Bob Oates Sewer Rooter & Plumbing LLC

Original appointment was on a Friday. The company showed up in the scheduled window. After showing the employee what needed done he asked if it would be ok with me to return the following day Saturday to do the work. My first reply was no that I wanted the work done during the scheduled appointment. The employee explained he was trying to purchase a car. I called and verified the next day Saturday would be ok with the tenants who live in my home. I agreed that he could return the next day after 10am. The employee was a no call no show on Saturday. On Sunday morning I received a phone call from the employee stating he had a personal emergency and would meet the tenant at 2pm Sunday. At 2:40 the employee was a no show and his phone was off and going straight to a voicemail that wasn't setup to take messages. At this point I stopped giving the employee the benefit of the doubt and called the company directly to report what was going on. The employee showed a short time later on Sunday and did part of the work and did that part poorly. The employee didn't include a required gasket in the new kitchen fixture and it leaked. The employee also didn't tackle the drainage issue and stated to the tenant he didn't want to phone me because I was made and he would be asking for more labor and $$$ to do it. Bob's daughter Rhea was super professional and helped get on the case when I reported what was happening. This is to the companies credit that they responded well in my opinion. A new employee was dispatched who took care of the drainage. He was unable however on the spot to replace the missing gasket. He needed to come back a day later at 3:30pm. The employee missed this appointment due to locking keys in his truck and having to wait for a locksmith. Eventually he arrived a few hours later and fixed the sink fixture issue. Bob Oates will only charge me for the sink fixture and labor but not the drain clear. I'm glad the stepped up but execution of the project was just simply very bad. My personal wasted time and my tenants is worth far more than the financial value provided through the discount.

Everything was perfect. They showed up on time and scheduling was quick & easy.

They did a very good job and everything worked out just great. The big deal covered everything and there were no additional charges, so the price was good. They were also early and their professionalism was very good.

The dispatcher and service technician were very professional and courteous. The tech showed up on time, kept me apprised of any issues as the job progressed and then cleaned up the area when he was finished. I was happy with the work. The hitch to the job was that as part of the Angies List "Big Deal", I purchased a water heater with a 10 years manufacturers warranty. I reminded the tech and dispatcher of this before the install. After the tech left, i researched the newly installed water heater model number online and found that a six year warranty tank was installed. I called Bob Oates and in the end they purchased an extended manufacturers warranty for my water heater, which made it a 10 year warranty.

They were great. Very responsive phone support and they cleared our clogged drain expertly.

I purchased an Angie's List Big Deal for this service and the installation went okay, but their charging policy was not clear. I did not understand him when I asked him how much it would cost to do additional work, so when I got the bill it was higher than I expected. The communication level was not as good as I would have liked it in terms of communicating how much higher it was going to be compared to what I already paid.

said my water pressure was too high but I had it checked by another plumber who says it is ok.. Installation of outside faucet went fine.

Delays in getting a response but when I called a few weeks later, they immediately scheduled. Technician removed existing garbage disposal and set up plumbing for kitchen sink without one. Pleasant and professional man who arrived on time.

I used this company for cleaning up a sewer backup at my rental property. First, they run the snakes through the toilet and I spent about $450. They told me that I have tree roots in the sewer line and I need to install the cleanout to run power jet. I looked at the video and I agreed so I order them to do the work for another $3700. Then they told me that they still cannot clean my sewer line because there are concretes in my clay pipe so I need to spend another $5000 to dig up the sidewalk to replace portion of my clay pipe. I felt very suspicious at this moment since I looked at the video the first time and there was definitely no concrete in the sewer line. So I asked another company to check and confirmed that I only have roots and Bob Oats didn't do a good on power jets or maybe even didn't even run power jets. So I asked Tyler (the project manager) that I want to be onsite when they are running power jets the next morning. After requesting him a time frame through email and phone call, he still scheduled a time that I couldn't be there. At this moment, I think this company is trying to prevent me from seeing their work. So I called the owner and thought maybe he cares about his company's reputation and would work with me. It turned out I was totally wrong. Bob Oats was so rude on the phone. When I told him that I will hire another company to double check their power jet work since his company refused to let me see their work in person. He shouted at me "Are you accusing my company for creating unnecessary work? We have hundreds of customers! Don't call my company again!" I was just stunned after the phone call. The worst customer service I have ever seen. His super defensive behavior is also very suspicious. After that, I never heard from this company but they charged the remaining balance on my credit card (first given to them for paying half before the job) without asking. There was no email or phone call or letter from this company to tell me the status of the job. I finally had the other company to run the camera through the new cleanout, the roots were mostly gone but they left quite a few big ones there. Obviously, there are no concretes in the sewer line!! Bob Oats was indeed trying to cheat customers!

