Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

I can’t say enough good things about the Grant who helped us out! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ He truly went above and beyond to fix my situation. What could have been a stressful and expensive problem turned into a smooth experience thanks to his professionalism, knowledge, and willingness to go the extra mile. He took the time to explain everything, made sure the job was done right, and didn’t leave until everything was working perfectly. It’s rare to find someone who cares this much about their work and their customers. If you’re looking for a reliable, honest plumber who genuinely wants to help, I highly recommend him. I am incredibly grateful! Thank you Grant!

Very pleased with the process overall and they made it out the same day! New water heater and installation was smooth and efficient. Jonny our tech was incredibly skilled, friendly, knowledgeable and honest. Could not ask for more, thank you!

Justin S was awesome. He arrived on time, was super nice and professional, and snaked out my pipe in under an hour. Everything was clean and easy from start to finish. Highly recommend!

Roto-Rooter is performing the fix and remediation for water damage from a pipe leak behind the shower. On-site, the technicians are great. It's fast and quality work and they know how to communicate with customers. The low star rating is for scheduling communication and not following through on promised time-frames. After first assessment of the issue, which occurred in the afternoon, they promised to be back first thing in the morning to begin work. Well, morning came and went without a call or update. I began calling, and was promised three different times that someone would call me back right away. Those calls also never happend. Finally, at 4:30pm, someone called and said a tech had an unexpected injury and nobody couldn't make it out that day. They did promise to start at 9:30am the next morning. I was promised this time by both a supervisor and a dispatcher. That time again came and went without a call or update. At 11:30am, the tech called and said they'd be there about 2:30pm. This time, they actually did show, though it wasn't until later. In addition, they needed to come back and check moisture levels every day. I would receive a call about 30 minutes beforehand and if I wasn't available, they wouldn't do the reading for that day. I don't know how a business runs this way. How disrespectful to your customer's time and plans. I understand things happen. And that's when you update the customer so they aren't left in the dark. A few timely phone calls and I wouldn't be writing this negative review. I can't recommend Roto-Rooter to anyone who expects a service provider to show up when they say they will. Update: It’s been eight weeks since they started and the work is still not finished. Not once have they showed up when they said they would. They ordered the wrong carpet, so as of today, there’s still exposed subfloor.

Expensive! They told me over the phone that they couldn't give us a quote until they came to the house, then told us it was a flat fee of $420 to snake our toile whether they were here for 1 hour or 4. 10 minutes of work for $420 is insane and I feel their business practices are deceptive. They knew before they came to the home how much they would charge. Completely unacceptable and will never use or recommend them again.

I had just recently purchased my home here is Buda and not a week upon moving in we had a backup in both bathrooms. Roto-rooter was not my first option it was a plumber however that plumber was unable to get to my house and my mother who is in her 70's was here helping us move into our home. Upon realizing the plumbing issue, we immediately stopped using the toilets and water and cleaned up any standing water in those rooms as soon as we saw the backup. There was no runing water and no standing water in my rooms. I called Roto rooter to come out and see what was going on with the plumbing. They also sent out water mitigation to assess water damage. The water mitigation guy was here before the plumber and immediately asked me who my insurance carrier was. Once I told him he then started assessing my house and stated that everywhere i had strong heavy duty tile in was 100% saturated but the areas that the tile touched laminate flooring the flooring under the laminate was not affected by the water. Hmm seemed strange but okay. Plumber came in stated we had a root break through the pipe to the main pipe outside and immediately it was oh no you have your neighbors feces and pee in the house under everything and dont worry your insurance will play everything you only have a deductible with them to meet. I got an estimate from him saying demolition would cost between $2,500-$7,500 so i signed it and i paid out of pocket the $4,500 for the fixing of the outside pipe, which i had to sign two estimates for as the first one wasnt enough to fix the pipe so a new estimate had to be signed for them to continue the work. They come in and totally rip out my brand new tile throughout my whole house put holes in my walls on top of cutting out portions of my walls and left thinset throughout the house with jagged pieces of tile in certain places. They didnt even clean up well and we kept stepping on pieces of tile once they left. They put in so many fans and dehumidifiers and an air scrubber in the house we were tripping over fans just to try and get to the bathroom or walk to the kitchen to get dinner. Once they finally after 5-7 days removed their equipment we get an invoice of almost $18,000 worth of work. Pictures provided same pictures over and over again along with a few pictures of not even my home. I have a 1 story home maybe 1700 sqft And some pictures where of a two story property. I never received an updated estimate from them and being that i just got a mortgage on this property and had this issue i would not be able to get lending to pay them. My first mortgage payment wasn't even due yet when this all happened. I told them the issue and said i cant pay that insurance is not paying it plus you left a disaster in my house and what little bit of work that would have needed to be done is now going to cost me to fix between 60-80 thousand dollars. They told me they cant take small payments of $50-$100 a month due to the amount owed and i said there is nothing else i can do so they turned me over to their litigation collections people who have now put a lien on my homestead property. they have now clouded my title to the property making it even harder to get a loan to either fix my property after their complete destruction of it or even to help pay them. If i was given an updated estimate and something that showed ripping out of all the tile and unnecessary holes in my walls because they dont know how to pull off baseboards i would have said no.

