Roto-Rooter Group
Reviews and Complaints

I'm devastated as Roto-Rooter has attempted to take advantage of me as a single female and charge me over $750.00 to install a faucet when I called for a replacement of a sink. When I told them I no longer wanted services from them from sending 3 unqualified and overpriced plumbers to service me, they lied to my insurance company so I could be denied payment for the damage under my counter. Never, ever, call this company in an emergency because now, they are taking me to court for the charges. Not a great company to rely on. Plus, the customer service sucked badly.

I just want to inform you that this morning around 11:20am on I-25S in Colorado Springs one of your drivers almost side swiped me. I was in the far right lane he was in the middle. He apparently needed over and couldn't wait until it was clear instead he just starts to get over and I have to brake and swerve in order to avoid being hit. He should checking his mirrors and blind spots before just trying to merge into a lane. I am more mad that I had my 5yr old son in the car with me and how ignorant your driver was by simply not checking his blind spots or simply glancing over and seeing I am RIGHT beside him!
Photo taken after I had braked and he got in front of me.
License plate number on the Van is BAT J35

Charged $350 for 1.5 hours labor on a Sunday afternoon. Charged $75 for a gate valve that costs $10 at Home Depot Yes the job was quoted and agreed to before commencement of job but I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I complained to ther office the next day and was told they charge premium prices because they provide premium services NEVER AGAIN!

Call on July 1st at 4 p.m. Pacific time, dispatch informed me that they could have someone at my location the following morning at 8:15 with all of the equipment they would need for my situation. On July 2nd at 8:30 call to find out where are the service technician was, was informed by Dispatch that they could not give me a specific time that it would be between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. a 2-hour window. I called back to dispatch at 11 a.m. and was told that they would get to me as soon as they could but could not give me a time frame. I asked to speak to a supervisor, it took three phone calls to finally get a supervisor to call me back, I talk to the supervisor explain my situation and this was a business, he told me that that would take specialized equipment, I said yes the guy I talked to on July 1st sad that the technician would bring that equipment with him, the supervisor said he would call me back in 15 minutes an hour and a half later and still I have not received a call back needless to say when I tried to put a negative review about your company your review system seem to malfunction conveniently, but I can call and report the services to the Better Business Bureau.

Basement flooded from the rain. Charged over 10k to clean out the water. They left machines there to dry up the basement, but after the machines cut off they still set down there for approx. 5 more days (which they charged her for the whole time she had them). She called them to come get the machines, but they said don't worry about it we'll be by soon to get them. She also had to empty a 5 gallon catch bucket several times that they left there.They charged 600.00 to snake 1 drain. Gave her an estimate of 2k to repair the basement drain pipe. Then ended up changing the bill to another 10k (yes that's over 20k so far). Now she still has a leak in the basement, but they said they are not plumbers (needs a bladder tank for the water pressure) so call a plumber it's not a roto rooter problem. Now the boss (james) still has not contacted her back after her calling them many times! this company is an absolute joke. I will make sure anyone i know hears her story.

Dear Roto Router, serving the Washington County area of Pennsylvania.
Late this fall an employee of yours, named Mitchell Zavalla, of 315 Wood Street, Bentleyville, PA, 15314 moved into our town, almost immediately making more than one enemy in a short amount of time. Apparently, he works out of either your Washington or Pittsburgh office.
I am a 64-year-old, disabled coal miner, retired after 31 years of service. I don't bother anyone. Yet, he has harassed me twice while walking past his property (on public land) to get to my hunting stand. He has harassed my two sons who hunt in the same area and several other hunters and hikers as they walk past his property. My granddaughter's boyfriend happens to be a friend of Mitchell Zavalla. We found out through my granddaughter that the reason he was upset with my husband was that he was growing Marijuana Plants on his property and someone cut them down and he assumed that it was my husband that cut them down. While attending a campfire party at Mitches house. Mitch revealed to them that not only does he grow weed on his property, but smokes it in your Roto-Rooter van in between jobs while leaving the meter run on his punch-in, punch-out tablet.
I am pretty sure that you drug test, I know in the coalmines/ drunk or high you're gone. I know that my granddaughter is honest and would have no reason to lie about this to me. I respect your company, but this type of employee would not be welcome in my home under the influence of drugs, nor should he be permitted to represent your company in any home. How you want to handle this is up to you. Do not let one bad apple spoil your reputation. But, if for some reason you decide can't get rid of him... never send him to my home as a tech.
My name is Mark Lehman, PO Box 424 - 8 Walnut Street, Ellsworth, Pa. 15331. If you wish to reach me, you can contact me at [protected]. The harassment got so bad that I had to go to the Drs' office because I wasn't feeling well and my blood pressure had gone from 120/70 to over 200/STROKE-TIME. Please do not blow me off. I am serious and being as truthful as I can.
Thank you,
Mark Lehman

