We ordered carpet on Saturday, and delivery was scheduled for Wednesday. We aren't naive — we know Empire is far more expensive, but we sacrificed cost for convenience (or so we thought) because we have a lot going on right now. Empire Today has been unbelievably inconvenient and a colossal, expensive waste of time. We were asked to reschedule our Wednesday appointment for Friday ("due to the holiday"). On Friday, we received a call that they would *not* be installing during regular business hours, but at 8:30 pm, and that if we wanted to move it to a different day, we'd need manager's approval. That wouldn't work for us, as we have small children. I called corporate, who apologized for the intentional misinformation (it does not take a manager to reschedule at customer's convenience), and rescheduled for Monday morning, the rep promising that she made a note at corporate and local that we were upset and couldn't waste another day waiting for installation, so that we'd be first installation. An installer called and confirmed this, apologizing for something I'm sure he had no control over.
No call Monday morning until 10. Different installer (of course) tells us we'll be second. My husband called regional customer service (Annie, since Dan has not returned our call), and Annie insisted that there was no note that we were to be first on Monday AM, and husband said we'd like to cancel. Annie said she'd need time to speak with a manager. When I called back later, we were told that the best they could do would be a $200 discount.
Other customer service numbers (Rebekah Clerk) do not pick up. My time is worth far more than this, so I'm sharing my dissatisfaction with friends and neighbors, and relatives who just bought a new house, and will never use Empire Today again for our residence or rental properties. I've never had such run-around trying to resolve an issue with any company. Local blames national, when they do answer national blames local (and everyone pretends to be unaware of the chain of command). This is all problematic, as it doesn't matter to the customer where the mistake is made!
We have since agreed to accept installation with the $200 discount because I don't want to spend the rest of my summer waiting for carpet or trying to get my money back, but we are incredibly unhappy and dissatisfied with this outcome. $200 for this waste of time is insulting when the only distinguishing feature is supposed "convenience."
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