First, I'll mention while the repair tech that initially fixed my leak did so in a very timely manner, the reason for my initial "5 Star" review was created solely to receive $200 discount off their repair fee. As for the rest of my experience with Roto-Rooter, by far the worst service imaginable. From unprofessional scare tactics, to seemingly deliberate hiding of cost, to dysfunction between teams, to mishandling of filing claim, and overall disaster of customer service which led to immediate claim denial and mob-like behavior in collecting payment for their incredibly overpriced services. The initial tech that arrived was only here to explain their services and plan of action. Expressing the time sensitive nature when filing a claim for leaks in order for any insurance to accept the claim. That if I shop around I may not be able use my homeowners insurance to cover the damages because the can no longer can be determined as cause by "initial onset." The 2nd tech arrived to identify the source of the leak and repair. It was quite obvious where the source of the leak was in the garage, however, was using this time to upsell me for a full house inspection... I declined the full house inspection because again it was obvious where the leak was coming from. This service I had to pay out of pocket. $950 turned to $750 because I agreed to give them a 5 star review. Now with the leak stopped and an unsightly hole in the ceiling of my garage, I continue to talk with the initial tech to follow Roto-Rooter's plan of action to "properly" file a claim to my insurance. Roto-Rooter, as a part of their services, plans to file the claim on my behalf which must include their Mitigation Team to immediately start the drying of the area affected by the leak. Prior to agreeing to next steps, I asked in the event of denial the cost owed by me to which he Would not share because "he doesn't do the Mitigation." But he knows "Mitigation is necessary and must be done immediately in order to get the claim accepted." Their repair bill was timed and the clock is ticking... the mitigation team of 2 techs that showed up also unable to share an estimate for tearing significantly more wall than was initially made to repair the single 12" pipe and set up fans making our garage inaccessible for a week. After being instructed what next steps to expect and items to share to my insurance adjuster I was assured that Roto-Rooters experience handling claims would be an easy, guaranteed process to receive accepted claim and coverage of costs ALSO needed to repair the sizable hole left by the mitigation team. Well, between the lack of experience of Roto-Rooter techs and disconnect between teams ultimately resulted in a speedy and certain denial for the claim in which no costs will be reimbursed or offered to cover for any service related to the pipe leak. Being confused to the outcome and looking for some clarification, I was immediately only met with a sizable bill and a relentless Collections Team. I was told that the Manager over the teams that "helped" me would reach out... not one message. When I followed up to ask to speak with this manager for clarification and share the fisad of services I experience, still no message and only pressing for payment. I can without a doubt say I will never use Roto-Rooter for any services again and I would strongly encourage others to look elsewhere. BUYER BEWARE!

