Rescue Rooter

K S.

Um, I don't quite know how I could have been so stupid.

I don't mind paying for service but damn.

Well here is the cliff notes version:

What happened: very windy conditions here in the Columbia gorge blew out my water heater pilot light...no worries. Every one needs a cold shower once in a while...except my wife. She works hard enough at her job, the last thing she deserves is a cold shower. That was my premise anyway.

In my want to make her as comply as I can, I completely dis-regarded my home owner diligence. Usually I research my home repair issue before calling anyone. I mean that's a good way to get taken to the bank.

Ok...ok enough ranting. On with it.

The lady on the phone couldn't tell me in ball park figures how much it would cost to have the junior flunky come out and light my pilot light that had been blown out...yea thanks. I should send them a dollar as that's what I give all the bums. Should have know then what was about to happen.

She said he will show up with in two hours and he will call thirty minutes before he gets there...Yea right. I knew that was a load of bs. And of course he just showed up.

Hell, he was laughing before he even discussed this excessive fee. It should be illegal.

He knelt down at my water heater and spent an exhausting ten whole seconds priming the system and re-igniting the pilot.

ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS!!!!

Then the putz had the chonies to insult me further by trying to give me a discount that I wasnt qualified to receive.

The whole time he kept telling me how this was the going rate and he was a little low.

What a waste of time that was. I want double my money back for your underhanded thievery. Wow...all I can say ... Beware.

Matt B.

These guys are the Comcast of the plumbing world. Two times we had them come out and they gave us a 2 hour window that ended up getting pushed to 6 hours later. They kept telling us should be there in the next two hours, until 10pm (scheduled to come at 5pm) we just called PRO DRAIN to come do it. They have a much better reputation on Yelp as well. Avoid these turds, they do not care about your time and they will lie to you all day long.

Jamila C.

Being a new homeowner I'm learning a lot on the fly about what I can build or fix myself or what I need to call a professional for. I'll admit I have a short fuze when it comes to plumbing problems and boy do we have a nice list of issues related to all of our galvanized pipes in our house. We called in Rescue Rooter first to solve a draining issue with our new bathroom sink. We were pretty sure the galvanized pipes were just corroded beyond repair. Rescue Rooter tech Gabe braved our crawlspace for an afternoon and replaced the drain, but also showed me the inevitable problem with the water lines as well. They were so corroded they were beginning to burst. It made sense to have him replace those lines too. Everything worked great afterword.

We called them in again to put in a proper drain line for our washer as the previous owner had decided it was ok to just dump it out a pipe in the wall, right to the ground outside! They came over to scope the job and quote it. They were perfectly on time and ready to do the job on the spot if we wanted. I wasn't sure about the timeframe or price so they let me think about it for a day. I had the job explained to me in detail and when I gave the greenlight they were again there on time with all the parts they needed. Gabe solved this one for me too. He asked a few questions along the way giving us options. He was quicker than he quoted me and finished the job just as planned.

Rand B.

Don't call them unless you don't care when or if they ever show up. 24 hours later after their first estimate and they still haven't shown up to unclog a drain and install a new faucet. They did call every 2 hours to say there were delays. When I called back late at night after waiting since 10am, they said it would be midnight maybe. I rescheduled for 9am the next day, being told we would be first in line. It's now noon and they don't know where their plumber is! I'm calling someone else.

Geron V.

RR was very helpful answering questions about my water heater issue. I have to change my rating from 4 to 2 because the other company solved my water issues in less than 15 min (it was the thermocouple). My four star was because I thought RR was doing a good job until the other company proved me wrong.

For RR, I paid $100 for answering my questions. I was giving three options on my invoice. The whole water heater unit, the thermostat, OR the thermocouple and recommended me to clean my water heater.

If I was to go with RR, it would have cost me around a total of $400 dollar for just the thermocouple. The other company, it cost me a total of 188 dollar and it was guarantee, plus they even cleaned my water heater.

Debi S.

I had a major emergency - after an extended vacation, we dumped our suitcases of laundry on the floor and prepared to dive in. When the first toilet flushed, the drain in our laundry room bubbled up into the house. We called several plumbers with higher ratings that offered ""emergency service"" yet no one could get to our house within 6 to 8 hours. We called Jack Howk/Rescue Rooter and the dispatcher said they would be there within the next two hours. After booking them, I read their yelp review and was very worried. I actually called the dispatcher back and told them that -- However, they were there within 90 minutes and our problem was explained and solved quickly and efficiently. We've had plumbers out before, and the price for this repair was fair and came with a 90 day guarantee. What I liked the most was that they billed their company as capable of dealing with an emergency and they stood by that. No one else did. Having over an inch of warm gucky sewer water all over your downstairs in 90 degree heat after a vacation was an emergency, They got us back on track. Thank you. I'll use your company again.

Brian S.

Oh boy where do I begin.... For you quick readers the cliff notes are WORST SERVICE, HORRID COMMUNICATION, BUSH LEAGUE FOLLOW UP and about as honest as a ocean side realtor in Nebraska!

