DRAIN BUSTERS

I would NEVER recommend their services. They did over $5000. of damage in my bathroom and did not pay for it from their insurance, if they even have any, as promised. The owner is performing plumbing services without the knowledge and probably without the proper license. BEWARE!

I don't know if this is an isolated incident but once is too much. I hope they've cleaned up their act.

DO NOT USE THESE GUYS. Lots of talk, lots of bs, ridiculing other local plumbers. He "guaranteed" to have solved the problem and the system backed up again in 2 days. I was not able to supervise from start to finish, and a Blackberry smart phone went "missing" that same morning. Wants you to pay cash which is not disclosed up front. Save yourself the trouble and go with one of the local AL "A" rated firms which I have since used and are great.

We called Drain-Busters regarding our over-flowing toilets at around 9am. one man came out at 11am which is when he said he would be here. He unplugged both toilets in about 20min. Now comes the problems. When he gave me the bill ($125- which I thought was somewhat overpriced) He was very reluctant to take a check. He finally did take it, but he called me on his cell saying that I had made the check to Drain-Busters, but he wanted the check made out to his name! That's when I began to suspect that this company must have changed ownership or something. He came back to the house & I made it out to him personally. I think I put the date wrong so he had me do another check! A little later he called again that he went to the bank to cash it and it wouldn't clear. We had several checking accounts and we hadn't made the transfer to that account yet. He must have flown to the bank because we made the transfer to our bank while apparently he was standing there waiting for it. He insisted on staying there until the transfer came through. At this point I really could care less if he ever got his money. There's something funny going on there. We use Drain Busters last year with no problems, but any goodwill they had with us in 2009 is long gone. Regarding the 2 reports on these people, the one in 2009 I agree with, the service was good. Regarding the report of 3/13/2010 all I can say is DITTO! DITTO! DITTO!.

On Feb 21, 2010 we awoke to a backed-up kitchen drain. We called Roto Rooter, a plumber and Drain Busters for estimates. Rooter answered but couldn't provide an estimate, and since the plumber and Drain Busters didn't answer the phone we scheduled with them. Drain Busters then called and gave an estimate over the phone of $79 to unplug kitchen drain and convinced us to cancel the Rooter service saying they would charge "way more" once they arrived "that's why they don't give estimates". He promised over and over that $79 price was firm. 2 "Drain Busters arrived and we showed them where the pipes, water heater, etc were down in the basement. One of the workers began using scare tactics, showing us all kinds of work that needed to be done. We said we couldn't afford anything else and asked them to just snake the drain, As they pulled the snake out, they showed us "how bad" the build up was. Since the snake was not effective, we went with their suggestion to Water Jet the drain, believing this would provide the best solution and value since we were promised the job would be fully guaranteed. The cost increased to $175 (CASH because they couldn't identify whether a check was valid) (but costs would be much more if they had to return later). The "Drain Busters" insisted that their work was "FULLY GUARANTEED" and we were provided with receipt # 435304. The water appeared to drain and they left. We went back downstairs and saw that there was a big puddle of water on the floor. We called them thinking that one of the pipes came loose or something. They insisted (quite defensively I might add) the water on the floor wasn't the result of the water jet. So we started searching around and found the water heater was leaking. (With all the problems they found, it's incredible they didn't identify the leak that was coming from the water heater). So we bought a water heater and are looking for a plumber to install it. But now two weeks later the drain is backing up again so we called yesterday. They confirmed they would perform the warranty work and scheduled for today between 9-12. Imagine our shock when we received a call (at 7:21 !!!) this morning from Drain Busters and were informed that there would be a "service charge of $40 CASH". We told them we expected no additional charges for warranty work. What do we do??? We're afraid to have them return and we don't know if there is such a thing as an honest plumber who can install our new water heater.

OVERALL IT WENT EXCELLENT--I CALLED HIM THIS MORNING AT 8:15 AM WE SET AN APPT FOR 3:00 PM. HE CALLED ABOUT 2:30 TO SEE IF HE COULD COME EARLIER. I SAID SURE HE CAME OUT AND TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY. VERY PROFESSIONAL