ARS / Rescue Rooter Durham

So far the furnace has been good and nothing has been bad. They were pretty good. They were prompt and showed up when they said they would. Overall they did what they said they would.

I liked everything about them. They were extremely professional. They are punctual. They get back with you when they say they are going to. The reason I didn't use them was because I just decided not to install the bathroom yet. I will do it in the future. They definitely seemed to know what they were doing and talking about. They are a little high, but they are very dependable and very professional. They stand by their work. You don't get that from the lower cost providers sometimes.

The end result was a new heater that has been working great. Only the complaint is that it took so long to fix the problem because they appeared unprepared. 

Update: We ended up getting a energy audit because our house felt cold even-though our heater was working alot. So the audit gentlemen who did a great job, came by and in 1 hour had told us that our intake was way too low for the the installed AC and heating units. He suggested that we contact ARS to see if anything could be done. Meanwhile we had the ARS people come out numerous times to a**** our units and not once did they mention this as a possibility. Additionally when purchasing the furnace from them we had asked not only about compatibility issues with the AC but also if any changes needed to be made to the existing unit. Supposedly all of these companies have to calculate formulas for intake and outflow to fit the square footage upstairs, which in this case they obviously glossed over as they were only installing the heater.  They grudgingly came to our house after our audit only to confirmed that indeed our intake was too low so they gave a verbal agreement to fix this issue.

After we got back from Christmas vacation they left a phone message negating that agreement, because they said that they did not install our AC device, which is true. I had called to speak to the manager in late December to see if we could resolve this situation. I have given them over a month to respond and I still have not received a call.  Instead of trying to work with us, they have ignored us and the verbal commitment they had promised. So the lesson is if you use them, make sure you have a written statement of everything they will perform before they start.

Although I will say that the work they do, is done nicely and they do warranty their work and will repair problems they caused.

What follows is mostly history. I am letting you know, because you asked and to support any other members who may have had similar experiences. I have no proof of some of the statements I have made and don't intend for you to share this with ARS or quote me directly in any public venue. We had several service calls, the first one, I believe, was for a blown circuit breaker. We were still using ARS then. From what I know now, I believe their faulty installation of some of the electrical parts of our system were responsible for the blown breaker and for subsequent problems. We were charged a service call by ARS ($80-$90) because "no parts or labor were required." We had to hire an electrician to take care of the circuit breaker. Among other things: 1. ARS had no record of us having purchaed the warranty and this took about 6 months to rectify--including a letter to the State Attorney General and the Carrier national office. This was annoying and time consuming for us. When we did get the hard copy, there were provisions in the warranty which we were not aware of. (like the service call charge to diagnose the electrical problem) 2. We were encouraged to purchase several add-ons when the service men came for other problems, one being an electronic UV something or other to "clean the air." I realize the following cannot be substantiated by me: After we dumped ARS a service man (formerly employed by ARS) who came to correct problems caused by ARS's work told us that their business policy is to sell customers add-ons. It is such a priority that there is a board in the employee area to keep tabs on how many "extras" each service man has sold. Those who don't sell enough are penalized. 3. We have had several service calls to our new provider, the most recent being the weeks of 1/9 and 1/17/11. Due to electrical problems the system controller needed to be replaced. The other problem was caused by faulty installation of the electronic air cleaner that ARS had installed. ("Added 240 volt 50 VA transformer to UV light which was installed improperly"). 4. A separate issue is the ARS plumbing service. In 12/07 (when we still trusted them), we had a clogged kitchen pipe under the house. Our handyman diagnosed the problem and removed the pipe. A fitting broke while he was removing a pipe and we needed a plumber. We got an estimate from a local plumber and from ARS. We paid $79 for the ARS estimate. ARS had a psychological advantage in hooking us because we had already laid down money for the estimate--our mistake! In the end, we paid more for ARS to do the job (which was not completed until MID-WEEK) than we would have paid for a local plumber to do it on the WEEKEND.

Call center very professional. Dispatched plumber within one hour. Problem solved within 3 hours of first call. Zero problems. 100% results.

I scheduled regular maintenance on our air conditioner. The scheduler told me they'd be there between 8 and 10 a.m and I organized my morning to meet them. At 10:20 they hadn't shown up. I called and a rude, abrupt woman in their scheduling department told me I was scheduled for a service call between 9 am and 1 pm. I told her I had been told 8 to 10 a.m. and she was unapologetic and short with me. I had to go to an appointment and so I canceled the service altogether. I sent them an email on their online complaint form this morning and they have not called me back. It's after 5 pm now.

