Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Andrew K.

Roto Rooter came to service my basement for a flood. Though they completed the job, they 1) ran my credit card without my authorization for $6000, 2) they did not provide a receipt of proof payment for well over a month after countless calls, 3) the receipt had mistakes in it and 4) they charged me an after hours charge (of $2000+) even though I did not request after hours services and did not disclose to me that there would be after hours charges if THEY CHOOSE to show up after hours.

When I raised these issues with them, they did not care and felt since they did the service and whatever they charged was appropriate even though I requested services at 8am and they did not come until after hours and choose not to disclose there would be a surcharge for when they were performing service.

DO NOT give them a credit card. This is a complete deceptive trade practice. Their bill is extremely if not impossible to understand. They clearly do not care about the consumer. DO NOT USE them. there are other groups that can do their service without scamming you.

Jude P R.

Had outside work done from house to city line 4 years ago.
Line clogged up with something . one person usage.
Driver suggested that it ought to be covered under warranty.
Company refused. Simple quick snake job. $800.
Way overpriced!!! Normal cost is $299 to $350.
Please don't get Roto Rooter without a second or third bid.
They are out to rob you for simple work.

Lisa P.

First, the guy who did the job did it well. No complaints against him. My mother (senior) and I (disabled) needed our sump pumps battery backup replaced. He came out and suggested do the whole thing for $1700. He looked stuff up on his phone and gave us a qipuote of $2000.We agreed to that. He called before he was scheduled to install it and said he hadn't found one yet and didn't wanna get a cheap one at Lowes of Home Depot. Another day or so he said he got one but was more money than he thought (which is hard to believe in his profession he wouldn't know the costs) and didn't wanna say the price til he came back. We insisted on knowing beforehand. He said $2500. We said never mind and he said $2300. By then we wanted it done so we agreed. He gets here with the paperwork and says it came to $1980 and was charging us $2000 afeterall, but said that's only $20 for labor. He asked if we'd pay an extra $200-300 for labor. We agreed to $2300. Wouldn't apply the $75 off coupon we had. We got the model number (one whole part with main and backup as one). Looked it up online at stores nearby. That exact model is listed for average of $830 or so. At Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes and the supply place in Jessup he said he got it from. Called a supervisor and were told that's just the markup and basically ""that's just how it is."" You're gonna mark up a part over a thousand extra dollars?! And then guilt us into paying even more for labor because you guys can't pay your employees better but will rob customers by overcharging for parts?! I would never recommend this company to anyone!

N D.

RIP OFFS!!! Do not hire roto rooter to do any kind of work especially if you are going through your homeowners insurance. I hired them to do water mitigation after my basement flooded. I had a lot of damages including the water heater and hvac system. I went through my insurance company to pay for repairs and for what I needed to replace and roto rooter took almost all of what the company was paying and they didnt do much of anything. They do nothing and take all of your money. Never again!!!

Minnie P.

WARNING!!! Do NOT choose this company they charged thousands of dollars for barely doing anything rip off 0 stars! What a scam!!! Never again

Cecile W.

Quality service from reliable technicians. These guys have been around awhile for good reason. I was so happy with the service performed at my rental, the tech assisted communication with the homeowner and maintained professionalism. Would recommend!

Brandon D.

Roto-Rooter was hired by my neighbor to fix their leaking water line on 10/27/23. In the process of fixing their water line the Roto-Rooter plumber hit my water line causing damage to the line and causing water to flood basement. I run a small business out of my basement so the water damaged my office and some inventory. Throughout the rest of that day I was assured by multiple people that Roto-Rooter would ""make this right"". About 4 hours later Roto-Rooter clean up company shows up to try and save what they could. They put some fans and some heaters in my basement to try and dry it out while taking some rugs that got soaked outside as well as my damaged inventory. After they got done they advised me they would show up the next day 10/28/23 at 2pm. Overnight on 10/27 my breaker kept tripping due to the amount of fans and heaters going in my basement. I advised them on the morning of 10/28/23 that my daughters room cannot even have a single light on or it will cause the breaker to trip and same with the upstairs bathroom. I received no response, but knew they were supposed to be at my home at 2pm to check on things and would probably address the issue then. At 2:35pm no one had showed up so I decided to call the tech that was supposed to come out. He advised me he would be there ""between 3-5pm, but definitely before 5pm"". I advised him that I have moved me and my family to my parents residence about 15 minutes away since I cannot use the basement because of water, the upstairs is limited on electricity, and it was 80+ degrees in my home (because of the heaters). So if he would text me or call me before showing up I could meet him over there. At 5:38 I receive a ring door bell notification that they were there. At this time I was out of town at dinner since the tech advised me he would ""definitely be there before 5pm"". They rung the door bell and left without calling me or notifying me they were there. At around 8:00pm on the same day I received a call from the tech's helper and apologized for their tardiness and assured me that they are here to ""work around my schedule"". I advised them I would be home in the morning of 10/29/23 and they replied that the earliest they could get to my home would be 2pm. I advised I can be at my home at 2pm on 10/29/23 so these issues can be addressed. On 10/29/23 no one shows up to my home until 3:18pm (I know this because of my ring notification). At 2:35 that day I decided to leave my home assuming they were not coming and received no contact from them advising they would be late. I received a call at 3:37pm advising they were at my home, but left and I advised them that I was giving my daughter a bath at the time of the ring notification. I then asked why didn't they give me any sort of heads up or notification that they were going to be late. The tech on the phone from Roto-Rooter let me know that he was dialing the wrong phone number for the last 2 days which is why I did not receive any updates or notifications from them. On Monday I receive notification from the employee who is in charge of this claim and states that ""a tech will be to your residence today to address the issues"" I asked for a time and he could not give me one. So I waited at my 80+ degree house for hours before leaving and returning to my parents residence. After unsuccessfully trying to pin down a time by contacting numerous different individuals within Roto-Rooter I assumed they would not show up. And in fact they did not show up at all on Monday 10/30/23. On Tuesday 10/31/23 a Roto-Rooter tech finally showed up on time after notifying me a hour before he was going to show up. He took their equipment and left. Since this contact with the tech on 10/31/23 I am writing this review on 11/2/23 and have yet to receive an update on my carpet that was damaged, my inventory that was damaged, my carpet padding that was damaged, my time lost from work, my future electric bill, the giant hole in my yard from the neighbors job and anything else that Roto-Rooter caused from the very beginning. So basically to summarize this long review if you want to hire a plumber who makes mistakes and then the company lacks communication, and drags their feet through the process which they caused hire Roto-Rooter. This company does not care about my small business, my family, my home, or anything associated with me since I did not pay them anything unlike the neighbor. Thank you for taking the time to read this review. If this situation does get rectified I will update this review.

