Patrick
In May I called the 800 number at Empire Today to schedule an appointment with one of their salespeople to choose some new carpet for my living room and hallway. On may 28, their salesman came and we chose some carpet. The carpet was installed on June 4, and at that time everything had gone well and my wife and I were satisfied.
The problem started to become apparent about 6 months later. The carpet started to wear very noticeably in traffic areas and in front of the sofa we normally sit on. This was something we had been particularly concerned with and the salesman had assured us this would not happen with the carpet we selected, and in the unlikely event it did, the carpet had a 5 year warranty against matting and crush, and in his words Empire will stand behind it 100%.
I called the customer service number and related the problem to the representative I spoke to. I was told that I would be contacted by the local office to have it investigated. Several days later, I received a call that someone would come out the following day to look at the problem. The next day, 2 men arrived to look at the carpet. One walked around the house looking at the carpet while the other repeatedly went in and out of the house as if he didn't know what to do. As they were leaving, I asked what to expect, and the first man told me he had no idea. He stated that he was an installer, knew nothing about warranties, and had been asked to come and look at the carpet, but did not know why. Very strange.
Two days after this experience, I got a call from a man who stated he was an independent inspector contracted by Empire Today to investigate the claim. He arrived the following day and spent much more time examining the carpet. He took numerous photos with a digital camera, took samples of the yarn and measured the pile with special instruments. Again, as he was leaving, I asked what to expect. He stated he only submitted his report to Empire, and that they would then follow up based on what was in his report. This was odd, since in our earlier conversation, he said that he had previously been employed directly by empire inspecting carpets for warranty claims.
About a week after his inspection, I received a letter from the local Empire office dismissing my claim. They said that the inspector had found no apparent wear in the carpet. This was particularly odd since a local handyman doing work in the house at the time of the inspection had no problem seeing areas of heavy wear and pointing them out as potential sites from which the inspector could take his samples and measurements. The letter also included several copies of his photos, which were taken at low resolution and with little or no contrast. My earlier concerns about his objectivity seemed to have been confirmed.
The most disturbing aspect of this matter was learning from Empire's letter that I had Mohawk carpet installed in my home. The carpet that was previously installed was Mohawk, and had not held up well at all, It matted very quickly, the dye came out of the yarn and the backing dry rotted. We showed this to the salesman before we ever looked at a sample, and stated in no uncertain terms that we would never have Mohawk carpet in our home again.
Many of the questions and concerns we had related to the problems we had seen with the Mohawk. The salesman empathized with us about the poor quality of this carpet, and even stated in response to a direct question that Empire did not sell Mohawk carpet. The entire time we were looking through his samples, he was concealing the fact that we were indeed looking at Mohawk samples. If He had suggested that we look at Mohawk samples, I would have asked him to find something else.
If I had discovered that he was concealing the identity of the manufacturer from us I would have thrown him out of the house. If the installer had mentioned that the carpet was Mohawk I would have refused to allow him to install it. The salesman also [conveniently] neglected to write the name of the manufacturer on the sales agreement. This entire transaction was completely deceptive, absolutely unscrupulous and probably fraudulent.
I have sent a letter to Mike Hatak, listed in several letters on complaints.com, as the National Manager of Customer service, but based on other reports I have seen, I do not expect to get any response from him. The only way this matter can be resolved is for empire to replace this inferior Mohawk carpet with something that I approve of or else a complete refund of the purchase price.
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