Empire Today
Reviews and Complaints

I mailed a payment of $300 cash to Empire for my flooring (Wells Fargo Bank). This was mailed on the 16th of August 2018. However, I got a call that I was past due (mind you, this payment I sent was $150 over the minimum payment due. The Wells Fargo representative and manager stated it was never received. I sent the payment with the statement address I received in the mail every month.

Installers pulled trim from walls and put back on inside out and on different frames, and a lot more nail holes. Also left gaps at door entrances and did a unprofessional job. It has been 2 years since install, but woke this morning and as every morning saw the lousy job and decided to complain, I will never call empire again ant tell anyone who wants floors done not to call empire!

the strips of wood that joins the living room to the entry room has broken and the strip that joins the dining room to the kitchen has cracked. a piece of wood in the dining room has separated from the other pieces and causing a gap in the floor. I called 3 times and finally after over a month I received a call back. each time I was told someone would call me back within 3 days. finally I received a call from a supervisor name kim. i was told that they longer carries this color of wood and the warranty does not cover these problem because the floor was installed 8 years ago. that I cannot understand, , , , this iis a 20 year warranty, , , why can it be no good after 8 years.i spoke to arlene melanis & one other lady and was told that these problems was covered by my 20 year residential warranty. I cannot understand why a 20 year warranty is only good for 8 years. I cannot understand why I was told that the warranty was good by 3 people & was told that it was no good by one person (kim - supervisor). there was nothing wrong that was done on our part to create these problems. I was given 2 reference numbers…... [protected] and [protected].
all I am asking for is for these problems to be fixed or I am compensated or refunded a portion of the money that I paid for this installation..

Zero knowledge of their products. After 4 times of coming to my home I still don't have the correct wood flooring!
I wanted to order wood flooring for the one carpeted room in my house. First time they came out, they started to put down a laminate flooring and the installer was wise enough to say, this can't be what you ordered, he was correct. They scheduled another day for re installing, I had to work - when I got home they installed laminate again. They had to come back that evening and rip up that flooring to install a wood floor and was at my house until 945pm. When asked for the remaining payment (from the difference of their mistake of installing laminate twice to the wood floor I had agreed to) I stated this is clearly not the wood that I had ordered. My entire house is a light oak wood - this is a red wood (photos 1 &5). I told them again that they put in the wrong flooring and by the morning, the baseboards had started to peel away from the walls, the nails are exposed and I have to purchase new baseboards (photos 2-4) they came out again to replace it with the wood color I had chosen, when this installer came out he said, this is the wrong size width of wood. I spoke again to latasha at empire and she said that they don't make a smaller size. I said I was done with this company, wanted the wood that I didn't order out and a full refund. I was willing at the time to eat up the cost for the new baseboards that I have to purchase. I inquired about my refund and they informed me that they were only going to refund me $503.16 of the $1, 040. Additionally they were not going to remove the incorrect wood or reimburse me for the baseboards.
I had offered to try one more time to have a salesperson come out and look at a sample of yet another wood for them to exchange for me and they refused unless I paid them an additional $536.84. Her exact words were, clearly our wood will not work in your house. Well, if that was the case, why would the sales representative even agree to take this job. I am now having to get a lawyer and ecru even more charges.

I am writing once again to express my disappointment with not only my flooring but customer relations of Empire Today. It has been over ONE year since our flooring problems were first brought to Empire Today's attention and absolutely NOTHING has been resolved as of today! Not only have I been passed from person to person in this company, several of those I have talked with have since left the company. I am at a point now where I just want a full refund. Back in June I talked to a representative named James, here in Columbus and he proposed giving Empire Today another chance to make things right. While I heard that before, we were willing because ultimately we just wanted it replaced. After convincing me he would personally see to it that we would be taking care of it he passed us along to his supervisor Justin. He came out and ran some "tests" and told us underlayment wasn't put down and our house was too humid for hardwood. He says he would be in touch. Both have since stopped all communication with us and won't return any of our multiple phone calls. I have even called Cathy at Corporate (once again) and she now won't return my phone call. I'm at a point now of total frustration. I'm contemplating calling the news and will definitely be reaching out to the Better Business Bureau to let them know. I will also continue every day to complain online until this is resolved.

I received laminate flooring in my kitchen dining room and living room and after three months it has buckled and the flooring has a filmy layer that looks awful. Empire denied my claim saying it was from moisture. But that is not true and can not happen in three months. I will never purchase from them again and this was my second install.. they did not even want to come out to to my residence again to see how it is buckling in two more spots..they took my $5600.00 quickly and now I receive no answers or help when their product is defective...

