Empire Today
Reviews and Complaints

RUN! Do not do business with this company. Their carpet is the worst I've ever encountered. They will tell you to "steam clean" it immediately as it will get dirty quicker than any other carpet. They say that the "manufacturer" recommends steam cleaning right away. I raised 3 kids on Beige carpeting, and it never looked as bad as what the crap does that Empire installed in my house just 3 months ago, and it's just me and my husband and we both travel a lot! I think they have a big scam going, and unfortunately the consumer has to pay the price. Their customer service is as poor, as their carpet! It will start unraveling immediately, will mat down, and you will fill up one sweeper bag after another with their carpet. I've had new carpet often thoughout the years, and have never encountered the problems I've had with Empire. Go anywhere but there, or you will regret it! We have to replace 3 rooms of carpeting because what they scammed us on looks horrible. My home is 18 years old, and the office has the original carpet in it, and looks better than the new carpet from Empire.

Unfortunately I did not know about this website until after a sales rep came to the house. He basically brought in three samples ran through a couple really quick and then said this is the one you would be interested in. After measuring the house he added up his quote. I was completely set back by the amount they were going to charge. It was more than double the quote from Lowes. When I asked the breakdown, so that maybe we could select a less expensive carpet he stated "we don't give a breakdown in cost". It was amazing to see the difference in his tone after I told him about the Lowes quote. Wish I would have seen this site first - it would have save me the time and trouble.

had an in home visit from one of their sales people and it was great. She was helpful and the price was really good. I scheduled the instalation and was very excited about getting fresh new carpet for my house. The installers came on time. The crew manager was great, he answered all of my questions and was generally very friendly.

He had 2 Hispanic guys working with him. They spoke no English. They finsihed in 3.5 hours and I was so excited. The carpet looked great. I was throughly satisfied. I really thought I would get to go out onto the internet and write a good review of the company. That is, until I started unpacking my stuff that I boxed up to get out of the way.
I unpacked a box and thought that there was some CD's and a DVD missing, but I wasn't sure. That prompted me to check my jewelry box that was in a box under stuff in the bathroom. When I did I was shocked to find 6 rings missing from my jewelry box. One of which was my grandmother's wedding rings (she passed away last Feb and that's all I have left of her). Those rings were on a gold chain. The chain was snapped and the rings gone. I was so upset, I was literally devastated. I immediately called the crew manager that was at my house and told him that I had belongings missing. He was able to stop his crew. One of the men was working with him for the very first day ever. This guy handed over 2 of my rings, but nothing else.
By that time I had contacted the local police and they were at my house. Long story short, what ended up happening was the crew manager and his wife came all the way back here from the warehouse in rush hour traffic to give a statement with me to the police. It was really great of him to do that and he didn't have to do anythig.
If that wasn't bad enough, Empire was notified also and they told me that someone would call me in 24hrs.
They should have made that a priority. The lady called me the next day got information and said she would call back. She took 4 hours to do so. When she called back (after 2 msgs from me)she gave me the B. S. line of "we are going to cooperate with the police". When I asked what the company was going to do for me, she repaeated that line FREAKING PARROT! She wouldn't explain anything.
I spoke with the Instalation Manager here in Atlanta and he basically told me that b/c legal is involved they can't discuss it with me. They aren't doing anything to resolve the fact that I paid $1800 to be robbed!
This could happen to anyone with any company. My point is that EMPIRE has no customer service to speak of. I wish I had gone with someone else even if I had to pay more money. Beware of empire.

Had a guy come out to give us a free estimate. I was warned by my co-workers that Empire Today is expensive but I decided to go with the free estimate to see how much they really cost since their commercials always say they're like 50% off.

So they guy came out gave us a quote of about $2600. He said they couldn't finance the carpet that we had to pay upfront. He also said we wouldn't qualify for financing even if we had exceptional credit. He suggested that if we couldn't pay the total upfront then to just do one room first and that came to about almost $1100. The estimator was really pushy trying to get us to purchase the carpet even after I told him we'd think about it several times. He said that we lived far and he drove 40 miles to come out, etc. He also kept saying how Home Depot give incorrect quotes and they're more expensive.

