Complaint Review: Roto-Rooter Lake Zurich Illinois - Internet Internet

well i would say i would agree with karl from tennesee the service man gave u an upfront price  u agreed to the price and the problem was fixed wheres the b***h at buddy wheter it took 10 min or 3hrs

Dear Don S,

  Sounds to me like you screwed up the plumbing before they got there.They also told you what it would cost to fix the problem,NOT how long it would take.You pay us for what we know,NOT what we do.Suck it up and stop crying.

Quote;

"We are doctors for your house and we all charge what we charge without feeling guilty about it at all".

I think that speaks volumes. Pretty well explains the lengthy six paragraph prelude defending $290.00 per hour as being appropriate.

"We are Doctors"...DOCTORS?.... "(we)charge what we charge without feeling guilty about it at all".

 Enough said. Message received.

I am a plumber in the Chicagoland NW suburbs and I am fed up with these ill informed consumers lashing out at plumbing companies for "overcharging". 

 First of all, there is no set pricing guideline for any plumbing company in the country, companies charge what they feel their employees and the professional work they offer is worth.  Companies that charge rock bottom pricing think little of what their employees or the work they offer is worth.  Any company the charges $150.00 per hour plus, per licensed plumber thinks highly of their employees and the work they offer.  Another issue is the fact of licensed journeymen plumbers coming to your house to do work.  Most companies that charge "rock bottom" pricing work under a plumbing contractors license, which is different then an actual journeymen plumbing license.  The contractor license allow a company to advertise and offer plumbing work, it does not necessarily ensure that a journeymen licensed plumber is going to do the work in your house.  Illinois plumbing code specifically states that only a journeymen licensed plumber can do work alone without either having their sponsor on the job with them or checking on their work during the day.  You as a consumer have the right to card any "plumber" that is proposing to do work in your home.  The only time this is not required is for sewer and drain work.

Secondly, a BIG misconception by consumers is that once you are hired by a plumbing company you automatically become a plumber; this is SO not true.  In Illinois and some states, to become a plumber you MUST complete 4-5 years of on the job training along with 4-5 years on apprenticeship schooling after your work day.  After completing your 4-5 years of apprenticeship you MUST sign up to take the State exam.  The State exam takes two days, in the exam you have to show that you know the main components of the 300 page plumbing code book with a 100 question test, you have to demostrate that you can follow a drawing of a PVC and copper pipe layout and put it together, place it in a jig and pressure test for leaks.  An applicant has to pour a lead joint to join two pieces of cast iron.  An applicant has to demostrate common plumbing code knowledge and plumbing system layout by drawing a system for a three story building.  Failing any of these parts is an automatic exam failure and you have to retake the 2 day exam.  First time passing of the exam is less then 15% of first time applicants.  Plumbers are licensed by the same governmental agency as physicians and nurses, the Public Health Department.

Thirdly, consumers that complain about what a plumber charges, a HVAC tech charges, an electrician charges, carpenter charges, or a mechanic charges are usually the same people that will hire a DJ for a wedding, a clown for a kids party, an event planner or even a stripper for a bachelor/bachelorette party and pay these UNSKILLED professionals  upwards of $300+ per hour to entertain or to organize a function.  Your trades men and women are consider SKILLED Trademen/Tradewomen due to the fact that for all trades you have to do an apprenticeship in order to become a journeymen in your trade.  So answer this for ALL of you that complain about pricing, Is an UNSKILLED professional worth more than a SKILLED professional?  Does a person who plays music or takes there clothes off to entertain you worth more that someone that protects your drinking water, heats your home or makes sure that your roof does not fall down ontop of your family during a heavy snow?

As far as what Roto-Rooter was saying in comparing their flat rate pricing with that of a mechanic, there is no set hourly pricing guideline for any mechanic, again its what the company thinks their employees and the work the offer is worth.  So mechanic A charges $100 per hour and mechanic B charges $130 per hour that is where the difference stops in their labor pricing.  When they approach you with an estimate they get the information of how much to charge from an hourly book.  The book, which every mechanic has, shows how long it should take to do the work, not how much to charge.  The mechanic takes the standardized hours and multiplies it by what they charge.  Now if the jobs in the book shows it should take 2.25 hours, thats what their estimate is based on and that is what you sign off on.  If they come to you after 1.75 hours and tell you that your car is done, your estatic because your out of there early, but your still paying the same; visa versa if it takes them 3 hours you are still paying for 2.25 hours of work.  Any plumbing service company that works on a "flat rate" system is doing the same pricing system, they are determining their hourly rate, whether it is $150 per hour or $300 per hour and multipling it by the AVERAGE time they determine it take a competent plumber to do the work and they flat rate the job.  Same principle, if the jobs should take 2 hours and the plumber finishes in 1.5 hours your paying for the 2 hour flat rate price, if it takes the plumber because he is slow or runs into some problem and it takes him 4 hours, you are paying the 2 hour pricing.

