ARS / Rescue Rooter Laurel

This was outstanding service! Prompt, professional and cheap! Evenif I had topay full price it would have been a good deal! Wish I would have called them first!

The three different workers that came out were really good. They came out when they said they would. They were very clean, very professional, and did a good job. They made sure that everything stayed clean. I guess the salespeople weren't very knowledgeable. They quoted me and then wound up calling me back telling me that it would cost more. Overall, they were good at giving the quote, getting out here, and getting things done. I will be using them again because they have to do the maintenance on it.

The tech team of two men seemed reasonably competent, and I guess a case can be made that the extra work was needed, although I am an eensy bit skeptical about the need to replace the capacitor and to add a surge suppressor. The real issue is that the costs were high. My notes in the preceding section tell what I paid. Although everything was high when compared to the wholesale cost for parts and the amount of labor required, the capacitor seemed to be the most egregious: $313 for the 15-minute installation of the $35 part. I wondered what would a competing company have charged? I phoned Home Air Services in Rockville, the company that provided me with service last year to get a sense of what they would have charged (I did not tell them what I paid). Here's what they told me on the phone: Freon R-22 Home Air statement: $44 per pound, 15 minutes @ $40/qtr hr labor rate: total $66 plus $40 = $106 ARS actual charge: $147 Capacitor Home Air statement: approx $60 parts cost, 15 min labor: total $60 plus $40 = $100 ARS actual charge: $313 Surge protector Home Air statement: proposed "hard start kit" $40-50 parts cost, 15 min labor: total $50 plus $40 = $90 ARS actual charge: $194 I had email exchanges with the ARS manager in Laurel, Mark Cheben. He was perfectly civil in his responses. I did not flatly demand a partial refund--I had hoped that the evidence of overcharging would prompt him to offer this. Instead, Mr. Cheben offered a generalized remark about the cost of doing business: " . . . we are in a service business and although the cost of certain items may be found on the internet, consumers can not replace the knowledge and technical skills necessary to determine which items to purchase and how to install them . . . " He also wrote, "The market pricing by licensed HVAC contractors for R-22 Freon is $99 per pound," which is contradicted by the report I received from his competitor. In a second email, he responded to my summary of the what the competitor said they would have charged: " . . . it sounds like they did not work out of a flat rate book like we do."

I had a break in two areas and they had to dug up and replace the line. One was a little more complicated. They had to demolish the concrete porch and put in a main sewer cleanout line at that point. They also put in a clean out line several feet down with the meter that connects to the outside service. I chose them because I liked their approach to the job as opposed to some of the other companies that I called. They were prompt and studied the work. The yard was torn up but that was expected. They explained all aspects of the job before they started. It basically was a pretty good experience and I was pleased with it.

Chris day the maintenance person was on time and very thorough. Bill Davis spent 4 hours that afternoon installing new unit.

Stay away from ARS. They keep parts & Our transaction was suspicious: so I'm Leaving this comment after 8 months ARS still not responding to our calls, or attorney general's calls etc. We are pursuing this in small claims. The repair technician was efficient, timely, seemed knowledgable. Yet after 2nd diagnosis & new part installed & buying top of line thermostat. he kept our part although we requested he leave it, and according to him "It is company policy to keep all parts even if problem is misdiagnosed." The furnace was still broken and he wanted another $575 (marked down from $650). We took it apart, discovered 2 +2" aged construction debree pieces wedged inside the furnace (a metal piece and hard old putty). Unknown how/who put them there, as we were recent buyers of the house trying to start furnace first time, but no way debree fell in. Given that it was a wierd problem so difficult to diagnose, but at the least ARS should not keep our working part. Furnace worked excellently.

We noticed a wet spot on the carpet beneath the 2nd floor bathroom. We had ARS come out and they conducted a short investigation of the problem. They cut a hole in the drywall on the ceiling to check out the pipes and said they did not see a leak there. He initially said that he thought it might be a caulking issue, and I redid the caulking, but the issue kept occurring. He also checked the toilet to see if the leak was coming from there and mentioned something about the moving parts inside being very old, which sounded to me to be an upsell on the service I was getting from them. They left without finding the problem or giving me any definitive answer and also with the hole still in the ceiling.

