Roto-Rooter

Pot S.

On 6/21/17, Celco Inc dba Roto-Rooter, broke the seal on my well to perform a pump replacement without the required Plumbing or Well Certification, thereby violating G.S. 87-98.2. The North Carolina State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors (919-875-3612) and the Well Contractors Certification Board (Drew Morgan, 919-707-5882) confirmed that Celco Inc, Roto-Rooter, Cesar Hernandez, Joel Hernandez, Lori Hernandez, and employees of Celco did not have Plumbing or Well Contractor licenses and the repairs executed violated North Carolina General Statutes. (They did say Joel purchased the books to study to become a licensed plumber, demonstrating he knows that licensing is required for the work he performs yet he still fails to abide by the law). They are also not licensed by the NC Board of Electrical Contractors.
The result was work that did not comply with North Carolina Plumbing or Electrical Code. Further, Roto-Rooter did not disinfect our well, per NC G.S. 87-98.2. Proximate to this repair, our family became ill and experienced severe vomiting and diarrhea. Further highlighting the failure to execute any standard of care, the well was never re-sealed and remained open until the pump failed again as a direct result of their substandard work.
On the upside, when I contacted Joel on Friday, March 2nd - Roto-Rooter was unwilling to return even though I informed Joel that I suspected poor workmanship from his employees. Video was taken of well disassembly and diagnosis, because even though Joel and the other owners live just minutes from my home, they exhibited the same lack of standard of care in executing work within the plumbing trade as they did being a reputable business owner. He did, however, kindly inform me that my warranty was void because I performed the repair myself, and acknowledged that the work Roto-Rooter performed as documented in the YouTube videos I sent him was egregious. Throughout this he only seemed concerned with the impact that publicizing his work would have on his company.
I tried to work through Roto-Rooter corporate to resolve the issue, however, Joel lied to the corporate office and me about the refund (by stating several times, ""the check is in the mail"" (confirmed by Renee Swanson during phone conversations), then stating a month later that he wanted me to sign a non-disclosure agreement and informing me by email, 3 months later, he would not refund any money.) This can be confirmed by Paul Abrams, the Public Relations Director, in the email he sent me dated 6/20/18 in which Joel stated that ""the two of you [Joel and I] are supposed to meet in person so that he can give you [me] a refund check and settle the matter after he returns to Rocky Mount from his trip outside the country."" When I called him to address this reversal, Joel recorded the conversation in which I said that if he thought the work by Roto-Rooter I posted on the internet hurt his business, he hasn't seen anything yet. With this, Joel filed a FALSE POLICE REPORT stating ""if Celco didn't give me a refund I would injure him (inflect bodily harm on Joel Hernandez) and the business (Physical injury to company property)"" (as stated on the Criminal Summons presented to my Friday, July 20, 2018).

Mike H.

Roto-Rooter installed a well pump back in June of 2017 and it failed 7 months later. This happened on a Friday night and unfortunately their warranty is only good Monday-Friday 8am-5pm. So, I investigated and found terrible workmanship caused the problem. 220volt bare copper wire was exposed, none of the plumbing was tightened, the electrical conduit was the wrong size and fell apart in my hands, the new pump wire was gouged showing copper in several locations and there were no spacers on the line or torsion boots installed. The wire was barely taped to the pipe and wore against the well casing, shorting out the pump. In fact, the line had been spliced because the technicians couldn't measure correctly. They had also burned the insulation with a torch trying to shrink the water tight connectors.

It took them 12 man hours to replace the pump where as it took just me 2 hours to do the job right.

So I paid $1700 for seven months, then had to redo it myself. They were courteous when they said that they are voiding my warranty because I fixed the problem myself.

I posted all my findings on YouTube. Just search for Rocky Mount Roto Rooter Horrible Installation.

While at Lowe's I met two other people that were also dissatisfied with Roto Rooter

I would never use these guys ever again.