***DON'T USE ROTO-ROOTER IN AUSTIN*** I've never been one to write a bad review. I've never had service so bad that I'd take time to blast them...until now. I noticed last week that my toilet was just constantly running. I looked in the tank and promptly realized I had no clue, so called RR. Great, they'll come out on Sunday between 1p and 3p. On Sunday 9/1, the guy strolled in at 4:30p. Took a look, went to get parts, did 15min of work, and charged me $351 (after $40 coupon). So, yay, it is fixed...but nope. It starts running again. After an apology, RR assure me that they can come on Tuesday 9/3 between 1p and 2p. After almost 7hrs, no one has shown. I'm like WTF. I have to get ready for work. More apologies...we're running behind and short-staffed. We can come out Thursday between 1p-3p for sure because it is typically overstaffed. Thursday 9/5: Lady calls me every hour saying we'll get to you but we're running back. At 3:45, same lady tells it just not going to happen today but we can get you in tomorrow 1:30-3:30. Friday 9/6: I call at 4:15p for an ETA. "So sorry...it has been a heck of week...I have some guys sick..." At this point, I pull a Karen and request to talk to a manager. I was told that it won't get me serviced quicker but I can be transferred. I sorta kept my cool when I explained my problem to Vanessa who assured me there will be no additional charge, she'll look into getting me a refund, and for sure we can get you in tomorrow morning 9a-10a because "we have nothing on the books for tomorrow." Saturday 9/7: I received a call at 9:33 stating someone should be out around 10. At 11:15, I call for an update. We have a guy who will be finishing up a job in 15 min and we'll get him out to you. It is now 12:30 and I receive a call from dispatcher saying that she wasn't told that the guy that she was going to sent has to go to a funeral and she just know made aware, so there is another guy on another job who will be dispatched to my house once he's completed the other job. At 1:27p, I was told someone will be out in 30min. At 1:50p, I was told it would actually be another 45min. At 2:45, a very nice man Oscar came. I wasn't ugly to him but I'm still never using RR again. Tuesday 9/10: Called to talk to Vanessa about my refund. Was told she stepped away and to call back in 1hr. So, it did and was told she was on another call, and she would give me a call right after which she did not. Friday 9/13: Called at 2:14p to speak to the Branch Manager. Was told they are either on a call or away from their desk but they will call me. Called back at 3:30p and was told that my message would be passed along and manager will call me. Called back 4:45 to the direct branch ph# which routed back to regional/national ph#. Was told that they must have left early and will get you to their voicemail but, instead, I was put on hold again. Called back at 4:50pm to get to a voicemail but was told by another person that she didn't have the direct extension, so she will pass along the message. Update: I received a call from Dell in field operations. He provided me with a 50% refund. Clarification: Actual technicians were polite and professional. My issue was with how the situation was managed.

Things work a lot differently in Texas then they do back home (NC). For instance, we have learned that in Texas you would call a plumber if you need help unhooking an old gas stove and hooking up a new one. This is exactly what we needed to do so my husband called Roto-Rooter yesterday to see when someone could come out. Lucky for us, they said they had availability today and quoted us a window of 9 to 11 a.m. Unlucky for us, they apparently do not know how to tell time. Nor to they understand the simple principal of customer service. We were up and ready early in case the plumber showed up right at 9. We hung around the house until 11, no plumber and no word from Roto-Rooter. 12 p.m - no plumber...1 p.m - no plumber. At 1:30 my husband calls in to see what was going on and was told that they were running behind. Ok, it would have been nice for you to let us know that. 2 p.m - no plumber, 3 p.m - still no plumber.... 3:30 pm we get a call from Roto-Rooter promising they have not forgotten us and that someone would still be coming out but they couldn't give us a specific window. My husband informed them that we needed to run a couple of errands (like eating lunch/dinner since we don't have a stove to cook on) an asked them to please give us a call 20 - 30 minutes prior to the plumber arriving so that we can make sure we are back at the house. They said no problem. We went out had a late lunch/early dinner and popped into Ikea. Around 5 pm, Roto-Rooter called my phone (despite having spoken with my husband several times and being told that his number was the primary number) and left a message asking me to call them back. I didn't have my phone on me because again, they were supposed to call my husband, so I didn't get the message until 6:30. When I called them back the guy I spoke with was slightly rude, he informed me that they were calling about the service we requested but it was too late to have someone come out now. It was almost as if they were mad that we left the house. Apparently the plumber had showed up to the house while we were out and was upset that we weren't home. First of all, if you quote a window for a customer then you really should be there during that window BUT we are reasonable people so we understand that shit happens. If you aren't going to make your window time the the very least you can do is call us to let us know! Second, it is completely unreasonable to expect that people continue to sit around their house waiting when you are 7 hours past the window time. So don't get pissed at us because it was our time that was wasted first. In the end, its our bad for having booked an appointment with Roto-Rooter. If we would have looked at Yelp then we would have known that this company is not one to waste your time on. It is also our bad for counting on a chain type plumbing company instead of supporting a local pop shop. On the bright side, I guess it all worked out because having now read the other reviews, we would have probably overpaid significantly for their services and now we can put our business with a more deserving local company.