Scheduled an appointment to have carpet installed. We had a flood in my son's room and he has not been able to sleep in his room for six weeks. An Empire rep came out and she was great. She told me that carpet installations were two weeks out. I was disappointed but understood.

I received a text this morning letting me know that Empire would be by this morning to install the carpet. I had my son wait around. I called at one because no one had shown up or called. The woman on the phone said that they would be there in 30 minutes. I called at 2:30 because they had still not shown up or called. The woman said that they would be there in 45 minutes. That is great because I am at work and my son has to go to work. She said that they may be willing to wait fifteen minutes until someone can get home. If the carpet does not get installed today I am cancelling. I find it disgusting how disrespectful this company is of their customer's time. Waiting around ALL day when we were told that there would be there in the morning. Not one phone call to let us know. Women on the phone, both of them did not care much either. Telling me that they may be willing to wait 15 minutes like it was our fault. Never again will I use Empire. If they think that they are so important that they can keep their customers waiting for nine hours and then be unwilling to wait, they have another thing coming. There are plenty of other people out there who would be more than happy to p[rovide me with carpeting.

My experience with Empire started on a very positive note with my sales consult. The associate was very helpful with helping us pick the right carpet and making sure we had the warranty we wanted as well and worked to accommodate our request for install dates and times but it went downhill from there.

Carpet was installed on 3/3/18 - Tech arrived late and showed up with his wife and child in his truck and he was in a hurry. He then started to inform us that we paid way too much for the carpet and that Empire over chargers for the type of carpet we got and they never honor the warranty. We would have been better getting someone off of Craigslist. He stated the carpet was a little wet as well as it was in the warehouse but that he would cut those areas off.

Now, we start noticing that the carpet around the tile boarder is coming up. We contact Empire to schedule for someone to come out and see about making repairs. The young lady we spoke to stated that she could have the tech out there on Saturday August 11 between 8am and 10am. We are now waiting and no one has called or showed up and it is 10:45am. We contact them and we spoke to a lady who was rude and informed us "look your appointment maybe from 8 to 10 but these are sub-contractors and they can show up any time before 6pm". I informed her that this is the first time I am hearing this, and she stated will I am telling you know and hangs up. The tech finally shows up at 5:30 and it was the same guy who installed the carpet. He stated he was in a hurry and that no one gave him the call until 11:30am and he was already on a call and had things to do. He stated the issue was that the TAC strip was not replaced and it was old and not holding the carpet in place and that it was bad carpet. He stated he could not stretch the carpet because there was not enough of it to stretch and because the carpet is fraying at the transition.

I called on Monday August 13th and complained and the young lady that helped me was truly wonderful and stated someone will contact me. I received a call on Tuesday from a lady who stated she was a manager and that she needed to come out and inspect the carpet to confirm the issues. She arrived on Wednesday August 15th and informed my mother in-law she was not a manger but a installer and her name was Eunitha Collins and she then proceeds to inform my mother-in law that there is nothing wrong with the carpet that the issue is the dog is eating the carpet. Are you serious? She is telling my mother my dog who is trained and I mean very well trained that they are eating the carpet. My dogs are not eating the carpet, nor do they play on the carpet. For someone to come into my home and tell my mother there is nothing she is going to do because her dog and cat has done the same thing to her carpet and this is what my dogs have done to this carpet is totally unprofessional. I have carpet in other parts of the home and this is not an issue.

I have a warranty on this carpet and the entire carpet is coming apart where it meets the tile and this is not a dog issue.

I have done a lot of research on fraying carpet and this has nothing to do with pets it has to do with poorly installed carpet.
 Transition molding - Where carpet meets other floor coverings, the edges must be adequately protected with an appropriate transition molding.
 Sealing - Edges placed into transitional moldings may require sealing to prevent ng - Edges placed into transitional moldings may require sealing to prevent raveling.

Carpet is fraying and looking ragged next to the wall and at transitions:
When carpet is manufactured it has a raw edge. We all understand that if a garment fabric has had the selvage cut off it needs to be hemmed or have a serged edge applied to keep it from fraying. The raw edge of a carpet backing fabric is no different in the sense that if it is not protected it to will fray. To protect that raw edge the carpet must be fully tucked between the tack strip and the wall so that the threads from the raw edge of the back will not work to the surface.

As with the backing around the walls, threads from the raw edges of the backing when not adequately tucked or protected will work to the surface. As you walk across these transitions or vacuum the carpet in these areas the back of the carpet can be separated. When it is difficult to protect the edge it is often advisable to use an adhesive along the raw edge to seal.

