Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Service was prompt, price was reasonable, technician was polite, well trained and cleaned up after himself. I would recommend this Roto-Rooter location to anyone needing 24 hour emergency service.

Very bad experience. While they were prompt and showed up less than 24 hours after booking the appointment, they continually up-sold what they needed to do, until I got fed up and told them to stop working. They sold completely unnecessary work (as confirmed by two other plumbers) as critical and kept escalating the work/cost. DO NOT LET THESE PEOPLE DIG / EXCAVATE NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY. They will use any excuse to start digging up your house. This is known in the trade as "spiking" a job, at which point they know the homeowner is very reluctant to stop the work. Also remember that even if you sign a contract with them, by PA law you have 3 working days to back out of the contract (must send them written notice of cancellation). While Rotorooter is prompt and always has people available, they will try anything to upsell the job to you. Use them to solve whatever emergent problem you might have, then call a trusted plumber (plenty on this list) to finish the job. NEVER let them undertake a large job at your house. Called sub-contractors and let them into my house without notification or authorization. Charged my credit card without notification or any kind of accounting for the charges.

camera line free of charge quote was a little high will wait and see how often it needs cleaned would use service again just need to negotiate price thanks Angie

Called Roto-Rooter at 7:30 pm. Asked for someone to service our leaky shower head. The assistant let us know it would be within the next couple of hours that someone would be at our home. We had a follow up call a half hour later and they let us know that Mark would be our technician and he would be arriving shortly. Within the next half hour, Mark arrived. I explained our issue and let him know what I thought it could be and he agreed. He proceeded to check the handles and disassemble them. He found where the washers were and showed me how worn they were. After a short visit to his truck to get the right sized washers, he returned and fixed one handle. He then had an issue with the other and went back to his truck to get a tool to modify the other washer. This took about ten minutes and he returned. He fixed the other handle and was done. Mark then printed out our receipt, accepted payment and went on his way. Great job!

Took a little longer But the clog was worse than we thought.

We had the unfortunate opportunity to repair the sewer line from our house to the street after it collapsed. This a VERY expensive and disruptive repair! Upon finding small amounts of sewer water in our basement, we called Roto-Rooter to check out the problem. They were prompt in responding and diagnosed the sewer line collapse when they came out. They gave us an estimate to trench the line to repair the break (which was, thankfully, close to the house on under the lawn) and line the pipe to the city connection. Now, not having a sewer line means you can't use the indoor plumbing (except VERY sparingly). The liner system means they don't have to replace the pipe the whole way to the street which would have been incredibly costly! It's also guaranteed and should mean we don't have to go through this again with a break further down the line. They said they could be out to start on the 2-3 day repair the next day, so we went ahead and scheduled. Although we would have loved to get another estimate, we just didn't have the time to mess around. Also, not everyone has the trenching equipment they needed to get to the line about 10 feet under our front yard. I don't really know if someone else would have been cheaper (and at this point, I don't want to know if they would have been). Roto Rooter was prompt and worked diligently. The job was done in 2-3 days and we only had to stay elsewhere one or two days. The yard was left probably in as good shape as can be expected; Our yard had a grave-sized pile of dirt with some broken terracotta and an ugly white access pipe sticking up in the middle of our yard. The workers also left some undesirable debris, like some trash and cigarette butts, but not that bad... Over time the hole settled considerably and we filled in spring with topsoil (which is surprisingly cheap at a DIY store) and seeded with new grass. I also got a "fake rock" to cover the ugly access pipe which is literally in the middle of our yard. As of June, it looks like nothing ever happened. Overall, we were satisfied, especially given that we felt we had little to no choice but to get the work done as soon as possible!

