Millennium Plumbing & Drain Cleaning Svc

Here’s what happened, I’ll let you decide if these guys are all right or not.
I had an issue with my kitchen sink draining. I would run the disposal (the motor was working), water would go down the drain, when I’d turn it off, most of the water would shoot back up. Now, I’m not a plumber, so I tried a plunger, didn’t work, did some looking online, and decided to call these guys. They get good reviews on Google.
After some wrangling with the dispatcher, I managed to get him to send someone that day. That’s pretty good, that’s part of why they get 2 stars. There is a $ 45 call charge that will get waived if you have them do some work. They told me that up front. It’s pretty standard practice, like it or not.
The plumber came, looked at it, went to his truck, and came back with two options: $ 187 to «remove and clean the trap», $ 315 to «snake the line». These prices seemed high to me, but as all plumbers do, they’ve got you $ 45 in and you need the sink. So I said ok. Literally 5 minutes later, the trap is off and was not the problem.
So, out come the snakes and the snake machine. He runs it, draws it back out, re-​connects everything. Runs the water. Not fixed. Same exact symptoms. So, the snake goes back in, and this time — here comes the MAIN REASON they get TWO STARS — he decides to run water directly into the line to save himself the trouble of connecting everything back up. It’s clear. Connects the trap back to the disposal. NOT CLEAR. Same symptoms.
IF HE HAD DONE THIS 5 MINUTE DIAGNOSTIC AFTER REMOVING THE TRAP AND BEFORE RUNNING THE SNAKE, HE WOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO BOTHER WITH THE SNAKE AND SAVED ME SOME MONEY AND BOTH OF US AN HOUR OR SO.
He tells me that the disposal needs to be replaced, comes back with $ 450 to install the same type of disposal or nearly $ 700 to install a better one. No option to FIX THIS ONE. The motor is still working. I didn’t even bother to ask. In the time it took for him to write the quote, I had done enough research to decide to buy a very nice disposal for $ 175 and take an hour to do it myself. Lesson learned. $ 315 poorer and the drain still not clear.
That night I twiddled the jam buster and pulsed the disposal a few times, same the following day after ordering a new disposal from Amazon. By midday everything was draining fine. THE OLD DISPOSAL IS STILL IN THERE AND WORKING, thank you very much.
I realize that some people will think/​say «maybe there was a restriction in the line that he fixed and for some weird reason the disposal was also clogged but that got better as a result of him snaking the line». I’d say there is some miniscule chance that is true. It is true, I’m not a plumber, but after observing, it seems pretty obvious that if your goal was fixing problems efficiently, (1) you would try to rule out a jam in the disposal by testing the line for drainage AFTER CHECKING THE TRAP and (2) you would see if you could remove a jam/​clog from the disposal BEFORE RECOMMENDING REPLACEMENT.
I give them 2 stars because the fit me in late in the day on a Friday and because the plumber was nice enough while he was there.