ER Plumbing & Construction

Beetle G.

When I needed a new residential sewer lateral, my general contractor recommended that I go with Rhino Rooter because their price was competitive and he had found Will Feliciano very compatible to work with. I am so glad that I did! As it turned out, the City of Oakland had contracted with another company to reline the sewer main and lower laterals, and that contractor had left the lower lateral unconnected. Just as things were headed directly south, Will intervened with the City inspector and managed to provide the information needed to get the City's lower lateral properly prepared. I broke out the champagne when I saw that they had fixed not only my lower lateral, but all the rest of the ones on my street. I shudder to think how this could have turned out, with layers of bureaucracy pointing fingers and dodging responsibility. Will really turned things around, and the work was completed within the agreed-upon price even though Will had to spend many extra hours dealing with this complication.

Danielle M.

Rhino Rooter was great! Gary came out and did the estimate promptly; he took the time to answer all of my questions. He worked with my schedule for completion - we had just bought the house and had 6 months to complete the sewer lateral and of course I waited until the last minute. His workers were great as well and always let me poke around to see what they were doing. Great service, fast and efficient without nickel-and-diming me. I'd hire them again in a heartbeat!

Jeff W.

Will was fantastic to work with. Very professional.

He finished a job on my street early and called/texted to confirm if he could come early. I had a backup that turned out to be an easy fix. He was recommended to me by neighbors, and had been the one to work on both of our sewer laterals previously.

Popeye D.

Do you want a ""LIEN"" mean, clean sewage line? If so, read on.

First the good - in the spirit of fairness. Our main sewage line from the house, down a hill, and into the city drain far down the hill, had to be completely replaced. The line was repaired/replaced and was done so on time. We've had no further issues with it. The son, a really nice guy, in the operation was formerly In the armed services, and I was happy to give my business to him.

Now the bad. This story should serve as a lesson to anyone who hires a contractor for any work. Be aware that a contractor can file a ""mechanic's lien"" against basically any home owner who he feels owes them money. It's very easy to do and can cause you the home owner a great deal of problems, especially with credit issues. Also, if you want to refinance your house and Joe Blow has filed a lien against you for $100, you're out of luck. Once filed and accepted - it almost always is according to a lawyer I spoke with - you have to either pay to get rid of it - what the contractor wants you to pay - or hire an attorney to get rid of it by proving that it was b.s. But hiring a lawyer to have a lien rescinded because Joe Blow is simply trying to extract more money from you costs money, and so when a contractor threatens you with a lien against your home for something less than $5000, you might as well pay because to not pay it and get rid of that lien, you will probably end up paying that much. So the contractor in these situations has a weapon - the ""mechanic's lien"" - to place you at his mercy.

The amount in question between Rhino and me was roughly $3000. The project required extra work and no estimate was given prior to the work starting. I thought notification of that step up,was required. Mind you this was originally a $5000 project that very legitimately went up to $7500 in costs. But then the bill came in around $10,500. I didn't want to pay that $3000, at least not all of it, without some discussion and some serious questions I had about the nature and costs of some of the additional charges. Quite honestly it looked like the bill was being padded. Regardless, the owner demanded the money, and threatened immediately to file a mechanic's lien against my house unless I paid that $3000 by some deadline. We went back and forth on email and managed to drive the charges in question down to about $1500. But he was ready to file that lien at any moment. Fortunately for me, his guys forgot to fill back up a trench in my neighbor's property, which I didn't realize until the city told me. So the city couldn't sign off on it. And the rule is that if the permit hasn't been signed off, and the work thus not completed, you can't file that lien. That gave me some time. I had my landscaper ""backfill"" the trench with surrounding dirt that he charged me $50 for rather than have the Rhino guys come back. They would have done it for free because that was part of the project and the initial $5000 bid. But I wanted to show the guy that a trench can be back filled for $50, not $400 or so.

So now Rhino couldn't file the lien because they had not completed the original work that fell under the $5000 estimate. It was an honest mistake, but could have been a problem if my neighbor's kid would have ventured down there. But no harm no foul, and the permit was signed off by the city. Rhino took the $50 off the disputed amount - they paid it. To get this very unpleasant experience behind me, I paid him half the now lower disputed amount which had come down considerably from the original $3000. Because once the work is in fact completed - and signed off by the city - by the original contractor or by yourself, the contractor can still come after you with that lien. So the threat was back on and I felt forced to pay.

The amount I ended up paying was acceptable considering that the project did in fact become more complex and required additional work that was not in the spirit of the contract. But the process of getting to that point - being grossly overcharged, in my opinion, being threatened with a lien almost immediately, and then finding out the original work hadn't actually been completed - was a very unpleasant one. A mechanic's lien is a scary thing, and Rhino wields that weapon highly effectively and early on. The work was done well and on time (except for the hole that wasn't back-filled), but the highly aggressive use of the mechanic's lien as a way to extract money from a homeowner is in my opinion, deplorable.

I've tried my best to be objective and accurate here, and I hesitated to write about this precisely because it was so unpleasant. But homeowners need to be made aware of these incidents, and how easy it is for a contractor to use the threat of a mechanic's lien against you. I've worked with numerous contractors and not once had a lien even come up in any conversation. Here, it came up very quickly

TravelBug W.

I would give them zero stars if I could. One of the worst experiences I've ever had with a service company. We had the outfit do a new trench for our sewer and had nothing but major problems with the work, the crew (the a-hole owner and his thug of a son) and the price. They will give you one price as a bid and then after the work is finished will hit you with a much larger bill and then intimidate you to pay them by threaten you. These people should be working on sewers because they are compete Sh-t!!! Beware and steer clear!!!

Ryan W.

