Roto-Rooter Plumbing, Drain & Water Cleanup

This story keeps getting worse.

Johnny, the plumber did a reasonable job. He seems like he did his job as best he could, though the one issue I have is that he did not quickly determine my toilet should be replaced and stop service to keep the bill down. Instead he sort of led me down a rabbit hole.

Dave, Johnny's Supervisor answered my call initially, accepted that the service was not exactly completed as it should have been and offered me a refund. Great! ... except I have yet to see any refund in my account now after 12 days.

Mike, Dave's Manager initially took my call and complaint and helped me get in touch with Dave when he was not answering his phone. This is what led to the refund. Now, the refund has not arrived, and NOBODY is answering phones. So I am stuck dialing the poor admins who are having to deal with my dissatisfaction, though it has nothing to do with them.

Ultimately, the issue here is a lack of integrity or even caring about doing their jobs well and caring for people.

I asked for a description of the service performed, where Dave wrote down that it is likely a mineral buildup. This is really frustrating. It is a 3 year old toilet! I told you a make-up bag fell in and something was flushed. Either get it out, or tell me that your cost to get it out is more than a new toilet and I can replace my toilet myself. Period.

I was on hold trying to reach Dave while venting here. Dave just got back to me assuring me my refund, plus the remaining $250 refunded as well. This would be the best possible ending at this point, where the only $ cost incurred is the replacement of my toilet. The other cost (which is significant) is my time spent chasing this down and helping these folks to do the right thing.

I am told I will receive a call before 9am tomorrow with the refund processing. I will not hold my breath.

So they charged $6k plus to do a job and they didn't want to give a break down if the price and ask why didn't you ask this before and then they get huffy when you don't want them to do the extra $14k job that wasn't really necessary. Red flag. Feeling ripped off. Never again.

Roto-Rooter was one of 4 bids received to install new construction sewer line.
The bid was 3 - 4 times higher than all other bids received from reputable construction & plumbing companies.
I called Ruben to discuss and he could not explain to me what went into his costs / break down labor & materials. Makes me question the % of profit built into their estimates.

SCUM!!!! Horrible, horrible. Do not call them, do not give them any attention. These people are scammers and real pezzonovantes. They give you an estimated technician arrival time of 1 hour, and then don't show up till hours later. Why? Because if they told you they'd be 4 hours, you would just call someone else. LAME BAD SAD!!!!

I must say I do recommend this company. After having the floor drains in my business over flow and flood our business and deciding trying to reach the property management after hours on a Sunday was pointless I called this place. They sent me Timothy Steele, and he was great. After coming from riverside to Solvang in a time o would say is very reasonable. He was able to get my drains working again all while being up beat and great to talk to. I would recommend him.

We tried them because of their Axxess discount.  They sent someone out in a timely fashion, but basically charged $200 just to diagnose the problem.  Said it'd be another $575 to actually fix.  We agreed because we were already in for the $200, but when they came back the next day, and tried to fix they couldn't.  Said they would have to jackhammer up the floor to replace, and the total bill would be $3K.  We got another estimate, and another plumber fixed our problem for $200 and no jackhammering.  We still paid our $775 bill to Roto-Rooter, but learned our (expensive) lesson and will never use them again!

Worst plumbing company to deal with unless you enjoy getting ripped off. All the plumbers here are on commission so guess what? They have overcharge the customer to bring home a decent paycheck. The plumbers are charged for parts, even for their invoice they write your bill on. Now if you are trying to bring home a decent check guess what you have to do ? Overcharge your customers! Outrageous!! I now know to ask when I call if their plumbers are hourly or on commission. Saved me $3700.00 by just asking the right questions

Tyler was our main technician and was excellent! When we had water running down the stucco walls outside after draining our upstairs tub, my husband and I panicked! We had just moved in and nothing has been going according to plan, but Tyler was so responsive, cautious, always called to communicate before he arrived so I could get my dogs under control and even cleaned up my son's spit up! We might still have an array of other issues with this house, but not only is the leak fixed, the team also identified that the plumbing was improperly installed and a disaster waiting to happen and fixed it! It's a bummer to have to spend on plumbing when you move in and have all these grand ideas you want to tackle, but plumbing is a priority! Now we know that we will need to work on the rest of the house thanks to Tyler and his though work. He spent 3 full days plus one to assess what may be going on and had multiple guys working on our house to get us taken care of as quickly as possible. Having had a steady stream of contractors here almost everyday since we moved in weeks ago, we really appreciate feeling like a priority. Tyler even repaired the stucco and left a small access panel on our drywall that I was a little worried about aesthetically, but he searched at Home Depot and found something that was so much better than I thought and looks great! Tyler was wonderful and was so sweet to my 8 month old son and was so understanding about his nap schedule and worked with me on timing with that. Loved the service!

