I am a new homeowner in Haverhill, Massachusetts.in November I decided to replace my bedroom and hallway carpet and re-do all my windows with vertical blinds. I contacted Empire Today and made an appointment for a representative to come to the house with samples, measure the area for the carpet and all window dimensions. The representative was pleasant, professional and knowledgible. I chose the carpet and window treatment material and set an appointment date for carpet installation. It went all downhill after that.
On Wednesday, Nov. 24 I received a telephone call from someone I could hardly understand. He indicated that he was coming to install a carpet. At 10AM I answered the doorbell and was confronted with two "seedy" looking people in dirty clothing. The van they drove in was a dirty, rusted white panel van with "Valey Dry Cleasners" painted on the side. I asked them what they wanted and they said that "We are here to put in a carpet." — No uniform, no identification, no company vehicle. The biggest mistake I made was letting them in.
They removed my old carpet and padding, installed the new padding and - when they unrolled the new carpet it had grease stains on it. They asked me if I would want to have this carpet installed and I said NO. I also asked them if they thought that they may be able to clean off the stains. [New carpet materials are very resiliant and clean up very well] They said that they could not do that and that they would have to make a call to find out what they could do. After four (4) calls on MY Cell Phone (they didn't have any means of communicaiton) I was given to someone in customer relations.
It was only 11AM and I asked the Empire Today representative if they could just go back and get another carped and install it in the afternoon. I was informed that that was not an option. Since all my bedroom furniture was packed into my study I could not get back into my study to work not could I put the bedroom furniture back into the bedroom because only the new padding was covering the floor. The decision was made to install the damaged carpet and come back in a week to tear it up and replace it with a new carpet. I agreed.
Incidentall to all this, one of the carpet installers was so sick that he virtually could not be of much help to his partner. His partner even complained to me about this fact. This sick carpet installer had the GONADS to ask me if I could fix him something to eat and if I could make him some tea.
To make a very long story come to a conclusion, Empire Today came back a week later only to discover that the carpet they sent wasn't enough to cover the floor area. It was only 10:30AM so I asked them if the installers could just go back and get another capret of correct size and install it in the afternoon. Not a HUGE request from a customer who had already been inconvienced by them already. I was informed that that was not an option. So I made another appointment for another date.
Four days later Empire Today came again, measured out the room and came back downstairs to tell me the the carpet they had in the van was measured incorrectly and was too short. It was only 10:30AM.
After a total of three hours (on my cellphone) and being passed off to numerous customer service, supervisor and managerial staff I got absolutely nowhere with them to come to a reasonable resolution. They werer steadfast in not allowing the installers to just go back and get another carpet and install it in the afternoon. NOT AN OPTION!!!
I finally contacted someone who I had hoped was a competent representative and told her that I was cancelling all services and I wanted a refund. {I had put an $800.00 down payment on the vertical blinds and $46.00 down on the carpet] In all, my business totled $5,500.00. She informed me that this would be done and to expect a call form a representative.
Two days later I got a call for someone named Jack Silverstine at the Stoughton, MA office. He said that he was calling me because the "Chicago Office" told him that my window valenced needed to be fixed. I had no idea what he was takling about. He didn't know what he was talking about. I told him the whole story and he said that He would take care of it. - Of What I asked. The window valences he replied. I don't have any window valences. I have a damaged carpet. I don't want the carpet and I do not want you to put in any window treatments and I want to cancell all services.
That was December 14. God only knows what is going to happen now.By the way, since the original stained carpet was only a temporary installation, it was poorly installed with obvious seams and areas at the periphery at the staircase margin that has two and a half inches on NO CARPRT at all and areas of cut carpet pieced together with unmatched knap.
My advice to anyone who sees this complaint is to not consider Empire Today to render any services for your home. They sub-contract to a low bidder and have absolutely no control over the quatlity of service. Empire Today customer services are inept, put me on hold for inordinate periods of time and did not have a clue as to the fine points of managing an unhappy customer.
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