I was really upset with Empire. I hate people that try to push me to buy something I don't want to.

We then had the Home Depot estimator come out and estimated the same area. It came out to be $1400 ($1100 less than Empire).

In the end we went with Home Depot. I don't recommend Empire to anyone. I should've listened to my co-workers in the first place. I hope you don't have a nasty situation like I did. Boy, was it hard to get rid of the guy. He was turning red and sweating right before he left, which told me he was mad.

Well, it is now 15 days after I cancelled my order with Empire and I still have not received a refund or, for that matter, heard anything from them, even though I've called their customers service department several times. The law in this state says that they must give me my money back within 10 days. Yeah, right. They keep me on hold for up to 10-15 minutes each time I try to call, then someone tells me they processed it, then when they transfer me to the refund dept., they tell me they just got it and it will take another 10 to 15 business days. I have sent emails (thru their website) and left voice mail messages to no avail. They won't give me an email address, physical address of their corporate offices (or any other office), phone number, nothing. They say it's not their policy to give that out. What? What kind of crooked company won't tell you where they're located or give you any way to get ahold of anyone except by their jingle phone number? What a freakin' ripoff these people are!

Never ever go to Empire today even if you have to pay a little more at some other place for Carpet Installation. I dont know why I missed reading all the compain report before getting the installation done.
When we fisrt had the associate come for giving us a quote we were very happy since he was very nice and courtious and cool guy. The quote he gave was also couple hundered less than couple of other we had talked to and he bargained a little for us also. On the day of installation the installers were right on time with everything they need and they installed the carpet very nicely. They were very friendly and good natured. We thought we got our moneys worth, but we were wrong. After the guys left when we looked at the carpet more closely the next day we found missing loops every couple of feet in the carpet. We contacted Empire today and told them about the damage. The customer service rep send couple of people to inspect the carpet over next couple of days. They approved the damage and asked us to reinstall the carpet at no cost. We told them that we will keep the damaged carpet if they give us some refund since we have a small kid in the house and we have to make baby sitting arrangement for him at the time they come for installation. They said that they need the damaged carpet to be sent ot the manufacturer for full refund so they have to reinstall. We agreed thinking that mistaked happen sometime. But we were wrong again. The next time they brought the new carpet upstairs (after ripping off the old carpet) it had the same problem - even worse. There were big loops missing every couple of INCHES. We were so mad and furious. We tried to call the customer service to get us a new carpet and everthing but because it was a weekend nobody answered our calls. They also damaged walls of our house while ripping the carpet off. We called them againg on Monday and they said that they will not give us a refund back but reinstall the carpet and upgrade it to a better one. We told them about damaged walls and the stairs and they said that they cannot do anything about it. We told them to give us atleast a partial refund back because it was their mistake not to check the carpet the second time. Also again we have to go through the hassle of moving all the furniture and keeping my son with the baby sitter (hard on a weekend) and all that kind of mental tension. Now they are not replying to our calls at all. We have been keeping messages but no reply. I regret calling empire today for my new carpet so badley.
Now we are at a loss from everywhere - broken walls, damaged carpet, no refund. Please, pleae, think hundred times beofer going to empire today and even better never think about going there.

Worst company I have ever dealt with! It has been four years and I am still having problems with them and our product. Everytime you call you get a different person in a different state. No one cares in the company! The guy who finally showed up, had no idea what he was doing, they had very little to choose from. When they came to install both our floors and carpet, the installers spoke no english and it made it very frustrating to get things done. They then installed both carpet and floors wrong and thus begun a year of trying to get them to come back out and fix it. They actually left huge staples sticking out of the floor for my daughter to cut her feet on. I cannot figure out for the life of me how these people are still in business. They over charged us also by about 2000.00! To say I hate Empire is an understatement! I am so happy to find this site to pass on this information. If it stops even one person from giving them there business, it is worth it!

