ARS / Rescue Rooter Seattle

I asked Rescue Rooter to estimate the cost of running a new water line from the water meter to the house. They sent a young man name Brent to check things out. I thought he was very professional. He was very careful to not make a mess. He went under the house and outside to the water meter but didn't track any mess back into the house. I would definitely trust him to do good work. However, he needed someone else to come out and run the numbers for the bid and they came in initially at $6,000. When I objected they came back with $4772 plus tax. I accepted another company's bid for $2978 plus tax. Rescue Rooter was going to run a Poly synthetic line and the other company is running copper tubing. Both offered a 25 year warrantee, I'm 68 years old so that isn't all that important. I was disappointed in Rescue Rooter's approach to pricing. I would have liked to give the business to Brent but the difference in pricing was too much.

Rescue Rooter has never checked under the deck before, but this time, they told me that all the pipes under my deck were broke. He showed me four pictures on his camera phone that was supposed to be my house. Then he gave me that it would cost $5000 to fix. He was pushing a wells fargo home improvement visa in order for me to afford to have the work done. He didn't want me to call anyone else as he claimed he does the best work. It was very high pressure and I do not like being pressured, especially with such a high price. I called another company and Steve came out and said I didn't have any damage except that I needed new heating coils as they were down. He also said he didn't see any water damage. Steve showed me pictures of everything in order expect those heating coils. Steve fixed my problem in one day and now my heat works great. Steve was great and showed me pictures of the heating coils before and after. Rescue rooter was trying to rip me off completely! They kept using pressure tactics. He kept trying to get me to let him do it while he was there. He stressed me out! I was so worried that my pipes were going to explode. He will show you pictures of pipes that aren't even yours!

DO NOT HIRE THESE PEOPLE. They caused me $30,000 in property damage in addition to the $13,000 I paid them. Even though the damage happened while they were on the property, the management refused to take any responsibility. I filed a damage claim against them with their insurance company, Liberty Mutual, almost 9 months ago and they have said that they would compensate me for the damage, but I have yet to see a dollar amount or receive a check. Fair warning: Rescue Rooter will come into Angie's list and respond to this very negative rating, and will twist the story to make it look like they were not at fault. "Act of God: It was raining hard that day". Yes it was raining hard, but I have lived in this house for 22 years, there have been many hard rains, moreso than that week, and my basement has never flooded. Here's what happened. December 2010, I had a sewage backup which resulted in overflow onto the basement floor. I called Rescue Rooter to clear the line. They said they couldn't clear it because of a cave in at the elbow. The guy called his Supervisor who is a plumber apprentice, not a journeyman. He said I had to have a $6,000 elbow repair. I signed the papers and said Okay, but please don't try to sell me this if I don't really need it. Gotta have it he said. I'm an honest guy and wouldn't fool ya. So they came in late that Sunday afternoon with some heavy equipment and excavated a large hole in my driveway, guaranteeing me that they would not leave until the sewer was repaired and usable. Next morning after using my facilities, I went downstairs to find water all over the floor. 10:00 that morning they brought in a team to jet the line. That cleared the line which made me wonder, couldn't they have just done that in the first place - without the $6000 elbow repair. Next they said that the entire line really needed to be updated, which I'm sure was true in an ideal world, and that since they were already there, they could blow in a pipe liner for only another $6,000. I called a couple of other sewer guys in for second opinions and for their bids. One of them looked at the $6,000 repair and said, "That's a $1500 hole, not $6,000". Another asked them if they'd provided me with a DVD of the camera work, and they said, "Uh, no". He asked them, "why not?" Their response was that the camera wasn't recording. Both other sewer companies said that they could not beat Rescue Rooter's price since they had not been involved at the project's inception. They would have to re-excavate the existing hole because Rescue Rooter could not get their backhoe out without refilling it so I would incur that excavation cost all over again if I switched companies. Troy from Rapid Rooter noticed that the elbow was all cockeyed and his camera work showed that part of the sewage stream was going into the pipe and part was going under. He asked the Rescue Rooter guys, "what's up with that" and they said, oh that was just a temporary elbow. ??? So, I gave Rescue Rooter the go ahead to just shoot the line and finish up the project. They proceeded to excavate another hole in my driveway to join the kitchen plumbing into the sewer line. They spent 10 days on this project. It didn't seem like there was any supervision. It was a CLUSTER! Supervisors stopped by occasionally and these were the apprentices. Nobody was in charge. After they blew in the pipe, the pressure caused yet another sewage backup. I called the guys in and the supervisor tried to convince me there was something wrong with my toilet. What a coincidence that my toilet should go bad the moment they shot the pipe in. I suggested to him, Ruben, that it was an unlikely coincidence, causing him to storm out of the house ranting that oh he had no experience, he didn't know what he was talking about. They sent another apprentice plumber over who was at my house till midnight and couldn't figure out what happened. The next day my toilet magically worked again. Then the Coup de Grace. They shot in the rest of the liner, started filling the excavation holes and VOILA, flooded my entire basement with ground water 1" to 2" deep. This set the stage for my basement to continue flooding January, February and March whenever the rainfall was greater than .3". These guys, about 6 of them are there, on site, with my basement flooded, and me, a 62-year old woman carrying a shop vac full of water up basement stairs to dump outside and only one of those guys lifted a finger to try to help me. God bless Gil. End result, my entire finished basement is now unfinished. I am gradually putting back together out-of-pocket at least $30k in addition to the $13k they were paid. I didn't want to pay the bill because of the damage and they immediately put a lien on my property. The office manager was incredibly rude and when I tried to talk to her she just talked on top of me. I ended up yelling at her like I've never in my life yelled at anyone. The management was totally unresponsive. Keep in mind that Rescue Rooter is owned by ARS which is a huge umbrella organization for many other businesses like Merry Maids, ServiceMaster, Terminix, TruGreen ChemLawn, TruGreen LandCare, ARS Service Express, American Mechanical Services, American Home Shield, AmeriSpec, Furniture Medic, and they have a corral of high-paid lawyers so there's not much recourse for the little guy who gets damaged. Work I've had to get done includes grading the driveway and back yard to direct water away from the house, an interior drain system, exterior trench and drain, demolition of moldy drywall and framing some of which was covered in plaster containing asbestos which made for an expensive asbestos abatement and now putting the basement back together with new framing, floors and sheetrock. I failed to mention that I had a respiratory infection all winter that my doctors think may have been due to the mold. And, I've never had long respiratory problems before. Give your sewer business to some of our small business local guys like Paul at Budget Sewer, Troy at Rapid Rooter, Rick at Four Aces, where there's history, pride and accountability.

