ARS Universal

I discovered that I had a leaky, rotting pipe underneath my sink. ARS Rescue Rooter sent me their most miserable technician, Warren. He never smiled, barely spoke and didn’t respond to some of my questions. He replaced a leaky section of pipe under my sink, then left with barely a word. After he departed, my garbage disposal mysteriously was not working and the drainage in my sink was poor. I called ARS to ask them to send someone back and they said they would, on Tuesday between 1 – 6. No one came and no one called. When I inquired the next day with ARS, they said that I was actually scheduled ‘today’ between 1 – 6. Again, no one showed up or called. I finally called my insurance company, American Home Shield to see if they could set up a service appointment on my behalf, seeing as how they had arranged the first call. So today, at 6pm, the third day of waiting at home between 1 – 6, they just called to say they are on the way over. Terrible.

Waited over two weeks for an appointment. Each time they were supposed to show up, I’d call to see where they were and they would tell me I didn’t have an appointment and I’d have to re-​schedule. I recently moved into a house that they had been servicing for years, so I stuck it out thinking they’d have a good history of my HVAC unit.
Finally get a technician out who quickly fixes my issues. Yay! Sort of. Two bad I had to go two weeks without heat for such a quick fix. I asked if he could show me what was going on, in case it happened again and it was something simple I could do. He refused to show me what he had done. Then, of course, the technician claims that wiring is bad and I could replace it or just buy a whole new unit. Because it just really couldn’t be THAT simple, right?
On his way out. I pointed out that the thermostat only seemed to be working in the Emergency mode and wanted to make sure the heat pump for the furnace was working as well. He seemed highly annoyed that I wanted clarification on this and told me the heat pump was working fine. I thanked him and sent him on his way. Later, I found that he had tossed a bench from my attic out onto the rafters, I’m assuming to access something in a corner. My attic is framed, but not finished. He left the bench clear out in the rafters, after a few attempts, I’m assuming because it’s impossible to reach and lug back to where it was. How delightful.
Later that week, I got a second opinion. The second technician was extremely qualified and very thorough. He explained everything to me and went through all the wiring to make sure there wasn’t an issue. I asked him about the heat pump as well, as it still seemed to not be working. Surprise, surprise. My unit does NOT have a heat pump. The technician from ARS literally lied to me when he told me he had checked it and it was working.
Poor customer service. Dishonest Technicians. And, unresolved issues. Don’t even bother calling.

HORRIBLE. The marietta, GA office is quite possibly the worst customer service I have ever received. I am now on my third try for missed appointments by this firm. I scheduled an appointment on Wednesday for Friday between 1−6pm (with 30-​minute advance courtesy call to let me know technician was on the way). Mistake #1: they tried to come out Thursday even though I specifically told them that Thursday wouldn’t work. On Friday I called them at 3pm because I hadn’t heard from them, and they assured me I was on the schedule and would received a courtesy call 30 minutes ahead. I left work early at 4pm assuming they would surely be out by 4:30 since the window ended at 6pm. I was away from my phone for a few minutes and they called at 5pm with the courtesy call. AT NO POINT DID ANYONE INFORM ME THAT IF I DID NOT ANSWER THE COURTESY CALL OR RETURN THAT CALL WITHIN 10 MINUTES THEY WOULD SKIP MY APPOINTMENT. Yet, that is exactly what they did. Then they told me they couldn’t get anyone else out there the rest of the night, after I specifically took off work to meet them. They then proceeded to promise me the FIRST service call on the schedule for Saturday morning, which would be at 8:30. No one showed up. I called them AGAIN at 10:05am to find out what was going on… and they explained that they didn’t come out because my home was not convenient for the technician for the first appointment. So they lied to me and changed my appointment without consulting me, and never even bothered to tell me that. Now I am still sitting here waiting for the technician to arrive at 11am, and I will end up missing three of my kids’ soccer games to meet the technician… who I have little confidence will show up.

Ron came out to repair my AC that was not working, and a very hot day in Atlanta. He was courteous, professional, personable and very thorough. He fixed the problem, performed routine maintenance and had me back up and running. I am happy to recommend him and Universal to anyone.

