Empire Today


Country United States
State Benin
City Northlake
Address 333 Northwest Ave
Phone 800.588.2300
Website www.empiretoday.com

Empire Today Reviews

  • Jan 3, 2015

May 2014 we purchased & had carpet installed in our entire new reckroom. Got a 50/50/50 sale for Memorial Day. The salesman ( Mr.Chubly) came showed us samples. Said he was giving us a free carpet pad upgrade with our 25 year warranted carpet that is waterproof and stain resistant. We were excited!! ( Until we Weren't) The installers were to arrive the next morning & didn't show. I called Empire and the installers were being rescheduled.( Not very Professional!) When they did come, the men went about their install. I tried asking a couple questions but quickly found out that this crew speaks little to no English. To their credit?, the job was done quickly and they vaccumed upon completion. BUT, The installers left a pile of carpet & padding in our basement & the only one that spoke just Broken English said they'd be back. We asked about the smell and he said it was fumes from the carpet and it would go away in a couple days.

By June, I called about the garbage left behind & the smell. I was told someone would call back. NOTHING! By July & August, the smell is getting worse. I called and was told that we need to hire a professional carpet cleaner to clean odor. $129 and Still it stinks! I realize that the smell was coming from the ENTIRE perimeter having what appears to be male cat spray which is drawing my cats to the spots. Believing my carpet was waterproof & stain resistant, and because its not recommended, we did not have the carpet cleaners ( Stanley Steamers) saturate the carpet. We have spent Months on Carpet cleaning, enzymes to destroy, even had other carpet installers pull up areas, for Viewing ONLY!) To find entire perimeter as well as Enclosed Closet ALL had/have Urine/Spray & also that they used Cheap wood tack strips as well. I have spoken with numerous people at Empire Today who have either said someone would return our call or finally, that we can PAY THEM $400.00 for Labor to have this Toxic Carpet removed and replaced. ( We aren't sure seeing as we were told carpet was waterproof). I argued with Helen, after Numerous calls, that why only remove carpet when the pad may have been the issue & that BOTH need to be removed Immediately from my home. Helen at Empire became the contact person after Vickey; and it Appears that there is Nobody above Helen?? She has held our home hostage by lying.

First insisting on the $400.00 labor fee, then saying I need to sign an agreement form that only is consent to replace.The form turned out to be a Full and Final agreement stating all releases to/from everything and everybody including that I can't post reviews, comments etc. I called Helen and disputed the Hold HARMLESS CONTRACT after filing my complaint. It is now January 2015 and they have not removed their Stinky carpet & pad from my home. We have not been able to finish our "New" Reckroom, our drywall has been damaged, I have spent close to $600 on carpet cleaning and enzymes and countless hours of my life cleaning, waiting for cleaning, on the phone with them talking about the damage & cleaning, arguing, have had LUNA Carpet come to give quotes, all the time spent writing back and forth and have even had 2 hospital visits because of illness that was triggered by the stress of dealing with Empires Today LLC.s Poor quality Products,Service & lack of Warranty care. I requested they remove these products, pay for the costs I have incured for caroet cleaners, cleaning solutions, drywall damage, trim, and at one point, I was going to trust them to replace. They have offered NOTHING but the Cost we paid minus the deposit. This business sells you a product using salesmen full of lies, in hopes that you'll be so excited by the price that you won't notice the lack of quality, the fact you've been lied to, that you actually have overpaid and that once they have installed your flooring, that Empires Warranty and Customer Service is pretty much Absent!

Almost 8 months and I am still being held hostage by Helen at Empire! I have NEVER, in my Life, done business with such a Shady Company! And the Fact that they have SO Many BBB listings and are ALL the Same company Nationwide... Over 1100 complaints on just one Listings in Northern IL.; and they have an A? Really? You'd be better off doing it yourself from a Big Box store, at least their would be a Real human that Cares and is Local instead of trying to find a Lawyer from Whatever State You're in that is Licensed to Practice in Illinois. Good Luck! This is how Empire gets away with ALL of this! You think they're local and they Don't even have their own Instalation crews! Everybody is Subbed out so you don't even know what type if person will show up at your home. Had I known ANY of this I would NEVER have Allowed EMPIRE TODAY into my home for ANY reason! I want this Crap out of my home and I want my money back!! I am literally So Sick from dealing with this company of Scammers! I NEED this Crap OUT so I can finish my reckroom & make my home Safe for myself, my family, my pets. I am Afraid what damage this could cause, regarding health, mold & even what this damage is doing to my property value. And before anyone says " Just pull it out yourself", IF I do,( I am Disabled) I lose our money; it's a large area which I will also have to pay for deposal. Although, I do Believe the reason they are doing this is to keep MY money. It is an expense that wasn't cheap and Continues to cost both money & time. BUYER BEWARE!! This Company not only Bait & Switches, they Lie, Scam & they dont care because NOBODY can stop them. They deserve an F on their rating!! Company moto should be " See You in Our Review Mirror"

