ARS / Rescue Rooter Austin

Perfectly. Fast, professional. High quality work. My units were very old and actually blew out one afternoon. ARS was there the next morning, tore out the old units inside and out, replacing them with the new equipment. Outdoor temperature was very hot. I supplied the installers with a cooler of drinks and literally had to make them take a break to have lunch that I ordered for them. Their supervisor stopped by to check on the work later in the day. ARS also scheduled a City of Austin quality/code inspector to come out several days later to go over the work with me to insure all were up to specs and codes including having upgraded the electrical breaker unit in the garage. The Inspector gave them an 'A' , also.

We have used them for years. We maintain a maintenance agreement with them. They come out once for the heater and once for the air conditioner. We pay a yearly overall price. They do not try to pressure me into buying a new unit. They offered the possibility that it would be time to buy a new unit. But we are in an old house and we are old people so we are just gonna ride it out. I let them know right away that we are not going to buy a new system and they haven't tried to pressure me. They know eventually when the thing goes out, they will be the ones we call.

We went to Colorado in August, and they were here right after. The sink was clogged up when we left. Real easy to schedule. This last visit, they cleaned up after themselves. I didn't have to provide anything. The guy was really competent. He explained everything to me. I felt really comfortable with what they were doing. Price could have been an little less expensive. I will use them if I ever need them.

Didn't go so well. Called Friday night at 7PM. The office help immediately scheduled a technician between 8AM-12Noon Saturday, so I gave them the job based on speed, even though they wouldn't quote an hourly rate or give me any estimate over the phone. Dispatch politely called at 10AM Saturday and said they might potentially be late. Truck didn't arrive until 3:10PM. Technician took one look at the roots and quoted $1200. Ouch. That was more than double what a plumber friend in another city told me their office charges for such a repair. But they had me over a barrel because we had a big family dinner planned for 6:30PM, and thought it might be a 3 hour job. While technician was writing up estimate for me to sign, in parallel I called Austin office and asked management if they could offer me any discount based on the lateness of the arrival. Dispatcher checked with manager and got 10% discount approved. Not much but something at least. That's when the story went south. Technician would not modify the estimated price even though the dispatcher cited the manager's name who had authorized the discount. The technician abruptly turned around and took his paperwork back to his truck saying he would need to talk to management himself. After a long call with management, the next thing I know the technician informs me that they believe a nearby tree is protected, and won't start work until a city arborist confirms. That process would not even start until the following Monday. Technician says "I'm sorry but I am being told by management that I cannot continue" and drives away at 3:40PM. Comments: OK, they have the right to walk away from a job for any reason, and not take any risks regarding trees, given that the city rules are stringent and fines are steep. The tree turned out not to be protected, and so the whole tree thing turned out to be a red herring. But really that is not why I'm writing the review. Other Angies list customers need to know these three things, that all happened before the tree ever got involved. 1) They got my business by promising to arrive sooner than anyone else. Then they ended up being 3 hours late from that promise. 2) They quoted me $1200, which was double the price another firm quoted to repair a water line under roots. 3) the technician's attitude turned sour from the very moment he learned that I had asked for a discount. In the end, I dug the hole between the roots myself, found the leak and cleared everything away without harming the roots. I called an A rated Angies list plumber who quoted me an hourly rate. Total cost to repair an exposed water line with a 1 inch swing joint: $207.

Always available, prompt, courteous, and professional. The best in the business.

They kept their appointment on time. I would definitely use them again.

We have a warranty for american home shield and they are the ones they send out most of the time because they do plumbing as well. When came out the first time the guy didn't fix it right the first time. He then came out a second time with another tech and they explained everything. Even the supervisor came out. They were punctual; right on time.

They put a sink in for us about a month ago. The damaged our cabinet and they send somebody else out to fix. and they fixed the whole cabinet. I didn't even notice the crack he put in the cabinet. He informed my wife of it. Some guy came out. They got somebody to redo the whole thing. I looks like brand new now. I remember that because we didn't even think it was bad but they send another company to repair and they followed up to make sure were happy with it. There was no haggling about. I even told home depot about it.

