Elite Rooter Santa Barbara

Brady K.

Called to have an emergency bid on the demo/removal of an old water heater and separate holding tank, and installation of a new in-line tankless system. I'll give them credit for responding quickly for the estimate, but thats about the only positive I saw in working with them. We executed 4 bids on the project, that should have ran around 5k all in... their's was almost 13k, and it came with a lot of talk about ""pencil sharpening"" and getting us a really good number. The reason I'm taking the time to write a review is because their bid was so egregious for the work that was scoped. We moved forward with another local plumber that completed the work in one day and for about 30% of Elite's bid. I can only speak to my experience here, but the pricing appears to be inflated and overly opportunistic, especially for residential customers that may have less experience working with plumbers... even for an emergency service. I'd recommend shopping around before pulling the trigger with this company.

John C.

Absolutely do not hire these guys. Last month I hired them after seeing they honor military discounts. We had a drain in the backyard that got backed up. The person on the other end of the phone at dispatch said they would apply the military discount. My 20 year old daughter remained at the house to receive the workmen as we had to be at work. I was called by a team member who told me there were excessive rocks in the drain and they would need to excavate the drain at an approximate cost of $6500. I told them I could not afford that, could you just snake and blast it. They did and pulled a 3 foot molding of twigs from the drain. (So they never needed to excavate in the first place). Unbeknown to me at that moment, my daughter was then given a $1500 bill for the 3 hours of work which she signed, then she said, after they got in the truck that they did not apply the military discount. They said to call in the morning to get them to apply. THEY DID NOT EVEN GIVE HER A RECEIPT. I called several times to speak with the manager, Rachel to ask about why they did not apply the discount. Rachel never called back. When I called again, I asked for the name of the owner. Despite my being very kind on every single call, the receptionist hung up on me when I asked that question. I researched the owner's name myself, called several times to speak with the him--never a reply. Not sure if he ever got the message so I wrote him a letter. Again, never a reply. In the end, NEVER A DISCOUNT AS PROMISED, NEVER A RECEIPT, NEVER A CALL BACK. Elite Rooter, I was very nice and gave you every chance in the book; at this point, I'm not stopping here with just this review.

Natalie N.

The good: they are responsive and can be quick to come out.
The bad: they intentionally misled us about our sewer main in order to upswell services.

We had a root intrusion on our main line, they were able to come out same day, but manually sent a blunted snake down the line. That cost $450. It didn't clear anything we still couldn't use our water. They said that they had to hydrojet and had one that went up to 4000 psi. That cost $1,450The next day they came out, jetted just enough to get a flow through and then said that in order to fully clear it the line needed a full liner. That would be $28,000. They said our main looked really old and pointed to gaps in the clay piping.

At that point we started calling around for second opinions and we're very quickly informed that this was intentional, and that their known in the industry for preying on people and continuing to force them into higher tiers of service. I asked JR about this and and how high of a PSI they ran the jetter at, he said 2000, which confirmed to me that they were intentionally providing poor service to make us pay more.

The second plumber we hired cleared the line with just a snake. The root was completely gone. He video inspected the line and told us the gaps in the piping were fine and intentional. He said there was no reason to line it at all.

I do NOT recommend Elite Rooters.

Mikka P.

We just spent $20k to have our drains cleared and lined last week... the first wknd of ""full use"" (both of us home, laundry, etc) and this happens... thoroughly disgusted and more than furious.

Dasa M.

Wow! So impressed. I had a clocked shower drain and called them because they had good reviews. I thought it was going to take days to come out. They had appointments just a couple hours from my call, even showed up early. Fixed the drain super quickly and it was a great priced. Totally impressed by the experience. Only complaint is that they guys did not have masks when I had requested that they have them. So I gave them extras that I had. They are my go-to from here forward.

Janet S.

