ARS / Rescue Rooter Boston

Last August, I superintended for my son, who was at work, at his house, when ARS came to deal with the failure of the central A/C system. This repair went smoothly, but not cheaply (cannot remember the specific cost). In January, I first checked on Angie's List, and then asked my son if he would use ARS again. He had experience with them, at his prior home, and said he would - but not in glowing terms. Anyhow, I called ARS to discuss maintenance for my gas forced hot air heat, gas hot water and central A/C system. My condo dates from August 2013, with no maintenance yet. We agreed that I would call in April, and we would do the whole thing at the same time. On Feb 2, the heat stopped working properly. With the thermostat set at 68, the place was 63. The furnace seldom went on, and when it did, it only stayed on for a couple of minutes. I called ARS for service, after trying all the obvious things, some of which were suggested to me over the phone by ARS. The charge for the service call was $135. The serviceman was the same as for my son, a nice fellow whose name I recall as David. He seems quite competent. He concluded the problem was the "pressure switch". Unfortunately, this part is not as common a one to fail as some others, and he did not have one in his truck. (His truck displays only the Lennox brand, and I have a Lennox furnace.) He scheduled a return visit for the afternoon to install the replacement part. The unit is under warranty, so the part was "free", but I had to pay for labor. (I suspect that, had the part been on the truck, the labor charge would have been less.) Total damage $217. Conclusions: The repair was performed well, but the work was not inexpensive. The necessary part was not on the truck, which resulted in delay (fortunately, my wife was able to handle the re-visit), and perhaps additional expense. I may use ARS again, but I'm going to look around first.

The gentleman who turned up was on time and called ahead, which was good. He diagnosed the issue and initially said I ought to replace the furnace for somewhere between $3-6,000. I said that was not an option and he then presented me with a proposal for just over $1700 to clean the system and replace the valve and thermocouple, although he couldn't guarantee that would work. I declined this option as I have worked in an HVAC business previously and could see that the parts were being massively inflated: the valve was charged at $745, whereas the cost of these items is in the $100-200 range, the thermocouple was $125 but this is a $10-20 item. Even allowing for labor, these prices are extremely high. So what happened with the repair? I called HomeServe (who in full disclosure I have worked for before and so I am not reviewing in accordance with Angie's List rules) and purchased an instant cover service agreement for $359. They came out and cleaned/repaired the unit and I now have a service agreement covering other repairs for the remainder of the year. The technician said that the unit didn't need replacing at all. My two complaints with ARS are that they tried to sell me a new unit when I didn't need one and proposed extremely high prices for a repair, four times what I actually paid.

Things went okay. There was definitely an additional cost of $300 or $400 to the $99 Big Deal. For the actual repair, I would go with an A, but I was not happy with the sloppiness of the technician. He was right on-time. The technician seemed moderately experienced. In my opinion, there were some things he did that were sloppy like then he left some of the equipment on site. As he was leaving, he run over my hose and destroyed the end of my hose. He did some soldering on some pipes, but he did that on top of my burner on my furnace so now, there are scorch marks on my furnace.

It was good. I would use them in the future.

From the moment he walked in, David, a 30 veteran of the company, impressed me with his knowledge, patience, and service. He took the time to explain in detail why my 29 year old system needed to be replaced immediately rather than just tuned-up. He showed me pictures of the system to illustrate his point. I felt comfortable having ARS do the replacement work because of his extra efforts and his honesty. He even took pictures and forwarded them to the service manager so that everything would run seamlessly when they install the entire system tomorrow. The price was right and the timing of the replacement could not have worked any better for us.

ARS fully inspected the heating system. Recommended work and helped me prioritize the urgency of needed repairs. Provided immediate written estimate. Didn't feel pressured to have work performed. I did end up having all recommended repairs completed by ARS. There was a minor issue with one repair, but ARS was always responsive and stood behind their work. While it is never fun to have to repeatedly deal with something you thought was fixed, ARS made it as painless as it could be.

It was a furnace cleaning service, the technician was professional, courteous and on time

While they were there they gave me a quote on a new water feeder for $444 and I scheduled an appointment for today and when they told me instead of $444 it would be $1200. I checked the price online and the water feeder is only $200 so they are charging me $1000 for two hours of labor. They also argued with me and told me they couldn't install a new water feeder without upgrading and installing a whole new system. They assumed I am stupid and willing to pay for all of that simply because I have an accent. I purchased the water feeder myself and hired another company to come install it.