We have a warranty for american home shield and they are the ones they send out most of the time because they do plumbing as well. When came out the first time the guy didn't fix it right the first time. He then came out a second time with another tech and they explained everything. Even the supervisor came out. My neighbour could probably give you a better story. They were punctual; right on time.

Great. The plumber was knowledgeable, and did a great job.

Great company. Called them about a job that was done in December and they can out for a free touch up.

I waited to find another company because this guy just tried to sell me a new unit when I got another company to repair it for 125.

The ARS Rescue Rooter plumber was called to re-install our powder room toilet after we had hardwood floors installed. He used beewax sealing on the toilet and we saw no problems for the past five months. Then, five months after the work was done the seal is now leaking on the bathroom floor and has stained our new hardwood floors. We now have to call another plumber to fix the seal on the toilet that should have lasted for years - AND - purchase new flooring for the powder room to replace the wood that was ruined. We are NOT happy and would not use ARS Rescue Rooter Plumbing ever again! We approximate the cost to fix this shoddy workmanship to be approximately $300 plus labor to reseal/reseat the toilet and another $500 - $700 to purchase and install new flooring in the powder room. And, we have to spend our time repairing a mistake that should never have happened. Do not use ARS Rescue Rooter in Austin.

Arrived promptly to check for clogged drain. Told me he couldn't get a hold of manager that had camera for inspection. He finally reached someone on the phone. They talked a while and he gave me an estimate for $450 to snake two drains before his manager could use camera. Since snaking drains wouldn't of helped, I told him no thank you on using snake.

The technician arrived an hour later than the window I was given which was 4 hours. I only have Sat off from two jobs and I had to wait for the plumber all afternoon. The technician arrived and began to snake the sewer line and said he was running into a blockage and could not clear it. He tried several times with no luck. The technician was very helpful and I thought he went out of his way to help me. The problem began when he called his manager and gave me the phone to speak to me. The manager told me that even though the coupon said camera inspection included he did not have any cameras available due to them being in the shop. I told him that I had to go to work on Monday and I would not be available to meet him. He said no problem I don't need you to be there for the camera inspection to get an estimate to clear it. It is now Tuesday and I still have not heard back from them with any information about a quote. I am very disappointed with the follow up service and that could weigh heavy on decision to use them again. I will update if I hear from them again.

So far they have done a fairly decent job. They have been helpful. They also come out twice a year to check out the heating and A/C system for no extra charge just to check the system over.

I think they could have done better with their pricing and they would give me more in-depth into problems. Pricing is about average.

I have sewer gas smells coming from one particular bathroom maybe once a week. The 1st plumber I called couldn't see what was wrong and said I would need a "smoke test", which he did not have the ability to do. I called ARS to have them bid. The bid was scheduled for, I think, 8/21/15. We got a call at the end of their visit window to let us know they couldn't make it. We rescheduled for Wed 8/26 and after over 1/2 hour of talking about the problem and strategies to get it figured out I got -- and signed approval on -- a bid. Since special equipment was needed we scheduled the ~5 hours of work for Fri 8/28 "first thing". On Fri. I waited 4 hours and never got a call from them and they didn't show up. I called on Wed. 9/2 because I wanted to be sure they weren't going to show up on Fri 9/4. I was told the man who gave me the bid no longer worked there. Because I didn't want to repeat the bidding process and because I assumed the no-show-no-call was the fault of the first plumber, I rescheduled the work for Fri 9/4. The dispatcher? Ruby assured me that I would be first thing on the schedule and she would be sure they had the necessary equipment. She gave me her direct number to call if I needed it. At 10 am on Friday I called them to find we were the 2nd job -- not first job. (The work would take about 5 hours and I have someplace to be at 3 pm.). At ~11:15 a plumber showed up. I had been put on his schedule ~1/2 hour before. He knew nothing about the job and had been told to give me a bid. Of course he didn't have the necessary equipment. I'm furious! (On top of all that, the plumber who gave me the bid broke the cable that keeps the attic trap door shut. It was ready to die, but doesn't help my mood.)

