Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Eric F.

First time single family home owner here. I have no idea what I'm doing yet. Had an unexpected water back up and called one of the only places who answered at 6:30 pm on Thursday night. That's why they get the 1 star. They came out promptly. They didn't call to confirm but they showed up so that was cool.

First guy was nice. He sort of explained things. He kind of laughed as he had me sign the document saying it was 435 to rod from a clean out outside in front to the main line. The internet says this is a ridiculous price but I had 435 dollars and I had an issue so I signed the form. He worked for several hours until his machine failed. He indicated he knew he had issues but had hoped the machine would make it through to the weekend. I thought this was pretty unprofessional. He also cut the cable and left a 30 foot metal cable covered in sewage in my front yard. I guess I get to figure out what to do with that now. So I now had to take the following day off work to meet with guy number two.

Guy number two came out and he was also courteous. He worked for a while and warned me (early on which was obviously a sales tactic) that he felt I may have a collapsed pipe somewhere in the main line. I immediately hit google for additional info and to prepare myself for whatever bs was about to come next. They sent a third guy with a camera out. He showed me the tree roots on the camera and talked about how bad they were and gave me two options. (Third guy commented on how they would get the metal crap cable out of my yard but they haven't done that yet and its now Tuesday.)

One, have some guy with a high pressure machine that shoots water through the system that eliminates issues the first tools they had couldn't get. Camera guy/supervisor expressed this as the only next logical option which would indicate whether or not I needed to go to option 2 I will get to in a minute. This water pressure guy charges 550 an hour but Roto Rooter will have him cap the cost at 800 just for me. Read that saturated with sarcasm. Look up what that service costs elsewhere. This was complete garbage and literally this company is now just taking advantage of me. They called the guy and advised him to come over under this assumed close situation. I am a saleseperson but I don't know anything about plumbing. I was starting to panic as 435 became 1235 and was potentially about to become:

Option two:

Lets rip your yard and driveway up and replace the entire line with this way stronger material for an insane number of dollars.

Between the time the second guy left and the water pressure guy was about to head over... I had a plumber I know and trust become available. He advised me to call off water pressure guy and said he would head over. He came over with a heavier duty version of the tool the first two dudes used. He cleared the obstruction in 35 minutes and wrapped up and my problem was resolved. He charged me 200 dollars.

At the end of the day, I wish I had the foresight to emergency call the guy I knew instead of calling Roto Rooter during a panic mode. They would have easily spent 5 times what I should have spent and wasted a ton of my time. It's unfortunate that companies with names you recognize survive by capitalizing on inexperienced homeowners and a person's trust. They don't deserve your trust. They spent 435 of my dollars and 6 hours of my time and didn't actually fix anything and, in fact left a metal cable, covered in feces and grease in my front yard.

Edit:

Within moments of me posting this review, a representative responded on here. I emailed them and they called me. They offered solutions that made me feel a lot more comfortable about potentially using them in the future.

Situations can go sideways in any business. The company itself is apparently very attentive to their clients needs and personal and financial situations. I can certainly appreciate them for making the difficult call reaching out and I applaud them for taking the steps necessary to avoid others from having similar negative experiences.

Jake L.

Absolutely terrible customer service. I called them on a Saturday to have my basement drains cleared. That went OK, but the water backed up again. They said they would come back to camera my lines for free and my warranty would be based on that camera. They ""no showed"" my camera appointments two times. I took off work for one of them. Then the drains backed up again and caused damage to my basement. These guys are the worst. I'll never call them again.

Cindy S.

I have used Roto-Rooter for years and have always had good results! I called at 10:30 pm on the 4th of July with a totally clogged kitchen sink. Not a good night to have a clogged drain as I was expecting 25 people coming to my house for a baby shower the next day. The answering service gave me a 2hr window and added a note about the party. Bob arrived easily within the 2hr window, confirmed the time my guests were arriving and said he would do his best to complete the unclogging and be gone before my guest were to arrive. And he did!!

Yes they are a bit expensive but when I tried to reach a couple other services that claimed '24/7' service, one had a 'closed for the holiday' recording and one very well known company kept hanging up on me!! Said they couldn't hear me yet I was able to talk to the other places just fine.

I will continue to contact Roto-Rooter in the future.

D. F.

Worst service ever!! Didn't show on time. First service guy had no clue, tighted pipe, only there for 5 mins and wanted to charge $120. Then the sink still leaked. The next genius came and said he needed to replace the whole sink at $1200. I told him to get out. He left the sink leaking more than when he came. I had another service some in - NOT Roto-Rooter and he said the drain just had to be replace - $75. The Manager - Rick was rude, condescending and refused to send my mother's check back when I complained about the service. This service is built on the more they bill you, they more money they make. A real scam!!!!! RUN and find anyone else who know what they are doing!

Jeff B.

Roto Rooter took care of our issue. I am happy with the customer service they provided.

Joanne D.

After all the bad happenings and needing to get assistance from the Better Business Bureau. A total of 5 visits for the same problem. here I am with more problems. So last time they were out the first people arrived and said I had a broken pipe again. I complained and questioned, they sent out their PRO!!! The next morning I am told by the PRO that there is nothing wrong where they said it was wrong, but supposedly I had a problem elsewhere. Now here I am again, I call a new company who said there is a broken pipe, and Roto Rooter should have informed me of that when they cleared the pipes of water that there was additional work to be done. Instead of admitting there ongoing lies, knowing I had to finance the work I had done they suggested I find ""Joe Plumber"" who won't charge me as much to fix the problem. Roto Rooter takes advantage of Women who are not well versed in Plumbing. I will never use them again. It should be criminal, they are not honest

Bill R.

Never use this company. A few years ago, my sump pump went out. I was nervous that the basement would flood, so I called this company right out of the phone book. After the serviceman came out, I heard some loud banging in the basement. I assumed he was trying to dislodge a pipe from the sump pump. A few minutes later, however, he loudly claimed that the water pipe leading into the hot water heater was leaking, and it was (water was pouring out of it). This had absolutely never happened before. He said he happened to have a small piece of copper tubing with him, and he could repair the problem for $50. With no options, I told him to go ahead.
Looking back on it, I realized the scam. He had obviously been banging hard on the pipe to create a leak, so he could make a few extra bucks and get rid of a piece of copper pipe he had. As I said, this pipe had never leaked before. I should have called the police when the guy was out here, but didn't (it didn't occur to me).

David T.

This guy left me 3 hours of clean up after he splattered sewage all over my bathroom. Then broke my ejector pump and claimed it was just a coincidence. Beware! Call a local independent plumber instead!

Christine J.

Tried to take advantage of me and wanted me to pay $6,000.00 to fix my plumbing problem! Their workers should become actors instead of plumbers because each of the 3 men that came out (Felipe, Gary ,and Wyatt) acted as concerned and helpful, but actually were trying to SCREW me. &%$# you, roto rooter. You suck!
I had a different company come in, resolve the problem In 2 hours and charged me
$600.00!

Mr. K.

It's too bad there are no negative stars on yelp! I HATE leaving negative reviews on yelp, but here we go! I needed to have a simple shower cartridge replaced and that was it. The guy came out and said it would be $370 plus the PART! He was going to rooter me all right!! He could have kissed me first before trying to play with my cartridge! I spent less than $50 at Ace and got everything I needed to complete the job in less than 15 minutes! I took my beautiful wife out to dinner with the money I saved and she did kiss me first!
Unless your dog is floating away on your pillows, stay as far away from these crooks as you can!!!!!!