Drain Busters Reviews 59

My biggest regret is not checking with Trustpilot before I booked them. They ripped me off for £700 for 'unblocking' my drain. Fed me a line about tree roots and pipe liners. Then decided that they didnt need them because they couldnt find any. They 'unblocked' it - showing me a chunk of limescale and fatberg. They then charged me £700 anway. And yes the drain was still blocked the next day.

Date of experience: 14 March 2025

My elderly mother had a blockage and called in Drainbusters to repair.
Quoted £2400 , two 'workers' took the day and allegedly completed the relining of her outside drains.
Low & behold , months later the blockage returned, she took our advice and used a reputable company found on Checkatrade.
He put a camera down and NO WORK was completed! ZERO!
She has an invoice from Drainbusters however she paid a subsidiary company as requested (she did query this at the time), Project Resin & Drains who have now conveniently closed so she cannot reclaim her money even though the invoice was from Drainbusters
. They didn't even offer to rectify the fact nothing was done!

The guarantee is worth nothing.

They are an appalling company , just look at the other reviews.

We will be sending off details to Trading Standards & Media outlets to hopefully warn others.

Date of experience: 29 July 2024

Wish I could give zero stars. My Mum (who is 85 years young) employed Drain Busters to remove a 4" asbestos stench pipe and pipe work connected to it. 2 men were booked, but didn't turn up on the first date arranged and know contact was made to explain why, so Mum called them and a new date set, this time they did turn up, but not at 8am as arranged, they came at 11.30. After 2 days they ask Mum for £5k to be transferred to a bank account as they need the money for the weekend to pay wages? They then left all the rubbish including the asbestos pipe in the garden, I then got involved on Mum's behalf and they came back on the Monday to clear site. Within weeks Mum is on the phone to me to say the garden is getting flooded as a pipe has come apart, I had a look and the pipe had been cut short and none of the joints had been glued. Called Drain Busters to complain and the 2 guys came book and repaired???? So today Mum calls me to say its happened again, she called Drain Busters and got an answer machine, she asked for a call back, so yours truly has glued the joint. My Mum has never received a receipt for her money or a guarantee for the work. Avoid this company, Mum is now considering legal action against them.

Date of experience: 26 September 2024

I am extremely disappointed with the service provided by this company and feel compelled to warn others about my experience. I initially contacted the company for a plumbing issue and specifically requested a clear, upfront quote, including VAT. However, they failed to disclose the VAT, and I was left with an unexpected and inflated bill after the work was completed. When I contacted them to discuss this discrepancy, they refused to take any responsibility, leaving me out of pocket for costs that were never properly explained.

Adding to this terrible experience, I received a call from one of their team members who spoke to me in an abusive and threatening manner when I raised my concerns. The language and tone were completely unprofessional, leaving me shocked and feeling intimidated.

If you're looking for a transparent, reliable plumbing company that respects its customers, I would strongly advise going elsewhere. My experience has been stressful, costly, and unsettling.

Date of experience: 25 October 2024

We had an overflowing sewage drain. Drain busters came to clear it with 2 men and I was quoted for 1. They then said I needed to have the interceptors replaced as they had collapsed and this would clear the waste which they said would be £2,200 plus VAT. I called my home insurance and got emergency home care out . Thank god for Dyno Rod who came to clear the waste with the correct equipment , they ran a camera and said the interceptors had not collapsed . I am out of pocket by £369 but it could have been much worse if I allowed them to do what they said. Lesson learnt always call dyno rod to do the job correctly and trustworthy.

Date of experience: 21 October 2024

I was quoted £49 per half hour. However 2 people turned up doubling the cost and then “equipment cost” at £40 per half hour which consisted of an ancient camera on a flexible pole! To be fair they cleared the blockage but then recommended a one metre pipe replacement depth 50 cms at £1000 plus vat. 4 times the going rate which I refused. I won’t use them again

Date of experience: 07 October 2024

These people are con artists just want money AVOID THEM they give you a price for 1 person turn up with 2 and charge double the amount and not fix anything

Date of experience: 07 October 2024

Added second man unnecessarily to cost. £220 for 20min jet wash into access point in front garden which didn’t clear blockage. Wanted same fee again if we crossed over half hour mark to investigate further. Abandoned them and went for better options who charged similar amount to actually do the job.

Date of experience: 04 November 2023

To be avoided! The lady on the phone taking appointments completely lacked any sort of customer service. We had arranged for someone to come out to our house this morning as we currently can't use our bath, shower or washing machine without the downstairs loo flooding and for a family of 4 with 2 very young children, those are pretty essential! No show this morning, called and again spoke to the rude woman on the phone and was told the guy might show up this afternoon. Got to 4pm and still no news. Have cancelled the job with them now and gone to another company thanks to seeing the reviews on here. Dodged a bullet by the looks of things!

Date of experience: 24 September 2024

Terrible service from Drain Busters Bracknell. They did not listen to what I thought the problem was and went ahead with a lot of expensive work that I did not need. They left having not fixed the problem - my toilet was still blocked. I had to call them back and eventually they did fix the problem but charged me for the extra time, et cetera.

Date of experience: 19 September 2024

AVOID!!! DO NOT EVEN BOTHER WASTING YOUR TIME!!!

Called them out to check a blockage in my outside drain. Before I arrived to the property, they had already attempted to unblock using a jetwash. Mentioned he couldn't put a camera to check any blockage without ripping out the drain and gully. Quoted £1200 minimum and mentioned he did a work recently for £2800.

Ended up calling another company called Drain In blockage for a second opinion and they unblocked it within 30 seconds!! Saved myself from being conned over £1k! All that stressing for no reason!

