Rooter-Man

Tiffany P.

The owner, Darrell Charlesworth, is a scam artist. My grandmother has been battling ongoing issues with our main drain for about 2 years. Our ""antique"" (in Darrell's words himself) snake was not thick/long enough to push through all the years of grease that blocked the apartment house's main drain. Took about an hour, everything went GREAT, charged us $495. Okay, cool. No problem there.

Since we thought we found our plumber for the life of this house, the only fault I saw was they continuously left ALL doors leading outside open, which I could deal with closing for them, we decided to go with his business toto get our extra basement stove up-to-date with the house inspector. He said no problem, he'd pull the permit, install the anti tip bracket and the shut off valve and we'd be good to show the inspector. Here's where his true colors came through, and all the other reviews from REAL customers were right. Our mistake for not listening to them.

Now, my husband is a mechanic who works 60 hours a week, so of course it was just me and my 7 month old daughter for both of these run ins with the company. He complained and made me as a woman feel so little and inferior, saying he wasted his morning and lost out on other work because he had to spend hours trying to pull a permit at city hall, complained that the inspector was jerking around doing God knows what, and that he regretted doing us this ""courtesy"" of getting our stove up to date and pulling the permit. He said it's a headache to do for ""peanuts"". I apologized, shaking with nerves already and thanked him for helping my 83 year old grandmother get the problem updated. The job was completed at 1 PM. City hall opens at 9 AM (everything was done same day). $445 dollars later.

When he finished, and turned the gas back on, he then went ahead and asked if we had baseboard heat. I explained yes we did, he got upset because he thought the job was done.

Now he had to turn on the pilot for me and my 7 month old daughter. (March 5, 2019 temps were in the 10's, and night was to be 9°). Huffing and puffing, he grabbed my husbands torch and spark igniter that he saw on my husbands work bench. Cussing, he told me the thermocouple blew, and the pilot was not staying lit. I asked him was there anything I needed to do inside to the thermostats, he said nope.

I asked how much it'd be for him to replace the thermocouple, he said a ""couple hundred bucks"". I almost cried. I called my husband in front of him, told him, and he was so taken aback.

Darrell Charlesworth then left me and my 7 month old daughter with a furnace that did not work in 10° weather because we could not afford to replace a $10 thermocouple that my husband installed that same night in 15 minutes when he get home from work, thank the Lord!!! I can not believe this man is that greedy and heartless.

My furnace was in working order prior to him shutting my gas off, and he left the job with my furnace in non working order, with the panel open, gas valve switched to ON, and left on pilot mode without being lit.

Now, the anti tip bracket install itself was a hack job, pictures will be included. He left the bracket crooked which left the entire oven with huge wiggle room and completely protruded. Pictures will be attached.


I just wanted him out and wanted this work order accomplished. I wanted the inspector in and out so I would never need to think about this man/company again.

Well today was the inspection, him and his poor apprentice (whom I feel very bad for, but hey, he's getting experience for a future job) came 15 minutes early, set up their tools to make it seem like they were working, then Darrell went on to BERATE me, SCREAMED at me, about how I texted him 10 effing pictures of this GD stove just because it's ""1/4"" inch crooked. You will see in the pictures included the hack job he left, and just how crooked the bracket is.

When I got loud back, telling him how he left me and my 7 month old without heat because of a 15 minute job that broke under his care, he told me ""well we didn't fix it because you guys are broke"", and that the entire oven wiggled because he wasn't paid to adjusted the legs, I replied saying then why did you ""write new oven install on the receipt and charge us $445"" and replied, ""the receipt don't matter"".

I then told him that I'd be in touch with the corporate office of Rooter Man about how he was running this franchise, tarnishing their name, he finally shut his mouth. Inspector came, approved, and left. Darrell then had the gall to ask if I wanted him to fix the bracket again, but I just wanted him gone.

I can't believe I just took this time to write this review, I'm tired and can't wait to put this behind me. But please, take extreme caution, we spent almost 1k on an absolute headache, just for me to be completely torn down.

Kimberly K.

Horrible service received. The plumber that came to my house was rude. He did not fix the problem and did not perform any of the services that were mentioned on their website but had no problem taking my money!!!! When I called to complain there was no sense of urgency in this matter and when they did send another person out an hour later that person did not even have the equipment necessary to fix the problem. There was no follow up call to confirm if the matter was resolved and In addition to the phone callI, I sent 2 emails and still have not been contacted. Needless to say my plumbing is still not fixed. I would not recommend this company to anyone

Marcia R.

