Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

I had foundation issues and had a plumbing company that will go unnamed come out and evaluate my plumbing. I received the bad news that I would have to pay over $16,000 in repairs to my sewage lines because there were cracks in my pipes and the system would have to be replaced. This would require drilling multiple holes in my foundation and damaging my scraped hard wood floors.

I called RotoRooter to come out and give me a second opinion. First, Ryan came out and informed me of my options and then he set a time to come back out and run a camera. We rescheduled a couple of times because of weather and my schedule but the office and Ryan were sure follow up every time.

We were finally able to get a definite time scheduled and the office called me to let me know the plumbers were in route. Dave and Cody showed up and I gave them the story on my first quote. They proceeded to run a camera and inspected my sewage lines. While they were working, Ryan followed up again with a call to let me know he was not able to come but his supervisor Dave would be doing the inspection along with Cody. After inspecting the pipes the guys gave me the good news of not seeing any damage and gave me a DVD copy of the actual inspection through the pipes for proof.

This is the best experience I have ever had with a plumbing service and will use and recommend RotoRooter to my family and friends every time there is a need for a plumber.
Juan C.
Garland TX.

Set up a service appointment on-line Sunday night to fix a clogged/slow drain in the kitchen sink. Got a call from the service department in a matter of minutes to confirm the appt. Dennis arrive a little early (but that worked great). Dennis was very friendly, professional and polite. He identified the issue, told us what he was going to do and when the original plan changed, he immediately informed us of the new plan. Dennis took the necessary steps to keep the area as clean as possible and cleaned up when he was done. Very pleased with the overall service.

So I had an emergency where my hot water was red tagged. My Tennant called me. Roto rooter told me they could fix it in a few hours. Since my tenant had no hot water I thought perfect! Well needless to say they charged me 6700 for the hot water heater and couldn't even get it done til 3 days later, not to mention the pilot kept going out and they had to order another part that took over 2 weeks. My poor tenant had to call every day to light the pilot so their water could be on. The hot water heater came with no warrantee worth mentioning I believe it was a 6 month. And to think I spent that much money. Please use any other place, even if the quality is equally bad at least you won't be charged double for a simple solution.

If I could give this company a rating it would be 0 stars. Do not call them for any plumbing or water restoration issues! They are very dishonest and only looking to get your money or insurance payment.

Stop, call Drain Dr (972-372-4637) instead of Roto-Rooter.  They charge for a drain clean out and told me that a tech would come out to also do a camera inspection.  The camera inspection never got scheduled.  When I called to schedule, I was told someone would get back to me.  The dispatcher told me the camera inspection was part of the service at no additional charge.  The original tech that performed the drain clean misrepresented the services and attempted to charge me $100 more.  My intent was to call Drain Dr, but since he was here, I allowed him to clean the drain.  Won't make that mistake again.  Still waiting on the camera inspection.  Don't fall for the 6-month guarantee promise either.

5/13/22
Someone has now contacted me. They claim to get with me tomorrow to get paperwork signed to start excavation.

I had been in my townhome for about 5 months, just me, when the shower started clogging and becoming slow to drain. I called a couple other plumbers, but none were available within 24-48 hours and I wanted the problem fixed sooner rather than later. Roto-rooter was available. Marlin came and he was professional, fast, and friendly. The service was excellent. In the end, to unclog the shower it was $359. This seemed insanely high at first, but after googling it also seemed like this was within the range of what is charged, albeit on the high side. Wish this place was a little more affordable, but if you want good service and need someone quick this is the way to go.

Note: this might have been five stars, but for the higher prices and the fact that the dispatch team had a couple hiccups in communicating with me day-of. At first I was told my window was 8-12, then I received a voicemail stating someone was on the way around 8, then I received another phone call stating it would be a couple hours. Nevertheless I called on a Thursday and someone was able to come out on Friday, so it was a win!

My appointment window was 8 am- 10 am. At 11 am, I called to check on the status because  I had not heard from them during the window they were supposed to arrive. When I called, the lady told me that someone had called at 7:30 but did not receive a call back. I asked which phone they had called because I had my phone in my hand, the volume turned all the way up and did not receive any calls or voice mail. She then transferred me to the technician. The technician told me that he he called at 7:32 and I didn't answer. I responded by asking him why, even if I had missed the call somehow, that one call, 28 minutes before my appointment time, meant that nobody was coming or calling again. He informed me I told you in the voice mail that if you didn't call back in 10 minutes, that we would cancel. Again, I never received a voice mail. He then told me that he could probably come in the next 3 hours, which would have meant a total of 6 hours waiting for him. Needless to say, I told them not to worry about it and called AA plumbing instead.

