Empire Today Flooring in Charlotte, NC – Not as Great as They Claim
The person you talk to when setting up the appointment for a free consultation has a serious deficit in attention to detail, complete with getting the address wrong and handing it off to the poor sales guy that has to come out to the house, and miscommunicating the needs of the client he’s coming out to visit. The salesman could get the highest rating for this company if it were not for the fact that he completely miscalculated the job and caused more problems when it came to installation day.
Their claim to fame is their next day installation service but nothing could be further from the truth. In the end the entire carpeting of one 15′ x16′ room, from sales to completion took over two weeks, with numerous calls to and from customer service and three trips by the installation teams. The team showed up promptly at 8 in an unmarked white van and no identification to show that they were employees of Empire. This, after a lengthy lecture from the salesman about how all of their installers are professionals and strictly employed by Empire, rather then freelance workers. After they surveyed the room to be carpeted they tried to explain that they didn’t have enough carpet for the room. Unfortunately not a one of them spoke even broken English so it was impossible to communicate with any of them. After 30 minutes of them sitting on the front porch doing absolutely nothing a phone call came in from customer service to report on the lack of carpet and that the team would be returning the next day.
Promptly at 8 the next day the team shows up, but with different guys, still unable to speak any English. An hour or so into ripping up the old floor another call comes in from customer service reporting that proper charges weren’t calculated for destruction of the old floor and a further $100 at the least would need to be added on. After being made to feel that the improper cost calculations were not the fault of the company, but rather the fault of the clients, they eventually conceded to what they considered to be a gift of free floor demolishing.
The crew continued to work and communication was attempted several times but never achieved. The final straw was when they began to bring in transitions that weren’t ordered and tried to install them. Trying to convey the problem was next to impossible and the job was left unfinished with a promise to return the next day. As suspected, nobody showed up the next day and a call was placed to customer service. The same rep who gave the impression that everything that was going wrong was the fault of the client fielded the latest call and once more tried to pin the installation teams wrong transitions on the homeowner. Then a long tirade on how putting in the proper transitions was going to be difficult ensued, but halfheartedly assured that the job would be completed.
A local customer rep called days later who seemed to be the only reliable person at the company, and even reported that the original customer rep didn’t know what he was talking about. As disturbing as it was to get confirmation that even other company employees knew that their colleagues were not fulfilling their duties properly, it was comforting to know that someone was at least going to fix the problem.
Finally a completely different team arrived with the proper transitions, but to put a cherry on this entire experience the house was turned upside down as furniture from all over the house was needed as a weight on the transitions and had to be there for no less then 48 hours. After two weeks of this whole ordeal the company has completed their work but the job isn’t done. Nothing was explained properly, nor the price quoted properly from the very beginning. The installation teams may do a decent job but there is absolutely no way to communicate with them. Their vans are unmarked and very unprofessional. This is certainly a company the shouldn’t be recommended.
