Roto-Rooter

Reviews 3

KR

Krystal McKinnon

Wish I could give 0 stars! I honestly have no faith in this company. We had a bad experience previously, but I am not one to give up after just one bad experience with a company, but after two bad experiences, I am done! I scheduled an appointment one week in advance for a specific date and time, for which I knew I would be home. When I failed to hear the phone ring from the dispatcher checking in to see if the technician could come over, by the time I was able to call back 5 minutes later, I was told they sent the technician to another job and he could come by "later", there was no specific time frame that could be given- I should have cancelled right at that moment. However, I moved all of my afternoon plans around so I could just sit at home and wait for the technician to come. I also made sure to have my phone on me at every second so I didnt miss that phone call again (which was advised by dispatch). Finally, the technician showed up 4 hours after my originally scheduled time frame and tells me that he is going to charge me $359 to clean the main pipe of the house. I told him that was ridiculous and I wasnt going to pay that much, considering that every other company charges $99 to do this, including the one he works for! He said that he would do it for $259 "just for me", and I responded that was still too much and asked how the price could triple from just a year ago. Once I showed him my previous receipt he said he would do it for $99, but that he was "only going to make $15 doing the job because they are paid commission for every job they do". Excuse me? I should have kicked him out at that point. So, you mean to tell me that a technician can just make up their own price? Does he really think that his 30 minutes of time is worth $200? If so, Id like to apply for a job at Roto-Rooter! I let him complete the job, foolishly, and was told that another technician would come out and scope the drain to make sure he got everything. Great, another service to pay for- how much is this guy going to try to get out of me? I called dispatch and told them not to send anyone else out to my house. I am now looking for a reputable plumber who can come out and scope the drain FIRST to make sure Roto-Rooter did their job, and clean up any messes they may have left behind.

SE

Seth Erickson

I will never use Rotorooter again. On Monday my girlfriend called and made a service request to install a pressure reducing valve and fix a leaking pipe in our crawlspace. She explained during the call that wed had a plumber and technician out last year, and we wanted that same plumber to come out for the work. The operator explained she wanted to be sure that plumber was certified for the work, and confirmed he was. Two days later on the day of the service, I took the day off work. The appointment was for 11am. At 12:30pm, a dispatcher called me and told me the plumber would be out to me in an hour. I asked him if this was a solid estimate and he replied that it was.Two hours later, no one had showed up. I called and got transferred twice before speaking to "Jim," who told me that the plumber we requested was not certified for this work. I explained he must be confused; we did not want the sewer technician, Vince, coming out, we wanted the plumber whose name we could not remember who had been out to our house last year. "Oh," he says. "That guy no longer works here." Really? You let us schedule this plumber two days in advance, send the wrong guy (who never showed up), and dont bother to let us know the plumber we asked for is no longer with the company? He offered to send another plumber out, who is over an hour away and still on another job. I declined, as I have other errands I needed to run that I had counted on having the afternoon for. There was no offer of reducing the cost of the work I needed, or reimburing me for lost time. No attempt to retain my business when I complained. This is NOT acceptable. I lost over $250 in income for taking the day off work, and the plumber didnt even show up. Would anyone have shown up had I not called in, FOUR HOURS after the appointment was scheduled? I will NEVER do business with Rotorooter again. My business would have entailed twice annual sewer service, at least $1,000 in work today, and given the age of my house, who knows how much more work I could have provided them with in the future. This is how you lose a customer who you would have been guaranteed business from for a long time. I am going to call a local plumber who has more accountability and actually depends on referral business.

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Adele Nielsen

This has been a most unfortunate experience. I wish I could comment on their service but they never showed up and a lot of time was wasted waiting for them. I called on Thursday about a backed up sink in a rental unit and was told someone would be there after 7pm the same evening. Great! Tenant made time to be home. Company called shortly after 7pm and canceled the appointment. Service was rescheduled for Saturday between 10am and 2pm. Tenant canceled two commitments so she could be there, since I could not. Again, no show. Tenant called around 1:30pm and a rather unfriendly operator told her "she would get a call a half hour before the service person would show up". I called at 4:30pm since no one showed up during the scheduled time and, after talking with 3 different people, was told that "sometimes jobs take longer than planned." When asked where we were on the schedule, I was told, "we have 8:40am appointments to get to first." Given that news, I clearly had to look for other options, since I couldnt trust that anyone would show up that day(especially since our prior appointment was canceled by the company). I understand that jobs can be more complicated than expected and that delays may occur. A courtesy call and a little honesty would have been appreciated and gone a long way in conveying trustworthiness. This company is either completely understaffed or over-schedules (or both). I feel sorry for the people answering the phones. They seem friendly but are clearly frustrated having to deal with unhappy customers repeatedly calling to find out when someone is going to show up. They are put in a position of not being able to say when someone will be there - only "well try to get someone there". Since other companies have solved service scheduling reliably and successfully, I can only conclude this is very poor management. As a customer, I expect more and dont appreciate being strung along. I can be patient to a point but then there is no longer any "try", there is only "do". Perhaps they do good work. I dont know. I do know that if you need your plumbing problem addressed in a timely manner, you should consider someone else.

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