They were punctual and efficient. He was very thorough in their job, but, was a little expensive. I will use their services in future.

The only positive thing I can say about the Rescue Rooter service was that the tech was punctual. Other than that, his diagnosis was suspect, the quote was high and eventually I found out most of it was unnecessary. This is daylight and highway robbery on the part of this particular Rescue Rooter, and I see that there was a prior complaint against them by someone else on Angie's List for an inflated estimate ($7,200 vs $1,800!). People need to be warned against hiring them. My advice to EVERY consumer is : CAVEAT EMPTOR - always get at least 3 estimates before proceeding with a service. If unsure, contact authorities and non-profit experts to confirm aspects of a diagnosis.

Badly! They did arrive as scheduled. The first thing they did was to try to sell us a $200 or so agreement that would lower prices of future work by a bit. That was more important to them than getting on with the work. Then the service person complained about how heavy his equipment was and how hard it was to move it the 30 feet or so to the drain pipe. He got help from a "supervisor" who had shown up by then. The service guy worked away for a bit, and then stopped while he and the supervisor used a camera to view the work. They pointed out the roots in the pipe... and then the supervisor said there had been a small replacement fix at the location of the problem and that it was allowin the growth of the roots. He then wanted to stop the work and proposed a $5,000 fix ---- where they would dig down and re-do the area of the former fix. I said that if I were to do that that I would get bids. He said that if I did that he wanted a chance to offer a lower price. I asked if I was to pay for the brief amount of work they had done. Yes..they said Then the service person asked if he should continue the work that he had not finished!! I said yes, and he cut through to roots .... but he spent very little time compared to the amount of time others had spent doing the same thing. They did not check that work with a camera, so I have NO IDEA if they really fully cleared the drain .... since they said that they really needed to do the $5,000 fix. The service person added that he could use a high pressure cleaner .... he did not say why he proposed that. He complained about the quality of the access pipe to the drain --- and it was one his own company had installed. My wife had come home and saw on Angie's list that a senior discount was available. As the service person was doing the bill I asked about the discount and showed him the coupon/ad. He immediately complained that I should have brought up the issue when he was initially trying to sell me the $200 agreement that lowered prices. I said he should have told me of its availability, and that my wife found it just minutes ago. He was very rude and said he had other places to go. The supervisor was in a different car. I went over to him, complained about the rudeness I experienced, and said that if I ever had more extensive work done that I would not consider rescue rooter. A company I had called earlier that had goo Angies ratings could not come when needed due to illness of an employee. I should have gone to a hotel for the day and waited. I have no belief that they really completed the work. They predicted that the work would only be good for one day and that they should schedule the bit fix for the next day. All this for typical roots in a very limited area of a drain pipe .... that occurs about once every 2-3 years!