Honestly they should be reported to trading standards for deceit and lying as clearly the other reviews show that it's a repeated trend of theirs.

Date of experience: 13 August 2024

Not even a 1 star!
Do not touch this company with a barge pole!
They have just charged my 85 year old Mum , whose husband is seriously ill in hospital, £3,839 for three hours work!
She was asked to sign some paperwork which she didn’t understand which wavered her rights to cancel.
She was not told how much it would cost to do the job which ended up being £3,839 for cutting roots from a drainpipe and relining the pipe. Three hours work! £88 hour per man. £2,160 for materials??? £639 VAT!
I contacted the company and was past over to the men who had done the work and they said they couldn’t do anything about it because that was what the company charges and he had explained everything to my Mum three times.
She is sat at home distraught!
I look forward to your reply DRAINBUSTERS.
I will be taking this further.

Date of experience: 26 July 2024

Started with a drain that needed unblocking, ended with having to replace a gully. Charge very high rates and they will tell you they charge £900+VAT to replace a gulley, but then they charge for material, machinery and labour, ON TOP of the £900. Final ask, £2,700+VAT for half a day’s work for two people. A gully cost £35 to buy, not £900. Just a rip off and my fault for not reading the reviews beforehand, because clearly this was not an isolated incident. Just stay away.

Date of experience: 13 July 2024

Cancelled on a confirmed appointment, very disappointing after spending time making the arrangements for the booking! waste of time.

Date of experience: 03 July 2024

They were called to find the cause of a rodent escape hole.They lined the waste pipes from the sewer back to the domestic outlets from the house but failed to take into account an air release vent which they have effectively blocked off so that the toilet flush no longer works.Despite frequent calls to their ‘head office’(does it exist?) I am unable to get any response from them except promises to get the operators involved to contact me.This is going to be a very expensive job to correct.

Date of experience: 02 April 2024

Called to get a quote for outside kitchen drain unblocked and was quoted £44.50 for fist inspection (half hour) plus any further repair work but when two workers turned up both wanted £44,50 each plus £59.00 before even looking !!
So used a local company 'Drain Rescue' who took 1/2 {£100) tatal.

Date of experience: 26 June 2024

I believe I have been scammed by this company. I have been charged £1800 to unblock a sewer pipe when I should have been advised to contact the water company who were responsible for the pipework. This has left me feeling vulnerable as I believe the 2 men who attended have taken advantage of my advanced years.

Date of experience: 31 May 2024

Criminals! Absolutely disgusting
I was quoted over the phone £150 to unblock my drain. An operative turned up the next day and set to work trying to unblock the drain. I was at work but was in contact with him on phone & messenger and at no time were any further charges mentioned. An hour later he phoned and said that the pipe had collapsed outside and there was nothing more he could do. At this point without consulting me first he went into my house with an invoice book with a blank page and put it in front of my wife who was trying to attend to my autistic 4 year old son and his younger brother and asked her to sign it. In her haste she did and he then went on to fill out the invoice to the tune of £467 for his service (which he didn’t fix) for just under an hours work! My wife questioned it and tried to ring me but not knowing what I had been quoted, unable to reach me at that point, hands full with the kids and the operative rushing her along and becoming agitated she felt forced to pay it.

I have sent numerous unanswered emails and made phone calls requesting a re-fund for the overpayment but I have been ignored every time

Date of experience: 10 June 2024

I had an appalling experience with this company. Please avoid them. Their administration is the worst. The lady I spoke to this morning was so rude that she even hung up my phone without listening to me. Once they get paid, they will not bother to ensure that you are happy. They do not offer any warranty for the services provided, and they charged me an exorbitant amount for clearing just three buckets of water, leaving the issue unresolved. Stay away from this company.

Date of experience: 11 June 2024

Between Christmas and New Year I developed an external drain issue. A call to Drain Busters was quick and easy and a date set for the workmen to visit.

On 3 Jan, Steve and Keam came and did an assessment. Unfortunately, the quick remedies did not resolve the issue and we agreed that the camera should be sent down. This identified a broken pipe which would require a section of the patio to be dug up to facilitate the repair. The pair were great and worked hard through the day, digging down, repairing the pipe and then returning the patio to near normal. I can't fault them at all.

However, the problems began afterwards. The cost of the repair was significant and I decided to submit a claim to my insurance company. There is only one number for Drain Busters, and they primarily deal with appointment booking so I had to rely on them passing my requests to other parts of he business. All I needed was the report from the survey camera to support my claim. Over the course of the next 6 weeks (following numerous phone calls and emails) the only information was that the camera had broken and until was repaired it would not be possible to get the report. Eventually, they gave me the workman's number who told me it had been repaired and finally I had the report.

With all the information, receipt and survey report, I was able to pass to the insurance company ... job done? Oh no! The insurance company got in touch to say that the company's VAT numbers were not recognised. Cue more phone calls and emails, to be told 3 weeks later that the problem had been resolved. A further 2 weeks later my insurance company got back in touch to say that despite numerous efforts the VAT number still could not be verified. However, they were willing to pay out on the claim minus the VAT charge until the problem could be resolved.

On 27 Mar, I received an email, stating they were aware of "the glitch in the system" and were working with the relevant authorities to resolve as quickly as possible.

So here we are, now in June - 9 weeks later - and there has been no response to any communication and I am about £600 out of pocket. It's been 6 months since the actual work was undertaken!

Thank you for reading to the (current) end of the story which I hope you will consider before picking up the phone to drain busters to help with your problem.

Date of experience: 01 June 2024