Just had carpet installed from Empire and it has been a terrible experience. The first installation crew was less than professional and only one guy spoke broken English. They damaged a heat vent by severely bending it in with their stretcher and then claimed it was like that when they got there. They tried bending it back and anyone knows bent metal cannot be returned to its original smooth finish. It will have to be replaced

The upper hallway was pieced together in three pieces which I was never told would be done. They cut the carpet around the mantel when I specifically asked that it be placed underneath it. There was a gap between the carpet and the mantel. They left a mess in the hallway and never put the furniture back as I was promised. I thought they were taking their tools out to the truck and were coming back in to move the furniture but they just left.

I had a second crew here yesterday to fix the carpet where there was a gap by the mantel. The customer service rep told me they would replace the whole strip since that is where the seam is and they would only need a strip 4' x 20' and it was from the same roll so it would match. When the crew got here they said they couldn't guarantee the color would match and that the seam may not meld well since the carpet had been in place for 3 days. I told him it really hadn't been walked on in that area and he said it didn't matter. I didn't want to take the chance that the color wouldn't match so they stretched the carpet by the mantel to eliminate the gap. The carpet does look better, however the guy took several gouges out of the oak mantel with the tool he used to tuck the carpet edges back under the trim and the mantel. I called customer service and now they need to send someone out to repair the mantel.

The second crew knew nothing about the carpet in the hallway being replaced so after talking with customer service again yesterday I am now waiting today for yet a third crew to arrive and replace the piecemeal job in the hallway. The customer service rep guaranteed that I would be the first appointment of the day and it is 11:00 and they haven't arrived. I called the general customer service number to find out where they are. After being on hold she told me that the driver left his phone at home and she couldn't get in contact with him (how did she know he left his phone at home if he didn’t have a phone to let her know that?). I am tempted if/when they show up to tell them to just go away as I am worried what they might damaged today.

I think it is ridiculous it has taken 3 appointments and things still may not be right. In addition I have to schedule to have a furniture repair company come out to fix the mantel. I would recommend anyone considering new carpet stay away from Empire unless you have a ton of free time to sit around waiting for them to keep coming back, trying to get it right. Needless to say, I will never use Empire again.

We ordered carpet and blinds from empire carpet, we were told the carpet

was $1900.00 and the blinds were gonna be $400.00 it was suppose to be

a total of $2300.00 now all of a sudden its $2540.00, we put the $400.00

on a credit card and financed through empire no payment no finance for

a year for $1900.00, and they readded the $400.00 plus and extra $240.00 on to the bill, we called and the lady argued we signed the contract

we already paid the $400.00 on are credit card they readded it in.

The sales man was and idiot, he didn't measure properly they came out

and couldn't put the carpet down till the next day what a idiot.

Mr Hunter,
On July 17th 2009 I called for a quote on window treatments for my new home in Chicago. An appointment was made and the salesman Reid met with myself and my wife. After a long meeting and debating colors and what would work best for our windows, we chose some sample colors and patterns. Reid stated he had another call and could not leave the samples for us to hold up to the windows until later that day. So later that day Reid did as he said he would and left them for us.

We finally made a decscion and called him back to place the order. He came back and wrote up a tenative order based on his pre-measurement. We had agreed on the price to do all 8 of my windows for the price $3097 installed. He left and after a couple of days had passed, he called and said he wouldn't be able to do the job for that amount. To our surprise he called a day or two later and said that his manager said they would do the job for that price and he would set it up for our windows to be offically measured by the installer. The same day Reid's manager called us to let us know that we had received a very good price and the job would be done. I thought maybe I received this pricing because we had used Empire to carpet our 2 previous homes in the suburbs and Reid was aware of it.

The installer came, offically measured and said it would be probably about 2-3 weeks before the window treatments would be installed. Reid called and said he needed to have us sign the contract. We never heard back from Reid, which was unusual as he was always very prompt about calling during the selling part. We finally got ahold of him and he preceeded to explain all of the personal issues he had going on and he was never able to make it over with the contract. Needless to say he never showed up.

I called and spoke to Reid's manager who had the original quote of $3097.00. He said he was not the right person and would transfer me to the correct manager and I got his voicemail. After numerous calls, someone finally responded and said they were not going to honor that price.

I would not even be writing this complaint had Reid not called us back and said his manager approved it. We called customer service numerous times and were connected to the voicemails of supposed supervisors. We never received any phone calls back from anyone. To conclude what has happened, we made another phone call to customer service and was told by the gentleman who answered that our order was now around 4, 600.00. This is saying our original order was possibly misquoted but has become very confusing since Reid's manager called and said this is great pricing and they would be going forward to complete our order.

