AAA AUGER Plumbing Services

Brian D.

I can't recommend these guys enough. We called at 1:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, they were at our house in 30 minutes and had everything repaired that afternoon. And this wasn't just a small toilet issue, we had a very heavy flow of water leaking from upstairs through the ceiling. A lot plumbing services charge an arm & a leg for any kind of decent service, but AAA Auger was very well priced for such quality & professional work. Their crew was friendly and extremely careful in the house. They also recommended a great water damage restoration company that turned out to be a fantastic referral. Thanks AAA AUGERS!!!

Rich P.

I chose AAA because of all the glowing reviews. Unfortunately I had a very different experience.

The good: easy to schedule on phone and they came on time. 2nd Tech did unclog the drain.
The bad: everything else. Most notably - a near-miss on contracting for very expensive, and totally unnecessary repairs.

I initially tried to schedule them via their web, but got no response. So after a couple of days, I called them, and was able to schedule service at that point. They came when they were supposed to. The tech got the auger out, and went to the cleanout on the side of the house. After struggling with it for a while, he decided that the auger cable was too big to make it through the turns in the pipe. So he got the small auger out of the truck, and ran it through. It wasn't long enough to reach the clog. He said we needed the MEDIUM auger, but he didn't have one. OK - these things happen. So he called, and arranged for another tech to come out later. The new tech brought out the medium auger a couple hours later. He cleared the drain, but nothing came back on the head that would indicate what caused the clog. He said the work was guaranteed for 6 months, but if they came back out, they'd recommend running a camera through the pipe to see what the real problem was. And they'd do that for half the normal fee of $380.

A week later, and the drain is blocked again. I call, get a tech scheduled, and again, he (Tech #2) comes on time. He runs the auger again to clear the clog, and then runs the camera into the drain. The camera is useless, as the display is solid black. He doesn't have another camera, so he calls in to have another tech bring by another camera. I wait about 45 minutes for the other tech to arrive, and they set up the new camera, and fish through the pipe. He goes in probably 15 feet or so, and says "There's the problem! you've got a "belly" in the pipe. I ask him to explain, and he describes it as an area where the pipe has a low spot.

I asked why a low spot would cause a backup, since drain pipes commonly have traps (which are low spots by design). These don't generally cause backups, as long as there's higher pipe upstream, and lower pipe downstream. He made a weak attempt at explaining it. I said I didn't understand, and he said he didn't know how to explain it any better than that. I also pointed out that water WAS flowing through this belly. He fed the camera further, and came to a spot where the pipe cross-section was a bit narrower, and he declares THAT'S the problem. He tells me that my 50 year-old cast iron pipe has collapsed there, and that's why it keeps clogging.

He gets out the Locator which he moves around above ground, to detect exactly where the camera head was - and therefore where the pipe was bad. He says it's in the middle of our den floor, though he didn't seem to be able to find the exact location. And he was yelling over to the other tech at various times to move the camera in or out of the pipe a few feet here and there, or turn on the locator. After failing to get a good location, we go back out to the cleanout so he can make sure the other tech had things set right, we see that the camera display has a bunch of text displayed over the picture, and they had no idea why, or how to turn that off. So they fiddle with it, and eventually get that to go away.

By this time I'd had enough, as a result of the multiple problems with them having the wrong equipment, or bad equipment, or confusion on how to use the good equipment, compounded by his inability or unwillingness to explain what was going on. While I still expected at that point that I needed major repairs, I just didn't have confidence in AAA to do them, do them right, etc. So I calmly told him it was time to wrap things up. I'd pay them the $190 for this service call but then we were done. I decided to get a 2nd opinion from another plumber I'd worked with before. The tech apologized several times, and while that was nice, it didn't change my mind. He blamed it on the bad equipment they gave him, and I politely said I didn't care whose fault it was - it's all AAA. As he was leaving, he commented that some folks are hard to please, and then was obviously angry, slamming doors in his truck. I wondered then if my decision had cost him a commission (some plumbing companies pay their plumbers commission for sales).

The other plumber came out, used his camera (for less than the $190 half-price AAA fee), and said my pipes were fine. The narrowed areas are just where some sediment has built up. The clogs were due to the fact that we had installed a new (low-flow) toilet a few months ago. The low-flow toilet, coupled with using Charmin in old cast iron pipes (with lots of rough spots inside) commonly causes clogs. So the fix, rather than expensive tunneling under our slab and replacing pipes, is to change toilet paper to one that dissolves better.

Leslie C.

This is the ONLY plumber I will ever call again. They came right away and stayed til the job was completed on a Saturday.
It also only came to 170 dollars with a coupon. I can't say enough about the service I received fron the tech they sent Juan
He was professional and did a great job. Thanks for the extra effort.

Tylney W.

The repairman was professional, quick, and honest. I couldn't have asked for better service.

Gail L.

We had them out to our house again and I can only re-iterate my previous review. Professional,
kind, courteous - and that's just the lady who answers the telephone! The technician is a great guy and he was the same one we had last time which we liked a whole lot!

These folks are our go-to whenever we need their work!

Meryl B.

I had a great experience w/ AAA Auger and will definitely call them the next time I need plumbing services. They were friendly, fast, and knew what they were doing.

Myss T.

Plumber should have arrived after 4pm but instead arrived at 8:20pm. Got a call at 4pm stating they were running behind by a couple hours. My estimate was hardly worth the wait. It was going to be just under $350 to make a hole in my wall and that didn't include any other costs. The professional "leak detector" that wasn't in rotation yesterday did the same thing that I did.... Turned on the shower and listened.

Gina-Therese T.

First impression: Good.
Service: Nice.

I made a phone call today to get an estimate on my clogged toilet. I spoke to a representative named Kara and she was very nice and respectful the entire time. At one point, I had to get put on hold for about a minute when another representative accidentally picked up the wrong line. No problem as there was only a brief moment of confusion followed by a nice apology.

After exploring a few options, I agreed to schedule an appointment and have a plumber come out to inspect the problem. Currently, I don't have any idea what the costs will be; which I assume will be determined once the plumber comes by. It also seems they work on an open schedule depending on when a plumber becomes available. (Just got another call.) So far, their phone reps are quick, convenient, and keep me informed. If their plumbing service is as good as their phone service, then I will be looking quite forward to tomorrow.

3 stars. I likey so far.

*I will be updating this review once I see the plumber tomorrow morning.

Nathan F.

I was contacted by the manager of AAA Auger and they admitted that there were problems with the job that they did and that I was charged incorrectly.They apologized and refunded the amount that I was overcharged. I have never had a business attempt to contact me regarding a review so that does build my confidence in the company. They did not ask me to edit or update my review but I felt that their effort to remedy the situation warranted it.

Janet W.

As usually happens in older homes such as ours, we recently had a bathtub hot water handle that would not turn off the water.. Now this was not a drip, it was a running faucet.. My husband thought he could fix it, but after much frustration and irritability he gave up and shut off the water. This was on a Friday night. I called AAA Auger and scheduled an appointment for Saturday after 10 am. At 10 am their representative called to let me know it would be a couple more hours but they would call ahead. They arrive in 45-50 minutes diagnosed my problem, gave me a quote went to pick up a part and had me back up and running in about an hour. Their price was reasonable and their technician was courteous and knowledgeable. I have saved them in my contacts and will definitely use them again. Great. Work