BBB Complaint about Empire Today

No, this is not acceptable. Empire has not addressed the complaint made to the BBB. We paid for a professional installation of a custom-fitted bath liner. We got a bath liner installed that has a 1/2" gap that extends 8" to 12" in length along one side of the liner. We have acknowledeged removing the caulk and the new caulk not holding. By removing the molding caulk, we uncovered a mistakenly measured product and/or major installation error made by the Empire Today installer. Empire Today refuses to acknowledge and address the problem of an inaccurate measurement or poor installation of what is supposed to be a bath liner that fits perfectly over my existing tub.

Empire is offering to replace the liner at the discounted price of $938.47.

In December 2008, I purchased engineered hardwood flooring from Empire for the living room and master bedroom of my condo. The installation occurred on January 21, 2009. The installation took two days and was very unprofessional. My problems fell into the following categories:

1. The installers got glue all over the place. They had glue on their hands when they moved my furniture. They got glue all over the living room walls. And, they left glue smudges over 80% of the living room and bedroom flooring. The adhesive used to apply engineered hardwood is very strong and must be cleaned immediately. If allowed to cure more than 24 hours, it is virtually impossible to remove. Consequently, I had to repaint my living room walls and had no means of removing the glue from my furniture. I also had a new floor that looked dull because of all the glue smudges.

2. The installers also did not screen the wood quality. The industry standard states that 5% of the wood in each box may be of lower quality. The installers are supposed to screen each piece of wood to remove the lower quality planks before installing. In the living room alone, they installed over 30 boards with blue stain, which is caused by a fungus that turns the wood a bluish gray. Most of these problems were so obvious that any amount of screening should have omitted that wood. I also question whether there was more than 5% bad wood in my boxes.

3. The wood in the master bedroom also had problems with knot holes beyond what is acceptable for grade A wood. The installers also installed some of the baseboard trim upside down (something I didn't know until another professional pointed it out).

To Empire's credit, when I complained about the problem, they quickly offered to replace the floor and to use another installer. I accepted the offer to replace the living room floor, which was by far the worst of the two rooms. The second installers did a much better job, but of course they knew about my complaints with the first installation. The removal of the first floor, however, was hell. They had to saw across the wood down to the concrete subfloor, pry it off, and chisel off the old glue. This required two days of constant pounding and generated a ton of dust. I am sure my condo neighbors despise me.

Because of the hell of replacing the living room floor, I elected not to replace the bedroom floor too. Instead, I asked Empire for a 15% credit on the entire installation price to cover the lower quality bedroom installation and to compensate me for the damage to my walls and furniture. They initially refused, until I sent them an extensive photo album of all the problems. Empire then agreed to the refund, if I would sign a release of any further claims against them associated with this job. I agreed. However, it took over two weeks of phone calls and constant badgering before Empire actually issued the credit to my credit card. But for this final hassle of getting the credit, I would at least have given Empire high marks for its customer service, despite the poor quality of the product and installation.

The lesson that I have taken from all of this is that the national flooring brands have much less quality control. Whether or not you get a good contractor to install your floor is a crap shoot. I would recommend that anyone considering any kind of floor installation use someone local.

January 2007 I had a salesperson come to our home to give us an estimate on laminate flooring for our family room, Hallway and Bathroom. Her name is Marcia.

She started out by Showing me the different style of hardwood and laminate flooring telling me that the price was the same for either. Then she began to tell me that type of product used, the quality and warranty. On the laminate flooring, I was told that it is the top of the line, only sold through Empire, scratch resistant, waterproof and resistant, with a 25 year warranty.'water can stand on them for up to 5 days'. I shouldn't of believed her but wanted to see what the price would be for my living room and hallway. She promised she would give me the bottom line price for our products. She pumped up the company's reputation, their superior quality products and service. She proceeded to tell me that they NEVER used sub-contractors or day laborers and could have the floors in the next day.