They fixed this problem and provided new parts, all without adding any extra charge to the estimate they originally gave me. Excellent service, reasonable cost, very personable and reliable personnel. I would definitely use this company again.

Good quote. Nice guys. Ultimately went with a different contractor whose bid included restoration of landscape and hardscape.

He worked diligently to find why our bathtub drain was stopped up and discovered it was something actually stuck in the line that he was able to burrow through and release! Lots of sweat on that endeavor and we were impressed!

My water heater failed and the recommended service provider was unavailable so I called Bob Oates since they had reasonably good reviews on Angie's List. I was given a time range to give me an estimate and told I would be called before the plumber, John, arrived. The call didn't happen but he came within the time range so it worked. He took a look at my situation and made some recommendations mostly for tankless heaters. The location of my water heater required that I install a water heater with a power vent. Each of these options was very expensive and a very unhappy number right before Christmas. John went out to calculate estimates of the various options and came back with estimates within a hundred or two dollars of one another (3 tankless and one power vented tank). I found it very hard to believe that replacing my existing tank (w/ power vent) would cost MORE than a new system, so I asked for some time to think about it. I made a few calls to other plumbers and was told that my system was expensive to replace and that putting a replacement, could take 3-4 hours (in plumber hours that's a lot of money). I decided to move ahead with the tankless heater and John came back the next day and completed the job. Surprisingly he left the previous venting spout hanging in the wall with no support or cover so cold air easily came into my basement. He also splintered the wood exterior of the house so it is exposed to the weather and left a six foot pipe in my driveway. I guess clean up wasn't his strong suit, although he did do a quick floor clean up in the basement around the installation. I have a few other questions that I need to address to the folks at Oates about my new system, so owe them a call. All in all I have hot water and am pleased that I am using a more efficient system & won't be looking at a replacement for 20 years.

Its hard to rate this one... $139 for 1 1/2 hr. service. No part to replace broken piece in faucet, so was told for little more I could get a new faucet. (double sink with old fixtures, so I decided to order new ones) Plumber would come back and complete the job when purchased. Made apt for afternoon, it was changed to a couple of hours later ... the plumber finally showed up at 9:30 at night!!! Good job with replacement, but didn't get to second job. It was Thanksgiving Eve ... didn't want him to stay any longer.

Work went very well. Staff is very responsive and reliable with regard to appointments, dates of completion and city inspection.

Super friendly and quick to setup appointment. Technician was early, perfect! Did a quick and thorough job, gave some additional input on some things to consider. Price was good. Very happy.

I purchased the Angie's List Big Deal for 1 1/2 Hours of Labor for $139. I've had banging on my pipes and knew it would require cutting into the drywall. Since I didn't want to cut a bunch of holes in the wall just to find the offending pipe to strap down, I figured this would be a great value and I could leave it up to the experts to locate the sound, cut the hole, and strap the pipe down. I set the appointment for Friday, November 1st. Instead of showing up at Friday, November first, the plumber showed up a week early to my wife's surprise. He was extremely friendly and professional, and explained that the problem wasn't that the pipe wasn't strapped down, but that we had too much water pressure coming into the house. and we required a Pressure Release Valve, which was causing the banging. After all was said and done the bill was around $1,040. Unfortunately this did not fix the problem and the pipes continued to bang even the day of install. We were told to give it a couple of days to adjust, so we did. We called him back two additional times where he adjusted the pressure, and told us to wait and see if that fixed it. The pipes continued to bang and the PRV had no impact on the problem in which we called service for. Each time he came back I would continue to tell him the rationale why this didn't make sense (If I turn off the water to the toilet, and flush it, and it bangs, it's not a problem with the water pressure, it's a problem with the water going out, right??) to which I was told "not necessarily". It took five trips to get him to cut into the wall and once he showed up on the 5th time (the fourth time he said he didn't have the tools in his truck to do it at the time), he located the offending pipe and strapped it down. Had we tried to find the pipe in the first place, instead of installing a pressure release valve, it would have saved 4 extra trips, and I would have only spent $139 (the fifth trip took right about an hour to locate the pipe, cut the hole and strap it down), instead of the additional $900 for the PRV that wasn't needed to stop the pipes from banging when we flushed. The plumber was professional, friendly, and continued to come back to try and make it right which I appreciated. I just wish that it was done correctly the first time as it would have saved me time, money, and frustration.

