Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Paul T.

Called on Labor Day Weekend at 8:00 PM at night and they had a Tech out within 30 minutes. Peter was the Tech and did a great job. My main line was clogged at the clean out and he had to run a snake a long way to free it up. There was no extra charge for the weekend and Holiday. Overall was very pleased.

Jordan R.

They came out after I got off work in the evening and stayed until 10:30 making sure the whole job [two complete sink installs] were done right. Very professional.

Jeff H.

Avoid! Horrible!!! I'd give minus 5 if it were possible. Left me hanging all day Saturday. Said they'd have someone out within 3 hrs to fix water heater. Then it was 4. Called after 5 hrs to say guy would be here in 30 minutes. Never showed.

Don B.

My shower valve stopped working one morning. I had to get to work and didn't want to leave my roommate without a shower so I asked her to call a plumber to replace the guts of the valve. She contacted Roto-Rooter who said they could be out within 2 hours. The plumber showed up on time and fixed my shower but the price was a bit higher than I thought it should be. I spoke to a nice woman at their office who explained they charge by the job whether it was to take 30 minutes or 5 hours. So if my valve was really old and stubborn this would be great for me but my fix was basically routine. Turns out, even though I had agreed to the price when I needed the valve fixed, the office credited some of the money back to my credit card. So considering the plumber showed up on time, my shower was fixed properly and in the end the price was fair, I am pleased with this company.

Leni G.

Called on a monday evening for a sink that was stopped up beyond my meager capabilities of fixing. They sent someone out within an hour, and he was professional and friendly. Cleared the clog in a timely fashion and didn't leave a mess. Would use them again, although a little pricey it was worth it to have a job well done.

Lisa A.

Tim (878) was a fantastic serviceman. He was professional, friendly, and fast! Our clog was fixed quickly and painlessly. The only reason for 3 stars instead of 5 is price. A simple drain clog fixed in less than 15 minutes should never cost over $300!

David R.

My experience was much better than than other reviewers. I made an appointment two days ahead, they showed up right when they said they would. The plumber did the leak pressure test I asked for, and finding no leak in my water lines spent time with me assessing inside and out of the house what else could cause the moisture getting into my wall. Although he didn't solve my primary problem, he ruled out one very big scenario, and left me with a clear path to continue on (roofing). He also identified another plumbing issue (which I already knew I had - very high water pressure); he explained why it should be addresses. I have scheduled to have them install a pressure regulator... Four stars for now... Will update after that work is done.

Follow-up... Jose returned right on the scheduled day and time. Shutoff valve and pressure regulator replaced exactly as discussed. I didn't shop around for price, so can't evaluate that, although I felt the price quoted/paid was fair, based on work I've had done by others in the past. Very courteous and helpful. I'll call them again.

Stephen S.

My sewer line clogged up and water accumulated in bathtub, shower stall, leaked around one commode, other commode would not flush and could not be plunged. This happened at 2:30 PM on Saturday. Not a good time to get service and my regular plumber was not available. So, I looked at YELP. The star ratings and the comments on Roto Rooter were less than encouraging. But, I decided to chance it and gave them a call at their national number 737-932-7257 as posted on their web site.

Things happened fast. The dispatcher said they could have someone here in 2 hours or less. I got a second call that the technician would arrive in about 30 minutes. He showed up on time. He was professional in explaining the process by which he would check the problem out and would give me a quote and then I could proceed or not.
He determined what I already expected he would find when he opened the inspection cover and that fluid and solids which should have passed on to the city sewer drain made their presence known. I will not get into the odiferous and visual details.

I told Eli, the technician, to proceed. He offloaded a large and heavy piece of gear containing the cutting head, shaft and power source and snaked this apparatus into my sewer line while the cutting heads skived away any obstruction. Soon, the blockage was cleared, the water drained and all fixtures inside my house also drained and the toilets were able to flush. Based on the matter trapped in the cutter teeth, Eli suspected a tree root had invaded the line. Not surprising considering that three live oaks are in close proximity. They have aggressive root systems. His truck lacked a camera for internal pipe inspection, but he provided a quote for future camera service at a reduced price.

I was very pleased with the speed of response, the way I was kept informed by the dispatcher, the excellent and efficient work done by the technician to clear the line and his feedback to me about the root cause of the problem (pun intended). It was unfortunate that his truck did not have a camera, but I was very happy to get this clog cleared on a Saturday within 3 hours of my call that I am not counting the lack of a camera inspection in my rating. We had been worried we would be using the bathrooms at WalMart. over the weekend. And, forget about taking a shower.
Instead the house was back to normal.

So, I give 5 stars for this experience. I do not have any previous experience or connection to Roto Rooter. In the end, the level of service depends upon the people who show up. Base location for this Roto Rooter is 2800 Longhorn Blvd, Ste 102, Austin, TX 78758.

Doug L.

This was by far the worst customer service I have ever received. You should know that the people who answer the phone for Austin Roto Rooter are in Baltimore, and have no idea about plumbing or the Austin schedules. I called at 8:00am to schedule a service with a septic problem. They said a man would be out between 9-11am. They delayed every couple of hours until 5:00 then said that it would be the next day. They stalled all day that day and finally showed up at 5:00 that afternoon. This was a Saturday and a holiday weekend. He takes one look and says there is nothing they can do, it has to be pumped first. The person I called the day before should have told me that in the first place. Now its after hours and there is no pumping until Tuesday because of the holiday. We had to leave our house (along with our guests) and cancel the party.

We finally got it pumped out Tuesday, and Roto Rooter came back out Wednesday late. They were there 20 minutes, pulled the pump, cleaned it and handed me a bill for $468. 20 minutes work.

I called the manager to complain about the price and horrible service, and they couldn't do anything about the price, its fixed whether its 20 minutes or 5 hours, and as far as the failure to arrive in 2 DAYS, all they could do is blame the scheduler in Baltimore and offer me a $50 coupon for my next service, LIKE I WOULD EVER USE THEM AGAIN.

If you want good service, find a local plumber, not some national chain, and ask for the cost UP FRONT. Roto Rooter is a total RIP OFF: They get one star because 0 is not an option.

Catlady R.

What a waste of money. They came out to unclog our drain and informed us we had roots in there. They ran a camera and gave us a bid of $4500. We asked them to run the auger through again to help cut up the roots and they did ... or so we thought. To be honest they poked a few holes and told us that we needed to fix the broken pipe.

We were able to fix the hole ourselves and thought we were in the clear. Ummmm not so much. It kept clogging back up into our shower/tubs. But before those episodes really started - the nice (he really was nice young kid) Roto-Rooter guy conveniently stopped by to check in on how things were going. This raised a red flag for us and sure enough, by coincidence, it started backing up again the next day more noticeably.

So, we hired another plumber to run the snake through but before he did so, he ran a camera. What did we discover? Most of the roots still intact in the pipe that Roto-Rooter charged us nearly $300 to clear!!

They totally ripped us off and just wanted us to sign on with the $4500 bid they gave us and had no intention of actually clearing the line.

I will never, EVER, hire them again and suggest everyone steer clear.