41.3K views
New Reviewer
100 comments

I am a plumber working for roto-rooter and i will tell everyone the real truth behind this corporate rip off of a plumbing company. We do have flat rate pricing but we will not tell you how much it is over the phone because we charge way too much and if you have time to check around you will find a better deal elsewhere.

They want the tech to come to your house and put you on the spot so you will have us do it. Also the people you talk to on the phone are just phone dispatchers working out of chicago and have no clue about plumbing. Actually our general manager at our branch has no knowledge of plumbing either. His experience in plumbing is that he has plumbing at his house.

But he does have a degree in finance and knows how to rip off his employees. Also when you have us out to clean your drainline we will camera your line looking for issues cause thats all rotorooter want to do is replace sewer lines. Any roots in there and they tell you it needs replaced. Mainline calls are sent out not to the most senior techs but the techs that have the most dig conversions.

When we come out to camer your line you think you are getting a supervisor but actually you are getting a salesman hired to sell. They have no clue about plumbing.our best salesman right now used to be a salesman for a roofing company! They are good at talking tho and sell lines every day. I have seen numerous times jobs sold when nothing needed to be done.

Also when you have work done and we provide parts we mark them up 100%! Yea even waterheaters. Thats another reason the price is so high. Also you might get a disgruntled plumber out to your house because of the way the company rips us off.

Besides dump trucks every roto rooter van you see is actually owned by the tech. The company pays no gas or maintenance on these vehicles and its fully up to the tech to keep it going. Every tech gets paid commission per job. Also they just lowered everyones commission rate so the corperation can make more money.

Most techs make between 17-23% commission of each job. On dig work the company rips us off by doubling rental equipment and certain things and keep all the money instead of giving us commission on that too. So a excavator rented for $250 becomes $500 to you and the company reaps the markup. So in closing this company seems like they r on the up and up but dont believe it.

I know from experience how things work here and how little they really care about you or thier employees. When the undercover boss was on tv crying he should be crying for the way this place treats people. Rotorooter is all about the money and if it was me i would choose another company. All of your big plumbing companies are ran the same way tho.

My suggestion would be a small time company. If you are asking why a current employee would be telling all the company secrets, lets just say that this employee is tired of getting his pay cut and no longer wants to rip customers off. I also believe that there is no harm in telling the truth,and EVERYTHING told here is the truth and they know it.

Im sure the cincinnati branch is ran just like every other branรƒยงh in the country. Corperate greed is a terrible thing isnt it?

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

Do You Have Something To Say ?
Write a review

Comments

chat-icon

Please avoid publishing any personal information and promotional content

You will be automatically registered on our site. Username and password will be sent to you via email.
Post Comment
Guest

Over charged took 10 minutes to try and unstop then was told if that didn't need to replace commode

Guest

i was a victim of Roto Rooter. A 2 day toilet leak turned into 3 rooms basically being gutted.

I was charged $1900 to replace 2 toilets and a "compromised cartridge" and I provided the toilets. The original bill was $2710. They removed 7 wood doors and door jams. They cut out my entire wooden vanity and left the marble top in my bathtub.

I have tried to communicate with Pat Swanson and the GM but, they clearly have no interest in hearing my complaints. Because I refuse to pay for their mess, they have threatened to put a lien on my property.

Guest

I also work for this company. Everything he just said is 100% true.

Iโ€™m leaving this company in a couple months to start my own business. I am tired of people that have no clue on how to do my job, telling me how to do my job and not caring about itโ€™s employees or customers. Call they are up your *** about meaningless things and never once do they try to truly address the concerns their technicians have. The technician turnover rate is ridiculous for this company with how many people I have seen come in and walk right back out the door within one year of their employment.

I have been with this company 14 years and in that time I have had seven different general managers. All they care about is the dollar total on their spreadsheet. They have no concern for the fact that they have technicians out on the road that are unqualified, shouldnโ€™t be touching your plumbing, and in some cases leave your plumbing in worse condition than when they found it. The only training these guys receive is riding along with another technician for three months while trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can in that timeframe.

Three months is not a lot of time to truly learn how to do this job. The only thing you need to do to meet the qualifications to get hired is not have a criminal record and be able to buy your own van. Other than that, they donโ€™t care who they employ.

They will get out to your house fast and if you were experiencing an emergency, sometimes the dollar amount is worth it but you are paying through the nose for that expedited service. If you have time to shop around, I highly suggest you do because you will find someone that is more qualified, Takes more pride in their work, and will do it for a fraction of the cost.

Guest

Just got ripped off by them a simple dish disposal clog, and he ended up busting my pipe in the basement causing more damage that they said I had to pay for. A complete rip off company needs to be shut down.

Guest

We just had them do work at our house as our swerved system back up they came and tried to snake it but said they couldn't so the tech called his manger to come out with camera said we had blockage at the front of our foundation told us it would be 12,000 dollars only had to tear up a very small of our basement they did nothing on the outside and they put in a new stack ,well we were taken I will never recommend them to anyone everyone said we were scamed and I know we were

Guest

Did the job. Double the price of a local plumber. Job done to satisfaction though.

Guest

Too expensive!!!

Guest

Do NOT use Roto-Rooter!!! EVER!!

I am trying to save you a headache, a messy job, & a EXTREMELY OVER PRICED experience. It is by far the WORST company ever! They will OVER charge you big time! They quoted us $785 to hook up our new vanity which already had a water line, we were just simply replacing an old one, & one other small task.

