Empire's fatal flaw is their "contracted" business...

Empire's fatal flaw is their "contracted" business model. The salesperson is a contractor; the installer is a contractor; Empire's role is to stock/supply the installer with product, coordinate a schedule/paperwork and collect the money. In my case, both salesperson (Brian) and installer (Aaron) did an excellent job. Brian even went out of his way to get some extra paperwork completed that we overlooked during the initial visit. Unfortunately, Empire fell down on their part of the deal - I had to chase after them multiple times to get paperwork finished with my condo building (certificate of insurance, etc.) and nail down scheduling so I could reserve a freight elevator. After multiple messages to their "customer service" line went unanswered, my salesperson helped me get a call-back from a manager, who went out of his way to make sure I knew I should feel "blessed" to receive is call (um, I'm spending a lot of money with you...you're the one who should be at least pretending your job to satisfy ME) and on that call he literally told me that nobody answers that customer service line. YIKES! After much hassle, installation day came, and one of the installers no-showed, forcing what should've been a one-day job to take two. I cannot compliment the installer (Aaron S.) enough - he worked really hard, did a fantastic job and went out of his way to pull the experience out of the crapper. I genuinely hope Empire knows how much their contractors are doing on the front and back end to make up for their horrible service in between. But if you're looking for a flooring company in Chicago, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you look elsewhere. Empire markets convenience and savings, and they offer neither.