Recently my mom called them as a toilet bowl right where two screws hold flush tank were a little leaking. Plumber showed up, didn't bother to take His dirty boots and walked straight through new carpet. Mind you, my mom is old and alone and I know for a fact that many service contractors try to cheat old folks out of cash. When asked to give estimate He said shod be about $40.00 which sounds reasonable. I mean, how long and hard would it take to put new gaskets and tighten two screws right? So, the guy walked into the bathroom and closed a door behind Him (why?). I'm sure so He can just take His time and probably just sit on His phone or something. In the end guy spend there almost like an hour. WTF? And wrote the bill just for a labor $350.00
So my question is this, are the plumbers from now on making more then lawyers, engineers, doctors? I did contact a manager but She said there is nothing wrong with that bill. I did wrote a email to company's headquarters but no response. I will never ever will use any service from this company.

I worked for the roto rooter in Spartanburg SC and worked there for over a year And when we start for the first several checks they take out what they call bonding insurance due to they give you a truck fully stocked credit card phone everything basicly you need to do your job well upon termination of employment they are supposed to keep it for 90 days then if everything is cool they give it back well here it is way past time to get mine back I have called and he told me that he and his wife were working on it well I just feel like I didnt hesitate to let them take it from my check they should be happy to give it back to me ontop of that the owner of the franchise i worked at moved to florida to run a roto rooter company and now he wont return anymore of my calls i am wondering should I just got to the magistrates office and file some kind of papers or what cause I am not going to let it go money is money any help or suggestions would be great

I had a bad experience with this supposedly-reputable company. First, the idiot I spoke with over the phone when I first made the call, kept getting my address & phone-number wrong, even though I corrected her three times. Then she said the "technician" was in the area and "would be right out." 20 minutes later, I called back to ask how much longer it would take, at which time I was told it would take another hour. After an hour went by, I called back AGAIN (I still received no call from these people, because the idiot still got my phone-number wrong), and this time, was told that it would take an additional 45 minutes before the guy could come out. By that time, it would have been over 2 hours since the initial call; in which case, that's what I should have been told in the first place, but I wasn't. To compound the problem, the idiot I spoke with on the phone kept interrupting me and talking over me, despite my repeated requests for her to stop doing that and to deal with the problem. She continued to interrupt and argue with me, at which point I terminated the call. Overall, I would rate this company as having the WORST customer "service" I have ever experienced in my entire life.

Chemed Corporation is now being closely looked at for securities fraud, insider trading, medicare fraud, consumer fraud and worker exploitation. They use fraud and agressive sales techniques at Roto rooter to insure shareholders stay happy documented in several lawsuits throughout the nation. Vistas healthcare is undert investigation for medicare fraud... This company appears to be no more than another Hedge fund company looking for a quick profit on their way toward Chapter 11.