Says that covered us up to 3.5 hours. Come to find out ironically EVERYTHING was going wrong for the plumber on such a simple installation. He charged us $179 by the hour after the 3 hours!!! They will make things go wrong, stall time, and rack up a ton of extra charges on you and your family!

Stay away!!! They tried to charge us $2,000 for something that was quoted $785!!!! We said no way! He takes the price to $1500 we still say no way!

It's not our fault you don't know how to do your job! Who the *** charges $2,000 to replace a vanity sink!!!! BIG SCAM!!!! We still said no and he called his manager and they took it down to $1300!

But seriously!! $1300!!?? Really when we were told $785! The $785 was still SUPER expensive but we were needing it done now so we said ok whatever, but to try and screw us over and double charge us.

I'm just embarrassed that we paid them. We totally got taken advantage of. Not to mention the guy was messy!!!! Had water all over the place!

Our basement ceiling started to leak in places that we've NEVER had a leak before due to his bad plumbing issues!!! He used about 12 of our personal dry towels cleaning up his water mess!!! Just messy and unprofessional! Our water wasn't back up to pressure due to his improper plumbing skills!!

Our kitchen sink barely has water coming out! It worked fine before he started plumping! After I told him about the water in the kitchen he had the nerve to tell me to order a new faucet and we'll have to pay them to come back out to replace it! So he wants us to pay for them to come back out and fix something that he broke!!!

Is this guy a freaking comedian or a plumber!!! He also complained about not taking a lunch break! I said no offense but we are paying you ALOT of money!!! You will not leave here till everything in our home is back in working order!!!

This is a business! You can't just take people money!! Break things, don't fix them, and over charge people!!! This company is a HUGE joke!!!

Save your time & money!! I'm disgusted with this company. They can't possibly stay in business much longer with this kind of service and prices. My husband & I are very very frustrated with the amount we paid to today and the service we received.

I can't wait to no longer see Roto-Rooter vans driving around! Utterly disgusting!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1835304

Same thing has happened to me. They sprang the $2,500 price for purchasing and installing a hot water heater!

No, not a tankless heater, just a plain, old fashioned water heater! Not sure about everyone else, but I donโ€™t have that cash laying around for that!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1835304

As an ex rr tech you should of paid them the 785.00 only and told them get lost they wont chase you for anymore just try to scare you they will just not pay the employee who worked the

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1835304

I have had similar disgusting experience with this company. Stay away from them!

Guest

I have had a similar experience. My kitchen faucet handle broke off.

The technician recommended that the entire faucet needed to be replaced. Typically if this is something I can do myself, i will. I know nothing of plumbing or how to replace a faucet. I called around some some smaller plumbing companies.

In my area, these small time companies all want 200-250.00 just to come out. Then give an estimate, then order parts. Enter Roto-Rooter.... Instead of getting me the faucet manufacturer that I wanted, the tech drove out to a supplier and got me a different model.

the tech told me the faucet I wanted was too expensive, I asked how much more expensive, the tech could not recall. I should have told the tech that I wanted to cancel the appointment. It was an emergency, my family needed running water in the kitchen. So i agreed, feeling that something wasn't right.

In the end, handing me the receipt, the parts only cost 182.00 and 30 minutes to install. The labor costs...are you ready for this....470.00!!! for 3 minutes. 652.00 dollars!!

I was RIPPED the F**#$@ OFF. its been two days now and I'm still so pissed off.

This apparently has been going on for a long time with roto-rooter. This is not right, honestly I think a class action lawsuit is in order.

Guest

Oh and also every good review you see is because they offer 25 bucks for any 5 star review. They trick the customer into thinking they could win their money back if they post a 5 star. That place is ridiculous.

Guest

Cleveland branch is the same. They donโ€™t mark up 100%, but rather they mark up as much as they think they can get.

Iโ€™ve seen the โ€œsupervisorโ€ (in other words, the salesman) run credit and see how much they get approved before telling the customer a price.

I am a former employee and would never have roto rooter come to my house. A bunch of inexperienced guys and a company definitely not looking out for their customers.

Guest

Almost scammed by roto rooter. Had a simple backup line, some poopy water around drain .

called my drain people loca not roto rooter but they couldnt come out same day. Called roto rotter and they sent an advance guy out, he scared they lady tenant said had to have a 3000 dollar clean up the poo cos it was a bio hazard. What b.s. I got a call from my regular drain man he came out cleared clog and cleand up.

300 dollars. Dont ever call Roto Rooter

Guest

Terrible Company!!!

Guest

Yeah, they screwed me also. 415.00 for clogged kitchen sink.

Guest

Will never use roto-rooter again. What a rip-off.

$480 for 15 minutes of cleaning out a sluggish bathroom sink. Highway robbery!

Guest

Spot on

Guest

I was working for roto rooter myself. We just a number there.

Nobody cares about us at all. Company get good reviews on expense of exploiting technicians, paying technicians $25 review we got from customer. If they don't like you they will find a way to fire you often deliberately trapping you to give you enough warnings to terminate you. Roto rooter is not only company that give free estimate as they claim.

But they are only company that will force you to buy a van for your own money and pay yourself for commercial insurance. If you want to learn plumbing choose different company preferably small company

View more comments (80)

Roto Rooter Reviews

  1. 176 reviews
  2. 44 reviews
  3. 13 reviews
  4. 5 reviews
  5. 11 reviews
Roto Rooter reviews