Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Terrible company do not do not use their water restoration team or mitigation BS, more than that do not give them your home owner insurance policy or claim, my storyi had a flood in my basement in june 2023 so we called Roto Rooter Livonia MI to replace our main sewer line which is normally covered by insurance so we paid out of pocket $22K for that, the problem is not here, they automatically dispatch their clean up / restoration/mitigation BS team and the way they approach you we are here to clean up the basement you don't pay us at all, all we need is a claim # and insurance info, i fell into the trap. They went in the basement and tried to get with my insurance to convince them this basement needed a lot of clean up work when in reality the carpet only needed cleaning. This basement was finished they wanted to rip out dry walls break tiles so i stopped them and demanded an upfront estimate before they start, their sales men name Troy Neely made me pay $250 for that estimate but never provided excuses that the estimator sick or she had death in the family two days go by no estimate, i asked him that do you have an idea about the cost giving the fact i reduced the the scope he verbally gave me a figure of $3500 so i told them to proceed. Few days a got a call from my insurance they are trying to bill about $7630 in other words they sucking all my money from insurance and they would have went beyond my coverage and left me with open walls and gutted basement. with my deductible insurance money i was able to use was about $600 this is nothing to cover my repairs. They f***** me out of my insurance money that was there for me. This is dishonest minipulative tectic to grab as much as they can from insurance. Do not fall for that, they come out as they are on your side but the fact is they are after your full insurance coverage. Do not trust them, negotiate with thema price get it in writting do not get them involved with your insurance they will suck every penny. They charged $300 to wipe out small fridge in the basement. i am putting my story out here to help people not fall in their Trap. They arae theives in company uniform. One star or less do not hire their clean up crew

Personally the price was kind of steep. The quality was good, I didn't have a problem. He was here on time, he would stay longer to make sure the job was done. He was very professional.

Scheduled an appointment for Wednesday 6/22.  They did not show.  Called the office, and they promised to be out the following morning between 8-12.  Again, No-Show.  Called again and they promised to get someone out.  I declined.  Would rather work with a company that has better communication, scheduling practices, and lives up to their promises.

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Cut the rotted gavinize pipe install a boot, reconnected all plumbing.

They were expensive.

Everything went well.  The techinican explained to me what the problem was and why he couldn't reaach the blockage from the kitchen sink.

I was very impressed with the technician Fred. I had used him previously and requested him for this job. Based on what my tenant told him he identified the problem and was able to quickly correct the problem. He also provided me with useful advice to avoid future issues. I will definitely call Roto Rooter in the future for issues at any of my properties

We discovered the back up in our basement on a Saturday night and called for service on the following Sunday morning. We received a call within the hour to confirm a technician would arrive between 1-6pm (the representative was very pleasant, I think his name was Andy). 
The technician Russ arrived within the estimated timeframe (and Andy gave us a heads up he was on his way). Russ proceeded to analyze the situation once we explained the issue, and confirmed it was our main clean out. He explained the various options and prices to clear the drain and we choose to have it cabled with a video inspection, given that we've owned our home for just over a year, we wanted to have the line checked out (thankfully it looked good).
Once the line was cleared, Russ offered to have their Water Restoration division give us a free estimate to remediate the minor carpet and padding damage. I received a call from that division (Bill) while Russ was still at our home and later set an appointment.
Russ was professional, easy to talk to and clearly explained all of the options and pricing. 

The service technician was very professional.  He came within the specified time frame, and resolved the issue within an hour.

