Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

I called late at night, around 9pm, Cullen came out within a half hour. He also offered to replace the water heater that night! He came back promptly the next day and completed the job within a few hours. They were kind and courteous. I would recommend them to anyone

When I called on a Sunday afternoon, I was greeted quickly and politely. Explained that our toilet was not working. He informed me that a plumber would be at the house witin 2 hours. A text came confirming the time. This was followed by 2 other texts informing me of a delay and a new arrival time. Our plumber Sean was outstanding. In a short time problem was solved. I would recommend this company to everyone .

Patricio was professional and helpful. He answered all my questions and even gave me a good price for the maintenance we had done. Thank you for the pleasant service!

Scheduled an appointment online for a time slot of 10am-12pm.. called at 11:40am and asked how long or if they were running behind. I was told an hour, so I left and got home by 12:30pm. They kept calling me very couple of hours and someone FINALLY showed up at 9pm just to tell me he couldn't fix my backed up pipes and he didn't know where a manhole was, though there was one within eyesight of my residence. Unbelievable and unprofessional. I will make sure to tell anyone I know of in the area not to contact these people with any issues. I would give them a 0* if I could!

We had these guys out for an estimate on replacing our sewer line and fixing our ejector pump. They gave us an estimate of 10,000 to replace the ejector pump, citing it was a commercial grade pump and they would have to dig a new pit in order to replace it. After getting estimate from 3 other companies, each of them told me the same. The ejector pump did not need to be replaced. Ejector pumps very rarely need to be replaced. It was an electrical problem and I should contact an electrician to get it repaired. They can another totally way high estimate to replace the sewer line (about triple other companies estimate). They charged for the estimate too. They get the rating for being unethical and charging exorbitant amounts of money for their service

It all started when my bathtub started filling up with gross water. My wife and I wanted to go with Roto-Rooter because they seemed to be a reputable business and have been around a long time. Their response to our problem was very quick. We called them in the morning and they had someone the next day. The first tech they sent worked his butt off. He was out rodding my front yard for several hours. After a while he told us the line was not only clogged, but it appears to be broken in at least 1 spot. He said he cleared the line good enough to use it for things like flushing toilets and taking showers. However, this was an issue that need more attention. He said he would call his supervisor and that the supervisor would be out tomorrow. The next day the supervisor arrived an hour after our scheduled time. He seemed very knowledgeable about the issue and said he had been doing this 10 years. He ran a camera down and showed us all the issues. He gave us a quote of 10k+. This was an unexpected expense but it was a major issue and since Roto-Rooter had a good name, my wife and decided to go with them. The supervisor showed up on a Monday to have me sign off on the paperwork and said the job would start the next day between 8-10. This was a 1 day job possibly 2 if there is an issue. DAY 1The crew showed up roughly around 11 am. The workers set things up duh holes for the pipe and then left....For approx 2 hours. When the workers returned they worked for another hour or so The crew came back around 3 and worked for another hour or so. Towards the end of the day around 4, one of the workers knocked on my door to tell me they were done for the day. I looked to the street and noticed water was running from my house down the curb all the way down the street. The worker stated he hit my outgoing sewer line but it was ok, I still had running water. He said water would stop running out once the pipe emptied. After the workers left I evaluated the job site to find the holes they had dug left uncovered and caution tape hanging on by a thread. DAY 2 The next morning, one of the holes filled up with water. The hole was approximately 4' deep and nothing safely covering them. I called the supervisor and told him that the crew needs to come here immediatelty fix up, I live around alot of families with children who could get hurt. In the meantime, the city came to my door saying that the water that was still running was actually the water hookup for the city. The city shut my water off around 12. The workers showed up around 10:30 covered the holes and left around 1 after the water had been shut off. The workers would return around 3. At approx 4:30 they knocked on my door to let me know they had found the issue but unfortunately the water would have to stay off for the remainder of the night. They did offer my a hotel room which at that point was not what I wanted to hear. I voiced my concerns to the supervisor that sold me the job and he said he understood my concern but couldnt do anything that day. I requested a new set of workers because I was worried this expensive job was not being handled properly. The supevisor said he would look into it. DAY 3 The same workers showed up. I called the supervisor and he said he didn't want to rock the boat with the workers or they may walk off the job and I wouldnt be able to get things fixed. The water was turned on that day. However the job was not completed. DAY 4 The workers showed up at their normal time and said the job would most likely get done today. However, by this point, the city was on to the job at my house and they were making regular visits to make sure the job was being done correctly. The job was not completed DAY 5 This was actually a Monday so I had these large exposed holes all weekend. However, they were covered properly. The job was finished and approved by the city that day. CONCLUSION My wife and I are heartbroken and extremely upset by the lack of consideration for my community and the people living in it as well as the response by Roto Rooter themselves when called out. During my frustration, I contacted the BBB and reported Roto Rooter as at this point, the supervisor I had been speaking with seemed to keep getting me the run around. Roto-Rooter's response was pretty much "We did our job correctly, JULIE marked the lines wrong, so blame them" They never addressed and of my other concerns. At no time was the supervisor that had sold me the job or any other representative from Roto-Rooter called me or showed up to the job site to address my concerns. On top of that, when I spoke to the supervisor I had been working with, he really made it sound like all the work that had been done was a band-aid solution and realistically, we may have to dig up the line completely if it happens again. A 10k+ band-aid. Thats the work I paid for and the terrible service I received.

