Empire Today - Carpet Washington D.C. area

As of today, February 18, 10:04 a.m., I am again sitting in my living room awaiting a carpet delivery that I originally ordered on Tuesday, February 7th. The person measuring the carpet came to my house, as scheduled, on Wednesday, Feb. 8th. I also ordered blinds for my condo. Since I had to schedule staying home from work I asked for delivery on Friday, February 10th. The carpet crew came around 10:00 a.m. on Friday and asked which rooms should be carpeted. I said I had paid for the entire condo, but they said they didn't have enough carpet! So, I spoke with their manager over the phone and he promised me to look at the drawing when they came back in the office and give me a call the next morningThey had some kind of data entry error that created this mistake. Meanwhile, the guys laid carpet that they could in 1/2 the condo and did a great job.

Saturday morning I waited all morning for the promised phone call and then started making some phone calls. Customer Service couldn't put me through to the "local" contacts, but placed me on hold to contact them. They repeatedly told me they couldn't reach the manager, but that he would give me a call back. I found out later that the manager doesn' work the weekends.

On Monday, Feb. 13th, I stayed home from work awaiting a call and assuming the carpet would be installed. Still, no phone calls and I contacted customer service again. I even got a comment that they had 48-72 hours business hours to respond to my request AND that didn't include the weekend. You would have thought that I made the mistake.

On Tuesday, Feb. 14th I went to work and left a note on my door just in case they came since I continued to not receive any communication. I received a call from the area manager 1/2 way through Tuesday, February 14th saying that they apologized and they had the rest of the carpet and that I should just give a day that week and they would be there. I called back within 5 minutes and got a voicemail. I said Wednesday or Thursday would work, but I needed confirmation so I could stay home from work.

On Wednesday morning, Feb. 15th I received a call saying that Wednesday probably wouldn't work, but that they would be there on Thursday morning. I was happy! Finally I would receive my carpet.

On Thursday, Feb. 16th, I had to again, stay home from work. He had said they would try to be one of the first stops. So, I waited and waited and waited. Finally, around noon I contacted customer service to see what was up. They had the manager call me about an hour later saying that my carpet had not gone out of the truck that day as he had just received a fax with measurements/approval/or something. I was furious, but tried to maintain calm on the phone. We rescheduled for today, February 18th and I was again promised that my stop would be first in the morning.

Today, It's now 10:15 a.m. and no sign of anyone. I've been sleeping on my couch for a week since I cleared the remaining rooms completely out so that they could come in and quickly lay the carpet. I feel like I'm the one providing the quality customer service!

One of my main reasons for selecting Empire today was based upon a couple of friends saying that they did indeed provide fast service. I have no time with my busy schedule and I know that Empire Today could better spend it's energy on delivering their product than dealing with complaints. But, don't promise what you can't deliver. My primary need, fast service, has not been met. I feel like sending a bill to them for all the time lost at my job for dealing with these issues.

As a side note, the man who measured the blinds gave me honest and upfront expectations. He said he would not call until the blinds came in. He said he didn't want to promise a date because it could take a few days to make them. He had someone call when they were ready and repeatedly called me on the day of delivery to let me know when he expected to be at my home, when he thought he would be caught in traffic, etc. Last night all of my blinds were installed. I am very happy with this part of the transaction.

I do hope Empire Today incorporates some kind of system, like Sears and others, that provides continual updates or automatic phone communications as to where they are in the process of the service request. It is 2006!

Thanks,

Rebecca C. (Fairfax, VA)