Roto Rooter responded to a service call to clear a clogged external drain that connects the house to the sewer line. We were informed the price would be $290.00 to clear the line. The technician pulled out a drain cleaner that was about 3/8"" wide, put it down the drain for 5 minutes and said he couldn't clear it. Then said he would transfer the fee for cleaning to run a camera down the pipe. He ran the camera down about 5 foot said everything was totally clogged and we would need to tear up our driveway to determine the extent of the problem. He still wanted 290.00 for 10 minutes of work. He then tried to force my husband to accept an Initial bid of $2900.00 written on a post-it note with half down immediately to start working on the problem. He became increasingly upset and aggressive when we indicated that we would call another company out before deciding to tear up our driveway. He also indicated that the $2900 was only an initial estimate and would probably go up from there ""depending"" on what he found. The ""bid"" was only good for one week, but if he left and then came back, it would be an additional $290 more since they would only ""discount"" the service call if we decided immediately for him to do the repairs. He then refused to accept a check from us and wanted our credit card numbers. We declined to give them to him and told him to take the check. We had a reputable master plumber out the next day who cleared the line with appropriate equipment and no issues.
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