SALEM, Ore. (KOIN) — A local plumbing company’s website was disabled just one day after a KOIN 6 News report revealed four former employees were accusing the business owner of deceiving customers.
The men who previously worked for Rooter Rite Plumbing & Drain Cleaning Services say they have evidence the company’s owner, Mike Lima, purposely asked them to break pipes on clients’ property.
“When you’re having to scam people out of thousands of dollars they worked hard for, it’s a bad situation, truly.”
“I just have to get it off my chest,” former Rooter Rite employee Mike Zepeda said. “When you’re having to scam people out of thousands of dollars they worked hard for, it’s a bad situation, truly.”
Since Zepeda and his colleagues came forward with the accusations, the company’s website has gone offline. A message on the page reads “service temporarily unavailable.”
KOIN 6 News previously confronted Chloe about text message conversations between her husband and his employees. In the texts, Lima reportedly tells his workers to “break the lines” and “cover it up” if anyone walked by.
Chloe claims her husband was simply looking out for the well-being of his clients who may have been alarmed by “flying debris” and “raw sewage”.
But Zepeda and the three other men who used to work for Lima remember it differently.
“He asked me, ‘is anyone there?’ I told him, ‘no.’ Alright, ‘break that sewer line,’” Daniel Schroeder said. “I broke it and I call him back and he tells me to grab all the roots around the sewer line so it looks like it’s the roots that broke it.”
Robert Elliott says Rooter Rite employees were often asked to do things they weren’t comfortable with like breaking pipes, exaggerating the amount of damages to homeowners, and increasing jobs with small repairs to large ones.
Zepeda recently went back to a home he once worked at in West Salem where he apologized to the homeowner. He confronted another client who had to pay nearly $8,000 for work on his sewer line.
“I was told to break it in pieces, and if he comes out, cover up and act like I’m still digging,” Zepeda explained to him after the fact.
The Oregon Contractor’s Construction Board is investigating 2 of the cases. Former Rooter Rite employees say they’re willing to talk to CCB investigators.
Their advice for customers? Get a second opinion, get a recommendation from a friend and check for complaints against contractors.
To avoid problems like this, you can check a contractor’s history in Oregon and Washington. You can check for complaints against companies with Oregon’s Attorney General.
Lima and his wife, Chloe, have not responded to recent requests for an interview.