I worked for Empire Today for several years.in the last couple years it has been hard to get paid for the jobs you sell.
When a sales person comes out to your home, they are given a price range that they are allowed to charge. The sales person may be able to charge $24-$50 a yard. If you get a salesperson that can really sell you may pay more than 2x more then the people next door. Now the salespeople have to sell area rugs. It they don't sell a certain amount a week they are not given work the following week. The salesperson is taught how to charge for the area rug and make the customer think they are getting it for free. You can get the same area rug at Lams plus for a lot less.
When they do their 50% sale it is only on 2 carpets; the cheapest carpet. They pay only about $4 a yard so when they have the sale you are only saving $2 a yard. For example you might pay $26 a yard vs. $24 a yard. The sales person is only allow charging you $24-$50 a yard. There is really no sale.
The reason why Empire always miss their appointments is that they only give appointments to the salespeople that are selling over 50%. So a salesperson may have my 6-8 appointments a day where they can not get to everyone and another salesperson is sitting at home with nothing to do. One of the general managers said at a sales meeting he would rather us miss the appointment (he used the word "burn) then give it to someone who is not selling at 50%. That is why they miss several appointments.
When a salesperson finally leave Empire makes up every excuse not to pay them. I had some sales that they gave to someone else. Salespeople have left the company being owe $1000-$5000 and they never pay them. They can't file a small claims because they don't register in the state and small claims will not let you file a case that is out of state unless it is an auto accident or tenant/landlord problem. You can't go to the labour board because you are an independent contractor. Since the sales people are i.C. Empire does not have to pay unemployment taxes or benefits. If salespeople are fired they can to collect unemployment. If Empire goes through 1000 sales people a year (which is a very low count) and don't pay $2000 to each of them they are saving $2,000, 000 a year.
Please don't do business with them.
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