Empire Today - Boston, MA

Read Empire Today's Boston reviews closely and a pattern jumps out: a large share of the five-star ones were written the day a salesman visited, before a single plank went down. "Look forward to the install," one says. "Excited to see the project completed," says another. The 4.3-star average across 1,701 Google ratings is real, but a lot of it is scoring the sample-book appointment, not the floor. This is the shop-at-home chain. A rep brings carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl and tile samples to your living room, quotes on the spot, and installation follows — often fast. The Boston-area operation runs out of Randolph and is one branch of a company with locations in most major US metros, so the crew that shows up matters more than the brand does. When the install goes well, customers name the crew and describe real work: an entire upstairs of old carpet pulled and replaced in a day, furniture moved back, areas cleaned before the crew left. One July job covered five bedrooms, a foyer, a stairwell and a lounge in a single Saturday. Several reviewers mention no-pressure selling and being talked out of the wrong product. The complaints are the part worth reading twice, because they follow one shape: the problem starts after installation and the company is slow to resolve it. In early July a customer described LVP cracking and shifting, damage to home and furniture, and a color no longer carried — with a partial replacement in a mismatched color offered instead of a fix. Another described installers leaving glue footprints on carpet, a $450 professional cleaning at their own expense, and four or five calls that went nowhere. A third had an appointment rescheduled, a crew that arrived five hours late and worked until 11pm, ran short of carpet, and left part of a stairway crooked. A separate July dispute ended with the company classifying damage as "site-related" and declining to cover it. One reviewer also flagged an awkward payment step: a request for credit card details over an unsolicited call, which the sales contact had to validate. Empire does install, and the install crews draw genuine praise by name. If you go this route, get warranty terms in writing — specifically what counts as covered damage versus "site-related" — confirm the exact product and color are stocked, and ask who to escalate to if something goes wrong after the truck leaves. That last question is where these jobs turn.