Bob Oates Sewer Rooter & Plumbing LLC

Shane and his coworker did a great job of scoping and jetting the sewer line from our house to the street. They were prompt, professional, and we wouldn't hesitate to use their services again if needed.

Provider cancelled estimate Monday, rescheduled for Thursday, didn't show up and did not return my phone calls.

The crew of 2 arrived more or less on time and charged me the same base price as the install of the new hose bib they had done the previous month. The final cost was a little extra because some copper piping had to be cut into and two u-joints installed. As before, they told me the cost before proceeding. The work was done in about 90 minutes. Workmanship was good. I recommend Bob Oates without reservation, and would call them back again.

John, the estimator, arrived on time on 2/5/16, to scope out the project. He gave me the estimate of $375 which was communicated to the plumber who arrived (on time) on 2/10/16 to do the work. The work took about 1.5-2 hours and was done professionally. Workmanship was solid. I was very pleased with the service.

They were very responsive via email. It was easy to set up an appointment and they were very accommodating. It was a very quick fix.

John, the estimator, arrived on time on 2/5/16, to scope out the project. He gave me the estimate of $375 which was communicated to the plumber who arrived (on time) on 2/10/16 to do the work. The work took about 1.5-2 hours and was done professionally. Workmanship was solid. I was very pleased with the service.

Last summer, the circulator pump on my tankless water heater died, so I bought a new one, exact same brand and model number and had my friend install it. You probably know where this is going. It didn't seem to work quite right, but it was a mild winter so it didn't bother me too much. Well, finally my wife said enough was enough and called Bob Oates to come fix it. The estimate was $1200 for a basic installation (parts & labor), but the wife had spoken, so that was that. Eric and Elias(?) arrived promptly at the appointed time, did some tests, and diagnosed it as the motor being disconnected from the blades of the pump. Made sense to me; the motor was running, but water wasn't being pumped. However, when I mentioned that it was a brand new pump, they took another look and found the real problem. It had been installed backwards!! They quickly reversed the pump and everything worked great. Their professionalism and honesty saved me a TON of money. I'll definitely go with Bob Oates again for plumbing services.

Eric was on time, started right away. Replaced the faucet and did a great job. He was very professional.

The job was done professionally,on time and for the estimated price. In order to perform the work on schedule, the installer put in a better toilet than the one contracted for due to availability. He had to do extra work to securely mount the toilet because the existing mounting ring would not work.

Excellent showed up on time. Professional, courteous & great to work with.

Daniel & Giovanni cleared bath drains to the main & let me know what then were doing.

I phoned the company and they had a technician out to our house within an hour! If that would not have been convenient for me I was also offered several times the next day or the day after that. All of the appointments offered were an exact time, not a window of 4 or 5 hours to wait. That in itself was a wonderful 'concept' :-) The tech did have to cut a small hole in our dinning room ceiling and one in the side trying to locate the culprit that was causing the leak. He tested everything upstairs and pointed some things out to us and made recommendations as to what our next steps should be. He was very careful with our home, thorough, allowed us to look at everything he was looking at. Sadly we were all left scratching our heads because no clear source was found but we know what we need to do next. All of this was done, area left clean (with a few holes that is part of this situation) and because he felt that he had not been adequately been able to determine a cause - and because of being an Angie's Lister...No Charge. What a wonderful surprise. Yes, when we get to the step of needing a plumber back to get this all put together, we Will Be Calling Bob Oates.

Went well and very quickly great service.

Purchased an Angie's List Big Deal Jan. 19th. Received an e-mail the 20th acknowledging the purchase and asking me to call. Did so and appt. was scheduled for the same day. Was given a 2 hour window of when the service would arrive. The 2 hour window passed and no service. I called the office and they checked and said they would be there shortly. There was still about an hour wait after that. Service finally arrived and they had an unexpected delay at the last appt. Very nice young man Jeremy performed the clean out exhibiting very good professionalism and friendly personality. Job probably didn't take anymore than 30 minutes and part of that was to run a rinse and spin to verify the drain was clean. The only reason I gave a "B" on punctuality was for the above mentioned reason. I have no reason to believe that is common but it was a reflection of the actual service.

