Mr Rooter Plumbing of Pittsburgh

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he was early and vey nice.

They replaced the line and removed a tree. Quality workmanship, but they have yet to return to level and re-seed my lawn. The soil has receded and my neighbor is concerned. I have attempted contacted the manager, Bryan Tomlinson, several times to no avail.

The drain in our basement was backing up and we had some sewage come into our basement. We called Mr. Rooter who sent Mike to our house. Mike put his camera down into our sewer line and said the problem was that the 100-year-old house trap was old, corroded, and had roots in it. He even "showed" us all of this on the camera. His recommendation: replace the house trap by jackhammering the cement floor in the basement and replacing the house trap and the entire above-ground stack. Cost: $4000. But things began to smell fishy. He put a lot of time pressure on us and told us he could have men there in the morning to do the work. He also told us he would give us a "repeat customer" discount, even though we weren't repeat customers. He to us he would report the pre-discount price number to our home insurance company so that we would get a bigger payment from them. This seemed unethical at best, fraudulent at worst. We initially agreed to let him do the job, but as we talked to people, it seemed more and more strange. We told him to wait a few days, and in the meantime, we had some other plumbers look at the problem. Gerard Plumbing came and looked and said the house trap was fine, but we had our sewer line clogged with tree roots about 40 feet away from the house. Our neighbor had recommended Gerard, and they were honest and professional. They dug up the sewer line outside, replaced the old terracotta with PVC pipes, and had us back in service in less than a day. They did a great job. It cost $4000, but if Mr. Rooter had done it, we would have had $4000 to replace a perfectly good house trap and then another $4000 to fix the real problem which they no doubt would have "discovered" after replacing the house trap.

They came and looked in a clogged drain in the sub-basement. They recommended that we dig up the whole thing and replace it. They gave us an $8000 estimate for it. We ended up paying $600 just for them to evaluate and dig a bit. Somebody came back and said it was just a clog; they fixed it easily. I think they pretty much lied. When we told them that we wanted a second opinion, they were very defensive. It was a very negative experience.

Three months ago I called Mr. Rooter to clear a clogged drain line. Waste was backing up into my basement. I was told that the drain was snaked for $200.00. Then (supposedly) a camera was inserted into the drain; supposedly the drain was so blocked that nothing could be seen. Then I was told that it was necessary to put a hydro-jet through the drain to clear the blockage – cost $557.00. This clearing method was not effective. I was told that my sewer pipes were broken up underground by roots and needed to be replaced. The service man said that my problem was so extensive that he needed to call his immediate supervisor, who came and said he needed to call the owner. These men were actors, not plumbers. These fast talkers told me about the dire consequences I faced, including the collapse of my front porch, as they would have to dig under its foundation. I was told that the work would cost approximately $10,000 to $18,000. I was ill thinking of the expense. I had given them a check for $200.00 for the snaking. They were very quick to offer me a credit line for the $550.00, and then a possibility of a credit line for thousands. I was then told that it would be necessary to have remove my porch, porch steps, sidewalk , and retaining wall, and needed a new drain pipe installed to replace the ‘collapsed’ terra cotta drain. Also the ‘required degree of fall’ for the drain would require extensive digging. The written estimate for the work was approximately $10,000.00. The ‘verbal’ estimate was $18,000. I was also told that the completed work WOULD NOT include any replacements of retaining walls, sidewalks, steps, landscaping, porch or anything except a ditch that would be covered with whatever type of soil that had been dug up (probably clay). I was distraught and called some local borough officials who are technically the owners of the tree that was blocking my drain. I felt that they should accept some of the liability for a portion of the costs that I was about to pay. I also called my home owners insurance who informed me that their coverage ended at the house walls… the porch (even though attached to the house, was not covered.) The borough official told me to call another plumbing company which specialized in unclogging drains. They were EXTREMELY professional, timely, and stated clearly that if they didn’t clear the drain that they would not charge a fee. They came approximately 18 hours after Mr. Rooter. They cleared the line in approximately 15 minutes. The lines were clear and in perfect shape all the way to the street sewer. They also indicated the blockage was NOT in the area that Mr. Rooter had designated. Mr. Rooter’s supposed diagnosis, remedies, etc. were a complete ruse. My drain was cleared for $169.00. Now Mr. Rooter is attempting to collect the fraudulent ‘supposed’ use of the hydro-jet that they used to ‘clear’ my drain. Obviously by reading Angie's List you can see the exact same thing happened to someone else. Be careful.

I would never use them.

