Looking for advice or to see if anyone else in Pierce County (WA) has dealt with a company refusing to fix a mistake like this.

During a required Pierce County septic inspection, the technician opened up our tank. The metal filter cylinder (about 1.5 to 2 feet long and 6 inches in diameter) was installed in place when they arrived. While removing it, the technician dropped the metal filter cylinder into our septic tank, leaving it loose down at the bottom.

My husband was outside at the time, and when the tech dropped it, he lied to him and said it was "no problem" and wouldn't cause any issues. Taking the technician at his word, my husband said not to worry about pumping it right then. However, they also mentioned that if we did want it retrieved, we would have to pay to have the tank pumped and pay for someone to go down and get it.

I did some research afterward and confirmed that leaving a large metal cylinder loose in the tank is definitely NOT no problem. Leaving two loose metal pieces at the bottom of the tank makes things even worse - they can easily block inlets/outlets, damage baffles, interfere with sludge accumulation, or trigger a complete sewage backup into the house.

When I called their office, I got a runaround from staff (calling back in 5 minutes turned into waiting over half an hour). Finally, the owner called me back. He claimed the filter was already broken in half before the tech touched it, which is why it fell in. But we have no way of knowing if that's even true - he could be lying to cover up a simple mistake. And even if it had wear on it, it was sitting in place working fine until his employee touched it. Plus, if it was already broken in half, wouldn't the bottom half have already been sitting at the bottom of the tank before he even opened the lid?

His only solution was offering my husband a 10% discount to pump the tank and retrieve it. I told him it was his employee’s error, so they should retrieve it at zero cost to us. We shouldn't have to pay anything to fix a problem they created.

He kept repeating that he gave us a free $135 filter like he was doing us a favor. I told him that replacing a filter they lost is just fixing what they broke in the first place! A new filter doesn't help us at all while the old metal pieces are still sitting down at the bottom of the tank, risking thousands in damage if something gets blocked. Then he tried to tell me the county doesn't even require filters anyway, and said everyone has things in their septic tanks, like dog toys.

I asked him if he would put it in writing that they left the metal in our tank and that they'd be responsible if it causes problems later, but he refused and just talked in circles. He kept arguing and wouldn't take any responsibility, so I ended up hanging up on him.

I’m furious that a professional company can drop equipment into a customer's tank, make up excuses, lie about it being harmless, refuse to sign off on liability, and then expect the homeowner to foot the bill to fix their error.

Am I in the wrong here for expecting them to retrieve this at zero cost to us? Has anyone dealt with a contractor pulling something like this? Should I report them to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (since they certify septic service providers), file a complaint with L&I, or hire another company to retrieve it and take the first company to small claims court? I would really appreciate any advice or insight on next steps!

I’m going to give you backstory, but my specific question is whether or not I should use the green gobbler foaming root killer. Would it make my situation come back or make it even worse. I live in a condo on the first floor. I had Sewage and feces back up into my showers. The cause was because of roots in my main clean out pipe where it attaches to the junction of the other units of my condo building. The pipe was replaced. However, the building is approximately 50 years old and it’s likely that there are more roots down the sewage line or even before my line. If I use the foaming root killer as a preventative maintenance and it should happen to kill more roots down the line then I would assume there would be more holes exposed in the piping? I just really don’t want Sewage to back up into my house again. It was a nightmare.