Empire Today review: bait and switch, terrible service and products quality!

I hate empire! We got crummy carpet. Not what we paid for. I want it removed and my money back! Next step is bbb. Please don't get carpet from this place you get garbage in return.

1/10th of 1 percent. That is what the above represents. Line up one million people ans select ONE. That is the percentage of unhappy customers this company has. Anyone who reads this should reflect on thier own family tree. Everyone has at least one WHACKO in the family. I am a REALISTIC satisfied customer whose initial install did not go smoothly. Empire addressed the issue in one day the very next day... Vacuum once in a while, clean up after you spill something. Carpet does not clean itself. Finally, lose some weight. 95% of you are over weight. Shed some pounds by pushing a vacuum around. Geez!

I had Empire carpet my entire basement (650sq. ft.) almost 5 years ago. The salesman did a great job, and everything went exactly as promised. The installers showed up right on schedule the very next morning, and were in and out in a few hours. Everyone was polite and professional, and they did a beautiful job. Five years later the carpet still looks and feels brand new (and this is our main entertaining space, mind you).
I'm considering them for a bathroom re-fit this year. My experience was great and I'd recommend them to anyone.

M. Slater
East Fallowfield, PA

I am very concerned. i had ordered carpet from Empire and installation was to be on Monday. the saleman called o n Satureeday and talked to my wife. he said "they were low on the carpet i ordered' but they coule replace it with a "higher grade" he said at the sales meeting "he thought of us right away." this seems to be similar to another comment that was posted and tells me i should not walk way but run as fast as ai can from this. The installation was pu off for aweek and he is coming on Wed.

We never even got this far! I called the Empire phone number one day in desperate need of new carpeting and after getting a machine over and over, decided nobody was answering and left a message saying I needed someone out to the house the next day (as they promise) with samples. Not only did they not come, but they never even returned the phone call. Needless to say, I went with a local carpet installer, whose workers did a fantastic job. It helps when you use a local company whose bosses care about their quality of work.

I am so glad I came upon this website. I am going to cancel my appointment I made for Monday Night. I need good carpet for my house with kids, animals and a business going on in here it gets lots of wear.

Thanks everyone for posting.

I called Empire, there salesman seemed nice and knowledgeable. The samples are small squares so it is hard to visualize how it will look in your home. Anyway the salesman told me the carpet I liked was a 580z. frieze. There was another sample that I liked as my second choice and he said that carpet was a 63oz. After getting my house ready for installation they brought out a carpet. When I went to check it out if felt really thin, not at all like a 58oz carpet should feel. The installers started working in my bedroom tearing out my current carpet, which by the way is 100 times better than the carpet they brought. I felt uneasy about the carpet they brought me so I called Empire and asked the customer service rep what the ounce weight of the carpet was. She replied 32oz., I had the installers quit. Meanwhile they left and I have my exposed pad and no furniture in my bedroom. The salesman comes back to my house and said, "I thought that carpet was 50 ounces, sorry about that." He brought my second choice back and now all of a sudden it went from 63ounces to 50 ounces. The salesman was a carpet installer before he became a salesman, so he is no idiot. I really think it is Empires MO to deceive and rip people off. I have called customer service twice and they apologize and say they will have someone contact me between 1 and 3 business days to bring out a better quality carpet. Now that I don't have a bedroom, all my furniture is crammed in my loft because they moved it out of my bedroom. I've been sleeping on the couch for 2 days and am pissed! Now I am in the process of working with Home Depot for new carpet.

I just want to thank everyone for their input on this website. We had an Empire Rep scheduled to come to our home between 7 and 9 PM tonight. He called a little while ago to either come two hours later or cancel because the company had overbooked him. I told him that we would call the toll free number and reschedule. After reading all of the posts on this website, I would rather call the Munro Brothers from Green Acres to come to my home and sell me carpet and hardwood. Thank you all for your help.

I would like to thank the creators of this site for the VALUABLE info! I am in the process of remodelling 25 of my rental properties. Of course, remodeling involves carpeting. Thanks to this information, I can remove Empire from my list of companies to contact.

