Roto-Rooter

Stay away from this company at all costs. On 11/22/22 my mainline was clogged. This is not the first time, the last time I called a local plumber and they were able to clear it fairly quickly through the roof vent, unfortunately, that plumber was busy so I called Roto-Rooter. RR sent 3 techs out. They ran a snake about ten feet into the vent and got it stuck. I was present and I saw it suddenly and violently broke loose. They tried a couple more times and then said they can only do it if they install a "clean out". I, of course, said if I am going to install a clean out I am not going to go with the first person that tries to strong-arm me into it. I then called the other plumber back and they were able to get a team out to me. That team quickly found the broken joint (about 10 feet down the vent). Instead of trying to con me into a "$3k-$4K" like Roto-Rooter, they went to work, fixed the joint, and snaked the mainline, clearing it in about an hour. Roto-Rooter wants me to pay almost $500 for nothing but likely damaging my system, the other plumber only charged me just over $500 for fixing the damage and clearing the line successfully. BTW, the other plumber came back the next week and installed a clean-out for $600 flat.

Worst experience I've ever had. I was price gouged, Paid over 11,000 dollars and they didn't finish the job. They replaced pipe on the sewer line, said they were finished with the job and wouldn't be back, that the dirt mover would finish. I seen trash and called the company and the plumber changed up the story saying we'll be back with the dirt mover, we aren't done yet. I called the local office trying to get ahold of someone, called corporate and was told they would notify the local office and was left in the dark. Was so aggravated with the company, when they did come back I told them to leave and make sure someone calls me before they show up unannounced. Needless to say, I spent all weekend shoveling dirt back into a 75 ft long and 3 ft. Deep hole in my back yard. Unprofessional people whom never followed CDC guideline rules, smoked on the job and threw butts all over the yard, also had an unknown man on my property and did some weird money exchange and he left right after. I CANNOT stress this enough, use anyone but these people. I trusted the name and got screwed.

The plumbers were courteous and professional. However, I don’t know how much I trust them after they sporadically increased the estimate on me each time jumping from $3K to $5K and finally to $9K. Another tractor had to be brought over to dig a deeper ditch down to 12 feet but ~$10K was a crazy amount by anyone’s standard. I don’t blame the plumbers but I blame the corrupt business model that takes advantage of people when they are at their weakest point. I think the whole thing could’ve been done within $4K including reasonable profits. I should’ve demanded for a better estimate all throughout the process.

Roto-Rooter plumber failed to unplug my sewer line, but tried to sell me the installation of a new line. When my regular plumber returned from vacation, he fixed the problem (unplugged the line) and charged me much much less.

I told them that a snake wouldn't work, but they brought a snake anyway. They cutting head on it was broken off and it didn't fix the problem, yet they still charged me $80.

The diagnosing part went well and seemed very thoughrough. The subsequent repairs seemed overpriced after the fact. I had agreed to pay around $1,500 and so I did, but a doubt remains in my mind that I might have overpaid and should have asked for another quote from someone else before having the same guy who diagnosed the issue also do the repairs. He was professional and I believed he did quality work, but given that the job only took just under 8 hours and parts cannot have been that much (PVC), I realized when he got done that $1,500 seemed too much to pay.

We have large trees surrounding our house that periodically cause the lines to back up due to root penetration. Typically, we can have a plumber root out the lines and they will stay clear for full year afterwards.
We called Roto-rooter out, and they charged double what our normal plumber does, which we understood since it was a Sunday call, and it was snowy out, which made it difficult for him to clean out the lines. The plumber showed up on time and was professional in demeanor.
However, the lines were clogged back up within a week because they failed to properly root out all lines. I called them to give them an opportunity to complete the job correctly, but they declined, saying that they do not warranty their weekend services, only weekday services.  I cannot recommend this provider given the low quality of service and unwillingness to correct the defective performance.

I told him that was too high.  He said it would be about $280 if I waited until Monday so I decided to wait.  He said I owed him $163.95 for the Saturday service call, which I paid.  He said that charge would not go toward having the work done on Monday so I told him I would see about using a different company.  So he charged me $163.95 for doing nothing!  (He did ask if he could confirm the sewer was backed up as I said it was, so he watched as I flushed the toilet and it backed up into my tub and shower, but that is all he did. I had already done this on my own.)

So the next day, on Sunday morning, I called Mr Rooter about the same problem since it was going to be quite a problem for my family to wait until Monday.  A single plumber arrived at 10am and completely resolved my problem within an 90 minutes. He charged me just $212.85 to do the job, which was to clear the main sewer line to the house. He did a fantastic job and was very nice.

On Monday at noon, I called Roto-Rooter to complain about the plumber on Saturday. They said the service manager would call me to discuss it, but no one has called! 

I will definitely never use Roto-Rooter again!!!

They were great. My overall experience was good. They were really fast people.

They were quick, efficient and good. They just came in and got it done. They were fast and came out the same day. It was good customer service.

I called and within the next few hours the guy came out.  I had a clog that caused a minor flood in my bathrooms.  I am a new homeowner but the usual tricks did not work.  He warned me that if my flapper to the city was buried it would cost way too much.   Thankfully it was just buried under the grass.  He showed me how to clean things up and now if it happens again I can save some cash!

