- Report: #236322
Complaint Review: Mr. Rooter - Concord California
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Author Confirmed
Why?
Mr. Rooter
www.mrrooter.com Concord, 94518 California, U.S.A.
Phone:
925-825-1000
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Mr. Rooter Grossly overcharged for drain cleaning Ripoff Concord California
My drain was clogged between the inside of the house and the clean out access outside the house. I called Mr. Rooter. I guess I should have known better when they told me they were going to charge me $49.99 whether they did anything or not but would credit that amount to my bill if I had them do the work. The service person, Frank, arrived and told me he couldn't clean out the drain from the clean out outside and would have to pull the toilet. By this time we SERIOUSLY needed out bathroom back in service so I told him to go ahead. He charged us $377.00 to pull the toilet and run a snake down the drain and then re-seat the toilet. He didn't bother re-caulking around the toilet where it attached to the floor. He was here 53 minutes.
I did some checking and have found out the he charged 3 to 4 times the going rate for the work. It appears that as soon as he new I was getting pretty desperate for the bathroom he felt he could gouge us.
He DID do what he was hired to do, open the drain, but I fell like he really took advantage of me in doing it. He also insisted that I pay $89.00 for service agreement as part of this work.
Jim
James
Concord, California
U.S.A.
I did some checking and have found out the he charged 3 to 4 times the going rate for the work. It appears that as soon as he new I was getting pretty desperate for the bathroom he felt he could gouge us.
He DID do what he was hired to do, open the drain, but I fell like he really took advantage of me in doing it. He also insisted that I pay $89.00 for service agreement as part of this work.
Jim
James
Concord, California
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Mr. Screwer
Topeka,Kansas,
U.S.A.
The Goods on Mr. Rooter
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, January 30, 2008
I read your report on here and am an ex-employee of Mr. Rooter Plumbing who's home office is located in Waco Texas. Mr. Rooter corporate allows individuals to buy into a franchise agreement to operate a business name DBA: Mr. Rooter Plumbing. Most of the Mr. Rooter Franchises do teach the service techs to "Work the System." We are first taught to be decent in appearance. If you smoke chew gum to clean up your breath, have your foot booties ready and knock on the door. Why? Because the expert has arrived, and remember we are not your ordinary plumber. We also have a manual that has our pricing guide in it. We place a mat down to put tools on, and are clean and professional in the job we do. Each task has different prices attached to it according to whether it is the main task, or an additional task. For Example: In the price book if i pull the toilet an auger/ snake the main sewer line, if it is the main task I would bill just say $160.00, if it is an additional task I am doing the bill would be lesser for that one, just say $89.95, as an additional task. Then there is a column over more with the main task and additional task that has another discount if you are a preferred customer on what is called the "Customer Protection Plan." Now the service tech will point out this reduced rate to you that you could have if you buy the protection plan. They sell different types of protection plans, a one year, three year, lifetime, etc. The life time will usually run you around $300.00 or so, depending on the franchise and what their rates are. The Company pays the services techs on commission, usually 25% to 30% depending on your experience and time learning the system. The system is to find problems and charge as much as you can. If you turn in invoices under $250.00, on a regular basis per call, you may find yourself called in to explain to the boss why you are not charging more. The flat rate billing system that Mr. Rooter uses is usually around double to triple the amount you would pay an hourly company. If the Service tech finds problems in the main line and it requires a dig, if the company is big enough, the under-ground crew is called out and they get a percentage of the dig bill, could be anywhere from $500-and up to thousands and thousands depending on what the issue is. I remember the guy who trained me would laugh after over charging someone and brag how he took them for a ride. The customer Protection plans, bio choice and different things they sell you are called add-on sales. The Service tech usually gets 50% commission on the add-on sales. This is why most of the service techs will push for you to buy some type of customer protection plan. It is all about money. They are in business to make money. Some of the service techs on purpose, rip people off and are taught too. It all depends on who owns the franchise and how they personally deal with their own ethics. I would not suggest that corporate encourages for service techs to be dishonest, rather I believe the problem may lie in the individual owners of the franchises. What I can say, is when I have heard of it being reported to the Waco Office that a franchise owner is acting dishonestly, I have never heard of corporate pulling the franchise out from the dishonest franchise owner. Instead Waco (Corporate) tends to still stand behind the franchise owner and not really give a s**t. This is a powerful statement but it is true. Over the years Waco Office has become more and more distant to the consumers and prefer complaints go and stay with the franchise owner, and not them. I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the people over the years that I may have ripped off. I am sorry, please forgive me....... Mr. Rooter is not the only company that is like this, watch out for any plumbing company with a big add in the phone book. Look for the local ones that have been around and established.