Understand, I am giving 2 stars because Mario was nice and professional, and did a good job.  Further, understand that we agreed to the estimate before the work began (our fault).  However, what we did not understand was that the $285 non-negotiable charge covers work from 30 minutes to 3 hours.  YOU CANNOT GET AN HOURLY RATE.  So what this meant is that we spent $245 (found a $40 coupon) to have hair removed from a drain.  We kind of figured that we would have been told if this was likely a simple repair.  We figured that there must have been something more significant, as it just seems absurd to charge someone $245 with a coupon to remove hair from a drain.  We should have not used them.  We should have hired a regular plumber at $100/hour.  We should have bought a new sink for that matter!  Bottom line, ONLY use these guys if you have a job which is either a late night problem, or one what you know for sure will go close to 3 hours.  Beyond that it is a complete and total rip-off.  Since they would not work with me at all after our 20 minute repair on cost, I will never use them again for our house or any of our units.  We were wrong in agreeing to it, but for them to continue to stick us with $245 after a coupon is just bad business.

Work experience EVER!!!!!  RUN RUN RUN... We dd not give authorization to do work and they would not got off our property until we paid a $1.9K bill!!  Then they stated they would meet the lowest cost providers estimate for trenchless ($8K by low cost plumbing which was excellent and HIGHLY recommended) and they didn't they stated they would charge $15-20K.  Corporate office, Ellen Lambert called and said she would give $600 off...what????  SOOOO ripped off......awful awful company!!!!  Stay away!

Our kitchen sink was not going down as fast my wife called roto rooter they came out same day he jetted out our pipes in our mobile home he got lot done his hose blew but he came back next day and finished the job and he went beyond hope I can mention his name because he did great job here in Carp his name was ronnie

We had an urgent need to repair broken sewer pipes at our home. Brandon came out from the company. He along with the rest of the crew were excellent all around. Brandon in particular. He started and finished a tough job in two days working late and starting early. He is also a decent person and fine young man. We use a lot of service companies in our properties and lucky to find this group. Totally recommend.

The tech was vey good, but it took more than a day to get service (appointment kept getting rescheduled) and repair took longer than expected because it was mid-diagnosed at the beginning.

I called Roto rooter to snake our kitchen sink drain after waiting months to get it fixed. The manager ended up doing the same day house call, on a weekend, and did a fantastic job, quick and clean!

Joe DLC put in some elbow grease and got my upstairs Jon working on Super Bowl Sunday! Nice guy too.

Personable and professional delivering great service, especially the Two Alex plumbers. Big job done expertly, within budget and on time to include, the evening before a rain storm, working until after 8pm - above and beyond the call of duty, and very much appreciated.

Hello... What happened. You were so nice over the phone. So understanding of the situation. I honestly believe that you were concerned and expected a refund as you promised. It has been 7 weeks. What happened. Please contact me.

If I could give Roto-Rooter Santa Barbara zero stars, I would. Roto-Rooter charged just shy of $1,000.00 to replace piping below my kitchen sink. I made it clear to the technician I wanted a full replacement. The technician did a decent job installing new pipes but left the shut off valves stuck and unusable. For the price I paid you would think they could at least swap the hardware and make them functional. But no, upon calling and letting the technician know, he said he could fix that for another $250.00. I also hired roto-rooter to change a fixture in our shower for over $400.00 and somehow the technician left the drain plugged for me to fix, or call another plumber. Beware!!! These guys are crooks!

I should have checked Yelp before trying to use Roto Rooter. I scheduled a technician for an after hours visit to a tenant who was having an emergency plumbing situation. When my tenant told me that the guy hadn't shown up, I called to check and was told they didn't actually have anyone that could see us after all and then that he had gone home sick. This was almost 4 HOURS after the original call to schedule the visit. They should have called to give us a heads up. Really poor customer service. Definitely do not recommend this company.

John was a very nice and polite young man.  Punctual and got the job done well.  Sunday urgent service so we were happy our plumping issues were resolved

Service technician Pablo was fast, professional, and got the job done. Would hire again.

