going very well. I let the lead know that Friday I had an appointment and they
would need to break off two hours early. His response to me was that he comes
in from Austin, does not work on Saturday, and would like to stay and work
while I was at my appointment. What? First, I was told work was Thursday
through Saturday. Second, stay and work in the home without me there? Don?t
think so. I let him know I would do what I could, but the appointment could not
be rescheduled.
 
Friday came, and progress on the floor was good. Until I
reminded him of the appointment. Once I did, he said he needed to get the job
finished that day, and needed to stay in the home whilst I was away. I then
made it clear that I was not going to allow that, and that they needed to
finish on Saturday. To which he responded again that he comes in from Austin,
and needed to finish today. If not, he would have to come back Monday. So, I
told him, Monday it is.
 During the weekend I had time to evaluate the work being
done, and was beginning to find small things I was not happy about. But, I held
off until the work was done on Monday came and the work was supposedly
completed. During my walkthrough I found many issues. First, they had to cut
the front portion of each step to make the square. They were originally rounded
off, which created an issue with laying the laminate flat. Understandable?
However while cutting, the workers tore into my banister with their saw,
chewing up the wood. When I brought it to the leads attention, his response
was, ?I did my best.? What??? Next, the reduction of the stair size left a hole
in the wall between the stair and the molding. The lead told me he was not
responsible for fixing or repairing that because it is part of the original
stairs. What the?? You cut my stairs to accommodate the laminate, leaving a
gaping hole!!!! The final straw was finding a two-and-a-half foot scratch deep
into the laminate in the master bedroom. The lead said he had no more
materials, and would fix after he ordered more at a later date.
Needless to say, I did not sign the final paperwork. I then
called the main office and the lady who answered said she would contact the
installation manager. I asked if she could have him call me because I had
pictures and wanted to explain. To which she replied, ?No. He will call the
crew.? Really??? I?m the one who is having a not-so-good experience here. Not
the crew. Needless to say, I have not received a call back from anyone. The
lead seemed to want to appease me, but I?m not happy at all. Wish I could post Images to
show that lousy work.

My advice would be to ignore the commercials for this company and stay far away from them. The term customer service is not in their dictionary since the installation department does not back up the sales department.
Our salesman was good, he showed up at the exact appointment time and gave us good advice (I hope) on what would look best in our home.  He walked us through the whole project and by the time he left I had a good feeling this would go well. I was totally wrong. I had just had a bad experience with another home repair company and I explained to our salesman how frustrated I was with their lack of communication and I couldn't deal with that again.  This company just added to it.
In the packet that the salesman left it stated on the date of the service someone would call you that morning to give you a time frame. I waited all morning to find out my time frame and finally called the number listed for the installation and was told that "yeah they had left a few minutes ago and should be there in a few hours". 
Once the crew finally got here they tried to talk us into shortcuts that would make the job go faster and I guess easier for them.  We told them that is not what we wanted or paid for and to do it the way we wanted.  I called my salesperson and he said he would call the installation manager and discuss this with him.   I will say at this point every time I called my salesman he was very receptive and said he would take care of it.  I don't know if he did and the installation manager just ignores him or what.
 The second day they showed up at a reasonable time and worked hard all day so I thought things were on track. Ha!  On the third day I was once again wondering where the crew was so at 1:00 pm I called the installation department but could never get through. I left a message and then called again 45 minutes later and left another message.  I finally called my salesperson and he was able to track them down and tell me they had a problem due to the weather.  I asked him if it would have been so difficult for someone to call and let me know instead of just leaving me sitting there waiting all day.  Once again I explained that this experience was not going well due to communication problems and I was not happy.
Because the crew was so late they worked until after 9:00 pm that night and they rushed the final room they were putting the tile in. The next day we noticed bubbles in the grout because they rushed the project.  My husband called our salesman once again and he put him in touch with the installation manager. They exchanged several e-mails and it was finally decided that someone would come out on Saturday to make the repairs.
 Of course we were told that someone would call on Saturday with a time frame but once again no one did.  At 1:00 pm we tried to call the installation department but could only leave messages.  We finally called our salesman and he said he would get right on it.  After a few more hours of not hearing from anyone, we called our salesman back again and he seemed surprised that we hadn't heard anything.  As of this writing we still have not heard anything so I guess this company took our money and didn't live up to their promises.

Update:

So I was finally contacted by someone in the regional office and they apologized and gave me several excuses of why this has happened and that it should not happen in the future.  So they scheduled us again for this Saturday (May 30) and someone did call us to tell us that someone would be here between 10am-noon.  At 11:00 am that repair guy called and said he couldn't make it until between 3:00-4:00 pm because another job ran long.  We said it didn't make us happy but we would accept between 3:00-4:00 pm. At 5:00 pm we called him and he returned our call and said he was about an hour away and did we still want him to come?  We said yes and now we are waiting to see if he shows.  I changed my rating of this company from D to F because while the quality of the product is nice they don't contract out to reliable installers and when you want the job done that is important.

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Empire Today performed superbly in replacing our worn out covering with a new and wonderful luxury vinyl.  First of all, the workers showed up promptly on the day they were to install and began by moving a few very heavy pieces of furniture (without breakables) and placed them out of the work area. They then took out and removed all of the old carpet and covering.  After removal, the surface was evenly prepared so that the new covering would adhere properly to the floor. After laying down the new covering, they made sure it was sealed and then tacked in quarter round to hold the seal around the edges.  After our inspection and approval of their work, the workers lifted the heavy pieces of furniture back into the rooms and put them in their proper places.  The entire job was completed in a day, which is exactly what the representative said the time frame would be.  We were extremely pleased with the prompt arrival of the work crew, the quality of their work and the speed at which they completed the required work.  There was nothing promised that was not delivered within the agreed time frame.  We are so pleased with our floors that we are going to have Empire Today finish the rest of the hard floor areas in our house later this year and then next year we will have them put new carpet on the remaining portions.

The salesperson was very knowledgeable and had a variety of products within the price range we requested. She in fact hunted down the best deal she could for us. She did not have to, I would not have known. The appointment to install had to be changed several times due to medical problems in my family. Empire was very understanding and had no problem with rearranging schedules at the last minute. The installers were professional, courteous and fast. The entire process took two days. There was only one error. I had requested a specific type of installation on my stairs and it did not get done, the first time. Once I pointed this out the installers fixed it right away. They even helped my aged and infirm mother with moving furniture not required for the installation.

The sales man that came and showed us some flooring, I of course wanted the most expensive thing. He said this is what the special is. I looked at it and it was nicer than what I had picked out so, he got us a really great deal on flooring that was on special. It was hard wood flooring, like laminate. I would use them again.

I called Empire Today on April 30th and set up an appointment for an estimate on May 1st. The salesperson came out at the time scheduled, brought several floor samples of what I was looking for and gave me the total cost. They would have started the following day as they advertise but I had other commitments and could not schedule until the following Thursday. The installer and his helper came out on Thursday at the agreed time and began work. They were very polite and worked very skillfully and quickly to install the floor. This included taking out carpet that was down over this area. When they finished, the installer Jason, walked me over the entire job to verify that I was completely satisfied and assured me if I had any future questions or problems I could call him direct. They also cleaned up all debris from the job. The floor looks terrific, and I am totally satisfied with the job. I should also mention that my salesperson came by in the afternoon to check on the work progress which I couldnt believe because you very seldom find a company doing quality checks. On Mothers day I had about 25 people over and believe me the floor got a good workout and still looks fantastic even though tables and chairs were moved over this area all day.

Total installation in just over two days with one return visit for rework of one threshold. The work was clean, quiet, smooth and efficient.