My sewer line clogged up and water accumulated in bathtub, shower stall, leaked around one commode, other commode would not flush and could not be plunged. This happened at 2:30 PM on Saturday. Not a good time to get service and my regular plumber was not available. So, I looked at YELP. The star ratings and the comments on Roto Rooter were less than encouraging. But, I decided to chance it and gave them a call at their national number 737-932-7257 as posted on their web site. Things happened fast. The dispatcher said they could have someone here in 2 hours or less. I got a second call that the technician would arrive in about 30 minutes. He showed up on time. He was professional in explaining the process by which he would check the problem out and would give me a quote and then I could proceed or not. He determined what I already expected he would find when he opened the inspection cover and that fluid and solids which should have passed on to the city sewer drain made their presence known. I will not get into the odiferous and visual details. I told Eli, the technician, to proceed. He offloaded a large and heavy piece of gear containing the cutting head, shaft and power source and snaked this apparatus into my sewer line while the cutting heads skived away any obstruction. Soon, the blockage was cleared, the water drained and all fixtures inside my house also drained and the toilets were able to flush. Based on the matter trapped in the cutter teeth, Eli suspected a tree root had invaded the line. Not surprising considering that three live oaks are in close proximity. They have aggressive root systems. His truck lacked a camera for internal pipe inspection, but he provided a quote for future camera service at a reduced price. I was very pleased with the speed of response, the way I was kept informed by the dispatcher, the excellent and efficient work done by the technician to clear the line and his feedback to me about the root cause of the problem (pun intended). It was unfortunate that his truck did not have a camera, but I was very happy to get this clog cleared on a Saturday within 3 hours of my call that I am not counting the lack of a camera inspection in my rating. We had been worried we would be using the bathrooms at WalMart. over the weekend. And, forget about taking a shower. Instead the house was back to normal. So, I give 5 stars for this experience. I do not have any previous experience or connection to Roto Rooter. In the end, the level of service depends upon the people who show up. Base location for this Roto Rooter is 2800 Longhorn Blvd, Ste 102, Austin, TX 78758.

I had a kitchen flood and because it was an active water loss situation, I understandably moved quickly with mitigation services. When the Roto-Rooter supervisor came out that evening he gave me a whole song and dance about how they would work with insurance, it would be fully covered, etc. while providing me with quite a large range of estimate. At certain points he even said he was quoting "high" so it would help the coverage. The final invoice ended up being so dramatically higher than what my insurance company and their independent third-party reviewer determined was reasonable and customary for the work performed that they could not come to an agreement. Even after revisions, there remained a significant dispute regarding pricing and scope which I am responsible for. Throughout this process, I was caught in the middle between Roto-Rooter and Nationwide/Accuserve, despite having no meaningful involvement in directing the mitigation scope, equipment usage, or pricing decisions during the emergency response itself. Communication from Roto-Rooter throughout the billing process was inconsistent and contradictory. I received multiple notices threatening collections activity, liens, and a Notice to Owner while the invoice was still actively under review and while the insurance company was in the process of issuing payment for the undisputed amount. This created a tremendous amount of unnecessary stress during an already difficult home restoration process. My advice to anyone using emergency mitigation services is: - Don't use this company - Ask detailed questions about billing and insurance negotiations upfront especially as RotoRooter is known to "overcharge" insurance and when they don't pay make it the liability of the homeowner - Request itemized documentation early - Understand exactly what you are signing regarding payment responsibility - Be prepared for potential disputes between mitigation vendors and insurance reviewers I understand emergency mitigation work is expensive and time-sensitive, but I do not believe homeowners should be placed in the middle of prolonged billing disputes between vendors and insurers while simultaneously facing threats of collections or liens before the insurance review process has fully concluded. The only bright spot were the technicians who actually did the work were professional, responsive, and seemed to know what they were doing.