It was an Angie's List Big Deal that I purchased. It went very well. They were on time and they did the work very quickly. I was very satisfied and I hope to do more business with them.

On our first appointment with Bob Oates Sewer, Rooter & Plumbing the plumber NEVER CAME. Although their dispatcher kept reassuring me with phone calls that he was coming, their plumber never arrived. I called at 4:30pm to reschedule to another day. On our second appointment with Bob Oates Sewer, Rooter & Plumbing the plumber arrived 30 min past due. He did politely tell me that I had purchased a trim kit that needed a different valve set than the one in our vintage walls. He made no suggestions or recommendations how to achieve what I wanted for our tub and shower. He left after 10 min, no charge. I purchased the valve set that worked with the trim set I purchased. I understood that this would mean cutting a hole in the tiled wall. I made another appointment Bob Oates Sewer, Rooter & Plumbing because I had purchased their Angie's List The Big Deal. On our third appointment with Bob Oates Sewer, Rooter & Plumbing, two plumbers arrived. They proceeded with the task of cutting a hole in the tiled wall. We have an old home and suspected galvanized pipe in the wall. They installed the new valve but left us with a poor solution to reroute the plumbing vent as well as valves that did not meet the tiled surface. One of the plumbers made loud gratuitous remarks while he was working. Comments like: "This is NOT how I would do it." He offered to come back Monday and try again to make the valves flush. They took everything when they cleaned up--including taking all our old trim pieces and all the boxes with their model numbers for the new trim. I had to ask three times to get the used but perfectly good lavatory faucet set back. On our last appointment with Bob Oates Sewer, Rooter & Plumbing their plumber was able to make the valves flush with the tile. He did so by narrowing the diameter of the vent (not to code). He did this so he would not have to make a bigger hole in the tile. I am not a plumbing professional. I would have been open to alternatives or suggestions had they been offered. The tile professional had it patched, grouted, and perfectly matched in 4 hours.

Very responsive and professional.

They came out within an hour, did a good job, and didn't over charge. The price was more than reasonable.

Made appointment to meet at my shop 9am Friday,got a call Thursday night 6pm to say could not make it at 9am. Changed time to 11am Friday. Friday morning at 11:30am no one showed up or phoned to say they were running late. Called the office talked to girl, and she said she would call the plumber and have him call me to explain where he was. I got no call back from anyone. Called the office at 6pm Friday night and set up a 3 pm appointment for Saturday. The guy finally showed up at 4pm after two more phone calls to their office. Liked the guy but would not use them because I could not count on them to show up. Atleast a phone call would have been nice.

David arrived early, did the work promptly and there were no extra charges (except the tax). I am very pleased.

They came out to check out a clogged exterior drain, only to find out it wasn't connected to the sewer! Friendly and prompt although there was no way to fix the problem without a jack hammer and a lot of expense. We opted agaist it but he answered a lot of questions and was pleasant. I would use them again.

When I called Bob Oates about the Angie's List Clean out deal, I mentioned that I also wanted them to look at the line to see if there were any need for repair. So, Rob, the service supervisor came out promptly to look at the line. He immediately discovered through his line camera that there was a total break in the line right outside the house. I asked him to provide me a bid for the repair of the line. His estimate was $4,250 and he couldn't start until next week. I looked for another bid, and found another contractor who estimated a $1,850 cost and was prepared to begin the job before Oates could organize his crew to do the repair. I have chosen to go with the other contractor. I have no complaints with Rob or Bob Oates nor do I have a rating I can provide as they were not able to perform the initial clean-out service.