A rip off is when you pay to have the work done right and it is not done properly and someone else needs to come out to fix what another person already did.  A rip off is when someone comes to your house and charges you the Mercedes Benz pricing but gives you Kia work.  A rip off is when someone comes to your house to do work and they make a mess of your house and leave it to you to clean up after them.  A rip off is when you expect quality work and parts but they give you the cheapest parts they can find to make more money off you on the parts make up.  That is what rip off service is, not what you pay.  You signed the estimate upfront regardless of what your situation was at that time.  If you are that way with every pressure situation then places like Best Buy or your mechanic must love seeing you coming, because they know they can sell you anything as long as you are in a pressured situation like your tv went out the day before your Super Bowl party or something goes wrong with your brakes before a long road trip.

One last remark to you comments made against not only Roto-Rooter but all plumbers that take pride in what they do, just because you took something apart prior to our arrival or because of our skill set and knowing tricks of the trade to make any job look simple, whether it is or not, does not mean that we should automatically discount what we are charging you.  Do you do the same with what you do at work? If you get something done faster than allocated by your boss does your company lower its cost to the client?  The answer is NO.  So don't look down upon us as slugs of the Earth because we deal with your waste, without plumbers societies would not have pressurized clean drinking water and their wastes removed and treated properly to avoid plague outbreaks.  We are doctors for your house and we all charge what we charge without feeling guilty about it at all.

Quote: "The beautiful thing about Flat Rate pricing is that it protects the customer with pricing."

.I can see a certain "beauty" in two mens labor for less than an hour earning $578.00. Thats more than my lawyer charges

.Oh well, weve all gotta make a living. Even franchised plumbing companies.

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I do appreciate the response from Roto-Rooter. I still do not however agree with their charges. I do not understand the comparison between them and a car repair shop, what does that have to do with this situation? In fairness, I could respond that I can hire an attorney or see a doctor for less than I can hire Roto-Rooter. Makes you think......

I agreed to the price up front for 2 reasons:
1) It was explained to me that it would be  a difficult task to repair the sink clog and lift station pipe.
2) I had a house full of out of town guests, and I had already waited 1 day for Roto-Rooter to make the service call, I couldn't wait any longer for another company.

As I mentioned earlier, I did remove and disassemble the kitchen sink for them, and I did locate the cracked pipe in my lift station. No matter how you try to explain the cost, it still comes out to be about $300 per hour labor. No matter how you try to rationalize this, it is still and extrordinary amount of money to charge for this particular service call, period!

I know Roto-Rooter won't back down and charge me a reasonable rate, I've already been told this, but I do feel it is my obligation to warn others what to expect if they hire this company for plumbing repairs. I will use any various means I can to put the word out.

Just beware! Make sure you get other quotes before you agree to any of their work. I have had others contact me and tell me similar stories. It would be satisfying to know I helped prevent someone else from over paying.

Don S.

I am a manager at the local branch of Roto Rooter Services.  After a second review of this customer's complaint on us, we came to a decision that we did not over charge this customer.  I explained to the customer that our company is a flat rate company.  This means that we charge by the job, not by the hour.  If there is more than one job that needs to be done at a specific location, we charge for that additional job.  Charging on a "Flat Rate System" is very similar to a "Book Rate System" that an automobile shop may charge. An auto repair shop will charge you what ever book hours that specific job states no matter if the job takes less or more time to fix. 

Your average auto repair shop at a car dealership will charge between $100 and $150 a book hour. Your smaller shops will charge some where between $75 and $100 an hour. With both alternatives, you are taking your car to them.  With a plumbing service company,  we are coming to you. So there is more to the charges that a customer may always understand. Travel time, fuel and other expenses come into play. 

At this specific location, there were two different jobs that needed attention.  One was a drain cleaning of the kitchen sink line.  We charged the customer our flat rate charge of $260.00 for snaking out of the kitchen sink. This job was performed by a licensed plumber.  The other job was a repair of the discharge line at the lift station. This job was also performed by another licensed plumber at the same time the other plumber was working.  The labor charge of this specific job was $298.00 plus $20.00 in parts. 

The beautiful thing about Flat Rate pricing is that it protects the customer with pricing.  It forces the company to give the price of the job upfront before the work is started.  Once the customer receives the estimate, they can decide if they want us to perform the work or not.

We gave this customer an estimate of $608.00 to perform both jobs.  The job was agreed upon by the customer. We performed the job and charged this customer $578.00.

Roto Rooter Services performs thousands of jobs nation wide on a daily basis.  We will receive complaints from time to time. We have and still will refund money back to a customer if we overcharged on a specific job. However with this complaint, we gave the price up front before we started the work. The estimate was agreed upon from the customer and we performed the work stated. 

I apologize if you feel that we ripped you off.  I hope my explanation has helped.

Please send me your full service address including zip code to [email protected]  so I can look into this issue.

Thank you,

Pat Swanson