I loved the look of this sample she had it was 4in wide planks that looked like they came out of an old library in europe somewhere and even had indents in the top as if they had stood the test of time and had scars to prove it. They were a deep dark warm color I picked for the living room and hallway. For the bathroom I picked a square laminate that was a sandy marble look with a hint of lavender to go in my small 5x5 guest bathroom. I told her my concerns about putting the laminate in the bathroom and if it would really hold up. She said jokingly that unless there was a flood the floors would be fine.

She also assured us that when they started the install, if we were unhappy with the product, to call them and they would make it right. That and the scratch resistant, water resistant qualities of the product. I have cats and two children who does spill things. She assured us it would be fine. That was the assurance I needed to agree to the sale.

She then measured the rooms and gave us our quote. $9000, 00 for the laminate. I was shocked to say the least! The price of the laminate was extremely high, in my opinion. She told me that with labor costs and the carpet removal then they have to move and replace our furniture it is a bit expensive. So I said fine I'll move the furniture and keep the carpet. She said that would bring it down to $6, 700.00. I told her that was out of my price range. However they had the financing options we were looking for, and as my family would be in town next week so them being able to install the product quickly was a benefit. We decided to only go with the laminate for now. We agreed on the pricing, and She checked with the office on the financing.

They came to Install the floor and non of them spoke a word of english and they all spelled bed. But I needed the flooring done ASAP. I had removed all the furniture the night before and even the toilet and sink. All they had to do was install the floors. It was fast and when they were done I inspected the bathroom. The trim wasn't on the wall behind the sink I pointed and asked why. He they don't have, someone will fix. That was the best english I could get out of him. He told me to sign the papers and that someone would come fix. So i signed then they left. I was already upset that I was spending so much money of floors that wouldn't be done when my family got here. Then I would have to find someone with a truck to help me take the carpet that was now taking up my garage space, to the dump.

As my friend and I was putting the furniture back in the couch scratched the floor 4 inches of a scratch. Now I was really pissed the floors weren't even an hour old and they got a scratch how would they hold up to my kids. Well a month later the classic glass of water on the dinner table spilled on the floor. I grabbed a towel and got it up right away but the trim got wet and started to swell looking like a swollen piece of cardbord with a sticker clinging to it. I went around inspecting the other parts of the floor and sure enough the floor in the bathroom was swelling and the trim was ruined even after all my best efforts of keeping it dry and clean. I followed all the instructions in that manual they gave me with the floors.

I called Empire to see if I was correctly quoted the correct price for the product I received. The woman said she didn't know she would have to forward that question to the area representatives that did the service. But she could make the appointment to have the floors fixed. A week later a english speaking guy came out to replace the pieces of the trim and floor then shook his head saying that the other crew never chalked the bathroom to seal it. I got a call from Jackie due to my concern about the pricing. She said that I was quoted the correct price for the floors and got a good deal.

I asked her if she felt good about them charging me $200 a box for cardboard with pictures of a tree glued on it. She said they used 30 boxes. I then asked her where. Then she asked if there was anything else I needed. I asked to speak to her manager. She said he was sitting behind her and wouldn't talk to me that I was quoted the correct price and I would get no refund on the product. Then I asked what about the warrenty? We can send someone out to fix the floors. So I asked Every 6 months? She said no after a year they fall under a different warrenty.

So I told her to make the appointment to come pick up the floors I don't want them and to get them out of my house. She said she could do that but I would get no refund. So I called the # on the tv asking for a number to the district office. Brian said that there isn't one and that if there was a problem with the floors that I would have to talk to the local people that put them in. I told him I wanted to speak to the person above him that I felt I was being lied to and I was riped off about the floors. He said he could not help me.

We all need to get together about this and START a class action Lawsuit about Empire Today. This is crazy that they can charge what ever they want for a crappy product then threaten us to keep it. Email me lets get this taken care of.