Hopefully you be able to address this and honor what was agreed upon. If not, you can assume that I will never use Empire and advise against anyone using them. What was originally ordered and agreed upon, has suddenly turned a complete dismissal of a client interested in purchasing your product. This is extremely poor customer service which we have never experienced with your company before. Several more calls have been placed to your company in reference to this order and no one ever calls us back.

Looking forward to hearing from you.


Sincerely,

Donald & Phyllis Holly

EMPIRE INSTALLERS STOLE PRESCRIBED MEDICINE FROM MY MEDICNE CHEST. STOLE CREDIT CARDS FROM MY WIFES PURSE, CHARGING OVER $200 IN GOODS BEFORE I COULD CANCEL IT. I MADE A FULL POLICE REPORT.
MY CARPET BEGAN TO BUCKLE DUE TO POOR WORKMANSHIP, WHEN I NOTIFIED EMPIRE OF THESE PROBLEMS AND PRESENTED PROOF(VIA THE POLICE REPORT AND PHOTOS), EMPIRE STATED THAT THEY FIRED THOSE MEN. THEY THEN WASHED THEIR HANDS OF THE WHOLE MATTER. ---EMPIRE IS NOT A FIRM TO BUY ANYTHING FROM!!!

Please save your self the time of dealing with pushy salesman and DON'T use Empire for flooring and/or in home estimate. My husband and I are in the process of doing some small renovations in our home to include flooring. We recently saw an ad for Empire, to buy one room get one free, sounds good right? Not so much. I called and scheduled an in home estimate, and within a week had a salesman in my house. This part I was pleased with, friendly customer service over the phone but that must be the sugar on the outside of the poo sandwich. The salesman showed up to our house right at the appointment time (a plus), but immediately mentioned about how he had tried to contact me to come earlier, and questioned me about why I didn't answer the phone (huge brownie points LOST here). He brought in samples of the crappiest carpet I had ever seen, and proceeded to plop down on my couch, and dance around all questions we had about the price of the carpet. My husband and I are fairly new at this whole renovation thing, so we asked all the common questions, how much per square foot for the carpet, our salesman's response "We don't do price quotes that way, we are a Next Day company and are price includes movement of your furniture and installation of your new carpet." I wanted to throw him out then, but decided to be nice despite my gut feeling about this whole thing being WRONG. He went on to take measurements of the 2 rooms that we wanted carpeted, show us the crappy samples that he had (explaining that the one that was on sale for %60 off, was basically the bottom of the barrel crap that he was showing us. My husband and I said to go ahead and qive us a quote for the grade 1 (lowest grade) and the grade 2, just to see what the difference in price was. He sat there with his little calculator and then told us for less than 400 square feet of crap carpet installed "Next Day" it would be $2600.00! I wanted to throw him out for sure now. He then proceeded to tell us that for Grade 2 (the next crap carpet up) that it would be $3200.00, was he crazy??? We explained from the beginning of this terrible meeting that we were just gathering information and would not be making any decisions on the spot, he was insitant on "earning our business", he repated this several times. After a price drop of $400.00 in less than 10 minutes, he then asked "what were you looking to spend?" We explained that we were looking to spend no more than $1500.00 install included. All the sudden our helpful salesman, got his butt off my couch and said he would like to make a phone call to his boss to see what he could do, but that he would need to get his phone out of his vehicle. What a shock there? After a brief walk out to his car and back into my living room, he dialed his boss, who spoke loud enough for me and my husband to here and stated the he could allow the salesman to cut us a deal for $1560.00 if we signed today. This manager must have been psychic, how else could he have known that $1500 was right in our price range. I find this odd, wouldn't you?? It took me 10 more minutes to get this guy out of my house, I kept explaining we wanted to get other price quotes first and that we would contact him back to let him know for sure what we had decided. He informed my husband and I that it would be extrememly hard for us to find carpet for cheaper than what he had quoted us at the "quality" that we looked at, and repeated at least 3 more times about how he "wanted to earn our business today". No shit, if I was a salesman trying to rip innocent consumers off, I would also like to "earn their business" within the first 20 minutes of meeting them, so they didn't see what was coming. We finally go this man out of our house, and then called some friends of ours that live within a mile of us to see where they went for their carpeting. It was a local company who has a full warehouse, where you are able to select your carpet with no salesman in your face with "price per square foot installed" price tag's on every single sample. They were able to get their whole house carpeted for around $4000.00 with no hassle and their carpet looks FANTASTIC. Our friends also went to on to tell us that they had the same exact experience with Empire even with the same exact salesman, same pricing even for ONE room that was smaller than the 2 rooms that we were trying to get carpet for. Empire is a total rip off, I recommend anyone who has is looking for quality carpet at a decent price, and no forced agreement the day you have an estimate to steer clear of this company, and go ELSEWHERE. So glad that we did not actually sign an agreement, I can see other consumers on here that unfortunately went to the next step. Happy Carpeting with some one other than Empire to all consumers out there that need flooring.