Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Andres M.

The stem and handle of the shower in the apartment I am renting broke the first week of my move. I struggled to get a local professional in to take a look at it. Eventually, hoping that the problem would be a quick fix, I called roto-rooter. Someone showed up within a couple of hours. I was optimistic. Quickly, however, the plumber admitted he had no familiarity with the brand of the stem and shower handle. He nonetheless proceeded to work on the shower anyway. He failed to install it correctly and insisted that, in fact, the problem was bigger than simply replacing the stem and trim kit, that he would need to remove my shower's tile wall to replace the diverter, stem, and shower handles. He said it would cost $1548 + tax and, moreover, that he would not replace the tile, so I would have to find someone else for that. He charged me $213.25 for the visit that night, even though he did not fix the problem and had actually broken the replacement stem I had purchased myself.

I was suspicious of this and, after many phone calls, was finally able to get a local plumber to take a look at the shower and offer a second opinion. He and his partner fixed the shower in less than 30 minutes, all without taking out my shower wall.

So, not only was the roto-rooter plumber incompetent, unable to fix what turned out to be a rather straight-forward problem, he charged me for his failure and made up some story about a faulty diverter so that he could charge me an obscene amount of money to fix an imaginary problem. I would not recommend roto-rooter to anyone. They are predatory and will do what they can to charge you as much as they can.

Karita C.

I had them come and do a service for me in which it was not a pipe problem but they were very eager to break open my ceiling and once finding out that was nor the problem I had a hard time getting someone to close up my ceiling. Called the corporate office and everyone push the blame on each other. Clogging issues is a go but what they say they offer is not the case. Two weeks my ceiling was exposured I had to find a contractor to close and paint the ceiling.

John R.

I can't understand all of the bad reviews. I was struggling with a clogged bathroom sink. I called Roto Rooter and set up an appointment. A plumber showed up about an hour afterward. The job was done within 15 minutes and he was in and out. The price was what I was told I would be paying. No attempt to upcharge me for anything or find anything wrong. Service was outstanding plumber was very polite.

First L.

$732 to install a new toilet! When their price is about four times the average, it's no wonder Roto-Rooter refused to give me a quote by phone. Instead, they made me go through all kinds of scheduling hassles only to discover their crazy pricing at the last minute from the plumber, who didn't even bother to look at the job. He couldn't find parking and so just called to give the quote without seeing the details of the job. So why couldn't that have been done from the very beginning, to save everyone the time and hassle associated with the ""on site visit?"" Because Roto-rooter has a policy of not sharing any pricing by phone, except obviously after lots of time has been wasted. Well, now you know the price without having to call: $732 to replace a toilet that YOU bought. If they supply the toilet it's probably at least $1,000.

Dianne C.

Horrible. They came for original problem which sad to say I worsened. They were to come back today 2,days later to replace toilet & then started adding costs which were going to equal about $1200!including $50 fee to dispose of old toilet

Denise F.

We called Rotor Rooter for a rental property we have because it was a Sunday and no other plumber would come out on a Sunday. We had a back up in a tub one of our apartments. We didn't want the tenants to be without a bathroom so called Rotor Rooter. Before even seeing what the problem is, they sent out a Hazmat guy. Lucky we did not have any sewerage on floor or they would have made the job a very expensive job. So be careful as they will try to screw you.

Melissa L.

Stay away. Use any other plumber. Anyone. They are liars and thieves. If I could leave a negative star, I would. We used Roto-Rooter several times in the past without problem. This time, the amount of stress they caused my family is inexcusable. We called them about a leak Sunday night at 7pm. Emergency plumbers they are not. They said they couldn't come until 9am Monday. No one showed up. We called and they then informed us the town had to shut off our water. Why didn't they tell us that the night before? We called, the town shut off our water, and HOURS later, they showed up. The plumber they sent didn't know how to repair the problem. He said he would send someone else. The next plumber called and said he couldn't come until the next morning, and would be here at 10:30am. No one showed up. At 11:30, I called again. Someone at their 1800 number shouted at me and then hung up on me. This is the point where I lost my patience. I called again. They said he would be at our house in 30 minutes. An hour later, he showed up, sat in his van texting for 20 minutes, then came in to tell me he had to get a part from his job from the morning and would be right back. We had an emergency and small children in the home and they were already two days late. Why did Roto-Rooter send him to someone else's job that morning? He disappeared at 2pm, came back at 2:40. We went two days without water, without flushing toilets, without showers. For this, they charged $1,700 and refused to compensate us for our trouble.

Guy Z.

My scheduled appointment was for 2-6pm. Nobody showed up. 6:30 I get a text message that he'll be at my place in 30-45 min. Nobody showed up. I call and the dispatcher tells me ""he'll be there in 15 min."" Nobody showed up. What the fuck? No professionalism with this amateur company. I'll take my business elsewhere.

Maritza M.

Had them come to my house to unclacked my line on sep 23 pay them $430 a week later the line got backed up again they came out an their snake broke inside my line and now I have been trying to have them back to retrieve the snake out of my line and they have not come very unresponsible people

Britta O.

I had an emergency situation that I called in for and got an appointment the night of, which I was so grateful for. Turns out that the plumber couldn't find parking, and decided to bail on the appointment without letting me know. I had to call back and check on his status only to learn that my appointment had been rescheduled to the next day. I was told my appointment was at 10am the next morning, I was not told there was a 4 hour window of arrival. At 12pm I got a phone call from a dispatcher named Corey who told me that the plumber couldn't find parking. I gave him several options on where to park and told him to please try harder. Corey told me he would call me back. After 30 more minutes, he told me the driver still could't find parking. I offered to pay for his parking spot/ticket/garage wherever, I just needed someone to come in. Corey was incredibly unprofessional and told me he was cancelling the appointment. I asked to be escalated to management and Corey hung up on me. I called back, requested management and was connected to Austin who was equally unprofessional, unaccommodating and told me that they would not be rescheduling my appointment or servicing my emergency and then proceeded to hang up on me, as well. I live in Hoboken which Roto-Rooter Plumbing clearly identifies as one of the areas they service. Finding parking cannot be an excuse to cancel an appointment multiple times for an emergency call in a place like Hoboken. It's unacceptable, lazy and pathetic - which seems to be a theme not only amongst the dispatchers at Roto-Rooter, but also their management.