I contacted Empire Carpet and scheduled an appointment for an estimate on 2-14-09. I was assured at the time that installation could take place on 2-16-09. These dates were set due to the fact that I would need to travel out of state to be at the home where the job would need to take place. The estimate was scheduled for 2-14-09 between
1-3 p.m. At approximately 12:15 p.m. the sales rep called me to confirm my location. At the time he told me that he was about 2-1/2 hrs. away and would need to call me back. At approximately 12:30 p.m. someone else from Empire called me to say that they would not be able to make the appointment and would I like to reschedule. I explained that I had made special arrangements to travel from Pennsylvania to Maryland to be at the home that particular weekend. I was told again that they had nobody in the area to come that day and that they could reschedule "maybe" on
2-16-09. I told her that I did not want to reschedule and that this had caused me an inconvenience. She told me that they would give me a $50 credit toward my purchase. Again, I told her that I did not want to reschedule and they had lost my business.

I called Empire on 2-16-09 and requested to speak to someone in charge so I could make a formal complaint. However, I was told to give them my phone number and someone would get back to me in
1-3 days.

Based on this experience, I would never use this company or recommend them to anyone else.

I had an absolutely nightmarish experience with Empire installers in Pittsburgh. I had just spent a great deal of time and effort finishing the basement in my new home, and I ordered a plush blue carpet from Empire. The installers barely spoke English, but seemed to be polite and got straight to work.

A few days after the carpet was installed, my then-boyfriend (now DH) noticed a plastic Coke bottle filled with URINE sitting on the floor in the corner of the laundry room. There's no question that is was urine, and there was nobody else in the house to have done such a thing. It was somewhat concealed between the furnace and a step stool in the corner. I have never been so disgusted or appalled; if they couldn't ask to use our restroom, could they have at least had the decency to leave their pee bottle in their van?

I called the company that day, and was promised a $100 rebate on the carpet installation. I should have demanded that the same set of ###s who installed my carpet should be sent out to remove their own urine from my property. I shouldn't have been forced to dispose of biohazardous, potentially disease-harboring waste in my home!

I told them that I was disgusted by what I found, and then the "customer satisfaction" representative turned everything around on me - I was accused of making the whole story up since I didn't report it for three days after the installation. Sorry, but I don't examine my laundry room floor every day! How could I have even fabricated such a ridiculous story? I never did get that rebate. To this day, I am irate and disgusted that I had to dispose of some stranger's foul bodily fluids in my own home.

Despicable company, despicable people.

EMPIRE IS A JOKE!

I read about all of the negative publicity before I had the Empire salesman come out to our home, but I wanted to see for myself that they were truly a rip-off company. Based on the salesman they sent to our home, they have no interest in keeping a positive image of their company. He was condescending, unfriendly, and to put it simply, he was a used car salesman. At one point he said the cost per square foot would be $14 -- this was for laminate flooring! When we expressed our concern about the high price, he said he needed to run the numbers again. When he "ran the numbers again" he came back with a price of $9/square foot. Again -- USED CAR SALESMAN. $9/square foot is still outrageous.

We ended up hiring local flooring installer who was friendly, experienced, answered all of our questions in a non-condescending manner, and he did a beautiful job of installing the floor. On top of that, he referred us to a specialty flooring store where we could buy quality flooring at a discounted price. For just under 500 square feet we paid $1700 for labor and materials. Empire wanted us to pay $6000 for the same job -- until they lowered their price to a "bargain" cost of $4500.

DO NOT do business with Empire. Empire doesn't care about getting repeat customers -- they are only looking for one-time customers. My advice is to hire locally, as we did. In general, local installers have their reputation on the line. Local installers rely on word of mouth advertising and good references to maintain their business -- NOT commercials with catchy jingles that you see every time you turn on the TV.

In February of last year, we had Empire Today install a frieze carpet in our home at twice the cost of what another competitor was offering. We decided to go with Empire because of their promised service and quality. It is now nearly January, almost a year later, and our carpet is still shedding, significantly shedding. We called Empire, and they sent an independent inspector out to review the carpet and take samples. He observed the shedding, even vacuumed a small section of the floor and observed the vacuum completely fill with the fibers from the carpet. After a week, we received a report in the mail indicating that the shedding is normal and may continue for some time, and that nothing will be done.

