Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Mike Q.

Our tenant called on a Friday late morning. I called Roto Rooter Livermore. I was told they would respond between 10-2 on Saturday. They arrived at 7:15 PM. Wanted $340 per hour. No thanks, I'll pay someone else who can be on time.

AL C.

I am very disappointed not being able to get a timely estimate. I waited Saturday and all day Sunday, I did not get a voicemail on Saturday at 8:45pm. Then I called Sunday and they said they would be out between 12 - 4pm and got a call at 7:30pm who said he would like to reschedule and I asked to be cancelled. I feel if they are unreliable about showing up, I cannot trust them to do any work on my home. I wasted both days waiting on the estimates.

Bonnie S.

Our main sewer line backed up after the big rain last week. Hubby is super handy but this was too much, even for him. He called the national 800 number and we were assured someone would be in contact within an hour. It was already late evening but as promised, the guy showed up on time and was very professional, efficient and friendly. Luis (I believe) said it was his FIRST DAY! He got the pipe cleared quickly and called in the pipe cam guy, Jason, to give us a video of the entire pipe. Great service, friendly techs and we were up and running in just a couple hours. These guys turned what could have been a stressful mess into nothing to fret about. We are very grateful.

Yunhe M.

We highly recommend Roto-Rooter for their extremely hard work, absolutely professional , and high quality service. We contacted Roto-Rooter after another plumbing company failed to open our swear line three times. Manager Stephen Boudreau , Technician Eric came to our house the same night I called and worked under the darkness until very late : snaking, camera, video and diagnose. They started the job on the second day : digging through concrete, breaking the old pipe and placing the new swear line. During the working time, there were two storm days and they never stopped working on the site. Miguel, one of the crew members, is smart, experienced and extremely hard worker. Now our swear is perfectly fine. We finally come back to our normal life. We are very much thankful to Stephen and his colleagues.

Simon F.

My wife and I needed our kitchen sink to be looked at (we learned yesterday that the garbage disposal had to be replaced).
An appointment was scheduled for Sunday.

My wife was told that a technician was going to come between 10-12.
She then learned that the time frame was really from 11-3 (right away I wondered if there was a communication issue).

I had places to go with my family, and we were waiting around for hours in vain (our day was sort of wasted).
Shortly before 4:30, my wife was told that a technician was not going to come after all (""Available 24/7"" seems like a joke- my wife and I both got the impression that the technicians don't really work past 5 p.m.).
My wife received a phone call after 1 indicating that the technician was running late, and all that did was give us some false hope.

A new appointment was set for Monday.
My wife made it clear to the man on the phone that we had to work.
We couldn't be home all day like on Sunday.

The technician was supposed to come between 5-7.
Because he came early (my wife was given no details as to why- she was simply told that he was ""on his way""), my wife had to leave work early and race to pick up our son from school (her only assurance was that the technician would ""wait a few minutes"").
I also felt rushed to head home (I should have been around when the work was done, but I missed the technician by about 3 minutes).

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/roto-rooter-plumbing-and-water-cleanup-livermore?select=Uzyt0yaRlwzCv_Ae9RId7A:
Labor: $690.
Parts: $159.96.
Discount (we used a coupon): $50.
Tax: $14.80.
Contract Price: $814.76.
(It's also upsetting to know that our total would have been $864.76 without the coupon.)

My wife and I were ripped off.
$690 for labor was totally ridiculous (an estimate of $820 was given, but the technician did not break things down at all- I think he knew that ""$690 for labor"" would have alarmed my wife).
The technician did 1 task and only worked for about 18 minutes (including the time he was waiting outside, he was at the house for about 45 minutes).

My wife asked a few questions, and the technician was not impressive in terms of how much he knew.
He also didn't work on the faucet (my wife asked about something that can wait, and the work wouldn't have taken long).
My wife said no because that would have been another $350 (highway robbery).

On the invoice, the technician recommends that the faucet work be done ""soon.""
It's arrogant to even think that Roto-Rooter would be considered for that job.

There was a lack of customer service in general.
No one apologized or anything for the nonsense that we had to endure (believe me, I'm keeping myself from swearing up and down while writing this review).

I'm mad at myself for suggesting Roto-Rooter (we should have gone with a company that my mother-in-law recommended, but I foolishly had some loyalty to Roto-Rooter).
I gave the company 4 stars 7.5 years ago.
I didn't know that things had really gone downhill since then.
I read some negative reviews while at work yesterday, but I still thought that our total would be around $400.

https://www.rotorooter.com/livermoreca/:
It's weird.
My wife and I thought that we were dealing with the San Leandro location, but we weren't.
It's also kind of comical that the general phone number listed is no longer in service (the invoices need to be revised a little).

As another reviewer points out, the company was ""locally owned"" before a ""big corporation took over.""
When that happened, prices dramatically increased.

Our time and our money were wasted.
Please learn from our experience and don't give the company your business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilnl2iHd1Ec&ab_channel=OrianthiTV

Henry S.

Long story short. Had a clogged drain, backing up in showers. Came out and unclogged line. $ 350! Was informed that we needed to replace sewer lateral. 20 ft lateral from house to sidewalk. they wanted ""$15000!!!!"" Got it done by another plumber, $4000! Enough said.

Stewart M.

I called to have a garbage disposal replaced - I just didn't have time to do it. The woman on the phone couldn't tell me how much it would cost - she said they need to arrive, assess the job and then give a quote. That was not true! The service guy arrived and told me it's $550, not counting the cost of the disposal. I told him that was very high and he said it's a fiat rate they use. I told him what the woman on the phone scheduling the appointment told me - that it was based on the individual job and he just shook his head. That's BS! If I was told this simple call was $550 II would have selected someone else. This is a bait and switch situation where they knew the cost but wouldn't tell me. BEWARE of this behavior! The service guy was nice and did a good job but the cost is way out of whack. I won''t use Roto Rooter again because of this.

Skip M.

First of all let me say that James, my technician, was an outstanding professional and clearly wanted to troubleshoot my plumbing issue where my laundry washer was backing up into my basin in the kitchen.

After much persistence within an hour it appears that everything is leak tight and he was and I seemed satisfied.

My biggest beef with this company is that they are ""super expensive"" what I paid for an hours worth of labor was more than I've ever paid for an attorney that are of the highest caliber. If you ever decide to use them, I strongly urge you get some pricing upfront as I found their website very misleading. They used to be locally owned but ever since big corporation took over, it's just not the same company with that local feel of businesses helping businesses and homeowners.

Brent B.

Our kitchen sink clogged for a couple days and had water leaking all over the place. We called these folks and T (Tarhea) came to help us out. She was nice, understanding, passionate and definitely knowledgable! She quickly diagnosed the issue and got to work solving it!

She walked us through what she was doing the entire time, told us how we can fix it and how to prevent it the next time. All around amazing person and amazing service. Now I know who to call if we ever need service again!

Susan m.

The fees are outrageous !!!! I have a clogged toilet they tell me the cost $405.00 WHAT!!!! they run the main line when I told them it was the toilet.
he did not want to pull the toilet. when the mainline didn't work and he had to pull the toilet and it was then cleared. I was charged $735.00 he said he should have charged for both (wtf) WILL NEVER CALL ROTO ROOTER AGAIN!!!