ROOTER KING

Our new house flooded shortly after closing. The seller had performed sub-standard work on the upstairs toilet. Rooter King was called in and performed work as part of our Home Warranty. Things were chaotic, with kids underfoot, work crews performing water mitigation, etc. Someone appeared, with no uniform, no business card and no paperwork, and identified himself as the plumber, explaining what had happened to cause the flooding and telling us that the Warranty would not cover replacing the toilet, but that, although he'd fixed it 'for now' it was "just gonna happen again" and that he'd "only charge" us "$280" to install a "top of the line toilet" upstairs. He left and we had no idea who he was with, how much we owed him, etc. Our realtor tracked him down by contacting the Home Warranty company and a few rounds of phone tag ensued. He showed up one day with a new toilet and told us that the Warranty was, in fact, covering a new toilet after all, but that it was "sub-standard" and a "builder's special" and we'd need to pay him an additional $250 to $300 to get a good toilet installed. I, naturally, said that I didn't want a toilet that might overflow again installed and said I'd talk to the Warranty people and find out what we could do. He left. Still no business card, no invoice, no professionalism. I spoke to the Warranty company repeatedly, trying to find out if we could hire a new plumber, as I didn't feel comfortable with him. I was told they'd speak to him, and that I either had to stick with him as the plumber, or cash it out and be left with only $120 to start all over again with a new plumber. Within 1/2 an hour of the most recent phone call with the Warranty company, the plumber showed back up and was very abrupt about "being here to put in the toilet", I threw up my hands and allowed him upstairs to do so. After he was done he informed us that we now owed him not the $60 co-pay, but a full $190, because he'd "upgraded" the toilet to a better one. When we expressed confusion as to how that had happened, he insisted that we'd 'agreed' on the phone previously. He then proceeded to get huffy with us and tell us "look, if you can't pay for it, I'll just go yank it". I asked him to step outside and allow my boyfriend and I to discuss the situation privately, to which he was very resistant and hostile. He did finally step outside however he re-entered our home, without knocking a brief time later to demand his payment. I'd written out the check and handed it to my boyfriend, I no longer felt comfortable, after he re-entered our home and was increasingly argumentative and accusatory, so I fled to our bedroom and my boyfriend wrapped things up with him. At no time were we provided with an estimate in writing, we'd signed NOTHING prior to or during the time the work was being done, the only invoice we received was the one I insisted up on once he announced that we owed him $190 over and above what the Warranty people were paying him. He tried to tell us that he'd cut us a great deal, done us a favor, was going above and beyond, etc. I paid him because of the threat of the toilet being ripped back out and having no money left over from the Warranty to get a new one purchased and installed. I paid him to get him out of our house as I didn't feel comfortable with his attitude and demeanor. I felt threatened, extorted, taken advantage of and cheated. I have no way of knowing how much the toilet was really worth, or how much we were overcharged. We still need the sink reset upstairs and therefore are shopping around for another plumber, as I'd never use nor recommend Rooter King again.

Great. We called on a Saturday morning and they said they would send someone out in about an hour. Bill arrived about an hour later. He was pleasant and efficient and pulled an ugly clump of hair out of the drain. He also gave us some good advice on preventing problems in the future and answered questions about a future plumbing project. I also should mention that we are in the middle of a deep freeze -- I expected to have to wait longer than an hour to have someone on site! Very nice.