Complaint Review: Empire Today

We hired Empire Today to replace the carpet in our home as we prepare for our first baby. They sent “specially trained professionals” to rummage through our property and steal our belongings while installing our carpet.  We were sitting in the other room trusting that Empire Today was a reputable company while they pilfered through our stuff.

Their installers don’t even work for them as they are contracted through another company.  They are not background checked and could be illegal immigrants for all I know.  They stole my loaded handgun and watch out of my nightstand table.  Later we found out that they also stole prescription pain medicine out of our medicine basket.  Unfortunately we didn’t realize the items were missing until later in the evening after the installers left when we began reorganizing our house.

We filed a police report and a complaint with Empire Today.  They showed zero empathy toward my wife and me and have refused to take a single action to make the situation right. 

Detailed summary:

My wife and I have been preparing the house for our first baby and decided to finally replace the carpet in our 3 bedrooms. We called Empire Today and they sent a salesman to our house 7/5/2013.  We agreed to the purchase and installation contract and opted for next day installation.

On 7/6/2013 we received a call from their installation scheduler to let us know that we could expect the installers from 12PM to 2PM and they would call us prior to arriving.  We cleared out the three rooms of any knick-knacks and everything else but large furniture in preparation.  I didn’t really think about securing my valuables as I figured Empire was an established and reputable company. The lead installer Gabriel called me around 1PM to let me know that he would be there in an hour or so.  Gabriel and another installer arrived at 2:45 which was fine with us.  They immediately got to work and I checked in on them every so often.  Neither spoke very English very well, but Gabriel did most of the communicating when needed.

After they finished, which was after 7PM, I did a quick superficial inspection and started reading the post installation documents while Gabriel’s partner was outside.  Gabriel himself was very brief and was not following the post installation checklist that I was given to initial and sign.  He just stood in the hallway and did not take us on a tour of the work or explain the checklist items.   I figured it was due to the language barrier and the fact that it was late so I gave him a break.  The carpet looked great and both men had worked a long day from what they had told me.  I initialed and signed the documents and they were on their way. 

My wife and I then went out to dinner.  When we returned we started moving our stuff back into the rooms.  I started getting my nightstand stuff together and could not find my Citizen watch.  I distinctly remembered putting it in the top drawer of my nightstand earlier that morning when my wife and I were clearing the rooms.  That’s when I realized my handgun was also missing from that drawer. My handgun never leaves the top drawer of my nightstand unless I am actually using it and it is always loaded.  We have no children and no one else has access to our house besides our nuclear family, all of whom are all trustworthy.  We searched through the rest of the house before jumping to conclusions and accusing someone of theft.  The handgun and watch did not show up anywhere in the house and there was no reason why they should have been anywhere else but my nightstand drawer.  We could not find any other items that were missing besides my handgun and my watch which were both in that drawer.  A couple days later we discovered an empty prescription pain med bottle hidden behind our medicine basket in our hall closet.  My wife had consolidated them to that bottle just a few days prior to the installation. 

We filed a police report (13-73956) with the Chandler AZ Police Department shortly thereafter.  Empire’s customer service was closed despite their website saying they were open 24/7.  I was able to contact them the next day and file a report. 

Empire made no proactive attempts to contact me or my wife regarding the matter.  Any time we spoke with them was when we initiated a call to them to get status on our case.  They showed no empathy and refused to replace or refund our items.