I scheduled an appointment for the following day after the problem was noticed.  The appointment was for between 10 am and 2 pm.  I received a phone call from Roto Rooter almost an hour before the appointment was to begin to let me know someone was coming out.  That someone arrived 35 minutes later.  I escorted down into basement and explained the problem to him and what attempts I did to alleviate the problem.
He explained to me that the gurgling and hissing from the plumbing I had been hearing was most likely due to a partial obstruction located somewhere in the horizontal run of the vent pipe.  He first checked the junction point where all three vents meet and had me flush the nearest toilet upstairs.  He then had water run through the problem vent, he could hear the water flowing from the junction point which confirmed that it was partial obstruction.  The repair guy brought in a plumbing snake with a grinding bit on the end and proceeded to thread the snake though the problem vent.  And afterwards, he had me flush an upstairs toilet and fill a bathtub that was connected to the vent in order to flush the pipe.
On a side note, during the conversation about the pipes under the basement floor I brought up the subject of the household's sump pump which my family was uncertain was functioning because no one in the household had ever heard it operate before in all the years we have lived here.  A few minutes of inspecting and fiddling with the pump's wiring proved that the sump pump was operational.
So far, its been a day since the repair and not hearing anything amiss downstairs is sweet music.

Wonderful.  Toilet flushes without backing up, sink drains.  No problems.

My sink clogged up on Sunday afternoon.  I called Roto Rooter and scheduled an early morning appointment for 10am.

Monday morning I called in at 8:30 to verify my appointment, they confirmed and said I would have a call 30 minutes before a technician showed up but everything was good for my appointment.

2pm came and went, I called in again they said they were sorry but they were really backed up but I would be the "next" call in the area.

3:30pm They called and said sorry we can't service you today, how about tomorrow?  I demanded to speak to a supervisor, they said none were available but they could take my number for a callback within 2 business days (seriously?).  When I asked how they could be so backed up they couldn't service a first of the morning appointment, they had no explanation.  The phone scheduler Freddie was incredibly rude. 

I canceled my appointment and had another plumber from Angie's list out within an hour.  Avoid this company ata ll costs.

The service went well, technician was very thorough and cleaned up the bathroom area after completing the work. Also put down drop cloths to prevent from getting new carpet dirty. Since the technician did not have a camera a second appointment will be needed however the technician said they would work with me on the cost of the camera for the next appointment.

Originally scheduled for 12/01 - "late morning/early afternoon".   Didn't make it until 12/02.    Was on site for approximately 2 hours and worked as stated above.  The stopped drain is now flowing great with no issues.    price came with a 6-month guaranty on same lines as worked on.  Also, left a drain cleaning product to use every other month to help remove buildup in the pipes.

Great Job!  We called needing a toilet installed asap and Charlie was there within an hour.  He was very professional, put on shoe covers while in the house and described our options.  He worked very hard and did a perfect job installing the toilet.  The services may have been a little more expensive that other plumbers, but in my experience, Roto-Rooter has always performed well and was worth the extra few dollars.

Poorly.

First, I want to note that the technician (Marcus) demonstrated a very professional demeanor and worked hard.  Unfortunately, he did not have the proper equipment to address our problem, nor was he willing to use the data we had already collected about the issue.  The first (small) snake he used reached from the sink part way to the outside access (cleanout).  When cleaning this section of pipe did not change our result, he moved outside, and began snaking from the cleanout to the street, ignoring the section of the pipe from the cleanout back toward the house.  He said that his equipment would not allow him to reach this area.  When this didn't resolve the problem, he packed up and told us that we would get a call the following day to schedule a different technician with a camera, as he believed we had a broken pipe going to the street.

Issues:

(1)  The technician insisted that he start at the kitchen drain, even though we told him that a local plumber had done this a few days earlier.  (We called Roto Rooter because that effort had failed to resolve our issue.)

(2)  The technician did not have the proper equipment to reach the "middle" area where we later found the blockage to be located. 

(3)) The large snake he used to try to clear the outside pipe was not operating properly, forcing him to continually open the case, pull out a piece of cable, then reassemble the unit to run it.  It took hours longer than it should have taken to complete this step.

When Roto Rooter called the following day to schedule the camera appointment, we declined. 

The local plumber returned, snaked the middle section of pipe, and the problem was resolved.  The kitchen sink drain continues to operate as expected.  (We originally called Roto Rooter because the first plumber's schedule was full.)