We've used Roto-Rooter to clean out our sewer line as it periodically gets jammed up with root growth every few years. In 2011 the tech was great, did good work and I was happy with the job. So happy that I didn't think twice about who to call when we started getting some backup and it was time to get the line cleaned out again. Quite a different experience this time. I made an appointment online and selected the 10a-12p window. Around 11:30 the dispatcher called to let me know the crews were working in the area but running behind. ETA probably another hour. Another hour or so passed and another call from dispatch with the same story and this time no ETA to give. Finally at 2:30 dispatch called to say the tech was en route. Another hour passes, and around 3:30 I called the dispatcher to ask where the tech was at. Was told he was real close and he finally arrived shortly afterwards. First thing I'm asked is if I have a clean-out he can tap into outside of the house. I told him no it's in the utility room, I've got it open and the area clear and you are all set. He asks me how long I've lived in my house and, after I tell him, lectures me that "You've lived here 12 years you should have had a cleanout installed outside the house". For fun apparently. Or maybe to make the Roto-Rooter guy's life easier. I explained to him that every other Roto-Rooter guy has been able to do the job without issue from the same cleanout he'd be using. Next complaint was that he would have to bring his 'big heavy machine' down a short flight of six stairs into my finished basement (again, same as every other roto-rooter guy ever has) because - you guessed it - I never had an exterior clean-out installed. Finally getting around to looking at the cleanout in the utility room, I'm advised that it's only a 3 inch pipe and that the line by the street is 6 inches. If I had a (you knew this was coming) 6 inch clean-out installed in any of the last 12 years like I should have, this wouldn't be a problem but as it stands he will only be able to cut a 3 inch hole through the clog. Also the rusty pipe cap was in dismal shape (it is) and he might not be able to get it back on in which case the pipe would leak inside the wall. His predecessor has simply smashed plumber's putty around the cap which served its purpose for over two years, which I pointed out. He wasn't sure he had any plumber's putty. The guy who works with plumbing for a living... At this point I lost my patience. I told him that if he didn't feel he could do the job or planned on leaving me with a mess to deal with afterwards, he could leave and I'd work with another company. He stopped lecturing, gave me a release form to sign "so I am not responsible for any problems after the job", and went out to drag in his rodding machine. I called Roto-Rooter management to ask what sort of person they'd sent over. Got a nice explanation about why the rusty cap on my pipe was no good and how they see this all the time and how having a cleanout installed outside would be a good idea and basically a lot of talk that boiled down to a politer version of the attitude I was already getting from the tech. Apology for the tech's attitude? No. Apology for blowing an appointment window by 3.5 hours? No. So the guy did the job and my clog was removed. He tried to sell me a $20 replacement cap for the pipe, but the ones he had wouldn't fit. So in the end, he had to use plumber's putty to seal it back on just like the other roto-rooter guys. Turns out he had had some sitting in his truck the entire time. Of course it had also frozen solid and couldn't be used. So - I had to give him a container of mine. The coup de grace was having to help him carry his big, heavy machine out of the basement. After he left I spent another half hour cleaning dirt (yeah right) stains off the utility room tile and the basement carpet. I also have a large, frozen puddle of 'dirt' on my driveway that leaked out of the rodding machine. This is probably the worst experience I have ever had with a services company. I used to work construction with my dad as a kid, so I'm aware of and sympathetic to a lot of the nightmare situations these guys have to deal with in people's houses I and tend to cut them a lot of slack. Even showing up hours late - god knows what he got caught up in that he couldn't walk away from all morning. No problem. But in the end, when I spend my entire day cooped up waiting for someone to show up and charge me $350 for 45 minutes of work - I don't need any attitude whatsoever and I expect them to be able to do the job correctly, with their own tools and without causing me any sort of headaches along the way.