We had Darrell Charlesworth replace our well in 2014 for $2000!!! Then in 2016 our well died, (note: our first well lasted over 25 years) Darrell Charlesworth came out to tell us we needed a new well again, $2800!!! , upon investigation from an engineering company we found out that the well he put in for us in 2014 was 14 years old!!! Not new. Who knows if the well I have now is New!! I suspect that he refurbishes old wells and installs them in unsuspecting customers homes and charges them the cost of a new well. What a scam artist!!! He also told us that we needed a whole house water filtration system, which we told him we would hold off on at the time, come to find out, we DON'T need a whole house water filtration system!! I highly DO NOT recommend Rooter man plumbers!!

Dee L.

TL;DR Version: This plumbing business is rude, crass, unprofessional, and I have a high suspicion that they are overcharging.

For more details, read on:
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This business is easily one of the most unpleasant it has ever been my displeasure of dealing with.

We called them immediately following some serious emergency flooding of our basement. As soon as he arrived (I cannot recall the gentleman's name, unfortunately) he treated me as though I had somehow been unaware that my basement was, in fact, flooded to my ankles, which struck me as slightly condescending. I wonder what on earth he thought we had called him for.

After sloshing about and explaining precisely nothing to me about what was wrong or might need to be done, he proceeded to set up a water pump. He and his assistant did this by tossing live electrical wires across the basement to each other- while we were all standing ankle deep in water (an electrical conductor).

Now, I was not necessarily in fear for my life, but this seemed to me perhaps not the best and safest choice in comparison to walking the cables over. Certainly not the most professional choice.

After most of the water had been pumped out, he continued to explain nothing to me while rooting around in the house trap. When I asked what exactly the problem might have been, he repeatedly stated (and I mean, like, 5 times in rapid succession) that the city would not pay for our plumbing expenses.

I was aware of that. Also, what the city does and does not reimburse does not seem to be information particularly relevant to his job.

Which is why it became irritating when he proceeded to repeat this answer to my more detailed inquiries, (such as, ""was the drain blocked, and which drain was it, and was there a clear obstruction"") with increasingly gruff assurance that the city would not, in fact pay for it.

Which was quite literally, not even remotely any of the questions I asked.

Eventually another member of my family, more versed in the ins and outs of household plumbing than I am, arrived to see if maybe this was a failing on my part to communicate.

He told HER in response to all of her requests for information regarding the flooding with, again, that the city would EMPHATICALLY not reimburse us for the plumbing work. He continued to say this well after we assured him we would pay him in legal tender for the work.

At some point, the question of what had happened to the cap on the house trap came up. He insisted there had, in fact, never been a cap. We're all pretty sure there was, but whatever.

When asked, he said that we did NOT need a cap. This sounded wrong.
Minutes later, he proceeded to detail where we might procure a cap, and told us that without a cap, the trap would become clogged again and flood. Which is exactly the opposite of what he had said earlier.

When the bill finally came, and it far exceeded any of the similar work we've had done by other plumbers before, the man claimed that the high cost was because he was the ONLY plumber in the area with a pump for clearing water.

The only plumber, whose job is in part to clear collections of water, with a plumbing tool designed to clear water.

This too, seemed absurdly wrong. A call to another plumber proved that it was in fact, wrong and other plumbers DO carry plumbing supplies. Not to mention the things are available at any Home Depot for a few hundred dollars.

Their attitude and treatment of me and my family was beyond rude, their behavior highly unprofessional. I do not think it is unfair or demanding to ask that a professional repairman explain what they are doing and what a problem might be. I don't think it's unfair or demanding to ask that a business, who we are paying, treat us with basic respect.

I'm going to encourage my sister, who had the misfortune of picking this business out of the phonebook, to share her experiences with them. If I recall, he barked at her for being curious about what he had charged, and sat himself down in her kitchen chair without asking while being covered in toilet water, among other unpleasantness.

Please, spare yourself the trouble. There are other fine plumbers here on Yelp who probably won't treat you like a disobedient toddler for the audacity to need help with your plumbing.