Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

They dug a giant hole in our front yard and wanted to take out a buried septic tank. They were going to charge us $10,000 for that. Their workers are trained to rip off people. It is part of their program to prey on senior citizens. A city official came over and said that the septic tank did not have to be removed and that we did not have to pay them a dime. They said it was not the law or the rule. Roto-Rooter tried going round and round with us, but I told them that if they did not give us our money back then my daughter who works for a news channel would love to do a story. They promptly gave us all our money back. We had paid them a couple of hundred dollars a couple of weeks before. They had come out, but the problem still continued, so they got a couple of hundred dollars off of us. I tell everybody I run into not to use them.

They say all work is guaranteed for six months - I called 2 months later due to a back up problem, I thought may be cause of the $300 drain clean out they did. 48 hours later they called me to say "can't make it today, maybe tomorrow" they never called and they never showed!!

According to a handyman, I was way over charged. It stinks in the room where he did repairs. The black glue stuff he used has made my bathroom smell terrible. The toilet has been rocking since he installed it, and the quality of the toilet installed is the cheapest you can find and it is on crooked. When you flush it, it sounds like you are hitting a piece of iron. The guy was nice, but I do not know how honest he was.

VERY EXPENSIVE, they won't give you price until they arrive. Most plumbers have a flat hourly service fee regardless of what they do. Their work is guaranteed for 6 months. 30 days later I had a water back up, I called with 3 inches of water in my basement. After calling them 4 times in one day to confirm they were coming... 24 hours later, at the end of the day when I had no alternatives - they called to say 'sorry we can't make it today...maybe tomorrow' my water has now grown to 9 inches. THREE DAYS LATER they call 4:00 p.m. before the weekend to tell me they now have someone ready to service me. TOO LATE!! I asked for a refund of my money, stopped payment on my credit card due to lack of promise on guaranteed work. WAY TOO EXPENSIVE for no follow-up service for a repeat customer.

Roto Rooter would not give prices, even a range when I asked "are we talking hundreds or thousands?" over the phone to clean my drains. Because I had limited time to make arrangements for the work to be done and because Roto Rooter could do it when I could be home, I scheduled the service call. In the meantime, I talked to many people who had had similar services performed. EVERYONE without exception said this should cost in the range of $100. I was completely surprised when I was quoted a price of $497 to clean both drains and $218 to clean the storm drain. I asked why they were so expensive when everyone else was in the $100 range and there really was no explanation -- the service man was working from the books he had. I showed him a coupon I had from another company quoting a $99 charge. I was told they would honor this coupon IF I prearranged the call and had it done from 9 - 5, Monday through Friday. I decided not to have the work done and did not argue about paying the $30 service call fee. The gentleman who made the service call was very polite and personable. It is not his fault that the charges are so unreasonable. As I write this the morning following the above experience, I am waiting for another service to come and clean my storm drain for $99 - 149. There was no problem arranging them to come soon, on a Saturday, with a price range quote in advance and in the expected price range.

Overall, everything went very, very well.

I made the appointment for Roto-Rooter to come out a week in advanced. They couldn't give me a basic estimate on what the service fee would be, but let me know there was a $30 fee just for them to come out. I did not like this at all, but needed the service and had them on the line, so I agreed. They told me they would come out sometime between 9am to 1pm on Saturday and that they would call a half hour before they were on their way. At noon on Saturday I hadn't heard from them so I called to check on the status. They said the technician in the area was behind and that he would be over closer to 2pm. I had planned to make a trip an hour away that afternoon, which wasn't going to workout, since I needed to be within 30 minutes of my house. At 3pm I still hadn't heard from them so I called a second time. If you are scoring at home that is Me: 2 phone calls, Roto-Rooter: 0 phone calls. On the 3pm call they said the technician was still at the other job and offered to waive the $30 travel fee. By 6pm I still hadn't heard from them, so I called again, for the third time. I voiced my displeasure with the way this was handled and how I wasted a whole day (my day off) waiting for them, and they still hadn't shown. They offered to waive the service fee again (I'm not sure how you waive that twice) and they told me I would be the first appointment the next day. The next morning, as they promised they called, and the technician showed up 30 minutes later, as they said. However, after performing the assessment (and I am not sure if it was the correct assessment or if he just didn't want to do the work) the technician told me that while the travel fee was waived he would have to charge me a $69 diagnostic fee...or just pay the $30 travel fee. I paid it just because I didn't feel like arguing anymore. On one of my 3 Friday phone calls I asked them to have the manager call me on Monday when he returned to the office. We will see if I hear form them today.

I called this afternoon expecting to schedule something for tomorrow or Friday. To my surprise, the young lady at Roto-Rooter offered the service within 30 minutes. It so happens that a technician was in my area. Perfect! I scheduled him and he was here with 30 minutes as promised. Thank you!!! Will recommend to others.

Do not believe they actually performed service they billed me for. Felt like technicians were trying to run up bill since they work off comission. Filed small claims case against them in attempt to recover lost money. Would recommend finding plumbing company that bills hourly vs going with company that runs off comissions.

The estimate was a bit high. I decided against the company mainly because the handyman's attitude made me uncomfortable.

They came out a few weeks back. They responded well. Once they got here, they did some trouble shooting. They assessed that the septic field was okay and the septic tank was fine, but there was a blockage between the house and the septic tank. The guy said his equipment was too big to access to take into the cross-face which is about 5 feet high but has a dirt floor and it was a straight line to the septic tank from where the line was. He couldn't snake it out. It was a Saturday, but he recommended that they do a water jetting cleaning of the lines and that would cost $550.00. I did it myself for $40.00. I am 60 years old and I was able to get the equipment in and out and not have a problem. The guy couldn't do it. I was not happy with the service from that standpoint. I was very disappointed. I think their charges were fair. I am fairly removed from the city and am out in the country. I understand that they had to be paid for coming out here to look at it and he did do some trouble shooting. It almost seemed like he did not want to do the snaking job as there was a bigger fish to fry with water jetting.

