Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Berkshire County

Unprofessional work practices. Improper performance of work. Terrible customer service. Length of time passed to correct work. Overcharged. I was required to submit payment prior to work performed which resulted in a credit card dispute to recover funds. I required service on [redacted]. [redacted] 2015. The service tech. from Mr Rooter diagnosed the problem as roots in the main, and "derooted' the main sewer line. I was required to submit payment prior to work being done. This service did not resolve the problem. I was still without functioning toilets in my home and my tenants. I then hired another company A-1 to check the work that was done. Mr. Rooters work was judged as unacceptable/incomplete. I have an invoice from A-1 confirming this.With the problem still unresolved A-1 recommended that I contact Mr. Rooter to get them to correct the derooting and resolve the issue. They came back [redacted] the [redacted] and said they needed a supervisor to give me a price for the ACTUAL problem. Now an additional 7 days later, (13 days since the problem) they arrived to complete the job. I once again had to submit payment PRIOR to any work being done at my home. I called every day until they came back. I continued to wait on this merchant (Mr. Rooter) because they performed the work the first time that was not adequate and I had already paid them. I had hoped they would offer a better solution or a credit for the work of [redacted] that was not done properly and did not have anything to do with the actual issue. I was also told by [redacted] the plumber/supervisor to call the company after providing payment (since he cannot provide discounts further than 10%), and after the work was done to see about what the company could do for the inconveniences. Or I could wait to speak with them and they could come back to perform the work. I was stuck in this awful situation with no choice, if I had waited I wouldn't know when they were coming back and I had waited all this time. I Expect some sort of fair compromise which I was lead to believe would happen. I submitted payment and they completed the job. When I called nothing was done when I spoke with Mr. [redacted] (president of the company) who was completely dismissive. Furthermore the technician's left without properly derooting the line or refunding that specific transaction. The roots in the sewer line were verified by A-1 Septic another contractor in the field. With no compromise from the merchant I proceeded to dispute the charges with my credit card company. The credit card company failed to reach me for a response to the merchants claims so I lost the initial dispute. To add insult to injury.Desired SettlementThe requested amount refunded of [redacted] was for the derooting that was unnecessary and improperly done, and verified by a third party in the field. The amount of [redacted] dollars was to recover expenses incurred while the problem went unresolved. It was 14 days with no flushing toilets from when Clear Water Plumbing (Mr Rooter) arrived the first time back on [redacted] That's half a month without rent. Also to recover the [redacted] paid to another contractor to verify the works inadequacies. If they had repaired the main sewer line (pitch issue) on [redacted] this wouldn't have been the horrible experience that it was. Instead I was charged for other service improperly done and that had no effect on the problem. I'm not the expert or professional in this line of work. They are, and they are responsible for diagnosing the problem correctly and performing the work properly. Their work practices were pathetic and disgusting. After the repair and their rush out I took a closer look at the work area and the repair to my sewer line. I had to spend hours cleaning the mess the company made. They got sewage on my basement floor and tarp. They let my shower floor sit with backflow from the sewer and they used my sump pump to pump sewage onto my driveway where they disconnected the pipe (this was thrown away after). Would you want to pay money for charges after they got it wrong, made you wait 14 days without working toilets (had to stay with family), cost you rent as a result, and ruined some of your property? Total: [redacted]Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]Contact Phone: XXX XXX-XXXXContact Email: [redacted]In response to this man I will start by stating that we never require payment prior to work being performed as we can prove by the fact that we did work at his home on XX-XX-XX and his credit card was not run until [redacted] What we do is give a customer a written Estimate, have them sign a work authorization which clearly states that the initial price quoted prior to start of work does not include any additional or unforeseen tasks, nor materials which may be found to be necessary to complete repairs or replacemant. Also we can verify this from thousands of other customers who only pay after the work is complete and they sign the acceptance of work. we never stated that we would do a complete root cutting as seen on the first invoice that states we would "Attempt" to clear the blockage and then run a camera to check the condition of the line whitch is exactly what we did. At the end of the job we had him go and flush the toilet in the vacant apartment to make shure evything was flushing ok and he did which is why he paid us with his credit card and signed the acceptance of work. If the toilets were not flushing properly at the time then he would not have done either one. he had another back-up on tuesday the [redacted] five days later and we sent a drain tech out and he found the blockage to be in the internal drain line and not the main. he cleared the blockage and it was at this time the homeowner told us that he had just replaced the toilets in the home to low consumption models. the tech checked the drains and found a small bellie or back pitch in the 4" internal pipe and told the homeowner that this could be a problem due to the low flush toilets not having enough water to keep things flowing though. he could not give a quote at the time as he is not a licensed plumber, nor did he charge the homeowner for this service call as we decided to cover it under warrenty even though his invoise clearly states a 90 day warrenty against root blockage and this was in an internal line. in his complaint he never metions that we came out for free on this day to help him with this situation. we returned on XX-XX-XX to give him a quote to repipe some of the internal line and correct the pitch and even gave him a 10% discount for the work. he signed the work autherization , we did the work , we tested all fixtures and he signed the completion of work and then paid us again with his credit card. This homeowner has not had another problem with his lines and trust me when I say we would all know about it if he did. He was also told on the first invoice that he had roots in the line with cracked pipe as he was shown to him on our camera by us. he keeps stating that we didnt cut the roots properly but he has not had a blockage due to roots from the first day we were there on [redacted] We also gave him a quote on the first invoice to permanately solve