Empire Today

On 5-16-06, I took the day off of work to have a sales representative from

Empire Today come out to my house. I already knew that I wanted a

Berber style carpet in my bedroom and had conveyed this by telephone.

The sales representative was scheduled to arrive at my house between

11:00-1:00 p.m.

Prior to scheduling the appointment, I had read on the Internet negative

reviews & complaints about their poor customer service--needless to say, I

am now adding my own negative experience.

At about 10:00 a.m. I received a call from Marcella, the sales

representative scheduled

to come out to my house. She said she needed directions & after spending a

painful

amount of time on the phone with her, I got a taste of her

unprofessionalism.

At about 12:00 Marcella arrived. I showed her the room of where I would like

carpet.

I told her I wanted a Berber style carpet and she asked me if I wanted

"cheap or expensive."

I told her I would like to see her selection and that I am not concerned

about the price. She again

asked me if I wanted the "cheap or expensive." I asked her to show me

both--she then told me

the expensive is very expensive.

Moments later, she returned with her samples. First she showed me the

"cheap" after which I asked to see the expensive. I chose a carpet from the

expensive and asked her for the price...her response was that it was three

times more expensive than the cheap. I asked her to give me a quote and she

said that she did not bring any of her paperwork and did not have a

measuring tape.

I asked Marcella how it was that she was going to give me a quote and she

said she knows it's unprofessional. I told her she was right and that I

should have listened to the negative reviews I read about Empire Today on

the Internet. Marcella then yelled, "Why did you call us then?" I told her I

wanted to give them a chance and that she just wasted my time and needs to

leave my home.

Marcella raised her voice at me and told me not to talk to her that way. I

raised my voice back at her and told her to get out of my house. I had to

tell her three times to get out of my house. The whole time she argued with

me and would not leave.

Comment On This

They are a rip-off period. They put the wrong carpet in one room and would not make it right. Buyer Beware... I talked to the VP and he even cursed at me. They are to high price and poor service. My advice go somewhere else. I will never do business with them again. I also tell everyone about this..

Comment On This

About 3 weeks ago I called to have an Empire rep come to my home for an estimate. He (Bill) was very personable and once he saw that we were Jewish he immediately started bantering around phrases and words referring to his "Bubbe" in a most condescending manner. We picked out the carpet we liked and he quoted a price (for a 13x10 room) of close to $1000.00 We told him we'd think about it and contact him later. We discovered later that he had left some samples behind so we contacted him and when he came by to pick them up explained to him that not only was the quoted price exhorbitant but it wasn't even the top-of-the-line grade. He then proceded to quote us a new price noting that there was a builder who didn't use his discount (huh?) so he could give it to us. He quoted us a new price for the same carpet considerably lower than the first. I thanked him, he left and the next day we left a message for him to call us back. He never did. What irked me was that I wanted the lowest price period. I don't like the "well, if you sign the contract now, the price will be..." To me that's high pressure sales and an immediate turn-off. Meanwhile, I was referred to a local company and bought a better grade of carpet & padding for almost half the price.

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I am now suffering the nightmare that they are. I had already taken 2 days off to have my blinds installed and yet, I have no blinds. Next week I will have to take a 3rd day (by the way I'm out of sick days) so that they can come and finish the work. Because I live in a condo in NYC work has to be done weekdays between 9 and 5. I cannot continue taking days off and I cannot cancel the order because they will charge me 33% of the order. I don't know what to do. I order with them because the salesperson who came to my house said their blinds have lifetime guarantee, and now I am starting to worry that this will not happen.

Comment On This

You don't have to look hard at all to find VERY negative remarks about Empire Today. All I did was query Google for "Empire Today reviews" & all I got were VERY negative ones. All of the first 10 hits were negative, especially http://empire-carpet.pissedconsumer.com/

which was full of horrible AND similar complaints. This was enough to keep me from calling them. I've learned to check a company out on the internet first because they cannot hide from that, but this is the FIRST time I've seen so many negative reviews on ONE company. YIKES! This only reinforces my belief to check up on a company first, BEFORE any contact.

Comment On This

Is this typical of Empire Today? Which state was this complaint made? Does anyone have any complaints about the GA Empire Today?