Empire's jingle is sticky, so they would have been my first people to call for this type of service. Thanks again for the info provided. :-)

Almonst 3 1/2 years ago my husband and I purchased carpet from an Empire Salesman, who stated that the carpet would be installed the next day. The installers showed up only to find out that I had tile flooing which was not addressed to them by the salesman. This held it up and extra day.

My next issue with Empire is that I lodged a formal customer service complaint and kept getting tossed from person to person. When the installer placed our carpet the cracked all the tile on our fire place. Empire came out and took pictures and stated they will take care of teh problem but never did. Everytime my husband or myself would call Empire they would just keep transferring us to another operator. When asking for a manager they kept stating he was not available. They also did not place down and carpeting stripping on the edges of the carpet from one rooms to another. Therefore the carpet in the hallway entering into the kitchen looks like crap as does the carpet in teh hallway entering my sons rooms.

They also state we were getting top quality carpet, but that was not true as the carpet is not plush and it is made like sandpaper. I feel that Empire has the right to back up there products and give quality customer service but they don't.

I think Empire has the worst customer service and the worst carpet.

I guess my next step will be to call the news station to get this rectified or the Better Business Bureau.

I also GE Money Bank stand for Getting Extra Money from people.

My experience with Emprie Carpet has left a very bad taste in my mouth. Especially since they have never come back to fix my beautiful fire palce which was ruined when the installers used their kicboard against it when they were installing the carpet.

I would not recommend this Empire to anyone. My next step is to call the BBB and the local news station.

Empire Carpeting is a Joke, they started out with a quote at $6800, and worked all the way down to $2300. What an F-in joke! Don't Buy From Empire.

Thank you for posting your comments on this site. I was looking for the telephone of EMPIRE because I saw the commerical and I didn't jot dow the number. At this point I really don't need it now! I have read enough!. I don't have to even call the representative to come out. I will not make the mistake and think that they will do better with me! Thanks for the information.

My husband and I were thinking of getting new carpeting in several rooms in our home. We planned on contacting Empire...thanks to this site, we wouldn't even consider it. I feel bad for all of these hard working people who got burned. Shame on Empire for their irresponsible business practices.

We agreed to the guilty of carpet only to have a lesser grade to be installed along two differenced type of carpets . hardwood flooring was damage during the installation, a quality controlled person only to address one of the problems. they stretched the carpet so tight the carpet is coming apart empire said that my vacuum of having to strong of suction for there carpet. the installers put holes in my wall, left out the hidden z bar the holds carpet down , did not com pleat their job at all and now they sent me to a collection agency for payment thats not complete, are they nuts it like buying a half of anything.I informed them I will not pay on a job thats of a incompleteness state.

Chicago, IL...I agree. I bought carpeting in 2003. I was highly suspicious of what showed up but I had it installed anyway. It seemed somewhat inferior to what I thought I had purchased. Same situation with the foam padding. I bought the most expensive padding. Unfortunately I didn't have sample squares of anything to refer back to. I had asked the salesman if I could keep a square to use for furniture purchase and he said they don't permit that. I can see why. I have no evidence. I had bought the top of the line carpet/padding at a much higher cost because the salesman told me it would hold up much better and much longer being that I was a cat owner. As time passed, I compared what I had to what the other carpet stores have, and my stuff is basically crap! It isn't even worth keeping at this point. It also buckled up around the base boards. I am in the process of having all of it ripped out and I am converting to hardwood floors with a "professional" installation. Guess in some instances "You don't get what you pay for" when your expecting top of the line. It's a classic buyer beware!

I had a carpet salesman come to my which was at the time in Bethlehem, CT. The salesman came to the door and entered my home with a huge book of samples. After spending about an hour with him I came to the conclusion that I wasn't totally ready to pick out a sample and felt I wanted to look elsewhere to compare quality and cost. This man then asked me for a $100.00 deposit saying that if I decided to go with EMPIRE and get the sale price for the carpet I would need to give him a deposit. He virtually would not leave my house and was extremely rude. Finally I gave him $100.00 and he ran out. With receipt in hand I called the company probably 10-20 times and of course no one could help me. It is a miracle this company is still in business - truly. They are just so swanky and nasty.

