Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Rick was professional, friendly and efficient. He explained everything and treated me like I could understand it. Which I very much appreciate. No hard core sales pitch, just facts that helped me decide.

Rick came out and repaired a broken water Spigot (broken in the copper pipe). He was very thorough, explained what he was doing, tested thoroughly and got it right. He was kind enough to let me observe without complaint. The water heater repair involved replacing a frozen shut off valve. Again, thorough and well done.

Timothy was my technician and Roto Rooter got the job because they showed up first. I tried my best to fix the plumbing issue we had in our home on a Sunday afternoon with no success. Timothy took care of the problem and made sure to clean up after himself. The job was wrapped up in no time. Only issue was I didn’t get an invoice for the work because Timothy said he was out of them and that the office would reach out after the weekend to get me one. It took a while but John from the Livermore office reached out and made things right. Overall the customer service was on point. I would recommend Roto Rooter to family and friends. They get the job done and in the end they get it done right.

They will give you a "free estimate" but will not tell you how much actual service is. They leave it up to the "technician" to arbitrarily make up what ever $ amount they think they can stick it to you for. Had a guy (Caesar) out to ask about roughing in a sewage line. While he was at my home already I asked how much he would charge to do a simple bathroom sink fix. Would take less than 15 min. He told me his minimum is $250. I kicked him out of my house. THESE PEOPLE TRY AND TAKE ADVANTAGE. BEWARE

Was a customer for years. Sewer backed up & I called Roto-Rooter to clear line. Was completely surprised by the 115% cost increase over last bill (24 months). Was over a barrel as couldn't use systems. No one from company would discuss the price increase. Awful customer service' even though the tech was a nice guy. Paid the price & RR lost a long-time customer. Hope to NEVER do business with this company.

We have had several experiences with Roto-Rooter. If you are having a sewer emergency (for instance, say you've got raw sewage backing up into your bathtub and onto the floor at an alarming rate of speed), it doesn't matter if it's 5AM on a Sunday, the service call will not cost you more than it would at 2PM on a Tuesday. This is a huge deal because we used another service last fall, and it cost about $600 (with a Yelp first-timer coupon) to snake our pipe early one Sunday morning. Roto-Rooter performed the same job, and snaked the same sewer line, for about $300 (again, with a coupon). Unfortunately, when he snaked out the drain, the R-R technician nicked my sump pump line with his big borer/auger, which led to an infinite mobius strip loop of crapwater being sprayed infinitely back underneath my house. Yes, they sent someone back out to deal with this issue for free when I called in distress to report it, but I had to go buy my own replacement hose. And: they didn't snake my sewer out all the way the first time, so the problem recurred within two weeks. If you've ever cleaned liquefied human sewage out of the nooks and crannies of your home, cursing heaven and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you'll know that even if your sewage line cleanout warranty covers you for a hundred years, you don't ever want to have to use it. So, while they cheerfully returned to re-snake the sewer line at no additional cost, and while they scoped the sewer line with a camera in order to determine that they didn't completely Roto-Root it out the first time, a free warranty revisit cannot flush out the nightmare of more excrement in my bathtub. The sewer camera experience was also free; we had previously paid about $400 for a different plumber to perform a sewer cam colonoscopy. While the $400 plumber did give me a high-quality DVD of the experience (note: Sewer Cam Carnage 2015 got a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), Roto-Rooter did not, but we were able to watch the R-R cam experience in real time. Our technician, Jamie, confirmed the earlier sewer line diagnosis we had received (weird bend, poor slope). Jamie said that we should probably install an additional sewer pipe clean-out in the front of the house, and that the majority of the cost of this work would be in excavating the many cubic yards of clay earth necessary for him to reach the sewer pipe. Jamie said that we could save a thousand dollars by digging the yard up ourselves, quoted us $450 maximum, and when we asked for a written estimate, Jamie said not to worry about it, and reiterated that we could call him anytime to complete the work and he'd be there. Feeling optimistic, my spouse and I spent our Valentine's Day/week digging up heavy clay with shovels and hand trowels like sewage-seeking anthropologists. But Jamie was nowhere to be found; no matter how many messages we left for him with R-R, he would not return our calls. We finally gave up on Jamie, and agreed to meet with another Roto-Rooter technician named César. Unfortunately, with no written estimate (thanks again, Jamie!), César was free to quote us whatever he wanted, and he did: $750 to replace five feet of angled PVC sewer pipe. My spouse was very clear with César that we expected the job to include not only a sewer cleanout, but also the access hatch that we would use to, well, access our new sewer cleanout portal. Well, César certainly replaced our sewer cleanout in late February, but despite agreeing to specific items repeatedly in advance, he did not finish the work that he had been contracted to complete. César brushed this off, saying how all I had to do was go to the hardware store and buy the thing for $10 (nope; procuring it took a couple hours, a couple phone calls, and two hours of driving, plus a cost of $20), making it sound like I was a super-wuss for even suggesting we'd want a plumber to do such a worthless task, not to mention expecting him to do the job for which we'd be paying him. My second-favorite nightmare related to this job was that César overcharged us by $100, and lied to my face to do it ("just like I told your spouse, it's $850," when he had told my spouse $750). It took me two weeks of repeated phonecalls (until I called Regional Corporate HQ, I couldn't even speak to anyone except call-center dispatch) and emails to get someone's attention. It took a few extra weeks to get my $100 back that I was overcharged. What's my favorite nightmare of this job? César left large, identifiable human feces in my rock garden. Imagine I wrote that in all-caps. Imagine what you'd do to rectify this situation. I love how Roto-Rooter has populated their review with twenty staged/stock photos from their own website. A more realistic photograph might have been the human waste piled up in my rock garden, and spread across my yard. I think Roto-Rooter's uneven service experience and untouchable/non-existent customer care department makes me feel very wary of ever calling them again.

