Rob's Plumbing & Sewer Service

Jamie B.

I called Rob to repair some frozen and rusty water pipes in my basement. He replaced them OK, though one of them is not yet totally and completely leak free. In the process of completing the work, the guy from the City came to turn off the water at the curb, so Rob could do the work. The City representative said the ground at the turn off valve at the curb seemed a bit mushy, as if there might be a leak in someone's water line. My neighbor's water line connects parallel and fairly close to mine underground. I learned from professionals after the fact that Rob did not do one of two traditional and easy tests to identify which of the two lines was leaking. Rob suggested that when a leak is suspected at the curb, the City usually encourages, if not pressures the homeowner to check their entire line. While Rob drove to the next small town for some parts for my original work, he called me from the road to say that he could replace my entire water line THE NEXT DAY, that it was a simple job etc... Since I was foolish enough to want to get the water line thing over and done with, I agreed. I agreed to pay no more than $3500 for all of the work, including from the original job order in the basement. Rob played fast and loose with JULIE, which was discovered after he had broken ground. Rob showed up at my home with a ""monster"" truck and an excavator seemingly big as a dinosaur! OK, so the work commences and goes horribly horribly wrong. The guy from the City had warned me about Rob. The day goes hours longer than necessary, only to discover that the leak was in my neighbor's line, NOT MINE !!! Something which could have been detected before my yard was torn up. Part way into the nightmare, Rob asks if I'd be willing to pay more at the end of the day; I said ""maybe."" It seemed when all was said and done, that Rob probably handled the job as well as a lay person could tell, which is not at all. The diameter of the line from my house is I believe 3/4 (guy from City took a look) while the connection to the main City line is 1/2. I don't know if this is typical, but I wonder also if my line was spliced at any point, and whether the line was laid in the ground Flat instead of over little ""peaks"" at various points along the way, since those points can eventually weaken. I also wonder if Rob's gigantic excavator may have created problems at the curb which could have been avoided. The ditch in my yard was filled in, leaving my neighbor with no water. My neighbor hired two men within 2 days to replace his water line. I observed the whole thing and it took under 2 hours with very little new digging in my yard and at half the cost, if not more than half less. I have, I HOPE a viable new water line in my yard. I paid Rob $4000. The whole event gave me a toxic feeling about my property which I hope dissipates over time. I had to request a written guarantee on the work, and receipt for the $4K, which I got, however, if anything goes wrong, it's VERY doubtful that I would call Rob for a fix. Avoid Rob's Plumbing like grim death!

Dennis G.

He just shows up to do the work. No appointment or estimate. Don't even give him a second thought.

Philip S.

I asked for a routine roto-rooting maintenance service (regular cleaning can prevent build-up that might lead to future problems, like flooding). Rob wouldn't give me an estimate until they had a chance to see the job.

Rob shows up, I show him where I want him to roto-root--but he needs to go a more thorough inspection... My drains work just fine, I don't have water in my basement. The level of water in the floor drains was normal (according to Rob). And, after turning on all the faucets for 30 min, dumping 3 washer loads of water, and 20-25 toilet flushes he couldn't find anything wrong with my pipes.

At this point Rob then tells me he charges $50 for the service call or $350 for roto-rooting (more than double what we've paid in the past). He should have told me the service call charge over the phone at the very least... So I end up accepting unreasonable charges, because I am already out $50 and half-a-day's work.

Finally, Rob starts working from the first of the two access points I wanted cleaned, but they ""got stuck"" and gave up after a 2 or 3 feet (where 2 drains merge). At this point Rob said he couldn't continue without scoping the drains first ($100 extra) because ""99% of the time there is a busted pipe down there that needs to be replaced."" Which he said would require tearing down one of my walls so he could tear out the cement and replace the pipes. ...In hind-sight, I should have just stuck my hand down there, and felt it out myself.

As soon as Rob figured out that I wasn't going to start shelling out extra cash, and wouldn't let him tear-up my house--he wanted to quit and leave... despite the fact that he hadn't even tried to clean from the 2nd access point I paid him to clean. He had zero troubles cleaning from the 2nd access point (almost like he just wanted to get the job done, so he could go find someone more gullible).

This was the worst service I have ever received. Getting Rob to simply do the job I paid for required constant attention. Rob was more than willing to create problems to fix, he had no provisions for keeping things clean, and I had to clean up the mess myself (including self-advertising he wrote on my pipes with permanent marker) .

Their machine does not have a guard over the rotating mechanism (unlike the machines that Roto-Rooter guys use) so it flings jet-black sewage water all over the place when it retracts. Since I have dark patterned carpet the carpet-shampoo machine worked fine--but I don't think the stains would have come out of normal light colored carpet. ...I can't imagine how much more mess there would have been if I didn't happen to have a tarp & towels handy (one might think that a professional would have their own tarps and towels for using on the job).

After explaining the ordeal to a family member who worked several years for a septic service company ...I'm just happy things didn't turn out worse.

Jarrod L.

Best plumber around does it right the first time,and actually has plumbers license unlike most

Shelly D.

Do not hire Robs Plumbing from Kewanee. We hired him when we were in a bad spot, 5 inches of water from rain which my brother in law was pumping out, just found out my husbands cancer had spread to his bones, we were expecting company from out of State when we realized our sewer was also backing up ino our basement, we hired Rob and he came out and tried to snake it out, then put a camera down there and said our sewer had collapsed, threw out a guess of $5,000, (to me I figure, that's the top quote and when he got into the job it may or may not be less) I had no time with everything I had going on to shop around, I mean after all my SEWER was backing up in my basement, so for that day he charged me $425.00 which I paid that day, him and his crew and annoying girlfriend (who just kind of hangs around all day) came out, to make a long story short(er) they said they needed a dep of 1000.00 for parts, I pre wrote the check then the GF said they need more, like 1500.00, I told her I could not do 1500.00 that day but I did give them another $250.00, (in the end the parts part of the bill came out to 477.15. Then the annoying GF comes to my work the next day and says they needed a post dated check for the remailing 3750.00 which I posted for 8th as I had to wait until my broker could sell some stocks, she right away started messaging me, coming to my house wanted to know WHEN she could cash that post dated check I told her every time ON THE 8th, I asked for an itemized bill for over a month she finally (the gf) gave me one, it was for $5000.00 I had already paid them 5425, now they stopped answering my messages, they also told me the City charged them 150.00 for the permit, but the City gave me a copy it was only 100.00, they charged 75.00 per person for 4 people at 10 hours ,they came at 8 am (and left before I got home from work at 3) that was only 7 hours that's 900.00 overcharge on the labor part, I talked to someone who had 2 x the work done as me and they only paid around 3K when I check with home advisors that 3K is typical so again DO NOT HIRE THESE RIP OFF artists, now that I am asking around they have a lot of unhappy people in Galva, even our City workers won't recommend them, they also left a HUGE mess in our yard of tree limbs they took down dirt that was left piled super high and a bunch of bricks they did not put back they literally dug a whole laid the new pipe covered it up and left, they also claimed the laid 50 ft of pipe when it was only 40 ft the list goes on and on