In all of my experience with new carpet in my home and relatives homes, I have never seen a carpet shed like our carpet is doing. We have a one year old baby that plays on the carpet, and he has actually learned that he can pull on the carpet and pull up fibers and eat them. This is very disturbing.

I understand that new carpet may shed for up to one to two months, but carpet should not be shedding after nearly a year! The carpet that we purchased was a Beaulieu Coronet in Tempting Gardenia. I would warn anyone thinking of having Empire install carpet in their home, that they do not back up their service claims, and that the carpet I purchased was twice as much as a competitor and of inferior quality. We are going to have to purchase new carpet now to replace the carpet we purchased from Empire. So disappointing. We should have researched Empire prior to our purchase.

On the morning of my instillation, I was never called first off, when the two non english speaking men came into my home they called my credit card into the office but did not mark the imprint on their paperwork therefore I was charged twice, that took almost a week to correct, they did damage to my walls after we had recently painted and the company never offered a discount. Last friday dec.12, 2008 I got a phone call stating that they reviewed the pics (Not mine) and were offering me $100.00 in damages (I agreed sort of as I was sound asleep when they called) , I realize money is tight for us all but I am on disability and cannot paint my living room it costs alot more than $100.00 to replace drywall and to paint a large living room, now I find out thru complaints that another was offered an $800.00 discount! I am livid all the aggravation I went through not knowing if I were ripped off, worrying how to fix what they damaged... I have to say I will call my attorney on monday never deal with this company

In October of 2006 we purchased carpet in 2 rooms and it had a 5 year warranty. In May 2008 we noticed that our carpet started to look worn down and started to come apart in the traffic areas. We called empire and they sent out a inpection company. They came out and said it was normal wear and tear. We feel that our carpet should not look like that after being only 2 years old. It is getting really worse. It looks like its 20 years old not 2 years old. The salesperson who sold us the carpet said it would never look worn. I would never trust anyone from empire ever again. They have terrible sales people and customer service.

Our order of laminate flooring and stairs was installed on 9/26/08. Immediately we saw a problem that the stair nose was about 1/2' higher than the stair itself - quite dangerous for a busy stairway. After approximately 6 more appointments where we took the day off work only to have installers not show up, show up with the wrong product, show up to repair our 'carpet', or show up and shrug, we were able to FINALLY speak with an Installation Manager, 'Bill', who agreed to replace the stairs with a wood/oak product as they did not have a laminate product for the stairs.

After scheduling several more futile appointments where nothing was done, an installer came with wood products. The stair color/model we ordered looks wonderful and matches the floor. The nose of each stair, is a different model, different color and does not fit.

After scheduling several more futile appointments of people showing up with exactly the same wrong product that they installed on our stairs, 'Bill' the installation manager was supposed to PERSONALLY come out and resolve the problem (he didn't show), he told us he would personally instruct the installer and make sure this was finally resolved. Of course, on yet another Saturday after spending an entire day waiting for the installer - he again showed up with the wrong product. Bill is no where to be found, of course. Christy Caputo, the helpful, perky customer service representative genuinely tries to cover for Bill - but he's hopeless. She promised that Bill would AGAIN call us first thing Monday morning. Still waiting.

The last installed advised us that the manufacturer of the stair color/model we ordered does not make stair noses! They've been wasting our time, messing with us for nearly TWO MONTHS - did they think we wouldn't notice!

We've received weekly 'customer satisfaction survey' phone calls from Empire, who appear to be concerned with customer service - in reality, there is no manager that will speak with you or resolve your problem or issue. You will deal with nice people at Christy-level who are polite but can do nothing but again take down your information.

Calling the Corporate headquarters and leaving messages for the VP of Customer Relations doesn't appear to do any good.

If you want to take alot of time off work, be extremely frustrated, throw away money, and spend several months doing it - then Empire is THE place for you!