FUCK THESE MOTHERFUCKERS. DO NOT AND I MEAN DO NOT USE THESE GUYS! Our rental house had a water leak in the bathroom behind the wall. Not knowing what was wrong we called these guys out to check and see what was wrong. They busted not only the bathroom but the guest bedroom as well and told us it was a huge pipe burst. Come to find out it was a broken PVC Pipe that needed to be replaced. And to make matters worse they even broke our bathroom tile for no reason and tried to charge us 5 grand and left the house a complete mess! If your thinking about using these guys I'll just say this, FUCK ROTO ROOTERS!

Excellent Pumber! So hard to find.  Today I called in the morning to have a fixed. A hair clip had fallen in, and the toilet would not flush without overflowing so I had turned the water off.  I was given a two hour window of 11-1 (yay, so often more).    
The plumber, John, arrived at about 11 (yay again).  He explained likely situation and the options.   Without getting into details, he solved the problem!   He was courteous, answered my other questions to make sure that toilet was working in all ways, and I was grateful.
Price was fair.  
I had excellent service.

My kitchen sink was clogged so I went online requesting repairs from Roto-Rooter. NO RESPONSE...... I wonder if the company still exists. I don't understand how these repair shops operate but apparently they don't need my business.

Talk about thieves.

Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT use this company. I called due to a dish disposal that is not working. Their technician came out and quoted the job which totaled $480.00. I asked what made up labor and what made up parts. He rudely reluctantly told me that the parts were $180.00 which means that the labor was a total of $300.00. When I asked the technician what else made up the price he said, nothing else, the part is $180 (note the quotes)... I then stated so the difference of $300.00 is labor and his response, verbatim was if you want to look at it that way.
$300.00 for a job that took him a total of hours.
This is not a comment on their customer service, the technician was a tad sharp at the lip but his manager was tolerable and gave me a $30 discount based on a coupon on their website bringing the total to $450.00.

With it all said and done, I will NOT be utilizing their services again.

A water pipe busted in our walls and the repair man that fixed it, A nice guy I may add, left a huge hole in our wall, That we had to patch up because he didn't know how to fix it. Great attitude great repair man but bad customer service

We called roto rooter out for a plumbing job, snaking a toilet, last Sunday. They let us know that they needed to get someone out who could scope it and would contact us the following day, and that the charge wouldn't be put through on the card until the next person finished the scope. No one called the next day and by 3pm we called to find out what was up and they scheduled an appt for the next day between 9-11. They also went ahead and just put that charge through on our card. Next day rolls around, no call/no show by the plumber. We finally called out of frustration to cancel this appointment nobody bothered to show for,  and called another company. We also requested a supervisor get back to us and again, nothing. We paid 300 bucks for absolutely nothing.

I will never call Roto Rooter again for any services.  The woman on the phone was not only irritating but also did not want to send anyone out
to look at my problem which was a water leak in my yard.  She told me it could be the cities problem and would not even send anyone to see even if I paid the 74.95 to them for their cost of figuring it out. They ought to not have people that take business calls from people that are rude like her talking to customers.

Can you give a company zero stars?  Will NEVER use them again.  Called because of a clogged kitchen sink.  First, their website says 24/7, but turns out they charge WAY more for evenings and weekends.  Don't find that out until you call.  Next, the have a 499 drain cleaning special, but there's enough restrictions that they won't actually honor it.  They'll find a reason they don't have to.  

Scheduled an appointment.  Technician arrived 10 minutes AFTER the scheduled window.  They checked out the problem, made sure the problem was only the kitchen sink (ran the laundry, made sure it was not also backing up).  Said it would cost $300.  Offered a discount if I took care of removing all of the pipes under the sink myself.  What?  So I'm paying someone to have ME do the work?  

All they did was run a snake down the drain (after I removed the pipes).  Did it fix the problem?  Nope.  Did it again (with me doing the majority of the work again).  Still didn't work.  Did it all a third time.  Now the sink still backs up AND the LAUNDRY backs up too!  So they made the problem WORSE instead of better.

Their suggestion?  Well, we can keep trying it, but have to charge extra for the additional time (time for them to watch me take the pipes on and off, I guess).  Or they can bring out a longer snake (charge extra.  they only brought a 30' snake - no different than what was already in my garage!).  Or they could schedule a water jet... for almost $500.  And still no guarantee it would actually DO anything.  

