Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Pittsburgh

Brian L.

I have used this Mr. Rooter for all my household plumbing needs for 20 years with complete satisfaction- work was good, prices reasonable. This weekend my hot water tank went and naturally I gave them a call- after all they had replaced this same water heater 15 years ago. After waiting around all day for them to come, they showed up in the late afternoon on Saturday.. After giving them a $97 assessment fee, they told me that replacing my standard 50 gal gas water tank would cost north of $5,500. I sent them packing of course. Three other plumbers gave me estimates for the same work and not one was more then $1800 for the same work. Clearly, the technician is paid on a commission and didn't feel like doing the job on a Saturday afternoon unless he could find a foolish customer to pay a ridiculous price so that he could make out (literally) like a bandit. I wasn't so foolish, but they had already swiped my credit card for the $97 assessment fee- still a ripoff but on a smaller scale. Mr. Rooter has seen the last of my business for this little stunt- I hope the $97 was worth it! Beware of this rookish operation- Must have new ownership because they were always reasonable and trustworthy.

Brooke V.

Oh, if only I could give negative stars. We came home Tuesday night to find that Mr. Rooter was working on the elderly lady's house next door, and had dumped all the dirt from a ditch they were digging onto our property, and left track marks all the way up to our gardens. He very kindly placed the dirt AROUND the property marker that had been put in when our fence was put in. The excavator they used had Mr. Rooter stickers all over it, and was still parked in the neighbor's yard. We spoke briefly with her, and she assured us she hadn't been home when the work was done, so we went back to our house and my husband called the number on the excavator. The first girl who answered the phone, Sierra(sp?) asked my husband four times for our address, and he explained that they were actually doing the work at the address next door, and kept repeating not only our address for her, but saying, ""but the work is being done at (neighbor's address). He started to get frustrated after she asked the fourth time, and asked her for a supervisor because we have property damage. She yelled at him that she doesn't care if we have property damage and hung up on him. He called the local police and requested they come out to make an incident report for the damage.

In the meantime, I called Mr. Rooter back and told the girl who answered the phone this time, that I didn't appreciate her hanging up on my husband, and she said her name was Deena and she hadn't hung up on him. I apologized to her for accusing her and told her that we had already called the police, who were on their way, and that I needed to speak to a supervisor. They get very polite once they find out police are involved, and she had the excavating supervisor, Bill, call my husband back. I'm honestly proud of my husband for keeping his cool talking to Bill, who started raising his voice and arguing that it wasn't his fault his employee had thrown all the dirt in our yard, and basically told my husband to deal with it, and kept getting louder. I was standing four feet away and could hear him yelling through the phone. Again, husband told him police were on the way, and he got very polite. Husband told him that he wanted the franchise owner's number, and he refused, but told him they'd be out to fix it the next day. Husband told him this is the second time it happened (it also happened last year, but to a much lesser extent), and that if it happens a third time, we're going to be calling an attorney. The police came out, agreed they'd made a mess of our yard, and have written up an incident report.

They did come out and clean up the dirt yesterday, although the track marks are still in the yard. But apparently they called the lady next door and told her that I'd called them IMPERSONATING HER, and that I'd put my husband on the phone to IMPERSONATE HER DEAD HUSBAND. So now she's mad at us because she actually believes we would do something so freaking insane. Unbelievable. DO NOT USE.

Fisal M.

STAY AWAY. THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM!!!!

This plumbing company is a complete Fraud. Had made a call out to them to access the situation and see if it's possible to find the cause of the blockage via camera work in my sewer line due to a clog. They send out a gentlemen whom without my consent doesn't give me a quote beforehand and then adds additional fees such as a locator fee of $500 that was never asked for on top of sticking a camera down for over $600!!!!! . In the end he tries to charge me over $1200. He then states he saw roots infiltration and that I need to get it digged up for another 8k just to spot check and potentially over 18k to fix the line. How can he even see roots when sewage is backed up????

I ask to speak to his manager after he demanded getting my credit card information over the phone. After getting his manager on the line, his manager waives the locator fee as he should (this was without my consent) but the ridiculous price for camera location which should be $150 max is absurd. After not resolving anything and leaving with my money, I spoke to some professional plummers to check out the same problem and they stated it's impossible to do camera and see anything. I requested for the video footage they claimed to have seen the roots the next day and they promised to send that over. It's been over a week and I haven't gotten anything.

This company is a complete FRAUD!!! They charge ridiculous prices and have non experienced plummers handling there work whom tries to leach out as much money as they can. STAY AWAY!

John C.

Took mr rooter over 2 months to install 10 ft of copper pipe and install a grease trap. I supplied the grease trap and core drilled 2 holes myself. The pipes were never complete and grease trap was in wrong spot. In 2.5 months they were at my location 5 times an hour each visit.
I was quoted $16000 to fix another issue. I had Manion plumbing do the job for $3k. They were in an out with permit and inspection in 2 days. I fired mr rooter the next day. The salesman said he will send me an invoice for work completed. I hope they like Monopoly money, it's all they will get from me.

Richard V.

Ridiculous! I wanted my water heater serviced. No parts and less than 15 minutes. The technician literally did nothing more than wipe dust off of the cover and handed me a $330.00 bill
Never again!!!!

Paul W.

The most rip-off plumbing company I have ever experienced in the last 30 years. They like to propose digging and re routing sewer lines without competent and thorough evaluations. They took ur cash deals and then would not return it even you changed mind because receiving second opinions. Even if you go to court to complaint, they would not answer court notification letter and/or lawyer letters. They know how to play dirty games. You need to watch out!

Dennis C.

Called them for a leaky drain pipe in the kitchen of a rental and without touching anything gave me a quote of 900 dollars. I told them to forget it still charged me 89 dollars for the call. I grabbed a wrench got under the sink and fixed the leak in 10 minutes. They wanted to replace the garbage disposal but 900 dollars? These guys are scammers don't trust them!

David D.

With sewer lines in older Pittsburgh houses you can try to fix like jetting or snake or replace.If you're going to sell replace,if you fix ,the problems may continue.This company can accomplish major work and the costs are competitive which is ,very very,costly.With this company be prepared for a very,very long ride.Once they start yours and you pay before,the other customers jobs,many, and endless emergencies from other customers may extend your job from days or a week to many,many weeks ,and more.

Jeff M.

No, it's really a no-star for this company. I can't express enough the disappointment in Brian and this company. I am in the kitchen and bath remodeling business, I know how these projects go. I usually work with Matt Mertz Plumbing on some of my projects when our guys are not available. But, my wife didn't want to wait a few hours longer and these guys were more than ready. Now I have a good idea why.

To make a long story short, I wish that I had looked at reviews of this company earlier before our emergency plumbing issue was resolved by this company. They are consistent with the other negative reviews; they do not communicate with you as to when they will show up and what they are doing, the receptionist was less than professional, they did a half hearted clean up, Brian or the manager never returned our phone calls.

Save yourself the disappointment and frustration, please call Matt Mertz for your plumbing needs. They are always busy but worth the wait.

R T P.

Rather than stopping my water loss and replacing the water pressure regulator, I got an 8:10pm call saying no technician was available until 8:00am today. At 9:40, I called to cancel. That is nearly 24 hours in which I lost more than 10 gallons of water and could have replaced it myself.

Mr Rooter customer service person, Lauren, was polite and thoughtful; Elise was rude.