ARS / Rescue Rooter

UGH… these people are AWFUL. Can i go lower than one. Scheduled an appointment for a check up of the a/​c. Said be there between 8−12…at 1130 call to say oh we had emergencies yesterday YESTERDAY we will be late. No my time is valuable to. I said you have until 215 to get here. at 2 pm we can’t come we are tied up… well DONT SCHEDULE APPOINTMENTS IF YOU CANT KEEP THEM… I have wasted 6 hours waiting on them and for nothing. I will NEVER EVER EVER use them again. They don’t care if you need a check up they are just interested in getting more money and taking emergency appointments. NOT HERE… i’m done with you guys. THIS IS THE CHARLESTON SC LOCATION

Let me begin this review by saying I have been a long time customer of ARS/​RESCUE ROOTER.
I have purchased two (2) gas/​pack H VAC units (one in 2003 and one in 2013) along with the PM service contracts for semi annual service. Additionally, there have been a few plumbing problems over the years that they were called upon to repair.
Allow me to give the chronological chain of events to explain the above rating.
12:23 pm ⁵⁄₂₇: Friday
I noticed the AC was not cooling and called the office. The phone was answered by «Cora» an answering service employee. I requested someone from the office to give me a call. No call by 4:30 pm so a I called back and got an employee who set up an appt between 8 — 12pm on Sat., per their normal business practice.
11:55 am ⁵⁄₂₈: Saturday
I rec’d a call from April to advise the tech was on the way. Tech arrived at 12:20 pm in a rain band from Tropical Depression Bonnie, did a quick check and told me there is a coolant leak and he could not take the unit apart in the rain. Besides, he said if he needed to order any parts the office was closed and it was a 3 day Holiday weekend. He told April to reschedule appointment for Thursday June 2d (weather forecast was not looking good). April called back later and advised the appoint was set for FRIDAY JUNE 2… I told her JUNE 2 IS THURSDAY, FRIDAY IS JUNE 3. She said Okay it is fixed for Thursday.
June 1: Wednesday
A premonition told me to call and confirm the appoint for Thursday 6÷2÷2016 between 8 — 12 so I called the office and talked to Joe. Joe advised the appointment was confirmed for FRIDAY JUNE 3. NO, JOE. The appointment is for THURSDAY JUNE 2 between 8 — 12.
I repeated the conversation I’d had with April and he assured me the appointment had been changed.
10:00 am ⁶⁄₂: Thursday
I called the office to verify the schedule. Stephanie told me 8 — 12 was good.
12:16 pm no word from ARS.
12:30 pm I called office and talked to (Amal) who advised the call was still «on the board» and «someone» would call when the tech is ready to come by here. I told her I’d call back every 30 minutes until I got an answer.
1:00 pm called back Amal answered and at 1:02 phone went dead.
1:03 pm called Amal and asked if she hung up on me. No, she said, she put me on hold. I told her to let me know when she put me on hold from now on. She said she was gonna put me on hold and talk to dispatch.
1:07 Amal advised dispatch said it would be closer to 4:00 before they can get anybody over here.
A asked for and received the Managers name and phone number.
3:47 Called Manager. No answer no phone answering machine.
3:54 Dispatch called and advised Tech was on the way.
5:02 Tech arrived, fixed problem and departed at 6:40pm
The Tech has no fault in this miserable story.
The office staff should be retrained on customer satisfaction (along with the Mgr, in my opinion).

we have used ars for years. 2 years ago we bought a new ac central ac. they have been out here 5 times in 3 years. we are now on day 2 of no ac for a frozen condenser and anyone in charleston today knows at an outdoor temp of 98 it does not take two days to thaw. we are sick from heat our dogs are sick and we are headed to a hotel. ars will be paying for this. the little guy who came last night was the last liar i have dealt with from ars. please get in writing from who evere you buy your unit from their service times. do not use these lying fools from ars on oscar johnson road. it also would be helpful to not send a repair person who is not fluent in english. i am sure there are english speaking hvac people needing jobs. stay as far away from this business who clearly has people on the phone who are adept in the art of lying to everyone. two days and we were on the emergency list due to a health condition? liars the lot of them. I can not wait to see this bill, he may end up losing more than money on this deal. No 2 year old unit should need service 5 times. Call Smoaks and get a Trane, for real, it will save money in the end. Update: told they would be here in 30 mins., they were rerouting a tech… that was 2 hours ago.