I came home to a whole house that was not draining tot he city.  My master bath was a bit flooded and none of the other sinks, drains, and faucets where draining.  I called Roto Rooter among others.  While Roto Rooter did not have the rating I looked for I was desperate and they offered to have someone out the very same day.  
The guy showed up at the house and within 5 minutes knew exactly what was wrong.  He warned me that if I didn't have the right plumbing set up the job could involve some digging and excavation.  Thankfully he found what he needed and cleared my issue in less than 5 minutes.
He was professional, did not try to up-sell, and gave me tips on how to deal with this in the future without having to call for service again!
All in all - the ratings provided did not match the service provided.  From the first call to the service completion I had an A+ experience.
The only issues that did not get A's across the board:
NO ETA for when they could come out.  All I got was "sometime today".  That meant I was stuck at home (no bathroom to use) until they showed.  In their defense though, I did have a senior at home who had to go to the bathroom.  I called them and they said go ahead - they wouldn't skip me just because my Mom had to go tot he restroom!
Price - 129 for the call and then 7.99 that I still don't know what was for.  For 10 minutes worth of work to un-screw something, unclog, and screw back on.  That seemed a bit excessive.  However, under the circumstances and emergency call situation - I was fine paying it!

horrible.  see above Would never use them again!!!!!

They started the job but didn't show up the next day as scheduled to finish it. I had to call another company to finish the job. 
Here's what happened:
Plumber and his trainee came out late afternoon for a clogged bathtub drain. After working on it for awhile, he determined it wasn't 'clogged' but 'blocked', which would require going into the crawl space to remove a section of the pipe to remove the blockage. It was after 4:00, and I could tell by the way he kept looking at his watch that he didn't want to stay. He also made a point to tell me if they stayed to work on it that night, it would go into $160/hour over-time, AND that he didn't have the tools he needed to do the job. He suggested they finish it the next day, which was fine with me if they were done by noon, as I was going out of town. He said, "Oh, absolutely - We get to the office at 8:00, we can be here by 9:00 and have it done by noon." I then had him look at the crawl space to make sure he could fit, so that wouldn't be an issue in the morning, and he assured me he could. 
The next day, they did not show up at 9:00 and didn't call. By 10:30, I had called another company and scheduled them to come out and finish the job. SIX HOURS after my scheduled appointment time, Roto Rooters scheduler called to say they were on their way. (But by this time I was already out of town, as I told the plumber the day before I would be.) I expressed my annoyance that she was calling me at 3pm when my appointment was at 9am. She said it was delayed b/c they had to have someone that would fit in the crawl space, AND that they don't make 'set time' appointments. I advised her that the plumber himself DID make that appointment with me for a set time and that he said he could fit into the crawl space just fine. I told her that since they didn't show up, I had to call someone else. At that point she said, "Okay" and hung up on me. I called her back to explain to her that I wasn't a new appointment - that they had already been to my house the day before and were supposed to be back to finish a job they had already started. I asked for the service manager to call me, but he never did. 
I believe the plumber was just giving me whatever reassurances he needed to give me about coming back the next day so he could leave. I believe he knew that my appointment would not be kept and that somebody else would just be calling me to reschedule.

We had a clogged bathtub drain. We called on a Saturday. They had someone available, but since they charge more for Saturday service, we scheduled for Monday. The plumber was about an hour later than what we expected, but he did call on the way. He did not introduce himself when he arrived. He also took 2 phone calls re:other jobs, which I was a little put out by b/c we were waiting for our job to be done so we could get to work. However, once he started, he worked diligently, fixed our problem, and recommended a product we could get as a preventative measure in the future. He left the tub in a clean enough condition, but not the floor. He did offer to wipe it down if we had a towel for him to use. We declined, saying we would take care of it. It would be nice if they had something to place on the floor to protect it and keep it from getting dirty that they could dispose of when done with the job. Although I thought the price was a little high for unclogging a drain, it was the price quoted by phone. Overall, we were pleased with the work performed.

1) Disposal was frozen.  New unit was installed on existing hardware (less than half of the work of full replacement)
2) Charge was made for "fuel"
3) New unit was charged at 120% of retail hardware store costs for equivalent unit.
4) Labor doubled cost of hardware
5) Install neglected to remove knockout from dishwasher connection resulting in dishwasher that wouldn't drain
6) Roto-Rooter had serious attitude problem with call to fix the problem they created.  However, 7/29 they sent second repairman to fix problem for which trouble shooting had already been performed.
If I hadn't been leaving town the day of installation, I'd have done it myself for half the cost and it would have been done right the first time.  I've used this vendor before, but if I'd have reviewed their Angie List reviews, I probably wouldn't have used them in the first place.  They are expensive and don't have a service oriented attitude.

unknown

Roots in the sewer line backed up some waste in my basement a few days earlier.  This happened a year ago and I used a different plumbing company to clear the line, so I wanted to try a different company.  I studied other plumbers this go round and chose Roto Rooter because they do pipe lining and trenchless sewer line replacement, on the outside chance I might need that type service.  I called and spoke to a technician, Ricardo, who was well informed on my issue and that it would take two men to do the job because my clean out assess line is in the basement.  The scheduler booked them for the next day between 8 a.m. and noon and they arrived somewhere after 10 a.m. during a rainstorm. The snaking machine wouldn't fit through my basement door, and Derrick said: "No problem," and began disassembling it so he and Steve could make it fit.  That took a few minutes.  They got downstairs, reassembled the machine and asked that I run water in a couple of sinks upstairs during the snaking process.  Overall, the process took about 30 minutes.  They were professional, courteous and friendly.

