Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Leslie B.

This company is totally unethical. A slow leak was found in a small laundry room over a garage with a concrete floor. My 93 year old mother's (which has dementia) healthcare worker noticed the leak and called this company. They installed $20 faucet which was leaking. Then called in their drying people. This laundry room is 8 x 4 with a vinyl floor and a garage below with a concrete floor. They had drying equipment for 5 days and charged $3,100 inddition to the $600 for the $20 faucet. Totally unnecessary and took advantage of a 93 year old woman with dementia. Oh, did I mention I have her power of attorney and can only authoiixe any work which I did not do. Don't use this company

Kelly G.

If I could give negative 5,000 stars I would. I have waited months to write this review and I am going to lay it all out there. I have read sagas on Google that are basically a copy-paste of what I experienced at this location. We had a fridge pipe bust that left 90% of home in disarray. RR showed up, hours later, ready to save the day and get our cash!! They quoted us $3-6K for the cleanup... hefty price but we were in a crunch with our hardwood floors and my worry that mold was soon to come. Most of the guys were okay but one of the workers made extremely inappropriate comments about me that made me extremely uncomfortable. That was just the first of the issues. This was just the beginning of a month long nightmare with this joke of a company. When we got the final bill back it was almost $15,000!!! Three to five times more than they quoted. Instead of giving us a new quote, or letting us know the additional costs, they wrote us off. I spent over five hours reviewing 100 plus pages of fraudulent charges and a mess of nonsense. I spoke to their customer service rep who was kind but less than useful to say the least. After three weeks of back and forth with these scoundrels we eventually settled for over $3000 more than we were quoted. These kind of businesses make me absolutely sick. They take advantage of those in great need and ignore all responsibility. What breaks my heart is that I am college educated and have had to review contracts for the majority of my professional career. What about those who don't know? Who don't know how to fight? """"Those"""" are who I am writing this for. Use local, use people who are accountable and kind. Roto rooter is not it.

Nina D.

Our water heater busted and was leaking from the attic into the air vent. In an attempt to avoid any further damage to the ceiling, we went with Roto-rooter despite the outrageous price because we knew they were 24/7. The first day, I was told someone would be out between 2 and 6pm. We got one phone call saying that we were next in line around 3:30pm. I had to call and make sure we were still on the list three more times and was assured that we were next. We got a phone call at almost 9pm saying that they did not have a qualified plumber in the area to send out and needed to wait until the morning. You knew that when I called you the last three times I'm sure, but ok. The following morning, a plumber came out. He was very polite and apologized that no one made it out last night. He quoted us a price, which included labor for two people since the water heater is in the attic plus the cost of the materials that was twice what another company had offered. Yet again, in order to avoid any further damage to the area and with an ice storm coming and no hot water, we went ahead with the job. Our plumber kept saying he was waiting on someone to come and help him, but no one showed up. So our plumber attempted to do the job himself. The next thing we know, his leg is dangling through our ceiling and he is not responding to us. My husband ran up to the attic and pulled the water heater off of him. It had knocked him out. He came to and made sure we were all right - we had just moved our one year old across the room before he started the job. He called his supervisor who called us and they tried to blame it on the water damage that was already there, but it was clearly three feet away from the existing water damage. Long story short, the plumber finished the job (their finance guy who came to get signatures, helped him get the water heater out and bring the new one up) by himself. The supervisor called us and we disputed that the plumber fell through the already damaged area and they said they would send someone out to survey the damage. Three or four phone calls later (made by us of course) they finally sent someone out to look at the ceiling. The plumber placed a piece of cardboard over the hole in the ceiling. The temperatures fell into the teens the rest of that week. We were told a contractor would be out by Thursday. After not hearing from them, my husband called numerous times and finally got a commitment that someone would be out on Friday at 530pm. It's now Wednesday morning and the job should be finished today. No fault to the independent contractor, he's been great and has done a very thorough job. So a week later, no one from Roto-rooter has called to make sure the damage has been repaired and we have not heard a word from them. We've had to hunt them down to fix their mess. I've put in a call to talk to the manager as well about refunding half of our labor since only one plumber worked the job. Not to mention the added expenses of running space heaters in the living room during the freezing temperatures we were having with a giant hole in our ceiling for 5 days. This company takes advantage of people in their most dire time of need. No, you don't charge an after hours fee, because your fees are already outrageous enough to cover that availability......as long as they have a """"certified"""" technician available in your area.

Ashley W.