Just had an incredibly pleasant experience getting drain service from Bob Oates! Had a laundry drain that got clogged and flooded the laundry room last night. Called Bob Oates first thing this morning at 8am and they arranged Shane to be out by 9am, which was as fast scheduling as I have ever encountered. Shane was the ultimate professional trying to resolve the drainage issue. He communicated very clearly the issues regarding the drain and was able to fix the issue by pulling up the hairball/lint that was the cause of the clog. Shane also suggested a potential preventative fix. I highly recommend Bob Oates and Shane's professional service!

Great. Came the same day I called!!

Yesterday, we had a clogged/slow draining kitchen sink with standing water. I tried usual things including using drain cleaners, such as Drano Ultra but failed to clear the blockage. So I searched through Angies' list and saw Bob Oates Plumbing's $99 deal and called them for help. They had one tech waiting for work and promptly send him in. The young technician is friendly but seemed not having much experience. He opened the pipe under sink and had water splashing into the cabinet. He used power snake and got clog cleared. However he left without cleaning the work area. The tech had a dispute with the person in the office on our kitchen pipe size which is 2" (I found a tool and measured it). The office person insisted that the kitchen sink pipe should be 3" ( I was told that the posted deal at Angies list is for 2" pipe drain). They did not honor the $99 posted deal price. In addition, the technician charged a extra $50 cable cleaning fee because of using the Drano. This was a surprise to me and made me upset. I had used other plumbing company before and never had such fee charged. So the total service charge was $250 + $50 surcharge. They gave me a 10% member discount. Overall, it was an ok simple job. I am not happy with the higher cost.

Eric was pleasant proffessional. He was on time and did great work. he allowed me to watch and answered all of my questions. Eric did a great job!

I had called Bob Oates based on AngiesList reviews for a plumber to evaluate a 7 year old toilet that was continuously running. I was told it would be a $70 fee which could be applied to repair work. My wife was home when the plumber arrived. He was on time and professional. He looked at the toilet for less than 10 minutes and then told her the toilet was too old to replace the parts. He recommended she pay to have the toilet replaced as it was "too old" to find parts to fix it. He said he could find parts but it would likely be more expensive. A new toilet would cost $700 to purchase and install. I happen to be handy myself but did not have time to deal with the toilet. Faced with a $700 repair cost however I was forced to look into it myself. I figured out it was the fill valve that was leaking continuously into the tank and overflowing into the bowl. I went to Morgan Electric and plumbing and found the fill valve on the shelf. I was able to replace the part for $30. I then called Bob Oates to have the service discrepancy fixed in a more constructive manor. Any respectable company would apologize and refund my consult fee. My information was taken and I was told a manager would call me back. I gave them over 2 weeks and no one has called. I wasted my money with Bob Oates and I learned not to trust a service that has a consultation fee for no work done. Furthermore, I am concerned my wife was taken advantage of financially for being female. I hope that was not the case, but lesson learned. ***Update*** Bob Oates was not honest about their commitment to quality. After I posted my review , Bob Oates replied inviting me to contact them for credit. I did call for the second time and again the message was passed along to the supervisor who never called me back. If you are prepared for an expensive job, hire Bob Oates, however I would not trust them again. They don't stand by their quality. They lied about the age of a 5 year old toilet, and they will not let you talk to someone in charge if you have a concern.

Jeremy was very helpful and thorough on our job. He provided excellent advice on collapsed French drain offering multiple repair solutions. Highly recommended.

Originally, I purchased an Angie's list coupon/deal to replace our kitchen faucet. However, what we ended up using it for was to replace two older toilets. The guy who came out was nice, super strong (able to lift and remove toilets) and on time. I was happy and impressed.