(Context: this job counts as after-hours, "24-hour" emergency plumbing) I called for help at 5:30pm, and was told they'd be here by 8pm... Ok, figured I could wait that long. Got a call at 7:30pm saying they'd be late by an unspecified amount of time... Ok, I was still willing to wait. Got a second call at 9pm saying they were too busy and weren't going to come AT ALL. Naturally, this is an emergency plumbing problem. Our toilet doesn't work. Inconvenient. And they know this. I wasted 3.5 hours of precious evening time for nothing. Now at 9pm I've had to call around desperately searching for someone else who can come. Everyone's already booked up for the night, so I should feel lucky that I found someone who can come at 3am. BAD FORM, ROTO-ROOTER. Bad form indeed. (Comment retracted regarding fishy functionality of their website) Next day, update: Pat, the company commenter below, did a good job of elevating my issue to the General Manager of my local Roto Rooter call center, and I did have a conversation with a staff member who called me to discuss. Unfortunately, this employee was more interested in retaining my business than improving their company. He offered excuses, apologies, and discounts (in that order). However, these things do nothing in the way of keeping this issue from recurring with another customer. Even when I said that all I cared about was improvement, he still just offered more excuses and apologies. I didn't get the feeling he was hearing me at all or had any plans to pursue the matter internally. I have a personal interest in Roto-Rooter being reliable because at my next emergency plumbing incident I'd like as long a list as possible of plumbers I can feel good about calling, since so many of them will turn me down due to workload. Turn me down is what Roto-Rooter should've done from the get-go if they didn't have enough plumbers to compensate for unanticipated problems on their jobs. And after being in their business for so long, by now they should be planning for "unanticipated" problems simply as best practice. The nature of 24-hour emergency plumbing service is that all calls are urgent. If I could wait until morning for repair why in the world would I pay extra and stay up late to get the issue resolved at night? Reliability is an inherent requirement of this kind of service because by definition emergencies need quick resolution. As an analogy, the function of a lamp is to provide light when you turn it on. If it only sometimes provides light but sometimes doesn't, it has failed in its function and needs to be repaired or replaced. If a company claiming to provide 24-hour emergency plumbing only sometimes shows up and sometimes doesn't, it has failed in its function and needs to be repaired or replaced. Since they don't seem interested in improving their internal workings so this doesn't happen again, even after I made a good faith effort to alert them of the issue, I have replaced them. I will not be calling Roto-Rooter again, and I am sorry I cannot raise my star rating. Pat, your colleagues have let you down.

