Mr. Rooter Plumbing of GTA

The good and the bad....

To begin with, the job was to replace two inside shutoff valves which I supplied. I had these two valves replaced 5 years ago and unfortunately I replaced them with the old washer style valves rather than a quality 1/4 turn ball valve... my bad, but I was also in a bind and had no choice.

On a positive note, they were courteous and very professional beginning with the person I spoke to on the phone when requesting the service as well as the service technician. They did not leave any dirt behind and were very careful to not damage anything while bringing in the tools.
They called prior to arriving to inform me they would be on-site very soon; actually called early to see if it was acceptable to come early as they had a cancellation, which was great. After the technician left I received a call from Mr. Rooters office within 3 hours as a follow up to inquire if I was satisfied with the “work” that was performed.

On the negative side of things, they charged me a $15.00 Fuel Surcharge (tax not included), even though I live in North York not far from where this company is located. Remember they had a cancellation which meant they were already in my neighbourhood.

Secondly they charged $145.00 per valve to replace them for a total of $290.00 before taxes. Remember I supplied the valves! From the time they arrived to the time they left my house was in the order of 90 minutes. Total cost including taxes was $344.65

In 2010 I replaced these same two valves (exact same work) and also replaced both outside hose valves (4 valves in total) for a total cost of $156.55 including all taxes! See “Lampert Plumbing Systems Inc.” Even if one takes into account inflation over the last 5 years, I find it difficult to justify the cost to replace only two valves with Mr. Rooter.

Another annoyance was that I also received an email from Mr Rooter asking me to fill in an online survey regarding if I was satisfied with the “work”, but question regarding what I thought of the value of the work they did. Remember I already spoke to someone on the phone asking me the same information. At the end of this survey they also wanted me to complete an online survey with Home Stars or Google, hence this review on HomeStars.

I doubt that a small plumbing job such as this one really warrants three different survey's.... a phone call, an online survey for Mr Rooter and an additional online review! I believe that what they are missing is called “value”, quality work for a reasonable service charge.