My husband and I set a convenient evening time for the representative to arrive and he came as arranged. We chose a laminate floor for the dining room & staircase and Berber for the bedrooms.

The installers came on the arranged Friday afternoon to fit the laminate, leaving when the dining room was complete and said they would be back on the Saturday morning to do the staircase as they did not have time to complete it before late in the evening and did not want to leave the stairs in a half finished state in case we had an accident. They arrived on the Saturday morning, completed the stairs as the carpet installers arrived to re-carpet the bedrooms.

All the work always completed by 5.p.m on the Saturday. They all did a very good job and my husband and I continue to be satisfied. We took advantage of the one year free credit and are just about to pay that off so we can take advantage of it again and have a second staircase and hallway laminated and the downstairs living room re-carpeted.

Sorry guys, but we are happy customers!

I paid nearly $5000 to Empire to have my entire home re carpeted. I did choose a low grade because I have the house on the market. But I had no idea how poor the quality would be! 60 days later it continues to shed fibers worse than I have ever seen. I can't vacuum without unclogging the vacuum at least 3 times. Just rubbing your hand over the carpet yields a hand full. I called customer service and finally got a call a week later. I was told the carpet would continue to shed for 100 days and to keep raking and vacuuming. It's all over my furniture and clothes! You should see my pictures. The next step is to go to small claims court and file a BBB complaint. Avoid this company!

Thanks! I was thinking of calling Empire after seeing the commercial and now I know I will go to my local dealer instead. THanks for saving me $$.

My mother not telling me she was getting a shower liner used Empire and what a nightmare. She is a widow, on her own and wanted to upgrade her upstairs bathroom. Well, the salesman sold her a shower liner and window kit and said it would match up with her other tile and the window kit would work. None of it matched up, the window kit didn't work and the installer called the salesman an idiot for selling her the liner and window kit. It has been a month since the install and they scheduled 4 appointments to come out and look at it and never showed. I have called and she has called and no one has shown up. I am ready to tear it out and dispute the charge. These guys blow.

Wow! I just went online to look up Empire. I was gonna have my parents house re-carpeted for them. I thought, it would be great that I don't have to drag them out to the carpet store! Businesses cannot afford to have lousy customer service, employees, or try to pull off cheap carpet! We the Customers, have done our research. We the Customers, will stand together! We the Customers, will take you down! I was prepared to buy carpet 10 minutes ago. Now, thanks to the beauty of the internet & this SITE I will visit my local carpet store.
We all want to save a few dollars these days, we all want convience! Let's ignore businesses like Empire Carpet! We the customers, will stand together, and put an end to bad service. Visit your local small businesses. THose are the people that deserve our money. Their kids go to our kids schools. They support our communities. They will do whatever it takes to stand behind their word!
We the Customers take stand!

I am so glad i came across this site. I googled empire carpet to get to thier site and this was the 3rd site on the results list and it caught my eye. I was going to call them to have my room recarpeted, but after reading about all of the trouble the people on this page have gone through with empire, I am not even gonna try! For those who have been scammed by empire I feel for you and for the people who made this site THANKS :)

Glad I found this site. We need new carpets and I remembered the Empire commercials. Now I will avoid them.

Thank you so very much for your posting. I was about to leave Empire a e-mail message to call me,and it would not go threw. Thank Goodness. I came to this site by accident ,and so glad I did. We will be closing on our home in August,I wanted new carpet in 3 rooms, because pre owner have a dog. My health will not allow this. After listening to the kindly gentleman on the tv ads. you would think that is a voice you could trust. And a trusting company word of mouth is very important to me. Not greedy salesmen that will lie to make a sale. Been there , Done that, wrote the book. Shame on you Empire. Proverb 6, 17. Do better.