  • Jan 1, 2015

Carpet was installed well but minimal damage became moderate damage to wood work, base boards and door frames. I reported the problem within the next day and one of the mangers with three other gentlemen came out to inspect the work. I was instructed to get 3 estimates and submit to office. I was able only to get 2 estimates and informed Shaundra at Empire of the 2 estimates and submitted to company. After a couple of weeks I had not heard from anyone and called to follow up. I was told estimate was to high and need further information from the painters. I had the painters to return to my home to take requested information and resubmitted to Empire. One of the painters,whom I requested spoke from my home to a Chuck and they agreed on a price to do the repairs. No check yet. I called Empire again and spoke with Shaundra on 12/22/14 and she stated check was mailed on 12/19/2014. No check came that week. Called again after Christmas,no one seems to know what is happening with the check to pay for repairs. I have become weary trying to get the repairs done and at this point I think Empire owns me more than the repairs. Never will I do business with this company again! The carpet has a 20 yr warranty. Heaven forbids if anything should go wrong. I wonder how long it would take to get repairs done for carpet ?

  • Dec 22, 2014

I was told by a friend that she used Empire Today for her carpet so I decidded to give them a call since we were planning to have our upstairs floors redone. The guy scheduled me an appointment and someone was scheduled to come out to our house 3 days from the day I called. A guy named John showed up about 30 minutes late with a long presentation on why their carpet and hardwood floors were superior to their competitors. Due to the long presentation, he did not finish in time to actually get to the actual product and price. So, I had to talk to his boss and ask if he could come back out the next day. Since he also showed up late the next day, I had my husband talk to him as I drove to the post office to mail a few important things. I showed up hoping that we would know the price but he disingenuously chatted with my husband about unrelated things and talked about how he use to have a better job in the past. I discouraged the chatting and went straight to business. He then took out some papers and started calculating. This went on for about 15-20 minutes as he talked about how their special prices didn't apply to my order. I started taking notes on the paper he laid in front of me and writing down the measurements he gave me. When he finished, I was quoted a very high price. Then he stated that the price can come down a little but not as much as I thought was fair or appropriate. He soon began to become agitated and started packing his things. I asked what he was doing because he was walking out on our negotiation. He said that he had other clients to see and to just call him if I wanted to get the work done for the price he suggested. Then, he snatched my worksheet along with all of the papers on the table. I asked for it back as he hid it behind his back and held it out of my reach. He yelled "NO" and stated that do to his company's policy he was not obligated to share his information with me. I tried to insure him that he would not get my business if our long meeting ended this way. He didn't care and wrote a few numbers on a paper for me to use with any other comparisons. He stormed out the house stating that I was lucky because most salesmen from his company would not even share their measurements like he did. He slammed the door and said that he would call to see if I changed my mind. I quickly called the company and told them what happened but they didn't seem to care. They just said "this is not how we usually conduct business" and they would talk to him. They went on to say that he offered a good price (although I later found out that he gave me wrong measurements) and that he didn't have to share his notes. I explained that he took all of the papers off the table including the one I was writing on. That is called theft. There was no comment.

A week went by and I didn't hear from John (the salesman from Empire) or the company for a follow-up so I moved on. Eventually, I got 2 other estimates that were a lot less and much higher quality material. Then I asked for a copy of both estimates and discovered that Empires measurements were waaayyy off from 2 completely seperate companies. I felt that Empire's salesman was intentionally deceptive in the measurement he gave me so my other numbers would come out wrong in case I got a quote over the phone. I was livid that someone would be that deceptive. Stay away from Empie Today! They need mandatory customer service training!

  • Nov 29, 2014

This company is a nightmare to deal with. Not enough installers, arrive late, and take forever. Our job was supposed to start between 8 & 10. Received call day of installation backing us up to later in the morning. Crew arriverd at 12:30p.m. and it took until 9:30p.m. to complete job. Customer serverice representatives were awful to deal with. Cannot emphasize enough how bad this company is. Go elsewhere for your carpet needs.

