Drain Doctor

Elite '08

76

117

Lilly O.

Hayward, CA

The family I nanny for recently asked me to stay home one day to let in a few plumbers to get quotes for some major plumbing work they wanted  done. When Drain Doctor showed up, the guy told me he couldn't do the quote. Fair enough, but he guy was yelling at me about it like a crazy man.
The man is lucky there were 2 kids there or else I would have had some unladylike things to say to him, especially with this being my second bad experience with them.
Seriously, stay away!

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1

7

Philip T.

Cupertino, CA

Pretty decent on this day, a Sunday (the San Jose office). Rachel on the phone was helpful before, throughout and after.  She kept the technicians and schedule on time and offered a reasonable price (a discount) on the phone after hearing about the extent of the job from the estimate.

The technician that fixed it was Jay Baek; he came after the first technician that gave the estimate (we didn't immediately fix it on the spot after the estimate, which was free, BTW -- a strong plus for this company). Jay was pretty helpful in diagnosing, talking with me on what happened and how to prevent the pipe clog in the future -- he started to fix the problem when he arrived without trying to up-selling more.  (The initial estimator did.)   Pretty professional and tidy.  He finished his job quickly.  Rachel called to follow up for service feedback as well.

On a Sunday afternoon, this is better than many places we called and tried (which either couldn't make it that fast or offered a more expensive price, e.g. we got an estimate from Rescue Rooter that was more expensive for this simple p-trap cleaning).

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1

7

Pat F.

San Francisco, CA

Should have read these reviews before I actually called them. Scheduled a service for a sewer scope inspection. He could not get his camera down the clean out drain to see all the way down the line. The plumber was only there for no more than 25 min. and still tried to charge me for the full service. I still had to pay 175 for nothing but him to come out. This was absolutely insane!!!  Nothing was accomplished. I wish my normal plumber never had is camera stolen out of his truck or he would have not charged a cent for the whole thing. Please be advised do not use these people for any plumbing needs.

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0

41

Kim S.

Redwood City, CA

These are our go to plumbers for the house we are renting. We have a perpetual problem with the sewer line backing up every year so for the last few years, we've had different plumbing companies take a crack at it. Only Drain Doctors managed to show up on time and know immediately how to deal with the situation. One company we called took five hours and managed to crack open the toilet in the other bathroom because they refused to understand the words "there are two bathrooms and they are back to back."
  They charge a crazy amount of money and even though we aren't out the money at the end of the day, it still makes me wonder if I should take some classes in plumbing to make some extra cash. But I give props to the fact that they are generally prompt, courteous and do follow up.
  This is what my biggest gripe is: the upsell. The sewer pipe from our house to the street backs up every single year without fail. The pipe they have to clean out starts on the roof. Every time we call DD, they call us back a couple of hours later to ask if we were happy with the work and the tech then promptly quote how much to move the pipe. I tell them the same thing every year: not my decision.
  Our latest plumbing fiasco was the master bathroom toilet that has been a pain since we moved in. DD came out to replace the innards to both toilets (which died within hours of each other) because neither my techie husband or I could find the parts ourselves. The price was painful but we figured that everything would be fine for awhile.\
  Not so much. The master bath toilet started making death knell noises so we called DD to find out what happened since it had been just over a month since we had it done. The plumber came out and said that the toilet we had is notorious for being just totally bad. We should replace it. Parts and labor? $450. You read that right. I told them I would have to talk to my husband and my landlord.\
  For a solid week, they tried to get us to commit to doing it. For a solid week, I said I'd have to hear back from our landlord. Then I told them to back off until I heard from our landlord.
  Our landlord came out last week and fixed the toilet. It's running great again.
  If you want it done right this second and are willing to take out a second mortgage, I say call DD. Some of the other plumbing companies that advertise about caring and promptness are full of caca de toro but DD is willing to be out there.

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Elite '08

480

377

Walter P.

San Jose, CA

Two stars are all for James and Jose!    Great plumbing technicians that did a wonderful job on the following:

- Flange replacement to toilet
- DWV repair work
- New toilet installation with new supply water line and caulking

Why are they missing three stars?
Ask for James to do all your job estimates and inspection.  Apparently, the first technician gave me an incorrect estimate.    The original quote was for $700.00.    When James arrived to begin the project, he realized the actual cost was going to be $1200.00.     That was a big surprise for me and $500.00 over budget.     Since James and Jose were already here and ready to go, I had no choice but accept the new cost and get them going.     We were down a bathroom and needed to get this project done.     In addition, the first technician charged me $75.00 for under the house (crawl space) inspection.   According to the company, this is a standard charge.     I'm not really comfortable about this extra charge, but moving forward, I will have James come out and conduct all my future estimates to ensure we're all on the same page.

Total time of completion:  Seven hours (one day).   This included their one hour lunch break and a trip to Home Depot for parts.

Will I hire them again:  Yes, only if their costs are competitive and within my budget.

Customer Service:  Good.  They answered all my questions and we're well knowledge about this project.   They did a great job with the installation and clean up, although I will emphasize for them to bring their own drop cloths in the future.    On this day, they used my own drop cloths.  

Aftermath:  I spoke to the office people at Drain Doctor about getting a $75.00 refund for the incorrect quote.    I was upset with their push back and the lady's attitude over the phone.    So I got off the phone and was prepared to give them zero stars for their standpoint.    Two weeks after the project, I received a $75.00 refund check in the mail.  Good save.   But your office staff needs work on customer service and paying attention to the customer's concerns.

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0

4

pelon g.

San Jose, CA

These guys provide horrible service. they never fixed my drain right. I had to argue with the plumber to clean out the drain, he wanted to replace all the pipes. The problem has been solved in the past by jetting the line, he did a poor job of snaking the line and left. It backed up a week later.

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