I really need someone to contact me to resolve this issue

I ordered carpet for my living room on Aug 8. My card was charged full amount on Aug 7. Original install was for Aug 8, they rescheduled Aug 9. My carpet and pad were removed and new pad installed. However the new carpet was damaged and they could not install. I was told they would return next day with new carpet. In the meantime they laid the damaged carpet down so my pets would not be injured on the exposed spikes. Did not hear from them till I called that evening, I was told they were out of my carpet and more would be in Aug 13 and they would install Aug 14. After numerous calls to them on Aug 13, I was informed they did not have carpet for me.
It is now Aug 16, they have had my full payment and I still do not have installed carpet. They do not call me, I try to call them and get nowhere since I have not been able to contact the warehouse or the install manager servicing my area. Part of my living room furniture is still spread in my kitchen and dining room. I had to cut away the existing damaged carpet to get into my laundry room since it was not actually installed, just laid there and was blocking the door.
I am done dealing with this, I want a total refund and my order canceled. However the main number supervisor could not help me with that, he said I would have to deal with the local office, and these are the people I cannot get on the phone in the first place.

We had flooring put in our house, many appointments were cancelled by them before it actually got done, and we were not notified of the cancellations until my husband called to find out what was going on. After they left we did notice about 4 areas that need to be redone, we called the same day service was done. It has now been over 1 month waiting for them to come back out. We keep getting appointments set up by them but nobody calls or shows. They are suppose to show today and we have called twice already, keep getting oh somebody will call.

O have called this Company (Empire Today) on three separate occasions to get an appointment to have someone to look at an give me a price quote to restretch my carpet. Each time they have told someone will contact me with in the next seventy_two hours but each time that has failed to happen. This problem has been going on for the last three months. I used this Company because I thought it's REPUTATION O thought was good, but I was wrong. I would not recommend this Company to any one in fact I would tell them don, t away RUN.

We had LVP installed back in May for our entry way, living room and dining room, and a small hallway. All went well with the appointment. My complaint is that once the cock or glue dried on the transition strips in the laundry room, bathroom, and kitchen entrances they started to come up. I called and schedule a maintenance. Tech was a No-show!😠

1. Installers not taking responsibility for the bad work; and blamed the concrete/wood under the padding instead.

2. Empire doesn't stand behind their work.
3. Empire Today doesn't return calls.
4. Their customer service staff is non-existent once they've pocketed YOUR hard earned money
5. Salesperson promises to call back the next day to follow up and when you call to notify of the issues they either dont answer or take days to answer you

I scheduled my install for vinyl flooring throughout the majority of my house 2 weeks prior. I confirmed the appointment twice via email and at 7pm the night before, they called, left a voicemail saying they had to reschedule and then promptly closed the installation office so I couldn't call back to find out what was going on. I spoke to a customer service rep who said they were "putting me back on the install list" and that someone would call me in the morning. The install was scheduled for 8 am. I took 2 days off work. One to prepare my home for the install team PER THE INSTRUCTIONS of the sales rep (who was also horrible and I should have known right then and there to run screaming from this company) the other for the actual install. Because I was told that I was "back on the list", I had to stay home and not go into work. I called right away that morning and was told I had to speak to Vincent, the supervisor. He finally called me back around 1030 that morning and told me someone called out and he had no crew to do the job. He admitted that he had gotten the call out in the afternoon the day before. I would like to know if he got a call "that afternoon" why did he wait until 6:59pm to inform me the CONSUMER? No one in the install department or in customer service gave a damn that this happened. No one was particularly apologetic and didn't even seem SURPRISED (which is terrifying to be honest) The first customer service rep hung up on me and the second one threatened to hang up on me because I told her the first one "didn't seem to give 2 [censored]s about the situation and hung up on me" and she told me she was going to disconnect the call if I continued to use profanity! If you don't even have customer service capable of handling an upset customer then you have bigger problems and maybe those employees should be in another line of work! When I finally did get to a supervisor "Saul" I told him I wanted to cancel my order since my appointment was cancelled and I wanted my deposit back. He informed me that I would not be getting my 200$ back because I was the one cancelling the install. I understand the 3 day right of rescission rule. Im VERY familiar with contract law in my line of work. But how can a company expect someone to RESCHEDULE with a company that LEFT A VOICEMAIL at 7pm the night before an 8am install advising they have to reschedule because they have no crew to do the job? Am I now held HOSTAGE by a contract? What is stopping this company from doing the same thing every time I reschedule? This company is horrible and doesn't care at all about creating a good customer experience. I understand things happen but no one apologized, no one cared and no one made any real attempt to keep my business. AND they are trying to keep my deposit. I will NEVER use Empire for anything and I will be very vocal and public regarding my disgust regarding this situation. I have already filed multiple complaints with the BBB as well as every consumer advocacy group I could find. Not only have they lost a customer for life, but they have also lost my friends as well as my family who own MULTIPLE rental properties and were looking for a new company to hire for their ongoing flooring needs.

