Roto-Rooter Group
Reviews and Complaints

Formal Complaint – Refund

Provider: RotoRooter Livonia

Customer: John Cooke

[protected]

[protected]@comcast.net

Service address: 35720 Hazelwood, Westland Michigan

Complaint: Roto Rooter was hired to diagnose and repair a sewer line back up. They did correctly diagnose the issue, but only after $2,694.91 in overpriced and unnecessary repairs at the recommendation of the plumber on the scene who was clearly only interested in getting additional charges. The plumber was Dikembe McCaster.

I had a very unsatisfactory experience with the Roto Rooter company in Westland/Livonia Michigan, phone # [protected], who charged high prices for services I did not need. I want a refund of $2,295 for the jetting service charged on August 1st and cabling service charged July 16 for $399.91. Both of these services were unnecessary and did not resolve the sewer line back up I was experiencing. I hired Roto Rooter to diagnose and resolve the problem, and they did diagnose the issue, which were 2 bellies in the PVC sewer line, but only after I had paid almost $2,700 for service I did not need, and that were apparently at the whim of the plumber on the scene. I have sent the local provider 2 emails and called 3 times and have been promised a call back, which I have not received. The last was 5 days ago, and still no call back or resolution.

Details:

1. I was having a problem with sewer line back ups at the above property. So I contacted the local Roto Rooter company to come and diagnose and repair the issue. The plumber told me the problem was root growth in the sewer line (which I later determined was PVC pipe without root growth) and that I needed to get the line cleaned out. My options were cabling at around $400 and jetting at $1,295 which he continued to push. I opted to cable.

2. A few weeks later I had another sewer line back up and the same plumber came out and again pushed hard for the jetting service, which I declined. So, he cabled again under the original service warranty.

3. Once again, a short while later I had another sewer line back up. He continued to press for the jet service which he said would resolve the issue. Desperate to get this matter resolved I finally agreed. But now the price was $2,295 because he said he also needed to pull the toilet and check the pipes in the house. Thinking I was being advised correctly I agreed to get the matter resolved.

4. Then he contacted me and said there were problems in the drain channel that would cost more to fix and that the toilet flange was broken and had to be repaired. I asked the cost on the toilet flange and he priced that at $750. Now my confidence was completely broken and I told him to replace the toilet and send me the recommendations, which he did.

5. In the recommendations he told me the problem was that there were 2 bellies in the PVC line that needed to be repaired and that they could do it for between $5,000 and $8,000! It had become clear to me that the charging was never going to stop. Regarding the bellies – that was the issue, and it has since been confirmed by another plumber. The sewer line is PVC, so roots were never the issue.

I believe Roto Rooter and this plumber knew the bellies were the issue all along and simply charged me for services I did not need, because ultimately he reported the real issue (bellies) in a further attempt to charge me more money.

Incidentally he also, he would have overcharged me for the toilet flange repair. He quoted $750, and the other plumber charged $229.

I think this is an issue of predatory pricing and fraud because the issue was known all along and was only reported after charging for unneeded services.

I want a refund of $2,964.91 for the services I did not need.

Thank you

John Cooke

August 10, 2022, I called rooter rooter 3-days ago. No one has come to my home. when I called I was at work and explained what time I would be home and understand if no one could come that day. I was offered an appointment a few days out, I accepted the appointment. I was also offered a medigation team that would come out before my appointment date to assesse my situation. As of today, August 10, 2022, 7:42pm, I have not seen the medigation team nor have a plumber came out to my home. I have called each day over the past three days, I called today August 10, 2022. I explained each time my situation and that I wanted licensed, insured plumbers sent to my home, I think this was the problem. She could not confirm that she would send a licensed individual to my home.

Your time is not important to these people. I was told that the licensed plumbers work in the mornings and mostley at commercial sites. I decided to accepted a well trained, experienced technician, and was promised one would come to my home it is 7:42pm no one has come to my home. Do Not Use This Service. They pick and choose where to send the best worker.

M. Thompson

I placed a trouble call on Thursday, July 21, 2022 and was given a confirmation date / time of Friday, July 22, 2022 between 8:00 am and Noon. Nearly 3.5 hours later (3:30 pm), still no service technician! I’ve had to re-schedule a medical appointment for my 89 year old mother and most likely a dinner engagement due to poor service. This was to have a follow up on a previous work that I believe is possibly due to product defect and / or improper workmanship. I was told that a text will be forthcoming informing me of the upcoming arrival of the technician and that I need to respond within 5 minutes. Inexcusable and Irresponsible!

I paid this company $1149.60 plus a tip, plus $149.00 service fee on July 3, 20222, to snake my main sewer line. Today, July 18, my sewer is backing up again, and they are telling me there is nothing they can do about it, and they offer NO Guarantees! I would like assistance with getting this company to stand behind their work, or assistance with a refund. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Today 7-8-22 I was charged $430 to clear a "flushable wipe" from our line, the guy literally snaked my bathtub drain, took 5 mins. Unreal!

