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Roto-Rooter Complaints - Rip off Artist

Review all Roto-Rooter complaints

Roto-Rooter
Posted: 2008-04-26 by Eddy [send email]
Rip off Artist
Complaint Rating: 50 % with 6 votes
Company information:
Roto-Rooter
Rochester, New York
United States

What a joke, I'm still laughing! I called for a clogged drain and could not get a quote over the phone. I was told the service man would quote me at the job site. I was quoated $268.00 to rout a drain pipe, a five minute job! I told the guy to get the hell out of my house! I rented a router from Home Depot for $43.00 and was donw in under 10 minutes. Stay away from these jokers!!!
Comments United States Plumbing Services
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More Roto-Rooter complaints
Roto-Rooter - Plumbing rip off

Comments

170 days ago by Vince [send email]
Does this person have any idea what it costs to send a fully equipped truck to his door? Liability ins., workman's comp., overhead etc. He should get the hell off the internet and get a job so he could afford a quality plumber.
138 days ago by Avi [send email]
You must work for this scam company. The drain cleaning companies out here charge 85-$125 depending on the hour you call. They give you up front pricing. If your in a big house in the burbs and your line is extremely long I could see a higher bill. On top of that of this company gave UPFRONT estimates based on ZIP CODE/area, since most city homes are the same and most surburan homes are also similar in an area (which they could do) they would SAVE allot of OVERHEAD.
131 days ago by Jose [send email]
Here is the breakdown for all of you non business oriented customers out there who keep complaining about company's that go above and beiond what's expected of them.
One- roto rooter is one of the very few companies that does criminal and drug check
two- does quarterly employee training and evaluation
three- does quarterly safety training
four- does employee driving evaluations
five- does offer 24 hour service
six- does show up within 2 hours
seven- that will take care of your plumbing, heating and drain problems. also offer future solutions
eigth- that will give you a min. of 6 month guarantee and stand behind it 100%
nine- that is used by fortune 500 companies
ten- that have fully* stocked vehicles and ready for work

What do you really think this is all worth to you as a customer?. What do you as a customer think costs to insure all this happens?.

We are always quick to judge and complaine, because we pick one negative thing and focus on it till satisfied. When you can get more of a satisfaction by focusing on the positive side of thing...
99 days ago by Anonymous [send email]
As a former Roto Rooter employee, I can tell you this is one of their many tricks to rip you off, asnd get as much money from you as they can. Their "free estimates" are anything but, they use all kinds of ploys to rob you blind. Their prices tend to be 20-70% higher than the competition, they do not do a good job of honoring their warranties, do not resolve complaints without going to the top. Do not use Roto Rooter, unless you want to go broke, and continue to have problems. They also rarely use license plumbers, stock boys they train to do things the Roto Rooter way for 6 weeks, and then charge top dollar for their work. NOT A VERY PROFESSIONAL COMPANY!!! Do not use Roto Rooter.
91 days ago by Jeremy [send email]
I gotta agree with this complaint. I've got a cracked PVC water line in my front yard. The folks at Roto-Rooter want $450 to replace it. $450??? Gimme a break ... I fixed it myself for $10 in parts from Home Depot & 3 hours of my time. Now, at least I know who not to bother calling the next time I've got a plumbing repair!
65 days ago by Rob [send email]
OK you said that you payed $43.00 to rent the machine but it only took you 10 minutes to do the work. Well in your line of thinking didnt you over pay for the machine? They charged you for using it for the whole day. Did you yell at them for over charging you?
I own a Plumbing business and many things go into the price of a job. Each one of those sewer machines cost almost $3, 000.00. The truck is another $20, 000.00. The gas to fill one is over $100.00 and because they are fully stocked the gas mileage is poor. The hourly rate for the plumber that just drove to your home. All the state required insurance that we need to carry. The staff that took your call. The staff that dispatched the job. All the staff behind the scene that take care of all the paper work and running of the company. The cost of upkeep on the trucks and equipment. The utility bills to run the shop. The monthly payment to lease the building. The phone bill and computer internet charges. The computers and the $1, 500 program needed to dispatch the trucks. The uniform cost. The cost to print the invoices. advertising costs. Yellow page adds. the $3, 000.00 in truck stock in each truck. Specialty tools for plumbing.
Now when you take all of this in to consideration you will see that your overhead is very high. Each job priced is done on an average. If cleaning a sewer in your region on average takes an hour and a half that is the set time the company will use for that job. Then they will take in account the average drive time from one job to the next. How much gas on average from one job to the next. After all that they take the amount of jobs on average per year and divide that by all the over head charges per year they pay out to operate. Then they will need to add the 30 percent that all companies do for profit.
The only one being unfair here is any customer that tries to rip off these hard working companies. Every thing I have explained here is normal business in the United States like it or not. Plumbers work to make money just like you. Our charges are in place to make money and they are very well thought out. There is more work involved then just saying "well hell lets charge this guy $300.00 today"
For the guy that complained about the $450 price to work 3 hours on his plumbing I feel that was a fair price. Sounds like 3 hours of work but what about the clean up drive, time and every thing else that would have gone into that job?
Plumbing...the one job that every one thinks they can try to tell you what you should charge for your hard work. We always have to keep a smile on our face when you people are complaining about our prices. I NEVER MET A RICH PLUMBER HAVE YOU???????????????
63 days ago by Jared [send email]
ROTO ROOTER are SCAM ARTISTS!

