Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Judy S.

Called the emergency number and received extremely disappointing services. At first call, the dispatcher told us someone would get back to us in 1-hour, 2 hours later when we called back the dispatcher explained someone would call as soon as possible, the next morning when we called, we were told that the service provider we needed would not be available until next week. I understand that there are not always providers standing by, but it would have been professional for someone to give us that news last evening. Rather than leading us on to wait for hours, without sewer, expecting that help is coming. Had we received the information last night, we could have moved forward to address our plumbing emergency.

Walter B.

We called Roto-Rooter to unclog our master bathroom shower drain which is the third time we've had Roto-Rooter do this service for us over a three year period. They came on time and did a good job. My only grievance is the outrageous price they charged. It took the plumber around 25 minutes using a motorized snake to unclog the drain. They charged $527.92 after deducting a $40 coupon. This is an OUTRAGEOUS fee for a pretty simple job. I am a senior citizen recently retired. It is my fault that I used them again. My recommendation is to shop around because this job should have only cost around $150-$200 for less than 30 minutes work.

Natasha G.

These guys are liars.....I asked to connect a dishwasher. The plumber came and told me it will be a 3 hour job and the cost is $850! Then he said he will rush and get it done in 2.5 hours and will give me a discount. Total cost: $570+ DC tax. In the end, he was done within one hour (but charged my card before he started). I called customer service and explained the situation - they use trackers and can tell when the plumber starts and finishes.
TOTAL SCAM -- stay away! I was offered $75 to re-funded back to me. Will never use their service again.

Ryan W.

DC Roto Rooter Prices are 3x what others will charge you.

I called for a simple drain line clear, that was further than 6 feet but well under 25 feet and they wanted to charge 599$. The DC area average for the service is 100-250$. Roto Rooter said their price was the same 7 days a week 24/7.

That is why they want to tell you the price after you wait hours. It's a sales trick because after you wait hours for something people are significantly less likely to tell them to go away and then wait more time for another person. So even if the price seems very high they go with it because they already waited to get to this point and they just want it fixed.

The salesman tries to tell me that there is a 6 months warranty, but if you look at the details it basically just covers them for doing a bad job. Any ""new"" problems are going to be charged for a new fee.

Complete rip-off AVOID!

Rachel V.

Called this morning to request emergency service from the Arlington, VA Roto Rooter. I was scheduled for a 1-5pm time slot. Waited all day after taking off work and it's almost 6pm and no one has come. I talked to multiple dispatchers with varying responses throughout the day ranging from, 'no there are no emergencies ahead of you you will definitely have a plumber out by 5pm' to one hour later being told their are multiple emergencies ahead of me and roto rootet does not ""guarantee"" appointments. I would have appreciated honesty and more accurate timing estimates. If they had been upfront with me this morning that there is ""no guarantee"" anyone will come out today despite having an appointment, I would have called another plumber.

Keith F.

They did a good job un-cloging my drain. In fact I used them twice about three years apart. The first time they charged $390, the second time asked $599 for the same work (took about 1.5 hours of standard work). Good work but value just isn't there. I will shop around next time or will rent a snake from Home Depot.

Anna S.

Be sure to tell the plumber if you have a coupon ahead of time or they'll give you an excuse about why they can't use it.

They're decent plumbers, but expensive (as most are). They showed up after the designated window and when we called to ask about their arrival, the office didn't pick up the phone. They completed the service quickly, but then refused to accept a valid coupon when presented at the time of payment. Apparently we had to mention it as soon as the plumber walked in the door, even though we left it right next to the sink he was working on. He then blamed us for not knowing the company policy.

Nowhere on the coupon did it say that you had to present it before service, just at some point during the service. They tried to say that most of their customers don't use coupons or don't want to use them. If true, that's fine, but not everyone has that money to burn and as someone on a budget, saving that $55 goes a long way.

In fact, they even admitted they don't ask for coupons because they want to charge people as much as possible.

Use a different company. These people are not that good (or cheap) that they can be as condescending as they were. I'd rather use a company that actually respects their customers.

Matthew H.

If I could give them zero stars, I would. Called rotorooters to help with a leak - they claimed the leak came from 'brown' water pipe (ie dirty water), so striped the walls of the basement back without a further examination and the manager called a 'trusted' contractor to give a quote to repair. Of course the water turned out to be clean water, from the shower and so the walls didn't need to be stripped back at all. All at a considerable - and ultimately unnecessary - cost. And of course, the 'trusted' contractor that provided a quote is now suing me for not using them to do the remediation work, even though their quote was 20% higher than the company I actually contracted to do the remediation work. Seems dangerously close to fraud.

Michelle S.

THANK YOU WILL! After having a competing company out yesterday with all kind of crazy estimates and expensive options we decided to call Roto-Rooter today, a Sunday by the way. Will came out and took a look, kept it super professional and after being in there about 10 minutes he came in and said it was clear. We were so impressed that he was honest and said it had cleared itself that we requested a camera inspection to confirm and for some peace of mind. Will gave us an estimate for the camera inspection and called his manger, who will be out later today with the camera (again on a Sunday). We will never call another company!

Mark S.

When you call, they answer quickly, and are quite kind on the phone. They can usually send a plumber out VERY quickly--within a few hours. And the plumbers are nice, too. Yes, it's fairly expensive. But most plumbing services in DC are pricey (I know from experience). We had major water flow problems in both bathrooms, and Roto-Rooter fixed the problem in less than an hour for about $150. That seemed relatively reasonable to me.