Drummac Septic Service

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. Usually, it overflows and puts about 3 gallons of water into a bucket we put there the first time it happened a couple weeks ago. We’d just had the tank pumped last year and all was fine, so we called them back out to pump the tank and then discussed 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.