Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Boo O.

Very professional and high quality! Much better than other plumbers. Thank you so much Steve and Jose.

David P.

The technician was nice, but was amazed at the $387 quote to clear a slow drain with easy access. He offered a 10% discount after I declined. No thanks, I won't be calling roto-rooter again.

Leo P.

Refuses to provide any online quotes, ballpark, or range pricing for very basic and straightforward jobs, only in person. Others did without any issues, best of luck !

Roy L.

Randomly found this one on the internet. Dennis was able to verify the water heater venting issue and correct a mistaken statement by SDGE. He also managed to comfort my tenants and de-escalate the situation.

Chelsea H.

Had great experiences with them in the past, however the last week of events have changed my perspective on this company.

We get our residence power-jetted by Roto-Rooter every few months to a year. Last week, we made an appointment a few days in advance for them to come out on Friday, 11/24. We explained what we needed to have done to our residential plumbing, outlined the history and appointment was made.

Tech shows up with giant commercial equipment, acknowledges the dispatcher made a mistake, leaves and comes back an hour later with the correct equipment. He completes the job and at the end tells us he has no idea how much the cost is. He takes our credit card and then tells us his iPad is dying. So we get no idea on what the price is or any sort of confirmation of payment. Granted, we have done this regularly for the past few years and know that it's usually between $250 and $300.

Come the following Tuesday, we have an $800 charge! Now, we get to do the fun game of phone tag with Roto-Rooter for several days, constantly being told we'll get a call back at the end of the day by the branch manager. Call everyday and get the same excuse that only the branch manager can handle this and we'll get a call back at the end of the day. Rinse and repeat.

After getting the same response again today after 3 days of zero calls back, I call again to ask how much a residential power jetting costs. They tell me they have no idea, that a tech has to come out and provide us the cost. When I tell them that the tech that came out last Friday had no idea what the cost was they then transferred me to a manager, Sonya. Sonya then proceeds to tell me that the branch manager, Dave Parra, is the only person in the entire branch who is able to handle this and he is apparently out on jury duty all this week. Seems pretty suspect that an entire branch boils down to one person to handle issues like this with no backup plan whatsoever.

So, then I ask Sonya to talk to the person above Dave. She says she'll send him a message and we can expect a response in 24 to 48 business hours. I'm not holding my breath, I'm just going to report them to the California Department of Consumer Affairs and report their obvious fraud to my bank.

John W.

Would give ZERO stars if I could. Called for a clogged pipe on labor day weekend (Friday) and someone was supposed to come out Saturday between 8am-11am. The plumber finally showed up close to 4:30pm on Saturday. I told him that our sump pump alarm had sounded because there was likely a tampon stuck in the pipe, so it needed to be cleared and all would be fine. The plumber then told me ""nothing was jamming the pipe"" and that our sump pump was broken and we'd need a new one immediately. I told him that's impossible as it is very new and that this just happened three weeks ago when renters had flushed a tampon down the drain. I guaranteed him this was the case again. He kept telling me I was wrong and that I needed a new sump pump which would cost me thousands of dollars. Obviously I was not going to pay that since I knew he was wrong so I declined and the plumber left - having done NOTHING. He didn't even clear the pipe! Two days later when our actual plumbers were back in town from the holiday, I had them check it out and low and behold, there was a tampon stuck in the pipe. They cleared the pipe, put the sump pump back together and it was good as new.

THAT ISN'T EVEN THE WORST PART - despite being made to feel like a fool and taken advantage of most likely because the plumber was preying on (what he assumed) was my lack of knowledge, the WORST part about this is that I have called Roto Rooter and asked to speak to a manager SIX times about this. No one has EVER called me back. Apparently the branch manager has no supervisor and so all the poor receptionists can do is keep emailing them to call me, which has not and most likely will not ever happen. Terrible service and truly a really disheartening experience from a company with very little moral compass.

Kelly A.

We reached out to Rotorooter when we discovered that we had a leak in the kitchen. Initially, we thought we had made the right decision, because every person that came out seemed knowledgeable, friendly, and like they had our best interest at heart. Now this was our first experience with a homeowners insurance claim and we really relied on them to help us make the right decisions. First up was figuring out the problem. I was told I had to pay $1600 upfront, but it would be reimbursed by the insurance company as soon as the claim went through. considering we have three kids and really needed a kitchen. I unfortunately paid the money. Next came to clean up crew. I still have a hard time believing that John wasn't such a good guy after all. As far as the process went, I was very impressed! Every worker that came to my house was friendly and I felt comfortable having them work. They communicated what they were doing very well and I felt comfortable using this company. However, I was assured that the insurance company would cover the situation. Much like the $1600 this turns out to not be completely true. I now have a $6000 lien on my house and while they are assuring me that this is a normal step in the process, considering that they were wrong about the $1600 I am not so sure. Finally, there is the rebuild crew. I will say they were punctual and friendly. We did not feel comfortable using them considering that they seem to have taken us for $7600 at this point. As soon as I let them know that we would not be using them for the rebuild. I cannot get anyone to return my calls, or emails. I'm not exactly sure what to do. At this point I have no kitchen and I feel completely taken advantage of. My adjuster told me that they did not bill correctly and that they billed for things that are not covered. I suppose there will be an update to this review at some point but for right now beware! Just because you grew up hearing this name does not mean it's a safe bet. Lesson learned.

Donna L.

Our home was built in the 50's and we have had several plumbing issues over the years and have gone through several plumbers ... some good, some not so good, trying to solve the problem in one bathroom and our kitchen sink. We were always told, at the end of the day, we have an old house and we are on a septic tank ... that is the problem! Well, Dylan from (Santee) Roto-Rooter came out a couple of months ago and not only installed a new water heater (old one was 15+ yrs old!) but, he ""fixed"" that kitchen sink problem and it's never clogged up again! I would highly recommend the (Santee) Roto-Rooter if you are in need of a plumber who knows what he is doing. Thank you Dylan for a job well done. Please tell your owner Dad ... YOU are a keeper! :-)

Marlin M.

I wanted to take a moment to personally thank Andrew Velasco for the outstanding job he did diagnosing and treating my plumbing issue. I've had piping troubles over the past few years and Roto Rooter have always provided good service at a fair value, but for this most recent problem, Andrew knocked it out of the park with clearing out the blockage. He was exceptionally friendly and very proficient and well experienced. He answered all my questions with ease and confidence. If I have any further plumping issues, I will be contacting Roto Rooter and personally requesting Andrew. Thank you.

Rosa E.

The worst experience! We had an issue removing and changing out an old bathroom faucet, which led to water everywhere . The plumber damaged a flawless sink in doing the job (the $400 to shut off the leak and change out a faucet was not in my budget; steep considering I vacuumed all the water Myself). He tried to paint the chipped porcelain, which didn't work and then took off the price of a new sink and offered to install it for free. I was so impressed at the time. But
I now had to buy a pedestal sink I didn't want (he wanted me to match the footprint) and a faucet I didn't like that would now fit this sink. He was nice enough to help with that. Unfortunately when I arrived home the pedestal sink was cemented in so crooked that the basin cannot sit flush. It's completely slanted. I've never heard of a contractor that doesn't use a level. He's so nice I feel bad, but now I have to have it all ripped out to start over. Plus he damaged the walls and new paint job. It's been awful!