Dominic V.

Charged my mom 800 and didn't fix the problem. Then wanted $400 more to honor their warranty. I don't have the extra $400 as I barley had the original $800 and now I am in the same place I started with $800 less in my bank account.

Terence M.

We had the cover to the shampoo bottle go down the tub drain. It started to drain slow after a couple of days. We called them out to have a look. The guy says we have to try to shake it out because if it gets to the main drain everything will start s m back up. Tells us it will be $700+ to snake it and if that doesn't work they'll need to cut the drywall to get to the pipes for an additional $700+. Scheduled time for them to come out. He comes in brings the snake and a wet vac. I ask him how will the snake work as there's nothing to grip it. He says good point then plus the vacuum in runs the water then puts the vacuum over the hole and vacuum up the water along with the bottle top. Then says he'll give me a discount since they didn't have to snake. Chargers me $535. Scam!!! I'm only not giving a 1 because the technician that came out was at least polite.

Ariana C.

0 stars. THE WORST!!!!!!!

I called about a main line issue that left dried sewage in my basement. I told them WSSC had been doing work in the months prior, but they brushed me off. Chal came to snake the drain. I didn't have a yard clean out so he went through the basement toilet.  He said it was not clogged, but rather blocked. We needed the camera. Camera guy never came that day. Not the next day. not the next day. I had to call (Charles Young) to find out what was going on . He said the camera request was canceled, but didn't know why. I was finally able to set up an appointment over a week after the original snake (b/c I went out of town for the holiday)

I only had about four days to cancel the contract for clean up, so I canceled since 1. not covered by insurance and the estimate was $6,000  2. I couldn't schedule the camera guy in  to assess the problem. Charles Young was rude and threatened to ""charge me for the work we have already done"".   No work was done but over a month later he tried to charge me $2700. Their billing dept dismissed it.

10 days after the snake, Sess comes w the camera. He said the line is blocked. He cannot tell exactly where my sewer pipes are broken b/c it is so full of water but estimated the location in my yard. (Knowing that my main line is blocked) he reattached and flushed the toilet and, of course, sewage came into the basement!

We went upstairs. He gave me their estimate: $11,000 with only a 5 year warranty.

I went to the basement the next morning AND IT WAS FLOODED! I called Sess and he tried to gaslight me, saying it was my fault and it was flooded because the main line is blocked.  um no. Clean water was pouring out of the toilet that he flushed and had no where to go. 5 rooms were flooded. I shut off the water to the toilet, sent him pics of my basement with about 4"" of water all over and ask him to send help. HE SENT SOMEONE TO SNAKE THE LINE. what the **** is that going to do?! He already knew it was blocked. He didnt send anyone to help get the water out of the basement. The guy came, snaked the line and said it was blocked. shocking.

A few weeks after I got the water out of house and started my insurance claims process, I called Roto-Rooter (James I believe) and told him what happened. They immediately refunded me the $915 (!!!) that they charged me to snake and camera the line. Thank you for that!
(I wish I had asked for more. After the initial snake, they brought dehumidifiers and air scrubbers and checked the moisture daily. Jarrett  and the other guy whose name I forgot, sorry! was excellent!  But it did spike my electricity bill. And all of that work was erased when Sess flushed the toilet and all the dried sewage was rewet.)

I had to get a plumber to look at the toilet for my insurance. Sess did not properly reattach the water line after using the camera AND he flushed it when he knew the main line was blocked. The flooding and water damage is from his negligence.  I know it was an accident, BUT he gaslit me and didnt send any actual help for a problem he caused. i spent hours filling a damn bucket with dirty water and throwing it into my lawn so I have no problems putting his name out there.

I am now dealing with the aftermath of a flooded basement in an older home including remediation, asbestos abatement, and destroyed property.
Also: the whole main line issue was because WSSC did not properly reconnected me after they did work, which Roto Rooter was not interested in hearing.

I WILL NEVER CALL THEM FOR ANYTHING. EVER.