Rooter Rite worker to client: ‘They’re scamming you’

Can you imagine what would have happened to you if you had done that? Yeah, it probably exploded probably exploded. Coin wants to know how such a simple plumbing repair becomes so potentially dangerous. You know there are some things more aggravating than a clogged toilet. and when you need a plumber, you need a plumber, so our dan tilkin breaks down why a salem man thinks a plumber was trying to take advantage of his urgent plumbing problem and, well, it depends on a text message from the plumber to his employee over an underground pipe this is a text message right here you see it says break it right there the question is why you see it almost led to disaster why you have a hole in the driveway that's a very good question joel kinney had that situation everyone fears even though he is a contractor himself, he called this company reute

rite

, also known as salemreuter.com, to unblock his sewer line.

They came out,

they

were supposed to look and just take a snake down and disconnect it, and

they

told us they stayed. breaking blades there was some separation in the pipe there were all kinds of problems this was his first day on the job yes the first day I was with them and the last and last david hildago was hired by rude wright from craigslist and they left him alone in The Kinney home, David, says this man, Mike Lima, who owns Reute

rite

Plumbing with his wife Chloe, told him to dig down to the sewer line. When I reached the green pipe, I called him.

Hey, I'm in the green pipe and what do I do from there? He'd like to grab the jackhammer and just smash it, so I'm having lunch on my break and he comes and knocks on the door and says "hey bro, can I talk to you?" and he pulls me out and he says, I think you're getting scammed, I ask him what you're talking about. He told me to break your pipe, so at first I tried to break it with the shovel, but then he kept calling and calling and I was like, This doesn't seem right, do you know why he would keep calling just to ask for a pipe?

David says that's when he received an alarming text from Mike Lima, why did your husband send this text the day I read it to Chloe Lima when she asked me? Meet us in a park for an interview when he's not out, break it if he asks, tell him it's a bad pipe and it broke, but break it when he's not around, that's fine, don't say anything until you break it and I'll call me and let me know it's correct because in our experience it is alarming and unsafe to have a homeowner around when a pipe breaks.

Alarming and insecure corrects this man is a contractor who is used to doing things like that, do you think he is going to be? I don't know his personal experience, so what you're saying is that you're telling him to break the pipe when the owner isn't around to spare them emotional trauma. It was necessary to break the pipe in order to access it and make the repair. Make further determinations on the sewer line. You hope he thinks you're telling your guy to break the pipe when he's not allowed to, he's not around to spare him some kind of emotional trauma.

Well, it's not safe either, what is he like? unsafe because there could be flying debris and we are also dealing well with sewage, if there is flying debris shouldn't your

worker

have goggles, hard hat and some type of safety protection? Yes you should and remember the green sewer line you need to take a closer look at. The sewer line should be a much larger diameter and I thought, did he tell you to break the gas line? I didn't know it was a gas pipe. Had been trying to break our gas line if that would have hit full force. sparks from this river rock would have been vaporized, yes, probably exploded, that was a gas line, right, you were not instructed to remove a gas line, how was you supposed to know?

Did you train him properly? When he applied for the position there. questions were asked and he informed us that he had the knowledge to do the job. We also wanted to ask about this mugshot. He is Chloe's husband when she pleaded guilty in 2007 to insurance fraud in California. Why were you arrested? Don't know. the story I wasn't there you're his hu you're his wife you don't know the story okay I'm going to finish the interview now I really appreciate your time I just think when people see what happened and then they find out It was discovered that he had a conviction for defrauding people.

They will wonder what happened. I can't thank him enough for coming forward and he is the hero in this whole thing. We would never have known. So what happens now? Yes, Oregon construction. The contractors board is investigating this case and another case, so what can you do to avoid problems like this? Well, in both Oregon and Washington, you can look up contractor history by going to our website at coin.com. We have links to do it in another. Great advice, ask your friend, hey, you know a good plumber, which is one of the best things you can do.

Also, what's really important? Ask for a second opinion, but you know how hard that is. Your toilet is clogged and you're going to call for a second do you want them to clear something up right away yes exactly but the scary thing here was it was a gas pipe yes yes right he was playing nice told him to do it with a jackhammer break it with a jackhammer, keep us posted on this, I know you're still looking into it, hey, yeah