This provider gave me an estimate and then did the work. He had some problems clearing the drain but he still honored the price he quoted. He was very professional, arrived on time and cleaned up after himself.

i did not go with this bid since my next bid was less than half of this one. The tech was knowledgable, courteous, punctual and friendly but this bid seemed amazingly high.

Our two 10-year old electric (50 gal) water heaters were well past their warranty periods and were probably nearing their useful life. We knew it was just a matter of time before the tanks or elements would have a catastrophic failure or the ever-decreasing heating efficiency would be unacceptable. After a lot of online research, we chose two Rheem Performance Platinum units as replacements because of the high efficiency rating and WiFI 'smart home' interface capability. We purchased two units online through our local Home Depot. At that time, we also asked for an installation quotation and were put in contact with their preferred plumbing installations subcontractor for Rheem, which was ARS/Rescue Rooter of Austin. A.J. Montanio ("A.J.") of ARS came to my home, reviewed the potential project and sat down with us to discuss the quotation. A.J. is a very likable individual and was willing to spend quite a bit of time answering all of my questions. (I'm a mechanical engineer, so I usually have lots of them.) Not only did we talk at length about the bottom line quote, but also specific details of the installation process, such as the amount of time involved, how many individuals would be needed onsite, any inconveniences to plan for, etc. In each case, I found A.J. to be refreshingly candid in his answers ? freely admitting the good, bad and ugly ? but generally based upon his recent experiences with similar installations, not simply speculation. Thankfully, most of us don?t ask for hot water heater installation bids every day, so it?s often hard to make apples-to-apples comparisons between installation companies for such a project. (It?s also another reason why I ask a LOT of questions about any quote.) I discovered there are plenty of plumbing companies willing to show a low-ball installation price, but usually by sidestepping ordinances or ignoring local permitting. Just as bad were plumbing quotations that were short on details or written with fuzzy caveats (?unforeseen conditions found during installation?) to potentially jack up the final cost. That wasn't the case with ARS ? the installation bid I received was a full-up, ?not to exceed? cost which took into effect local permitting, hardware and routing changes to my existing plumbing system (due to updated energy and building ordinances), installation, testing and haul-away of my old units. What I soon discovered was that ARS plumbing technicians provide ?one face? to the customer. In other words, the same representative providing the quotation (in my case ?A.J.?) was also going to be the same person doing the installation. Using ?one face? customer service was fine for me. If anything went wrong along the way, A.J. would be on the hook to make it right?and probably explains why the quotation was done aboveboard with no slippery sales tactics or elusive ?cost-plus? pricing. The installation quote I got from ARS was more expensive than most I received, but I was satisfied that the level of service and professionalism was more than worth it. My faith in selecting ARS and A.J. was confirmed when, upon completion of the project, A.J. announced that my final cost would be $216 LESS than his original quotation! The events on the Day of Installation are almost an afterthought to this review. Things went very smoothly and we were given plenty of warning when to expect the water being cut off. A.J. and his helper took less than 6 hours to drain and remove our old water heaters, make the minor routing/hardware upgrades and install/test both of the new units. I?m a pretty handy DIY?er, but this was one project I was glad to have completed by professionals to get it done quickly. So far, I'm quite satisfied with my two new water heaters and I have not had a bit of trouble with either unit since they were installed.

They've come out three or four times for different things. Their price is fair. They have really friendly technicians. They were on time and very professional.

The service has been fine. They are on time and very professional. We have been using ARS for a long time in all kinds of ways. We just never had a bad experience. I am happy with the company.

They've done quite a few things for us and they've been great every time. They come when they say they are going to come. They charge what they say they're going to charge. They are consistent, above board, transparent, and they do what they say they are going to do every time.

It went well. They did a good job. They fixed the problem which matters most in the end.