Roto Rooter is expensive/overpriced.  That's a warning, but not my major concern.  They're upfront about the cost structure--though not until the technician is on site.  (Compared to the $437 that Roto Rooter charged, the licensed master plumber charged $120 and actually fixed the problem!)  

My real issue is that the technician did not have the tool needed to address the problem in a systematic fashion, and, instead, ACTIVELY WORKED TO CONVINCE US that the next step he was taking--based on his available equipment--was actually the proper step to take.  My internal alarm should have gone off when the technician insisted on repeating (and charging for) a procedure that had been done a few days earlier.  If not at that point, then when he failed to work his way systematically down the pipe.  Instead, I listened to his description of "symptoms" and their probable "causes".   Yep, I should have known better.  Lesson learned, with some embarrassment.  Hopefully this experience will benefit someone else. 

We have used Roto rooter on a few occasions. They always do a great job of unstopping the drain but they gave us a window from 8-5. The window of service was too large and very inconvenient.

Came out for a service call for a slightly backed up sewer which was only happening occasionally.  The Roto Rooter resource came out, 'attempted" to run a cable/snake which did nothing.  He simply recommended we call a manager for a second opinion but still charged us for a service call and travel.  Did not solve anything and in fact we had to call another service provider to come on the same day.

During the big snow storm I called Roto-rooter for an appointment. They couldn't give me a time for the appointment, but that was fine as I was home all day. Their technician Mitchell snaked the drain 4 times and pulled 4 big clumps of roots, as well as the other company's snake cutter that had fallen in the line. They guaranteed it for 6 months. I was really impressed by his approach and knowledge. He snaked multiple times to make sure it was clear. He was very honest about the variety of options I could pursue with a leaking cast iron drain. I've dealt with dozens of contractors, as I'm renovating a home. He was one of the best.

Originally scheduled an appointment between 5-9pm and they called day  of the appointment and rescheduled for the following day which was annoying but not the reason I am giving them this rating. 
The reason I was having Roto Rooter come out was because I flushed my credit card down the toilet on and it was clogging the toilet. The technician informed me that he was going to have to remove the toilet and snake the card out of the toilet. He made the task sound extremely easy so I was shocked when he told me how much it was going to cost....Almost $480.00. Are you kidding me! it only took him about 25 minutes to complete the job that's like $19.00 a minute. 
I know it is not the technician who makes the price and since he was so nice it was hard to be mad at him. He is the only reason I did not give them a one star. 
Overall I felt that I was WAY overcharged.

The serviceman arrived with attitude like he was having a bad day and didn't want to be there. I escorted him to the basement and showed him the two cleanouts. I recommended he use cleanout cover on main sewer line as cleanout cover on floor was inbedded in the concrete and looked like it would not be able to be removed. He chose to use the one on the floor against my advice. I left him to it and went to do work elsewhere in the house. He spent less than an hour and gave up without clearing the blockage. He claimed that he couldn't get past blockage and when he brought snake back from sewer that it had clay on it indicating that the pipe was broken and snake went into the ground.He did not clear the clog. Before his attempt the sewer was sluggish and slow but still ran. After he was done it was completely blocked. I was dissatisfied and challenged him but he stood his ground. I went and rented a snake from Home Depot then snaked the sewer myself. I had the blockage cleared in about 15 minutes and was able to run snake back and forth through clogged area several times. The sewer ran fine after that. There wa no sign of clay in it, only tree roots and a couple dryer sheets. The pipe had a slight jog in it but was not broken. In the process I found that he had broken the cleanout cover trying to take it off. Furthermore, he chipped out the broken cover with a chisel or something and in doing so cracked the cleanout pipe. He replaced it with a rubber stopper that was loose and allows sewer gas to enter the house which stinks all the time now. I am now unable to put a proper cover on the cleanout because the pipe is cracked. I called to complain. They were non responsive and said that a manager would call me back. He did not

The guy seemed to know what he was doing. They are good. We made an appointment and he was late because he was stuck on a job, but he called to inform me.

I was VERY Satisfied

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