ARS / Rescue Rooter Houston

Well I should have known not to fall for 69.00 special!
When the man came out it turned into 233.00!!#! That’s a long way up! Go with people who quote between 125 and 165. Believe me it can be higher!
I will go with home advisor from now on.

Never ever use ARS rescue rooter! I had an 8 – 12 appointment today for a simple drain clean. The technician quoted $ 230 and said he forgot his snake and would be «right back». 1 ½ hours later, I called customer service and he never intended on returning!!! What kind of plumber doesn’t carry a snake? And now they’re trying to find a different technician to do the work. A simple snake! Horrible customer service!!!

Arthur did a great job fixing our water heaters he took his time and explained all of his work He seemed very knowledgeable and was willing to come back if there were any other problems questions or concerns. He worked on our water heaters and explained what was going on to us. Not having any previous knowledge we found this very helpful. He got the job done in a timely fashion. We did not have to clean up after him. We highly recommend him.

Dave showed up ON TIME, and delivered on his promises. What more could you ask for!

UPDATE: lame response ARS. What will you do? Go back in time and give me TWO days back? You can’t do a thing about because you were quite unprofessional the entire time.
To all: I do not recommend ARS Rescue Rooter.
After two appointments equaled two no shows, to heck with these guys. I don’t have the time to wait around for a company that promises one thing and, well, didn’t do anything.
«Hello! This is ARS Rescue Rooter. We make appointments to break them and ruin not one, but two of your days!»
There are too many plumbing companies out there for ARS Rescue Rooter to suck my free time.

What a nightmare! You already have serious problems to deal with when your sewer backs up… I called, waited on hold, finally explained to the lady that my toilets and shower were backed up all of a sudden. I saw online that they had a $ 69 sewer clean out special which includes a camera inspection. She scheduled between 5– 9 with a call 30 minutes in advance. I get her call. I wait… then he calls and they have the street name completely wrong. I had repeated it to her 3 times and spelled it. He arrives with no snake and no camera. He says they can come tomorrow. I ask what he expects me to do in the interim… he said I could just open the clean out when I wanted to flush the toilet and let the sewage run into my yard…“that is what other people do”.

ARS seems to have a lot of mixed reviews on Unilocal.For one — pricing is always an issue. Based on my phone queries to the following: «John Moore Plumbing», «Wedgeworth Plumbing» and «Roto-​Rooter Plumbing» their prices are in line with others. Furthermore if you look at ARS website:
occasionally you might find savings coupons for plumbing services.
Now for my problem I had an overflowing drain from a p-​trap in the ceiling where my A/​C line would drain into. Called ARS and they committed to same day service (timing of arrival of service tech is always tricky given the 4 hour window they give. However I did get the 30 min arrival notice call.) When they came out the water was flowing and no longer backed up so they had nothing to fix. Problem returned in two days and they sent another plumber. This time, I was fortunate to be visited by the mighty Joe Nelson who took his time and did a thorough root cause analysis and determined the P-​trap was over flowing due to a sink in one of the bathrooms. 20 min later the sink line was cleared and I was back in business. What I appreciated about Joe is he was able to step back and visualize the bigger picture to solve the problem.
Finding a good plumber is never easy and when you do they tend to be expensive. However, Based on my experience with ARS at least 4 – 5 times in the last 3 years and they have always delivered great service at a reasonable price.

superb top notch professionals! Worked hard all day, did a first class job, cut no corners and finished the plumbing work on time. Installed a new Rheem gas water heater, new faucets and fixed a shower — a lot of work at a fair price beautifully done! I could not be happier! Thank you Jim and Lee for doing such a great job!

Dan F and his assistant David were very helpful and courteous. I had a disintegrated J-​pipe and a very leaky and old faucet in my bathroom. They ended up replacing the entire sink, faucet, and pipes beneath. They did a very good job. It was a little pricey, but it really needed to be done. They actually showed up earlier than I expected. When I had called that morning, I was told there were really no open appointments since I called last minute.

