I hope that the following is "respectful." Certainly, I'll be honest, because I don't want others to befall the same fate that I did when doing business with Empire.
I purchased over $1000 of hardwood flooring from Empire. I asked to examine the planks first and, upon opening the box, I saw that many of the pieces were quite short. Johnny Challenger, the salesperson, told me that each box contained (on average) about 20% "shorties" (i.e., planks 2' or shorter.) He said that the high rate of these "shorties" in the open box was luck of the draw. When I balked, Johnny said, "Don't worry. You can use them in the closets." I told him that I only had one closet, which he ignored as he repeated the same suggestion. He said I could come back and buy another box or two if the plank lengths weren't to my taste. When my contractor began to lay them, he noticed that about 60% of the planks were shorties. I would've had to buy roughly $600 more hardwood to make the floor look passable.
Further, when I contacted the owner and sales manager, I only got a reply to a mail that had a small mistake in it. When I corrected it, explaining what the problem was quite clearly, I got no response. Even when I asked more emphatically as to what "relief" they might be able to offer me, I heard no reply. I hear that the owner is a good businessman, so I don't know what happened. Clearly, the sales manager did not want to help me, as he repeatedly said that it wasn't his decision... simply passing the buck. Perhaps they'd paid some commission to the slick, pushy salesman and didn't want to take a "loss." This is pure speculation, of course, but it makes no sense to me that they would be willing to stiff a customer over a relatively small sale that easily could've been reversed when the customer wasn't complaining about the product, per se, but rather about the salesperson's misrepresentation of it. Hopefully, this review will be a far bigger loss for them than the one that they might've taken by doing the right thing.
Finally, I had to unload the wood at a fraction of the cost, only recouping $200... less than 20% of what I paid. Humiliating!
Empire has good product and low prices, but the salesperson misled me and the company would not give me a refund for the unopened boxes. To me, that's HIGHLY DISHONORABLE. I don't care what their return policy is; you do not lie to the customer and offer no relief whatsoever. I would never do business with Empire again, and I strongly recommend that, if you decide to do so, you get everything in writing. If you're buying flooring... get them to specify the grade, the plank lengths, the manufacturer, etc.
Quite frankly, you'd do MUCH better to buy from BuildDirect (who I ultimately used to replace the product that Empire sold me.) The customer service representatives are polite, knowledgeable and honest... everything that Johnny Challenger (and the name says it all, doesn't it?) wasn't. I want to be clear: I'm not affiliated with BuildDirect or anyone else, and the veracity of the above claims can easily be substantiated.
If I could give Empire 0 stars or even negative stars, I would.
