Roto Rooter Plumbing And Drain Service

The shower in my basement was draining very slowly and no attempt to unplug it would work. I had heard of roto rooter so found their Toronto office 44 Zorra 416 504 4444 on google. Answered by a live operator, straightforward to schedule a call, they quoted the price $219 per hour (with tax that's $250), which seemed high, but i know they've got equipment to pay off, travel, etc and I don't expect companies to work for free, so I assumed it cost what it cost. Two guys arrived on time (not sure why two guys were needed but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt), courteous, professional. They brought their equipment to the basement bathroom, 20 minutes later the drain was running well. I paid what was quoted, and they wrote a 30 day guarantee on the invoice. 42 days later, the drain was just as plugged as before. I called and you guessed it, the 30 days had elapsed so I was out of luck. The young lady on the phone could send another crew for $250 per hour. I tried to explain, reasonably, that whatever the problem had been, it clearly wasn't fully corrected if it reappeared so quickly. Naturally, I would have been completely satisfied if they had treated this as a warranty call at no charge given it was only a few days past the 30 day guarantee, but would have paid a nominal amount, perhaps $100. I didn't need them there that day, it would have been fine if they came when they had another call nearby one day. But the lady on the other end offered no flexibility at all. I attempted to help her see the customer's point of view - I had paid a great deal of money and the problem still wasn't resolved, and she thought it was fine that I would end up paying $500 to clear a drain with no expectation that the problem would be fixed. We got nowhere. I calmly told her I would never use them again, would never recommend them, and would tell about my experience on social media. She didn't care, in fact, she hung up without any kind of goodbye and no apology or empathy for my situation whatsoever. So, as promised, I'm sharing my experience.

Ironically, If the drain had remained open, I would have happily told anyone I know in the same situation to call Roto Rooter - it's expensive but I guess you get what you pay for - unless you don't get what you pay for. In fact, I might have written the exact opposite review than I'm writing here. Funny how customer service or lack of it can lead to success or failure for a business. This is a lesson that young lady hasn't learned, but I hope she someday does.

Anyway, the story has a happy ending - my wife, more resourceful than me, got a referral for a plumber from a family member. He arrived and used a device which is a metal cylinder, which he pumped air in to compress it, then held it over the drain opening and fired a blast of compressed air 4 or 5 times and the drain worked like a charm. He charged $80 (he even asked if that was ok). He also promised to come back again if needed at no charge (in fairness, I haven't tested this promised but he seemed sincere). So, that's what I should have done in the first place: for $80 I got the same result as $250, and a claim, at least, to stand behind his work.

I encourage anyone in the same situation to try this first before considering roto rooter.