Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain ServiceReviews of rotorooter.com

I will never use Roto Rooter again as they attempt to scam women!!!! I reached to Roto Rooter on 7/24 because my home was experiencing a smell when using the hot water. Alex was the technician that was dispatched to my location. I explained the issue to him and after checking the water in my home we proceeded to my hot water tank that's located in my garage. Once we reached the hot water tank he turned on a valve located at the bottom of the tank releasing water into my garage (keep this in mind as this will come up later). He then proceeds to inform me that I will need to flush my hot water tank to eliminate the smell. He provided me with a brochure for a annual hot water tank cleaning promotion that runs $249 annually. I explained to Alex that I would be using my home warranty and this is something I dont think they will pay for. He proceeds to tell me that they do not accept home warranties to which I responded that was not true as I have used my home warranty several times. I asked if we do a one time flush will that fix the problem to which he responded yes. I asked for the price so that information could be relayed to my home warranty he tells me he has to go to his truck to get that information. I get my home warranty on the line, he comes back in, and states the one time flush will run $349 (higher than the annual cleaning but ok). My home warranty asks to speak with Alex as they must verify the information. I am assuming he needs information off of the hot water tank as he asks if he can go in my garage with my phone to which I say yes. During this time I am working from home so I am not able to follow him out. After a few minutes he comes back in and hands me my phone. I am placed on hold with my home warranty company and he asks me to follow him to the garage to show me something. As we're walking out he points to water on the ground (if you recall above I mentioned he turned on the valve during our first visit to the hot water tank releasing water) and proceeds to tell me I now have a water leak and will need to replace the hot water tank. I remind him that he let water out of the tank which is why there was water on the ground. He lies and says no he didn't (as if we both weren't standing in the garage when he did this) and tells me again I have a water leak. I asked him to explain how could a leak occur in 5 mins and literally stop immediately (no water is coming out of the tank at this point) and he then points to a smudge mark at the top of the tank saying this means you have a leak. Keep in mind this smudge was not on the tank and no water was present when he first entered the garage otherwise no flush would have been offered if there was a leak. Now that I start to call him out on his lies he asks as if he can no longer speak English & rudely asks me if I am a plumber. My home warranty company comes back on the line stating they were told I needed a new hot water tank that was quoted at $2200 by Alex. I immediately contact Roto Rooter because it is obvious that Alex is trying to scam me at this point and I am unsure if he has actually caused damage to my hot water tank while I was not monitoring him. I made a complaint with a supervisor Darryl. While making my complaint Alex then gets in his truck and leave. Another plumber was sent out by Roto Rooter & it was confirmed that I in fact did NOT have a leak & my issue is still not resolved. This is unacceptable customer service and a bad representation of this company. Roto Rooter claims to be a reliable and trustworthy company but that is in fact NOT TRUE. They lie, cause problems to get more money, & attempt to take advantage of who they deem to be weak. I will NEVER use this company again and I would advise the same for anyone else thinking about using this company!!! I surely hope Alex is not on another call scamming someone else!

I was charged $650 for a 20 min laundry draining upon reviewing the bill after the technician left I called to get an explanation for the ridiculous overcharge I was told that as a woman I should learn to say no and not be so polite that I should have told the tech to leave not only was I overcharged but then I was dismissed and disrespected by the company because I am a stay at home mom!!! AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!!!!!! Edit to add: I looked back at my bill from the identical service in February 2022 they charged $244 how is over 160% increase in price justified here?? I will update after I receive a resolution from the company.

Roto Rooter caused damage to my home during their service of water remediation which began on June 18, 2025. In the process of removing their sheeting on June 25, 2025, the technician caused damage to my wall paper in the formal living and the paint to the door frame in the kitchen. Roto Rooter sent 2 contractors to estimate the fix for the damages but now they are refusing to make it right by fixing the damage. Their general manager will not return my calls in an effort to fix this issue. Bad customer service and lack of follow through is evident by this company. Tell your friends and share.

Came to my home I was going to get more quotes. They came from Roto Rooter we will handle, and it's covered by insurance. I signed the person called to get financing and when the financing was done the person said approved for 5500. The other person ran over and said the bill for plumbing is 8K. He went back on and did for 8K. All the time she said if you get no more quotes, she knew it was covered. I didn't know at the time she had padded the bill with a 2500 water filter she told us about but never authorized. The day came before even looking at it one of the plumbers said another pipe needed to be replaced. I call the person who set it up she said let me call him and ask him stop upselling, after multiple attempts even though they billed never received a full receipt of the charges. I saw what they charged the insurance company. They charged for overtime not here long. They charged for emergency appointment done no emergency. They took pictures for the insurance a bathroom & basement of work they did not do. pictures of the wrong bathroom. I spoke to 3 managers The third said nothing he can do but remove the water filter and try to get me a refund. And give me a free filter change even though the person told us about it was free 6 months. Pics taken of the basement even though there was no water in the basement we had water proofing done and they took pictures of the results which the work was not done by them. They charged us 8K which included the padded water filter and the insurance 15K for water restoration even though all water was in the tiny crawl space, they don't seem to care what happens as long as it results in more money. They charged a total of 23K for a crawl space pipe done in a few hours with no overtime. No emergency service they had no special equipment, and what she was actually saying if you give us your insurance for our purposes. They said insurance paid for what they wanted but they had false information. They don't care. choose AJ Perry. I have yet to receive a receipt for the first part of the service.