First time single family home owner here. I have no idea what I'm doing yet. Had an unexpected water back up and called one of the only places who answered at 6:30 pm on Thursday night. That's why they get the 1 star. They came out promptly. They didn't call to confirm but they showed up so that was cool. First guy was nice. He sort of explained things. He kind of laughed as he had me sign the document saying it was 435 to rod from a clean out outside in front to the main line. The internet says this is a ridiculous price but I had 435 dollars and I had an issue so I signed the form. He worked for several hours until his machine failed. He indicated he knew he had issues but had hoped the machine would make it through to the weekend. I thought this was pretty unprofessional. He also cut the cable and left a 30 foot metal cable covered in sewage in my front yard. I guess I get to figure out what to do with that now. So I now had to take the following day off work to meet with guy number two. Guy number two came out and he was also courteous. He worked for a while and warned me (early on which was obviously a sales tactic) that he felt I may have a collapsed pipe somewhere in the main line. I immediately hit google for additional info and to prepare myself for whatever bs was about to come next. They sent a third guy with a camera out. He showed me the tree roots on the camera and talked about how bad they were and gave me two options. (Third guy commented on how they would get the metal crap cable out of my yard but they haven't done that yet and its now Tuesday.) One, have some guy with a high pressure machine that shoots water through the system that eliminates issues the first tools they had couldn't get. Camera guy/supervisor expressed this as the only next logical option which would indicate whether or not I needed to go to option 2 I will get to in a minute. This water pressure guy charges 550 an hour but Roto Rooter will have him cap the cost at 800 just for me. Read that saturated with sarcasm. Look up what that service costs elsewhere. This was complete garbage and literally this company is now just taking advantage of me. They called the guy and advised him to come over under this assumed close situation. I am a saleseperson but I don't know anything about plumbing. I was starting to panic as 435 became 1235 and was potentially about to become: Option two: Lets rip your yard and driveway up and replace the entire line with this way stronger material for an insane number of dollars. Between the time the second guy left and the water pressure guy was about to head over... I had a plumber I know and trust become available. He advised me to call off water pressure guy and said he would head over. He came over with a heavier duty version of the tool the first two dudes used. He cleared the obstruction in 35 minutes and wrapped up and my problem was resolved. He charged me 200 dollars. At the end of the day, I wish I had the foresight to emergency call the guy I knew instead of calling Roto Rooter during a panic mode. They would have easily spent 5 times what I should have spent and wasted a ton of my time. It's unfortunate that companies with names you recognize survive by capitalizing on inexperienced homeowners and a person's trust. They don't deserve your trust. They spent 435 of my dollars and 6 hours of my time and didn't actually fix anything and, in fact left a metal cable, covered in feces and grease in my front yard. Edit: Within moments of me posting this review, a representative responded on here. I emailed them and they called me. They offered solutions that made me feel a lot more comfortable about potentially using them in the future. Situations can go sideways in any business. The company itself is apparently very attentive to their clients needs and personal and financial situations. I can certainly appreciate them for making the difficult call reaching out and I applaud them for taking the steps necessary to avoid others from having similar negative experiences.