A plumber from ARS came out and it was a Saturday when he came out. He told us that we had to replace the water heater and it would be $1700. He also told us that it wasn’t covered under warranty. However, it turned out that it was covered under warranty. By that time, we were busy. Then we went back to them and told them that it was covered under warranty. So, they asked us to submit some paperwork to them. It was 2 or 3 days later and the water was oozing out. So, we couldn’t wait for days and we then went to another store to buy the water heater. They serve all of Northern Virginia and we have used them for many years. They were the ones who had installed our water heater 9 years ago. If something goes wrong with the heating and cooling unit, they will say they will repair it at no cost. However, we were not very happy with the water heater episode. They also didn’t make a repair that they needed to do. It took them several visits to make a repair on our outdoor heat pump unit. They finally recognized that something was wrong with it and they did fix it. We were not happy with them and so, we are not renewing our contract with them. The plumber should have come and said that he wasn’t sure, but there was a possibility. We showed him the warranty information and also talked with the dispatcher. We told him that it might be under warranty and asked him about the steps to be taken, but he didn’t want to discuss it. It was a 56 gallon water heater. Then we read the warranty that night and looked it over. We had a 10-year warranty on it. We also found the original invoice from 9 years ago. So, we called them that Monday to say that it was under warranty. We are probably not going to use them again. The plumber should have known what to do. What we have been noticing lately with ARS heating and air conditioning servicemen as well as their plumbers is that they are becoming more like salesmen than they are repair guys. It seems like they are being pressured when they come into a home and so, they try to make a sale. We felt that pressure a lot. The servicemen who come in to do a service on the heating and cooling work will rush through the work. Then they will come and try to make a sale. I feel like we are not hiring them to make a sale, but we are paying them to keep things working well. The plumber and the dispatcher were not willing to even talk to us about the warranty even though it was installed by ARS. We would have stayed with them if they helped us out when we needed the repair done. They just wanted to make a sale. They gave us a very expensive quote. The plumber was down there for like 4 minutes and came back to tell us that the water heater had to be replaced. He then gave us a quote and he said that he could schedule us for Monday.

All the people who show up in my home have been well-trained and professional, and also personable. When my new AC system had a hard-to-find slow leak, they returned promptly, several times, until the problem was resolved, and seemed very concerned and committed to solving the problem. Recent plumbing work was done quickly. The prices were reasonable and in line with the amount of time spent.

They were fine and do a god job. I recommended them for work. I will use them in future.

The job was very messy but they cleaned up well and did a great job. They put the new pipe in and were responsive to my requests to pack concrete around the new seams to prevent re-intrusion of the roots on the new pipe. They pulled out a massive root ball in the pipe. The new flange was carefully placed and new concrete poured. The shower valve work was challenging due to limited space in the access panel but they again did an exceptional job and the new valves look great. I would hire them again for this type of work in a heartbeat.

They came late. My husband is not happy with the welding job that they did. They dirtied the carpet with mud. They left the sink and mirror in bathroom filthy. My husband called ARS and a manager was supposed to call but did not. I had to clean the carpeting, sink & mirror. It took me several hours to clean up their mess. IMy husband and I work and don't have time to clean up messes that service companies make. We are unhappy with ARS. There is no excuse for the filth they left at our house.

Rescue rooter is overpriced. In fact the plumber told me it was overpriced and recommended that I buy the same garbage disposal at Home Depot and give him a call and he'd install for $250. I went to Home Depot bought the same disposal that he offered to $350 dollars for $159 and installed it myself.

This past spring we purchased a house that for the past ten years appears to have had ARS perform HVAC service. This past Christmas I put in an emergency call to ARS due to the furnace quit working... ARS never showed.... Still, since ARS had done all the work/maintenance on the house, again reached out to the company to have preventive work performed as well as get a service contract. Again, ARS never showed due to the tech had car. I waited a few weeks - even received their flyer in the mail - I again scheduled an appointment for 5 February. First, the appt. was to be 0800-1200. ARS called and rescheduled the appointment to 0900-1300. Well - no one showed. No telephone call, nada. Only after leaving a message on 24-hr line did I get a call back. I was already out of the house doing errands instead of wasting time waiting for someone to show up. Ten plus hours of my life that I cannot get back. I guess ARS is doing well in the current economy - so well that new customers are not needed.