Anybody have an interesting experience with Roto Rooter plumbers in your area? The facts that I am writing about are for the branches owned by corporate (not the independently owned franchises or contractors)
When you as a homeowner call a national plumbing company like Roto Rooter you expect that the service you will receive is of the best quality, and at the prices they charge you expect extreme professionalism. Top notch licensed plumbers with the best in materials and equipment, correct? .. sorry in most cases that’s not what you’ll be getting, this is not to say that there are no good well experienced plumbers staffed, but they are few and far between, a little back ground on the company and had how it operates and how this effects your wallet when you call them for service. Roto Rooter plumbers is owned by chemid holding a publically traded company, which has to show quarterly profits to its share holders, that’s the first problem. Each office has an expected weekly sale quota which varies on location and size of the branch, this reflex on a quota passed down to the technicians, Oh and they do not call them plumbers because for the most part they are not plumbers. Let go over on how you get a job at a Roto rooter branch. Local ads in job listings, reads, looking for licensed plumbers and (helpers no experience necessary will train) you apply go through a background check and you are hired, before all this takes place they give you a one day ride along, this is set up with the top sale revenue producer, the purpose of this ride along is to falsely entice the prospected employee. What is presented to him is the ability to bring home pay checks in excess of 1000+ dollars a week, which can be done if you are a well seasoned plumber, most new guys are finished before they even start. The technician employee turn over rate at roto rooter is astronomical. After seeing this great money making opportunity, they are informed that they must buy their own truck and hand tools, and miscellaneous supply equipment for the truck, hey not a problem I am going to be making all this money, paying for a new truck and all this stuff will be no problem, , yeah right…they are also required to pay for insurance gas and maintenance on that truck, the truck cannot be older than 3 years, how many people looking for work have the cash to buy a truck? The truck usually ends up being financed, a new monthly payment, on a already probably financially strained individual, the now new employee goes through a twelve week training program in which he is placed with a technician that is willing to train them. That’s right the person that they send to your home to fix your plumbing was probably delivering pizza 3 months ago, kind of scary, or at the drive thru at your local burger shop. Ok training is over the guy is set up with his truck and is ready to start making money, starting commission rate for new guys is 30% of the revenue labor sales he makes. And 30% on parts sold to the customer, , Oh Yeah The parts that they buy for a job in your home are marked up one and a half times minimum, that’s right a 200.00 dollar toilet from Home Depot will be marked up to 300 dollars purchased at retail and resold retail. A starting weekly quota is set at usually 3000.00 dollars a week in sales for new guys and can be as high as 10, 000.00 per week for the senior technicians. That means that they have to sell 600 dollars a day. Extremely difficult to sell when you average 1 call a day. the inexperience factor kicks in never done this type of work before so a job that a seasoned plumber would knock out in an hour, will usually takes the new technician at roto rooter 4 to 5 hours, That means that if he’s gone two days without a call, he’s going to have to make it up some way somehow, guess who’ll end up paying the price, the poor unsuspecting customer.. Payroll deductions the most feared word next to call backs for a roto rooter employee. Uniforms, truck insurance, gas, cables for the roto rooter machines yes the technicians have to pay for the drain cables new guy go through them like water at about $150.00 and change. Call backs is another problem for the technician. Roto rooter gives the home owner a six month warranty on a drain cleaning, home owner pays 349.00 or more for the service the technician collects 30% of that 104.70 in his pay check. Ok 2 months down the road the technician gets a call back on that call, he has to go and do the work again for free he does not get paid for that call even though the company is giving the warranty, which it’s not. the technician has to cover the warranty, and if he is not on the schedule that day and they send someone else the company pulls the $104.70 from his current pay check and pays the second technician that was sent out on warranty call. I have seen guys with no pay checks and starting the new week in the negative from call back pull’s, new guys will work all week for free, with all the deductions in place, who will eventually take the hit, again the customer. Weekly meeting stressing sales figures and discussing strategies on adding revenue to each call. If you are not a crook when you start working at Roto Rooter chances are that by the time you are terminated or can’t handle the stresses placed on you and quit or your van is repossessed which happens often, you’ll be one.
Roto Rooter has a system in place that is a win win situation for the company, and a always a losing situation for the employee. And of course the customer. don’t take my word for it look around the web you’ll find current and past law suites tons of complaints on the behalf of outraged customers that have been Rip off by Roto Rooter and current and past employees. It is not uncommon of customers being told that they need new sewer lines and charged three times the going rate for the same work by other companies, and on top of all that they did not need the line replaced. Below standard work performed by inexperienced personnel that wouldn’t know the plumbing code book from the phone book… It’s outrageous that this company is still allowed to operate. Stay away from Roto Rooter if you want to keep your money, this company is no better than a crack head robbing a 7-11 at gun point for a pack of cigarettes. There is a lot more that I could tell you but this article would be a book. Use a local plumbing company there are lots of small family owned and operated companies in your area, get referrals ask your neighbors or programs like Angie, s list get estimates and second opinions before doing major plumbing work in your home. If you have had work done by roto rooter and feel that you have been over charged or taken advantage of contact your local building and find out if a permit was obtained for the work. Also contact your local consumer protection agency. Or your local new consumer reporter.

