How to Save $8750

So, the longer version (with conclusion) of the home-repair saga. We had raw sewage back up into the basement on Saturday afternoon--ugh. Since I couldn't get hold of a local plumber, I called Mr. Rooter of Cranberry Township, a local franchise of a company that advertises its housewife-friendly consideration in Better H0mes and Gardens--e.g., "we cover our shoes! We leave your site clean!"

Mr. Rooter of Cranberry Township (I'm taking a page from Kate's "consumers' strike back" model here) sent out two guys who volunteered to give us a free camera inspection of the line after they cleared it, courteously letting me know that the charge would be $260. That's $110 higher than I think local plumbers charge, but then, it was a Saturday and they came right out, so fine.

They called up from the basement a while later to report that they had gotten their routing cable stuck in the sewer line, and by the way, the line needed to be replaced. They showed me the video image, dramatically pointing out various fascinating features. Then they presented me with an estimate and their assertion that because they'd gotten their cable stuck, they couldn't clear the line without completing the additional $9,000 job of replacing the line entirely.

Something about working with college students who have not researched their papers adequately makes me highly sensitive to arguments that rely on insistence rather than apparent fact. Still, the estimate itself was enough that I saw a few stars. After nearly passing out, I gathered enough wits to squeak out: "I need to talk to my husband before I can make a decision about this." (I probably would have said something along these lines even if I hadn't conveniently gotten married recently, even more conveniently to someone who wasn't at home at the time.)

Undeterred, the plumbers asked, "Well, when is your husband coming home? Because if we're going to come back tomorrow to do this, we'd rather just leave our cable in your pipe than have to cut it out."

"He's not here, and he forgot his cell phone. But we'll need to get another estimate on a job of this size, so we won't be able to give you an answer right away. You're welcome to leave the tools here if you like and come back for them tomorrow, though, if that will help you out."

We had reached a stalemate. We looked at each other for a few minutes, them trying to be serious and urgent, and me trying to seem friendly but growing increasingly rankled as my rat-smelling instincts were confirmed.

Sam had forgotten his phone. But my parents were in town, and I managed to reach my dad, who was with him. I headed Sam off at the garage to hiss out the story to him. He told the plumbers the same thing, though they seemed to take it much better from another Y-chromosome ("Okay, man, sounds good"). But they walked us out to the street to show us that the job was so very inescapably expensive because it required them to dig up the public road to access the sewer main, and then to guarantee the road to the city. And they warned us that we could not flush the toilet until we got the work done. This was their trump card.

Ours, however, beat theirs: "Actually, we're about to move and we have another house a few blocks away, so if we need to head over there, we can always do that." They returned to the basement then, where they magically got their cable out of the line and packed up.

Monday morning, after a couple of days of fretting (and posting despondent remarks on my blog), I called a local plumber, who is my hero of the week. He came out, strode around the basement in his disgruntled avuncular way, told me stories of people getting ripped off by "those Rooter companies," and waved a stern-but-kindly finger at me as he suggested I call the sewer authority to see what we were really responsible for, and to have them put their non-biased camera down the line. His ballpark estimate, when asked for one? $2100, if the work even needed to be done, he frowned. He gave me his card and reminded me to lock up the basement door behind him, a thoughtfulness that impressed Safety Sam very much.

So, Wednesday morning, the sewer authority came out. "Line's fine--just get someone to clear it out for you." Which, of course, was what we had hired Mr. Rooter to do, and which they had charged us $260 NOT to do, since they said they couldn't do it without our forking over an additional $9,000. Further, the sewer authority informed us that the part of the sewer line under the public road isn't even the homeowner's responsibility! So if there even WAS a problem, the city would fix it.

The upshot of it was that we called the local guy back, and he came out and did the job for $250. I told Sam that I wanted to grab this guy and kiss him, and far from being jealous, Sam said, "So do I!" ;)

As for Mr. Rooter of Cranberry Township, their customer service person who called me back in response to my follow-up complaint insisted that this is not their business model. And to their credit, they issued a complete refund. However, subsequent research suggests otherwise: the BBB lists something like 40 complaints for this local franchise (in fairness, other Mr. Rooters seem quite reliable). Caveat emptor!