I would not recommend their services. We had a hot water heater replaced and lack of professionalism lead to a lack of trust in their service. Hot water heater is working fine and technician negotiated the price down to make up for the first technician’s poor performance.

Wow the worst service ever! Bought brand new $ 6000 unit and they have already been back five times within the year. Terrible service not keeping appointments very rude and I am convinced that they are ripping us off. Do not use these guys never ever!!! I created this Account solely for the purpose to give them a negative review that’s how bad it was

I hated to give up 10 years of trustworthy service with a local Trane ac/​heating dealer Smoaks, but at my age couldn’t afford their prices especially after forking out a chunk for a water heater and other things. also I needed a company that had flexible scheduling. ARS is a 24×7 company. no more worrying about burning personal time, losing commissions at work. I went with a new Carrier unit and ARS installed it on a Saturday end of March. I didn’t have to use the a/​c until recent weeks. it ran beautifully for a week and then the outside unit starting shutting off… the tech visits were under warranty, I hope all is straight now. The techs seem competent and friendly enough… i didn’t like that the old torn insulation from the old unit was loosely put on my new heat pump freon line and really didn’t cover it so i had to get new material and cover it myself, fortunately I had a new filter on hand cos none was provided. The mgr. said they would get the heat pump issues straight and maybe now the kinks are worked out and I can enjoy a cool summer with my new a/​c. I didn’t pay several grand to burn up, and warranty is fine, but like a new vehicle even if it’s under warranty, what good is it to pay for something when it’s in the shop & you can’t use it. Joshua was very professional and checked everything thoroughly, up in the attic & outside and said he would be back again to double-​check to make sure everything is running smoothly together. I’m going to update this review at a future date and have faith the right thing will be done for the customer. They have been in business a long time and are a large nationwide company.

Back in December, I gave a glowing review for ARS, and I also purchased the maintenance plan. Today was my first inspection with the maintenance plan and today’s experience was much the opposite of my December experience. It started by giving me an 8am-​12pm window. (I understand that is their policy, but it just makes no sense why they would even suggest being there at 8:00am if they know you are not first on the list.) So I carved out half of my day off to sit around my house and wait. And wait I did. Not one person bothered to call and say they were running late. Finally at 12:45, I received a phone call asking if they could send their tech out. I said, «yes, please!!! I have been waiting since 8:00 this morning.» April gave no apologies. All she said was «ok» and hung up on me!!! The tech showed up at 1:15. He did not introduce himself. He did say «how are you?» I answered by saying «frustrated since I have been waiting since 8:00 for my 8 – 12 window.» All he did was smile at me. Again, no apologies. He did his work and left. ARS needs to better respect people’s time. I had things I needed to do today. I didn’t, but what if I had taken a half day off from work and needed to go back after 12:00? There is no reason on earth you should make somebody wait over 5 hours for you to show. Being late is the same as saying to me, «my time is more important than yours.» It is extremely disrespectful. And at the very least, common courtesy would have been to apologize for not showing up in the allotted time frame. ARS, your customer service sucked today!!!

I have used ARS Charleston for HVAC before — today I needed them for plumbing issues and they arrived quickly and did a great job getting right to work on solving the problem. John and William were professional and efficient! I would recommend ARS Charleston and John and William for any plumbing/​Sewer needs!
They addressed the issue, talked to me about the problem and future things I could do to stop it from happening again, and left the bathroom in which they worked even cleaner than when they had arrived!
Thank you ARS Charleston and John and William!

Scheduled a service call through Home Depot in Summerville. Willie, our tech was courteous and fast. He was also very polite to our inquisitive daughters. Glad to have our A/​C working again.

