Empire Today/kitchen flooring

Empire Today out of Hanover, MD

On Saturday August 4th, I had two sales representatives from Empire Today come to talk with me about getting: New Windows, new gutters and a new kitchen floor. They were very professional and seemed very knowledgeable. I decided to first go with the flooring in my kitchen then make a decision about the gutters and windows.

I was told by the salesperson, that a "crew", at least two people, would come to my home, they would remove the toilet, pull out the fridge, install the flooring and the quarter round molding, put the toilet back, clean up and done. I had to pay extra to have the existing flooring removed because my sales rep thought that would need to be done.

August 11, 2006 was the scheduled date for them to come and install my kitchen floor. I got a call at 7 am saying they were packing the truck and would be at my home around 8 am. 9:30 am, still no one was there, so I called, and the man told me he went to the wrong area and would be another half hour before getting to my home. Finally a little after 10am, a beat up white van with Florida tags parks in front of my home. One person got out of the truck, came in and wanted to know when the plumber would be coming. I explained that the sales person told me that Empire would do that, he said no, called the office, then told me okay, I can do that. Several times during the process of installing the flooring "overtop" of the existing flooring, he had to make trips to Home Depot to buy materials. When he put my toilet back in place, it leaked so badly the water had to be kept off. His comment to me was "I'm not a plumber". When I asked what he was going to do about it, he told me that I would need to call Empire today to see what they could do for me concerning the toilet. It's now 6 PM, the doors are not back up, the toilet isn't working and the mess in my living room where he tracked in dust and debris was unimaginable. My front porch was totally a mess, and so was the inside of my home where he would track in dirt, drop stuff here and there, and believe me, he did little to none cleaning up. Now he tells me that he has to leave, he'll have to come back tomorrow, Saturday morning to complete the work. So, my half day job went from an entire day to two days, and I have to change my appointments that I had scheduled for Saturday to another time so I can get this project completed in my kitchen. After I cleaned up my porch, my carpet, and picked up pieces of wood and debris through out my kitchen and living room, I noticed that the molding around my fridge was only on one side. I pulled the fridge out, and he hadn't put any molding at the back or other side next to the wall, he had just put it on the side that was very visible to anyone looking.

Saturday morning comes, he comes back around 9:am, I told him about the missing molding behind the fridge, which seemed to surprise him, he then went ahead and replaced my doors, and had bought a sealing kit to fix my toilet, and he finished the molding. Again, the clean up was done by me, where he sawed in my yard this time, he had left all the little pieces of wood, which if your lawn mower went over would have either killed the mower or thrown pieces of wood out as flying objects.

My expectations was based on what Empire Today's sales person had told me would take place, which didn't happen.

1) I was told a team would install the flooring - I had one guy.

2) I was told they would pull my toilet and replace it - he did after arguing that he wasn't suppose to - and then when he replaced it, and it didn't work, proceed to tell me that he wasn't a plumber.

3) I was told they would clean up their mess - he did very little picking up except for his tools.

4) I was told my project would only take half a day at the most - it didn't - it took a day and half.

5) Now I'm fighting to get the $100.00 I paid extra because the sales person thought I might have to have the existing floor removed first.

6) I explained that the $8,000.00 second job I had planned on getting them to do, was cancelled - windows and gutters to be replaced by them was not happening.

7) I explained that I had also thought of having my entire upstairs and living room areas re-carpeted by them - not now.

My complaint is due to being told "how" the job would be done, and it was the farthest from the truth. My expectations were based on what I had been told since I didn't know Empire Today I didn't have any expectations except getting a new floor, Empire Today are the ones who told me what they would do.

I called Empire Today, gave them a run down of all the problems, they were very professional about it and took my information, and I finally got a called Monday night, August 14th, telling me they would be getting the $100.00 back to me within the next two weeks.

I must say, Empire Today should like at their processes, departments need to minimize non productive time, like coming to the job late because they didn’t get directions ahead of time, making sure they have all the materials necessary to complete that job instead of leaving the job several times to get materials. Empire Today should also be careful on how they advertise next day flooring, and should be telling the customer, that's what they strive for, but in some cases the work will need to be finished another day. Empire Today needs to work with their contractors who install flooring, on their professionalism, how to conduct themselves, and how they should be concerned about cleaning up after themselves.

I should have not had to make a call about my toilet, the installer should have called and taken that up with his boss, to ensure that the toilet would be fixed, without me the customer making the call.

Even though my problems have been resolved, except for the refund, this experienced will keep me from ever using Empire Today. As a business, Empire Today should be taking a hard look at how damaging these types of problems cause to their overall business, word of mouth does happen, letters written do get done, and people remember what a horrible experience they have had and will not go back at least if they are smart.

Judy

Aberdeen MD

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