Miki M.
02/10/2007 12:00:00 SA
Waking up with a clogged sewage drain at home is no fun at all...
First, I called the city... after all, I pay fees every month for sewer usage. I might as well!
Two men with sarcastic smiles arrived only 10 minutes later, and ckecked the area of city responsibility- everything looks fine sir, on our side- you will have to tackle this with a plumber on your own... you need to do it very soon, before you get sanctioned by the health department... and let me tell ya, plumbing ain't cheap, said one of the men who appeared to be the boss, as he was entering back into the service van. The other one nodded a few times absent-mindedly, poetically, showing approval and full devotion to his boss.
I called our local Mr. Rooter Plumbing in Lakewood; a polite lady picked up the call, and promised to arrange a plumber visit as soon as possible... so far so good.
Two gentlemen showed up driving a huge van proudly displaying Mr. Rooter's smiley face. They tried some routine procedures to clear my drain. I wasn't there- I work full time for Samsung Design- but my mother who happened to be in town helped me to supervise the work.
These guys were clearly professionals who seem to know what they are doing. Until here, my experience was 5 stars.
However, when the final diagnose of what's wrong with my sewer was ready, I quickly removed 3 stars from my initial rating- the repair prices proposed by the Mr. Rooter team were... exporbitant!!! For example, they always charge a set-up fee of $1500 for most repairs. And they don't explain in detail what that set-up fee is. Also, for the special type of epoxy lining that was necessary to do, stregthening the inside of my house's old broken sewer pipes (damaged by years of earthquakes and lots of roots), they charge $85 per foot. Which for 100 feet is how much? $8500!
According to the plumbers, this is a brand new technology. Using an ipoxy gun of some sort, they inject hot epoxy at high speed into the old tubes, which creates a sort of undestructible tube within the tube that reinforces, clears, and is not vulnerable to tree roots for many years to come.
But... that expensive? Come on!!!
Yep, unbelievable. When they calculated costs of labor, and a few other miscelaneous charges of about $200 each (which they again did not clearly explain to me), the grand total came up to $12,000.00. Argh.
I told the manager, whose name is Brian, that $12,000 is out of my league. Even if I own a home, it should not mean that I have such money available in liquid form... I don't know what it looks like on the side, but my budget is very tight.
So they offered to give me 'special discount' of 15% if I sign up for their 5 years coverage plan ($370). I agreed- and this brought down the price to a grand total of $10,000.00... Cash.
Again, I guess I shouldn't be complaining- indeed my house is pretty old (built in 1919)... I was expecting something would eventually happen. Sooner or later. But that much money for a single contracting job? My house is eating away chunks of its own equity?
Luckily, I'm able to pay today. So I can have a toilet. But what about all the other people around?? Other than perhaps certain millionaires, who can possibly afford such expensive plumbing repairs? So what do those people do when their toilets are backed up?
And how do the Mr. Rooter of Long Beach guys survive?
As I don't have prior experience with such problems so I can't really tell- I will let you be the judge. Please feel free to send me a message with comments about this, and share with me your experience- I would appreciate it.
Only because I am not happy about the repair costs- and not fully convinced how honest this final balance was- I decided to give a low rating. You have the right to be warned.
Otherwise, for 3 business days, the guys did a good (clean) job: they carefully removed concrete in my garden, unearthed small portion of the tube, injected the epoxy, covered back the hole with earth and replaced the concrete blocks in a decent (while not perfect) way. My garden did not become unusable. For this reason, instead of 1 star, I give Mr. Rooter 2 stars- I commend the young employees who actually did the dirty and quite difficult job (and I doubt they get even a small chunk of that $10,000- most of it probably goes to the owner).