Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Services

It’s nice to request an appoint online. Mr. Qu to the rescue. Very nice gentleman with honest disposition. We had to have shower handle cartridge replaced because it was not turning the water off completely. Qu arrived in the evening. He had to come back the next morning to get the old cartridge out, drove to Barron Park Supply, they didn’t have the replacement part, drove to Hayward. Came back 2 hours later, installed the new and improved cartridge within 5 minutes. The labor cost exceeded the actual labor expended to install the new unit, so I’m sure it was to pay for the time he had to drive to and back to get the new part. Had to pay a lot, but the job was done nicely, professionally, quickly.

Our toilet and shower were backed up with smelly, brown sewage which had leaked all over the floor. it was a mess. Roto-​Rooter sent Arnulfo Huerta to the rescue. Arnulfo not only had to remove the door of the small bathroom, he also had to remove the toilet. He got the job done, and cleaned up all the yucky mess.
Although Roto-​Rooter charges a lot for their service, their employees are courteous and efficient, and the job gets done that day. Thank you.

Sunday late afternoon, toilet backed up, water coming from the tub drain … not good! Called Home Warranty which didn’t think it was too urgent (nice, with only one bathroom .), so decided to take matters in our own hands.
Roto-​Rooter gave an expected arrival within the next 4 hours, and shortly after the dispatcher’s head’s up call Phillip arrived around 9pm.
He assessed the problem and it was soon clear that something with the sewer line was not right. He provided a quick overview of the options and the prices, and we agreed to have the line snaked. Phillip was very courteous and informed us about the progress, even giving us a quick (and very welcome) ‘bathroom break’ before the final cleanout procedure (which meant we couldn’t run water for a good hour).
Overall very efficient and fast response, although I feel like you pay a premium for it.

Prompt and efficient service. Jesus, from Roto-​Rooter, was on a night call when he came to our house and unclogged our main drain. He was courteous and professional and totally focused on the problem at hand. He answered all my questions and made suggestions about how to avoid the problem from reoccurring. Well done.

They will give you a «free estimate» but will not tell you how much actual service is. They leave it up to the «technician» to arbitrarily make up what ever $ amount they think they can stick it to you for.
Had a guy (Caesar) out to ask about roughing in a sewage line. While he was at my home already I asked how much he would charge to do a simple bathroom sink fix. Would take less than 15 min. He told me his minimum is $ 250. I kicked him out of my house.
THESE PEOPLE TRY AND TAKE ADVANTAGE. BEWARE

Luis, from Roto Rooter, came out to help remove a nail wedged in my garbage disposal. From the time I place the first call to when he arrived was less than 2 hours. Once again a very courteous and professional person arrived and did a very competent job. I tend to ask questions, to learn something, and Luis was very agreeable to answering my questions. Plus, I learned more about the proper use of a garbage disposal.
I know that when I call Roto Rooter I will get the job taken care of and a solid warranty back up the work. Thank you!

The response time was great. The person who came out was very helpful.

This is my third time using RR. Satisfied again. I’ve been able to get same day service when requested. Polite, professional service persons explain the problem and suggest solutions, all my questions answered. They have fixed problems that other companies have not been able to diagnose.
The only caveat would be that the on line coupons are a little confusing. Be sure to check whether the work you need to have done is elegible for coupon use.

Charged me $ 350 for a 15m work of cleaning the pipe. Other Plumbers don’t take more than a $ 100 for the same job.
Did he do the job — Yes. did they charge 3X than anyone else — Yes.
I would not call them again…

I could not have been more relieved and happy with the service that Roto-​Rooter provided when the sewer at my house stopped.
They were great at coordinating a service truck to be there within 2 hours and called me to reassure me when they would arrive.
The Service Tech, Jesus, listened well, was very knowledgeable, immediately diagnosed the problem. He explained what was needed then cleared the line within minutes. He was very thorough to make sure all was clear in the line thru to the street. Most excellent was his work in cleaning up so there was no evident of the trauma that had occurred.
I highly recommend this company and the capable Service Tech Jesus to family and friends … and will use them for all my needs.

Did you know that Roto Rooter charges an extra 67% for purchased plumbing parts when they come to your house?
They also charge you in labor costs for going to buy said parts at a rate of $ 269/​hr.
When questioned about it, they said they don’t consider this double-​charging.

My technician Frank was great. He triaged the problem, and called in additional technicians as necessary. We had a broken pipe, and the camera technician Rich managed to figure out where the break is, and recommended the most effective fix. I’ll find out in a week or so when the crew comes back to fix the broken pipe. Meanwhile, the cleaning crew came by to sanitize everything.

Great service — called on Sunday morning and was told a serviceman would be here in 30 – 45 minutes, and he was! He snaked a plugged (low flow) toilet, checked everything else to make sure it wasn’t the main line, and was through in about 20 minutes — fabulous!

Roto-​Rooter, once again came to my aid when my main line ceased working. Again I got the pleasure of Rich Weider. This guy is top notch, very professional in every way possible. I called and had a four hour window, the dispatch called me within 23 minutes to let me know he would be on his way in 30 minutes. He showed up in a matter of 20 minutes. Very prompt service for a Sunday evening. Removed my toilet, had s camera down looking for the issue, then brought in the snake and got our mainline all spiffy clean and our water running again. Plus one million kudos to Roto Rooter and having a top notch tech Rich Weider. He is phenomenal with his efforts and work!