I shamefully admit that Roto-Rooter wasn't my first call because I mistakenly thought they'd be super expensive.  THEY WEREN'T!  We, of course, had our emergency on the weekend and they were the only company that had enough people to come help us and they were SO NICE!  Richard was our technician and he was SO professional and friendly it was actually a great experience to have him!  And he figured out the problem in this crazy old house of ours!   Very impressed and they will now be my FIRST call!  Thank you Little Fluffy (Richard is a dead wringer for a slender Gabriel Iglesias)!  Wish I could give more stars!

Scheduled an appointment with RotoRooter. Technician Alejandro Morales showed up on time. Alejandro explained the corrective action required. Demonstrated results when completed and offer suggestions on how to prevent future problems with my plumbing.  I've used RotoRooter in the past and they have always done excellent work.

Aaron is amazing!!! He totally saved the day after my kid flushed a bunch of stuff in the toilet. Made it here quick and super nice!! The day was saved

This company charged me over $500 to clear my tub and sink drain. I felt I was taken advantage of, and their fee was outrageous. I recommend finding anyone else for your plumbing needs.

The technician was nice, hence the two stars. Unfortunately, he had no idea what he was doing.

Usually I'd call my plumber from Ventura to come up, because he's STILL reasonably priced, even with travel expenses, but it was 3pm so we called this Emergency plumber they charged $285 to come out and snake a drain, couldn't clear it, said there was likely a break in the line and it would be $7000++ to fix, but they could come back tomorrow and try to Hydrojet it for closer to $1000 (on top of the $285 already paid) The next day I spoke with my regular plumber and sent him a photo, he said It's a French drain. There IS no line to hydrojet or replace, and noted that running a snake down it probably damaged it further. Just from the PHOTO.

I called Roto Rooter to tell them this. They offered a 5% refund. Laughable.

We appreciate the excellent service provided by Aldo Garcia and Alex Morales.  They were very professional, and we would recommend them in the future.

Sincerely,
Patty and Kathy Skehan

Cant say enough good things about these guys, Timothy is a pro and really instilled confidence during the process. It went from an extremely stressful major sewer job to complete, and all  in the time frame I needed. Best of all after the major task of digging up the driveway and part of the yard they put everything back exactly the way it was. Will definitely hire them next time.

Aaron did an awesome job for us today! We are so thankful! So sweet and very well trained and professional. Even did a sanitization for free. Thanks roto-rooter!!!!

I had Roto Rooter out 2 weeks ago to take care of a water damage in my home. My water heater blew and there was water EVERYWHERE so I called and right away I received a phone call from Roto Rooters water damage technician Ernesto. He was very polite and reassuring that everything would be okay. He arrived within 30 mins, to assess my situation. He conducted a moisture inspection and it turned out I had a lot more damage than I expected. He was very informative and helped me deal with my insurance company to get everything covered. Thank you Ernesto and the Roto Rooter team for all your help.

Furious. Asked 2 different people on phone if I would be charged anything is the repair man was not able to fix anything both said absolutely not- guess what no matter what the repair guy does you are a charged a minimum $100 service fee for them to come out to the house. Free estimate is a scam. Man literally looked at toilet had no idea about the brand was not able to fix it and then wrote me up an invoice for $100- first time I have ever written a yelp review so irate.

do not use this company.  they must submit their own reviews but if you scroll down you will see they have horrible business practice.  they overcharge for minor repairs.  they talk you into a water damage assessment and charge $1300 to leave 3 fans for 3 days, without advising you.  beware and stay away!!

Our toddler flushed a diaper down the toilet at 8pm and flooded our entire bathroom. We called and our technician was here by 9:30 and fixed it by 10pm. They were professional, kind and followed all COVID protocols. Highly recommend.

I called Roto Rooter to unclog two sink drains.  They sent out Ruben, who was on time, professional, kind & personable.  It was a challenge to unclog the drains, but Ruben stuck with the job until successful.  He then stayed to help clean-up, and the whole experience was right in the middle of the Thomas Fire, bearing down on our Carpinteria house, but it didn't phase Ruben.  He was great to work with, and I will call him back by name the next time I have a plumbing issue.   Thx, Ruben,   John Daly

Had a pipe with water gushing out, the plumbing tech (Alejandro Morales) came and fixed it in no time.  He was polite, meticulous and did an excellent job.

Update 12/30/2015
The collection agency hired by RR have declined to pursue their claim against me.