I believe that Roto-Rooter's charges are excessive and that its offer of a "free" video inspection is used to aggressively upsell un-needed additional services. Roto-Rooter cleared two blocked toilets in my house for $882. The serviceman couldn't find either of two clear-outs (later found easily by a gardener), spent much time trying to clear a rainwater line, not the blocked sewage line, and left my bathroom floor covered in sewage, which he said he could not clean up. In my opinion, the charges for the actual work done were excessive and the condition in which my home was left was unacceptable. My bigger complaint, however, is with the "free" follow-on video inspection. Following an inspection of the line that had been cleared, a Roto-Rooter serviceman quoted me $5,547.74 to perform a "spot repair" or $24,454.32 for a full pipe-burst line replacement, both subject to change orders for any "unforeseen or additional work needed." When I asked for an inspection report, not proposals to do more work, he provided me with a brief narrative of the condition of the one sewage line, and some still photos, but neither the video nor an explanation of why $30,000 of work was needed. He said that if I didn't get the work done, I could rely on the service warranty of the original work order, but after that the risk of a line failure would be entirely mine. I got another bid from a local plumber who inspected the line, found the root intrusion that was the cause of the original blockage, told me that the line otherwise was in good shape, and proposed to repair the line and to upgrade two clear-outs. I had him do the work for $2,375, a fraction of what Roto-Rooter quoted. In my view, Roto-Rooter's interactions with me reflect aggressive marketing more than fair pricing for needed services. When I asked its local office manager to explain why I should not view its actions as improper, he did not address my particular concerns, but rather stated that Roto-Rooter's actions were in line with "industry standards." I disagree, and would not recommend Roto-Rooter's services to anyone. P.S. -- After receiving Mr. Swanson's response, below, I provided him with the information requested, including the service address and copies of correspondence I had had with him and the Roto-Rooter General Manager over the preceding several months. It is disheartening to note that his response to every complaint on Yelp is the same, that he was "unable to locate [my] record in our system," and that he apparently did not look for his own previous correspondence with me. All of which underscores my view that Roto-Rooter appears to give pat responses to complaints rather than investigating them on their merits.

TL;DR - Super happy with EPA's Roto Rooter plumber and excavation team. Read on if you want to know about orangeburg pipes. Super happy with the Roto-Rooter team of EPA. We used our Home Warranty the first time for toilet / shower back-up and they sent a Roto Rooter person. The plumber was very nice but didn't do the job right. To be clear, not sure which Roto Rooter location that plumber came from. Anyways, 2 weeks later, we had the same issue but worse, so we called Home Warranty again and it was a complete disaster. So we ended up calling EPA Roto-Rooter on our own. THEY ARE AWESOME. Within 2 hours of my call, the plumber showed up - Octavius. He was very polite, knew exactly what was wrong with our pipes. He snaked it and suggested that we get a video done to make sure that there isn't anything else that is an issue given that we had this happen twice within 3 weeks. The cost was about $280. In my mind, we might as well get that video as I really didn't want to spend about $300 each time! We scheduled the video shortly after and John Cronin showed up. John is super professional and walked me thru what he was going to do. He also showed me the video and explained what we were looking at. In short, our front yard had Orangeburg pipes - which is like paper mache - yikes! The city of SV states " Many homes in Sunnyvale constructed in the 1940s through the 1970s were initially provided with a sewer lateral made of pressed tar paper known as "Orangeburg pipe." The City does not replace or maintain Orangerburg pipe. If your sewer lateral, or what is left of your sewer lateral, is of Orangeburg pipe, then it is the property owner's responsibility to fix or replace the sewer lateral. Replacement is recommended, as the material is long past its service life and may totally collapse at any time. Replacement with modern materials, especially plastic pipe, will remove most root intrusion issues and provide good service for decades." Yes, we replaced our front yard paper mache pipes. The Roto-Rooter excavation team was wonderful to work with - although - we did have some hiccups which is why this review is not 5 stars. Not a huge deal but the one/two day excavation ended up being longer. As in, the date was post-poned once and then the equipment to dig broke. So all in, took about 2 weeks. Now, there was no rush during the holidays and you can still use water so it was no big deal. I'd actually give 4.5 stars if I could. Again, Pat, Jordan, Tino (the technician) are AWESOME. Great team to work with. If you need to replace your pipes, these guys are the best! FYI - Cost was about $5800.