A representative came to our house to an estimate for running a snake down 3 drains and fixing a leaking faucet. The estimate of $900 was outrageous. (Eventually the work was done by another plumber and took 3 hours.)

Anthony arrived within one hour of my called, was extremely professional and knowledgeable, plus friendly and polite. He found me a cheaper package for testing the system,tried to jet it clear at Verizon's request; his supervisor came and made a DVD of what the camera found for my use. I had a couple of drains cleaned and a water heater drained. Plus they went through and inspected by other drains/plumbing to suggest prevention. Anthony and his supervisor were just excellent! I have their card scotch-taped to my cupboard and I will always call them first.

Rescue Rooter is incompetent and unethical. I strongly discourage anyone from using them.

Our house's sewer line was backing up into our basement. Since I had gotten a coupon in the mail for $50 off from Rescue Rooter, I called them to come out and fix it. They came out the next day and scoped the sewer line, and identified roots coming in, and removed them. They said the roots were coming in through two breaks in the sewer line. One was just outside the house, and the other was where it met up with the common line. (The second one they said was so bad that they couldn't even get the scope past it.) They said the spot where it met with the common line would be the city's responsibility, so they didn't give me an estimate on that one. (I later learned that it was a shared line with us and our neighbors, but not part of the city's responsibility.) For the "break" that was next to our house, they said it would be about $7200 including permits and taxes, to cut through a concrete walkway, dig, repair the pipe, refill the hole, and re-patch the walkway -- and they could start that afternoon! But doing the math on that, I figured that I could have them come out and re-root the pipe many, many times before I made up the cost of the repair. I was running late for work when they gave me the bill for $409 and I wrote out a check but forgot to give them the $50 off coupon. Also afterwards I noticed that there was a $29.50 "truck operating supplies" line item on the bill that they had not mentioned as part of their quote. (Sounds like a rip-off charge to me.) I called them up about this, and they said I could fax them in the coupon, and they sent me a check refunding me that plus the "truck operating supplies" I objected to. I later called two other plumbers that were actually recommended by Angie's List to give me estimates on repairing the sewer pipe. The first gave me an estimate of $1800 + permits for the break that Rescue Rooter wanted $7200 to fix (just going on Rescue Rooter's word as to where the broken pipe was). The other was suspicious that a house that was only 47 years old would have a broken sewer line (that's more typical of a house 80+ years old) and recommended I call another company called Hydro Physics to come out and do an independent analysis and mark the exact location and depth of the breaks. Hydro Physics came out, scoped the line, marked the relevant spots, and gave me a DVD of what the scope saw. The first "break" (where the roots were coming in) was actually just a seam between iron and concrete pipe sections -- not an actual "break". The second "break" also not a break but rather a T-joint where it met the common line. Of course a scope couldn't get past a T-intersection (more common these days would be a Y-intersection). For the first one, Hydro Physics said that using a product called "Root-X" once a year would keep those roots coming in through the seam in check, and I might need to have the roots removed every 1-3 years, and could give me recommendations for companies that would do that much cheaper that Rescue Rooter would. Hydro Physics also told me that if I had actually had a break in the sewer line that I needed repaired, the $1800+permits estimate I got from the other plumbing company was about what he'd expect, not the $7200 that Rescue Rooter wanted. So Rescue Rooter gets good marks for coming out promptly and for doing an alright job at cleaning out my sewer line and for honoring my coupon even after payment, but their shoddy analysis of what they saw in the scope (which I'm sure most people just take their word on), giving me a quote that was multiple times more than it should've been, and encouraging me to accept by saying they could start "fixing" it right away means that I'd be unlikely to ever call them again.