This review is particular Insofar as it does not necessarily reflect on the service provided by the company, but rather they're integrity. They are a full service professional outfit which has a good reputation in the circles I run with. They were updating and replacing a line of hard wearing workhorse type tools, and selling their old lot off super cheap. I bought one of their old units on a strictly no guarantee, as is, repair it as needed basis, for about a tenth of the new retail value. The unit ran well initially, then soon failed in a freakish and catastrophic manner caused by the shearing of a bolt. Basically an unpredictable and rare event, which irreparably destroyed the machine (if there was any suspicion that this might have occured, a ten minute and two dollar fix would have cured it.) I called Gary back to tell him of my misfortune, and rather unexpectedly, he immediately offered to return the full amount the purchase price. I feel like most folks out there would rightly commiserate in my bad luck, and offer condolences. Since there was no guarantee implicit in the sale, I was not expecting an offer of a full refund whatsoever. Though truth be told, I was fishing for some type of recompense beyond an empathetic understanding of what it means to have such an awesome and new tool destruct within minutes of falling in love with it. In any case, Gary took me for my word and promptly returned the money. I thought that was a righteous move which reflects well upon the integrity and character of his company.

Lara S.

Ok here is an update on my experience with Rhino Rooter.. I have had time to think and have read Gary's response to my review which was not the greatest. However up until my last interaction with them they did a really good job which is why I hired them more than once.
I stick by the one star for that particular really poor example of customer service.. It's amazing how one bad interaction can sour a person-me in this instance that is.
So because the work up until then had been just fine. ( My roommate described Gary as a wiseass in previous interactions-but competent)
So I think if I had reviewed them before my last interaction I would have given them 4 stars so I'm revising the stars from negative one to three..


We used Rhino Rooter 3x in the last few years. Unfortunately we will not be using them again. Ever.

Last Friday I called Rhino Rooter because my 'outtake valve'(?) or whatever the thing is outside the house that connects our sewer line to the street was overflowing.
Sam came out on time, last minute, Friday afternoon and was terrific. He was thorough, polite, and knowledgeable. He cleared the line
and I paid him the $175 they required plus gave him a $20.00 tip cus he seemed so trustworthy and efficient. And for coming out on a Friday afternoon!
I thought I heard him say to me that if we had any problems to call and that there work was guaranteed maybe for 30 days? A week? I don't recall..Terrific!

Switch to today which was a nightmare.
Over the weekend we tried to flush upstairs toilet and it didn't work..and it didn't really work well all weekend even after vigorous plunging. So today I called the office and spoke with Denise and she very kindly called me back and said someone would be over in about half an hour to an hour.

So the Rhino Rooter van pulls up in front of our house and I go out to greet them. The owner Gary and another guy got out of the van both looking extremely disgruntled and really pissed off. Uh oh I thought these guys had a bad day..
Well As it turns out I don't give a rats ass how bad their day was Gary was downright rude and nasty. He kept insisting that he had been to our house ""at least 5x in the past"" and that he was not going to do anymore work for free. Huh?

I paid them each time without question and both he and Sam told us that they would come out and clean the lateral if we didn't want to get a new one which costs $5000. Gary had even said to my roommate when he came out for an estimate we should wait on replacing the lateral until the moratorium on street repair was over and instead we could call them to do the quick clean out for $150-$175. Fine, no problem.

I guess Gary thought that I was expecting him to clean out the lateral for free which I hadn't dreamed of. I thought he wold check out the toilets. When I told him that, he said that'll be $125.00. But by that time he had been so obnoxious and almost threatening there was no way I was letting him anywhere near my house or my pissoir.

As soon as they left I called the office hoping to speak with Denise and find out who let Gary's evil twin out of the box.. No I called to see if she could look us up and see if we ever got work for free which I knew we never had and which The evil Gary twin kept insisting we did.

We had planned on using Rhino Rooter to replace our sewer lateral but uh ah beware the rhino. Sam good. Rhino bad.

The first time was fine I don't recall who came out but they did a fine job and may have given us an estimate for a sewer lateral. And of course we paid them! Then 6 months or so ago even though nothing was wrong we decided to get three estimates for replacing the sewer lateral. My roommate said that the owner was kind of a wise ass but thought they would do a good job.
Nope not gonna happen.

Birgitta B.

I have to rewrite my first recommendation. Rhino Rooter was out here to clear my sewer line. I spoke to the son and told him last time, 2 years ago they jetted the line and it lasted for 2 years but he told me he could just clear the line with the snake, he did but unfortunately It only lasted for a few weeks. I called them back today but they will not come out and redo it unless I pay full price for jetting. I payed $185.00 to have it snaked to have it jetted it is $285.00, I would gladly payed the extra $100.00 but not the full price when it only lasted a few weeks. Not using them again!!!! I also had them fix my toilet the day after the snaking. They told me it would cost $300.00 and I say ok. When they were done I gave them the check but he told me it was now $443.00. I had to write another check but was surprised they never got my ok or spoke to me about the higher price. I would have been ok with it if everything had been working but after my phone conversation this morning I am now understanding why they got so many bad reviews.

Elena H.

Wish I had read some of these reviews before hiring these guys. I needed a gas line installed for my dryer, the guy who came out was nice enough and seemed to know what he was talking about with comparable rates so I went for it. It took over a MONTH to get this work completed. Every time he started the work he suddenly claimed a new thing was needed, ended up costing twice the original estimate. They left our garage a total mess and didn't even come pick up their garbage until I clarified that I would with hold payment until this was done. The only positive thing I can say is at least the guy I worked with answered my calls/messages throughout the process.

David K.

No call no show. Left message. No call backs. If you want to be disappointed, then try them. They're good at ruining your day.