I had a stopped up sewer in a rental property  while I was out of town. 
I called Roto-Rooter and asked them to clean out the drain.  The tech
couldn't get the stoppage cleared and called me back to tell me that he
was going to have to dig up the clean out to see what the problem was.  I
told him to go ahead.  I was not going to be back in town for several
days so I had little choice.  He called me back and said that drain was
made of orangeburg pipe and they would have to replace the entire drain
line to the city sewer line at a cost of "at least $3500.00".  I did not
authorize that.  My tenants stayed with relatives until I got back in
town.  What I got for my $290.00 was the cleanout pipe lying on the
ground beside a hole with the drain from the house dumping into the
hole. 
When I got back in town, I installed a new cleanout, and
cleaned a clump of roots from the "unusable" orangeburg pipe.  The roots
were all within 12 inches from the end of the pipe, near the hole.  The
system is now working fine.  I realize that I will have to replace the
old pipe someday, but for now, it is working fine.  I wish I had checked
Angies List before calling them.

Sometime Sunday morning, I noticed that the water in the shower was just cold. I didn't think much about it as I thought the hot water tank was just empty. Five hours later, I went to wash dishes and there was still no hot water. I called Roto-Rooter to have them come out to look at the tank. The representative at the call center was very rude and wanted to get off the phone; but I got a confirmation that a technician would be out shortly. Well the technician showed up without calling in advance to see if we were still home after the call center said some one would call. He looked at the water tank for two seconds, found a leak, and promptly said that he couldn't do anything to fix it that night. So I was scheduled for the next  morning by the technician.
The next day I waited for a call, the installation technician, anything. After waiting four hours after the time the technician the night before said some one would call, I telephoned the call center. They said that I was put on the anytime list not the morning list. The call center person said that the installation technician would be out as soon as possible. The installation technician finally showed up around 2pm. He looked at the old water heater to see what all he needed, started the draining process, and left to get the new parts. He came back one hour later and began the installation processes. The installation technician was very nice and very knowledgeable. By 4:30pm the installation technician was done. He told me about the city's inspection process. He asked if I had any other questions, cleaned up the work area, and left.
So after several attempts of trying to find the division with the city's inspection department, I finally called back to the call center to see if I was calling the right number or if they could help me in any way. Like typical call center style, they wouldn't help me with even what number to call.
While my ho water heater isn't inspected at this time, I do have hot water. If I only had to deal with the installation technician, I would use this company over and over and over again. Having to deal with all of the other horribly rude and uncaring people at Roto-Rooter, I'll "away those troubles down the drain" by NEVER using them again.

We had a leak in our back yard. I would not let anybody use them. It was just 7 days to do the work and the cost was over $10000. It was a nightmare. They kept changing the price. We asked for a overall cost before they did the work. They could not do it and based it on daily charges, man hour work. It was a horrible experience. The men were good. When they said they were going to be here they were there. I would recommend no one to use them. It was awful.

They did a great job, but their price is expensive.

They came out after 7 pm. We had a terrible freeze and we had an outside line that froze and burst. No one was here at the time and that is what we found when we came home. They came out right away and took care of it, and it was a done deal. My husband was very pleased with it. I would say that it was a good price when you are caught in a bind like that. I think he did a pretty good job. It was within the hour after we made the phone call that they had someone here at the house. He was very professional. He did take the time to explain what had happened and why it happened, and he had the part with him, which made it even better. So, he could go ahead and take care of it right then.

We were very unhappy to have thrown away $450.00 and still didn't know where the leak was so it could be fixed.  The leader of the two-man crew was chatty to the point that it kept him from doing the work and going on his way -- maybe he didn't have another job for the rest of the day.  The man who was with him was apparently learning the job but the leader didn't supervise or explain much to him.

I like them.  They did a very nice job.  We don't really care about costs.  We pay a little up on stuff if it's done right.  Price is not the key issue in repairs.  It's getting it done right the first time.  I did have a really good experience with them.  I have used them probably 6 or 7 times on major problems over 15 years.  They get it right the first time.  You are going to pay a little more, but who cares.  We are talking about major problems like line breaks and back-up problems.  They do stuff that is really nasty.  I will use them again.  That's a category where there are a lot of players in it and a lot of people doing it, but Roto-Rooter stands out.  I have been in business for 38 years and they stand out above all of them.  You don't need a plumber very often but when you need one, you want it done right.  You are going to pay the same amount of money with all of them, so why not pay the money to somebody who will get it done right.  They have always got uniforms on.  They are bonded.  That's the only way to go anymore letting people inside your door.