I have been meaning for a while to get around to this review of ARS of Charleston, but it kept slipping my mind.
After seeing their ads for an Air Condition inspection for $ 59 and their special to flush a Water Heater Tank for $ 49 I was stoked and decided to call for both services. On they phone they were very polite and explained that an HVAC tech would be out to look at the AC that afternoon, and that a plumber would be out that morning to flush the hot water heater.
So the plumber shows up and tells us that our Hot Water Heater is leaking and it needs to be replaced. And that he would not do the flush because of the age of the unit; that there was some sort of law preventing him from doing so. Anyway we didn’t have to pay the $ 49 because he did not do any work; but we did ask him to give us a quote for a Hot Water Tank. He ended up calling back with some rediculous quotes between $ 1500 and $ 4000 (tankless); making us skeptical since we’ve replaced a hot water heater before for under $ 1000. So we call some other places and they give us quotes around $ 1000; and we schedule another plumber to come out and check out the tank to make sure he orders us the right one. Well, well, if ARS’s plumber wasn’t trying to rip us a new one; the hot water heater did not need to be replaced and there was no such law prohibiting him from working on a hot water heater due to the age of the unit. Found out later that ARS gives commissions on the hot water tanks sold and installed by their plumbers. This pretty much is why ARS of Charleston gets 1 star!
Anyway the ARS HVAC guy wasn’t so bad. He inspected our AC and said everything was working fine. He even gave us a few pointers on how we could keep it running longer. So he earns 5 stars for excellent service; however this review is for the company as a whole, so still only 1 star.
In a nutshell, do not use ARS of Charleston. They will rip you off!

Roberto O. did a thorough check of my A/​C system and even found an issue that wasn’t even related to the A/​C unit but I’m thankful he brought it to my attention. He was on-​time and friendly.

Matt came in and was on time, neat, very friendly and efficient. So happy we finally found a heating and air service we can trust! I recommend ARS to anyone looking for a reliable heating and air company.

Excellent service from Matt.

Installed a new HVAC and duct work through Home Depot. Best price by a few thousand. They have been back a few times to make adjustments /​repair a faulty thermostat valve at no cost. Jim Cameron worked with my budget and got the job done. Mike Piercy followed up with me and verified the system is operating to the designed specifications. They have gone above and beyond their scope of work to make sure I was happy.

I contacted ARS on 6÷21÷2014 at 7:15am to let them know that my AC had gone out. I asked if they could confirm if it was under warranty because they had installed the unit. I was informed that she couldn’t tell me if it was under warranty, but they would send a technician out that morning. I called them back at 10:00am to try and get a better idea of when they would be coming; I was told there was no record of me calling. At 1:30 pm the technician showed up and I told him the condenser motor was over heated and had leaked oil. The technician came across very arrogant. He still could not confirm if the unit was under warranty. After two minutes of trouble shooting he replaced the capacitor and the unit was up and running. I was told he that since it was running he couldn’t do anything about the condenser motor. I was told that since he could not confirm the warranty, he would have to charge me for the work, $ 331.00, and once the warranty was confirmed (on Monday) they would void the check and re-​bill me. After 10 days and 7 phone calls I finally got confirmation that the part was under warranty. After another 14 days and 4 more phone calls, I finally got someone helpful and she got the paperwork to their accounting department. The surprise was my refund was only going to be $ 102. Somehow five minutes of labor cost me $ 140 plus the $ 89 diagnostic charge. So for a warranty repair, with a $ 30 part that took longer for him to write the receipt than do the work I was charged $ 229. I honestly believe if I wouldn’t have been persistent I wouldn’t have gotten any refund. If you expect friendly, honest service, look elsewhere.

