Roto Rooter Roto Rooter: Massive Price Gouging Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

On Saturday, March 1st 2014 I had Roto Rooter come out and fix some plumbing at one of my apartment buildings.  On the report they wrote that I was out of state but I was not? They claimed water was gushing out of the ceiling in a kitchen apartment and that the entire ceiling was about to collapse. Of course they exaggerate things as much as possible when the homeowner is out of town and they know I was not there to witness what was actually happening but my tenants were there.  They opened a small 2 foot section of the kitchen ceiling and fixed the pipe.  The tenants in the apartment explained to me that it took about 2 hours to do this work and all they did was replace a small section of pipe. Water was coming down the wall slowly and was not gushing!  I’m still wondering why it took 2 plumbers to do a job like this. Its not like they had to rip out the entire kitchen ceiling and replace several pipes?  They also claim there were 2 badly leaking shut off valves in the basement that they fixed at no charge. HAHA. I have no doubt that was added into the price but remember we can say anything when the homeowner is not there to verify or witness what actually is going on.  My tenant later told me that he was the one who broke the 2 shut off valves by accident. Unfortunately he will be seeing an increase in this rent when his lease renews. After all was said and done there is still the 2 foot hole in the kitchen ceiling to be replaced by my contractor. 

For years I have always used a local plumber and he did larger repairs than this and has never charged me more than $325.  Unfortunately he was in Philadelphia when this happened. As far as I’m concerned Roto Rooter and companies like them do nothing but massively gouge customers.  They know most people know nothing about plumbing so this is their chance to rip them off as much as possible.  Paying almost $650 an hour is ridiculous. In the future if my other plumber is not available I will be taking money off of the rent if my tenants are without water for 1-2 days. I also informed my real estate club of my experiences with Roto Rooter. Many had their own stories to tell of plumbing companies like this one taking advantage of situations like mine.  At least 500+ members of this club will not be calling Roto Rooter anytime soon to do any plumbing repairs. Beware of companies like this and always have several local plumbers at your fingertips in case plumbing emergencies arise when you are out of town. I have no problem paying people to do labor and repairs but when someone charges you almost $650 an hour to fix a small section of pipe...that’s where I draw the line.