The very worst contractor experience we have had in over twenty years! They originally sent out a heating expert, not a plumber for starters so he was unable to perform any work. They then sent out a plumbing "expert" who proceeded to "fix" just one item on the list - the leaky toilet upstairs. Not only did he leave the bathroom a disgusting mess, when we woke up the next morning, our kitchen counter below was flooded with toilet water from above. When a second plumber from the same company came out to fix the mess, he insisted his company had not worked on the toilet in the first place and then proceeded to get into a protracted argument with our housekeeper on that issue and a variety of others. In addition, the first plumber had quoted us a price of $500 to replace the radiator (which actually seemed low), said it would cost $500 to snake the two drains (which seemed high) and $600 and $400 to replace the faucets (which seemed high). The second plumber agreed to snake the two drains for $250 total and a few hours later the first plumber called to say he had misquoted the price on the radiator - it was going to be $700, a price that conveniently all but erased the "deal" we got on the snaking of the drains. At this point, we decided to stop fishing and cut bait. On the recommendation of a neighbor we called Fred at Brown's Plumbing in Frederick. He arrived on time, was courteous and addressed all of our issues. He fixed rather than replaced both of our faucets for a FRACTION of the 1k price quoted by ARS.

We were quoted a very high amount of money for the service and told that it would take up to two weeks to get all the parts necessary. We decided to go with another company (SSI) and our AC was restored within a day for a fraction of the price that ARS quoted to us. We will never use ARS again (even though we have already paid for service for the remainder of the year--I would rather pay another co. than go back to ARS!)

It went awful and I never use ARS again!

Was given a window of 8am - 4pm. Waited through the entire appointment time at home and no one showed up. Called on Monday morning and was told that we were never entered into the computer. Did not apologize or offer to correct the situation. Later discussed this and other issues with a manager and was offered much better service through the manager, but getting to this point was very difficult since the people answering the phone told me that they do not send phone calls through to management.

We had a problem trying to get someone "employee" from this company to do the job. Finally Mike read this correctly and sent the right man.

They were very professional and worked with us to maximize efficiency of the system within our space constraints. they came the next week and completed work in one day in very professional manner. and they offered a no-interest finance plan that was very easy to set up.

I think I paid the regular service call price; they came out more than once but they didn?t charge us every time they came. They finally figured out what was wrong, and the people they sent out were professional and helpful. They are reliable and they make me feel like I?m getting my money?s worth.

They have a number of branches. Their price was $3000 cheaper than others. We got a 20% lesser price on full sewer line repair with excavation. They excavated very carefully not to damage landscaping. They kept me informed of each step of work they did along the way. There were some things that happened during the excavation that they could not avoid, and they were pretty conscientious. Once they got down to the sewer line they kept us with sewer and water every night, which sometimes does not happen. They were conscientious with small kids. When they did the repair they pulled out the permits and all the licenses that were required and worked with the DC government really very well. They made sure that the repair that they did was done with the right speck as there was a good grade going through. You need a certain degree of drop from the house to main sewer so that it worked properly. They even repaired a piece that was underneath the pipe that was also in the wrong angle. They went above and beyond in finding and correcting everything with no extra cost. They supported the line appropriately. They back filled so that when it collapse there is no problem. They refilled the whole empty lines well. There were big pieces of rock and concrete that involves the filling. They put them on the side for disposal. They were excellent. They are the best of plumbers I have seen. I will recommend them to everybody.

The company was recommended by our home warranty company. I made the service request and never heard from them. My warranty company contacted them to confirm and eventually they called me to schedule the appointment. However, they never appeared. Despite ARS/Rescue Router calling me the day before to confirm, they had no record of my service request when I called to inquire about the missed appointment. They are large and disorganized. Apparently too large for my little leak.

They provide fantastic service, from the salesman all the way down to the financing and actual services performed. They have great cleanliness and attention to detail. They are wonderful about follow-up calls as well. They are extraordinarily professional.

Company tried over a period of three weeks to find out what was wrong with my three year old boiler. It seems that pressure was building up inside the unit, causing it to explode air out the vent pipe and making a tremendously loud noise. The company sent out a succession of mechanics over a period of three weeks to determine the cause of the explosions. Each one found something different or nothing at all to fix. This was very frustrating since the boiler continued to explode. Eventually they sent out their most experienced mechanics, who determined that the boiler was defective and could not be repaired since the only remaining components to test were in a sealed unit. They ordered a new boiler and installed it on Christmas Eve at no cost to me. While the story had a happy ending and the company was polite and responsive to my 11 service calls, it was extremely frustrating not to have a reliably working boiler for three weeks in cold and snowy December