ARS originally installed my new system less than three years ago, but when I called them this past week for some basic maintenance issues they sent not one but three different teams out and charge me $ 500 and the issue has still not been resolved and no one at the call center has returned my calls attempting to resolve the issue.
After reading the poor ratings here I wish that I had consulted Unilocal before reaching out to ARS. I can see that my problem is very similar to the types of complaints on quality of service, price gouging, and no follow-​up from the folks who schedule appointments or resolve issues.
I would never recommend anyone to use this company for anything since they do not appear to be honest and the service technicians are mostly interested in selling services or upgrades as they call them which I am not interested in nor do I need!
John in Midtown

opinion :
Field crews seem capable & want to do a good job but need help in
understanding and calculating realistic trip & arrival time.
«Phone Operators & Dispatching staff» need better supervision & to
demonstrate improved Courtesy & Respect for customers & their time.
need: Honest & Realistic scheduling arrival-​times and follow-​through.
5÷12÷15: Crew called ~10:50a … said they would be here in ½ hr …
They arrived 70 mins. later (11:am)
Crew was professional, respectful, efficient and apparently performed a job well done (~ ½hr.)
5÷11÷15: NO-​ONE showed-​up for appoint window (12n-​4p).
Not even any courtesy call. At 4:20p,
I called «Chuck» to express my displeasure… he said he would call me back.
He Did-​Not, but a «field-​tech called to say he just got the „order“ and could there after he finishes his current job and gets the required parts … WHAT?
I called „Chuck“ back to reschedule for tomorrow (10a-​2p).
5÷7÷15: ARS customerservice did NOT respond to my email.
So, last night I FAX’d that email-​doc to them;
voila: „Chuck“ w/​ARS called this AM and offered to fix
this problem w/​o charge next Monday afternoon.
That offer is much better than I expected. I am quite pleased.
…
5÷6÷15: Still waiting for them to respond to my email requesting service for using an inappropriate fitting of steel-​metal … { minus 2-​stars }…
…
5÷5÷15: In ’05 they replaced my 40-​gal electric water heater & at a competitive price … including new copper/​brass connections, di-​electric nipples and galvanized drain-​pain.
Now, 10 years later, the WH it is still working great, with NO sediment noticed from drain-​valve.
… But, apparently the installer used an inappropriate „steel-​nipple“ between the brass shut-​off valve and brass-​fitting at the end of the 24» flex-​copper connector.
… so we have some serious bi-​metallic corrosion at the union requiring replacement.
I have asked the company for an reasonable & appropriate offer for affecting these necessay repairs. (I agee to pay for replacement parts)
Depending on their response I may have to adjust my rating & report here. …

After contacting the corporate office, they worked with me and went above and beyond to correct the problem. Despite the issue with their tech, they have showed me that they can be a reputable company and would do business with them in the future.

Crazy expensive. Got a qoute and it was 10 times the price of the plumber I went with.

I called ARS, and they were prompt, and friendly, both on the phone and when the techs. arrived. The issue I have with them is their pricing. They wanted to charge me $ 436 to replace PVC piping, and a shut off valve and fittings for my water heater. They were $ 75-​$ 100 more than anyone else.
The tech gave me estimates for all repairs and it replacements including drip pans which I didn’t need, and kept telling me about the new water heaters coming in April, so I would pay more. He kept saying this over and over.
I received an estimate to replace my two water heaters for almost $ 3000, and their competitor Mr. Rooter did it for $ 800 less.
I will never use this company and so glad I did a couple of estimates or I would have spent much more than I did!
Shop around before you go with anyone! Most offer free estimates.

Please look at the photo section here, you will see that ARS once showed up cut the main water pipe and said he would have to go get a pipe. The plumber left for 5 hours we had no water. I called their number and they said they had no idea where the plumber was. They sent a second crew to pick up all the plumbers tools but they did not fix anything because they did not have the part. WE HAD NO WATER! The next day the plumber showed up no explanation about where he was. We had to pay full price and no discount for the inconvenience. I know somehow ARS manages to move my reviews but if you look for my other review or the picture you will notice that I got horrible service and others have too. I would never call them again but I will review them every year to warn people of this service.

Had a water heater fail, and this was the company touted in Home Depot’s banner ad saying SAME DAY INSTALLATION IF YOU CALL BY NOON. I called at 8:30 am and they told me they couldn’t get anyone out until the following day.
Note to Home Depot. «Tomorrow» is not «same day.»