Subject: Service Complaint Pat Swanson Customer Satisfaction Manager Hello, I am writing to you because you seem to be handling all of the Internet complaints about Roto-Rooter's service and I am doing this before I add another serious complaint to the comments on the Internet. Summary We had a clogged toilet in the second-floor master bathroom and James came to unclog the drain on June 30,2022 in Portola Valley. The obstruction was cleared but the procedure apparently broke the straps that position the pipe at an acute angle and resulted in its being in a more horizontal position. As a result, now the toilet bubbles and gurgles 3 or 4 times each time it is flushed. The toilet had never done that before Roto-R ooter's intervention. Details: Roto-rooter sent James to clear an obstruction in our second-floor master bathroom. I was shocked that the fee was going to be $809.93 but James said that it included additional service - a camera evaluation of the inside of the pipe. And, he emphasized it was included in the price. ** I called to make the camera appointment and got a call back: Debra with Roto-Rooter. camera request. Give us a call back at 408-340-9076. I called and was told the earliest appointment was 7/7/22 with an arrival window of 8:00-4:00. On 7/7/22 I called to see if they could narrow the window and was told that no appointment had been made but that they could send someone out the next day 7/8/22 with a 10 AM to 2 PM arrival time. On 7/8/22 at 2 o'clock I called to find out why the technician had not arrived and was told he was held up and would be there shortly. At about 3 o'clock Scott SYLVIA arrived and was upset because he said he did not do second-floor camera work and only did ground floor and finger system septic work. He called his supervisor to see if it would be all right if he went ahead anyway and was told, no, that he should call the local supervisor which he did. The next supervisor arrived around 3:30 and told me that it would cost over $700 for him to perform the camera evaluation of the plumbing system. I said I was told it was included in the original fee and he said I had misunderstood and left. Since the original snake procedure, after flushing the toilet, sewer gas backs up into the now horizontal pipe with a gurgling and bubble popping sound. ** License: 806952. Invoice: 193-24159067 Conclusion: 1. Roto-Rooter should repair the damage to the plumbing in my master bathroom. 2 Roto-Rooter is in serious need of customer service improvement. Sincerely,

Update: Ok Jose to the rescue! He saw my post and responded and helped my situation out. To me, it's all about how people/a company responds to mistakes cus let's face it, we all make them sometimes. I had some other issues come up (it's an old house ) and he was here right away helping me, clarifying things, and opening up channels of communication I feel a lot more confident about. He also consulted with me on the previous issue, and it's gonna save me more headaches and money in the future - way better than what anyone else was jerking me around with. Next time I have an issue I'm contacting Jose directly cus I know he's got my back. Super appreciated! Also, never going back to Alliance lol. But they got their own bad review so ‍. But Jose at Rotor Rooter is the man! Original post: When it comes to plumbing stuff, they've been fine. But their water damage removal service? Skip it and go somewhere else. They work in conjunction with Alliance Environmental, and the communication is terrible. Rotor Rooter (update: it was actually an Alliance work order, so I'm putting this on them) just showed up to my house today, but I'm in the Philippines and they should have known that! Their point of contact from Alliance knows that but for some crazy reason they still sent rotor rooter to my house today, calling me while it's midnight here and I'm trying to sleep... Also, they said their dehumidifier would take three days. It took TWO WEEKS and had to be on 24/7. My mom was getting headaches and couldn't sleep. We're going to have to do extra paper work with insurance to reimburse us for the crazy spike in our energy bill from this thing. Also, we had some questions about the bill that seemed off and no one was getting back to us. Eric said he'd call my mom back but he called me. I gave him my mom's phone number (which he had since day one) but still didn't call her. This cleanup process for damages that happened in early November aren't going to end up getting fixed until January next year... and in the meantime that room is just empty and smelly and all the stuff from that room are all over my living room and garage, making my house a mes. So frustrating. Don't go here for water damage and don't let them lead you to Alliance Environmental. But with actual plumbing stuff they've been fine so I gave an extra star for that. But I'm too mad to give any more.

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use these folks. I was given a timeframe of 12-4pm for the service man to come out and replace the thermocouple on my gas water heater. He arrived after 4:30pm. Granted, I received several phone calls during the afternoon (1:21pm - dispatcher called and said she'll call me right back as she was on the other line with the driver - well, why call me until AFTER you're done with them?, 1:50pm (to tell me that their driver is having truck problems), 3:54pm (to tell me that they're almost done but couldn't give me a timeframe), 4:22pm (they're on their way). I felt like I was bated with these phone calls to keep me at home for what was almost 5 hours when they could have just given me 1 or 2 phone calls at most to tell me they're 30 min out. This way I wouldn't have felt like a prisoner in my own home. In fact, I believe this is what they told me when I made the appt, that someone would call me when they're 30 min out from arriving. I walked the serviceman to my water heater showing him the replacement part that GE mailed to me (it was still under warranty). Service man says to me, "Because you already have the part, the labor will be $528 for 1-1.5 hr work." My mouth dropped. WHAT?!?? Are you kidding me? He said, "how much did you expect to pay?" I said certainly not $500...I was thinking $200-$300 at most. He went back to his truck to talk to his mgr and came back with a quote of $295. Heck no, I told him I would get a 2nd quote elsewhere. He was on his way. As he was walking away, I got another quote right then of $187.50 (which was the overtime rate for the weekend, otherwise it would have been $60 less). Heck, $187.50 was WAY worth it to me than the whopping $528. The other competitor in Palo Alto (closer to my home) came that same evening (only 40 min later, not 4 hrs+) and got the job done in 30 min and most of all, he was sooo nice and professional unlike the guy from Roto-Rooter who didn't even have a smile on his face. I chose Roto-Rooter only because they were one of those listed to use by the GE rep I spoke to. Stay away from this place.

