Saturday, December 29, 2007

Root Rooter Available 24/7 Until They Break Your Pipe

Roto Rooter has right on their website that they are available 24/7, but that doesn't apply to fixing things that they broke. On Thursday I scheduled service to my house. Two people arrived at around 1:30 and just ran out the clock until 5pm. Sure, they did stuff, but nothing they did drained the water out of my tub. They did things I had already done, and they did stuff like clean out the pipe to the street- meanwhile it was obvious the water in the tub wasn't moving. Why not actually try to clean that part? I suspect they had no other calls that day and wanted to charge me as much as they could. They even ran a line with a little camera on the end towards the street to prove they had done something. They know perfectly well that black and white TV picture does nothing to provide actual information; they were wasting time because they were on the clock.
They came back in the morning on Friday to snake the tub. They charged me $90, in addition to the $229 they were charging for the day before. After they ran the snake, the water drained, and I thought it was over. I actually wrote them a check for $319.95 and began to clean up. Then I noticed they had broken the drain pipe. The problem wasn't fixed, rather the water simply flowed down onto the underside of my house and eventually onto the ground.
They were still in the driveway, so I called them back inside. They looked at the problem. Then they told me they couldn't fix it that day because they were all booked up, and that they would have to charge me another $180 to fix it. This is just insane. Professionals get bonded so that if they inadvertently break stuff, they can afford to fix it. I tried to contact their boss, but he is in Santa Fe, or San Fransisco- some place left of here, and supposedly can't be reached for comment. Which is really strange considering how often the guys would say they needed to call their boss. I think someone is lying!
Anyway, yesterday I emailed two corporate people with Roto Rooter, Pat Swanson and Paul Abrams. I have only received one email back, from Pat Swanson, informing me that he forwarded my email to a Sharon Thomas. So, on their website they claim 24/7 emergency service, but they can't get anyone out to fix what they broke? I don't like this at all.
It has now been well over 24 hours since they broke my pipe, and I know the original problem wasn't fixed. I've stopped payment on the check. The local office says the boss will be back on Monday, but I don't understand why Roto-Rooter can't get anyone else out fix the thing in the meantime. Is the local office the only one in the area? How could you claim 24 hour emergency service if you can't call someone else out to fix something you are liable for?
Apparently I have to wait until Monday to talk to a guy, who according to his own employees, is a money grubbing jerk who will want to charge me for everything, and will sue me to boot. I'm not too worried, since the a ten year old could look down the pipe and see it was broken. And the mistake that they made was so rookie that I've seen it demonstrated on This Old House.
I truly don't understand how Roto Rooter, or anyone involved in business could do something like this. It seems quite elementary- you have to fix what you broke. I hope I will be able to post on the successful resolution of this problem soon.

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