Mr Rooter Plumbing Of Greater Baltimore

Charges Undisclosed Fees

On January 18, 2007, the toilet in the upstairs bathroom clogged. After discovering sewage and waste water leaking into the basement and through the ceiling of the living room, my partner and I began calling plumbers around 7:30 pm. Robert's Plumbing & Heating was among several companies that stated they may be able to send plumbers out that evening. We then waited about two and a half hours. Robert's Plumbing called to confirm that we still needed a plumber about an hour and a half into the wait. Since no other plumber had showed up at that point, we stated we did. Another hour passed. We saw the Robert's Plumbing van parked near our house and waited for him but he did not come to the door for some time. While he was in the van, plumbers from another company showed up at the back door of our home. Since the other plumbers came to the door first, and we really just wanted the toiled fixed and the sewage gone, we told them to start work.

When the plumber from Robert's Plumbing came to the front door literally a few minutes after the other plumbers, I stated that another company had arrived first and I then apologized for his trouble. He left and then came back to the door after several minutes. The plumber said that there was a fee for calling a plumber to a call and another plumber was already there doing the work. This fee was $135.

This fee was never mentioned at any point in the two calls with Robert's Plumbing. I just wanted to go deal with the already stressful situation in my house, so I gave him my credit card number. He wrote down the number on the bill. I considered canceling the charge in the next few days. I knew I had been taken advantage of but decided to let it go. Robert's Plumbing then mailed a bill to my home toward the end of March 2007. The credit card charge had not gone through.

I called Robert's Plumbing & Heating on April 18th. Robert Whitely answered. I told him why I was calling and that I was not paying the bill. He immediately said he would send the bill to collections and put a lien on my house. (He sent the bill to a collections agency in June.) I told him that his plumber had arrived minutes after the other plumbers and that when the company called again, we did indeed still need a plumber. Mr. Whitely stated that since we had confirmed that we still needed a plumber he was still charging the fee. He also said that every plumbing company had this fee.

On June 12th, I also called the number on the bill - a different one from the Robert’s Plumbing & Heating number. The woman I spoke to there did not care that the fee was never disclosed and kept demanding a credit card number. She said they had not done anything illegal. This may be so but it is certainly unethical in any profession to charge undisclosed fees. I do not appreciate having my good credit damaged over a fee that was never disclosed. Mr. Whitely has behaved in an unprofessional and unethical manner.

P.S. The 'star' rating I would give is none but that does not seem to be an option.