Probably one of the worst experiences ever. I would stay far away from this outfit. Rather than write a novel I will list the issues. 1. The crew working on the sewer line were unprofessional, swearing and yelling at each other, sitting around for long periods of time on their phones, and were only at the job site for 6 hours per day arriving around 9am and leaving around 3pm. 2. It took 8 days to complete the job, leaving us without water or sewer for 10 days as they did not work on the weekend. We were originally told this would be a 3-4 day job. It should have only been a 3-4 day job however their mistakes added an additional 3-4 days. 3. They accidentally broke our water main line while digging for the sewer, flooding the yard and leaving us with no water. We had to call the city to get them to shut off the water at the street as the Bob Oats crew were unable to. The crew went home at noon leaving us with a broken main and waiting for the city to come to shut it off. This cost us 1-2 days. We then had to pay full price to replace the water line. 4. They forgot to scope the sewer line prior to attempting to pipe burst the sewer line. Had they done this they would have realized the sewer line was cast iron and would not be able to burst it. After about 4 hours of attempting to burst the cast iron line they gave up and went home. Returned the next day to inform us that they could not pipe burst cast iron and would have to line it instead. They would also have to repair the damages to the original cast iron due to their attempts at pipe bursting. This cost us at least 2-3 days. 5. They left raw sewage, disposable gloves and other trash around the job site (our front yard). clean up consisted of filling in the trenches that they dug and leaving the remaining dirt and debris scattered around our front yard and flower beds. 6. The crew who came to replace the water line were very good. They worked a full day, did not make a mess, and were done in one day. They even commented on how bad a job the sewer crew was doing. 7. The lead on the job was argumentative with us, gave a bunch of excuses as to why things were going so slow, and tried to lay blame on his crew. When we pressed him and insisted that he make things right he brought in a new crew to replace the old one and gave us a small discount on the price of the sewer line.

Though they say their hours are until 11:30 pm, the first voice message I left was not responded to prior to making two additional calls, the last of which wound up being answered. He said he'd have his techs out in an hour, and they did show up around then. The two fellows were totally professional and provided supplemental advice.

Fortunately the day BEFORE Christmas (could have been much worse). They had a tech available and Scott was at the house in an hour. Got the line snaked out quickly. Scott was very professional and a pleasure to work with.

Once I paid for the "Toilet Auger Cleaning with Free Toilet Tune-Up" service through Angie's List, they asked for my contact information, I provided my contact information. They did not reply again or call. After my first preferred day (selected through Angie's List service) had passed, I called them to ask when they were planning on coming by, they said an appointment was not scheduled so we arranged for someone to come by December 3rd (a day after my last preferred day selected when purchased). When the plumber arrived, I was at work, my roommate called and asked if the plumber could have access to the basement. I thought this was strange since the toilet is upstairs but I thought he must know what he's doing, or that he was going to check for leaks, etc. Upon returning home, I noticed an invoice was on my counter for $213.72 with an almost completely unreadable handwritten message. I digitally scanned the invoice and sent it to them through the Angie's List message system asking if they could explain what was done and why I was charged an additional $213.72. They said someone would call me to explain. They called twice, I was asleep both times (I work nights) but all they did was leave a message with their phone number. I replied again through the messaging system requesting they explain the services provided in writing or through a voicemail message. They finally replied and admitted they did nothing with the toilet and did not perform any aspect of the specific service purchased through Angie's List. Instead they went into my basement and took a video of my sewer pipe, which I do not have a problem with, they said they cleared some debris, which I cannot verify, but either way that debris was obviously not causing a problem. Absolutely nothing else about my plumbing is causing trouble, only the upstairs toilet, and only occasionally. Due to the way the company was responding, avoiding responsibility for their messup, avoiding providing me with a prompt explanation of services or an explanation of the bill, and outright lying about calling me to setup the initial appointment; I decided I would prefer a refund so I may take my business to another company. They said on December 14th that they would mail a refund check to me, but to this day, December 23rd, I have still not received one. UPDATE. I ultimately received the check on 12/31 and they apologized. What likely began as an honest mistake was followed by several extremely poor customer service follow ups. If they had simply admitted the mistakes from the beginning and pledged to make things right I'd be ok with them, but the following interactions were very frustrating and I didn't feel they cared all the way up until the very last message. THE SEWER WAS NOT CLOGGED AT ALL. THEY ARE OUTRIGHT LYING. THEY DID NOT PERFORM THE SERVICE PURCHASED. THEY DID NOT AUGER MY TOILET. Bob Oates even put his name next to that outright lie. BEWARE!!!