It was as short time after I called them that they were out. They tried to snake the sewer, but it didn?t go very far. They then state they would have to dig a hole, which was going to cost over $3000! I was advised to wait to call my insurance company and was told by Roto Rooter that they may cover some of it. I allowed them to dig the next day. They excavated and said the pipes were corroded, which would require another $9,700 to repair. I was told that installing new sewer pipes would raise the value of my home, which was just untrue. They put a camera under my concrete driveway and said that sewer water was leaking out of the pipes, also requiring a repair. They said they were 1 of only 3 companies that had the proper equipment for the job, as to not destroy my driveway and brick. I didn?t want a greater expense, so I agreed to it. I was asked if I wanted to call one of my children so they ?didn?t want to take advantage of me.? They ran a camera under my basement where I has just installed tile a few months earlier. Finally, I asked for the final price that came to $25,000. I contacted another plumber for a second opinion. He found no problems with the piping under my basement. He also stated the work they had done so far for around $12,000 he could have done for under $5,000. Anyone I contacted for another opinion quoted me far, far less. In total, I feel they overcharged me by $9,000. My insurance company was hesitant to cover any of the costs. They agreed to look at the dvd from the sewer and conveniently, it was damaged. Their top sales agent could not explain why the work under the driveway even needed to be done. I had to wait for almost 3 weeks to finally get the dvd?s in the mail. Not all of them are viewable. They also did a sloppy job of putting the cement back on the garage floor. I?m asking their customer satisfaction department for a refund of $7,000.

He came out and tried to open the blockage with a very small snake. He showed us pictures, from the camera of the blockage and then recommended that we have the street dug up and dig down 12 feet the next day to clear it, which would have been an $11,000 contract. We were hesitant to do a job that large so hastily so we called someone else to get a second opinion and we're very glad we did, because another plumber came and it turned out the blockage was not our problem at all, it was the burrow's, so we had to pay nothing out of pocket to fix the it. The bottom line is that the issue was misdiagnosed and the employee was way too eager to dig for the big job. I called the company back and had paid him $312 to evaluate the problem and send his snake down. I called and complained and Roto Rooter sent my money back.

Once they got the jack hammer into the concrete it kept going from there, bit by bit. The price was a years worth of college education and in one week, that was a pretty good hit for two people who just retired. I was not happy and contacted my insurance company, they weren't happy with it either. I didn't get anywhere near the compensation I would have if I had their insurance service for that emergency work. The insurance company even had a competitive, high priced company come out to look at my work to see what they would have charged and it would have been a third less. The competitive price from my insurance company was a maximum cost of $19,000 and what I got from the insurance company was $10,000 so it was a big difference. I am still very upset and don't know if I will every recover any money from it. The work itself was fine and the guys who did the work under harsh winter circumstances were just outstanding. It's the technique, marketing, and process that I am very upset about.

As a new homeowner I was shocked to see my sewer line backed up months after we bought the house. I called roto-rooter and they came to snake the line. I figured that this was a nationally known company with a good BBB rating so I called them first. The tech that came to my house tried to snake the line and couldnt get it to pass a certain spot. While trying to snake the line he left his machine which went out of control and ended up twisting upon itself which took another 1/2 hour to fix. He then told me there was a problem along 4 feet of the sewer line which would need to be dug out and replaced. The tech went to his truck and came back quoting me over $4000 for the job.I reluctatnly approved the job because of the scare tactics the tech used. Luckly my wife called another plumber for a second opinion before the dig crew came. The second plumber came over and snaked the line in 20 minutes and then passed a camera through the line showing that nothing was wrong with it at all! I called the tech and told him to cancel the dig crew. The tech returned and took a check for over $300.00 for the attempt to "snake" the sewer line. Luckly I called up the manager of the roto rooter who was very understanding and appologized for the tech, he informed me of the policy that if they cant snake the line they don't charge for the "attempt". He returned my check in the mail and did not charge me for the "attempt". I almost got swindled out of thousands of dollars, luckly my wife saved us by calling another plumber. This was a great learning experience and the reason I purchased angies list. I wont let this happen to me again and I would be very weary of the scare tactics that some people use.