I supposedly bought the "best" grade of carpeting. I'd hate to see the "bargain" grade. After it was installed, there was so much new carpet "fluff" and loose fibers, it destroyed the motor on a brand new vacuum. Approximately 6 mo. later, there are spots that look worn, there are indentations where there shouldn't be--it just looks cheap. My husband calls it our "plastic" carpeting. The alarms should've gone off when I was told they didn't sell 8lb. padding. I was never given a carpet warranty from the carpet manufacturer until I asked, and then I received information that is vague, at best. We needed carpeting in a hurry, and really paid the price--literally. Avoid this company at all costs!

We have been in contact with Mr. Rollins and have apologized to him for the inconvenience. Our Eastern Region Customer Service manager have worked with Mr. Rollins as well. We will submit the complaint to him and he will contact Mr. Rollins within the next 24 hours.

My husband and I had an appointment for an EMPIRE consultant regarding the carpet and hardwood floor replacement in our home. We were told by EMPIRE that all 'decision makers,' had to be present at time of consultation, therefore I took the day off of work. My husband and I were given by EMPIRE a 9-11am window. The consultant never showed. He telephoned us twice saying he would be an hour late, then twenty minutes late, and so on.We phoned the EMPIRE call center three times concerning the appointment status resulting in more excuses and delays, however we were told the consultant would still arrive. Finally at 3pm the EMPIRE call center representative informed us that she was unable to get in touch with the consultant, and wanted us to reschedule for another day. We were furious! The call center representative offered $100.00 off of our future purchase for any inconvenience. WHAT FUTURE PURCHASE? $100 does not compensate for my lost day's pay and for our patience. We live in a large condo building in Chicago in which my husband is a member of the association board for the building. He originally was going to have EMPIRE replace all the carpeting in the building. Thank goodness we found out now about EMPIRE. I cannot believe they have stayed in business so long treating customers in this manner. Unfortunately for EMPIRE I have many friends and the gift of 'GAB.' I will gab to anyone and everyone about EMPIRE carpet. I am interested to see if the president of EMPIRE spends much time reading The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun Times and surfing the web. Thank you to all that took the time to listen.

On August 21 and 22 Empire crew removed carpet and tile,and replaced carpet and tile the tile is uneven the carpet is Berber but it seem to b a fake Barber it is unrevealing in places ,when my wife run the vacuum it comes a lose.

JIMMY ROLLINS [protected]
PLEASE HELP

Carpet I chose was an expensive berber. Carpet that was installed appeared to be the same color and design, but the lack of quality showed when, after 4 months or so of little to no use, the carpet started looking worn. Having requested Empire bring the original sample with them after a mucked up quick fix on 2 thresholds, I noticed that what they brought did not seem to be what was put on the floor. Empire tried to imply that my cat did some damage {never does}, and customer rep we spoke to was rude and all for blaming the customer. When we called back in 2 days he was no longer with the company. They have since sent an 'independent' carpet inspector, but it did not sound like he was used to finding for the customer. We would like the price adjusted or the carpet removed at this point. What to do? Bill or Dot Luckey [protected]

The salesman at empire told me the carpet I was buying was a nylon berber. Ended up being olefin. Worst carpet. The guys that installed the carpet got it dirty during installation and had the nerve to give me the number to have it cleaned. Had many issues with the credit they give out. Was approved day before for credit and then when the installers came and had to verify my credit empire did not know what was going on. Turned out nobody told me I had to call to " activate it" All the while I waited over an hour with the installers in my house waiting for empire to give them the approval to do my carpet. They didn't end up finishing the job until 9:30 pm and it was unsatisfactory.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Total customer satisfaction is important to us here at Empire Today. We take customer feedback very seriously and we are always striving to improve the customer’s experience. We have reviewed your posting and are currently researching this matter. Unfortunately we do not have any information regarding your account with empire-Today. We would like to speak with you to apologize and try to bring closure tho this matter. Please contact one of our Resolution Specialist at [protected] or you can reply to the email that is shown and one of our representatives will gladly assist you. Have a great day!