Mr. Rooter Plumbing of The Oakland-Berkeley Area

Greg G.

Ok I will make this short and simple. Backed up toilets!!!!! Yuck!!!! I called Mr Rooter. Below is what happened.

1. Call... Answered by a friendly lady who told me about their services. I told them to send someone and she gave me a ""time window"".
2. Mr Rooter shows up well within the window.
3. Plumber ( initials A.T. ) shows diagnosis the problem and gives a quote to fix the problem.
4. I agree to the quote and say fix it
5. Problem fixed as quoted in a timely manner
6. Handwritten thank you card sent a few days later

The bottom line. They were friendly, courteous,fair and showed up in a timely manner. I would use them again in a heartbeat.
They are miles ahead of their so-called competition Roto Rooter.

Tsada K.

ME: HELP!!!! HELP!!!


HIM: What?


ME: HEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


HIM : What? Why do I have to get up? I'm watching The History Chan---

ME: OMIGODCOMEHERERIGHTNOWANDFUCKINGHELPMEBEFOREIDROWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a well known fact that the three most stressful things in life are the following:

DIVORCE
DEATH
AN OVERFLOWING TOILET

So when our ONLY toilet began overflowing the other night at one in the morning, causing us to plunge our motherfucking hearts out to no avail, I paged our property manager who in turn got us in contact with Mr. Rooter.

""It's a wonderful day here at Mr. Rooter!"" the lovely Jennifer greeted me on the phone.

Yes, I thought. It's nearly two in the morning and I am up to my ankles in pee pee (in retrospect, I do acknowlege that I was somewhat fortunate in this particular regard, considering the alternative). Some fucking wonderful day indeed.

Nonetheless, Jennifer was very sweet and helpful and put me in touch with Robert the plumber, who arrived at my house with clean shoes and a smile.

Robert plunged and snaked and plunged and snaked some more. After about an hour, he produced a slightly bent spoon and a bobby pin, neither of which had ever belonged to me. Very bizarre. Anyway, I stuck the bobby pin in my hair and put the spoon away to use for guests on Yelp Soup Night at my place. That's when Robert informed me that there was something else in my toilet that he couldn't get out.

""It's stuck way down there. I'll have to take your toilet off.""

: O

Now, this is the type of thing that one might not realize if one hasn't experienced it first hand, but seeing your only toilet uprooted like a baby spruce tree is an extremely traumatic experience. Especially in the wee hours of the morning, and even more especially with a newly refilled bladder.

(It was at this point that I went outside and peed in my neighbor's yard.)

He turned the toilet upside down. Then Robert and his mighty snake had their way with my toilet in more positions than found in The Joy Of Sex. Joe The Plumber, eat your heart out.

When he was done, he wiped his forehead and shook his head in dismay.

""We're going to have to replace it.""

He called my property manager, who in turn called the regular onsite company plumber, as it was now within normal business hours. Robert cleaned up the significant mess and then gave me all the necessary info to pass on to the next guy. He was super nice, super hard-working, and super professional. I felt kind of bad that he didn't get to finish the job and collect what I'm sure would have been a handsome fee for the toilet replacement.

What really impressed me was that Robert even called me back at six o'clock the next evening (helloo...does he EVER get to sleep?) just to make everything had been taken care of, which it had been (can you say ""push-button Kohler"", bitches?!! MM HMM!). Which, of course, made Queen Tsada very, very happy.

Because nothing brightens up a queen's day like a brand new throne.

Shariff O.

Pros: Quick response, and they came out to provide a free estimate the same day. They wore booties in the house which was nice of them. And they thoroughly explained what they needed to do and how much each step of the job would cost.

Cons: Price, plain and simple. The quote they gave us to fix a trap and a supply line was upwards of $450. And hearing the cost breakdown for parts and labor just sounded ridiculous, and I'm barely a plumbing novice. They were going to charge us something like $50 for one of the washers! They charge by the job not by the hour, and things rack up fast if you have a few minor things that all need doing.

After calling a couple of other places I found someone in Berkeley who did the work for a third of the price. Maybe this is an unfair review because I have the feeling that with Mr Rooter you are paying for response time. It took a few days with the plumber we ended up going with to fit us into his schedule, but that was fine with us since the work wasn't urgent.

Alan R.

Courteous, professional, thorough. Did not try to sell me any extras. They came at the agreed time and did the job for the quoted price. I used them for clearing a sewer main, not any in-house plumbing, which I can do myself. I will use them again.

roompah r.

I have always felt confidant with these local plumbers. I went to High School with Steve and Sandy's sons, Scott and Spencer and was so happy to have them show up at my door when I had my first home owner's emergency. They always walk me through what has to be done, and when it's all over, everything is clean, tight and working perfectly. We just had a tankless water heater installed and the job went exactly as planned and even when I needed a minor follow up visit, they were happy to help me the very next day! Love it! Friendly, family oriented, reliable and always willing to pet the dogs even when they are barking!

Mike M.

Organized, ""professional"" and extraordinarily expensive. A couple of weeks ago they wanted to charge $500 for $20 parts and 1hour of labor to replace a P trap and tail pipe? They also recommended replacing solid parts because ""someday"" they would corrode.
They use a book to determine their ""standard"" price regardless of how easy a job is. Each part replaced gets a full price, even if the assembly is already in pieces and the additional cost should only be for the part. ie they effectively double charge for labor.
Get estimates and save yourself 50% or more. I think this company exploits customers who are in urgent situations and have no or little knowledge, but they wear nice uniforms and have nice trucks and make an orderly presentation so people think they must be giving a fair price. Not true.

Get several estimates!!! We got the job done for $60. Michael Your Plumber in Berkeley and Women's Plumbing Repair are both MUCH more reasonable.

patricia s.

As the plumber was leaving just now, I told him what great news the result of his estimate was, and laughingly added that I should put it in writing for him to clip onto his dashboard to see often - he agreed that it was rare for someone to be happy when the plumber came, and why not put it on YELP. That's right - 5 stars This is my second service experience with them, and was a sump pump issue. The first was a firehose-like kitchen faucet incident, at which time I was so pleased I signed up for the the lifetime contract. Today just validated the value of that decision. Something I am especially impressed with is their willingness to explain every possible solution to a problem so you can make an informed decision - They're the best!

Anna N.

We had one of those ""crisis"" situations happen with sewage backing up into the tub and they were able to come out within hours and fix the problem efficiently and effectively. While I won't tell you it was ""cheap"" - services were reasonably priced and he offered me choices in how I wanted to proceed.

They were professional, courteous and got the job done when they said they would. They even were able to show up a little early for me!

One of the best experiences I've had with a ""rooter"" service ever.

Mike K.

I just went through a sewer pipe hell. Just finding a conractor who would talk about specifics, options and strategies with me was very difficult. One company sent out a guy with the wrong tools even though I specifically told his dispatcher what to bring. Anyway, Mr. Rooter (Berkeley location) was highly recommended to me by my favorite plumber, and they did not disappoint. Scott was friendly, knowledgeable and efficient. He fixed my problem and gave me a lower bid than the competition on some follow-up work. I wouldn't call anyone else for drain cleaning services.

Lynne W.

Oh, I'm so sad. I've called these guys a few times and they were mostly okay. I will also say that they were really really expensive and the last guy broke a pipe he said was old and then charged me for it and also for the labor to fix it. I paid $300 for an ""advantage agreement"" that would make it cheaper next time, supposedly.

And then I found out the owner gave a big donation to support Prop 8. I can't possibly give my money to a business that uses that money to take away other people's constitutional rights. So I wasted $300. This is all very depressing.