5/17/18 - original appointment scheduled and confirmed. Sales rep called to reschedule on 5/18. We had the customer, Beck Garcia, travel to the house specifically to meet the sales rep and they cancelled at the last minute.

5/18/18 - sales rep met with the customer, Becky Garcia and performed the estimate. She chose the carpet and Vinyl, and specified what work was to be done.

5/24/18 - received a call from Carl, sales rep, and reviewed the quote. The quote came out to about $6000. I had made it clear to Carl that $6000 was too much and that I had another carpet/Vinyl company do a home in California for $4000 and it was bigger. I made it clear that he need to bring the price down. We agreed to meet on Saturday 5/26 at the customer's address, 817 Center St, at noon to discuss further.

5/26/18 -

12 Noon. Carl was running late and arrived at 1pm.

Carl, Becky (customer) and I sat down to negotiate the terms. Again, we had made it clear to Carl that $6000 was too much and that I had another carpet/Vinyl company do a home in California for $4000 and it was bigger. We made it clear that he need to bring the price way down.

I had stated to Carl if we could not bring the price down significantly, we would go somewhere else.

We also would be removing the carpet and Vinyl ourselves to further reduce the cost, and we did not want Vinyl in the master bathroom as we were going to install clay tile ourselves

Carl said that with our carpet and Vinyl choice, he could bring the price down to $2900 TOTAL (carpet and tiling), provided that we take out the carpet and the Vinyl ourselves and the master bathroom would not be done.

Carl, Becky (customer) and I agreed on the total price of $2900 for carpet and Vinyl .

Carl had said that he would have to go back to the office to redo the contract to reflect the price negotiated and also remove the work to take out carpet, Vinyl and Vinyl in the master bathroom reflected on the contract and send me the updated contract, but I could go ahead and sign the contract as is today to get things going.

Carl said that he would credit back the work to take out carpet, Vinyl and Vinyl in the master bathroom to bring the price down to $2900 after the work was completed. We agreed.

We agreed to pay the difference between the amount above $2900 that included removal of the carpet and Vinyl and Vinyl the master bathroom, which would be refunded later and bring the total amount to $2900. I was expecting the difference to be roughly ~$600

I was approved for financing for $2500 and paid a deposit of $613.21.

Carl reviewed the contract with us. I asked about reviewing the final pricing and he said he would need to go back to the office to make the changes; Carl did not review the negotiated pricing with us during contract review which I signed under the premise that the total work would have cost $2900.

We agreed to have the Vinyl installed on 6/8 and the Carpet installed on 6/11.

6/7/18

7:45am - I called Carl and left a message asking about the updated contract.

7:49am - Carl called back but did not leave a message.

6/8/18

Empire vinyl installers arrived at the location as scheduled

The Vinyl installers demanded Cash on Delivery (COD) before start of work

This is never communicated to me. I was furious as I was under the impression that this was financed. We called EMPIRE and eventually were able to have the workers install the Vinyl

6/11/18

The customer arrived onsite as agreed. Empire called me and had stated that they needed to reschedule as the carpet hadn't made it to the warehouse yet.

The customer was upset that again, she arrived as scheduled and another appointment was cancelled.

6/13/18

Received confirmation email of the carpeting installation appointment on 6/14.

6/14/18

9:27am - EMPIRE called and informed me that the carpet still has not arrived in their Chicago warehouse and wanted to reschedule again for a few more weeks out. I told them that this was not a good option. They would call me back to see what could be done.

9:35am - received a call informing me that the installers would be in on Saturday 6/16 to install the carpet.

The customer was upset that again, she arrived as scheduled and another appointment was cancelled.

6/15/18

Received confirmation email of the carpeting installation appointment on 6/16.

6/16/18

EMPIRE carpet installers arrive and start work. Once again, they demanded Cash on Delivery (COD)

This is never communicated to me. I was furious as I was under the impression that this was financed.

I called Carl and he did not remember the terms of our agreement and had stated, "well, you signed the agreement".

I called EMPIRE and they were confused and the total price as she (Brissa) said that Carl never told her what it was. I asked to speak with a manager.