they were called on monday. they found the collapsed trap. they said they would be back tuesday aroung 8 or 8:30. they showed up at ten. brought in their backhoe and dug up the pipe. they broke the water supply line, and had to repair it. said they would be back wednesday. showed up late again. ran the camera in the pipe, and then used their water snake to try and remove the roots. tried to convince us the pipe needed lined and the cost was $14,000. we called another service to come out and auger the pipe. rotorooter put up a big fight about having someone else come on the jobsite. came back thursday (late again) and replaced the outside trap and vent. finally came back friday to backfill the hole in the front yard. the job took longer than expected, and their attitude and attempt to over sell the job were very unprofessional.

Roto-Rooter came out the same night, knocked out the wall, and discovered the problem. They came out the next day and replaced the pipe and installed a new trap, replacing the old tank trap that was there. Overall the service was good but it was costly.

Had a $40 coupon from Angies List, so called for service. The drain in the basement was backing up when the washer drained, so it needed snaked. He came, did the job and all was fixed. Total time for service was about an hour. Cost was $312, minus the $40 coupon= $272. That seems outrageous for an hour job, with no parts or special tools. We could have rented a snake ourselves for far less. Service technician was good and helpful, just disappointed with the cost.

Well the not so good first. We called on a friday late afternoon, hoping that it could be fixed friday night as we wanted our weekend. The dispatcher said between 6:30 pm and 8:30pm. We were okay with that figuring that someone would be here by 8. At ten to eight the dispatch called to say that the repair person was on their way. Okay but then it was 8:45 before they showed up. The young man they sent barely looked old enough to drive a car let alone fix plumbing problems. Now he was a nice guy but he didn't ask all that many questions and started work. First we told him that we did use a store bought chemical to try to clear the drain, and the chemical was still in the tub. At some point he stepped inside the tub then outside on my chocolate brown rug, ruining the rug! Not happy about that one, lack of professionalism there. Then he claimed that he couldn't feed the plumber's snake into the pipe, possible as this is an old house with wacky plumbing. But then he said he was going outside to look at his plumber's snake. While he is out there we see him working on the snake. My husband finds out that it wasn't that he couldn't get past a certain point in the pipe it was that the plumber's snake he was using wasn't unrolling and it was jammed. Not sure how long he was going to fuss with that thing before he let us know. As we see him call someone for help, we decide to stop this and tell him that we would not pay for the service call that friday, he agreed as he couldn't work on the problem, and we re-scheduled for Saturday morning. Now the good, Saturday morning a nice older man arrives. (Originally the younger fellow was supposed to come back in the morning but dispatch called to say he was unavailable so they were sending another tech.) The man asked a bunch of questions, went over what he thought he could do, what he would try, and possible outcomes. His tools apparently worked because inside of half an hour he cleaned out the tub! Then we mentioned the sink and he offerend a discount on that, which the young man the night before did NOT offer. A bit of work and he had that fixed as well. He even fixed the leak under the sink too. The man who did the work on saturday was such a nice professional man. He just really seemed to have it all together and knew what he was doing. He also accepted our Angie's list coupon, so that was really cool. I would use this company again because more often than not they can have someone out fairly quickly, but always be prepared to stop them if they send someone who doesn't seem very experienced.