I used Empire to install 6 blinds in my small one bedroom apartment. It seemed like a very easy job but it has taken more than 2 months and 6 different visits for them to install the blinds and they STILL aren't finished! The first installer that they sent to my house damaged my kitchen window when he tried to force a blind that was too big for the window in. He then asked if I had left over paint so he could cover up the damage. He incorrectly installed the blinds in my bedroom and told me that it was the only way for them to work (which was untrue). In the living room you could see that the valance on the top of the blinds did not match up and there was a one inch space between the spot where they should have met. I called Empire and they sent someone to come and look at the job. He agreed that the job was poorly done and told me that Empire had fired the installer that they sent to me in the past but brought him back because they needed more help. The second installer also told me that he constantly had to fix the other installers jobs.

The second installer seemed very knowledgeable and tried to fix the mess that the first one created. Problem is, he isn't finished with the job yet. He measured the windows and came back 3 times because every time the blinds weren't cut correctly. He also ripped the paint off my bedroom walls when removing the blinds to install them correctly, so now I have 4 large holes and white paint spots where the blinds used to be.

Whatever you do, DO NOT use Empire. They lie when they say they have great customer service and knowledgeable installers. They will send you someone who has no clue what they are doing and tell you that they are great. Don't believe there lies! I spent more than $1, 300 on blinds and they act like they are doing me a favor by installing them correctly.

I've use Empire before in Chicago and they were fabulous so I expect the same service in Kentucky, unfortunately this was a joke.
No one ever confirmed my suggested appointment and just showed up at my door ready for the sales pitch. I was able to pick quickly and the deal was sealed with incentives of (can we start this weekend, its a 3 day project, blah blah blah). They did start that weekend but now the project is going on its 3 weekend straight.
I have damage to my home, tile is cracked and was installed, air pockets in the grout, my carpet is ruined, and the hoses to the washing machine were broken causing mess in my laundry room.

I will NEVER refer them again! DO NOT USE THEM...THEY ARE HORRIBLE!

I wish I knew about this website before I dealt with Empire in August 2008. There were issues from the beginning. First, they sent out a salesman who gave us an estimate. There was a question about the estimate, so they sent out another guy to double check it. The second guy didn't even measure, he just gave us a price undercutting the first guy. We contacted the company to notify the manager about the unprofessional conduct that was going and they apologized. We decided to go with the first guy simply because we liked him. He seemed so honest and genuine and when he came several times to do paperwork with us he stayed for a couple hours after and hung out. I wish we had known what we were in for, but we were enticed by the offer of credit, the warranty, and the convenience. They assured us that we were buying a superior product and that was why it was more expensive. As a young, first time homeowner I didn't realize I was getting ripped off. The floor was installed and looked great for a few months. Then we started noticing areas that looked like they were buckling at the joints and other areas where the picture was coming off of the edges of the tiles. As the problem worsened we got concerned and called to let them know what was going on so we could have the issues corrected. They sent out an inspector who came at the wrong time and could barely speak english. He kept saying that my refrigerator, which is only a few years old, must be leaking. The floor in the living room, kitchen, and hallway are messed up, how could the refrigerator do that! I received a call from a customer service rep a few days later to let me know the problem would not be covered by my warranty because it was water damage. Since I knew there was no way that it was water damage, I am very careful not to let the floor get wet, they agreed to send out an "independent" inspector to reassess the situation. He confirmed that we did not have water damage and that the floor was properly taken care of. Using this report the regional customer service manager in the Philadelphia Market told me that I must have caused the damage from high traffic in my home, which is ridiculous since there are only two adults and four miniature dogs. He said they would cut me a deal. He offered to "only" charge me $2100 in addition to the $5975 line of credit we had already taken out with GE through Empire and they would put the same product down again. I told him no way was I paying more money for a floor that didn't last a year. He said he was sorry that I was disappointed but that was all they could do for me. I am still trying to resolve this huge issue! It has been and continues to be a nightmare!