On Sat. 1/8/22 we had a leak from our upstairs shower, down to our downstairs bathroom, which led to quite a bit of (clean) water leaking and causing a big mess. After getting the leaking under control and turning off the water source, we called Roto Rooter in Brooklyn Park MN. They told us they couldn't make it out until Tues. We certainly understood the timeline, since most businesses have lost or reduced staff due to the pandemic. And since we had already cleaned, we were good with that. The next day a guy stopped by, unannounced to check the damage. We were home anyway, so great! They are prioritzing it. Same thing again on Mon. This seems to be a regular thing, but it's good, the issue is being addressed. By Tues. they set up and were ready to roll. Two men showed up. Staging impressive, sealed off nice and tight. My husband mentions to them, if they are going to dry the lower downstairs bathroom, they have open access to the ceiling from our laundryroom, since it is not finished. They pretty much brushed him off, set up their equipment of drying machines, it was on paperwork they treated the ceiling, but maybe it happened, maybe not. (I'll get to that later) turned machines on and informed us, someone would be out to check it's progress daily. We were happy, they were addressing it. Then Roto's restoration side came out to locate and fix the issue. Turned out it had to do with the showerhead and faucet. The plumber they sent was EXCELLENT. I can't say enough good things about him. Think his last name was Pash employee #4092 or 97 can't tell for sure on paperwork and unfortunately, his 1st name escapes me. He remembered us and it turns out, he had hooked up our water filtration system a few years back. We were so happy with him back then, my husband and I even discussed how well knowledged and polite he seemed. His work did turn out to be a separate bill, but again, we were happy with him and we paid him, this was around $525. He was never an issue.

Back to the basement, The one guy who was checking for moisture showed up Mon. Tues. Wed. then Thurs. he was a no show, no phone call, nothing. Friday got a ph. call saying he can't make it. That was two days we stayed home for him. He explained he couldn't come and what can you say except something nice like Ok we can let it dry over the weekend. Weekend went by no one came, but again, it's a weekend. The man shows up on Mon. and wants to take closet doors off and start tearing out the sheetrock and ceiling because it's still not drying. My husband informed him we were NOT going ahead with tearing up the sheetrock or ceiling at this time, but OK for taking off the closet doors. We thought it was odd since there was no leaking in closet, the closet is closed off, and they had access from the top. Again ceiling is open access from laundryroom and closet is located as close to laundryroom as possible. But we let him do it anyway. He took the doors off and left. By now, we are getting impatient and starting to feel uneasy about what's going on. We went downstairs and found only 1/2 the machines were plugged in and running. Still needs to dry, but not all the machines running? Why? My husband was fed up and used a ladder and put the machine up in the laundryroom ceiling with the open access. Lo and Behold, the next day, the guy came back and claimed it had dried. How much faster this could have been if they would have did it that way to begin with? He said everything read good and looked good. We told him we would do the clean up ourselves since we had done most of it beforehand. He was good with that. We asked about payment and he informed us someone would be contacting us soon on it. I waited a couple of weeks with no word and so I called. I spoke to Christine, who was most helpful and a very nice lady. I told her my situation and asked about the billing and informed her it was not an insurance claim. She took some more info and then gave me the name of the man who would be doing the quote (I believe it was Mike) and his contact number. She also told me to give all the info I had given her, to him. I put a call into his voicemail and within a few days of phone tag, we discussed all the info I have previously stated and he would email the estimate. I then received the estimate. It was written up like an insurance claim. Charging us $3,200 + on top of the $525 we paid the plumber. We were livid! It was listed as two people coming over EVERY day. That happened only twice. It was usually one man. They were charging us for masks and foot coverings for 2 people. Double the supplies. We were charged for all the drying machines when only 1/2 were running. 2 days the one guy didn't even show for a reading, that we stayed home for. Then running these machines all weekend with a no show at all. They dismissing my husband's way better solution to theirs. They had better access thru the open ceiling, which would have dried much faster, since most of the water was up there on top. There was very limited water damage showing up. One spot in the far corner of bathroom the other was right above the entry door. We were also billed for clean up. Which we did. EVERY TIME. I called Mike back and AGAIN informed him it was sent and itemized like an insurance claim. It wasn't correct on charges at all. Insurance company would be paying for services, gloves and gear, we didn't receive and for people that never came. He apologized and said he would go over everything again and was very nice, so again, I was good with that. We received the new quote of $2046.83. Now no one likes a high bill, but my husband and I believe we certainly didn't get our money's worth this time and with all the other sketchy stuff we encountered, we truthfully didn't want to deal with Roto Rooter anymore, just pay it and be done. Let's just make this water under the bridge and lesson learned here. Then after all this time (and this is why I am contacting you) I look up at the spot on the ceiling that we have not fixed yet, due to some medical delays. There is MOLD growing. I took some pictures of it. So what EXACTLY did they treat and why did he tell us it was dry? I get we told him we didn't want to tear out the sheetrock but he came back and claimed it all dried, not some it, ALL dried. Looks like we will be tearing out the ceiling this weekend. We are soooooooo angry at this point. We really kept our cool through an already ugly situation and now this. If my ceiling would have been treated like they said. This never would have happened. We shall see how much mold is up there once we completely open it up and I will be taking more pictures. I certainly wasn't going to let this happen without contacting you to let you know our experience with your company. This is not good business practice and truly feel Roto Rooter scammed us. Again, I have pictures of the mold.

