Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Services

Our main sewer line backed up, and we called them in to clear the line. They charged us $139.00 per hour to snake the line. They just kept running the snake for hours. Little did we know (once we spoke to another plumber afterwards) they should have know within the first two hours that they weren't going to be able to clear the line with a snake. Nevertheless, they just kept running it and piling up their fees. When they showed up, the first thing the guy said to me was "is there stairs?" Well, the point of access to the sewer line is in our basement, so there were stairs. So then he says, we'll have to charge you for a second man because I can't get this machine down the stairs on my own. Conveniently, he had a second man in the truck with him. (Probably because almost everybody will have there sewer line access in the basement). I was upset about it, though, because when we called to have them come out and we asked how much they charge, they did NOT say anything about charging for a 2nd man if there were stairs. Luckily for me, I have a daylight basement, and a side entry door that they could use, so I didn't have to pay for the 2nd man. At one point during the day they said they were going back to the shop to get a longer snake. Apparently, they charge for their travel time - without telling the customer. And, they charged an extra $30 each time they ran the longer snake down the drain - again, without telling the customer. I was upset by this for a couple of reasons: 1. that they did not clarify with me before leaving my property that I would be paying for the time it took them to drive back and forth between their shop and my home, 2. they were in a huge truck, and they were well advised about exactly what the job was going to be before they showed up. Under those circumstances, they really should have shown up to our house with the right tools. They definitely would have fit in the back of the truck. It seemed to me like it was just another opportunity to pile on the charges. The final straw was that they overbilled us for the number of hours they worked. The bill they gave us was for $900+. I ended up calling the owner who was LESS than customer service oriented. We ended up spending at least 2 hours on the phone with her over the next 2 days before she agreed to reduce the charge. Then, when she said she'd refund the money to our credit card, she never did. I had to call her back when I got my credit card statement and ask again for her to refund the money. In short, it was a total nightmare. We spent a LOT of money for nothing. It felt to me like they did everything they could to take us for as much as they could. When they left at the end of the day, I was out $700, a ton of aggravation, and my sewer was still backed up. I had to call another plumber to fix the problem. I would DEFINITELY stay away from this company!