Only reason it's a 2 is for several reasons. When we called Rotor Rooter they couldn't quote us any type of price whether hourly or for service. That opens the door to be scammed or overcharged like we were. We were desperate so we agreed to have a tech come by. The tech told us it would be $650 and in the end pocketed $200. We were desperate because nothing would drain properly so we agreed with $650. Nearing the end I expressed how everything is so expensive. Tech asked me if I had $150 cash, and then changed it to $200 cash, I said yes thinking I was going to get a big discount. The tech took $100 off the price, charged my card $350 which went to Rotor Rooter and then pocketed $200. Very dishonest and honestly made me think the actual charge was probably only $350 to begin with. We all felt scammed and lied to. Although happy the main issue was remedied the guest bathroom still does not drain well. We don't want this tech back in our home nor will we use Rotor rooter again. They've lost our business and anybody else we would have referred to them. Not because we are afraid of anyone but once a person is dishonest they will do it again. It's a reflection of the company. I don't recall the exact date but it was within the last 2 months.

Predatory, Incompetent, or Both -- Avoid Roto-Rooter at All Costs My experience with Roto-Rooter was so appalling, I feel morally obligated to warn others. It started with a sewage backup in my 792 sq ft basement on May 28, 2025. I had no prior experience with this, so I called Roto-Rooter, thinking they were reputable. They charged me $800 just to unclog the drain, which seemed high but I assumed it was a complex job. Because there was sewage involved, they told me I needed a quote for cleanup -- citing bacteria in the concrete. Fair enough. Then their Water Restoration Field Supervisor came to my home, reassured me the cleanup would take 2-3 days, and promised help in submitting the claim to my insurance. My insurance called multiple times with no response. Eventually, because this Google review, they responded. Shortly after, another technician came in saying he couldn't get the camera down the pipe to inspect it. He showed me how it wouldn't go through, then confidently told me it was broken pipes and quoted me $8,500 to jackhammer the basement and replace the piping with PVC. I didn't bite. Two weeks later -- yes, two -- they finally said the basement was dry. It made no sense to me that it would take that long, but I'm not a restoration expert, so I deferred to them. Eventually, I got suspicious and called a second company. The tech immediately ran a camera through the pipe -- no issue at all. He said he'd never heard of a camera being unable to pass unless something was being done wrong. The footage showed no broken pipes, just minimal root intrusion. In short, Roto-Rooter lied or was completely inept. And then came the gut punch: I received a $23,000 bill. For a partial basement cleanup of a minor sewage backup. I wish I were kidding. Look at the photos -- there is simply no way the work done justifies that cost. To recap: * They charged exorbitantly for simple services. * Lied (or were clueless) about my pipe condition. * Tried to upsell a $8.5K excavation based on false information. * Took far too long to complete a basic drying job. * Promised insurance help and then ghosted me. (Eventually after my reviews, they responded) * And in the end, sent a $23,000 invoice that is beyond outrageous. Do NOT trust Roto-Rooter. They are either dangerously incompetent, or predatory scammers -- possibly both. UPDATE: After receiving the insurance audit report, I can now confirm that Roto-Rooter massively overbilled and lied repeatedly throughout this process. They initially quoted $6k-$11k for water cleanup after a small sewage backup. What happened? A final settlement from my insurance adjuster of $11,328 for a partial basement cleanup -- with drying equipment left for 14 days for no legitimate reason. BUT ROTO ROOTER WOULD NOT RESPOND TO NEGOTIATIONS. As of July 29th, they have not responded. They also falsely claimed I was hard to contact or not available. That is absolutely untrue. I was either working from home while they were in the house or received 20-minute notice and arrived on time. They also implied I was going in and out of the basement, interfering. Another lie. I never opened the basement door while they were working -- except once, when all of their equipment had mysteriously stopped running and I checked on it. That was it. The insurance adjuster's audit backed up all my suspicions: they overcharged and found no justification for their bill. UPDATE 2: On August 5th, I received a lien threat from them because of their unwillingness to negotiate. It wasn't until August 13th that Roto-Rooter began showing a willingness to negotiate after I got a higher up email address. They falsely accused me of stopping my insurance from negotiating. It is not true and my insurance confirmed. As of August 18th, there has been progress in negotiations but there has been no agreement. Update 8/19: Roto-Rooter offered to settle at $19,000 (matching my insurance's position) but only if I removed all my posts, reviews, BBB complaint, Attorney General complaint, and agreed never to post about my experience in the future. I declined because my freedom of speech is not for sale. I did, however, accept $19,000 if my right to speak honestly about my experience remains intact. 9/3: I paid $1000 out of my own pocket to sign nothing because of a lack of trust with Roto Rooter. Bringing the total to $20,000. I have been through 19 rebuttals with them on the BBB, about 100 emails, and I filed a complaint with the Attorney General, the Ombudsman of Dayton and the FTC. Friends don't let friends choose Roto-Rooter.