Part 1 My house was built in 1958.The laundry drain backed up dumping some water to the floor. The toilet and tub burped up laundry water. I called to have my drains snaked. Rescue Rooter had successfully snaked the drains in 2008 and I had another company do them less successfully in August 2009. I called Rescue Rooter and they had someone out in an hour. The plumber, Randy, thought it might be more than a simple clog. He suggested installing an outside clean-out/access (my crawl space to low for the equipment). It made sense and I agreed. To do this he had to dig down to the old concrete sewer pipe, cut it, add new pipe & above ground access. He ran the snake and hit blockage about 20 feet from the house (using the camera/radio sensor) Price for installing the outdoor clean/out access, camera, and attempt to declog $3800 Determined that the pipe was probably broken requiring digging 6' to 13' down. The estimate to dig & replace was VERY high - $7000. I told him I need other quotes before continuing. His supervisor offered a lower bid of $4200 to dig and repair the broken sewer - about 6' deep & 6' long. I still decided to get other quotes. The other quotes came in significantly lower, and I have selected another service company whose name I got from Angie's List. Part 2 Also discovered that the old, old, underground shut-off valve for the water line was leaking (which would explain why my water bill has been higher than normal). I authorized repair immediately. The repair was total pipe replacement from meter to crawl space in house. They had a "mole" digging company come out and drill laterally and pull thru' the new supply line. No trenching was done, leaving yard intact. Brass fittings were installed at the meter and Wirbo AquaTex pipe under ground to the house. The meter is NOT spinning anymore when all faucets are off.. Repair is effective. Cost $3300 They were prompt, competent, not too messy for digging in the rain. They were friendly. They did what they promised for the agreed upon price - no surprise fees. Now that I've had other quotes, Rescue Rooter bids were almost twice the price of my 3 other bids. I discovered they will negotiate, so I might use them again at the right price. In future I will always get more than one bid.

The technician was very friendly and nice; however, I feel they were attempting to dupe me. The seal on the drain to the garbage disposal was not fastened completely, which seemed strange since it was installed over 3 years ago and had never leaked. I believe the technician caused the leak when he fixed the previous problem, though I have no direct evidence. He wanted to replace the garbage disposal, of course, until I pointed out that the seal from the garbage disposal appeared to be loose. He went out to his truck, got a wrench, and fixed it, and the problem was magically solved. I truly believe he was trying to force me into replacing the garbage disposal and I believe Rescue Rooter is one of those companies that tries to get into your house and then start running up the charges. I don't trust them and won't use them again. I just feel dirty.

The customer service I received on the phone and in person was better than a 5-star hotel! I called on a Monday and they were able to have someone at the house that same day but that didn't work for me so they scheduled the repair for the next day between 3:00 and 5:00. George arrived promptly at 3:00 and was very professional and friendly. He quickly crawled under the house to confirm my description of the problem. Within 10 minutes I had a bid (using the company's standard pricing list) and he was on his way to pick up the necessary parts. While he was away getting parts I received a call from the Rescue Rooter customer service representative letting me know that George was taking a little longer because of unexpected traffic. I was again impressed with the customer service! When he returned, he quickly crawled under the house, made the repair using a brass T instead of plastic, and turned the water on. He went under the house to check for leaks and found one more. The water was turned off and he went back again to make another repair. After that George crawled under one more time just for good measure and no more leaks. I would definitely use this company again but I will say that I think $495 is a bit much for the repair of simple T in the water line.

The work was covered by insurance, so it only cost us our deductible. Whenever we call our insurance company with plumbing problems they send the Rescue Rooter crew. Our experience with them has been very good each time. They have once come out to work on a leaky faucet and have also come out when we’ve had clogged drains. They had once come out for a toilet repair. Our insurance company initially declined to cover it, but Rescue Rooter had still done the work. Later the insurance company agreed to cover it. They have been out pretty quickly each time and have also come out when there was major flooding everywhere after being hit by big storms. They were still able to get the work done in the middle of all that. They had done the job when it was cold and raining at the end of the day. Their crew stayed in there cutting pipes and also sent a camera down the pipes. They really kept at it. It took them a couple of days to finish the job, and they did not work at night. We haven’t had any problems since then. They are competitively priced too. I have nothing to complain about.

