Menu
Login
Replied
I purchased their LVP flooring back in 2021 and had issues with it having dips and scratches from the 1st day it was installed. I called and got brushed off as if I didn’t have a warranty until they finally listened in 2023 and I got that portion resolved. During that time part of the new flooring was scratched by accident and was still under warranty when I called in March of this year to get it fixed. I was told it was approved under my extended warranty that I had paid for and they would be out to install. The worked Adrianna Arce who put in the request said she was told to put in for individual planks to be replaced like you do with hard wood floors. Which is not how you replace LVP. So the Empire installer arrived with 5 boxes to do my entire kitchen and part of the living room and immediately said he didn’t have enough materials to do the job. He needs enough planks to remove from one wall all the way to the scratched area because once you unlink the boards you can’t just put them back together. That would be cutting corners, unprofessional and would leave the customer with a chance that the flooring could shift, not stay put and start to separate over the years. This is all from the installers mouth. So he says he will not start on the job because he doesn’t even have enough materials for even half of the kitchen. He said he would tell them what’s going on and that they need more and would get me rescheduled for them to come back out.
It is now 4 months later, I have been calling Adrianna Arce, calling her boss Denee Davenport, the customer service line and emailing. 4 months and I was getting the run around where at first they would say that Darryl the installation manager was supposed to be giving me a call. Still no calls, no emails, nothing. I went through the corporate line which at least their office answers the phone and they got someone in the Phoenix location on the line. She was rude and pushed me off the line saying that no one was available to help me and they would have to call me back tomorrow. But I have not been getting calls back even when high escalation tickets were put in by the corporate side. I am informed that Frank Hernandez is the GM at the Phoenix location and that I need to try to reach him but from the way the office is being run I dont anticipate much help.
How do you approve work to be done, send your installer out without enough materials to do the job, then make the customer jump through a million hoops asking for pictures over and over, and the customer does EVERYTHING you asked for and then you just ghost them, stop replying and don’t honor the warranty the customer paid extra for when signing up, which keep in mind the warranty company had already approved that fixing the scratched flooring was covered under warranty, which is why the installer came out in the first place! Your employee putting it in as if individual planks could be pulled up and a new one laid down is a training issue on your end, not a issue for the customer who has a warranty and should have had the work done!
How a company can just completely ignore customer calls and emails and not honor a paid for contract/warranty, is disgraceful. I have been patient and kind throughout all of this but 4 months after it was supposed to be installed and just getting completely ignored is bad business and I would NEVER treat paying customers like this. I thought when the employees were fired there and there was turnover that things were going to be run better, but this is in No Way how you treat people!
Claimed loss: The area impacted will cost me about $3500 to buy out of my pocket to repair and replace through a new company with warranty again
Desired outcome: I want my flooring replaced and my warranty honored. I want them to do the right thing and fix the areas fully the way it is professionally supposed to be done without cutting corners or trying to get away with a cheap way to install it
Confidential Information Hidden: This section contains confidential information visible to verified Empire Today representatives only. If you are affiliated with Empire Today, please claim your business to access these details.
I said this whole time I would be honest with my updates, good or bad, because it is important for people to know what they get with working with your company. After 5 months of being ignored I can say that writing in here is the only way I was able to finally get a reply from Empire Today. They came last Saturday and started the job, finally approving to honor my warranty. They approved the boxes needed to do the job how it was supposed to be done. The installer came and he does quality work but after he finished my work and said he would be back on Monday to finish the rest, I inspected my floors and found that he reused my old boards in sections. So instead of using the new materials like I had express I was concerned with, they proceeded to still do it.
When he came back on Monday I pointed out how the old boards look close in color but have a shiny coat to them and different texture. So up close and from across the room you could clearly see the individual boards that were laid back down in the middle of the new materials. I asked the installer why he reused the old items when they had enough LVP flooring sent to redo the job correctly and he told me the office told him to reuse old boards along with the new ones. Empire that is completely unacceptable that your Phoenix office continues to try to cut corners.
