Drain Rescue Plumbers

I had major problems with my toilet recently. I called in many companies to write me up estimates, and finally decided on Drain Rescue. A service person named Joe came in to do the job, and he was very friendly and thoroughly explained the projects. That was the difference, they actually explained the project while all the other companies just threw numbers at me, and pressured me to sign a contract. Joe of Drain Rescue took time to explain things to me like I was an actual human being and not an ATM. I really appreciate the care that Joe took. The installation went quickly and without any problems. I am very grateful for Drain Rescue's ability to humanize the toliet installation process.

Thank you Drain Rescue and thank you Joe!

Sincerely,
Vicky

I had Drain Rescue repair, install and replace plumbing pipes. The serviceman was kind, clean and professional and I would recommend Drain Rescue's work to my friends and neighbors.

Their customer service was great. When the job was finished, a Drain Rescue representative even called me and asked me about my experience with the company.

I had major issues with my toilet overflowing one week and then I had a root shatter the pipe in my basement. Both times Drain Rescue was there to offer me a great price, great service and made sure the issues were solved in a timely fashion.

You have no idea the nightmare I faced, but Drain Rescue employee Shayne was there to help my wife and I through our ordeal.

Thank you so much Drain Rescue for your stellar service! I will recommend Drain Rescue to all of my friends who find themselves in a similar situation.

Sincerely,

AnnexMan

Ok. Here's the deal. My story sounds just like everyone else's who has reviewed this shoddy company. $3200 down the drain, literally. Basement swimming in sewage, DrainRescue showed up first, the guy seemed pro-active if nothing else. He told us we needed to replace the old ceramic pipes to the main sewer.We foolishly took the bait. Couple hours later two guys came to do the grunt work -- I'm sure they were being paid no more than $13/hr. An hour in, our front yard was busted up, and what did they find? Plastic pipes, not ceramic. Too late, they had to 'finish the job'.... two days and $3200 later, our basement was swimming in sewage AGAIN. That silly camera is only a gimmick. Then we called the City Water services. The were FANTASTIC. They came by, did a camera inspection and FOR FREE took care of our problem. Which DrainRescue wasn't even able to properly identify.
STAY AWAY!!!!

