Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Crooks! They came to unclog the kitchen sink, said there would be no charge to come give a quote. Quoted $300 to fix the sink- they started doing the job and their incompetence resulted in a hole in the drain pipe and flooding the basement. They then had a different person come out to quote that job and they wanted to charge $800 to fix something they broke. Never use this company!

These guys came to fix my clogged kitchen sink. Very prompt service,  though the technician could have been a bit nicer. Overall pleased though, sink had been a problem for a while. They were recommended to me by a friend.

Amazing service #4348 Josh Came out to fix my backed up floor drain on Christmas day after I had another plummer come out and do nothing then charge my wife for the work that he did not do. Josh was professional and and knew what he was doing and had my drain working in no time. I would recommend Roto Rooter to anyone who needs a drain fixed. Saved me so much trouble after having so much water on the floor and almost having to cancel the party.
Thanks Josh #4348

After trying others with less than terrific results, I realize that I should have called these guys to begin with. Serviceman Chachi was out about an hour after I called. Got right on the problem and had everything working well and back together in about an hour. Longtime slow drain problem fixed.  
Great service, customer friendly and reasonable. Definitely recommended to anyone with drain problems.

The technician was nice and did not charge us because he could not unclog our sewer main.

He however told us we would need to dig up the front yard and replace a 10 foot section of pipe the NEXT day (or we would have to wait a week), for anywhere between $4200-$6000.  The whole thing felt like high pressure sales and we told him we would wait on that decision.

Got a 2nd opinion the next day from Cardinal plumbers, they were able to drill through the roots and unclog the drain main using sharper, smaller blades.  The price was reasonable and did not include a major dig.  

We might use roto in the future for maintenance root removal, but not for an expert opinion.

Update: Roto-rooter contacted me about this experience with their business and this negative review.

The manager explained that Roto-rooter does not use smaller blades because they can get stuck in the sewer main, which necessitates an excavation.  I can appreciate that is a liability for the company to take on.  

However, in the midst of a sewer main emergency (or any emergency really), the most anyone can hope for is helpful information.  I am more attracted to businesses who give expert advise, EVEN if it means directing me to other, more specialized businesses.  As I was calling around to other plumbers, I was told by 3 companies that if there were roots in the main, they could for sure open the line.  And sure enough they did.

I am leaving this review up because I would like to communicate to people who are looking for information - maybe they are in an emergency situation like we were.

Get a second opinion before you dig.

I received amazing and prompt service for my emergency plumbing call! I had a plumber at my house within a half an hour of my original call. Toilet was so backed up it would not plunge for me and I had sewage backing up into bathtub and shower in a separate bathroom.

Andrew (#2766) was extremely thorough in diagnosing the issue. He removed toilet and snaked out pipe -revealing and resolving issue. I appreciate his shoe covers and floor tarp protection that he used when moving toilet. Andrew explained everything and showed me where the issues were. He told me how to prevent future problems and things to watch for.

Andrew called in Brian ( #1326) from their restoration team to check for water in my main floor ceiling. We had heard dripping and I was concerned about water damage. Brian was here within 20 minutes. No charge for this assessment service! Again, good information and explanation! Fortunately, no water concern in my ceiling!!

I have worked with a variety of plumbing services over the years. Roto-Rooter is by far my best experience!

Scheduled the service call from the online form.  I got to pick the date and time window I wanted. There was a call letting me know the tech was on his way.
Fred was professional and answered every question I had. He snaked the main line from the house to the street. We knew what we needed as we have really large trees in the front whose roots interfere with the system. He made sure the line was clear by thorough testing.
Was happy with everything. The price seemed high as I didn't shop around, but he was honest and said that Roto-Rooter wasn't the cheapest, but also not the most expensive... That made me feel better. ;)

Make sure you get an estimate first, take out your phone and take a picture of the quote, because mine grew by $280.00 dollars from the time he wrote it down till the time he came back with a receipt...   Have never been so disappointed!

Timely and thorough service. Brian was clear in his explanations and left the work area clean and tidy.

Feeling dirty.  I've used them in the past.  Was happy and remembered their advice of preventive maintenance.  Makes sense as it is something you do with cars, etc. Starting to get that occasional funky smell in the basement so I make the call.

I also come prepared with my my $50 off coupon and a 30% off coupon for a 2nd line service as a buck in my household goes a little further now then it has in the past.    

So I get my bill (you never see a price list) and am told that I'm being given 50% off of the cost for the 2nd line so he isn't using any of my coupons as he is saving me money in the long run.  Hmmmmm.  

So I pay and he leaves and I sit there for a bit, getting kinda pissed so I call.  I speak to a manager and he explains to me the same pricing the guy gave me but in the long run, I'm still feeling like I got bad deal because in the end, you don't really know the problem or if the pricing just happens to be for you and if you are getting charged for services you don't need.    

So I ask, is it wrong that I want to see a menu of pricing for services?

The guy says things have been slow but as someone who is working a pt job looking for FT work, I consider that slow on my end too (at least the $ coming into my wallet).

So in the end, I still want to recommend Roto Rooter (who else is there?) but come on, show me some pricing.  Hell, ya got yourselves a fancy website, FB page, blog, Google +, YouTube and a Twitter account.  How about a simple page that tells me up front  what you charge?  You can put your legalese spin on that in case you need to charge more if the job is a mess.