On January 18, 2022, we had sewage come through our downstairs toilet and tub. We called your company for the issue. We spent $4 to $5k on a grinder we purchased from your company about 4 years ago. It only made sense to call roto rooter. Chase came out and stayed for less than 10mins. He ran water in my bathtub, bathroom sink and flushed the toilet and left. I told my husband he didn't do anything, and this could happen again. It did cause small water damage to my carpet. On January 19, 2022, I went downstairs and my whole carpet was soaked with sewage. I investigated the bathroom and sewages was coming out the toilet and tub. Once again, I called your company out to fix the problem bc 1. we spent money with your company for a grinder. 2. your tech Chase was just out here the day before and didn't do anything. This time I had extensive damage to all my downstairs carpet. I can't remember the guy's name. It begins with a J. He went outside to check my grinder pump. He manually got it started and everything started flowing correctly. We were both in the rain making sure that we get the problem solved. He was awesome. The next morning, I called Roto rooter the next morning, to let them know of my issue and Alex (manager) called me. I sent him pictures of the damage both days. Then he had Antonio (Project manager) to call me. The sent two guys to come clean my carpet. When the guys came to my house, they informed me that this was too big of an issue for them. I took before and after pictures. Let's just say the next morning my carpet was horrible; it was worst before they did what they did. Once again, I reached out to Alex and Antonio with pictures. No response from Alex this time. Antonio came out the next morning. He had it set already in his mind that they weren't going to pay for anything. He told me he was going to talk with his GM Bryant L. Antonio called back and said the GM wasn't going to pay for anything. I told him to have his GM call me. Antonio said he was out of town. Funny, you just said you just talked with him. I called my carpet cleaning guy to clean my downstairs carpet a week later due to roto rooter neglect. I must remove my whole downstairs carpet bc your tech didn't do his job the first time. I have reached out to roto rooter several time and I get no response or VM. Roto Rooter should pay for me to have my carpet replaced downstairs.

Mitch P.

If you don't want to read a long review about how awful this company is, please take away this key point: DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. Period. My fiancé's and my basement had some kind of water leak late one night which resulted in puddles of water that eventually seeped under parts the laminate flooring. We called Roto-Rooter specifically to remove the water from under the flooring, no other reason. They gave us a quote for $4025-$6775 depending on the work that was actually done. Nowhere on the quote did it say the scope of the work that would be done. This quote is the only document my fiancé signed from this company. So they get to work """"extracting water,"""" ripping up our flooring, and setting up their drying equipment that they said would only be left at our house for 3 days. During all this work, my fiancé told one of the techs that insurance would be helping out, and the tech responded by saying """"Oh this is about to go WAY up."""" After 5 days of not hearing from or seeing anybody from the company, we called to ask them to remove their equipment from our house. After the equipment was FINALLY removed, we called to get an exact amount owed so that we could get our finances in order. The guy on the phone told us it would be over $13,000. DOUBLE the high end of the initial quote. When I called to question this, they said that somebody had been by our house everyday to check on the equipment (lie) and that they had our initials on documents stating each time a tech came to check on it (also lie). They also said that the extra cost was for them ripping up our flooring (which they didn't even complete) because they weren't aware at the beginning that water was under the floor (LIE because that was the ONLY reason we called them). Whenever they found out we have cameras around our entire property, they backtracked. They brought over all of the documents from the project, including an itemized invoice for about $10,500, BUT the tech who brought the documents to our house said they would be willing to honor the high end of the original quote ($6775). We thanked him for the documents and got to work going through every last one of them. What we found was 1. On the invoice for $10,500 they were trying to charge us for things that they had never done (things that we have photo and video evidence they had never done), 2. They had documents with 36 different time stamps on different dates that a tech allegedly came to our house to check the equipment and documented various pieces of data regarding the equipment and the job itself (only 7 of those timestamps were accurate, and that was only because they were the times they were setting up equipment - we have video evidence they weren't at our house during any of the other 29 timestamps they have), and most importantly 3. THEY FORGED MY FIANCÉ'S SIGNATURE AND INITIALS ON ALL DOCUMENTS RELATED TO THE JOB, including a direct payment authorization saying our insurance company should pay them directly (didn't happen thank goodness), the work order to start the project, and literally every single document they had for the job besides the original quote. Neither of us had seen any of these documents prior to work being started or at any point during the project UNTIL the tech brought them to our house AFTER they got all of the equipment out. The best part of all is that my fiancé's name starts with an R, but they forged all the signatures and initials starting with a W because they apparently misheard my fiancé's name when he told it to them on the first day. When we confronted them about the forgery, they said """"we aren't allowed to do that."""" Yeah no duh you aren't allowed to do something that is ILLEGAL. That doesn't change the fact that it happened. They also said """"everyone knows when you docu-sign it looks different from your regular signature."""" Yeah that may be the case but 1. Nobody from their company presented their iPad/tablet/whatever we were supposed to docu-sign these documents on to either of us and 2. THEY SIGNED THE WRONG NAME AND WRONG INITIALS EVERY TIME. They also said """"well we emailed all of these documents to you so you had them the whole time."""" Yeah no they sent them all to a WRONG email address belonging to neither of us and not even close to either of our email addresses. If we had read reviews on this company beforehand we would have never gone with them for this project. Unfortunately, it was an emergency so we did not have time to wait around. This ended up costing way more than it should have and they lied to us SO many times even after we had all the evidence against them and knew they were lying and told them we knew they were lying. Never ever use Roto-Rooter for anything. You won't regret taking my advice.

