Get matched with top tile: ceramic and porcelain installers in Cumberland, RI

"My wife and I have never been treated this poorly by a company in our lives. Empire Today goes above and beyond other companies like Comcast into another stratosphere when it comes to horrible customer service, reliability, professionalism, communication, and overall competence. When we had our original tiling installed a little over a year ago, the installers showed up at around 5PM to do what they said was expected to be a 6-7 hour job. There's no actual window provided, so I just had to take the day off work and wait. We tried to reschedule for another day, and were told by Empire that we would be their first stop in the morning. I got an automated call that morning saying that they would be there no later than 10AM. They missed 3 different time windows that day and ended up eventually showing up around 4:30PM. At this point, I had already missed 2 days of work and boarded our dog for 2 days, so I just told them to go ahead with the installation. We thought the tiles looked pretty good at first with the exception of some gray boot prints and smudges on the tile. When that weekend came around we tried cleaning these spots up, but to no avail. Over the following months we tried various methods of cleaning, but had no luck with these gray marks. Not only that, but the floor was now collecting an ever-growing amount of brown dirt across all of the tiles. By June, the floor looked so bad and our frustration level had grown so high that I placed a call to Empire today customer support to see if they could help with the issue. The customer support person initially asked questions about what cleaning methods we had used, and I tried to explain that we had tried a number of different methods but that none had worked. She then scheduled a local 'installer' to come out and look at our floor in early July. He, again, showed up several hours later than expected, but took pictures and explained that he had seen this exact issue on this color and style of flooring before, and that he would pass the information along to Empire HQ the next day. I didn't get a response from Empire customer support for another 2 weeks, and at that time I was told that "the information he gave us was poor and he did not give us photos or any valid information." Upon receiving this bizarre answer, I asked if they could just use the photos that I sent back in June (attached) instead. They agreed, but apparently the manufacturer stated upon reviewing the photos that there was not a defect in the tiles. I asked to speak with that customer support rep's manager and she was supposed to call me to discuss... that was almost a month ago and I haven't received a call from her. Last week, after trading many voicemails and e-mails with the customer support rep, I finally heard back from a manager from the New York installation department who confirmed that this was a known issue that was Empire's responsibility to fix- although he said it was due to the grout not being sealed / finished properly during the initial, not due to a defect with the tiles themselves, and that they would have required professional cleaning, which still might not have worked. He said that if the tiles were removed and the same style & color of tile were installed by an installer he trusted, he was confident we would not have that same issue. So we set up yesterday as the installation date for the replacement tiles. The installer showed up yesterday around 8:15AM (in the usual unmarked van with no contact information). He took a look at the floor and said that it's just dirty, and it just needs to be cleaned! He also said that if we replaced the floor with the same color & style of tile, we would encounter the same issues. He then proceeded to tell my wife that she just needed to mop it, and informed her that you can buy mops at Home Depot! When she tried disputing this and explaining that this was actually the opposite of what we had been told previously, he said he would have to call his manager. Instead, he got in his van and DROVE OFF!!! I left voicemails for 4 different people at Empire whose contact information I had gathered during this process, as well as the general New York and Boston customer support voice mailboxes, and also sent an e-mail to customersupport@empiretoday.com trying to get an explanation. None of them answered or called me back. Early yesterday afternoon, I finally did hear back from someone else in the installation department, who sort of apologized for the behavior of the installer and tried to reschedule the installation for another date. However, at this point I'm demanding a full refund so that we can get our floor redone by another company. If we just schedule Empire to come back out and install the same style & color of tile, based on my experiences I have no idea: a. If anyone is going to show up b. If they do, if they'll actually do the job they were assigned c. If they do, if we'll just experience the same problems with these tiles again, causing us to go through this same **** all over again. The person I spoke with yesterday said he would talk to management, that he would pass along my request for a refund, and that they may be able to get me "some percentage" of my original money back, but that the company doesn't give refunds. But I don't trust Empire Today, and I will not be satisfied with anything less than a full refund. I don't have an infinite number of vacation days or patience to continue to be put through this."