Rooter Man Plumbing of Carson City

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! My wife and I spent the last several months remodeling an old family cabin that had been sitting vacant for eight years. The only thing left was to unclog two drains, and since there was no access to the plumbing under the cabin we decided to call somebody. First, my mistakes: I didn’t ask the cost to clear two drains when I called, and I didn’t send the worker away when he finally showed up at 5:00 pm and informed me the cost would be a minimum of $500+. He cleared the kitchen sink drain in approximately one minute. Over the next 20 minutes, he attempted to clear the shower drain, stating it was full of grout or some other hard material. I informed him that the shower was tiled over 15 years ago and that the cabin had been sitting vacant. It couldn’t possibly be grout or any other material. He said he wasn’t going to charge us for the still-clogged shower drain and that we would have to remove/replace the P-trap to fix the clog. I thought since he didn’t complete his job, there was no way I would be charged $540.00 for a single drain, but I was wrong. Here’s where things get worse: the cabin is nearly 90 years old, and the P-trap for the shower is under the floor with virtually no access. Hence, the reason I was willing to pay to have someone clear the drains. My wife and I spent several hours tunneling under the cabin to gain access to the P-trap. Once I located it, I found that it was a cast-iron P-trap with a very sharp 180-degree bend. After seeing that, I knew the type of snakes he was using to clear the drain would never make that bend; he was basically hitting the bottom of the P-trap. I went to Ace Hardware, purchased a $20 part called a Drain King, attached it to the garden hose, and cleared the drain in less than 10 seconds. My wife and I were ecstatic because we knew we didn’t have to further tunnel under the house and cut out and replace the P-trap. We now had a fully remodeled cabin with clear drains ready to rent the following week. We called this company back to tell our story and maybe get back a portion of the $500+. A nice lady answered, and after explaining our situation, she said she would need to have somebody else call us. The person who did the work called back but did not introduce himself as such. I started to tell our story of the digging, tunneling, seeing the P-trap, and clearing it with a $20 part from Ace Hardware. He began talking very abrasively, defending his work, if you could call it that, saying he was a professional and they don’t use those high-pressure tools. My wife got on the phone to try and talk to him down, but to no avail. He continued yelling at wife for the entire conversation. My wife was very upset following the phone call not because of the money, but because the way the guy was talking to her. After researching other local plumbers, we realized we paid over twice as much for a simple drain unclogging. Live and learn, but I wanted to pass along this information so you don’t make the same mistake as me hiring this company.