I am writing this review because I want to warn people about Roto Rooter. I called Roto Rooter because I was experiencing water overflowing from my toilet during heavy rainfalls. Roto Rooter was late for the first appointment, however, I must say that they did call and were pretty good about keeping me in the loop in regards to when a plumber would be available. The plumber did arrive, about an hour late. He informed me that I needed a camera inspection and that he was not prepared to do that. He also said that he was only an emergency plumber and only prepared to rod out the sewer line. He made an appointment for the next day for a camera inspection. Next day...The plumber did arrive on time. The plumber came equipped with an inspection camera and was ready to rod the sewer line. It was determined that I had roots in my sewer line and that rodding was necessary. The plumber preceeded to rod out the sewer line. About 5 mins into rodding he told me that he thought my sewer line was busted and that I may have a broken pipe (1 strike). I started to freak out and asked for verification. He told me he would verify after rodding was complete. He continued to rod the sewer line but kept insisting that the roots were too thick and that he "hoped" he could get through them. I watched him rod out my sewer. He was able to get through with the 2 inch attachment but was not able to advance much with the 4 inch. He said the roots were too aggressive (this process took about 20 mins, including set up). He performed a camera inspection after he decided that rodding was not going to work. The camera inspection did not identify any broken pipes but I could see the roots. The roots were located on the city property but he told me that I had to have a clean out valve installed on my property to fix the issue. A $500 job just turned into a $4500 job for a city issue (strike 2). I asked him why he could not install a clean out valve on the city's side because that is where the issue was. I wanted to know why he thought it necessary to tear my lawn apart. He then told me that if I wanted to get the city involved it would cost me an additional $650 to enter the Private Drains Program (which is free by the way if you look it up on the city's website). He also informed me that it would take the city about 3 to 4 weeks to respond and that he didn't think I had that amount of time. He also told me that he didn't think that I should use my water (strike 3)! At this point, I felt like the plumber was just trying to rip me off and told him thank you for your services and paid him $400 bucks for a camera inspection (he told me he didn't charge me for rodding ....yeah okay!!). I called the city and they said a permit would be $250 and that an inspector would come out the within a week. The licensed plumber who came 2 days later was able to unclog the sewer line, without any issues, within one hour. He also used rodding to clear out the sewer line! I did NOT NEED A CLEAN OUT VALVE WHICH WOULD HAVE COST ME $4500!!! All the original plumber needed to do was try a little hard to get his equipment through. It's not as if he didn't have time on his hands to do it. He sat at my house for an additional 2 hours waiting for the finance guy (so that I could finance the $4500) and listening to him reassure me that a clean out valve was necessary. Beware of being ripped off my Roto Rooter!

I am writing this review at the request of Roto Rooter. At the end of the repair the repair man handed me of a flyer that said, "write a review get a refund." But I don't think he counted on the fact that I was unhappy with Roto Rooter they caused a leak in my pipe. I called Roto Rooter to get my pipes rodded out after my handyman said that he was unable to fix the slow drain. Before my handyman left he showed me where the pipe needed to be rotted out. He told me they should not use the drain in the sink because there were too many bends in The pipes and they would break the them causing a leak. When the repair man from Roto Rooter arrived I showed him where he should get into the pipe in the basement. The repair man said oh no I'm going to do it from the kitchen sink, I said , but there are so many bends in the pipe, aren't you afraid of causing a leak? He stated that he knew what he was doing. Before the repair man began he gave me a paper to sign I thought it was just to okay the amount I was going to be charged and giving them permission to rod out the drain. What it was he later told was a disclaimer stating they were not responsible for causing any leaks in the pipes. The workman asked me to watch the pipes in the basement and tell him when he reached a bend in the so he wouldn't create a leak. When he started threading the rodder through the pipe it immediately started to shake and make a loud noise. I told him to stop, he said he barely had the rodder in the pipe and continued to try to fish the rodder through the pipe. When he finished he told me I had a leak in the pipe in the wall near the sink. This seemed very strange to me since I never had a leak there before Roto Rooter was in my house. The repairman tried to fix the leak with some kind of wax. I called Roto Rooter and reported the leak caused by the Roto Rooter repairman. The lady said they would send someone else out to repair the leak and replace the pipe. I asked if there was a charge and she said no. When the new repairman arrived he informed me I signed a disclaimer and wanted $750.00 to replace the pipe. I said they should repair it for free, the repairman told me he spoke to the first repairman who said I had signed the disclaimer, but he neglected to tell him it had been given to me surreptitiously. I did not have this man replace the pipe, I had someone else fix it for $350. I do not recommend Roto Rooter at all but,I had to give them one star since that Is the lowest Yelp will allow me to give.