The first problem arose when I had to leave phone messages several times a week for a solid month in an attempt to get them to return & replace the access door in the downstairs bathroom wall. My calls were never returned, although the receptionists would give me lame excuses such as "They were still waiting for the part to come in." At one point, about two weeks into this, Brian Tomlinson, the project manager (?), did call me & said he would call later in the day to set up an appointment for someone to replace the access door. He never called again. In relating my tale to my plumber, it occurred to me that I did not recall a County plumbing inspector coming to the house to inspect the inside work. The County Plumbing Inspector, Ray Russ, confirmed that the work in fact had not been inspected & told Mr. Rooter to call him for the inspection when they were at the house replacing the access door. To complete the inspection, Ray had Mr. Rooter run their camera back through the drain back to the point of the first part of the job. Roots which had NOT been removed were visible. Ray told them to complete the job, told them to replace a vent that was out of code, & fined them for doing work without a permit. For access to the roots they had not removed in the first place, they thought they could jack-hammer up a corner of the garage floor, but in the end they had to call the backhoe in again & re-excavate at the original site. While the backhoe was here, I had them dig up the downspout from the roof, which they had displaced but had not buried again, but only covered it with loose dirt, roots, & branches. The first lawn mower to pass over the pipe would have shaved off a good part of the pipe. The re-excavation, root removal, & burial of the downspout was done at no further cost to me--although I think at $10,000 Mr. Rooter did not lose any money. In addition to paying Mr. Rooter, I had to have the front stairs replaced at a further cost of about $500 (for a bad job).

The job was 1/2 way done. I would not use them again.

My wife actually found Mr. Rooter on Angie's' List and they were in the penalty box. When he came out here, he was just fine. He definitely took care of the problem and all is fine now. He even gave us a discount because we had a coupon from the phone book. It still did seem like a lot of money though, but he worked really well.

I had the new sink and faucet and they sent someone out two days after I called them. I was glad they could come out in such short notice. I really like that they are affordable for this kind of thing. Usually plumbing work is so high and they are not that bad.

When my tub stopped up, I was pleased at the fast response time of Mr. Rooter. He was there within a couple of hours. He did his work quickly and efficiently with no surprises. He cleaned up what little mess there was well and was on his way in just a few minutes. I recommend their service as fast and reliable.

Will not call on again.

The work took much longer than first estimated thus the area was in disarray for almost two weeks. Further, the workers cracked our walk way and concrete steps. We had to press them to repair them and give us a written guarantee covering their longevity before we paid the balance of the service.

He put the camera in and it looked horrendous, so I decided to have it done. They repaired the whole line, but it didn't solve the problem with the debris. When they did the work initially they didn't have the correct fall out by the main sewer line and I had to call them several times to get them to come back. When they put the camera in after the job was finished there were rocks in the line that had fallen in during installment so they were careless installers. They did resolve the problem but it took more time and effort on my part than I hoped. They weren't professional in the 1st place and there was no foreman to check on the plumbers. I wouldn't recommend them to others.

THEY WERE ONLY SUPPOSED TO COME OUT AND FIX THE LEAKING SHOWER. THEY ENDED UP DOING A LOT OF EXTRA WORK THAT DID NOT NEED TO BE DONE. WE HAD TO HAVE THEM OUT SEVERAL TIMES AND THREATEN TO TAKE THEM TO COURT TO FINALLY FIX THE PROBLEM.

He put a camera on the snake to show me roots in my drain. He wanted 10000.00 down to start the work. I asked if he could get it done soon, he said he would come back in three hours. He would not leave or put us on the calendar until I gave him a check. I changed my mind with advise from family and to get second estimate. I stopped pmt on the check, because they said it was too late to change my mind. After checking with another plumber I was told and shown that there was no problem with tree roots and he cleared the drain, and showed us it was clear. I was then only charged less than 200.00.

I discovered a leak in my basement between the meter and the shut off valve about 5 PM on a Sunday (there had been some water in the basement, but I thought it was leakage from the unusually wet weather). When I pulled down the plaster wall in the basement, I found the leak. When I tried to fix it, the leak got worse. So I called a number of companies and this was the only company that could send someone out on a Sunday night. The young man was very polite and was able to fix the leak and return water to my home. I was grateful that I did not have to take a day off from work the next day.

It was an unpleasant experience for me, but they were so pleasant and very nice. They made a very difficult situation bearable.

They lied about work completed, cut corners, had untrained help and over charged. They also did not know or chose to ignore health codes for installing sewer lines and were required to redue line installation by the building and health inspector for Allegheny county. I should also mention that they crushed our down spout with the back hoe which cost us $300 to have dug up and replaced.

THE WORK TOOK 3 DAYS. THEY COMPLETELY DUG UP BACK YARD AND PATIO, AND REPLACED SEWER LINES. ONE YEAR LATER WE HAD TO DO IT AGAIN. THE COMPANY CAME BACK AND FIXED A POORLY ALIGNED PIPE. I WAS NOT HAPPY TO HAVE THE YARD DUG UP A SECOND TIME.

VERY PROMPT RESPONSE (WITHIN AN HOUR), CABLED (VIDEO) LINES, LOCATED PLUG, EXCAVATER ON SITE IN 2 HOURS. POLITE, BUT NOT AS CAREFUL OF COLLATERAL DAMAGE AS I'D LIKE. PRICE ON THE HIGH SIDE.