ARS / Rescue Rooter Durham

ARS sent someone out on an emergency basis when I awoke to find I had no heat. I got an answer to my call at 7 am and a technician on site by 9 am. He found the breaker to the air handling unit had blown. It was arcing when he reset it. He found he couldn't repair it because the breaker had partially melted and the box it was seated in needed to be replaced. He was very professional and explained clearly - even took pictures of the breaker to show me. I subsequently got an electrician out who confirmed the ARS tech's findings and made the repair. I had used the precursor to ARS (they bought up Tillman's electric) for many years. I had stopped using ARS because of the poor quality of the work during installation of the heat pump and new duct work 7 years ago, and the failure of management to do anything substantive about it. I went back to them since they had sold me the heat pump that now wasn't working. I was very pleasantly surprised by the service I received.

They are always prompt, professional, very respectful of my home. They let me know what they find and what they feel needs to be addressed in the future. They do this without undo pressure.

I use them for Heating and A/C which they do a great job for. I beleive they may have subcontracted this job. He came promptly, however wasted time talking. Noticed an antigue I had and then talked about that and then other things. He then took out a book and pricing. He talked about what needed to be completed. When he did work in bathroom wanted to replace a lot of things that he felt needed to be updated. He was in my home over 3 hours and he worked on plumbing less than an hour and a half. He did not replace the pipe he thought would need to be replaced. Now the pipe is a little loose it moves. He wanted to replace my filters for $130.00 dollars. I let him know I could get them for a lot less than that. He ended up charging me quite a bit of money much more than I ever would of expected for the work that was completed.

We've had a maintenance contract with them for years. They service the heat pump before AC season and heating season and don't seem to be pushing unnecessary work or products. Service people are polite, punctual and professional.

There has been an ARS contract on the H-Vac in out house for over 15 years. There are 2 units for heating and cooling and the cost for their installation was around $4000.

The heating and cooling unit quote was higher than their competitors, so I went with someone else. After doing some research, the quality of the units they offered did not seem to justify the additional cost. They were professional, but I did not get the sense that I would get any personal attention or extra effort from them. They seemed like a large corporate company. The quote for clearing the sink drain was higher than 2 of their competitors. I went with their competition

Routine maintenance contract. Uv light bulb had to be changed

The lady on the phone was very professional, courteous, & helpful even mentioning possibility of senior citizen discount. They called about 30 minutes before the plumber arrived to let me know he was on the way. Arrived during scheduled time block. Plumber was clean, courteous, & professional. Left no mess. Cleared clog in less than 10 minutes. Price was reasonable.

However, we had some n honorable

I've lived in my house since its build date back in 1995; I had used ARS several times in the past in servicing my AC unit. My experience with AC/Heating companies has been that "you get what you pay for". I've had less expensive service companies, but their repairmen would arrive late (if at all), not near as friendly and informative as to what they were doing, and repairs didn't seem as high of quality. ARS does hire some friendly and efficient repairmen, however, their job also seems to be to sell you additional services. They installed a new Trane AC unit in 2011 which I have been very happy with; amazed at how much more energy efficient our AC is now ... heating/ac bills dropped by over a third.

We signed a multi-year contract with ARS and twice a year they were supposed to inspect our equipment. Every spring they were supposed to be cleaning the condenser on our air conditioner. One year my son, an electrician,happened to be visiting at the time of ARS's spring check. He noticed that as soon as the technician got out of his truck the invoice for what he discovered during his planned inspection was already filled out. My son shadowed him during the technician's entire visit. The ARS technician did not even look at the air conditioner! He did not even open the furnace door to inspect the connections between the furnace and the air conditioner. He did nothing during his visit except talk to his girlfriend on his cell phone with my son at his side! He did not even remove his meter from his pocket! Afterward, he presented my husband and I with an invoice indicating that our system needed $358.00 worth of "repairs". My son was appalled! He told the technician that he would do the work for us himself and the technician was irritated and insisted that my husband sign the invoice indicating that we refused to perform the recommended "repairs". My son immediately did his own thorough inspection of the entire system and found that our air conditioner coils were totally blocked with lint and had probably never been cleaned since the house was built in 2000. Moreover, the costly "repairs" listed on the ARS invoice could be performed at a fraction of the cost ARS wanted to charge us, even though we had a contract with them! A condenser any electrician could purchase for $3.00 and charge a client $20 to install, ARS wanted to charge $127.00 for. I called the company and told them my concerns, even asking if I could get a refund for my contract. "Not likely", I was told. I will never use ARS again. And I would never recommend their HVAC services to anyone.