Called last Saturday at 950 am, representative was supposed to be there between 11-1 no show, we called at 130 for status, dispatch said now 2-4, no show no call, the 4-5.... No show no call, then 5-7... You guessed it no show no call. I called and lit up Brooke at local dispatch and she offered me a Cosco can of excuses. Finally at 950pm one of their plumbers showed up and he was very nice but didn't have anything to fix our issue ( worn out gasket on pump tank) so Sunday am a new plumber showed up, was there for about 15min and didn't have the parts ether though the previous guys supposedly told dispatch what we needed. So he tells my GF that he needs to find the parts and will call me directly Monday late morning. Well Monday came and went no call. I called dispatch again on Tuesday, they called that tech and he said he forgot and was ""on it"" would call me Wednesday......... Wednesday came and went, no call no show. Called dispatch again today and this person told me he was on PTO earlier in the week and is now out with a bad back. HUH??? He was just ""on top"" of our parts Monday afternoon.

I have requested a owner or supervisor to call me three times now with no success. Brooke in dispatch need to find a new job because her attitude, empty excuses and even more empty time frame promises are the worst I have ever experienced and I have seen my share of poor business practices over my years.

I would highly recommend........ As high as a person could recommend not to call this company. It has been so bad I was waiting for Austin Kutcher to come out and tell me I was being Punk'ed. No such luck

Kathy R.

Problem: This is one of those instances where the company unknowlingly sent out a plumber who did not have the experience or knowledge to solve the problem. The short story is that his solution to unclog the tricky drains was to reconfigure the drain setup under the house so he had a chance of getting the claw through himself. Proposed cost: Over $1,000!

Result: He was educated by us, and had the assistance from us, to get the claw through the tricky drains using his camera, and the main line was unclogged without further incident. See, the claw absolutely could get through to the main line without having to replace all the lines under the house.

Further result: Relieved customer to have drain unclogged, but at the same time unhappy and frustrated customer who, if they did not know better, could have been bamboozled into unnecessarily spending a lot more money than they should have to unclog the main line.

Resolutions: The company cared about what happened, and they informed me that the plumber is no longer with the company. They worked hard to understand the complicated situation and worked with me to arrive at an acceptable resolution to this uncomfortable situation.

Recommendations: In the end, I would have to say that the company took ownership of the the work their employee did (even though he was no longer with them), took this matter seriously, and they made it right for me. I appreciate that very much and would think of them again if I was in need of a plumber.

Ali R.

They answer the phone in such a friendly voice saying ""It's a great day at Rescue Rooter! Can I have your name please?"" and it all goes downhill from there. Unfortunately, I didn't read the reviews of this company before I called them, big mistake, they have an incredibly horrible reputation of dishonesty and un-professionalism . I tried to set up a simple job with them and they told me they would be there within 2 hours. I said really that's great!

30 min later someone called to verify the job info, I asked again if they would be there in the two hour time frame and the woman told me yes. After 2 1/2 hrs go by with no word, I called just to ask for an update. They said they were a little behind but that someone should be there in about an hour and they would call me to let me know. Two more hours go by without a word. So I call again and this time ask to speak to a manager. Oh, but all the managers are in a staff meeting! So I ask to have a manager call me back and they take my number. Of course no one ever called back.

Two more hours go by which is now six hours of me just waiting at the house for their two hour time frame. Not once did anyone call me, and no manager has returned my call. After the sixth hour I cancelled the job but said I still wanted to speak with a manager, but of course, they were still in a staff meeting. I asked the woman who was on the phone this time, if I called tomorrow would the managers still all be in a staff meeting, she kind of giggled and said ""well, I know they have a lot of staff meetings"". These people are unprofessional and dishonest. Although I can't prove it, I believe that one of the women I spoke to on the phone deliberately moved my job down the list so I would have to wait longer, that, or they're just incompetent and unprofessional.

Honestly, I don't care if I have to wait 2 hrs, 6 hrs, or 2 days. I just want to be told the truth and treated with respect.

If it was just a handful of negative reviews then that wouldn't mean much, but there's over 30.

Do yourself a favor, call Grumpy's Drains or Pacific Crest plumbing. Rescue Rooter should take an honest look at how they conduct business.

Brian D.

Unbelievable. This company sent someone out to my ex's house to fix a toilet with a likely toy-induced clog. Simple job - pull the toilet, snake the drain. I don't expect it to be cheap - these *are* plumbers we're dealing with. But they tried to charge her $450 for something that shouldn't take an hour.

She called me to ask what I thought, and I told her she should tell them to take a hike - I called around and found that all their competitors were charging less than half this price.

I called this company to complain, and was smugly told by a manager (who sounded like she was all of 25) that since they were a *national* company (emphasis hers) they had certain overhead costs that meant they had to charge more.

I asked her exactly how their status as a *national* company differentiated themselves from the dozens of pipe jockeys in the Portland area. She couldn't really tell me.