No thanks.  I'll find someone who can actually get the job done instead of making the situation worse.

Business practice bordering on being fraudulent!  Beware!

We had a sewer back up caused by tree roots in the yard.  They came out to clear the tree roots.  It was expensive, but they were the only ones that I could get to come out that weekend, so I accepted it.

Then, things got ugly.  They offered a free camera inspection.  I assumed it was to help me locate the roots and offer an estimate on the repair.  They did give me an estimate (about 2x what other companies suggested).  That was all we heard from them for nearly 3 weeks.

Then we sent the report to the people who had purchased our house to inform them of the tree root issue.  They reached out to Roto Rooter, and the guy smelled money with new home buyers.  He pulled out the video he had taken under the slab of the house (never was asked to do this), and pointed out what he called separation in the sewer line and recommended tens of thousands of dollars of repairs.  He never mentioned that a hydrostatic leak test is the only way to determine if any of the work was even necessary.  What's worse, he lied to the buyers and told them he had already mentioned all of this to us.

I think we are going to get all this resolved amicably (fingers crossed), but this  nearly caused a lawsuit between us and our buyers.

It's sleazy enough to use someone's predicament to go look for ways to make extra money for your company, but only mentioning that work upon discovering there were new home buyers, much more likely to accept these repairs, and then lying to them about already notifying us about it is borderline fraudulent.

If you can't get anyone cheaper to clear a backup, then call them, but don't let them do ANYTHING other than clear the backup.  Call a real plumber for everything after that, not a scam artist looking to make a quick buck.

Called this company out to unclog the sewer line. Within a matter of days had to call them out again due to the line being clogged. This should have been considered to be under the warranty from the previous call. Of course, it was not covered. So, I was gouged for more money. The technician was unprofessional and rude. Certainly will not call them back. Totally horrible experience.

The service that I was provided was quality, however they are not honoring the oral guarantee provided by their technician. I was verbally told that the service came with a 6 month guarantee so I decided to go ahead with their service despite the high $425 fee because I said if it happens again, we won't have to pay the fee again. I found out today that there was a tiny line on the invoice, which the technician did not point out nor did I notice (because who reads every detail of the invoices they're signing?) that there is no service guarantee. I was never told this by the technician either before or after the work was performed. I did not find out about the lack of guarantee until today. Shame on Roto Rooter for using fine print tactics on their customers. I can never recommend their service after such deceptive business practices.

I have a French drain in front of my townhouse, that wasn't draining during heavy storms. Water was coming into my house, between the slab and laminate floors. I called at 8pm to schedule an appointment for the following morning, since the rain had stopped and the water went back out. I spoke with Frank, who was super friendly and helpful. The next morning, the technician showed up (on time) and found that there was a pump that wasn't running, keeping the water from draining. He hit a reset button, the pump started running, and water immediately drained. Since it was such a simple fix, he didn't even charge me! This was such a huge relief, and I am grateful for such outstanding service.

Mr. Michael Flower fixed our problem professional y and expertly. Extremely polite and helpful.
Great customer service and earned our future business when the need arise. Thank you Michael for your help and assistance.

Simple main pipe grease clog.   I called and of course they would not discuss prices over the phone.   Said about 20 min.  2 hrs later after everyone else was closed he showed up.  Without looking at it he quoted 425 dollars.  

He explained that was because they also are required to run a camera down it.    
I had no choice and 10 min later the clog was unclogged.  Technician was really nice.   I asked about the camera.  OH someone comes out and does that at a later date.

After 5 calls to the main office about the supposed camera  I have given up.    

This was the irving texas branch.   Again the technician  was a nice kid but you could tell he was forced to lie about the camera stuff.