The faucet works now

We discovered a clogged drain backing up into our basement sink on Saturday morning. We called around 1pm and were told they could send a plumber between 3-5pm and would get a 'heads up' call 20 min ahead of arrival. We called back at 4:30 when we hadn't heard any update yet. Ultimately, we got the 'heads up' call at around 5:30 and a plumber arrived at 6:15. He very carefully assessed our problem, including going into our crawlspace and ensuring that the problem was with a branch and not our main line. In all, it took about 45 minutes for him to resolve the problem (flush out the line), and he was very tidy cleaning up after himself, and very tolerant of letting our small child watch & look at his tools. He was professional and thorough and gave us advice on preventing a recurrence. Overall a good experience; perhaps the cost was a little more than we expected to spend, but the dispatch office kindly alerted us to a coupon available on their web site, which they certainly were under no obligation to point out.

Nothing wrong with the work, price was reasonable, person was friendly and nice. But they keep calling me!!! They call me at least once every six months to tell me about specials they are having, etc. I haved asked them not to call, but they persist. I jsut don't answer the phone when they call anymore.

Called ARS and scheduled an appointment -- was told to wait at the house from 9am to noon. They never showed. Second time this has happened in the last 12 months. Will not be calling again.

We suspected that unnecessary work was being done during the visit last fall, for which we paid some $570 (in addition to the $240 for the yearly service agreement). When the serviceman came for the spring checkup in April, he replaced a capacitor which he said was bad. The charge was $231 (in addition, of course, to what we paid for our service agreement). I found that the part in question cost between thirty and forty dollars, and I called the local office to see if I could find out what part of the charge to us was for labor and what part for the parts. The service manager, Jesse, refused to answer that question. Luckily I kept the capacitor that had been replaced. I made an arrangement this fall for another outfit to take over the service of our heating and cooling units, and I asked the owner of that company to test the capacitor that had been replaced. His test showed that it was well within the range of usefulness. There was no need for it to be replaced. We had had a contract with ARS for years. These things just recently began to happen.

ARS was able to send someone to look at the leaking toilet on the same day that I called them. After the plumber fixed the obvious leak, he discovered another leak that he had not previously detected. This second leak could only be fixed by replacing the toilet. He talked to his boss who agreed that I would not be charged for the initial repair but only for the toilet replacement The plumber did not have a toilet on his truck so had to go to the plumbinig supply store to purchase one. While he was en route to the plumbing supply place, he realized he hadn't measured the toilet so was unsure of the size. He attempted to call me to get me to measure but called me at my work number...I was obviously at home. (ARS had my home number, not sure why he didn't or why he couldn't have called ARS to obtain.) When he returned he realized that he had purchased the wrong size toilet. By that time the plumbiing supply place was closed for the day so he could not exchange the toilet until the next day. He was very apologetic about his mistake. By that time I had been at home, using vacation, for almost 5 hours. He returned the next day at the specified time and installed the proper size toilet. I was away from work for slightly over 2 hrs on the second day. While I was pleased with the quality of the work that was done, it would have been less costly in terms of my time away from work if he had been more thorough in the details.

See above.

I bought a new furnace from them. My old furnace was ten years old and the technician who came out to do my contract maintenance found repairs that totalled around $1200. I was somehat dubious - my furnace was not that old - but decided to buy a new furnace rather than sink that amount of money into the old one. The salesman only gave me one option as to what to buy. He was not helpful in that respect. I did not have time to shop around and so went with what he offered me. The installation itself went fine. My biggest gripe (aside from a lingering suspicion about the whole incident that something wasn't right) comes from the lack of professionalism by the salesman. He promised me the $1500 tax credit paperwork, for buying an energy-efficient furnace. After three phone calls, and a month later, I still don't have it. Why should I have to call them and beg them for what they are supposed to send me? Their technicians who come out to do the routine maintenance are very pleasant and until just recently, have never recommended a lot of expensive work. Since I am under their service contract and they do a good job with that, I would use them for that again. As far as buying any more HVAC equipment from them? Probably not.

We had our semi-annual maintenance check on a very old system. The ARS technician made some minor adjustments and said we could get by for a while, but that there were parts that were ready to fail. He carefully pointed them out and the problem was unambiguous - parts were ready to rust through. So, we decided to take advantage of the energy start tax credit and replace the system. We had a project manager, Ken Foreman, come out and we worked with us to get a good, but not high-end system, including an excellent warranty, discounts for having been on a regular customer, and a senior citizen discount as well as pointing out a Duke Energy credit available to us. They came when they said they would, took about 5 hours, and the entire team - Francisco, Antonio, Brian and other names I could not catch were extremely courteous and careful (including putting on booties every time they came into the house). The system is working well thus far.

They were good. They were on time and delivered everything on budget. They encountered some technical difficulties, but it didn?t really set them back anymore and they didn?t ask for more money. I was very satisfied with their service.