I have offered on several occasions to pay for a mediator to have our concerns heard, and if they rule in RR's favor, I will gladly pay them. To date, RR have refused to accept that offer.

RR corporation don't want to get involved because they say, the Santa Barbara company is a franchise, therefore they can't comment on it.

I have heard some horror stories about RR since my bad experience, and will be posting them once I have confirmed their accuracy.

12/10/2015
Roto-Rooter tried to clear a block drain. What followed, ended up costing us $4,495.00.
After the work was done, I discovered that most of what they did was totally unnecessary. They have put our account into collections with a company that has a stellar reputation for collecting, mainly by one person in particular who I'm not sure I can mention his name yet.
His tactic is to try and intimidate and threaten you. I'm coming up to 70, but I still think I can hold my own especially when it deals with the likes of this guy. I'm in discussions with another representative, of this collection company, a woman who appears to have a little more tact. Depending on how this is finally resolved, will depend on how in depth I want to explain what happened.
In brief detail though, the house we bought had had the septic tank empty a few weeks prior to us moving in. This apparently is the law in California, yet the Rooter team leader that came to my house, talked me into doing all this extra work because he said it needed it. I'm no sewer expert, and if my doctor says my pipes need cleaning I believe him, the last thing I want is house full of you know what.
For now, I'm going to hold off commenting any further until I hear back from the new representative to see if this can be resolved amicably. I have told her that I refuse to pay anymore unless we can have an independent mediator or go to court and have a judge decide if we were ripped off or taken advantage of because of our age. Here is a link to an interesting article about elder abuse.
Elder Financial Abuse.pdf wiserwomen.org/images/im…

I just had a huge & nasty plumbing job done by Robert Summers at the Roto-rooter. Robert & the staff at Roto-rooter were fantastic. They were prompt, communicated well & succinctly & stayed on the job until it was done. My job was an emergency & Robert Summers showed up quickly & stayed after hours until the job was done. I would gladly hire them again!

These guys told my elderly parents that thier main line was broken all the way from the house to the street and had my 87 year old father sign a $8000 contract. Since they are social security they couldn't get financing (Luckly) so we were able to get them out of it. Roto Rooter charged them $580. For nothing. We hired another company that hydro jetted the line for $420. That was a year ago. Everything works fine. Roto Rooter refuses to refund thier money. They are dishonest and need to be stopped. I have filed complaints with the BBB, Attorney Generals Office and Contractor's State Licensing Board. My next step is CBS Investigates. Please, if you have elderly parents living in Carpinteria, don't let them call Roto Rooter.

Pablo, Tim McDermott, Andy, and Julio Flores have made us feel comfortable with the whole process. We had a leak from our second floor to the first floor and it was a nightmare. I'm happy that they were able to come out at such a late time and helping us through the process.

So happy with the fast response of Roto-Rooter in Carp. Robert Summers the technician that arrived was friendly, knowledgeable and has 20 years of experience. I have had 5 to 6 other plumbers come to try to fix this toilet with this problem over the past two weeks without success.  But today I called Roto-Rooter, used my Axxess card so I  got 30% off, received wonderful service and they fixed the problem others walked away from!  I will be calling them again!

My neighbor was quoted a price of $600 to replace a garbage disposal in their mobile home, a price that was alarming to me for replacement of a 1/3 h.p. disposal in a residential home. Elderly people need not call Roto-Rooter or its franchise owners to get swindled out of their limited incomes by inexperienced hacks with a penchant for gouging all prospective customers by high quotes that are performed by putty wagon $15/hr Bozo's working on commission.