Called ARS for a plumbing issue at 10:00 pm, thought I’d just leave a message, but they actually ANSWERED (really!) and asked if I needed someone there that night. So, that was a huge plus in my book. Sent someone the next day to look, and he gave me an estimate. Was not an emergency, but needed to be fixed, so they sent an actual plumber the next day, who gave me a much lower price than the first guy. So, I subtracted a star for inconsistency in estimates (even though I paid less, I still don’t understand why this relatively simple issue was so difficult to estimate).
The plumber they sent was terrific. Courteous, clean, professional, and fixed me up in about 15 minutes but stayed for another 20 – 30 minutes to make sure the problem was fixed for good.
I’ve now stored ARS in my phone for future use.

1 star because at one time ARS was dependable and good. Not anymore.
3 calls in the last year.
Call 1: I had them come out to change a leaking kitchen faucet, wanted to charge me 600.00 to do this simple job faucet swap. 600.00? 250.00 I’d pay, 600.00 insults my intelligence… I sent them on their way.
Call 2: I scheduled a preventative maintenance for a couple weeks ago. Scheduled for 1−4pm. I took a half day off work. No on showed. Not one call until about 7:30 that evening. Cannot depend on ARS to met a scheduled appt.
Call3: This call is a result of Call 2 and ARS no-​showing. The A/​C is no longer cooling and yes this is an A/​C system ARS installed just 2.5 years ago. I called yesterday and can’t get anyone to come out. This was not the case a few years ago and this is example of how ARS is no longer being dependable and an emergency /​24hr services company.
I called this am and still can’t get a firm schedule. Unbelievable.
I’m now having to miss more work to handle something that should have been taken care of when I originally scheduled maintenance ARS no-​showed on. And yes, they still want to charge me a 79.00 fee just to come out. I should be charging ARS for a day of missed pay!!!
This company is worse than dealing with Comcast. I will find another company (not John Moore) to handle my home service needs.

I would give them no stars if they had done the work i am sureI had ARS out to my house on 2 occasions this past month. One was for an A/​C checkup and to clean out the clogged drain pipes. The other time was to have them look at some electrical wires that had to be repulled through conduit.
On the visit for the A/​C, they came out and said that my coils were about to rust out and the A/​C was on its last leg. They gave me an estimate to clean the clogged pipes at 600.00 dollars and to replace the A/​C with a 13 SEER unit was going to be about 11,000.00 dollars. After my jaw dropping I said thanks but I need to get a few bids on this work for that price. To cut to the chase I spent the next week having A/​C repairmen come out (4 total) and give me prices for the A/​C and to clean out the pipes. Well I will tell you that all 4 came in at less than 200 bucks to clean the pipes and they all priced a 16 SEER w/​adjustable fan speed and communication at less that 9500.00 dollars. ARS wanted over 17,000.00 dollars for the 16 SEER system. They came out on Saturday with this estimate.
On the visit for the electrician we had to have them out 3 times to get the problem isolated to where the problem was. The third person I will say was the most competent of the 3. His name was Ken and drove #25 van. He explained what the problem was and I asked him for a bid for the work. He gave me a price of 1500.00 to pull 7 wires through a conduit about 80′ long. Again, after getting the bid for the A/​C I told him that I would have to price out this job too. WOW… am I glad I waited again and received competitive bids from 4 electricians, All 4 were under 1000.00 dollars and the winning bidder got with a bid of 550.00.
I don’t really know if I can say ARS is bad or there installations are any good but I can say you should get bids on any major work in your home. It pays to shop around as just waiting an additional 2 – 3 weeks and getting bids I saved over 8000.00 dollars from what they wanted to charge me. I guess they have to pay for those advertisements.

Called for a simple kitchen sink cleaning, to unclog a backed up drain. We scheduled them to come out that day between 3 – 5, and they didn’t show up until 3 the NEXT day. They were advertising a $ 49 drain clean special, which was obviously too good to be true. The plumber admitted that was just to get them in the door.
So a basic drain clean auger job. I’m at work and my wife is there. He straight up lies to her and says there is no drain access port under the sink and he has to do all this other work to get the drain clear. On the phone I call him on it and he gives me some BS about having to use special equipment to purge the line and dismantle the plumbing or it will make a big mess. Wants $ 350 for the job. To clear a sink, seriously.
So I sent him away and rented an auger at home depot for $ 50 and cleared it myself in 30 minutes. I would have happily paid them to do it for me at a reasonable price if he hadn’t been a greedy lying scumbag.
Oh, and I did use my own special equipment to purge the drain so I wouldn’t make a mess. A BUCKET.
Find an honest local plumber and avoid ARS.