We had previously used this company and had a good experience so once our gas line needed replacing we called them again. Needless to say, it was not a good experience the second time. If you as a homeowner have a warranty company, Elite is not the plumbing company to work with. Their pushback and delay in providing us with the requested information needed by our warranty company, which was basic estimate information, was ridiculous and caused a major delay in us following up with the warranty company. This in turn put us in a position of possibly not getting reimbursed at all. Elite was well aware of the urgency in our getting the estimate information to provide but as stated by Elite they do not work with warranty companies hence their delay. Again, if you are a homeowner with a warranty company, DO NOT use Elite.

Henry O.

I Called in the morning and they came within a couple hours (our normal go-to plumber was booked). We had a simple kitchen sink clog so nothing too crazy. Snaked the drain in about 10 min. All in all everything went as we could have hoped and for a good price. Thanks Jose!

Barry M.

We had a gas leak on our main line. They responded quickly and replaced the main line from the street to the house in around 3 days. This was fine.
Our problems with Elite started when they told us our main water line was corroded and should be replaced and would be easy since the trench was already dug for the gas line.
All seemed fine until they reached the house. We had to call them back 3 times for leaks. They made a mess of the exposed pipes, neglected to inform us about water pressure changes with the new line, and slopped plumber's glue all over our sidewalks without trying to clean it up. Our water bill went up over $200 due to the leaks they couldn't find.
We ended up paying another plumber to fix Elite's mess, add a new regulator and adjust the pressure.
I sent these details with pictures to the home office and never got a response. Zero communication from them.
The only reason I'm giving them 2 stars is because the gas line replacement went fairly well.
I cannot recommend Elite Rooter for any jobs.

Takako S.

Scheduled an appointment on their website and recieved confirmation email. Waited all day, but no one showed up. Called the company and the manager said I can't book appointment online on the weekend. She asked me to reschedule my appointment. I rescheduled from Saturday to Tuesday between 10am-12pm. Roy, Plummer, texted me to call him. I called him as he requested. He told me that he will be late for my appointment. He can come around 12:30pm. I accepted and told him it's ok to be late. I'll stay here until 5pm. Someone else called me and left voice message around 1:30pm and said technician will be at my place around 3pm. By 4pm, no one came. Texted Roy, but no answer. I had to call the company to make sure if anyone is coming to fix the issue. Manager said she will contact to the technician and call me back, but she didn't. I had to call the company again. (I waited 35min) They said they can't talk to technician. His cell phone doesn't have signal. They asked me to reschedule again.
How rude is that. No one was responsible for my appointment. They were keep pushing the appointment by saying whatever reasons. The end manager hang up on me since I asked them to fix the issue same day. I was waiting since Saturday all day and today, Tuesday, all day.
Technician might have good knowledge and skills, but I couldn't experience so can't tell about that. But the for sure thing is who ever answers the phone especially manager is horrible.
She was demanding to reschedule or wait until plumber show up at night without telling me what time range. She even said when technician comes and I'm not at that moment then he will leave right away. She doesn't respect my time at all. She doesn't understand appointment means. She thinks that reschedule is the only way to solve this issue. How can I trust their scheduling? They didn't come to my place TWICE!!!!! No show!!!!!
They yelled at me sounds like I did something wrong. I only asked them to keep my appointment as they schedule. They were the one who pushed my appointment.
I have no idea how they can be so irresponsible to the customer for their mistake and yelling and hang up the phone.

Don't waste your time!!!
They won't show up!!!

Google reviews looks nice, but I think it's fake!!

Vince M.

My bathroom tub drained very slowly. Elite Rooter inserted a router snake and rapidly stated that the drain could not be cleared with a rooter snake. They then said they would have to jackhammer out and replace the sewer line for a cost of $5850.00. I declined and hired another plumber who snaked out the drain for a cost of $98.00.

During Elite Rooter's visit I had the distinct impression that they were putting on a performance in the hope of generating a big job where a normal rooter job would be more than adequate. The performance included bringing in another employee with a pipe camera. The camera man appeared in a few minutes (perhaps he was around the corner waiting for the call) and proceeded to run the camera everywhere except into the pipe where the blockage existed. Needless to say, I would not recommend letting Elite Rooter get anywhere near one's home.