Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Services

Reviews 3

WI

William Lodge

First encounter for my water heater was 5 stars: fast response, tech was on time, tech was knowledgeable and told me what was going on; the pilot light had gone out, so I had him relight it and I knew I could have them re-evaluate within 6 months free of charge if it went out again. Well, it did go out within a week. Second time the tech was on time but not so quick to carefully examine the water heater and said it should be replaced; I figured this would be the case so I asked him about purchasing my own instead of through them and after checking and verifying the unit I picked out would work, he agreed to do it, quoted me, and said hed come back within 45 minutes to install it. I ran to Home Depot to pick up the water heater and returned; I hadnt received a call regarding the tech to return so I called and they arranged to have him come out again. I got a call at 5 PM from the plumber that he couldnt come out because the shop he needed to get the parts from was now closed. I reluctantly rescheduled for the next day (Saturday) in the afternoon. I received a call just shy of the end of the time frame the tech was supposed to be at the house and he told me he couldnt do the work this time because someone didnt pull the permit, so it would have to be rescheduled for Monday. I was livid since I had been waiting for the tech for several hours as it was, but reluctantly agreed since I didnt have much choice under the condition that it get done first thing in the morning. I got the follow up call from the dispatcher and informed them of the reschedule (they were clueless this had transpired). Monday morning I waited. I got a call from the dispatcher that the tech was on his way 30 minutes prior to the end of the scheduled time frame. An hour later I had no phone call and no tech. I called back and apparently the tech was AWOL: not answering phone calls. I called the local office and demanded that someone come out to fix the issue. Another tech was scheduled but he was coming from Seguin and wouldnt be able to get to my house until about an hour later; again, I reluctantly agreed. I was told I would get 15% off my service to apologize for the hassle. The tech showed up around noon and after going back and forth trying to make sense of the various quotes and the work that had to be done, I got him to start working. There were multiple phone calls and additions and subtractions related to what had to be brought up to code and what was still acceptable regarding the existing piping. I did have to run down to the Home Depot (again) to get a CO/smoke detector because apparently thats a new code item. By the end of the day, 5 PM, I finally had a working water heater installed. So, while the first and last tech went through a lot of effort to try and make my experience good, the second tech and miscommunication between the techs and the dispatchers brought down the score to only 3 stars. I may use them again since they did get the job done and put in quite the effort to do so; however, I am disappointed by the overall experience and time I had to waste.

AM

Amy Watson

water heater started up. He took a very long time sitting in the van figuring out the bill. When he ran my credit card, he did not tell me the total before charging the card. When I asked what the total was, he said he forgot what it was, and it was in the van. I did finally get a proper bill, and the water heater seems to be working fine after a week or so, but I feel like I overpaid for the service and unit that time and should not have taken his advice on which unit to get. After that third technician, I am not sure if I would use the company again. If I could get the first technician again, I would not hesitate to call. Edit: 10/24/2013 - Wednesday night I discovered a leak near my foundation in the front yard, and I used Roto-Rooters online scheduling system to set up an appointment for Thursday morning, 10am to noon. I received an email confirmation. On Thursday morning, dispatch called around 9:15am and asked if it would be okay for a technician to come in 30 minutes. I said yes, and she said the techs name was Johnny. He arrived shortly with a helper. He gave me an estimate for digging down to the leak, and I signed off on it before they started digging. When they had dug the hole, he showed me that the connection between the PVC line in the yard and the copper line under the house had been incorrectly installed (work had been done by an independent plumber many years ago). He explained what needed to be done and had me sign an estimate before proceeding with the repair. I asked about a coupon I had printed off the website, and he accepted it and subtracted that amount from the labor estimate. The repair took about two hours, and when he was finished, he showed me what he had done before filling in the hole. He said they would try to fix the landscaping as well as they could, and they did so within expectations. I asked about a leaking faucet before they left, and he changed his boots and put shoe covers on before coming into the house. He showed me his work estimate book as we discussed whether or not the leak should be fixed then, since it turned out to require extensive work and would need to be incorporated into a future remodeling job. He charged my Discover card and gave me a carbon copy of the receipt. He told me the work had a one year guarantee and suggested writing a review online in order to enter the sweepstakes. Both Johnny and his helper were very friendly and polite during their visit.

A

Anonymous User

We called them to get an estimate for work on our water heater. The first day they were supposed to show, they didnt show within the time frame they had committed to. When they were an hour late, we called them and told them we would reschedule for the next day because it was nearly 7pm in the evening and we have children who had to get to bed. The next day, two technicians showed up and took a look at the water heater. They kept having to go outside to write up an estimate even though they had the price book in hand. When they came back in to deliver the price quote, one of the technicians kept changing the price. They said they had to change the valve and drain the heater. If there was too much calcium, a new water heater would be needed. We asked if we would still have to pay the first charge even though the same work would be done to replace the water heater. One technician told us no, the other told us we would have to pay 80% plus the cost for the second job. Why would we have to pay anything for the first job if the same work would be done the same day for the second? We asked for a quote in writing and they told us that they could not provide this to us because we could use it as a "tool" to try to get a better price from another company. Really? In business, we dont operate with verbal agreements, rather, we like things in writing. We asked for a price for what a water heater would cost us should we have to replace it, and they were not able to offer this to us either. It was incredibly shady and at that moment it was hard to trust them. After explaining simple logic, the technician tried to backtrack. We called the company and asked to speak to a manager. We were told a manager would return our call in 15 minutes, but we never got a call back regarding the issue. There is such a horrible stigma attached to services such as this. You want and need to be able to trust a company to treat you fairly. It is a shame that we experienced this and an even bigger shame that the manager could not give a moment to give us a call and regain our trust and business.

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