Save yourself the trouble and don't call this company. I've had several experiences with ARS over the last 8 years, some good and some not so good. The last 2 experiences were so bad that I vow never ever to call them again. I had an annual maintenance plan in 2012. They come out once in the spring to tune-up the A/C, and once in the fall to do the same with the heating system. During our service in the late spring, the technician that came out forgot to re-connect the fan after he was done. We noticed after he left that the A/C never kicked in. We called ARS right away about the problem, and they told us that it must have been something WE did. We kindly told them that the A/C had worked just fine before they arrived, and it had only stopped working after he left. ARS told us that we had no proof that it was their technician's error, and they wanted to charge us their $150 service fee to come back out -- EVEN THOUGH we already had a service plan, and EVEN THOUGH it was clearly their fault. After much frustration I was finally able to get them to waive the fee, but they could not come out to fix the problem for 4 DAYS and in the meantime my little kids were sweltering as the house was over 80 degrees during the day. The technician that came out 4 days later (a different guy) was very nice and said that the other technician had "obviously" forgotten to re-connect the fan. However, he tried to get us to pay for the service call AGAIN and had to get on the phone with his office when we refused. ARS DOES NOT REMIND YOU THAT YOU HAVE A PRE-PAID SERVICE, and we forgot about our heating tune-up until 2013, at which point ARS told us that our service agreement was expired. We have annual maintenance plans with other companies for other home systems, and ARS is the only one that doesn't send a reminder email or postcard or phone call. I guess they don't remind their customers so they can pocket the money. Fast forward to September 2013. We turned our HVAC system to heat to check it out for the cold weather season, and it wouldn't turn on (even though the A/C worked fine). You think we'd have learned our lesson. But we called ARS thinking that it was probably something related to the careless technician last year. I called on a Friday afternoon. Scheduled service for the following Saturday between 8am and noon. We canceled our Saturday plans and waited at home all morning. No one came. Called ARS back and they said they had no record of ever having set up an appointment. But they would send someone out that afternoon. Couldn't give us a time window, but said that the technicians work all day/evening on Saturdays so it might be late, even nighttime. Waited ALL DAY at home with the kids. Called ARS at 4pm and they said they would be here.... Finally went to bed at midnight and NO ONE CAME. Called ARS first thing Sunday morning and they "apologized" for not ever showing up but couldn't tell us why. They said they'd be "happy" to send someone today, but that we'd have to pay $150 EXTRA because it was now a Sunday service call. I told them that I wasn't going to pay that fee, because they didn't show up when they were supposed to. The customer service rep then told me that he could not verify what I was saying (essentially calling me a liar again -- is that their customer service strategy??). You gotta be *** kidding me!! I asked to speak with a supervisor, and I was told that there was no supervisor available until Monday, and that I could call back then. I was livid. I was then placed on hold for several minutes (I know, you're wondering why I was still wasting my time...me too) and a different customer service person came on the line to tell me that they would send someone out today and though they couldn't waive the fee on the phone, the technician "had the capacity" to waive the fee in person "at his discretion". Sketchy at best. They put me on hold to confirm a time with the dispatcher and 3 minutes later, they hung up on me. Click. No call back. Needless to say, no one ever came on Sunday either. This morning (Monday), I receive a call from ARS telling me that they had tried to come to the house this weekend but no one was available, and would I like to re-schedule for a more convenient time. I was home ALL WEEKEND. They NEVER ONCE called my cell phone or my back-up number, both of which were verified every time I called customer service. Who's the liar now? Horrible, horrible, horrible customer service and careless work. Happy Ending: Last night my husband took the panel off the HVAC system outside and looked around for something obvious. He flipped the system off, and turned it back on after a minute. That's all it took. Works beautifully now!

They do good work, are responsive and when I had questions or issues they would immediately answer them.

Things were fine. They were prompt and they explained what needed to be done and they handled it quickly. They also explained other options that we could take so they gave us different choices. They were not fancy but they were competent. We would probably use them again.

It went very well. We bought a new unit from them and it has done really well.

They always do a good job. The technicians are wonderful. ARS provides good information about their services. They are always noticing other things I may need. They are very helpful. I put N/A for price because I don't know any other prices.

Everything turned out well. Their price was reasonable. The same technician that installed the system came to do the maintenance, which was good because he was already familiar with it.

It turned out very well. They were following up nicely and I appreciated that. The installation went smoothly as well.

They check the units every six months and come when they say they will. We have been pleased with them. If I ever have questions, they are very helpful.

They were on time and prompt with the service call. The installed a new heat pump system for me and when we had cold weather in the winter, parts didn’t work properly. It took them several months to figure out the problem.

They are pretty good and are a reputable company. They show up when they say they will and the technicians always seem pleasant and competent.

Steve arrived at the stated time. I signed the maintenance contract which would apply to both the heating (to be completed in the fall) and cooling systems in our home. First, Steve cleaned the outside air conditioning coils. Next, he put on booties over his shoes as he went into the attic to service the air conditioning. He explained that he would need to turn the A/C on, but wouldn't leave it on long because he knew it was a chilly day outside. After checking all of the components, he asked me to sign the ARS form which stated that the work was completed. Later that day, I did call the home office because it gave the total on the bill, but it did not say I had paid for it by check. I was assured that according to their records, my invoice number indicated that I had indeed paid in full by check. Steve was professional and courteous. This was overall a positive experience.

This was done under warranty from Trane. After having several problems with our Trane HVAC we decided on a contract for maintenance with ARS. They were able to remedy several problems we have had with our unit. They have been prompt and courteous each time. When our heat went out recently they were able to get our part on Monday even though the problem was diagnosed on a Saturday. They were also able to work with the company to make sure this was a warranty covered item.

They did pretty much the whole job in 2 days. I was without water for only 1 hour on the 1st day. They dug trenches, dropped pipe. They had a "mole" that went under my driveway...That was a big job but it was all done really well. Everything looked "clean" and well done. I was very pleased with their work. They showed up on time, they were driven to complete this in 2 days (and they did this with the weather being as lousy as it was! It was really really cold, dark and wet outside). They took incredible care of me. What can I say? A good job is a good job. There were no issues. Everything was done perfectly and I now consider them my house "Plumber". (They do HVAC too by the way). They were really nice guys and I'd use them again in a heartbeat (but I hope I wont have to! lol!)

Noticed a leak in the house about the time we had decided to get a new heater. Two separate trucks showed up promptly when we called. Plumber fixed the leak that day. H/A contractor returned to install heater and air conditioner. Provided carbon monoxide detectors. Offered a replacement estimate that was significantly better than we had thought possible. Work was done promptly and all workmen were courteous and forthcoming with information when asked questions. Excellent work.