Empire Carpets and Floors...What's the Story? (sales, house)

[BronxMomNY]

I'm trying to price out hardwood flooring and I see their commercial over and over and over again....800-588-2300 Empire, today! LOL. Anyone has any good/bad experience with them? What are their prices like? TIA

[dandevder]

We had used them in our previous house. They come out to your house and show you their samples, measure and price your job. They originally come off very high...but you can definitely bargain them down a lot. When we had used them our original quote was for over 18,000 and ended up getting them down to $6,900 for 1220 sg ft of the hardwood laminate. This included everything from removal of old flooring and disposal, molding around the floor boards, the stuff you put down under the hardwood, tax and anything else you can think of. They were wonderful to us with the guarantees. When I had called with any problems they were laways handled promptly and with little hassle to me. I really do not know if that was a good price or not, but was very easy transaction and did not involve many trips to home depot! I would use them again.

[BronxMomNY]

Originally Posted by dandevder

We had used them in our previous house. They come out to your house and show you their samples, measure and price your job. They originally come off very high...but you can definitely bargain them down a lot. When we had used them our original quote was for over 18,000 and ended up getting them down to $6,900 for 1220 sg ft of the hardwood laminate. This included everything from removal of old flooring and disposal, molding around the floor boards, the stuff you put down under the hardwood, tax and anything else you can think of. They were wonderful to us with the guarantees. When I had called with any problems they were laways handled promptly and with little hassle to me. I really do not know if that was a good price or not, but was very easy transaction and did not involve many trips to home depot! I would use them again.

18k is a big ripoff! I'm glad they have the flexibility to bring down prices otherwise they will be out of business! Lowes came in around $4.50/sf with installation, but I don't have all the details. I have about 750 sf that needs flooring. I'm with you though, I would pay a little more to avoid the hassle. I'll try Home Depot too, thanks.

[dandevder]

Don't forget to add moldings, the stuff they put underneath it, removal of old floor and the disposal of it, trim, and the tax to that $4.50. When you actually figure it out it is closer to $7 or more per square foot! They don't tell you that up front and you think your getting a great deal, but in reality you are not. They also charge you $35 just to come out and measure! Home depot and lowes also charge you to remove old floor and dispose of it.

Best of luck!

[BKQC]

Originally Posted by dandevder

We had used them in our previous house. They come out to your house and show you their samples, measure and price your job. They originally come off very high...but you can definitely bargain them down a lot. When we had used them our original quote was for over 18,000 and ended up getting them down to $6,900 for 1220 sg ft of the hardwood laminate. This included everything from removal of old flooring and disposal, molding around the floor boards, the stuff you put down under the hardwood, tax and anything else you can think of. They were wonderful to us with the guarantees. When I had called with any problems they were laways handled promptly and with little hassle to me. I really do not know if that was a good price or not, but was very easy transaction and did not involve many trips to home depot! I would use them again.

I'm not sure I'd trust a contractor that's going to give me a quote almost three times as high as their final price. I would have thrown them out of the house if they gave me that quote.

[BronxMomNY]

Originally Posted by dandevder

Don't forget to add moldings, the stuff they put underneath it, removal of old floor and the disposal of it, trim, and the tax to that $4.50. When you actually figure it out it is closer to $7 or more per square foot! They don't tell you that up front and you think your getting a great deal, but in reality you are not. They also charge you $35 just to come out and measure! Home depot and lowes also charge you to remove old floor and dispose of it.

Best of luck!

Ouch! As always, if it's too good to be true......Thanks.

[deevee]

They were TWICE the price of my local carpet dealer. When I told the saleswoman that, she just gathered her samples and left. She never even tried to negotiate. I wouldnt recommend them!

[stmaarten]

A former customer of mine used to work for Empire in NJ. He's now retired. He told me that their prices where extremely inflated. (The higher price the individual salesperson can sell flooring for, the higher the commission.)
Although HomeDepot and Lowe's are a good source for flooring, I believe it's important to support LOCAL businesses. Why not price them out first? You may be surprised at how competitive their prices are. IMO, it's always a good idea to keep money and support in the community you live in.

[Markh]

We had a guy come out and give us a price for tile. It was during 50% off tile week. Of course he stated that there were no good tiles on sale and that we wouldn't be interested in looking at the ones that were. They came in outrageously expensive, almost $25 sq ft installed for a basic ceramic tile. We called him on it and he 'made a call' and dropped the price from 8k to 5k with some bullcrap call. Probably called his dog.

Anyway I guess there are just as many people that are happy with them as not but check out these sites:

http://www.thesqueakywheel.com/compl...Type=Complaint

or

http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=empire

or just doing a search for 'empire complaint'

[BronxMomNY]

Originally Posted by Markh

We had a guy come out and give us a price for tile. It was during 50% off tile week. Of course he stated that there were no good tiles on sale and that we wouldn't be interested in looking at the ones that were. They came in outrageously expensive, almost $25 sq ft installed for a basic ceramic tile. We called him on it and he 'made a call' and dropped the price from 8k to 5k with some bullcrap call. Probably called his dog.

Anyway I guess there are just as many people that are happy with them as not but check out these sites:

http://www.thesqueakywheel.com/compl...Type=Complaint

or

http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=empire

or just doing a search for 'empire complaint'

Too funny! That was one heck of a powerful dog!

I can't stand when they do that sales move "let me see what I could do". Thanks for the links, I already have a funny feeling about them. Now if I could only get that darn jingle out my head! I'm def pricing out others, I hear lumber liquidators are a good option.