On 4/29/2022 I called the plumming company after hours to help with the leak we discover that night. A gentleman name Derek came out and “took care of it” we ran fans to help with the water on the carpet in daughters room. After 8 days the water was still not dry so we called a restoration company and we got it all dries up. A week later the carpet was wet again in the same location as last time. So we called roto-rooter to see why? They sent out Derek again, Friday 5/13/2022. He took 2 minutes in the room and said we need to have a leak detection company come out before he can fix it because the leak is in the slab. We contacted a leak detector and he came Monday 5/16/2022 and charged us $300 and said we didn’t need it that the leak it right where Derek cut the drywall just a little lower. Today we had a different Plummer come out and diagnose the problem and fixed it within the hour. I would like to request a refund for the services paid $434 plus $300 to cover the unnecessary coast of the leak detector company that Derek said we needed.

On April 21, 2022 I called Roto-Rooter to fix a pipe that was leaking in the front yard of my house in Los Angeles, CA. The plumber that came out told me their rate was $440.00 an hour. I allowed him to start the work because it was a small job. He replaced five feet of pipe with copper pipe. He said he had to buy 10 feet of pipe because that was the minimum. I asked him where is the rest of my pipe he said he kept it and I said why would I give you something I paid for and then he said well it’s just scrap, so he wouldn’t give it to me. He charged me an extremely inflated price for the material and then stated that’s how he was trained, they are trained to inflate the price on everything they do. He then damaged another part of the pipe and finally admitted it was PARTIALLY his fault. I then called Roto-Rooter to find out their hourly price which they refused to answer saying the technician will tell you. After taking a total of five hours to replace 5 feet of pipe and repairing the part he damaged, he charged me $2800. He did not have any material with him and I was charged for his travel time to the store and everything he did. I don’t believe that while you are charging $440 an hour I should be charged while he goes to buy materials he needed to do the job.

Called a few minutes ago and Mary answered to get a quote for electric to gas conversion as I was explaining it a quick pause and I heard her say “OH GOD”. So I told her your rude never mind about my request. So I hung up. Wow, if you don’t like your job quit.

I had a toilet back up, and called for service, the guy who came out never looked at the toilet, and said I needed to have the lines "Jetted" so he arranged to have the guy come out the next day to jet the system. $655 per hr. and a total bill of $1,355, shoved a camera in the pipe and show it was clean as a whistle, that night the toilet over flowed again (again he never looked at the toilet)

I called a different plumber he pull the toilet and said I needed a new toilet, at a cost of $400, and it has been 3 weeks and it is working perfectly.

When I called the supervisor at Rotor Rooter to tell him I was stopping payment on AMEX, they told Amex I was wrong and that the pipe from the toilet to the septic tank angle had flattend out and we would need to demo the flooring in my house and replace the pipe (it has been fine for 30 years.

FIRST THE UPSELL, THEN $1,300 LATER THE SAME ORIGINAL ISSUE AFTER ROTOR ROOTER LEFT- DON'YT USE THEM

We scheduled three times a service call with Roto rooter in Houma & they cancelled after waiting 3 to 4 hrs for them. We had to travel three hrs total to wait for them. No company should schedule. Three times & cancel you as a business is not run like that. If you cannot be there that day don’t make the appointment. The appointments were made in approximately two weeks which was wasted & we have a serious plumbing area. L a king & water had to be turned off

These guy at roto in florence alabama on sherrod ave are the most crooked people ive ever seen at any company in my life.. They show up to work high on meth every single day they ride women around in there vans they drink on the job.. The man in charge jgon is in ccu from a stroke hes 90 years old he bails them out when they get arrested they also use roto to get sides jobs on there own by saying its for roto rooter and they pocket the money.. They have sex in an old house behind the shop with previous secretarys.. Its all around the most unprofessional work environment ive ever seen in my life. One employee is on meth was in prison 10 years for attemptied murder on an officer and has been arrested 6 times in 2 years. Someone needs to come in and straighten this establishment out because people are starting to avoid giving them there buissness!