I did not have a good experience with ARS. I called on a Friday afternoon for service and the operator said a technician would come to my house the next morning between 8 – 12. No one showed up at all on Saturday and I did not receive one call to let me know the technician was running late.
A little after 12, I called back and was told the tech was delayed and I was next on the list. I was given a bunch of excuses for their tardiness and was told someone would call me when they were 45 minutes out. I can understand tardiness, but I would have been a lot less frustrated if someone had bothered to let me know instead of making me wait all day.
I called back at 4pm because I hadn’t heard anything. In the same amount of time, another company had been called out, arrived, and provided a quote. At 4pm, I was advised they would call me back in 30 minutes; they would call the tech for information about the time they could come that evening or would send someone first thing on Sunday. I didn’t get a call back and no one ever showed up Saturday.
I did get a call at 8AM Sunday morning and a Tech arrived at my house around 9:15. The tech wanted to replace all kinds of stuff the other company did not seem to think I needed. I ended up calling a third company, who won the job, and they didn’t find it necessary to replace anything that ARS suggested. I felt like they were just trying to add on a bunch of stuff, like when you go to a car repair shop for an oil change and they try to sell you the air filter and wiper blades when you don’t really need them.
I was truly disappointed with my experience with ARS and will also be sharing my experience with Home Depot, since they have aligned themselves with this company as well.

UPDATE: ARS sent another tech, (English was not his native language*) who they said was one of their best diagnostic techs. Aside from the language barrier, he seemed pretty good. He showed us a blown fuse and said that was the problem, although I have never seen an automotive-​type blade fuse in a AC unit. I am not a trained AC tech, so I have to take his word for it. He also commented on the «bad wire» where I had by-​passed the condensate safety switch to see if the switch was the problem. It had no effect on the operation of the unit except to remove the safety switch form the equation, but he seemed fixated on the «bad wire».
Long story short (er):he spent a lot of time there and the unit now cools. Later I checked the original condensate pump which had previously been proclaimed «bad» and it seemed to work. ARS Said they could send someone out to confirm and if they said it was OK they would refund our cost of the new pump. They did not charge us for the second service call.
Honestly, the home office customer service folks seem nice and are very willing to give refunds or credits. That’s the Good News. The Bad News is they shouldn’t have to… We would have been thrilled if they had fixed the unit the first time and no refunds or credits would have been required or requested.
*Political Commentary: With some many people out of work, why is it so hard to get English-​speaking technicians? Maybe good techs are really hard to find. At the risk of sounding politically incorrect or insensitive, I would like to be able to communicate with the tech working on my AC.

So, after my last review (mind you, phone calls, FB reviews, etc meant nothing), the manager called and offered to replace the leaky coil since there had been repeated problems with this unit and the brand in general. The service guys (who are always polite) came out and replaced it. Problem not fixed. It is 9pm and the house is still hotter inside than it is out. Technician set thermostat to 75 which was reasonable since it was around 85 today. After about four hours I lowered it to 70 thinking that perhaps I just couldn’t feel the difference since I had been working in the yard. It is 80 outside and the thermostat reads 81 in here. They simply cannot aknowledge despite all this time and money that they sold me a lemon or as the one very honest technician told me, they installed it incorrectly. I repeat. Do NOT buy from them unless you just like to waste money.

Lionel F, installed new coils for my system to replace faulty coils that had previously been installed. Lionel was very professional and thorough. He completely finished his job and double-​checked everything. He wanted to make certain that I was happy with the work. He had called the following day to check to see how everything was running. I would highly recommend Lionel as a service tech for AC work.

My husband and I have used ARS for a couple of years, but this year they don’t have time for us. He called over a week ago (the middle of May, not the middle of the summer) and the earliest they could send someone was the following Wednesday. On Wednesday nobody showed, and when he called he was told that some technicians were out sick, but we would be first in line on Thursday. On Thursday nobody showed despite multiple calls, and another promise we would be first in line on Friday. Friday morning nobody showed and we cancelled the appointment at noon, assuming nobody will show again today.

To sleep better, I cool my home to 70 every night. Three days ago I had a tech come to replace a filter and do a tune up. He kept attempting to sell me on a new system and told me how my system is broken. Once I received the quote for a new system, he mentioned that he’d follow up in a week. After the «tune up» my home can’t seem to cool below 74. I’m forced to get a new system but I won’t be going with ARS.