Jacob explained each problem as he found it and gave me options for fixing. He was courteous, thorough and very professional. If he is an example of all of ARS employees, then its a can't fail company.

Excellent work from the plumber - excellent followup by the company to assure customer is happy!!

They were incredible. They were very professional. When I called them they were very positive and conscientious. They scheduled the appointment and they came on time. They gave me outrageously good customer service. They were prompt and punctual. The price was good. When I asked questions to the guy he educated me like how to save the money, how to run the fan in summer and winter, etc. They were very good. They offered me three plans for air conditioning maintenance and explained it to me. They were very patient and trustworthy. My air conditioning is working great now. I recommend them to everybody.

I contacted ARS on 7/28 requesting an appointment time for an estimate on a full system replacement for our home (AC unit burned out). I was contacted via email by Arianna Hernandez offering several time slots on the dates I had provided to her. We confirmed an appointment for 11 am on 8/4. She followed up with a phone call shortly after to confirm the appointment and address. On 8/4 at 11:30 I called ARS to find out the status of the appointment as no one showed up nor had I received any phone calls. The lady who answered the phone said that I needed to speak with Arianna and she transferred me. When the phone was answered I explained I was holding for Arianna, and was told that she was out till 12:30. I explained that I was holding to check on the status of an appointment, and was again told that Arianna was out till 12:30. I explained that her being out didn't really solve my inquiry about the status of my 11 am appointment, and the lady said nothing. I asked if there was any way it could be checked and she very haughtily told me she was on the computer checking the appointment. She asked if I had the appointment made through another retailer, I explained I had dealt with Arianna directly. She asked the address, last name, then told me "I don't see nothin on here for that". She never offered to reschedule, to try and resolve it, or have Adrianna call me back. No apology - nothing in the way of customer service. If they are so very good at what they do, then some level of customer service training for their staff would be expected, and if they aren't training/hiring quality office staff, that doesn't lead one to trust their technical staff quality either. Read the reviews here and be very cautious with this business.

The overall process was terrible. ARS started well, calling us at home in another state to give us a verbal estimate, to describe the work needed, and to get our verbal authorization for an AC installation for our renter. We had found them through Home Depot Home Services, where we had previously had good experiences. And good news - they could schedule the installation for the next day so our renter had relief from the NC heat. They came as scheduled and were tidy coming in and out of the house. However, that was the end of the good news. Receiving the paperwork was a hassle because they FedExed it to our home but put a work number on the packaging slip, so FedEx could not connect with us. The paperwork was a wreck: the site inspection checklist and "scope of work" (the agreement of what the contractor will do) was blank, I was asked to initial having received policies that were not sent, and there was no information about returning the paperwork, much less a FedEx slip or business reply envelope. When I called to correct these things, the ARS office was disorganized and unprofessional, with the exception of Ariana Hernandez, a customer care specialist. I emailed Ariana repeatedly and she was generally great. Unfortunately the mistakes and problems kept coming. An city inspection failed because the electrician had not labeled the breaker box during the inspection. A tech arrived to install the grill, but there was no appointment scheduled and ARS was never able to figure out which technician it was. The grill was on back order, but ARS wouldn?t return phone messages from our renter. Everything was finally installed and was supposed to be financed with a Home Depot 12-months same as cash, as noted on the paperwork. However, my recent statement says 6 months. So I have another ARS hassle to fix. Overall, a terrible experience. I would not use them again, ever.

He is a class act. When you tell him that you are ready, he gets in and gets it done. He does it right and doesn?t quit until it?s done just right. He charges a fair price.

On 5/27 the a/c unit on the first floor stopped working. I called ARS in the early afternoon and requested some one come out and fix it. I was told that no one could come out until Sunday 5/31. On 5/29 I recieved a telephone call saying that I would have to pay $160 for the Sunday "emergency" call out or I could reschedule for the following Monday. I called another company and they came out on Friday and fixed the problem. They mentioned that I should get a maintenace agreement because it was obvious that no one had cleaned the air blowers outsdie the house in a long time. They were right although we had had a maintenace agreement with one company for ten years and switched to ARS. The ARS technician did not clean the fan units outside the house, either. Although I paid ARS for a one-year maintenance contract, I have decided to purchase another maintenance contract with the company that responded to me when we needed help with the AC unit!

I used their services in June last year. They came quickly after I called and it didn't take them long to fix the problem. They suggested what I should do if the problem occurred again. Their price seemed reasonable to me.

They showed up on time, diagnosed the problem, called to provide estimate and verify approval to make the repair. They then performed the repair, cleaned up and left. Overall, it went very well, it was just very expensive.