User BEWARE. I called this company for a backed up kitchen drain. The blockage was not in my P-trap and I was not able to clear it with my small drain snake. They told me that they couldn’t provide me with a price to clear it, but the service call would be $70 and their Tech would give me a price once he arrived. The price, $459.00, for a ten minute job. The Tech then told me that he would have to charge me the $70 fee either way. Lesson learned, don’t hire professional extortion artists. Really I am just mad at myself for being such a sucker. Never again.

Roter Rooter came to service an overflowing toilet on Dec. 31st. on a house I recently purchased. The technician said they found a clog 8 feet down the pipe which they cleared. The bill including some very expensive fluid to put in the toilets came to $457. 2 and a half weeks later, the toilet is starting to back up again.

Go figure, Roter Rooter only guarantees their work for 7 days. Why wouldn't this company stand behind the work they did 2 and a half weeks ago. If they truly cleared the blockage, there should be no recurring issue, especially as the toilet is only being used a couple of times each day.

Ridiculous - don't trust this company.

1.30 - 3.30 pm appointment set. Nobody showed up. Called 3 times. Every time I was told the tech will show up in 30 mins. I was also told the appointment time is a mere window, with no guarantees. At 5.30 pm on my last call I was rudely told I need to reschedule. Extremely poor customer service.Complaint to the "manager" did not yield anything. I had used them before twice about 2 years ago with good results. It seems a lot has changed. Their service has truly gone down the drain. Will never use this company again

I used Roto Rooter this summer I was initially told it would cost 10, 000 to replace over 40 ft of cast iron pipe. I applied for credit with their service and was approved. On the day they came to do the repairs it was discovered my pipe did not need to be replaced it was flushed and an outdoor access was placed my new price was roughly 6, 500. I asked the supervisor on-site Keith to give me my receipt before they left I went outside after an bit to check on them and everyone was gone. I called repeatedly and the Keith would not call me back. Suddenly no one would answer the phone or they would pass me around until it would disconnect. Roto rooter gave the credit company a 10, 000 dollar receipt which was the original estimate which I refused to pay. Finally I got hold of Sam that said he would fix everything and send me the correct bill and send it to the credit company. He got Diane from accounting involved and she never fixed anything nothing ever happened on her end to correct this mistake that they made. I am being sent to collections for 10 grand which is not the correct amount for the work that was done. It's been a headache and I will happily pay my debt but I'm not paying for services that we're not provided. Now if they want to come back and actually replace all the pipe fine but they haven't. I would like a correction on my account and to have this removed from collections, my credit shouldn't be ruined because they made a mistake or were purposely trying to be sneaky.

3 . He came out one time to look at it them but made no difference, still sounds like a stream is running in the pipes for sevERAL HOURS and you cannot flush in either one.I have had enough and will not Pay!

I called Roto-Rooter to unclog my drain. I was told that the tech couldn't reach the clog d the yard would be dug up at a cost of $9400. I told him no that's ridiculous. Just clean up and ill find someone else to clear the drain (which I did for $426.00) Next they told me that they had to cut away any drywall that had mold or bacteria. I called the project manager and told him they were removing walls that were far from the leak and it better be covered in insurance. He swore to me, they would cover everything. Next the appraiser from insurance came and said there was $9000 in repairs alone. Three days later they returned to retrieve their equipment and wanted me to sign a receipt saying everything was done and put back. Nothing was put back all my belongings are all mixed together in garbage bags in my backyard. After a little research I have found thousands of complaints vs R-R for exactly the same thing Telling people their yards need to be excavated at a cost of thousands of dollars. Even if the digging was necessary the cost was twice as much as recommended
Joseph Coleman
[protected]

Hello,
My name is Glenda Criss, I live in Columbia Heights, Mn. Last November I called Roto-Rooter for clog basement drain. The tech come out, ran the cable line, cable got stuck, tech had to cut cable. I was told it would have to dug out, cost $8300.00.

December 11th 2020, my basement drain begin backing up again. I called Roto-Rooter, the tech come out put in cable line notice broken cable line in there, pulled out his cable line stated it would have to be dug out, cost $$6, 210.00.

I have called Rotor-Rooter four times to ask what can they do, to be told I am responsible to pay to have the stuck broken cable removed. My basement continues to overflow as of today.

I am asking that Roto-Rooter take responsibility for removing their stuck broken equipment from my pipe line please. My basement is now flooded with sewage. I am retired and a caregiver for my 75 year old veteran brother who is paralyzed from a stroke and is bed bound. Because of his daily care and nurses, occupational and physical therapist weekly visits for his home care this has put our health in a very compromising situation. Thank you for your attention I hope to receive an immediate response.

Sincerely,
Glenda Criss
[protected]