Brissa handed me off to Carlos, a customer service agent, who I thought was the manager at the time as I had requested. I explained the negotiated terms to him.

Carlos had said that he needed to investigate what happened and that we needed to reschedule carpet installation. I stated that that wasn't possible

The only way to get the carpet installed was if I paid $2781 immediately, which I paid immediately..

Carlos stated he would get back to me, but he never did.

Carpet installers stold the key out of my safe lock within thirty minutes of arriving at my house. Which was forsure there prior to there arrival
Damaged freshly painted house in many places in every room they installed carpet either baseboard or closet doors
Broke many base boards using an axe to install carpet
I have many photos to show all the damage
Tried calling and emailing empire to no prevail
Never use empire carpet

We have lived in my home for 21 years. We had the original carpet and replaced twice. This is the third replacement. I had carpeting installed in January 2018. I noticed at the end of June, the carpeting was fraying up at one end and the nails (where the tile meets the carpeting) were cutting into our feet. Another bedroom has this same issue just starting (not as severe). Called Empire and the installer came out to inspect. He said he did not install this room ("so I don't know") but the other two and proceeded to blame my cat. I have always had 2 cats and 2 dogs and never had this issue! This was a few weeks ago. I keep calling and supposedly there is a report to come but they read the installer's notes where he wrote it is the pets. I am asking for a manager who never gets back to me (called last week and was told I would get a call back). They called yesterday and I called back thinking it was regarding this issue. I was told they were offering me incentives and promotions for flooring! I could not believe it! Never will I buy from them again! I just called today and am told they are all in a meeting and will call by the end of the day. We will see! I am a very dissatisfied customer and will never recommend Empire Today to anyone! I am reporting this to the BBB and sharing my opinion on social media, Yelp, etc.

After we had the tile installed in the kitchen and bathroom, we had to call for a crew to return to replace loose tiles and replace or add joint sealant. Now more tile are coming loose as well as more cracks are appearing whre caulk should be. I have have been on the line for up to 25 and 30 minutes waiting for a customer service rep until I finally got tired of waiting . With all of the compaints that I have been reading on this site, they apparently need to add more customer service employees to handle all the complaints and respond to customers.

I had carpet installed in, my home 6/25/2018.
Vinyl was installed at foyer., where the carpet is connected to the vinyl, you can feel the carpet tack and they are sharp and hurt your feet. I have called Empire 9 times and they tell me they will, get with me about sending someone over to fix this problemand I will be called when they are to come and I never hear anymore from them.

Hope you can help me, I am 80 years old and do not

I will be reporting your company to the BBB ! Your management is SO UNORGANIZED! We were originally scheduled for June 29-30th for our entire house to be re done ! We are paying you so much money for that and you rescheduled for yesterday and today! Our carpet was done yesterday and we were told the installers would be here 8am today for the tile in bathroom and kitchen and then 11am then no later than 2 pm! We have a 5 year old and can't use the bathroom fully or the kitchen bc we were up until 2 am ripping everything out to make sure we were ready and now have waited al day NOT EVEN TO BE CONTACTED... i called customer service and was told the installers weren't going to make it then got transferred to supervisor who wasn't even aware we were a rescheduled client already bad enough! Then she had the audacity to tel me someone can't come until Thursday! I DONT THINK SO! Someone better be here today or MONDAY at the very lastest AND MY FLOORS BETTER BE FREE NOW! We'll pay for the labor but my floors better be free! This is the worst business I've EVER dealt with! I will never refer anyone to you! And i will be calling the BBB first thing Monday morning! Oh and i work in a cal center to leave someone on hold for over 10 mins is not good, you should check back with them every 2 mins ... if you can reschedule my family's home that's paying you THOUSANDS of dollars then you best get someone called in or pay them for overtime to get this job done today or MONDAY AT THE VERY LATEST! You had no problem rescheduling us so you best reschedule your first Monday appointment to accommodate us! You obviously don't give a [censored] about your customers! Not to mention they put the carpet that was supposed to go in my bedroom in the living room and the carpet that was supposed to be in the living room in the bedroom. My husband called back to speak to another manager and they said they would have an installer come in on his day off tomorrow morning at 8 A.M. and i swear if this person isn't at my house in the morning i will be calling the news.. corporate.. BBB and whoever else i can! WE damand a discount because this is unbelievable! This company is the worst company I've ever dealt with! I thought Comcast was bad! Haha ! The least they could of done was call us earlier today to tell us they were short on installers and make things right for us! We will cancel our service if someone is not at our house first thing tomorrow and i will be suing for a full refund of everything paid for so far!