We automatically call Roto Rooter. This time we get a guy reeking of alcohol who drags in the same equipment as the first company from a year and a half ago, snakes for 30 minutes, says it’s not going to work, my pipes are collapsed, and maybe we could get our insurance company to pay for the “definitely over $1000″ work (says he’ll pad the bill and kick us back our deductible) and gives us his cell phone number. No sign of the hydro-jet, which could easily have been attempted in the remaining half-hour we had paid for.

My initial appointment was scheduled for 6:30PM on May 16th, 20011. When the plumber didn't show by 7PM, I called to hear that he would not be here until around 8PM. That was too late for my family, so I rescheduled for between 8 and 10AM the next morning. By 10:30, no one had come, so I called the office again to hear that the plumber would be here around 10:45AM. The lady on the phone told me about a $20 off coupon online. I heard nothing until 12PM at which time I received a call telling me that I could expect the plumber in one hour. By 1:15PM, no one had come, so I called AGAIN. The person informed me of a $40 off coupon and I was assured the tech would arrive soon. He arrived at 2:45 PM, one hour and 30 minutes later. He looked at the presenting issue, said it would cost $175 and told me what I already knew about the issue. Other technician I had contacted in the phone book estimated between $80 and $100. I was disgusted by how long it took just to get someone out here, and even with the coupon, felt I would be robbed if I agreed. All that needed done was a simple valve replacement. The valves cost less than $15 at Home Depot. I am completely dismayed by my experience with this company.

I had a slight drain blockage and they charged over $600.00 for a cleaning and drain camera. The technician said that there was a "break in the pipe" and would cost over $1800.00 to fix before he could complete the drain camera. I got a 2nd opinion from a more honest company that was recommended by a friend, called "Cobra Rooter", who only charged $150.00 for the drain camera and showed me that nothing was wrong with the pipes. I don't like being lied to or cheated.
DON'T USE ROTO ROOTER. In the Toronto area, use Cobra Rooter. Elsewhere use word-of-mouth, it usually works out.
Len

Several weeks ago, I had RR out to snake a pipe. The service man was very professional so I was fine with paying the price he mentioned (although we thought $365 was steep), but it was my understanding, as he explained on our bill, that he was only able to go 4 to 5 feet before he experienced a block and could not continue with no guarantee to the work. Because of this, we rented our own snake and my father was able to go 35 feet with no problems.

Since then, I have tried numerous times to contact people at the Roto Rooter offices for an explanation, only to have the line keep ringing until it circles back to the general message, or to leave a message that is never returned. I did speak to Ron Shifflett once (after leaving several voice messages) and he claimed the service man was able to go 40 feet (the invoice and our conversation did not indicate that-otherwise we wouldn't have rented our own equipment). He said he would call me back after speaking to the service man again but its been 2weeks. He has not returned my call or email.

I will never recommend or use RR again. If they would have clearly explained their service in person, on the invoice and answer my call a month ago I wouldn't be this furious.

At this point the customer service has been inadequate to the point of negligence and I will not be using Roto Rooter in the future.

Several weeks ago, I had RR out to snake a pipe. The service man was very professional so I was fine with paying the price he mentioned (although we thought $365 was steep), but it was my understanding, as he explained on our bill, that he was only able to go 4 to 5 feet before he experienced a block and could not continue with no guarantee to the work. Because of this, we rented our own snake and my father was able to go 35 feet with no problems.
Since then, I have tried numerous times to contact people at the Roto Rooter offices for an explanation, only to have the line keep ringing until it circles back to the general message, or to leave a message that is never returned. I did speak to Ron Shifflett once (after leaving several voice messages) and he claimed the service man was able to go 40 feet (the invoice and our conversation did not indicate that-otherwise we wouldn't have rented our own equipment). He said he would call me back after speaking to the service man again but its been 2weeks. He has not returned my call or email.

Washer backing up into the tub, said the problem was in washer line, no the Plumber said in the main sewer line, cleaned it out, charged plenty, but after doing a wash the next day, the washer was overflowing, said it was a seperate drain, and had to be snaked out. Took forever to do it, and then he charged me another exorbitant amount, and said he was there, a very long time, and had to charge again. They also put a charge, both times, for gloves and gas to come here, horrible, that we are charged for their equipment! Would never give them good refernces, ever, and would advise never to hire them.