The kitchen drain was clogged last night. The plumber came today and I heard him say oh no and he said the snake broke off inside the pipe. He said he would have to go back to his office and get more equipment and come back. I am now wondering if I am paying for their lunch hours. He was gone quite a while and when he came back he had another man with him and they went in the crawl space under the house and he said he would have to cut a length of pipe out and fix it. In the end I guess he fixed it because the sink is draining but I never did see the piece of pipe that he said he cut out. I think he said the bill was going to be around Eight hundred dollars. I thought I would faint. I'm not sure why I am paying for his broken equipment or the extra time that it had to take to to cut the pipes apart in the basement To get his snake back. Is this normal? Is this really my responsibility to pay for this? If this is normal then I owe them. If it isn't I don't know how to dispute it. He said garbage disposals should only be used for the last dregs of food after plates are scraped into trash. We have an insinkerator. I do not put grease bones corn husks pineapple or avacado skins, etc down. .. Thanks

I've broke a few wires down the drain. I always eat that part of the job unless the drain is collapsed then the customer has to pay.

If a cable has kinked badly before and the plumber keeps using it, it will eventually break at the kink. This MIGHT have happened in your case.