The good feedback was our tenant had the sewer backup into their tub (well that's not good, yuck!) on a Thurs. evening and this co. was the only service I could find to come out that night; the technician was pleasant and did what appeared to be his best. The tub slowly drained but clearly the line was not clear, water was still present in the cleanout. He'd told me the cable he used was 75', the lot is 150', this unit was at back of lot. So for starters, why would one of the best known names in sewer cleaning provide inadequate equipment?
The next four days were spent trying to get them back or another service to come finish snaking the line; our tenants used water very sparingly and front house unit folks were out of town, so that helped. While there was a tiny bit of communication on Fri. a.m. by Fri. afternoon they texted that they couldn't do it that evening; that was the last we heard from them; from their end.
We Hired Another Service and the job got done and line Cleared with a Longer line.
Calls to this company with questions over those 4 days were met by a dispatcher that, again pleasant, but had no information to give other than she'd pass along the messages to the supervisor, Ruben, and technician. Since she couldn't do anything to help; we asked for the person's number that could. She was not allowed to give out his direct number; we still haven't heard from him 9 days later hence this review and rating, which I rarely will do.
We are disputing the bill since he didn't have the equipment needed and never finished clearing the line; causing us to hire someone else at yet more expense. Will they contact us to discuss? At this point, it appears to not be a very reliable company at the top and we're not holding our breath; had the tenants tub not drained I would have been in a very different situation.
Even if they are having hell'va time with numerous issues, personal and/or biz wise (most generous I can be, it happens, not that I know anything!) ; they could have given the dispatcher or technician some info to explain why they weren't responding. They had our cell numbers and email.
So if you've got 75' to clear, it may be a job they can handle after hours but beware they tell you it needs a camera inspection or something else beyond that; it may not be what the issue is and any further needs may not be addressed.
Now 11/1/21 - After this review was written Ruben did call us (he'd seen the review) and we discussed the situation. He offered to refund us $275. of the $354. they had charged us that evening as the line had not been fully cleared, we had to hire someone else and clearly we weren't happy with the follow-up communication with our issue.
I have waited to revise this review until I saw that we were refunded that amount which we agreed to ($79. was for after-hour call and that a tiny bit of line drained, enough for tub waters to subside but not enough to use water normally). We see that he did come through on the refund and are thankful that much was resolved. Thank you for that Ruben.

I called these guys thinking they would be honest.  My son flushed wipes and the main line to the sewer was clogged.  I set up an appointment for an estimate for 9am.  They wont quote you an hourly rate.  I looked here at the reviews and became concerned.  As the bad reviews said they did not show up at 9am.  By 10am I called and cancelled.  The reviews say they are late and scam you by overcharging.  I found George The Rooter Man in Santa Barbara.  Quoted me 105 an hour over the phone......was here on time.....fixed the clog in a little over an hour.  $155 total.  Thank God for Yelp.  I almost got scammed.

We had to have some extensive drain repair after several other plumbers were not able to address the issue.  Brandon Lopez, from Roto Rooter was the lead tech who first responded.  While this was a team effort on multiple days, including his supervisor, Sergio, Brandon hung with the project into the weekend and again, with Sergio, also stopped in on Sunday to make sure the repairs were solid.  We really appreciate his service and dedication to making sure everything was good.

We can definitely recommend Brandon and the team backing him up.

Roto Rooter was responsive to coming to our house quickly to address the plumbing issue.  They cleared the blockage.  HOWEVER during the process I was up sold services because the words they used to describe what they thought was going on suggested there were much bigger problems.  In the end they didn't need to do any of those additional services, and I felt ripped off.  I won't use them again.

Called them out when our toilets wouldn't flush. Had tried other companies but only got answering machines. Had a tech by the name of Luis come out who was easy to talk to and knew what he was doing. Attitude was great for coming out on a Sunday night. I asked about overtime and he said it was his normal scheduled time. He had us up and running in just over an hour. Gave us pros and cons of what he found and left us with some options if problems persisted in the future. Over all a good experience. Would call them again if needed.

Timothy was a great plumber. Got everything fixed for us. Yes he company was not the cheapest but he did do a great job and checked up with a small leak to make sure it was 100%

Absolute rip off!  charged $995 to put in a clean out and then have them tell me my sewer line collapsed and that there is nothing they can do but replace the line for and additional $5700.  I got quotes for the job from many other companies.  Went with another guy for 4500 and who quoted me in hind site 460 for the clean out installation.  The rotorooter branch owner Tod said if i got him a quote for less he would give me back some money.  2 phone calls and multiple emails later with no response from him.  Real honest business.

We used Roto-Rooter's services in late January as I moved into a rental and then found after the first day of occupancy there were some major plumbing issues with the home. It was a complex and stressful scenario and their team, Edgar specifically, was in constant contact, worked long hours past their quitting time to ensure a well done job. They were professional, extremely solid work ethic and very pleasant to be dealing with on a daily basis over a period of two weeks. I would recommend their services.

Encountered a stopped up toilet on a Sunday at my mom's. My go to plumber was not available so hello 'Plan B' which was calling Roto-Rooter. They are 24/7! Got scheduled in right away and 30min later Teodoro drove up and gave an estimate and got underway with the snaking.