S B.

Fixed my problem for a reasonable price on a Saturday. The man was very nice and prompt. Chelsea, AL

Tony G.

If I could give less than 1 star I would. We were having issues with our water heater and the valve next to it was just leaking all sorts of water. It leaked so much it flooded the back yard. It was an emergency because we had to turn our water off to prevent the bill from going through the roof. """"Professional Veteran Shawn"""" and another young man came to inspect it. We were told it was going to be free of charge for inspection. We got a call saying the """"professional"""" wanted to reschedule because we weren't going to pay him tonight! So after a heated phone call they showed up. Shawn was extremely rude to my father. Gave him an estimate of 900-1000 dollars! Also he told him he needed to """"hurry and pay because the stores would close"""". When all the stores were closed, he said there was nothing he could do. Funny because if he offered him the money upfront he could could """"find someone and do it"""". My father is having a tough financial situation so I offered to pay, but even considering the tough time he was going through, shawn was the rudest human being. He told us """"we wouldn't find anyone else to do cheaper"""". Personally I wanted him out of our household so I said I would find someone else. Shawn was extremely rude, and smirked and rudely said """"ok let's go then"""". Good thing I waited, because it turns out the problem is hundreds of dollars less to fix! Also we were treated kindly and professionally! The"""" professionals"""" at roto rooter showed us no book of set prices like they explain that they had to go by. If the price was really 1000 I wouldve paid it, but in no way am I going to pay 1,000 to a rude inconsiderate unprofessional scammer who gives me no evidence of why it would be that price. Stay leary!

Shalitha S.

I called Roto-Rooter on 1/26/19, slightly after 5pm CST, regarding a leak underneath of my kitchen sink. My call was taken promptly, and a service ticket issued for a time frame of 5:15pm-9:15pm. I specifically requested that they TEXT my number when on their way, and gave an alternate number as well. I was assured that my problem would be handled last night. I hung up feeling good, but it was all down hill from there. At approximately 8:50pm, I became aware that a tech had called the alternate number given at 6:12pm. He left a message asking for a call back. I immediately called dispatch, wanting to know what the problem was, and why the tech had called the alternate number instead of the one I specifically instructed them to text. Upon being connected with the person that was in charge of dispatching him, I was told that the tech assigned to me had gone to the wrong house. Mind you, this supposedly happened 3 hrs ago at that point...again...NO communication since 6:12 pm. The dispatcher apologized profusely, as I expressed my displeasure with the situation. """"You can't fix stupid"""" was his exact quote. """"I will call my supervisor about this, and handle this personally. Give me 15-20 minutes, and I will call you back myself. I won't do anything else until I handle this."""" A full hour later, I had heard NOTHING!! I called back, and expressed my displeasure with how things were going. I was put on hold, waiting to be connected to the dispatcher that was supposedly taking care of my situation. A woman answered and informed me that the dispatcher was on another call, and he would have to call me back. I told her that if I had not heard back from him within 15-20 minutes, I was done. I gave him an ADDITIONAL hour. Finally, at 11pm, I called and cancelled my service request. I picked this company in a pinch because of the high reviews online. If this is how your business is conducted, I wonder how many of those """"good reviews"""" are accurate. You will never have to worry about my business or any other person that I can tell about this HORRIBLE experience and POOR customer service!!

Josh F.

We needed the pilot light to work on our gas water heater 08/21/2018, and plumbing repair was needed too, so we heard good things about Roto-Rooter and gave them a call and they sent someone out that same day. His name is Eric Lovelady and he did a very professional job and explained what needed to be done too. He gave us his card as well and the price for repair was very affordable and very fair. We highly recommend that anyone who needs plumbing, drains, water cleanup, etc, to give Roto-Rooter 1-800-GET-ROTO (438-7686), or 205-518-7072 in Birmingham or surrounding locations. Ask for Eric Lovelady and my family and I promise you'll be as satisfied as we are. God bless! Mark N Tim Elders

JG H.

Roto-rooter was quick to respond to my plumbing emergency and when they fixed my plumbing it was done quick and efficiently with great care and customer service I cannot stress how much my family and I appreciate the work done.