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Review content:
We had Brett over from S&K. He was very professional. There were two jobs... one to clear a blocked sewer drain and one to repair a corroded pipe. Brett showed up just 15 minutes after the scheduled time, which was very good compared to other service people. He started with the drain. Unfortunately, after about an hour and a half of setup and work, the tool he had was unable to clear the blockage. He did not have any video scope to check the cause of the problem, so he recommended we call Roto-Rooter. Then he cleaned some of his drain equipment away and began work on the corroded pipe (which was in the same area). About an hour and half later, that project was completed and looked great. Finally, we had an unexpected repair needed for re-seating our toilet over the floor drain. The collar the toilet sits on was several inches too low and needed to be raised. Brett took on that project and completed it within an hour. Including cleanup the total time on the job was 4 hours. The price for S&K is steep. $85 trip charge. $135 per hour. Our total bill with tax (and still needing to have Roto-Rooter show up) was over $700. So, in the end I'm rating 2/5 stars. I'm granting 2 stars because Brett seemed very knowledgeable and he did an exceptional job on repairing the corroded pipes. I'm deducting a star because they took on the sewer drain project but couldn't complete it due to lack of equipment, and yet charged full price for their efforts (less $45 for a ""machine-use-fee"" that I didn't know about, but that they apparently charge whenever they clear sewer drains and need to use their auger machine). I'll accept the high $135/hr for service, even though that seems very high, assuming I'm getting very high quality and complete results. But to charge $135/hr for something they took on but couldn't finish because they lacked the proper equipment, and for which I'll need to pay Roto-Rooter to do, seems unethical. At least offer a greatly discounted rate, or better yet, use the trip charge to cover it. And that brings me to why I'm deducting another star. The $85 trip charge seems unnecessary in this case - work was done and billed (as opposed to showing up and doing nothing billable), and their business is just a few minutes down the road from me, in the same town. I can't logically rationalize where that money is being used that the $135/hr doesn't cover. The last star I'm deducting is for ""incidentals."" Specifically, first of all, after Brett left, the collar the toilet sits on was installed so that the toilet actually sits off the ground, making it, for all intents and purposes, necessary for me to hire a professional to plaster-in the toilet to fill the gap. In addition, Brett cracked one of our bathroom tiles, which will need to be replaced. And, when I went to remove the toilet to get under it and work on the tiles, the water supply hose attached to the tank was so tight, it was turning the entire mechanism in the toilet when I tried to loosen it. My wife and I had booked a hotel so we'd have a bathroom to use while I worked on the tile, but I couldn't even get to the tile because I couldn't move the toilet without detaching the hose. So, we wasted another $100 for the hotel. My biggest recommendation... if you're going to have sewer work done, find someone who has a video scope.
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