The original poster here is SPOT ON. Please read my story:

I recently had an employee of this company "fix" a broken shower handle. He claimed to install a new cartridge but said that it would continue to "drip" until we purchased a whole new system for which he quoted us $400 (for parts alone). He charged $265.

Well, my father in law came out (an engineer who knows plumbing), removed the cartridge and started laughing from shock. It was a corroded piece of junk, NOT new at all.

We went to Lowe's and purchased a new one ourselves, he installed it and the leak is now GONE.

I took pictures of the corroded cartridge, copied the bogus invoice and my Lowe's receipt and reported them to the Attorney General, the BBB and Roto Rooter's corporate office.

Stay FAR away from these scam artists!
59 days ago by Lou [send email]
I think the important thing here is to get pricing up front, make sure you completely understand and make your decision. If you think the price is too high, by all means call around! Its a free country! Also, before even calling a plumber, assess the situation yourself. You would be suprised at how many people want a service technician to come to their home to repair a flush handle on a toilet. Use some common sense people! I have been a customer service rep for a plumbing a heating company for 5 years now and I'm always dumbfounded by the people who are clearly quoted pricing on the phone, then sign a work order with a total on it in front of the technician, then call the office screaming saying we ripped them off!
Companies have a right to make a profit and you have the right to fix it yourself or call many different companies unitl you find one whos pricing you agree with.
43 days ago by David [send email]
I also had Roto-Rooter in the other day to investigate a non-functioning shower handle. I was quoted $265.00 and $100.00 for a new part. A total of $365.00. Well, thanks but no thanks. I went to Home Depot. Bought a new assembly for less than $30.00 and was done in about 10 minutes.

If I was quoted maybe half the price I probably would have just let the guy take care of it and spend my Saturday relaxing. That is how you ensure business and keep the cash flowing to offset your fixed costs.

There is a big difference between taking advantage of people and covering your business expenses/overhead. So...please give a break. A doctors visit costs ~$95.00. I can almost guarantee his/her expenses are much higher. i.e. secretary, mal-practice insurance, billing specialists, inventory, managed care/medicare/medicaid cutting back on reimbursements etc...
29 days ago by Dee [send email]
Perhaps not all Roto Rooter companies operate the same way.

I am currently dealing with this rip off company, I'm presuming, is out of Tacoma, WA. They charged me just shy of $400 to rout a main line in our manufactured house. We knew what the problem was and asked for a quote over the phone as our regular plumbing company could not get to us that day. We were denied but told a tech could be there by noon - he arrived after 1. We have this issue every two years or so, so we know what it needs.

The tech arrived, wandered all about, I showed him where the line was and that we just wanted it routed. He did not have to uncover anything or do any heavy lifting or take out any toilets. Nor did he have to go under the house, but he proceded to go under the house to "look at the pipes". He then tells me it is going to cost $400. This was easily $200 more than what I usually pay with a competitor. He then convinces me that this cannot wait and has to be done right bow if we want any use of a bathroom and that routing the pipe may not do the trick and he may have to pull a toilet or two. Not feeling good about this at all, and feeling extremely pressured, I initialed under duress.

Once he got my initials, he took off the cap to the outlet that leads directly to the baffles. When I explained to him that it wasn't going to work the way he was doing it, he said he needed to rout it. It did not need routing - it was clear to the baffles, we were able to do that on our own before he got there.

He then put the cap back on and went back under the house to "look". He wasted so much time screwing around for an hour or so. I was furious.

He then decides to use a 1 inch blade for a 2 inch blade job and states as much. Then he tells me that usually the company does not guarantee a main line rout, but he will. (this is against company policy) So now, at this point, I have initialled for work to be done and the tech was going to use inadequate tools and told me as much.

The issue with the pipe was never fixed and I have filed complaints on this companies practices.
I even put a stop payment on the check and offered to pay just the service call fee because the tech told me he was using inappropriate tools for the job - therefore, the problem was going to persist.

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