I had a kitchen flood and because it was an active water loss situation, I understandably moved quickly with mitigation services. When the Roto-Rooter supervisor came out that evening he gave me a whole song and dance about how they would work with insurance, it would be fully covered, etc. while providing me with quite a large range of estimate. At certain points he even said he was quoting "high" so it would help the coverage. The final invoice ended up being so dramatically higher than what my insurance company and their independent third-party reviewer determined was reasonable and customary for the work performed that they could not come to an agreement. Even after revisions, there remained a significant dispute regarding pricing and scope which I am responsible for. Throughout this process, I was caught in the middle between Roto-Rooter and Nationwide/Accuserve, despite having no meaningful involvement in directing the mitigation scope, equipment usage, or pricing decisions during the emergency response itself. Communication from Roto-Rooter throughout the billing process was inconsistent and contradictory. I received multiple notices threatening collections activity, liens, and a Notice to Owner while the invoice was still actively under review and while the insurance company was in the process of issuing payment for the undisputed amount. This created a tremendous amount of unnecessary stress during an already difficult home restoration process. My advice to anyone using emergency mitigation services is: - Don't use this company - Ask detailed questions about billing and insurance negotiations upfront especially as RotoRooter is known to "overcharge" insurance and when they don't pay make it the liability of the homeowner - Request itemized documentation early - Understand exactly what you are signing regarding payment responsibility - Be prepared for potential disputes between mitigation vendors and insurance reviewers I understand emergency mitigation work is expensive and time-sensitive, but I do not believe homeowners should be placed in the middle of prolonged billing disputes between vendors and insurers while simultaneously facing threats of collections or liens before the insurance review process has fully concluded. The only bright spot were the technicians who actually did the work were professional, responsive, and seemed to know what they were doing.

Don't use Roto Rooter unless you have days with nothing to do but talk to people on the phone about why they didn't bother to show up during their four-hour window. Customer support seems pretty used to complaints. Sunday: plumber shows up to fix issue. Provides written six month guarantee. Monday and Tuesday: gurgling and backup issues Wednesday: all the toilets in house completely broken Thursday night: set up Friday AM appointment Friday morning: no one shows for a few hours. Dispatch calls and asks if I really wanted 8;00 pm. Apparently the Thursday night admin wrote 8;00 PM instead of AM.???? Friday afternoon: dispatch calls to say plumber would be there in 30 minutes. 1.5 hours later I call to ask what is going on, for the love. 2:00 plumber comes. Had a vehicle problem and didn't bother to tell anyone. Fixes problem. Company honors guarantee. Says camera crew will come this evening, fee waived for camera project. Dispatch would contact me soon. Friday night: --called at 3:30 and told someone would call me back. --5:40 called again and told "I don't know anything about this." I asked if the camera expert would arrive at 10:00? Midnight? 2:00 am? They said to wait and a bribe would call me. --6:40: camera person called and said she had also been waiting since 2:00 for dispatch to call her and tell her where to send the person. She would send someone between 8:00-5:00 on Saturday. She apologized on the behalf of the people who answer the phone, as well as dispatch. They are separate phone answering departments. Saturday, 1:00 pm, Day 7: It's 1:00 pm on Saturday and we're still waiting. Your team is only as strong as it's weakest member. Every member of this team seems to have issues. The poor plumbers are the ones caught in the middle, and the most competent. The people answering the phones (call center and dispatch): -- are truly confused --I was able to hear dinner table conversations in the background --put me on hold for ten minutes at a time, when I called over 8 times over a one week period (80 minutes of waiting) --entered the schedule and were off by 12 hours because she put 8:00 PM instead of AM --would say they'd call back but never would. Special Note: there's another review from an Emily H that sounds eeerily/uncannily similar. She's a different person, same experience, same handle. Odd but true. Still waiting.