I honestly have no idea how this branch of ARS is still operating.
Our experience is still not over… I will be updating my review.
We called these guys after having a decent experience with them for a plumbing issue. Unfortunately our HVAC unit needed to be replaced. We made an appointment for someone to come out and give us a quote and whatnot. The sales guy who we will call R, was great. Very personable, jolly, made us comfortable. Two days he said. No problem. $ 10,000. Wow, we knew it would be a lot. Fine. He let us know we needed a bigger return. Okay. By the way, not only the HVAC we were having out duct work replaced as well. Two guys showed up, no heaters as promised. It was one of the coldest weeks of the winter and we have a six month old and a nine year old. Thankfully we have a fireplace. The guys worked for two days but by the end of the second day we knew they would not be finished. We had no heat over the weekend — maybe Sunday — I can’t remember if they came Saturday. Again, this is still ongoing. After delivering the wrong unit — that also cost another day — the system was finally hooked up. We got no new return from the two men that showed up. The unit was completely off level, and the hood looked like I — or me and my girlfriends got together and decided to install an HVAC hood for fun. Horrid. The guys came back to level the unit — the first time — and stuck some metal under one side and called it good. The second time they came to level the unit they decided to take dirt FROM OUR YARD to smoosh under it, and they were using a one foot level for a… 4 – 5 foot unit. My boyfriend went outside after having surgery, and gave them a proper level. Finally it was level but the platform was now crooked and weird. Whatever at this point. R came back to collect a check. We did a walk through — no return and showed him the unit. Even he could not believe how bad it was, he took a ton of pictures and called his supervisor. He did not take any money from us and also requested that the supervisor come out and see how bad it truly is. We have not heard from them since. The job started on Jan 30^th. Do not. Call this company. R was great, that’s about it. I forgot to mention they disconnected our sump pump to hook up the unit and did not re-​attach the pump. We now have it hooked up with an extension cord. Thanks guys — looks good.
I will update if we ever hear from them again.

I wish I had read the reviews before I had these people come out for a heating and AC tune up. I actually called Home Depot because they had a $ 49.00 tune up special. They had ARS call me to set it up.
The tech came out and the first thing he said is «wow the coils are rusting, you will need a new unit soon and we can set up a few quote for you. Then he checked the Freon pressure, voltage the motor was drawing and stated it (Freon) «might be a pound or two low» but he couldn’t tell because it is too cold outside and to get an accurate reading it needs to be 70 degrees outside. The tech was very polite and could have sold me Freon and I would not have known if I really needed it or not.
My question to ARS is why do you come out for a «tune up» if you can’t get accurate readings? I know the coils are rusting on this 7 year old Goodman unit but really a new unit? That has a big unanswered question in my mind!
UPDATE: ARS came back out when the outside temperature was warmer (about 63 degrees) and checked the Freon level and found it to be perfect! Oh, there was no charge for the second service call with an agreement that if I needed Freon I would only pay for the Freon. The tech was named Doug and I will ask for him if I need service again.
On the negative the dispatcher, Chris, was extremely rude and realized she was rude and apologized. Hello, the customer pays which is why you have a job… don’t be rude to me.

I accidentally ruptured my water line to my home while working in my yard. I called ARS and they were there within an hour. Adam, the repairman, was courteous and professional. He was able to complete the repair quickly and competently. I strongly recommend him for any plumbing needs!

THE WORST!!! This is my 4^th experience with ARS and all 4 experiences were poor.
Our landlord USED ARS because they put in the AC unit and it was under warranty. They came out 3 times last year because the heat pump wouldn’t get the house warm. All the tech did all 3 times was hold a thermometer up to a vent and said it was working.
I finally called a friend on my own dime to look at it, and the output was disconnected from the vents. So it was doing a great job of heating the attic. Our electric bill that month was over $ 400 for a 1500 sq ft house. Why did I pay that much??? Because 3 different techs were to LAZY to climb a ladder. Mr friend put his had to the vent and knew what the problem was instantly.
Today ARS came out because my AC isn’t working. The refrigerator coil (That is under warranty) needs to be replaced, and they want to charge $ 1000 for labor. You can buy this cheap unit NEW on Amazon for less than a $ 1000. Our land lord said he is going to use someone he knows and quit giving these crooks money. THANK GOD.
I’ll be sure to give the next company a review and share how much it cost for the PART and service. I’m going to take a guess that it will be under $ 1000.

Needed a faucet replaced outside and called ARS. Tom, the repairman, came out and told us how the line had to be cut, re-​threaded and replaced. «It’ll take about an hour» he said. $ 125 for an hour and replacement. Sounded like an honest deal. So after we agreed, he unscrewed the faucet and screwed the new one on. 10 MINUTES! AND still charged the $ 125!
You may have screwed my mom and thought you were Mr. Tough guy, but you failed to realize the several thousand you lost with the job we had scheduled! Nice going.
Crooks. Crooks. Crooks.
Plus he left the old faucet laying in her yard. Couldn’t even clean up ONE piece. Lost a customer for life and probably every one on my street when I’m done.