I had a problem on Sunday 9/7/14 with a sink drain that was clogged. I called Roto Rooter and made an appointment for Monday. The plumber came out and looked at it and told me the drain needed to be rodded to clear the blockage. I have never had this done, so I had no idea what it was going to cost. The guy showed me a book and told me it would be $469. Not knowing what this service cost, I agreed to let him do the work. Ironically, later that day I received a Valpak in the mail with a coupon for a local plumber that offered power rodding for $50 with no trip charge. Obviously I got screwed. The plumber was there for one hour, so $469 for an hour of work seems outrageous. I will never use Roto Rooter again, and I will make sure everyone I know is told about this experience. This is totally unacceptable, clearly they are taking advantage of an uneducated homeowner. I could have even handled three times what the other plumber charges, but almost 10 times the charge is just plain screwing people. Here is the funny thing, I just looked up the cost of the power rodding equipment on Global Industries website, an almost identical piece of equipment costs $563 brand new. So what exactly does Roto Rooter do, use it a couple of times and throw it away? That is the only explanation for this kind of charge. Follow up: I called a couple of local plumbers and the average price to Rod a drain was $115 for a kitchen sink. Therefore I called Roto Rooter to complain. I was told the price is set by the national home office and there is no negotiation in the price. They also told me that I was charged $59 for a gallon of enzyme to help keep the drain clean. I did get this bottle of stuff, but was never told I would be charged for it. I told them I did not want it, so they said they would schedule a time to come pick it up and give me a credit. The manager ended the call by saying, "I hope this makes you happy." Seriously? I got charged 4 times as much as the average price, plus was charged for a product I never requested, and you think I'm going to be happy? Do not use Roto Rooter, they will scam you. Call a local plumber who is fair and honest.

The first contact was via email and online. It was positive. They advertise free estimates. When the plumber arrived, the free estimate was over $400 to rod the sewer line or over $300 to use the camera and video the line. I guess they should advertise that the free estimate is to tell you how much it will cost to tell you what needs to be done. Creative way to mislead the customers. Once the video was completed, I was told that I had 2 problems and it would cost almost $9,000 to fix it. The problems were a leaky sewer line connection and a sewer line collapsing. Basically they need to dig two areas, one about 4 feet and another about 6 feet and replace a couple of pipes, T connector and clean out. I estimate this should take no more than 12 hours. So, 12 hours at $750 per hour, not bad. I want to be a plumber now. By the way, all other plumbers confirmed that it should not take more than 12 hours of work. When I told the plumber that the cost was too high, he told me that there might be a way to repair the line without digging by patching the pipe. He told me and wrote on the estimate that he had to talk to his supervisor, Kris, to confirm and he would call me the next day to confirm. He never called me back, so they lost the business. Next chapter - I called four other plumbers. All of them suggested another way to correct the leaky line by replacing the pipe at another area to make sure the problem was fixed right. The final cost was way under half of what Roto-Rooter quoted. I do not recommend this company. 12-2-14 Review update. I was contacted by the customer service team and they sent my comments to Lynnette who called me and we had a productive discussion about the service call. She refunded the full amount of the service call and assured me that Roto-Rooter appreciates my business and wants to keep me as a customer. I was satisfied by the way she handled it. I will try them again in the future. Thanks for listening and for taking care of your customers. I appreciate it.