I called Roter Rooter because of a back up in my bathroom. The time window was 4hours on a Sunday but they came after 2 hours. It is the second time in the last couple of month that the technician is trying his best to check first the problem before charging me. Once it worked and he did not need to do anything and the problem was solved, so no charge even not for the trip. However today he has to use his snake so the charge was $ 400!
The problem was solve in 30 minutes for an expensive fee.
The price is high but the service is very good.
I recommend it since I am confidant that they don’t charge me for nothing.

Did okay with the plumbing repair, but the guy left my front door wide open when he went back to his truck to get stuff and let my dog escape. His only comment was «dogs come back». I spent the next 2 hours looking for my dog and luckily did find him. I called the main office to complain and received very little sympathy. While they were able to fix the plumbing issue, the were very careless in leaving the front door open and still charged me a small fortune for the visit. Taking my business elsewhere next time.

Today we had a toilet fail. The ballcock arm completely broke off and I was unable to turn off the supply line at the toilet, so I had to turn off the water to the house. When I called for help I mentioned this to the person who took the call. She must have felt my feeling of urgency and expedited help. Service Technician Scott, was at our house in less than two hours and inside of another half hour had replaced the turnoff valve and the guts of the toilet. We were back in service just that quick. Kudo’s to all the people at Roto Rooter for their wonderful people. Best service I have ever had.
Charles Hansen

(Context: this job counts as after-​hours, «24-​hour» emergency plumbing)
I called for help at 5:30pm, and was told they’d be here by 8pm… Ok, figured I could wait that long. Got a call at 7:30pm saying they’d be late by an unspecified amount of time… Ok, I was still willing to wait. Got a second call at 9pm saying they were too busy and weren’t going to come AT ALL.
Naturally, this is an emergency plumbing problem. Our toilet doesn’t work. Inconvenient. And they know this. I wasted 3.5 hours of precious evening time for nothing. Now at 9pm I’ve had to call around desperately searching for someone else who can come. Everyone’s already booked up for the night, so I should feel lucky that I found someone who can come at 3am.
BAD FORM, ROTO-​ROOTER. Bad form indeed.
(Comment retracted regarding fishy functionality of their website)
Next day, update:
Pat, the company commenter below, did a good job of elevating my issue to the General Manager of my local Roto Rooter call center, and I did have a conversation with a staff member who called me to discuss. Unfortunately, this employee was more interested in retaining my business than improving their company. He offered excuses, apologies, and discounts (in that order). However, these things do nothing in the way of keeping this issue from recurring with another customer. Even when I said that all I cared about was improvement, he still just offered more excuses and apologies. I didn’t get the feeling he was hearing me at all or had any plans to pursue the matter internally.
I have a personal interest in Roto-​Rooter being reliable because at my next emergency plumbing incident I’d like as long a list as possible of plumbers I can feel good about calling, since so many of them will turn me down due to workload. Turn me down is what Roto-​Rooter should’ve done from the get-​go if they didn’t have enough plumbers to compensate for unanticipated problems on their jobs. And after being in their business for so long, by now they should be planning for «unanticipated» problems simply as best practice.
The nature of 24-​hour emergency plumbing service is that all calls are urgent. If I could wait until morning for repair why in the world would I pay extra and stay up late to get the issue resolved at night? Reliability is an inherent requirement of this kind of service because by definition emergencies need quick resolution.
As an analogy, the function of a lamp is to provide light when you turn it on. If it only sometimes provides light but sometimes doesn’t, it has failed in its function and needs to be repaired or replaced. If a company claiming to provide 24-​hour emergency plumbing only sometimes shows up and sometimes doesn’t, it has failed in its function and needs to be repaired or replaced. Since they don’t seem interested in improving their internal workings so this doesn’t happen again, even after I made a good faith effort to alert them of the issue, I have replaced them. I will not be calling Roto-​Rooter again, and I am sorry I cannot raise my star rating. Pat, your colleagues have let you down.

Service location: Redwood City.
The connection between my house and the city sewer line becomes clogged every year or so, a combination of tree root invasion and an offset between the house line and the city sewer line. I always call Rotorooter, as you can schedule online and the service person shows up when advertised. As in all previous times, the service person was prompt, helpful, and efficient. I forget to make a note of his name, but he also me some advice as to what to do *after* I’ve cleared a clogged toilet — run the shower for a few minutes to help the clog move all the way to the city sewer lin. e

Woke up Sunday morning to a flooded first floor. I quickly googled emergency water damage and got a hit for these guys. I entered my zip code, was routed to a local number, and explained my problem and the several inches of standing water. They sent out a plumber which wasn’t exactly what we needed. He was nice enough but not at all equipped or interested in getting the standing water off our floors. He let us borrow his shopvac to suck up the water. We later called our insurance company (which we should have done first) who sent out a real team.
The guy who came explained they used to have someone who did water damage, but he quit. They had another company that they could recommend that they had a subcontractor relationship with. Well that was interesting, but not particularly helpful given i viewed the standing water that i called about as an emergency that was very timely.
Probably fine for plumbing.