I think they had a pretty good report except for the cost, and I would definitely have to agree with that. I think the cost was pretty exorbitant. I was shocked, and I still can’t believe to say that it cost that much. I was just too upset to fill out a report on that. They rewrote their contract three or four times. They started off at $100, and then it went up to $700, then up to $1000, then $3000, and then it jumped to $15,000. Each time, they kept quoting more and more and had to dig it up more and more, and the last thing was it went from our private driveway all the way down to the main street, which was about twenty yards or so, down a slope under the ground. They pulled a sleeve through and bowed it up, and as it hardened, they came out and created a new one on the side of it, but I have talked to other people and said they were just exorbitant, and we could have had it done for lot less. Had I known, I would not have gone with them. I thought they had a good reputation, but I just didn’t know. Something similar happened to my brother not too long ago. He needed some plumbing done, and he ended up calling another service provider who had advertised a lot, and they wanted around $15,000 to $16,000. He called up his friend, who recommended someone who came in and did pretty much the same job for $550, which is a big difference. The work done by Roto-Rooter Plumbing was good, but cost was a factor. Their quality of work was pretty fair. They were pretty quick, and once they started, they pretty much saw through it, and from start to finish, the whole project took five days which included getting all the permits, digging up everything and even filling in the holes and everything, so they were pretty responsive. In terms of punctuality, they were pretty much here when I told them to be here. They were fairly professional, though I am not too sure about the sales guy, but overall I think they were pretty professional. Unfortunately, I would hesitate to call them again because of my experience with them, so I would probably not start off with them unless it was something really unusual that only they could handle.

All went well both technicians were very nice.

We were pleased. We had a leaking pipe on the back of the toilet tank. And when he fixed that he found a rusty pipe that could have caused more problems and fixed it as well.

All of the work was done as promised. They worked long and hard to get the work done as promised.

We needed the septic tank located in a house we just moved into so that it could be drained. It was completely filled and nominal water use would cause the basement floor drains to overfill and flood. We had already had the drains snaked by someone else because initially, we thought that was the problem, but they couldn't locate the tank for us. The technician came in and tried to use a camera / locator to find the septic tank and verify the lack of roots in the existing pipes. The floor drain was the first choice because of the size of the drain and the water flow from it when house water was used (shower, tub, washer, toilet, etc.). The camera would only go in ~18-20 feet before a trap blocked it. He suggested we either use the drain stack from the main floor or remove the basement toilet before proceeding. The main stack was older and had some issues and was behind the furnace with some items blocking access. We had to get that resolved before he could go from there. Since he didn't locate the tank for us, he said that it was no charge, but to call him back once we got the access to the main stack (main drain from upstairs) opened up. Then he could locate the tank for us. We ended up using another vendor for the work once we did clear the area because the septic tank would have needed excavating, and this company didn't do that kind of work. I really wish we had been able to use them for the whole project. These guys were really prompt, communicated well, and were very professional. I would gladly call them again for plumbing related problems.

Called Roto Rooter due to my sewer which was running very slow and would overflow when the washing machine was used. Roto Rooter came out, used an electric el and said the sewer was clogged with roots. They then used a video camera and confirmed that the sewer was clogged. The technician said the sewer had to be dug up at a cost of approximately $8000.00 and asked me to sign for the work. I indicated that I wanted to get another opinion/estimate at which he became very irritated. I asked him where the clog was and where the trap was located. He would not tell me and said he was not going to give information for someone else. He charged me $270.00. I later got the problem fixed for $160.00 which is quite different than spending $8000 to dig my sewer up. In my opinion, Roto Rooter, or at least this gentlemen, was very unprofessional. *Update: after viewing this report, a manager called to see if there was anything he could do to fix the problem. I did not contact the company to voice my complaint and this report is the first he had heard of it. While this demonstrates better customer service, I would still not recommend the company and would still not use this company again in the future.

Their service was great. They do a great job, which is why we continue to call them. We have always been able to get an appointment very quickly. There was one time they even came out the same day.

Very professional, explained all services and costs up front. Very impressed with him and the work. Would definitely use their services again.

This went very well. A dispatcher took the call about 7:30 PM, gave a preliminary time of arrival, then called back to give a more exact time of arrival. The service man arrived on time, and cleared the drain. He was very professional, and clearly explained the cost in advance. This was a flat-fee charge, and would not have changed if less or more time was needed to finish the work. The cost was probably higher than for regular plumbing services. But service was completed during evening hours when other plumbers are not working. Everything was finished two hours after my initial call.

I spent too much. They showed up on time when they said they would and did a good job but it was too much money. I wouldn't use them again at that price.

He came the same evening, worked quickly, was polite and friendly.