Elderly Abuse .... Run I woke up to a leak in my front yard as I headed out of town. My wife called Roto Rooter as she left for work to come give us a quote. They said they only needed someone there to greet them when they arrived. So we had my 85 year old, legally blind, suffering from dementia mother, who lives next door, meet them outside so they could begin with their estimate. They never called us for a quote. Instead he replaced one section of pipe (which was only 4 ft. long), and a shut off valve (which he said was broken but was not) and charged a whopping $6,500. He walked next door and demanded payment from my blind mother. NO APPROVAL WAS GIVEN!!!! NO PHONE CALL WAS MADE!!! My mother, who isn't mentally with us anymore, gave them her credit card and boom...... $6,500. We didn't get a new water heater or a new sprinkler system. We got one 4 ft. section of pipe for $6,500 and a shiny new on/off valve which was not needed. That guy new what he was doing. He didn't call us for a reason. He took one look at my blind old mom with dementia and charged whatever he wanted. He left us an arbitrary bill I could hardly read with little to no specifics. I have attached.... When I called the manager he did return half of the amount. It sounded like we were making progress. I still asked for an itemized receipt so I could see how 4 ft. of pipe and a valve would cost $3,250. If I stayed in town this repair would have cost me a total of $75 dollars in materials. He said he would get that itemized receipt and then has ghosted me ever since. I have reached out on numerous occasions. This company did not have permission to do $6,500 or $3,250 worth of work on my property. They were called for an estimate and took advantage of my elderly, blind, dementia plagued mother to run up a huge bill that no one can explain. They demanded that my mother, who isn't the homeowner, pay $6,500. My wife waited by her phone all day for an estimate that never came. This is morally and ethically appalling at every level. Just for reference, we had our foundation lifted for $9,000 last year. They dug under the house in several areas and lifted it. This guy wanted about the same for replacing a 4 ft. section of pipe. How is this real????

I am writing this review to warn others on the deceptive and highly illegal practices that Roto Rooter is engaging in. I own a preschool and needed repairs to our septic tank pumps. We called Roto Rooter to fix it. The rep did NOT fill out the costs/pricing on the invoice when he asked my husband to sign it. He told my husband that he had to sign in order for them to do the work and would add in what it cost later. The rep told my husband that it would add up to about $8,000 and he told the same thing to my Director. He didn't even write our business name correctly on the invoice. We needed the repair done quickly because we had several bathrooms not working. Did they fix the problem overnight? Yes. Did they do a good job? No...they used an EXTENSION CORD to power the pumps (and other details I won't go into) which kept tripping the breaker because of the water involved in such a repair. They didn't even try to fix the wiring. How much did they charge? $12,300 for 10 hours of work. They replaced two pumps, which cost about $2,000, so the rest was labor. We were forced to hire a septic company to replace all of their work to the tune of $9,000 because it was so substandard. I complained to their billing department and management and they only took 20% off of the bill even after learning all of this. They asked for the estimate and paid invoice of the other septic company that had to fix everything they did, but I don't know if they even called to find out how poorly their plumbers did on our job. I have worked with a lot of service providers over 16 years of business ownership. I have bought and rehabbed three business properties and I have never had the predatory experience that Roto Rooter gave us. I can't stand businesses who operate this way and so badly take advantage of their unsuspecting customers. I am telling you all this in the hopes that this doesn't happen to someone else. And lesson learned the hard way...even when you are desperate, don't sign anything until they fill out the pricing and then take a picture.