Empire Today installed faulty flooring and in refusing to take responsability/offer help Nationwide/ Warren, MI Nationwide

We purchased new flooring from Empire for our entire house.  The whole experience has been a nightmare and Empire is not willing to offer any assistance in any way, shape, or form.

First, when they came out to install the laminate flooring, they decided to cut it inside of our garage.  I need to mention that not only was there outside plugs, but their cords were more than long enough to reach outside of the garage.  Now all of the boxes that we were storing in the garage, as we were still in the process of moving in, were covered both inside and out in sawdust.  There was no attempt by the installers to cover anything, or clean anything up.  Inside the house was even worse.  We paid for Empire to take out the old flooring before installing the new one.  During taking out the old flooring, there were pieces of trim, with nails sticking out, left strewn about our house.  Left out in the open were our two year old had access to. We had had the house professionally painted the week prior to the flooring being put in.  When they were done, there was nicks taken out of the walls, dirt smudges on the walls, and part of the paint ripped up completely from their careless work.

We called to complain to Empire.  We were given he run around, transferred many times, and told it would be two to four days before we could even talk to anyone about this.  When we finally did talk to someone, we were given $170 off of our over $6,000 purchase.  That is the best they would offer.  Even at $5/hour, this did not compensate us for the time it took my wife and I to clean and repair what they messed up.

Next, the floor that they put down in the family room started to bubble and rise off the subfloor.  This is the subfloor that they were supposed to inspect when they pulled off the previous floor, before putting down the new floor.  A call was placed to Empire, they were able to send somebody out the next week.  This person had a straightedge ruler and a cell phone, which was the only two pieces of equipment he had the entire time he was in our house.  This man was very nice and understanding, he stated that it was faulty installation and we would have no problem getting this replaced.  He marked “faulty installation” on the form that I signed before he left.  He told me it would be about a week before we heard from Empire.

Two weeks later, after not a work from Empire, we called to ask about the status.  We were directed to our local office and talked to a very rude lady named Andrea.  She informed me that when the gentleman came to do the inspection, the humidity rating taken from my floor was 38% and that was the reason my floor was buckling.  Please remember that the guy only has a ruler and a cellphone.  There was no humidity rating taken during his inspection, I was with him the entire time.  Andrea proceeded to tell me that it was my subfloor, the one that they were to inspect that was the cause and Empire would not be replacing anything.  When I mentioned that they were supposed to check the subfloor before placing down the new flooring, and if there was a problem with the subfloor, they were not supposed to proceed, Andrea claimed that the problem with the subfloor “must have taken place after the installation.”  Really Andrea? 

As of today, I have requested all of the form and pictures from the installation and the inspection, as well as an explanation on how they take their humidity readings.  Nobody was able to answer my questions or provide me with the documentation.  I was left with Empire’s famous “someone will get back to you within 3 days.”