Deon was fantastic. He was very efficient, honest and professional. I scheduled my 6 month appointment to have my A/​C units serviced and Deon conducted a thorough inspection and gave great feedback on future services that I needed. I truly appreciate the help! This appointment just reaffirmed my confidence in ARS Universal and its services.

Avoid at all costs. At least their corporate customer service in TN is quick to refund the money this location tries to screw out of you when you provide them a receipt from a reputable company showing what they’ve recommended was completely FOS. Check out the «not recommended» reviews. Where there is smoke, there is fire!

Norberto came to perform the annual service check-​up on my furnace, AC and heat pump. He was courteous, prompt, and thorough. He made several recommendations and explained why he though they were options I needed to consider. I feel very good receiving service from Universal and expect to remain a customer, and am happy to recommend them to others.

Ray Tilley and Deon Triplett were excellent. I had an issue with my water heater earlier this year and someone came out to fix it. I didn’t know that it was not how the system was supposed to run. Ray and Deon fixed the issue and didn’t not leave without making sure that EVERYTHING was working right. I really appreciated them not doing a half assed rushed job.
Thanks so much!

I called the office yesterday to confirm that an appointment that had been set up a couple of months ago was still on for today. They checked to insure that it was and said the dispatcher would call me later in the day to confirm the time of arrival. The dispatcher called as promised and confirmed that I was first on the list for today.
Eric, the technician, showed up at about 9 AM (Atlanta traffic) and proceeded to perform the system check out that I had requested. He had all of the correct information for our system and checked everything out without a hitch. Eric was both professional and very personable, he was a real pleasure to work with. All of my recent experiences with ARS have been exceptional and this one continued in that vein.

(BEWARE) !! Due to improper installation and service they have caused $ 30 – 40,000.00 worth of damage to our home. Multiple reports have pointed to them as being responsible and all we are getting from Universal is the runaround. (DO NOT HIRE) !!

I’ve been a loyal client of Universal’s for almost 5 years. They have installed an $ 8k dollar system and done all of my maintenance and repair on three units in my home for that time. My loyalty is thread bare today after three consecutive promises broken in the last 24 hours. Not to mention the two other times over the years that they just don’t show when they say they will. It seems that their ability to schedule and dispatch is paralyzing their business. Shouldn’t they have that part down? I’ve never had this experience with any other service provider to this extent. Universal needs to fix this or they will continue to lose clients. Very disappointed indeed.

We bought 2 new systems in May of 2012 from ARS Universal and spent $ 15K Lo and behold less than 40 days after the expiration of the warranty, one of the two units is blowing constant semi cool air. I called immediatly to have them come out today. They said their service window was from 8AM to Noon. Well I decided to go to work instead of wasting a whole day waiting for them. I called them at 11:46 AM and the dispatcher /​service rep said they «were running a little late as the prior service call was taking longer than expected» and they should be there a little after 1PM. It is 1:11PM now, no word, still at work. I am going to go ahead and post this and if the service person ever shows up I will let you know the quality of work. At this point they get 1 star as no stars is not an option.

The absolute worst. This company has representatives trolling Home Depot looking for people to sign up for a furnace «tune-​up.» Do not take this deal.
My air conditioner quit cooling. I called ARS they came out and after 10 minutes said I need a new unit outside, $ 3800 for a new one. So i signed the paperwork to get him out of my house because I knew the unit was working fine.
My friend send me another person and he said all it was a burnt cable and capacitor, He Charged me $ 150 and my unit was back and running. So I saved $ 3650 by not signing with ARS Rescue Rooter.
Stay away from them, You’ll save yourself a lot of money and trouble.

a week ago they had me scheduled for a system check. two weeks later they show up.??
then the tech say both systems are low on freon. he charges both systems stated i need a total of 6 pounds of freon. says to me it would cheaper to buy the service agreement. you will save $ 70.00.
and anything else i do will be at no charge.
as soon as he left. get this now my system. was working fine just had them come to check it. well that’s when all hell broke out. he over loaded my system.
funny he kept looking at his gages all is ok. i called. that evening because my system shut it self down. they sent the same man back out. when he came he stated that my system is old that’s why it shut down. you need to talk the office to get a new system. he left. i call another company. they came out he put gauges on system. first thing noticed. your system is over charged. wow
WARNING DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY
WISH I HAD USED Unilocal FOR VERIFICATION OF THIS COMPANY. WOW HAS POOR RATING.