This will be a long-winded report but, after 5 MONTHS (to date) of phone calls and emails to Customer Service, and even Empire Today Corporate offices which has led to COUNTLESS return visits to "fix" the problems, it has become obvious that Empire Today thinks in terms of QUANTITY and not QUALITY, regardless of their claims of guaranteed customer satisfaction.
On 06/28, we met with Empire Today saleman, Scott Tucker for the purchase of hardwood flooring for our home. Scott arrived with ONE sample display and indicated that there were other "lesser quality" flooring samples but, wanted to begin by showing us the "best" first. He then gave us the full lesson about MIRAGE ACHIEVA hardwood flooring (illustrating with the sample board he had brought) and why it was superior to other commercially available flooring. After measuring, we negotiated and agreed on the price for the installation of 3" ACHIEVA the following day (SUNDAY, 06/29). On 06/29, we were contacted by Empire Today to inform us that the 3" Achieva was out of stock BUT, the 2-1/2" (cheaper) WAS available for install if that would be acceptable. We explained that it was NOT acceptable and our installation was rescheduled.
On 07/05, The installers arrived and I walked them through the house to review the areas to be refloored. After the walk-through, I retreated to the lower level of our home. A few hours later, I came upstairs to see how things were progressing and I immediately noticed that the boxes that the hardwood flooring was in were labeled "MOWHAWK"... No where on the boxes did it mention the words "MIRAGE" or "ACHIEVA" and when I asked the lead installer, he made a phone call and then told me that the "Mowhawk" was the same as the "Mirage Acheiva". Other discrepancies I questioned during the installation which were dismissed were: The felt underlayment was not being placed under the new flooring in certain areas, this was dismissed as "not being necessary" and only to "make the boards easier to slide into place". On several occasions, I saw one of the installers nailing every OTHER board instead of every individual board... As I caught them doing this, the only english speaking installer would say something to them and the board would be removed and replaced properly. There were so many installers that it was impossible to watch all of them all of the time so, I was CERTAIN that I had missed some of their "shortcuts". Also, several times throughout the installation, I found several planks that had been damaged (cracked, chipped, edge damage), as each of these was pointed out, the damaged boards were cut out, the felt underlayment was removed (if it was there) and replacement boards (with the tongue and groove cut off) were glued in place... This happened in about 15 different locations in the room.
The next day, I found several more locations throughout the room with damaged planks and called in the complaint and, at the same time, raised my original issue about the installed "Mowhawk" flooring that was sold to us as "Mirage" flooring. Empire Today Regional Manager Philip Link and Installation Manager Jacob Smith contacted us and came out to see the flooring issues. First, we were shown that "Mirage" and "Achieva" floors were NOT the same product and any representation by the salesman that we were buying "Mirage" was unintentional — although to ME, it seemed more like a "bait and switch". After Philip and Jacob left, we were scheduled to have our damaged flooring "repaired" and the same installation crew returned a few days later. The "repair" process took several hours to complete and again turned our house upside down with dust everywhere from boards being cut out and glued in again (ANOTHER 15 - 20 boards).
A couple of days later, the light hit the floor just right and I spotted another broken plank. I was so fed-up with the constant problems and repair process that I crawled the entire floor looking for more problems... When I made the call to file my complaint, there were 53 separate issues and I DEMANDED that the floor be removed and properly replaced since another 50 "cut and glue" repairs was not acceptable. The following day, Philip Link and Jacob Smith returned to look at the flooring (I had marked the location of each issue with white-out), Jacob walked through the house looking at the issues but said nothing, Philip on the other hand, said, "You know Mr. C. It seems that no matter what we do to satisfy you with this job, youre just going to pick it to death to find something else wrong with it". Well, that infuriated me and I told him that, for what we had paid for this floor, youre damn right I expected it to be PERFECT, either this floor will be replaced or my attorney would be in contact with them to persuade them to do it.
Ronesha Odom (Empire Today Corporate) contacted us a few days later to offer to have the flooring professionally inspected by a third party inspector (hired by Empire) before making any decisions about proposed solutions. I agreed. A couple of weeks later, "Inspect Solutions" came to inspect the flooring and, while he would not make any statements to us, he was making EXTENSIVE notes throughout his VERY THOROUGH inspection and, after another week, we were contacted by Empire Today to inform us that Empire would be replacing the flooring with "MIRAGE" hardwood that we would choose.
On 08/23, we met with Empire Today salesman John Martin to select our replacement flooring which was installed a few weeks later BUT NOT WITHOUT more issues... Broken hardwood baseboards (that I purchased separately at over $400), damaged boards and uneven boards. Once again, I contacted Empire Today and expressed my COMPLETE DISSATISFACTION with the quality of the work and the obvious INCOMPETANCE of the installers. Once again, we were contacted by Jacob Smith to schedule the "repair" but this time, ONLY the lead installer arrived to do the work himself (More "cut and glue" repairs) and HOURS spent on trying to fix the uneven stair header... This latter was blamed on the SUBFLOOR being uneven but, the subflooring had been shaved during the ORIGINAL flooring installation in JUNE and was not an issue then so why was it now?
Think that that's the end of this fiasco? I could only wish! Boards squeaking (obviously not nailed down), others cracked or edge damaged and STILL the stair header is a trip hazard and a section of the floor in the middle of the room appears to be warped (the varying shadows across the planks indicate plank alignment issues). ALL of the door jambs were cut MUCH too short (leaving an apparent, sloppy looking finish) and some of the doors do not close properly due to poorly cut and installed thresholds — All of these GLARING TESTIMONIALS OF EMPIRE TODAY'S INABILITY TO PROVIDE A QUALITY INSTALLATION NO MATTER HOW MANY ATTEMPTS THEY ARE PROVIDED!!!
* if i am provided the ability to attach photos to this report, please look for current pictures of some of empire today's work *
Jcalaz2003
Ruther Glen, Virginia
U.S.A.
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