I would rate my experience ZERO stars!!! We hired them to do some water mitigation in our basement. First thing the project manager wanted to see was our home owners insurance. Ooh your house has a great policy. Hmm why would he say that?? Red flag #1. We file a claim with our insurance. He tells us that he will send his best team. Next day 2 guys show up and ask what can be thrown out. Me: umm I want to save as much as we can as these are important to my family. Oh ok, Note: we had original artwork stored in a storage room. We also had 10 folding tables that could have been used. Instead the two guys placed 14 pieces of original art on the wet floor of the basement along with the 14 easels and numerous boxes of personal items that originally were not on the floor but ended up on the floor. Removed Baseboard/trim and flooring. Sprayed cleaner on the floor. Put a bunch of air movers on the floor, installed a separate circuit for movers. Then they didn't plug them into the separate circuit and blew out AC circuit. Couple of days later we had a major storm in our neighborhood. No power for over 25 hrs. 6 inches of water in the basement and personal items on the floor and original art damaged!Called pm who said we don't work with people who have no power call us back when you do. Umm you are billing yourself as water mitigation but you definitely are NOT. Hired another more reputable company who came and cleaned up the mess that was made by your team. Insurance paid out a significant porting of your invoice. Why would we pay the remaining balance when you destroyed personal property during your time in our house? If anyone is looking at water cleanup or mitigation this is one company to stay far far away from! More crazy details too much to post and I'm too angry to write about but heed my words stay away from this company!

I don't often write reviews, but in this instance I feel I may be able to help someone in the future. We had a root problem causing sewage backup in our basement. We were having other work done at our house through a trusted contractor, so we asked for his help. He and his crew tried to get the roots out but were unsuccessful with the device they rented from Home Depot. The contractor then called Roto Rooter to come out and take a video of what was in the pipe and try to resolve the issue. One good thing about the experience is that Roto Rooter was out at our house right away with our contractor. (My wife and I were at work). After taking a video and looking at the footage, Roto Rooter tried to clear the roots for about 30 minutes to no avail. This charge was $550. Then, according to our contractor, the two gentlemen were very bold saying that this should be taken care of immediately and that they will be back this afternoon to rip up the driveway and clear out the roots. The price quoted for this was $8,000. Luckily our contractor didn't agree and sent them off and called us immediately and advised us to get another opinion. After 3 attempts to have the video footage emailed to us, we received it and reviewed it with a couple local plumbers who were not pleased that Roto Rooter wanted to rip up our driveway. We hired one of them and they cleared the roots within 15-20 minutes with a 3" blade, then went back through with a 4" blade. They had the issue resolved within less than an hour and guaranteed their work for a year and advised us to have it cleared at least every other year to prevent this from happening again. Long story short, get a second opinion. It could very well save you thousands of dollars.

Back in September my toilets weren't flushing fully and there was a sewer type smell in the kitchen. The Roto-Rooter technician spent all day rooting the lines. After a full day, and $400.00 later, he told me he did the best he could but it's still not working and I should call his manager. He was kind enough to leave a Roto-Rooter pen behind but he left it in the back of my toilet!!!! No kidding, I found it when I lifted the lid off the back. James came to my home with a camera. He recommended a pipe patch at the shift and installation of a clean out access between the city and driveway even though I had one in the back yard. $7,000.00 later and the same problem. They refunded the initial $400.00 charge for rooting but I was still out $6,600.00. James had a few different guys come to re root but still no luck. After several frustrating days James came back with more cameras and a plumber. They eventually cleared the lines but I wonder if the clean out was necessary as I already had one in the back yard. The smell remained. This time they said my problem was broken cast iron under a toilet even though the camera couldn't show it. No problem, they were willing to rip my floor apart, replace the cast iron, install PVC replacement for the tub and clean the area for a measly $7,500.00. This time I sought a second opinion. Guess what? NO CRACK IN THE CAST IRON! The problem was a cracked pipe in my kitchen sink. This legitimate plumber replaced it for $1,800.00 I later found someone to sanitize the area for $1,500.00. Lesson learned, go with local family owned companies!!!!