So, wow.  They say that they have 24/7 service.  However, when I called them, they were not able to get out until the next day.  I explained that we had one bathroom and that I would keep that appointment but had to call around to try to get someone out tonight.  
Amazing that when I called back to cancel they had someone that was available to come out.  Needless to say, I did not use them.  This place has poor advertisement of 24/7 service that really means 8:00am-5:00pm.

I wish I would have called these guys to begin with. Poor researching on my part. They offer a free consultation/ diagnosis and were about $50.00 cheaper then the other place I called with the $25.00 fee just to come out.

Our plumber Steve came out once, diagnosed the issue and came back two days later to work with our schedule to alleviate the monster slow drain problem-o we've had forever.

Major bathtub drain problem and bathroom sink that he worked wonders on. We can't wait to shower again now that the standing water problem is down the drain literally!

-Excellent and friendly customer service.
-Plumbers call to confirm with an ETA
-2 Hour windows so not waiting all day
-24/7 Service, but after 10:30pm it might be more, but at least they are available.

Steve was fun and took care of the problem quickly and explained what he was doing.

Would certainly recommend to anyone in need.

I live in Portland Oregon but needed to find a plumber for my mother near Shoreview Minnesota.  Based on reviews, reputation and location I selected Roto-Rooter, New Brighton.  My mother reported prompt, friendly, professional service along with excellent customer service when she needed to call the office for a follow-up topic. I recommend Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup.  They are even good enough for your mother!

We had a plumbing issue where the water in the kitchen sink wasnt draining and my husband tried every method listed on the Internet and after 2 days we gave up because  he was unable to clog the drain. We called Roto-Rooters and within mins our appointment was schedule. #4348 Josh who came to our house was unable to clog our drain within an hour. He was fast, friendly and very courteous. He also gave tips on how to prevent it in the future. I would definitely recommend Roto to anyone who has plumbing issues. Thank you!

We had water just pouring out of a pipe when the upstairs shower was used and found out that the neighbors in our duplex were having similar issues,  our tech Fred (#4155) was just awesome. He did all the work from one unit. He explained how the issue was affected for both units and just fixed it from ours because the neighbors weren't available. Thanks Fred, you saved 4 people from having to share one shower tomorrow morning!!!!

Josh #4348
Same day, weekend service. Josh gave us a four hour window to be at our home and checked in twice with us to let us know where he was  at. The problem was with the laundry floor drain and he actually left the area cleaner than when he found it (it was pretty grimey from when it had backed-up).
Very impressed. Will use again.

I have (yes, present tense) an issue the pipe from the toilet leaking in the basement due to an incorrect / misaligned fitting.  It's causing toilet water (yuck) to get all over the basement.  I noticed this problem on a Sunday afternoon and was pleased to see that Roto-Rooter is open on Sundays.

I called, a dispatcher answered, I described my problem, and she told me the tech would arrive between 4pm-7pm the same day (Sunday).  Perfect.  The dispatcher called around 4pm to let me know the technician was on the way for my floor drain backup (not the problem).  I corrected her and described the problem again.

The technician arrived at around 4:30pm, took one look at the pipe coming down from the toilet, and said, Why did they send me for this?  This isn't what I thought it was.  I don't have parts for this.  They need to listen better.  SERIOUSLY!?!  He then said, Maybe they just wanted to make you happy and send someone out here today.  Well, why would it make me happy if I still have plumbing issues???

He called dispatch himself and described the problem again (the same way I did, for the record), and gave me a new window of Monday from 8am-10am for another tech to come out.  I would have to miss work to wait around for someone to show up, but ok, I figured I'd give them another shot.

I realized I never asked for an estimate, so I called later that evening and was told that they don't give estimates over the phone.  Not even their base price for having to come out here.  I was assured that I could just tell the technician that I didn't want the service if the price didn't work for me.  That seemed a little weird to me.

Monday morning, after rescheduling work meetings so I could stay home and wait... I get a call at 9am telling me that the techs are running late.  I asked how long it would be until they arrived and they said they would still be 1.5-2 hours out.  I have to get back to work, so I can't stick around and wait.  I just can't believe that I would be having to make a THIRD appointment with them at this point.  I guess I'm glad they called and didn't leave me in the lurch, but my problem still isn't fixed.

I can't testify to the quality of their work, but I don't think I'll be calling them again.

Great service--friendly professional and quick.  Bathroom faucet quickly installed.

I see a lot of negative reviews here, but I'm glad to report that my experience with Roto-Rooter was good.  (this was after getting over the price quoted to clear a toilet drain)  I removed my toilet before the tech arrived so that saved me a lot of money.  A quick research indicated Roto-Rooter is a little bit on the high side of pricing, but the service I received made up for it.  My tech was Fred #4155 and I couldn't be happier with the service he provided.  He was able to clear a difficult blockage that I failed to unclog myself early that day.  I recently purchased the house and couldn't locate the stack access and we was nice enough to help me. He also gave me advice on how to keep my drains clear.  Lastly, he pointed out that my toilet mount was cracked which saved me a lot of wasted time and effort.  Fred was very nice, efficient and competent.

The entire team was very professional and prompt. The technician, Derek (#4349) was extremely friendly and knowledgeable. Not only did he fix the issue, but he explained things as he went and made suggestions for self maintenance that will certainly be useful.