Moving into our first home should have been a memorable experience for the right reasons, but unfortunately we will always remember it for the wrong reasons. The first time we attempted to do laundry, our basement flooded. It turned out that we had a collapsed floor drain that was hidden under a tile when we completed our home inspection. We called Drain Rescue for a second opinion. The technician seemed honest and clearly explained what would need to be done. He even pointed out what he would do that the first company we consulted claimed would be too difficult and expensive.
We agreed to let Drain Rescue fix the floor drain. Once the floor was opened up, tree roots were found in another part of the sewer line. Despite the fact that we had just purchased our first home and had next to no money left, we agreed to have the second problem fixed. We agreed to the second job in large part because the technician implied that since they were already there they could “give us a deal” (more on this later) to do the second job at a reduced rate.
The work was completed and we thought our problems were over. We resumed using all of our sinks and our upstairs washroom. A couple of days later we went into the basement to do more laundry and noticed a great deal of water on the basement floor. We tested the upstairs plumbing, and every time we used the kitchen sink or upstairs bathroom water and waste was pouring onto our basement floor.
We called Drain Rescue and after a few days they finally sent the same crew back to us. It turned out that they made two huge mistakes in the original work. This meant that after spending over $4000 on work from Drain Rescue, we went days without being able to use any plumbing above our basement. Most significantly, they did not hook the kitchen drain back up to the main stack, which meant every drop of water that went down our kitchen drain ended up on our basement floor. The connection between the old stack and the newly installed stack also leaked very badly. They corrected this problem and left.
We then noticed some water damage on our kitchen ceiling. We initially thought that this was related to the work done by Drain Rescue. The drain rescue technician came to our house again and agreed that they could be at fault. It turned out that it was a leaking supply line and not their fault, but even this simple job did not go well.
We needed 20 feet of pipe in our ceiling replaced to fix the leak. Since Drain Rescue investigated the problem, we were stuck using them to fix it. Initially, Drain Rescue quoted me $1050 to replace this pipe. I am not a plumber, but even I knew that this price was ridiculous. After arguing with a manager at the company I managed to get the price down to a high but reasonable level. The manager tried to argue that this price was fair because his people had been at my house so many times. It did not seem to matter that most of the visits were because they could not do the work right the first time. Incidentally, the company’s slogan is “we do it right the first time.”
During the first visit for the most recent job, we overheard part of a conversation between the plumber and his boss. While the plumber did not say or do anything inappropriate, we were greatly disturbed by the advice given to him by the technician. Essentially the technician was telling him to recommend as much work as possible to get the most money out of us. He also told the plumber that no matter what he recommends, when he gives us a price that he should “make it sound like we were getting a deal.” This comment was not only dishonest and horrifyingly unprofessional, but it made us question all of our quotes and work completed by this company.
Every job they did was pitched to us by the technician as lower than what he would “normally charge”. I then did some checking into what we paid for previous work, and it turned out that all of the prices were on the high end of what is appropriate for the work involved. We can only conclude that this was a regular sales tactic. His tactic appeared to be to over quote for every job and then knock some money off to “make it look like a deal.” Maybe this works for used car salesmen, but we do not feel that this is appropriate for a plumber or any other contractor.
It took Drain Rescue 3 visits and many hours to complete this simple job. Even when it looked like the job was done, it turned out that the plumber had crossed all our lines in the ceiling. The bathtub hot and cold taps were backwards and the bathroom sink had two cold taps and no hot. Despite not being done the plumber left for a few hours and did not come back to complete the job until late in the evening.
Finally after $5000, four visits from the “make-a-deal” technician, three visits from an excavation crew and three visits from a plumber, many days of disruption and lack of usable plumbing, we were left with a demolished basement floor, badly water damaged tiles and basement walls, destroyed kitchen bulkhead and ceiling, but working drains and a repaired leaky supply line.
In the end, everything is working again, but it should not have taken so long, cost as much money or done as much damage to our home. Most disturbingly, the behaviour of the technician calls the honesty of the company completely into question. Needless to say, we would not recommend Drain Rescue. We will NEVER hire Drain Rescue again and will make sure that everyone we know and come into contact with will never hire them.

There was this strange noise came up on and off during day and night. It sounded like vibration from the pipes and so we checked yellow pages and called a near-by plumber - Drain Rescue. A male plumber came in blue uniform looked pretty professional. He ran up and down, turning on and off every faucet. He said there was air trapped inside the pipes. I paid him cash ($68.25) for the work he did in less than an hour. I asked what happen if the noise came back. He said "you could call me back". I did because the noise came on the very next day. This time, a female plumber came in. I told her what took place yesterday and she said we needed to intall a T-pipe at the main knob and it would cost $398 plus labour. I said no, I thought the other guy didn't have the problem fixed. She said angrily, "I came for nothing. Bye" and walked right out! How unprofessional could it be!

Where to start? They showed up immediately to quote which was good as the basment was swimming in sewage. When you're in that situation, you don't shop around. The next day, when they showed up to do the work and pushed me to get more work done, I started checking. I was not pleased. And my displeasure continued:
1) they charged over double the average I was later quoted
2) they did not get the inspector to come until they had covered their work. This I learned was because they had 'tunnelled'. The Inspector gave me a hard time because he couldn't inspect.
3) later they would not discuss the bill and ignored me.
4) they warned me that at any time, "Say, your daughter's birthday party", that I would have another backup unless they did more work at another inflated price. (Later from other contractors I learned that their reasons were 'bogus'digging under the porch would not be the problem they said.) Sure enough, I did have another back up and the next group, Mr. Rooter whom I will now continue to use, fixed the original problem that I believe Drain Rescue knew about but did not do.

I believe they charged me for unnecessary work which they hid and left the real work to 'explode' and have to be done later.

(Addition made November, 2008) My response to the company's eventual response: 1) Who am I? What records would they possibly be looking at to confirm they did this work or look up records of this complaint? Boris ignored us, how would they have any records of that? 2) They are even inconsistent saying this is an anonymous complaint, but they know they have no record of it. The only thing they took seriously was to look for more work, ensure they had to come back and to get their cheque cashed. This whole situation smelled as badly as the sewage that was in my basement. Oddly, their response has the same odour.