We found out our toilet was leaking into the downstairs unit on a Saturday and called Roto-Rooter. They were supposed to come out that night, but something came up and they rescheduled for Sunday. I'm tempted to give one star, but I'll give another star because the plumber, Q, was very friendly and helpful. On Sunday, Q said he needed their water restoration unit to open up the downstairs ceiling before he could fix the toilet so he could tell where the water was coming from. Q called someone from the water restoration unit and scheduled him to inspect downstairs from 8-9am the next day. No one ever came. Q said his contact called in sick and other water restoration guys were supposed to come, but their manager sent them to another job. Q fixed the upstairs toilet (cost $276 to replace 2 wax rings - check online for a $50 off coupon) and made a new appointment for the water restoration people to come two days later between 8-9am. The water restoration people didn't show up again. I called Roto-Rooter at 9am to complain and their unit came out after I called. The repairman said it would cost between $1,500-$2,500 to repair my neighbor's ceiling. I told him I wanted to get a few estimates and asked how much it would cost to just remove the drywall and open up the ceiling. He said "a couple hundred." I agreed to that price and he cut out the ceiling and presented me with a $500 bill! I asked him why he quoted me at "a couple hundred" if it was going to cost $500. He said that he was surprised too, but it's what the system showed. I told him I wasn't paying the bill and he offered to lower it to $400. I stupidly told him I expected it to cost a maximum of $250-300 and he said he'd agree to $300. I feel cheated. Update: The manager called and will not be charging me for the water restoration services. He mentioned that it broke company policy to receive and sign the estimate after the work was already performed. I really appreciate his response and have updated my review to 3 stars.

We had a slow draining issue on our kitchen sink and after trying the classic remedies ourselves for two days, we knew it was time to call in professionals. The appointment request system was straightforward and the service coordinator was really helpful. I was trying to get estimates from several providers, and the coordinator let me know that an over the phone quote wasn’t possible but the estimate visit was complimentary with no strings attached. I was offered to have a technician out within 2 hours, but opted to have someone come the next day around my work schedule. Armando E. (Mondo) arrived on the early part of my appointment window, and got straight to work. He clearly knew what he was doing, and diagnosed our issue after a thorough inspection, explaining the process along the way. We had other providers scheduled for estimate slots, but Mondo was able to offer us a really competitive price to do the work same day. He answered all of our questions about the scope of work and inclusions/exclusions of the warranty, making us feel comfortable to move forward without pressure. As he worked, he asked us questions about our usage of the sink, and when we mentioned we at times have slow hot water he even went out to check on our water heater. Mondo snaked our system quickly, but it certainly wasn’t a rush job. Outside of snaking and checking our water heater, he also took the time to look at our pipes in our basement and gave us recommendations on how we can maintain our system on our own to prevent issues down the road. He cross checked his own work with care, and ensured their were no leaks or issues. Mondo treated our home like we would have (if we’d had the expertise and skill that is), and I felt like he went the extra mile to make sure things were done right. I hope I don’t have too many other plumbing issues in the future, but if we do I’ll definitely be requesting Mondo from Roto-Rooter!

I am a repeat customer with Roto Rooter. My vintage home was undergoing a seismic retrofit. The sewer line was compromised and I had the seismic team contact Roto Rooter. The first person out was Brian. After a quick assessment, he contacted his supervisor Scott Sylvia. Quick action was taken to 1) clear the length of the sewer line and 2) run a camera through to assess the status. It soon became apparent that the entire 32' of line needed to be replaced. Mind you, some of this line was probably close to 100 years old. The original time frame would not have worked, since I was under a deadline with the seismic retrofit. Scott worked a miracle and got the job going in a couple of days. The work was started, but unfortunately the person assigned the job kind of dropped the ball. I will let Roto Rooter handle that. But, back to the good stuff. Scott and Roberto showed up to save the day and got the sewer line completed. The line was inspected Friday (10/20/17) and passed. Monday, the 23rd, Roberto came out to bury the line. The remarkable thing is that nobody would ever know the chaos that existed for almost a week. The upshot is Roto Rooter is a good company and does quality work. Brian assessed the initial situation and made a call. Then he and Scott took the initial steps. Roberto came in and made everything right, with Scott's help. I would expect that they will take internal steps to address the missteps taken by the one guy, who chose not to finish the job. I will continue to call Roto Rooter when I need something. My vintage home is a little less vintage. thank you Roto Rooter.