ARS / Rescue Rooter Raleigh

This is my second season as an ARS customer and I must tell you that thier technicians and customer service people are outstanding. It is nice to deal with a contractor that shows up on time and does not give me the run around. I had appointments with five different tree contractors and none of them ever showed up.

Two thumbs up!!

I am the Manager of ARS and have been with the company for 20 years. We have over 250 employees and run tens of thousands of service calls each year. It is my goal to make everyone satisfied with our service but this format does provide information to contact. In addition, our response require the reader to open another window I request that anyone with a problerm to call us to resovle it and if there is a negative review please open the comment window. Thank you

Had service on 10/3/11


Push hard to change out parts they must be on commission. I would not let them back in my house.
I founnd the part on HVAC parts on the Internet. They charged me $900 for 45min work and part.

Think twice ...$$$

I will say the worker was excellent, careful of my property and very thorough BUT they have not stopped calling my house since that day. For weeks now they have been trying to sell me something else and after I told them to stop the calls, they called a week later. I will never use this service again.

2 years ago I bought a maintenance contract from ARS, but cancelled the next day because we needed a new system. Took quotes, and bought from someone else. The ARS salesman called back and told me the system I was buying was bad (a Lennox system) and they company was no good either. That just confirmed that I made the right choice in NOT buying from them. It took them 1-1/2 YEARS TO REFUND MY MONEY!! (for the maintenance contract I cancelled) and ever since they have been calling to schedule visits! I have called about 2 dozen times trying to get them to refund my money and to get them to stop calling me for service, but they are incapable of taking me off the list. And today I received a form to renew my non-existent contract. DON'T BUY FROM THESE GUYS NO ONE IN THE ORGANIZATION KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING.

I bought my house 08 with the understanding that the previous owners just purchased new Trane HVAC units with a 10 year warranty 3 years prior in 2005. Great right? Not when you are dealing with ARS.

The first time it got really hot outside in June 2008 it was also really hot on the inside, down stairs (the upstairs is controlled by a different unit also Trane and done By ARS). I called ARS told them it was under warranty and they sent a teck out. The teck came out and told me that there must be a leak in the coolent and since it was under warranty they would fill up the coolent. I asked why not fix the leak he told me it was small enought that they can just replace coolent and it will leak out slowly for another 3 years then they will fill it up again. I thought to myself well whatever it is there problem and the ac works now so whatever,

Well, fast forward to May 2010 2 years after I buy the house and the unit is blowing hot air and so is ARS. My Girlfriend stays home from work and the teck doesnt show, they had an 8 hour window and could not make it. The next day she stays home in the morning because they assured us the teck will be there. The teck says that there is indeed a leak and we will need to replace the coil but not to worry the warranty will handle that and he leaves to go get the part. Now a lady calls and says the warranty is invalid, mind you this is the second time they have come to repair an issue for me and now the warranty is invalid because it is not in my name. The previous owners paid $10,000 for this all inclusive warranty (I have the paperwork) and now ARS is like nope this isyour problem. So the teck shows back up with the ""coil"" about an hour later and demands $1772.

All this went on between my girlfriend and ARS. She lets me know what is going on mind you it is still 90 degrees in the house and she is ultra cranky. So I call them and ask what is going on and what we can do to get this resolved. This Don Distol guy tells me that I have no recouse and they wont do any work on my house. Less than 3 years from when they installed a very expensive system it starts leaking and they dont stand behind thier work, for all i know it was leaking before that.

It is still 90 degrees in my house the work done by ARS is substandard, their customer service is terrible, they do not honor agreements, and they refuse to even aleviate my situation of a very cranky girlfriend by at least making the AC work by charging the system again (that I offered to pay for). I would not recommend this company to anyone, I would never use them for anything. I feel very cheated, I am extra-ordinarily dis-satisfied.

I don't know if by one review this will assist other consumers, but my experience with this plumbing service was a very bad one, and one that only happened in February 2010.

I called them for a clogged drain, to flush out the system because the toilet was leaking through the gasket.

On the first visit that evening, a single repair guy was there over 5 hours. He didn't flush out through the city line, where the drain to the city line meets my house, he flushed out before the flapper that keeps the city water from backing up into my house.

As a result of him flushing out through the main water pipe, he blew the flapper down into the drain where it meets the city pipe, and couldn't get the flapper out.

He didn't tell me this. He told me he couldn't unclog the drain. He said he'd return the next day with a crew. The crew returned, and they couldn't move the flapper that was now firmly wedged against the city pipe. They told me they would now have to excavate my front lawn. They handed me an estimate of $2500.00

So, the next day, I cancelled their service and went with another plumbing company. They excavated my lawn, they had no choice, and they found the flapper. I asked them how did the flapper get down there to the city line? They said, that the repair guy from ARS blew out the drain before the flapper, and consequently blew the flapper down the drain, blocking any potential drainage. It could not be repaired unless I excavated the property.

The other plumbing company charged $1022.00 for the excavation - a lot cheaper.

So, long story short, if ARS had used their tools to blow out the clog where the flapper was, and where the flapper keeps out the city sewage, instead of going in through the main water pipe, they wouldn't have blown out the flapper that prevents the city water coming into my house.

This was a simple clog, pretty ordinary, but because of the way the ARS repairman executed the problem, it turned out to be very bad, and very costly for me.

Now, though I excavated the property (a 6' x 10' hole on my front lawn and down 6' feet deep), we removed the flapper (and I have this flapper - a piece of rubber about 6"" in diameter), I now have to replace the flapper. Replacing the flapper that prevents the city water from backing up into my house means tearing up my floor in the utility room - the estimate I received for this was $1200.00.

I wouldn't use ARS ever, and I don't recommend them in any way.

When I called in, the customer service rep mentioned a 79.95 service call cost that would be refunded if the service was performed. What they don't mention is that there is a minimum charge of $141. That is critical to know in these difficult times.
The plumber told me that it would take about 10 minutes to unhook the water line and add another. He did unscrew a filter on the faucette and screw in another at no charge. That took at least a minute.
When I called the management, they reduced the charge to a flat hour rate of 104, which included a 30 day warranty.

Our water heater went out and we called multiple places on a Sat morning to get service. ARS was the 1st to respond and they had someone out to our place in 30 min. Rep was very courteous and had all the information. Had tankless waterheater in by sunset. Very professional work.

We did have to pay 79.95 for them to come out but this was refunded back to us deducted in the order. If you need an estimate only this may not be the way to go. In talking to other co-workers who had tankless systems put in, price was competitive with other vendors.

Watch out for these people, they are not interested in good old fashioned service. They are very pushy, and act as if they are doing you a favor to come out and service you. The employees are rude and unprofessional. By far the worst company I ever did business with! I will never use them again!