I was interested in replacing all of the carpeting on the second level of my home. I had an Empire salesman visit my home to show me some samples. I selected a rather expensive carpet and arranged for installation. I spent an entire day removing furniture, clearing out walk-in closets, etc. in preparation for installation. The day of the scheduled install, a representative from the company called to say that the carpet I selected was not immediately available, but another carpet of even higher quality in a similar color was available. I hesitantly agreed, though my instincts told me that something was amiss. Fortunately, I was home when the carpet arrived. It turned out to be a terrible excuse for carpeting and nothing even remotely similar to what I had selected. I did not accept delivery and went with another company, though it took a considerable amount of time to get my deposit refunded to me.

Upon further investigation of the company, I discovered that this seems to be their MO. The salesmen work on commission and as such, the idea is to get the consumer to pay top dollar for a low cost product - it appears they "bait" the consumer with a seemingly high-quality product and then, once the consumer has gone through significant effort to accommodate installation, they "switch" to an inferior product with the expectation that the consumer will accept it rather than start from scratch.

If anyone has had a similar experience, you local consumer affairs agency should be contacted, since Empire spends a considerable amount of money on advertising and they should be investigated for fraudulent practices and misrepresentation.