Mr. Rooter Plumbing

Mr. Rooter Plumbing

October 28, 2005

Plumber, Dallas, TX I called Mr. Rooter because I thought I had a leak near my water meter. The City had replaced the meter, but said there was still a problem on the residence side. I'm 63 years old, and not able to repair things around the house as I would like to. When the Mr. Rooter plumber came out, he said the problem wasn't near the water meter, but that I had a "slab leak" under my house. He did not check any of the other things it could have been, but proceeded to insist that it was a "slab leak" and that he had to do all kinds of tests. First, he decided he had to replace a valve on my water heater because he said he couldn't turn it off. I questioned this several times, since the water heater is almost new, and it would be odd that the valve couldn't be turned. The valve was on top of the heater, and I couldn't get up there to see if he was lying or not. He did not give me any estimate as to what replacing this valve would cost, but immediately changed it out. The charge for this was $257.29 !!! Then he decided he had to perform an expensive leak locating service, and went all over my house with some kind of listening device, for which he charged $168.75. He then added a "truck surcharge" of $10, which no one had explained and I still don't know what it's for. All in all, he charged me $430.04 and did nothing for me. He then gave me an estimate of $4,590.14 to repair the supposed "slab leak" he claimed to have discovered. He wanted to dig a tunnel under my house ($3,250.00), an access hole ($455) and repair the line ($470.10). The plumber insisted he could do this the next day and that I should agree immediately so he could get started. He offered me a $299.50 discount if I would sign up for a 5-year Customer Protection Plan, which I have no idea what would have cost me. He also told me I didn't need to be present, and that he would take care of everything. I then called another plumber to get a second opinion. The second plumber found a small leak at one of the hose spigots that I hadn't noticed, and a slight leak in one of the toilets. He performed a test for any other leaks and found none. He specifically stated there was no "slab leak". he fixed everything and charged me only for the small repairs. By the way, he said he didn't need to turn off the hot water

as the Mr. Rooter plumber did, so the $257 charge for that by Mr. Rooter was completely unnecessary. All in all, Mr. Rooter tried to rip me off for $4,590.14!! This is incredible. What a bunch of cheats! Do not ever use Mr. Rooter for ANYTHING, EVER. Click this link to e-mail the message author: Email User