Empire Home Center — Local services in Bern Township

After 3 years, this is my testimony. I bought a house and decided to do a full renovation on it. From the hardwood floors, kitchen cabinets, sink and bathrooms. I looked everywhere to find great deals on all of the above. I found empire through a google. search and walked into the store. The employees were very nice and assisted me around the store.

Let's start with my hardwood floor: I knew I wanted hardwood flooring, I just wasn't sure what type of wood I would want. I finally decided I wanted a rougher wood, as I was planning on having a lab and didn't want his claws to tear it up. I decided on cherry. Now I talked to the employees and they all said it was better to invest the money in more durable floors for the long run and to go with the cherry. I did. Unfortunately for me, I did not read the small print above cherry which said "American". This is actually the exact opposite of a rough wood. It is a cheap knockoff to make you immediately think of cherry wood. I have noticed that in the last 3 years, my floors are terribly scratched and look like absolute S*. This is not to mention the 28 boxes of hardwood floor were full of 6-7 in pieces. If you've never put in hardwood before, this is the most frustrating concept as you have to put a lot more effort into the entire installation. Disappointment 1.

Second: I bought kitchen cabinets that were already put together. My cabinet to my island was installed and observed to have a faulty slide to it. I contacted empire and they completely deflected and said it must have occurred during transportation. This did not occur as later found out. After continued griping and complaining, a empire installer came to my house and "fixed it". This was a temporary fix to a real problem. My soft close cabinet looks absolutely horrible and continues to close improperly. Empire refused to compensate me and provided me with nothing but excuses.

Third: I bought a "stainless steel" sink. After 3 years, it is full of rust on all four corners. It is quite embarrassing when friends and family come over.

In total: This is the worst financial decision/investment that I have ever made. Always think about why things are cheap to buy. They are cheap to make and will eventually cost you money in the long run. Poor quality items and misdirection by employees left me disappointed and embarrassed that I got had. Good luck...

Let me start by saying the customer service here was horrible. This was our first time at the store and from the beginning I said to my wife that the sales person (Doug) helping us had poor customer service. I thought maybe he was just having a bad day. Anyways we were there to purchase countertops, not to make friends. We purchased two pieces of countertops and paid for them to be cut. We explained how we like them cut. Doug also drew a picture of the cuts that we agreed on. Several days later we are told that the countertops were done. When picking them up. I noticed that they were not cut correctly. I informed the young man who was helping us of this. I explained to him, how we wanted the cuts, and again had a picture drawn up. I thought the second time explaining and drawing what we wanted would be clear. However when picking them up, they were still wrong. When speaking with Doug on the phone he insinuated, that's how the cuts were drawn up. I asked that he text me the drawing. The drawing clearly shows that the cuts were wrong, so I went to the store to return the countertops and have him(Doug) or anyone at the store, to look at the drawing and explain to me where the confusion was, because clearly the drawings did not match the actual cuts. At this point I asked the gentleman behind the register to speak to a manager and got no response from him. Only to learn later, that he was the owners son. When confronting him on why he didn't make an effort to help resolve this, he didn't respond to my question but wanted to help then. I refused to deal with him because of his lack of wanting to help initially. Again I asked for the owner's name and got no response from anyone. At this point I was so frustrated and I already wasted so much time, that I agreed to have new pieces cut. Only to have Doug text me asking how I wanted them cut. 😡 Explaining the the details again, I finally get the countertops to the property, only to have the cut angles not match up. I wasted so much time and money I just decided to just cut my losses. I will never do business with them again! PS - Doug did apologize for the poor communication in a text message. he also stated he would reach out to the owner and have the owner contact me. As of this day I still haven't heard...

Warning: DO NOT BUY YOUR KITCHENS FROM THIS PLACE. This was one of the worst sales experiences of my life. I ordered cabinets on December 30th and they never showed up until the middle of March. When they finally arrived, we realized, that the manager/kitchen designer didn't order 12 feet of cabinets but only 11 feet so we had to wait another 8 weeks for another cabinet. (He knows he made a mistake but he didn't do the right thing and admit it.) When I asked why the cabinets were late and if it happens all the time, both the manager and owner told me no. They lied. It happens ALL THE TIME. That is what i was told by a stone cutter and another customer who had the same problem. But wait, it gets worse: we also purchased a granite counter top from them. They gave us a card for Granite Works, and said that they would cut the stone for us. It took us six weeks and countless phone calls and emails to even get a phone call back. Imagine, 6 weeks to return a phone call. The manager of Empire said he reach out to them a couple of times, that could have been a lie as well, and still no response. I asked for a refund for the granite so that we could find someone else who would actually cut the stone. They refused. Store credit only. Ok, can I use my store credit for the cabinet I had to order because your designer screwed up. The owner's answer: I'm going to report you for harrassing me. Really, harrassing you because I'm asking for a refund? After everything went wrong with the order??? First: who was she going to report me to? The refund police? lol. We did about a third of our kitchen because we were doing other major renovations to the house. What business owner gives up another $20-$30K dollars worth of kitchen cabinets by refusing to refund $700 after all the trouble that they put on us? Answer: Someone who shouldn't be in business. Instead of worrying about getting customers in the door, why don't you worry about taking care of the customers who do come in. Word of mouth is still the best form...