i come from a long line of blue collar guys. ive had many, many 'get your hands dirty' jobs myself. so, im a little confused -- when did plumbers get so dainty and squeamish that they seem like 7 year old girls in pink tutus? we had a clog in the soil stack and water from flushing the toilet baked up intp the tub. I DIAGNOSED THIS, not them. when i told them their reply was oh we caint go in ur crawlspace...its all wet! and the cleanout is unaccessible 'unaccessible' apparently includes anything further than 2 inches away. our cleanout is ONE foot from the crawlspace access hatch. Nope, they shook their heads, uh uh. mind u i was already 2/3s of the way under (been there many times) and i DID notice that Mr. Big Tutu MIGHT not be able to squeeze thru. okay. dont be rude i thot, theres another way. so i crawled out when he seriously said: our boss wont let us open the cleanout so you're gonna have to do it and then you have to clean up any waste water and stuff and then maybe we can go under there' um...if i could i would but what exactly am i paying a plumber to do? so, okay, his girth issue, his daintiness...so , hows about up on the roof, snake down thru the vent?' 'Oh...um we didn't bring the BIG ladder. no, i wouldnt imagine u would to a one story, 1950s ranch house. 'here use mine,' i offer. 'Oh we caint go up there cause the boss wont let us...it's all icy. i look 'where?' 'all over it!' nope, no ice, no snow, not even dew. 'and we gotta go, cause our boss wants us off the road by 12:30p cause of the snowstorm!' (that was forecast to START at 4:30p, which it did). bottom line: they did nothing. they charged a service fee up front (through AHS) and THEN sent in a report to AHS that there was no access because we wouldnt let them under or on the roof! sadly theyve pulled this scam over and over (reviews online by the dozens). so, on monday im turning this over to the attorney generals fraud squad, the plumbers union and city licensing people. bottom line: RUN!