  • Sep 30, 2014

My installation experience was just a night mare. I had someone come to my condo that I rent in Orlando to possibly order carpet installation. The sales agent, Lacey, was great. Since the price was fair and I liked the product I went ahead and ordered. I set up the installation for this past weekend on 9/27/2014. I work full-time at a doctor's office and can only do evenings and weekends, and I had a tenant moving in on the 1st so this was the best day. I made sure to tell the sales girl when she set the appt, and the girl over the phone when I called to confirm my appt, that I live an hour away and need at least an hour's notice to get to the condo to let the installer in. That Saturday morning the installer called and stated he was 25 mins away. I explained that it'd take me an hour to get there and that he was suppose to give me more time, he said he was going there anyway, and would wait. I got there and there was no installer. I had no call. After trying to call the installer back and getting no answer, I called the call center (800 number). They tried to call the installer and couldn't get him. They then called the installation manager who didn't answer either. They told me that they had left voicemails for both, that they had to wait for someone to contact them, or that the installer or manager would contact me directly and that I just had to wait. After 3 more calls, and waiting 3 hours, no one at the call center could reach the installer or the installation manager. The supervisor even said that the only job left for the installer was my place and he didn't understand why no one was calling me. I was so mad, and I didn't want to just wait all day and have no one reach me or come install carpet. So I felt forced to reschedule to the following Monday and call out of work. I told the supervisor when I rescheduled that it would HAVE to be after nine am (especially with Monday morning traffic) and that the installer HAD to give me an hour's notice. He said he was marking it priority so it would get done. So today, Monday (9/29/14), I once again get a call telling me the driver is a few minutes away and it was way before 9am. I explain that I am an hour away, that he has no way of getting into the complex without me, and that he will have to wait. Fortunately, he waited this time. Then it took forever for the installation and when I went to sign the paperwork the installer informs me "I have cheap paint" and proceeds to show me where they managed to scrap off a lot of paint on my stairway all the way into the drywall!!! I even took a picture of the damage I was so upset. I spent $150 on the paint alone to repaint that entire stairway prior to this installation. I am so dissatisfied with this service, I will never be ordering again from this company!

  • Sep 25, 2014

I purchased carpet and had it installed in August 2012 from Empire Today. In September 2013, I contacted the company to inform them that every room that they installed new carpet in my house was rolling in several areas.

After attempting to contact the Sales Representative, I found out that the Sales Representative had been charged with Grand Theft two months prior to him coming into my house to sale me my carpet. I feel betrayed by this company not only for allowing someone with a serious charge against him to come into my house but also because they refuse to correct their improper installation.

I was able to get Empire Today to send out another sales representative in September 2014 to see first-hand the problems I am having with my carpet and her response was that this should not be have happened. I still can not get Management to take resonsibility and return to correct my installation at their cost.

  • Sep 13, 2014

I have been duped by Empire carpet recently. I felt pity on this lame salesman and was conned into buying a so called Mercedes of the carpets. I agreed to pay $3000.00 cash including the installation. People who did the installation did an awesome job but the problem started after two days when massive amounts of lint started to come out of the carpet. The lint is in everything, in food, sticks to clothing, just everywhere. If this is their top of the line carpeting then who knows what their common household carpet is like?

I called them and filed a complaint; they said its normal watch for 2-3 weeks and call us back. I waited, vacuuming, and removing the container full of lint each time every two to three days max. After 4 weeks finally I was able to get hold of them. They said we will send a professional cleaner to take care of the issue.

They showed up next week and did the cleanup and they too were surprised at the massive amount of lint but they did their job and left. I was happy assuming that the problem was fixed now that it's been washed, but to my surprise the lint continues to come out again. I got upset and called them again. They sent yet another rep to take some pictures to make a case for the supplier, weeks passed no reply. I called them again they said there will be another 3rd party inspection. Holy crap! How many inspections???? Each time we have to take a day off just for these people to show up and then say it's not their call it's someone elses, how unprofessional!

After almost close to 200 days they came to a conclusion that the carpet has no defect. I had to call in to find this out; they never cared to bother calling me and informing me about this. Today I called them and asked for the refund so the lady said I will transfer you to the specialist, I waited for 15 darn minutes and nobody took my call. It is clear to me now that these people are a big rip off . I am going to get my refund no matter what. I am going to take legal action if they refuse and I will reach out to every website possible to spread the awareness about Empire scams until I get my full refund. My humble request to everyone out there, buy your carpet from any place you like, just don’t give your business to Empire.

  • Jul 10, 2014

Empire salesman visited our house and provided a quote. Price was a little higher than others but not enough to make a difference. We decided to just have carpet installed but changed our order to not replace the carpet on the steps. When installers arrived they had a different order to only install bedrooms and not our loft and hall. They did not have enough carpet and had to schedule another install the following Saturday. They called the following monday and said they would have to change to Sunday and I agreed. Received several emails confirming Saturday but I didnt care because if they happen to show on Saturday we would be fine. No show on Saturday, so I expected them to show on Sunday. I got up Sunday and broke the bed down as they asked and moved it out of the room. 10am comes around and so I call Empire myself and they tell me they are not installing because they did not recieve the carpet. They claim they tried to call but there are no missed calls. I am not happy with the service. Trust me when I tell you not to let them in your home. Home Depot or Lowes can do a better job.

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