Well of course Murphy's law kicked in and we ended up requiring to snake thru the roof clean out. After speaking with Supervisor Ruben who listen to &  addressed my concerns with pricing, we came to a mutual deal as a 2nd tech was sent to our location, Joel, to assist on the roof.
Once he arrived, the techs went right to work & got the toilets flushing like champs.
Good job everyone, happy mom=happy me!

Set Appointment Thursday night for for Friday morning. Received a call from dispatcher giving me a window of 10-11am, at 11:45 I called to see where they were and dispatcher said they weren't able to come until later, she called me back and said they would be there between 4-6pm, they didn't show up. Now I get to go through a weekend with no toilet or pay overtime rates, don't waste your time.

This was by far the most professional and courtesy plumber that has ever come to our home. Pablo Reyes was our plumber and he explained everything in detail land did an incredible job. If his employer is reading this review please know that you have a one of a kind- rare employee working for you. He told me how much he loves your company and how well you treat all the employees! I was highly impressed by how he felt honored to work for Roto Rooter. Wow! How often do you hear that ? This employee deserves a promotion Or a pay raise. Finding and keeping employees like this is the backbone of every great company. Pablo Reyes -10 stars

After the $400 rooter doesn't do the job they sell you the $1,600 Hydro jet with a 3-year warranty. What you don't find out until later is that a 3-year warranty means they will come out one more time in the next 3 years. After that, it's another $1,600. How about an estimate to do the major, multi-thousand dollar repair job? No problem, as long as we don't have to put the price in writing, because you might want to compare that price with someone else.

Really?

This is my second time having Ruben come to my house, he always gets the job done and answers my questions and is very nice. Ruben came by today because ive been having plumbing problems with my house from its old age, him aswell as alex and julio took the time to figure out the source of the problem AND were able to fix it in the same day! (I thought id have to make another appointment for that) thank you!!

They said they would do some work and billed me for it I paid in full the came did 2 minutes of work tops for 300$ and said it's fixed next day it was still not fixed now they come back and tell me it's going to be 700$+ to fix not including 300$ wasted. They also gave me warranty for the same issue they are trying to charge again for

I got a call from the company a day after leaving the prior review. The manager had let me know that they have suspended that plumber. He told me he has to work with corporate moving forward. They called me do days later to let me know that that plumber has been  let go.  I did a little research and they in fact let him go. I also found out that the company had a meeting and new protocalls were put in place. I'm leaving three stars because I only got a phone call after leaving the prior review instead of the manager giving me a call back when I called the day of the incident and requesting them giving me a call.

JR came out and saved me!! I had some serious plumbing problems this month including a guest house toilet/shower not working a day after our guests arrived! Not only did JR make sure he came out that day, he even gave us a quick fix to keep the water running until the rest of the work was completed over the next two days. Very professional, but what I really appreciate was the urgency they got everything completed. Many contractors in town are extremely busy and I could not find a single other plumber to come out. Will definitely recommend in the future!

Same day response.  The technician, Luis Ibarra explained the process in detail.  He cleared the drains and gave me advise how to prevent clogging in the future. He was very courteous and fairly quoted pricing. Definitely recommend!

Tyler from Roto Rooter arrived the same evening we called and located and cleared the complicated blockage 30FT down on the mainline very quickly.  He was efficient, courteous and friendly and helped us clean up the mess.
We are so grateful - thank you!

I called Roto Rooter here in Santa Barbara to ask if they did leak detection, as I have a significant water leak in the outdoor area.  They said they did and would send a person to evaluate the problem later in the day, but could give no price range or hourly rate over the phone because the situation had to evaluated, and I'd receive an email with the appt time.  I received the email a while later with an appointment time of 3 pm. At 3:30, I called to see if there would be further delay and was told that, yes, there  was a delay of 2 to 2 1/2 hours, giving an arrival time of 5:00 to 5:30 pm. They had not bothered to notify me of the lengthy delay and I had unnecessarily canceled an appt away from my home because of the supposed 3 pm appointment.  The new arrival time came and went with no contact from the company. At 7 pm, 1 1/2 - 2 hours after the new appointment time and 4 hours after the assigned time, an individual arrived.  He knew nothing of detecting plumbing leaks, said that they use a local specialty business to handle such problems and that he would have the office make that appt. No need-I'd already talked with that company and so made my own appointment with them, no need for a middle man.  I've used the local Roto Rooter in the past with mixed results, including leaving a mess after clearing a drain, and will not use the company again: very late arrival without notifying the customer, do not handle the problem described but said otherwise, sent individual with no knowledge of the described problem, and past experience with incompetence.