The installer also said he only had the two boards he left in my living room and could not fix all the areas that had the old stuff. And told me it would be inconvenient for him to have to pull up so much to fix it, since some of the affected boards were in the center of my kitchen. Not my issue because he should have never reused those boards that don’t match the new materials. To compromise I told him my pantry that was completely laid with old materials could just stay that way because it is an area off to the side. I was trying to be nice but still should never have been put in this position. Then on Monday after it was determined that he would have to fix the ones in the middle of my floor at least with the 2 boards he had. Then a few hours later another man showed up at my house and miraculously a whole unopened box of my flooring was there again. And to clarify the installer was a very nice man, but him being told to use as little of the materials provided is NOT okay.
Oh and the other part to this install after the work done on Saturday, the installer put all of my old baseboards that were removed and quarter rounds outside in my backyard. I am not quite sure why this was done, but this weekend we had a monsoon come through with heavy rain and dirt. I let him know that I did not want any of those materials put back into my house because they had been rained on and gotten dirty outside. I even offered that I would paint the new baseboards, white, because they usually come in normal wood color, as long as he replaced them so that they weren’t damaged wet boards going back against my wall.
At the end of my job being done after signing off on the flooring being completed, I realized that he put the old baseboards back on. He said he used new quarter rounds, but I don’t know, because he said he didn’t have enough materials to put all new quarter rounds on, but they also showed up with new boards, that had been taken back on Saturday when they should’ve been put in my floor. The biggest issue I have is that one of my baseboards is completely split in half horizontally through the middle, where the nails were put into it. So the installer telling me that he couldn’t replace the baseboards that he put out into the rain and got damage, but now I have a split baseboard put back on. my house is completely unacceptable.
On Monday when all of this was happening, I called Darryl the installation manager out of the Phoenix office and left a message in return because he had messaged me never received a call back, I also left a voicemail for Frank Hernandez the general manager to let him know what was going on with the flooring being put back down that doesn’t match. Also never received a call back, then I sent an email to Audi The representative who was working my file, and her manager, Denee, as well as Empire customer service (customersupport@empiretoday.com) with a picture supplied to show the sloppy work of caulking all over my baseboards and the one that is completely split in half. I have yet to receive a reply from anyone, but they sent the end of work survey to ask if I am satisfied.
I don’t believe this is how my install should have been handled and my property should not have been carelessly damaged and ignoring my concerns about the wood that got wet has left me with the damaged pieces of my items. Not okay Emipre.
Wow, your experience with Empire Today sounds like a rollercoaster ride with no brakes! It seems like they've turned "customer service" into an extreme sport.
Dealing with scratched floors and constant runarounds is enough to make anyone want to just throw a rug over it all and call it a day. It's like they’ve set a new record for "most hoops jumped through by a customer."
Hopefully, they get their act together soon and send someone who can actually finish the job with the right materials. At least you can say you’ve become an expert in flooring repair negotiations—might as well add it to your resume at this point!
Yes haha very frustrating to say the least. I am waiting to see if they will do the right thing. I received a call from Frank Hernandez the day they replied, who sounded less than pleased that I had put in a complaint and claimed he had never been made aware of what was going on with my file. He didn’t seem too interested in hearing what I had to say since he said he read my complaint. He tried to say he would see what can be done since I am out of warranty now, to which I made it very clear that keeping the customer waiting and ignoring them for 4 months might put them out of warranty; but advised that the original claim and approval to cover the scratches back in March was still under my warranty time & that they needed to do the right thing. He said he can’t make any promises and will see what he can do. That is absolutely horrible, not the right thing to say to honor a contract & did not sit well with me. But I have no choice but to continue to sit here and wait. I don’t think any of this is okay and they need to evaluate the way paying customers are being treated after they take our money here in the Phoenix area.
I am giving them them the two weeks he asked for, to see what he can do. Aka for them to do what they should have done all along and fully fix the areas since that was what is covered in the extended warranty to begin with. At this point being told that doing what is right is being acted like they are going above and beyond, and that’s sad. But we shall see in 2 weeks when he is supposed to call me back. I will update on the matter with honesty and transparency either way it goes.