They were wonderful. They came very fast and did a very good job. They were very responsive and did the work within the time frame they gave me, which was excellent. They did what they said they would do and charged me the same amount which they said they would.

Clogged toilet. I called and made an appointment two days in advance for 8am. At 9:30 they called and explained that "high call volumes" were impacting their services. I asked what high call volumes had to do with an appointment. They seemed confused and promised to send the next available technician. They called again at 10:30 and again promised the next available technician. They called again at 11:30 and I told them I had contacted a different company who were on their way and they could take me off their list.

The person who came out said it was a very complicated drain, and quoted a flat rate of $300 to clear it. He said that he specialized in these types of drains, and I was lucky to have found him. The job took maybe a half hour, and he still insisted on being paid $300; and then attempted to tack on a $40 charge for "equipment" and the "truck." Already outraged by paying the equivalent of $600 an hour for a simple minor job, I refused to pay this. He then went into a long song and dance about how gloves and overalls get very messed up when you're cleaning drains, and that's why they had the equipment charge. I figured that for $600 an hour, the gloves should be included. The drain plugged again in six weeks. When I called to complain I was informed that I only had a 30 day warranty, but they'd come out and look at it again if I wanted to pay again. Needless to say, I called someone else, I have rarely felt so thoroughly ripped off by a plumber, which is saying a lot. Avoid these people.

They were prompt and worked within the time frame they stated. They were knowledgeable and knew what to do and how to do it. They worked professionally. They did a nice job of cleaning up.

During last Winter's storms, our basement stairwell drain was backing up so we called in Rescue Rooter to clear it out. They did that for us for the fee shown above, but in the process also claimed that we needed to completely replace our sewer pipe. They put a camera down the pipe and showed us what they claimed were major breaks in the pipe and painted a dire picture if we didn't do this soon. Their estimate to complete the project was $17,000. Naturally, we said we'd need to get a 2nd opinion on a project this size. We called in Mr. Rooter who said for something closer to $1-2,000 he could put a snake down the pipe and chop up the roots that had grown into the pipe and that things would be fine. He did this work and we've been totally fine for six months now. So watch out for Rescue Rooter selling you things you don't need!

They really seemed to be more interested in money than business. They said I needed to replace my sewer and they only gave me a month guarantee on their cleaning job.

Fritz's Drain service came the next day & had the drain unplugged in about 10-15 minutes for $120. He used 20-25 feet of snake to get to the problem (hair). We disputed the charge to Rescue Rooter. Martin in their office, said that their tech had spent an hour and they did not owe us a credit, even though they did not unplug the drain. I said how about crediting 1/2 of the charge? He said no. I said - you just lost my business. He was fine with that.

They gave me a 'bid' price before starting and though it took at least an hour longer than they had thought they stood by their 'bid' price. I was very pleased. This was the 2nd time I have used them and will continue to use their very professional services.

About 5pm called Rescue Rooter. Plumber came out within an hour as promised. He was very friendly and managed to squeeze into a crawl space to inspect, then later fix the leaky pipe. He advised us to check the pipe once a year. He also performed a free "inspection" and identified several "older version" pipes and valves that could be replaced. He was very low key and did not pressure at all.

Joe was the technician. He was very nice, clean, polite, friendly. He worked the whole time he was here, about 3 hours. He knew what he was doing and was methodical. Joe was very good; a great improvement from other plumbers we've used.

Andrew went under the house to check the plumbing (which the other plumber hadn't done). He said he would bring a senior plumber back the next day and that they would snake the line and install an outside clean out at that time. The next day it snowed and disrupted the scheduling. Andrew did not want me to be without working plumbing that long. He came and removed the toilet and tried to snake the line out but could not get the snake down because the toilets were back to back. He was unsuccessful and came back the next day with the senior plumber (on his day off) to complete the job. Both Andrew and David were very professional, informative and compassionate (three days without plumbing!). They explained the condition of my sewer line and what and where I could expect the next problem. They were committed to providing excellent plumbing service and customer service and took pride in their work.