Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Roto-Rooter Plumbing and Drain Service's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  Roto-Rooter Plumbing and Drain Service

  67 Arena Ct Narrowsburg, NY 12764-5800

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  Roto-Rooter Plumbing and Drain Service

  67 Arena Ct Narrowsburg, NY 12764-5800

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/15/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We called Roto-Rooter in ***********, ******** on 11/13/23 to fix a drip at our vacation home in ***********************. The initial service call happened on 11/16/23 when the technician came and identified the problem but lacked the necessary part to fix it then. My wife spoke with the technician. He told her that the work would be "guaranteed" but could not check it off on the form at that time because he had not yet done the work. The job completion was rescheduled for 12/1/23. Due to the technician's family emergency, it had to be rescheduled for 12/6/23. Neither my wife nor myself could be there to sign off on the work when completed but we arranged for the work to be completed while we were not there. Water was drained from the lines in order for the work to be done. Work was done as scheduled on 12/6/23. No paperwork was left with details about the work done or specifying the guarantee mentioned to my wife. I received an invoice by email on 12/7/23 with the work described as "installed unions and fixed leaking pipe."No one was at the house until I arrived on Saturday 12/23/23 - I turned the water on and heard it rush through the system indicating to me that water had not been in the system before I turned it on. There was still a drip as this video shows: ***********************************************************************************. I called them on Saturday 12/23/23 and spoke to a person who could not answer my question about the guaranteed work. When I called them again on Tuesday 12/26/23 to have this addressed, they said it was not leaking when the technician left and that if they were to come, it would be an additional service call with charges. My most recent attempt at contact, an email on 1/16/24 seeking clarification on what the guarantee entails and why fixing what has not been fixed would cost us even more than the $1,701 we have already paid has gone unanswered.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/29/2024

  When the job was  set up  the customer wasn't going to be home and we broke our protocol to accommodate this customer and did the work when no one was home. When the water was turned back on it must have caused a hammering in the pipes which caused was the probable cause of the  leak.  We cannot guarantee that the plumbing wouldn't  leak if the customer is not home when this work is done and the water is off.  This why we will never break company policy ever again and go to a customer's house when they are not home to do any type of job.  We do have to charge a service call because we service a very big area in which our technicians may need to travel in excess 2 hours or more to a customer's house and we always tell our customer's upfront before we even go to let them know of any charges they may incur. That is company policy. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/03/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# ********, and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

   

  While we appreciate that the business took some time to respond to our complaint, it is regrettable that most of the response was used to communicate what the business will and will not do in the future with only one sentence actually addressing the issue we, the customers, want to resolve.

  The business used much of its response to describe how it accommodated us by doing the work when we were not there - even saying that it broke its "protocol" to do so - and then stating it would not do so in the future. When this work was initially scheduled for Friday December 1, 2023, I used a personal day to be there to see it done. Unfortunately, due to the technician's family emergency he was unable to come. We then RESCHEDULED for Wednesday December ********* informed the scheduler that we would be unable to be there. This "protocol" was never mentioned in our conversation explicitly in terms like "It is against our protocol or policy to do work at a house where no one is home" nor implicitly like "we don't usually do that." In fact, when I informed the technician by text that I would not be there but that I would leave the job site accessible he texted back "OK perfect that's all I need. I will take care of everything." Being part-time residents, we have had contractors do work when we were not there in the past and thought this would be no different. It wasn't, until I noticed the leak where the work was done after I turned on the water.
  
  As previously mentioned, we are part-time residents so we have our own "protocols" that we follow when we are going to be away for an extended period. One of them is turning off the water system. We do not drain the system, we just turn it off so if there is a problem with fixtures or pipes upstairs or in the basement the pumps are not running and moving more water. So when we turn the system on, there is water in the lines. Sometimes the well pump runs right away, sometimes the tank pumps hum and at times I hear a little water movement when I open the valves at the water heater. These are normal sounds we have heard over the past few years we have been doing this. 
  
  The business stated in its response: "When the water was turned back on it must have caused a hammering in the pipes which caused was the probable cause of the  leak." We can concede that this is a possibility but as the pipe system was drained in order to do the work, we believe another, more likely, possibility is that for whatever reason, no water was introduced in the lines to check to see if the problem had been resolved. This could explain why the technician saw no leak when he completed his work - no water, no leak. If "hammering" sounds anything like the word implies, ie. pulsing and/or making a knocking sound, that was not what happened when I turned the water on. It sounded like water moving through an empty hose - nothing abrupt. I checked the system about an hour after I turned it on, mainly out of hopeful anticipation that the system was finally not leaking and found this: ***********************************************************************************
  
  It seems our biggest disagreement is about what constitutes a "service call." We are placing the emphasis on "service" - did we get what we paid for? We paid for our leak to be fixed. As this point we have not gotten what we paid for. The business seems to place emphasis on the "call" - that each occasion is separate and billable and that to resolve our issue, one they were to fix on November 16 and again on December 6 but ultimately did not, would cost us even more than the $1701 we have paid to date. 
  
  Given what we have already paid, we are arguably worse off than we were prior to our interaction with this business.  The business can take one of two actions for us to resolve our complaint: 
  
  The business can come and finish the job at a mutually agreeable time when we would be at the house with no further charges. 
  
  or 
  
  The business can refund the $1701 we paid.
  
  

   

  In order for the BBB to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************
  
  
  
  
   
  

  Business Response

  Date: 03/20/2024

  No guarantee was given on the work due to the fact that no one was home and the water off. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/25/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# ********, and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

  While we appreciate that the business again took some time to respond to our complaint, the policy that no guarantee would be given because no one was at the house and the water was off, like the policy that the business does not do work in houses where no one is home, was never communicated in any way.
  
  It was not communicated during the rescheduling call on December 1st nor in the follow-up phone conversation on December 26th when we were informed that it would cost us even more money for the business to come fix the problem they had not fixed. If it had been communicated, we would have rescheduled for a time in which one of us could have been there.
  
  We also appreciate the business is confirming that there was no water in the lines because as they said in their reasoning for not providing a guarantee that the water was off.
  
  Of course the water was off. Work was being done on the plumbing system. Our position is that the water was not turned on to make sure that the repair was in fact effective. If we had been there, the water would have been turned on and the system tested before the technician had gone and payment was authorized.
  
  We do not know why the water was not turned on to verify that the repair was complete before the technician left but we find it hard to believe that not making sure that the job is complete is the business's policy. What we do know is that shortly after we turned the water on we saw this: ***********************************************************************************
  
  As previously stated, given what we have already paid and that we are arguably worse off than we were prior to our interaction with this business.  The business can take one of two actions for us to be satisfied:
  
  The business can come and finish the job at a mutually agreeable time when we would be at the house with no further charges.
  
  or
  
  The business can refund the $1701 we paid.
  

   

   

   

   

  In order for the BBB to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************