Empire Today

BACKGROUND: I contacted Empire to match brand-new existing carpet quickly. I saw value in a Sales Rep coming to the house to visually and in person match the existing carpet. Typical pushy contract sales, less than 300 ft. installed for $1500. EPIC FAIL, HORRIBLE: See photos. RUDE AND UNHELPFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE: I have been bounced around to 6 different people local level. The corporate level blames local market level and vice versa. Salesman blames install and etc. PUSHY SALES: The local assistant manager started off very nice and offered to "make things right" He gave us two options: Option 1: $450 to rip out the carpet they just laid and put down new carpet the 2x5 hallway in the photo to match. so $450 out of my pocket for them to fix their mistake OR Option #2: he SERIOUSLY said "we will give you a deal on hiring Empire to carpet the rest of the basement to match the hallway and room we just did." He seriously thought I'd hire them to do more work...? $1400 So my choices were to hire them for either another $450 job or $1400 job... One local customer service woman left me a voicemail "Why are you calling me, you signed a contract and it was installed." An assistant manager on the local level got in a text fight with me, before saying the manager would reach out. Never happened. CONTRACT: They use the contract as justification. This is null and void if you did not type up and list the product, you were verbally promised something, and it is a digital signature which isn't always binding. The contract came from a personal email, not the company email. CREDIT CARD FRAUD: If you made the mistake of hiring Empire, here are some helpful tips: Have your credit card company flag as "deceptive sales practices" and open a report. Contact the BBB: Make sure to review and list pushy, deceptive sale practices, keep a record of all calls, texts, emails.

We recently moved into a new house and we are trying to replace the carpet on our second floor (all bedroooms and stairs.) The sales rep came to our home on two separate occasions taking measurements and getting us signed up. The team of four guys show up to instal the carpet. They looked under one corner and saw tile. They refused to do anything further until the tile was tested for asbestos. (This is something the sales rep should have caught.) They end up telling us we need to remove the old carpet ourselves for them to be able to install the new carpet. We have everything rescheduled, get up at 5am the day of instal to pull out all the carpet, disassemble furniture, etc. They sent one guy. One. He looks at the size of the job and tells me he can’t do the job by himself so he “steps outside to call his manager” and leaves. The customer service is terrible. Our house is now a construction zone (because THEY made us rip out all of our carpet) and we have an 11 week old baby. We now have to pay for a hotel since the house is currently not safe for her, take a fifth day off of work, and their solution is $200 off our $4,000 carpet. Save your money and go to ANYONE else. The worst company I have ever dealt with.

We needed the work done quickly. Other places we called had at least a three week wait before we could install. Empire did it in just a few days! Their sales rep helped us choose a carpet that would be moderately priced and durable enough for dogs. The installation team was here right away in the morning and worked very quickly. The carpet looks great!

The service was excellent. All appointments were kept on a timely basis. There was an issue with the flooring in the entryway that the installers identified. They made an adjustment to the contract on the spot since we couldn't get the type of flooring we requested in that area. We had originally wanted to carpet over some hardwood flooring, but the sales rep recommended against it and recommended refinishing the floors instead. This will result in a huge savings for us.

They were prompt and professional.

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Everything went great with the exception of communication. Workers were anticipated in the afternoon but arrived in the morning. After being informed we would be back shortly they were preparing to leave 15 minutes later. If we had not been arriving at that moment the job would have had to be rescheduled. A frustrating start but the remainder of the experience went smoothly.

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Waiting to see how this company responds...

Very good service. No local office.

They were here when they said they were going to be here and they took as long as it took.

The only thing there is they spoke Spanish, all the workers spoke Spanish but there was somebody there that could speak English and he did translate for the rest of the crew.

It turned out great. They did not take long and they did an excellent job.

I was very pleased. Attached is a before picture with the carpet and the after picture with the new laminate flooring.

Excellent sales and installation experience

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Horrible experience. Sales person seemed knowledgeable and told us he used to an installer. He also told us Empire uses it own installer. He quoted 4 hour install time by placing embossing liquid over current Vinyl and gluing new Vinyl after liquid dried. When the sub contractor installers arrived we were told floor was to uneven to go over existing vinyl and needed a complete sub-floor!. This added $710 to the price quoted. The sales person had checked floor with level and said it was OK. The install took 8 Hours but was done very well. However the installers used our garage and driveway for setting up tools and mixing glue etc. They removed the door right away where are cats were kept (they told us they would not do it right away but they did) and they never closed the door (I asked many times) leading from garage to home, letting in flies and letting out cooling. Only one of the installers spoke English. I asked installers to leave some Vinyl for repairs but they never did. They left the door hinges halfway in and left lots of nails and sharp metal in the garage, driveway and house after they left. They also left behind a partial sheet of sub-floor plywood which i did not ask for. The installers were friendly and helped me move back some furniture. With the inaccurate estimate, additional cost and sloppy cleanup by installers i cannot recommend Empire Today for any replacements and will never use them again.

The estimate process was very easy, Mike arrived promptly and had a wireless laser measuring device that created a floorplan directly on his tablet.  He had all of the samples with him that I could choose from.  In fact, they could have performed the installation the very next day if I had been willing to sign the contract after the measurement.

I did receive quotes from other providers, and ended up going with Empire due to the simplicity of the sales process, and the 1 year 0% financing they offer.

The salesman came back out the following week (after I received the other quotes), and I signed the contract.  The work crew came out the next day.

The work crew was 4 guys, and they completed the work very quickly.  They did need to stop back the following morning to complete the installation (they didn't have enough materials).  The workmanship is top notch, I could not find a gap or flaw that caught my eye on the entire floor.  The Luxury Vinyl Plank really brightens up my basement, I am excited to start building out the 'man cave' down there.  They cleaned and swept the floor after installation, though there was a very small amount of construction debris left in the unfinished side of the basement (like a dustpan's worth).

Overall I was very impressed with the entire process.  My only comment on the Empire sales process would be the initial quote - they start out with a fairly high quote, so make sure you do your homework and find out what a fair price is.  It's worth getting quotes from other providers to get a sense of where the market is.

I can't imagine going with another provider after my experience with Empire Today.

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Their price is competitive. They were on time and they did a nice job installing. They were very professional. Everything came in a package.

They came to our house. The salesman was not pushy. They installed within a week. I was happy with their service.