the root issue wich he stated is completely unnecessary althogh in the future he will find out diffenently when those roots grow back and get bigger. im sure when that happens he will blame us for that too. he is also a bold faced liar as he claims that he had to stay with family yet he was already moved out of his apartment on the [redacted] when we arrived the lower apartment was completely bare and he stated that he had already moved out and was just there cleaning. as far as lost rent he only had one tennant on the second floor and they didnt even know there was a problem as we went to tell her not to run any water on the 3rd when we went to work on the pipe and she had no idea there was even a problem so how is it she wasnt paying rent for 14 days. Another point that makes no sense is that fact that this homeowner claims that we didnt fix it right the first time and we are unprofeesional so why on earth would he call us back and have us do more work and sign the work acceptance and hand us his credit card for payment( which might I ad was not processed until the next day on the final job) and then sign the work acceptance.We are always willing to work with our customers if there is any sort of concerns but the minute someone starts lying and twisting the truth then I wash my hands of it, as this is signs of sociopathic tendencies and people like that will argue to the bitter end no matter what you simply cannot convince them otherwise. we are all wasting our valuble time and I myself am done with this person. the fact thecredit card company sided with us and quickly revesed the charge back when we presented the facts and our side of the story should have told him he was not thinking clearly but that is not how some people think. I thank you for your time.Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)First, I was charged for a service that was unnecessary and improperly done. Second, Mr. Rooter is simply unprofessional in their work practices. While [redacted] likes to state "we never require payment prior to work" and while my credit card was not charged until the [redacted] I was required to provide my credit card number prior to work. When a customer is forced to provide a form of payment before services are rendered, is it not an implication that payment is required upon services...otherwise why doesn't [redacted] send a bill in the mail. Clearly he chooses to use only the facts that support his side of the argument and ignores the rest. Shows the nature of how this company conducts business. Regardless, the plumber and tech. were given my credit card information prior to work, and could of charged me at any time. When Mr. Rooters team came out for a relatively basic task, root removal, they claimed that they removed all the roots and charged me as if they removed all the roots. Obviously, this is not the case otherwise a complaint would not have been filed. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what proof [redacted] needs to make him realize he/his team not only performed root removal that was not necessary but failed to diagnose the problem correctly. I have no problem stating I AM NOT A PLUMBER, but when sewer water is spewing from the shower drain in my apartment immediately after [redacted]/team claim they've cleared all the roots, it doesn't take a plumber to know somethings wrong. In fact, I had to chase the guys as they were driving away to get them to stop and come back and take a look. They claimed it was normal and caused by the pressure of the root removal, they then left. I even pointed out the pitch in the pipe and his team seemed unconcerned. [redacted] states he would "never do a complete root cutting" and that he would only "attempt" to clear the blockage". Yet later in his response he mentions his "90 day warranty against root blockage". If roots are blocking the pipe, why wouldn't you cut them completely out. How does one warranty an "attempt"? Hours later the problem resumed. I continued to contact Mr. Rooter, day after day no return call. After many attempts to contact Mr. Rooter, I decided to consult another plumber, A1 Septic. Figuring that the Mr. Rooter had correctly diagnosed the problem I had A1 come out and scope the pipe just as Mr. Rooter did. They told me that there were other blockages and roots. A1 Septic, a competitor of Mr. Rooter, recommended I contact [redacted] to come back out and re-perform the job I paid them for. Since I had already been charged for this work and it was warrantied I had to wait on Mr. Rooter. Days later they sent a tech out. He did not scope the septic or pipe but looked back at the same area he previously identified as a pitch problem. He made it sound like they would refund me for the initial visit considering his team failed to actually remediate the issue. He also said he couldn't perform the work now but would have his supervisor get back to me. A total of 14 days later from the original problem they came back. Instead of a refund for the previous work the [redacted] offered me 10% off which didn't even come close to [redacted] dollars I charged work done not required and improperly done.As my luck would have it, I unfortunately was forced to use Mr. Rooter again to fix the pitch in the pipe. Given the long/cold winter, I could not find another available plumber. As a landlord, I'm required to have working toilets after all. While [redacted] likes to state my tenants were "unaware" of any plumbing issues, it was actually them who called to complain about toilet's not flushing. As [redacted] stated, I was in the process of moving out/living with family and not living in my third apartment so clearly my tenants had to notify me of the issue. I had infact moved out and was not able to rent that apartment with no working facilities. And while I think this goes without saying, I cannot rent an apartment with toilets/water backing up and sewer water filling the shower. Regardless, Mr. Rooter performed the additional repiping work to prevent future blockage problems. The plumber who showed up specifically stated "we need you to submit your credit card payment and sign the estimate before we perform work and if you don't do it now who knows when we will be back". While the end result was positive the process was even less satisfactory then the previous visits. [redacted]/team helped themselves to my sub-pump to dump/spew raw sewage all over the walls/floor of my basement and out onto my driveway. A real class act. How is that sanitary, how is that even acceptable? Needless to say I was reluctant to get his team out of my house.In a nutshell, [redacted] charged me for warrantied services he failed to correctly perform by:-Quickly and inefficiently clearing a few roots or blockages in my pipe-Spewing sewer water out of all the showers in my house-Denied performing a cob-job even when another plumber, A1 Septic confirmed his poor work (have invoice from them stating this)-Forced payment prior to servicing-Made my apartments unlivable by not resolving the issue I paid him for or in a timely manner, 14 days later after initial visit.-Using my sub-pump as a way to pump raw sewage all over my basement and into my driveway-Unprofessional and unconcerned with his work or work of Mr. Rooters employees.