This company is a joke. They use deceptive business practices, lie, employees steal and come to the job while they've been drinking, don't show up when promised, are unprofessional, and do very poor quality work. We had a sewer backed up that my roommate discovered on a Saturday night. She contacted Roto Rooter to come snake the drain. They came quickly and had a young man come to clear the line. Supervisor Justin showed up quickly to look at the basement. He told us that the kid was not able to clear the drain and that they had to bring in a jet to clear it and a camera to look at the sewer lines. Justin also told us how serious the damage was and said that a crew would need to come in and basically “gut” the basement. Trying to sell us on their services, he said that his crew would come with hazmat suits on and rip everything out and clean it, and then sanitize it with some “chemicals.” Another “supervisor” Brent also came out to the house that night and told us that we had a “belly” in our sewer pipe outside, and needed to have it replaced. My roommate had to get financed for this repair and was approved for $7,500 – which just so happened to be the amount of the repair. We decided to go with Roto Rooter to clean out the basement and to fix the sewer pipe. They come out 2 days later, the following Monday, to start the job. The excavation in the front yard was a nightmare. Brent told me where the sewer line was in the yard and showed me where they would be digging. 14 feet down and there was no sewer line. I work for the city that I live in, so I contacted our buildings/zoning department and got 2 different sewer maps and gave those to the crew. Both of these maps showed where the sewer line was. Brent, and another supervisor, Jordan, then had the crew dig another trench over 12 feet deep, in the wrong spot. A different man brought them so tool with a sensor on it that they could use to try and find the line – the device he brought was dead, so we had to wait for someone else to bring another one. After using the tool, they decided to try digging in between the two holes they already dug and finally found the line. They were not able to finish the job that day because they needed trench boxes/shoring and said they had to wait for them to be shipped from Chicago. The entire time they were digging they talked about how the ground in my city collapses very easily because it is very sandy – they also talked about how deep sewer lines generally were. If you already knew both of these things, why would you not be prepared with the trench boxes already? We had to wait an extra day because we got snow and the trucking company would not deliver the trench boxes. The crew showed up that next day and was able to repair the line. They again, were unprepared, though. They knew that they would need rock/gravel to put under the new pipe and did not bring any. They had to leave for 2 hours to go get the rock. The young man digging told us that he would try to get our yard back to the way it was as much as possible. Our yard looks TERRIBLE. I understand they don’t grade the yard or reseed it, but they could have filled the holes back so much more than they did. Our entire yard is just a dirt pit. They also left our porch slab not stabilized – they didn’t fill the dirt back under it so part of it is just hanging. They tore out huge chunks of the street at the end of our driveway and at our curb and left huge chunks of dirt and a bunch of the rock in the street. They did not clean up after themselves at all. The experience we had with the inside crew was just as bad. From start to finish of the job, not one person that was in and out of our home wore hazmat suits. They did not even wear gloves, goggles, masks, or any feet covers. They tracked sewer and dirt in and out of our kitchen and left every day without cleaning any of it up. They also never sanitized the basement or used any chemicals to clean it. Even now, over 2 weeks later, this is still sewage on the floor, one of the walls, and inside and all over the outside of the toilet. They also left items in the basement that had been sitting in the sewage water. They tore out ceiling tiles that our insurance will not cover, because it wasn’t affected by the water. When we asked why they tore them out, they said one of the tiles was damaged. So you tear out my entire ceiling because of one tile? They also tore a shelf halfway off of the wall – the shelf is still hanging by one screw. They were supposed to tear out a shower that was in the basement and they had not touched that. When the job was supposedly finished 2 crew members, Jordan and Jaimin, showed up. We were told by Justin that they were there to get their dehumidifiers from the basement. Jaimin’s first question to me was, do you know what we are supposed to be doing? Why would he even come to my house if he didn’t know what he was doing.

Gary Wong a plumber with Roto-Rooter was hired to fix two running toilets he changed a flapper on two toilets and fixed a chain on my master bedroom toilet. later on my water bill quadrupled-Gary was called back yesterday on June 3rd 2025 and found out-that he himself did not cut the chain on the flapper short enough and the chain prevented the flapper from fully closing, Gary admitted his error. his actions were harmful - the water ran continuously for hours up to 40 gallons, per hour-my water bill has averaged $600.00 per month since. Gary tried to charge us for a diagnostic fee when his incompetence or contrived malfeasance created the problem. I did not allow him to rip us off anymore. His supervisor Jay St stated that Gary- left because he felt threatened- Gary left because he lied, tried to cover up his lies, and then manipulated everyone to falsely smear, and slander a long time customer. the statement provided by Jay St, was that - Gary fixed a chain that was blocking the flapper from closing. Precisely what he was accused of not fixing properly. We are out of over 2000 dollars and Roto-Rooter sent me a email stating that they will not service us anymore based on a lie. Thank God for my inside and outside 24 hour surveillance system, Plus Go- Pro that i wear when contractors come to my home. So i am being ripped off by Gary, Slandered. Customers be aware of Gary Wong. I will not let this rest. Keith Cormier