My bathroom was not draining, so I called Roto-Rooter based on name / reputation and they came out and snaked the drain ($450.00).   The original drain cleaning technician spent very little time cleaning the line, pulling back a small amount of roots,and then indicated they offered a Free Camera Inspection of the sewer line.  The clogged pipe was flowing fine at this point.  
Mistake 1: there is no such thing as Free and  Roto-Rooter is really banking on making money Up-selling additional work.
The Camera inspector told me I had a tree root intrution in my sewer line, and he identified the specific location, which was in the line under my master bed.   He said it could be fixed for about $5,000 if they went through the floor under the bed, or about $7,500 if they excavated through from the outside.   Also, I was lucky that they could get a crew out tomorrow.  Note:  AT no point did the camera tech inform me that during that repair they might find 'other' issues that could not be seen on the camera.
Mistake 2: Falling for a false sense of urgency.
I agreed to the repair, and to keep from replacing the carpet opted for the excavation option.  
The next day the crew came out, and after doing the excavation and 'repair', connected me with the Camera tech again, who informed me the pipe had a crack in the bottom, and to fix it they'd need to replace it back as far as it was cracked.  This would cost $1,000 PER FOOT and it would be up to 10 feet needing to be repaired.  Note - That would be up to an additional $10,000 on top of the $7,500 repair that resulted from the $450.00 drain cleaning.  
At that point I said no.   This was at 3:45 PM, and the crew had already left for the day, leaving an open pit, with no cover. I assume that they figured I'd go for the extra repairs, so why bother to fill it in.
Lesson Learned:   Name recognition does not always yield the best results.  
I'll never use Roto-Rooter again.

Buyer BEWARE!
I called Roto-Rooter to come out and fix my sewer line. While on the phone with them I asked approximately how much did he think it would cost. He gave me an estimate of about $1800. So I told him to go ahead and come out and do the job. He told be that just because he came out and fixed it it wouldn't guarantee to be fixed. Why would I want to pay all that money and hear that it might not even be fixed.  What kind of joke is this??????

Great company! I have had them out several times she it's always perfect.  Ben came out this last time and he was exceptional!  He explained everything and cleaned up perfectly after he was done!   He must be an asset to your company!  Wish there were more people who has Ben's attitude!  Nice to be around someone that's like his job!   100 stars!

Used roto rooter many times but our most recent experience is bad enough that we'll never use them again.  Took 5 hours to get a plumber for an emergency call after being told I'd hear from some one in one hour.  My follow up calls were immediately routed to dispatch who told me on two separate occasions that someone was on the way.  During a third call I was told no one had been dispatched and it would take another hour.  Plumber arrived 11 pm Thursday and didn't have the right part on his truck to fix my toilet (a very minor repair). Could not get another guy until Saturday morning.

Clean up crew showed up while water was still leaking. One member of the clean up crew that came over the four days was disrespectful to a neighbor and has now caused a rift between us. That is completely unacceptable.
Thus far my calls to complain have not been returned.
Do not use roto rooter

This guys did a great job! I had an issue with my kitchen sink backing up when my washer drains. Steve came out and got the job done. Thank you very much Roto-Rooter for your prompt response, an outstanding customer service, and a job well done! I will definitely use your service again in the future. Thanks!!!

I'm sure they have great service if they ever make it out to your house. Was told the tech would be at my house in 30-45 min. 1 Hour and 10 minutes later, still no tech. When I called, the dispatch person told me the tech was still 45 minutes away and not answering his phone. Had to finally cancel and go with another company. Having the best service in the world does a company no good if you can't make it to your customers house!

Very unprofessional behavior - had initial service appointment, where they tried to charge $97 for a 10 minute visit, in addition to the $65 bucks for even getting to the house; determined that pump had to be exchanged so no real work took place initially. Agreement to provide cost estimate for pump and contacting me again for next appointment - never happened. I had 2 follow-up calls with them to NO effect. Company is only making money on the initial visit, never shows up a second time. That's a crooked business model.

Today, supervisor John & tradesman James came out and corrected the plumbing procedure that was initially performed by the previous technician & his apprentice last week.  John stated that going forward he would ensure that the technicians clearly explain what they are doing to the customers, and if they can't do a particular process that the customers know this in advance.  This will avoid future misunderstandings by what is communicated to the customer from the technicians.  Supervisor John & tradesman James extended the pipes without cutting additional sheet rock. Had the first technician and his apprentice removed the compression sleeve and nut, they could have cut and extended the pipe without cutting the sheetrock at all.

However, the fix by supervisor John and his tradesman James will make it easier for the homeowners (us) to install new sheetrock.  Supervisor John also purchased a new Kitchen Sink Drain with basket for the customer to replace a corroded nut on the bottom of the drain to repair a leak that we didn't know we even had. Supervisor John and tradesman James did an outstanding job to correct the work performed by the previous technicians.

The homeowners are satisfied with the corrected work (pictures attached).  The sheetrock will still have to be replaced, but this shouldn't be a difficult task.

One final caveat, make sure you research how your problem can be resolved before any technician arrive so that you can be prepared to state what you are willing to accept as a solution.

Rip off. Waste of time. Bait and switch. Wouldn't call them ever again. What else do you want to know?