Drummac Septic Services

Our house was built in 1900 and has a lot of its original pipes and fittings. Drummac came out and went into our crawl space and looked at the plumbing, then said they couldn't do anything because they couldn't gain access. They walked out, charging us their minimum of $150, but for some reason, it didn't actually get charged, so I had to call and give them my card number again after getting a couple bills in the mail. I was going to rate this one star for the fact they rendered no services and charged us the full amount anyway, but I just spent 15 minutes on the phone with a manager (I'm almost NEVER one to ask to talk to a manager), and he did end up helping us out, so I'm rating it three stars. So, although I can't speak to their services, they do at least have good management. So kudos to Drummac this time. They turned a potential dozen bad reviews on various outlets into a mostly satisfied customer that may end up using them again.
3 7 years ago (09-04-2018)

Great service, on time, as clean as can be for the type of service. Highly recommend . grand isle, vt
5 7 years ago (31-05-2018)

Our septic alarm was going off. Of course it was a Friday night. I called Drumac and got the emergency answering machine. I got a call back within 30 minutes. They came out and took care of the problem right away. The bill was very reasonable.
5 8 years ago (13-10-2017)

Trying again as it took my rating and then didn't post the review. I'm stuck on the rating. I would give them a four stars for all the years we've used them in the 20 years we've lived in this house, however, yesterday's dealing with them really bothered me and I can't say I'm comfortable using them after this. When taking two showers after running a load of wash, our system started backing up and the shower water would start dribbling out the pipe where the washer drain hose goes into the septic line in the basement. We've found, it overflows and puts about 3 gallons of water into a bucket we put there the first time it happened last weekend. If we space showers out so that their an hour apart and don't do laundry until the afternoon well after people have showered, everything is fine. We'd just had the tank pumped last year and all was fine at that point, so we called Drummac out to pump the tank and then discuss what our next steps would be. The driver, Frank, suggested digging out the outlet pipe and he and my husband found a collapsed section of pipe. He then suggested calling Drummac to have a camera run down the system to see if there are other collapsed sections. Money's an issue. We have some set aside, but not thousands. We called and the woman said the price is $125 an hour and that it usually takes no more than 1.5 hours and that we'd be charged $125 if it took less than an hour and that after that, we would be billed for the actual time accrued and not another full $125 if it only extended 15 minutes over it. We were fine with that. The guy came out and said he couldn't get past the collapsed part, that they already knew was there, and that until the pipe is replaced, they can't do anything. He then charged us 2 hours and 10 minutes though he was only here for an hour by that point. He said that they always bill the customer for driving time too. No one told us that on the phone when they gave us a quote. Had we been told that, we would have chosen a company who is a little more expensive per hour but doesn't start the clock until they come out to your house. We've now spent almost $500 with them and still don't know anything. He said to replace the pipe, they'd have to bring in excavators (our soil is sandy with no rocks) and that it would be $175 an hour, plus the hour driving to our house, and about $80 for the parts, a little over $600. He said it would likely take 3 hours but that the shop would get back to us with the full cost because he could only give an estimate. At that point, we started calling around again. There's another company who said they will come out, replace the broken section of pipe for $75 to $100, including labor, they don't charge anything to drive out to your house. Then he'll go down with a ball snake rather than a camera to see if there are other collapsed areas of pipe between the septic and the distribution box. He said he was shocked they don't have sections of piping on their truck so that they can immediately repair a crushed section of pipe and then continue the job rather than leave a homeowner hanging. One of their competitors came out yesterday, dug up the crushed section of piping and said they can come out Tuesday, replace the crushed pipe section, and then go through the rest of the piping to see if their are other damaged areas or if our leach field needs replacing. They're not going to have us pay for excavators since we live on sand and it's easy to dig it by hand. This is going to cost us $75 to $100 for the pipe repair and then $75 an hour and they start the clock when they arrive, not when they get into their truck. Given that, Drummac's lost a customer of 20 years.
2 14 years ago (11-03-2012)

We woke up to find waste water flooding into our basement (about 1/2") from a backed up septic system. I called Drummac and they had a truck at our house within two hours to pump out our septic. The guy mistakenly stepped on a few perennials which had been cut for the season, when we asked him not to step there he immediately stepped elsewhere and apologized. The phone service was extremely polite, the operator was courteous, and we would definitley recommend their services to others! They charged us $210 to empty the tank.
5 14 years ago (09-11-2011)