Took the poor guy 2 hours. Old faucet was rusted stuck. He literally had to break apart the old faucet to get it out of the sink area. He was very resourceful in coming up with ways to try & get it out without destroying it, but that thing was not going to budge. He did an excellent job.

A technician was available immediately, although I opted to get a later appointment the same day. Technician arrived, identified the problem and performed a cleaning of the sewer line. After the cleaning, He tested all of the toilets/baths/sinks in the house to ensure all were flowing properly at no extra charge. Work came with a guarantee against further reoccurence.

Worker sent did not have all the tools necessary to do the job. He had to borrow a bucket and an extension cord to complete the job, every plumber should have these. And he did not clean up afterward. He left the carpet in the basement a mess where raw sewage drained out on the carpet. He was not very professional or neat in his work. I expected much more for the price.

They did an okay job with the snaking, however to get the the pipe they had to remove the toilet. When they put it back they did not put any caulk around the base of the toilet so I had to call them back. They came right back out and fixed the problem. I was pleased with their service.

The gentleman who came out was very nice and friendly. I was able to watch from the camera as to what he was doing. I was able to see if the drain was blocked or if there were any roots in there. He cleaned up after himself well. When he was done, they sent a report with a copy of the video that I got to keep. They were a pretty thorough and informative company. I was pretty happy with them overall.

The company was called at noon and a plumber responded by 3pm. He provided an estimate. The call out fee of $30 was waived because a service was performed. He was very courteous and professional, and provided suggestions for further preventive maintenance. He cleared the line with no problem!

Required a discharge line to be cleaned. Employee of the company came to site and stated the line could not be cleaned using a cable tool because of the excessive build up of iron deposits. Spoke with manager to rescheduled the cleaning using jetting equipment for the the folowing week. We set a date and time. He stated he would call me the day before to confirm the date and time since we had a two hour drive to the site. He never called. I called the morning of the scheduled cleaning and was told that they would be at the Site at the designated time. The designated time passed, I recieved a call that they would be at the site within a few hours. A few hours later, no one arrived. I called the office and was told it might not be until the next day until they could arrive. I told the person I was speaking with that we had scheduled the work earlier in the morning and that they were already 4 hours late. She became very defensive and rude. About an hour later she left a message and stated they were ready to come out if I still wanted the work performed. In the mean time I had already found a another contractor to arrive at the Site. The other contractor was able to perform the work using a cable tool which was alot cheeper than the using the jetting equipment.

To be honest, Roto Rooter was my second choice. I had first investigated Angie's List for plumbers and called another company due to the service award bestowed by AL. However, the earliest they could come would be the following day and the situation required more urgent action. Roto Rooter was closer to our residence (approx. 7 mi) and also had an overall "excellent" rating. They answered the phone immediately. After explaining my problem, they initially stated it would be a couple hours before someone could be out, then quickly stated that their dispatcher could send someone within 30 minutes. Dave arrived in about 35 minutes and got right to work assessing the situation. Unfortunately, the main cleanouts were partially covered by a bookshelf with an aquarium on top. After partially draining the aquarium and moving the book shelf, he confirmed that the water was backing up at the main line and would have to "cable out" the line. Here's where they could improve a bit, and the reason for a "B" rating for quality. The power cable cutter, or "snake" as I would normally refer to it, was a heavy, dirty piece of equipment that has a long cable that is fed into the sewer pipe with a "cutting" fixture on the end to clear things, such as toilet paper, tree roots, and lots of disgusting materials from the pipe to allow it to flow freely. And, may I add, that what goes in must come out when the cable is withdrawn from the pipe when the job is completed. And there is no attempt to clean the cable before or after making this courageous journey into the unknown. As the company and plumber MUST know this, and the homeowner might know this, I would recommend that the plumber notify the homeowner of the probable, heck inevitable, scatter of, shall we say "dark matter" on walls, floors, book cases, and anything else unfortunate enough to be in the immediate vicinity of this time honored procedure, and recommend the strategic placement of cardboard sheets and drop cloths. Anything less valuable to capture and retain the cast off. Note that this is NOT a criticism of Dave. Anyone who faces the potential perils of the sewer, on a daily basis, and can still smile and be professional and polite deserves a medal of valor. Thanks to Roto Rooter for clearing the problem, within an hour of arriving, at a reasonable price and with a 30 day guarantee.

They showed up pretty much within the time they said they would, checked out the situation and got their gear together, did the clearing, and gave us advice on preventing flooding in the future. Staff was nice, professional, friendly, no complaints.

My experience with them was very good. They showed up when they said they would. They were precise on what they said was wrong. They were not here more than a half hour.

The first tech they sent out was fine and did a good job. We really didn't like the second tech they sent out, as he was rude and dirty looking like he didn't clean up from his last job. Their prices were a little high, but we'll use them again and hope for the first tech.

I was completely satisfied with the terrific work they did for me. The faucet is working great and the drain line is in running order. I have no complaints, they are timely and pretty affordable.

They are a little high priced, but they were able to get the job done and it was on a, Sunday. They were courteous, professional and did a good job cleaning up. They also, give a guarantee with their service.

He didn't even charge me for a service call, he just came out and took a look. They came out right away. He was very professional, courteous. He answered any questions that I had in a language that I could understand. I would recommend them to anybody else. His price was better than another quote I received.