I had a problem with them. The sales guy was named Duke. First, it was going to cost $500. I said, I'm just renting. I don't think I can afford that. He said, well, how about $400. It just didn't make sense to me. It was for my heating and air conditioning system. So, I called them up and they refunded me $200. The woman I talked to was lovely. I explained everything to her and she talked to her manager and they sent me $200. I had used them 2 other times before this. The same gentleman came out both times. Instead of trying to scam me he said, I can't tell you if it's going to fail. It might last you another 10 years, it could break tonight. I think when they see other people they bring in the fear, Oh you might be without heat. I think that if I ever use them again, I would ask for the same gentleman. I would not accept anyone else. My husbands friend came over and when he found out they charged me over $200 for a part he said it should not cost more than $10.

It went well. He came to the house and serviced the gas furnaces. He also gave me some tips as a new home owner.

2nd year in a row we've used them and will probably do it again.

The tune up went well. I went with his suggestion to have him clean the coils for an additional $206.00. Dave was very professional, knowledgeable and helpful. He actually explained things to me, which I really appreciated. I spent a lot more than I had planned on, but I feel much better having had this done.

The technician arrived within the time window they gave and did a great job inspecting the boiler and explaining items and pointing out areas that may need additional service in the future. He checked the gas pressure and recommended a brush and vac that would need to be scheduled for another day for an additional $249. A bit disappointed that this isn't included in the original service since it seems like a tuneup would be routinely include cleaning (especially since natural gas that is relatively clean to begin with). I should have asked what the $99 included. Overall positive experience, though.

This is the 2nd year I have used ARS... I love them!

Arrived on time and did all the electrical work listed above.

Gave me the confidence that the AC unit of new house was working well. Explained that previous owner had too many filters, which would cause unit to work harder. 1 filter is enough.

They failed to show up within specified time window for first appointment, so they get a slight ding for that. To their credit, they did call near the end of the window and asked if provider could come late. That didn't work for me, so they rescheduled, and they came on time on the rescheduled date. The tech who came was knowledgeable and competent and did the job.

Was very impressed of the professionalism and service received! Started off on a bad foot after being 2 hours late for a 3 hour appointment window, but everything got much better from there. Had initially called for a service of my existing boiler for banging and popping noise it was making when turning on. After a quick review and some disassemble of my existing system, I was made aware that it was never done correctly (purchased this house 1 month prior and never used the system before). I was given options on fixing the current issue with some pricing, but I could tell it was not the best idea based on my conversation with the ARS PM. That night I had three quotes for three different options to replace the system, as well as repair. We decided to replace the system as we have already gone 5 nights with no heat, and wanted something that we would have some comfort with. Made a call the next morning and ARS was at my house 3 hours later. They finished up the work by 6pm that night and we had heat! ARS had to come back a week later to make some adjustments and remove the existing boiler from my house (thing was big). Again, very professional. Although they were a little more expensive than another quote received, you get your moneys worth which is why I went with them as quickly as I did.

Very well. The office personnel setting up the appointment were great. The service provider was on time, knowledgeable, professional and willing to answer questions and show what was being done. More important the provider told me what I needed to hear not what I wanted to hear and was able to provide information on moving forward should I chose. I would use the company in the future.

The technician was on time and friendly. He was very informed about his profession, and provided a clear breakdown of the status of my furnace with suggestions on how I could prolong its life. My furnace is near the end's of its life (based on construction date), but he assessed the unit and provided a no nonsense appraisal as to how long it had left without trying to hard sell me on replacing it.

Information was explained in a helpful way - lots of detail. Helpful in giving me ideas about on-going maintenance.

They were very thorough. They did quality work in a timely manner. I felt they had my safety in mind.

I've used ARS for a number of years to service my gas furnace. It's easy to set up a convenient appointment, the engineers always arrive on time and are very professional; this recent appointment was no different. The engineer took the time to investigate a minor on-going issue which thankfully I believe he resolved. As with previous visits, the engineer took time to explain what he had done.

Rob was professional, punctual, and knowledgeable. Because we are Angie's List members, there was a discount on the annual tune-up fee. Also, Rob was able to easily diagnose and fix a humidifier problem we were having at a reasonable price. We were unhappy with our previous HVAC provider. This is the first time we have used ARS. We are very happy with the service that ARS provided and will continue to use ARS in the future.

Cleaned and replaced needed parts and did not charge me more than the $99