Mr Rooter Sewer & Drain

We were having trouble with our pipes not draining… we rented a electic snake from Home Depot and got them going but felt they needed to be checked with a camera. A neighbor recommended Mr Rooter to us so we called. They sent a technician out named JT… Jason Todd. My husband works night so I didnt wake him when the tech got there. I took him down… explained what was happening. He brought in another snake… I watched him carry it in… was wondering where the camera was… but didnt say anything, I didnt go back down there with him. I could hear the snake running. Shortly he came up and told me he knew what the problem was… so I woke my husband… he said he snaked it and it was full of roots and that it had broken the pipes outside. Never did see the camera… and he never had a picture to show us… we paid him and he left. About an hour after he left I went down to turn off the lights and noticed he had taken our brass caps off both pipes. Now one pipe he never even had to open… and never did open. We called Mr Rooter and they said they would talk to him and call us back. They did… and They said Jason Todd told them the threads were cross threaded and so he put new caps on… on both pipes. Now dont you find ot strange that he never told us that… and didnt charge us for the new caps… Took the brass caps with him so he could sell them, they are worth money left us with a plastic piece of crap. Jason Todd… karma will get you. and when it does… you will have more money going out of your pocket than what you got for our caps… why why did you have to be so dishonest… Mr Rooter… shame on you for hiring dishonest people to work for you… PLease think twice about using these people… and if you do… dont let them out of your sight… no telling what else they would take, We have told all our neighbors… friends and our clients about this company… Very poor business practice… and by the way… the 2^nd opinion found no broken pipes…

OOOOOHHHH, Mr. Rooter – you make me so mad!
Last month a house that my family owns and rents started backing up water in the basement. 3 – 4 inches. The drywall, the floors, everything was just a mess. We called Mr. Rooter. They came out, cleaned the drain and said that there were roots in the pipes but he got out as much as he can without using a camera. He also said a pipe underneath the house was broken. Naturally this caused a LOT of panic on our end since that type of work is not cheap but the gent finished up «best he could» and we cleaned up the rest of the mess (hiring people to come and remove the rest of the water, bring in dehumidifiers to prevent mold, the full very expensive nine). We made a note to call them to fix the rest of the issue once all this was taken care of.
Flash forward to last night when our tenant calls again saying that this time sewage was backing up into the basement. Commence freak out. Luckily it’s not as bad as last time but we needed to act fast. We call Mr. Rooter and the gal tells us that they’ll send someone as soon as they’re available. This is shortly before 3pm. No word until 5pm when we call again – they’ll send someone out soon. 8pm – the gal gets VERY sassy and rude and tells us no one is available today and they’ll have to come tomorrow. I’m sorry, what? Then why didn’t you tell us this at 3pm, or 5pm, that it was unlikely someone would be able to make it? Why not say «it’s pretty packed today, if you can wait until tomorrow we can come out, if not give someone else a ring.» If you can’t handle our emergency don’t tell us you can and advertise that you can («24÷7 emergency services» the website says). UGH. Meanwhile, the water is rising and if it gets to the same height we’ll need to hire the pumps and all the other crap again. More $$.
So we call another company who comes out right away (at $ 100 extra expense because it is now after hours) and he fixes the problem in 10 minutes. He tells us that he did not find any roots, no broken pipes, nothing. Just a blockage that he got rid of relatively quickly.
WAT.
Now I can’t claim for certain but this leads me to believe that Mr Rooter lied about the severity of the blockage and the kind of «follow up» care that we’d need. And again, not able to claim for certain, but I believe that he did not clean the blockage fully so we would need to call again for additional maintenance. They do not offer any follow up guarantees so any follow up care would cost more. More $$$ in their pocket at our expense. If the problem was so severe then why didn’t the new guy find it? I’m sure they would have liked to have made money on a potential future repair too.
In the end though, because I can’t be certain about the points above, this one star is for leaving us hanging throughout the day and then being rude when we called the final time. The fact remains, they were not clear and straight with us about their time-​frame and we stressed even longer about the situation than we needed to.