ARS / Rescue Rooter Laurel

This company has had many internal issues & I was caught up in the problem. Almost all of the staff that worked on my home over the duration of the job were fired or reassigned. I hired Rescue Rooter to scope my sewer pipes and do waste water plumbing repairs. Ultimately, I replaced all my pipes — water main, sewer, & waste water pipes — for $ 4,500, $ 11,000, & $ 6,100 respectively. Work began in January, 2015 and continued into February & the new water main was broken by the backhoe operator while excavating for the sewer pipe. Then water main was spliced & sewer trench was filled in & I was told I needed to wait until warmer weather. It was that zero degree Feb. 2015. Water main splice broke, flooding my basement with muddy water. I had to call WSSC emergency line at 11pm to turn off all water to my house. Sewer pipe failed inspection by WSSC — backhoe operator broke it when filling in the 12-​ft deep trench.
Waited months. One visit in March — no go — soil too wet. Began calling every other week, but no response — staff replaced, staff member gone, etc. Finally in June, tried to file a complaint with Maryland Homeowners Insurance Commission but informed that WSSC was in charge of complaints, so I called them. WSSC lit a fire under them threatening to revoke the master plumber’s license. So, in mid-​June, work resumed.
Master plumber & crew worked very hard but coordinating with backhoe operator was a problem. The backhoe operator broke the Pepco line and power went out at my neighbor’s house, so Pepco came out to fix but fined Rescue Rooter $ 4,000. Finally, sewer pipe passed inspection, water main replaced. Found out master plumber who worked so hard was fired afterward. Yard is ruined. Rebar from concrete was left on patio, gravel left on driveway, rubble & dirt debris left in basement where slab was excavated. Hired somebody to remove a huge pile of dirt and ceramic tile from basement & shoveled up three outdoor trash cans of large gravel prior to June work since it was a safety hazard. Hired another company to redo basement damage and it cleaned up all the debris… Rescue Rooter should have done acceptable concrete patch work, cleaned up debris, dirt, and kept work space safe. An expert should have treated my yard instead of a plumber.

My husband and I used them to snake a drain in our basement that kept flooding, the guy was professional and informative. We haven’t had a problem since. A bit pricey but other than that great!

Since writing my review, I was contacted by a customer service manager at ARS, who is working with me personally to get my account back on track. She sent a technician out free of charge to find the leak, and she credited my landlords account for the freon she had to buy. ARS has some great associates working on their behalf to turn their service experience around, and I was pleasantly surprised by their willingness to work with me. Plus, the technician who came out was great– he went above and beyond to check out our HVAC system and make sure it was safe.
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My landlord has a service plan with this company.
So you can imagine that I was surprised when they called me to schedule a check on our furnace, and I had to remind them that they were supposed to come install a new part on that furnace. I asked them to do both at the same time. They scheduled me for the next afternoon, and said they would call to reschedule if they could not get the part in in time.
No call, no serviceperson came to the house.
Fast forward to this morning, at 7am. I called because overnight the air conditioner stopped working. Its 88 degrees today and Iive in a townhouse. So if the air conditioner is not working, it’s an emergency.
I left a message for the service dept, at 7am, and was told noone could come out until Monday.
MONDAY.
Are you kidding? When I asked why someone wasn’t available to come out for emergencies, the guy said he was understaffed. I explained that I have children, and dogs, in the house, and the third floor is over 100 degrees. Didn’t care.
I then called three other companies– Frederick Air, Eric Smock HVAC, and Best Heating and Air Conditioning. ALL of them called me back within 30 mins, and every one of them was available to come out TODAY to help me.
Honestly, this company offers a service package, but people who have it cannot get them to come out in an emergency. What sort of service is that?
I would NEVER recommend this service to anyone.

We had a host of awful issues with our HVAC, which was only a year old but had not been properly installed. ARS did their best to fix the problems and work with our so-​called manufacturer’s warranty, but we eventually had to install a new system. ARS gave us a credit for all of the work they had already done, which was a nice reduction in price, and got the system installed literally the next day. The new HVAC system is amazing — the difference between our old and new system is like night and day. The ARS guys were all great. They were friendly, professional, and did a good job cleaning up after themselves.

This company has real issues. We bought an Angie’s List deal for a HVAC tune-​up. FIrst of all, they give you 5 hour appointment windows — cable companies aren’t that bad anymore. However could they even meet the grand canyon-​like time frame of 5 hours… Nope. They blew by it so we cancelled for that day. Then they reschedule for «first call» … you’d think that might mean 8AM? 830AM? maybe 9AM. Nope. 10AM was the winner. You know… perfect for people who have to work. Getting them on the phone is also a nightmare. But I will update this to say that the technician who came was friendly and knowledgeable and seemed to do a good job.

Installed furnace/​AC/​water heater. No complaints. Solid job, competitive price.

Not professional!
They couldn’t locate the proper pipes that needed to be fixed and then after I helped them find them their «fix» did not solve the problem.

The installers did a good job installing my HVAC ductless heating/​cooling system, they arrived close to their scheduled time frame BUT trying to call them and talk to a sales person or anyone to schedule an appointment was very difficult. I got their voicemail alot and had to just keep calling them, they are not good with returning calls.
The installers get a 3 stars for good professional work BUT… the customer service and sales/​scheduling people… they get a 2 star for lack of service! If they could just work on picking up the phone and calling people back… it would really help them…

ARS is a rip off. I was away from my home in DC (military) when my roommate called to tell me the heat was not working anymore: the system would come on but no heat was coming out, just room temp, which was cold. ARS customer service line was great but they sent a technician who sounded unprofessional and inexperienced. ARS said the initial cost of $ 99 would be to trouble shoot the problem and tune up the system. The technician troubleshot the problem to the thermostat and said it would be an additional $ 370 to repair. Outrageous price! He did not do a tune up. I sent him out of the house with $ 99 –no tune up, no repair — and another company did all the work for $ 230. ARS would have been $ 470.

UPDATE:
I’m knocking them back to one star. Here’s why.
The leaky shower faucet that was supposed to be fixed on the return visit? Not so much. In fact, the faucet that WAS NOT leaking before started leaking like mad, causing water to come through the ceiling below. Maryland+90 degree weater+wet drywall=nasty, moldy mess.
I called them back for the SECOND TIME to fix. This was Monday, Memorial Day. I didn’t expect someone to be available, but they claim 24 – 7 service. I was surprised when I was told someone would be there between 11am-​3pm. I shouldn’t have been so trusting. At 3:30, no one had shown up.
I call the service center again and was told that no one had dispatched the request, so the plumber hadn’t been called. Now it’s 4:15 on a Holiday Monday. I end up talking to 4 different people, put on hold for long periods, get transferred, asked to repeat the same information over and over and over and over and over again. No one can tell me if or when a plumber is being sent to my house. Finally, at 5:15, I speak to a very sweet, competent woman named Courtney. She tried really hard to make things right, but at that point it was too late. The nearest plumber was in Hagerstown. I gave up and accepted an appointment for the next day.
A new plumber arrived on Tues. and was very professional and polite. He had everything fixed in 20 minutes and showed me why the faucet was continuing to leak even after two return visits. No problems since.
So there are a couple of nice people working here who were very helpful. But you’ve got to wade through a swamp of incompetence to get to them. This company has some serious internal communication issues and customer service problems. Stay away, or you’ll probably have big giant moldy holes in your ceiling, too. And you’ll pay for that privilege.