Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

I called Roto Rooter for a running toilet issue and they responded immediately and sent the technician in 2 hours. Robbie came home and said he needs spare parts and went to buy them. 45 minutes later he came back and fixed the toilet in 5 minutes. What surprised me was the invoice he gave. While $53 was for the spare parts, $320 was charged for labor citing he spent an hour. I totally paid $398.39 for a simple running toilet issue and Roto Rooter never mentioned told what their labor costs were. Shocking hidden charges. Don't hire them without knowing their rates.

Do not use these guys. Had an emergency - called them and said they had availability and would call back within the hour with a timeline. I called them back about an hour and a half later only to be told they didn't have anyone available and whoever told me that was customer service and wouldn't of known. Not sure why it's set up like that but I wasted precious time not trying to find someone else. May do decent routine work but would not rely on in a tight spot.

My kitchen sink was not draining and this was the 2nd time this year. I was convinced that there had to be some sort of permanent obstruction, like roots growing in to the sewer line between the kitchen sink and the sewer line.
I have a 25' snake (a flexible tube that is used to unblock pipes) and could do it myself, but, I had done it like 6 times in two years so I hoped they would do something different so that I would not have this reoccurring problem.
So we called Roto Rooter and the person on the other end said they would be there in less than an hour. Impressive! We thought. And eagerly waited for them to impress us with their Oh so fast arrival.

We called them after two hours when they did not show. So this is now close to 5:00 PM.

After a wait, (not upset with that) a gentleman answers and after explaining to him that we are still waiting for someone to come out. He says let me get you to dispatch. And sends us over. (Petpeve of mine is being sent somewhere without getting the ok from the customer) I mean, I get it. He can't help me and it makes sense to send me to dispatch so they can, you know, dispatch someone to me.

Dispatch Lady: Thank you for calling Roto Rooter, all of our vehicles are out on runs and we don't know when they will be there but they will call you 30 minutes before arrival.
She hasn't even asked me who I am or tried to comfort me with the mandatory Im sorry they missed the window or anything.

I try and ask... and she interrupts Sir, Sir, I told you there is nothing we can do

You can get me a manager... I know, what a Karen move.

5 Star Manager comes on and is polite and asks how she can help I explain that this is two parter.:
1. You are late and have my answer on what's going to happen. I explain that I get it, things come up. But..,
2. Their Dispatch Lady has no CSR skills and needs them as the voice of the company. Also that managing new expectations (new ETA) should be done with a little more finess.

She says she will listen to the call and apologized for the way she treated me. She will also give me a call as soon as she knows when they are coming out.

Ok. I'm better.

Chapter 2. And I'll try to keep it short.

5 Star Supervisor calls me and says that we are next and to expect  the service man's call within an hour.
I get my call and expect hm there within 30 minutes.

3 hours later I find myself opening the outside access to the kitchen sink. (All homes have them and that is where you run the snake or dump drain-o or whatever lye based chemical you prefer through to unclog the damned thing.)

All of a sudden I see the Roto Rooter truck show up and tried to park (he had a trailer) and was not doing a good job. He makes the block and parks across the street where he can just pull in.

He walks up to me and says he is sorry he is late. I tell him that he could of called. Last job took longer than he ... blah blah blah. He sees me taking the plug off and the container of lye that I'm about to poor down the access point.
Sir don't do that. I would hate to see you mess up your pipes with that stuff.

Look, I use to refurbish houses, I also know that organic material is destroyed by lye and not PVC pipes. So I know the drain-o-like product is not going to harm my pipes (it will destroy rubber by the way so never pour lye down the disposal.

But he is here and he is a profesional. So tell him to give me a proposal. I go inside.

He rings my doorbell and when I open the door I ask him how much.

-THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DOLLARS.

I said no thank you and close the door.

He calls me- $300?
No- click.

About 20 minutes later he rings my doorbell again: how about $200. I asked why he didn't start there.  He said He was just trying to save the service call.

I agreed to $200. (I don't know why)

He uses a snake, however, his has a motor that spins his, I would have to spin it by hand. He reached the clog and freed it.
Earlyer he had mentioned a 60 day guarantee.

So I wrote him a check for $200 and in the note area I wrote 60 day guarantee

I handed it to him and said 60 day guarantee?

He said that was for people paying $360

I told him that if he cashes the check he agrees to a 60 day guarantee and closed the door.

NEVER AGAIN.

As the big winter storm Elliot was blowing in, I discovered that my water heater had flooded my garage during the night. We just moved to McKinney barely two months ago, so I didn't know who to call. I searched Yelp and found Roto Rooter for my first call (as I expected to have to call a couple places to find someone to come right away).  No more calls necessary as RotoRooter had Robert to me within a couple of hours!  Robert was extremely efficient and quickly assessed my situation. Not only was the water heater corroded and needing to be replaced, but it wasn't installed to code for more than one issue. He showed me the problems and what he would need to do to fix them. As soon as I gave the go ahead, Robert was hard at work!  He worked efficiently and diligently all afternoon in a freezing cold garage.  Although I offered many cups of hot beverage, he never accepted and never complained, he just kept working!  He came back the next morning to finish up then walked thru my house to make sure it all worked ok and the pipes hadn't frozen. Robert is the best!  He was my Christmas angel during this cold front and 3 days before Christmas!!  Thank you Robert!

Made an appointment a week in advance for today at 1pm. I received a call at 2:11pm saying that they were running late and would be there between 3pm-4pm. I called them at 4:18pm and they said it should be another 45 minutes. I ended up canceling on them. Had to wait around all day for them. And who knows when they would have showed up!?

I have some water in my back yard that is pooling and needed it to be checked on. Called yesterday and the rep set up the appointment for that night. Tech called me and rescheduled for the morning. When it got time for them to be here tech let me know they were no longer doing that service... Waste of time.