We had ARS come out because we suddenly lost our hot water pressure. The "plumber" they sent out merely looked at the hot water heater and pronounced it dead, telling us we needed to buy a new one, and that we owed him $75 for the trip even if we didn't buy a new hot water heater from him. I kicked him out of my house. read more

Home Depot contracts with ARS, so if you want to have a water heater installed, they are the ones you go through. Here is my experience: Talked to the sales associate at Home Depot and he setup an appointment for me with ARS to get an estimate on the water heater install. Took the afternoon off as I was given a 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. window. At 4:00 I called and said I hadn't seen anyone yet. I was told that they were really backed up, but that I would be next in line. 5:00 rolls around and they call and say that they are still sending someone, but it would be later. 6:00 they call back and say they aren't going to make it today, but they can come first thing in the morning. I let them know that I would be at work so it would have to be in the evening after I get home. They schedule the estimate for 6:30 the next evening. The next evening, the technician gets there around 6:45 and does the estimate. He is courteous, professional, and does a great job of explaining what they will need to do and what my options are. He was really the best part of this whole experience. He leaves me with the estimates and his number, and lets me know to call him if I decide to move forward. I decided to go ahead with it, so I called him and he said he'd schedule me for 9:00 a.m. that Saturday. Saturday rolls around and I don't hear anything until about 10:00. The dispatcher says that the technician is on his way to pickup the water heater and then will be at my house shortly. Sounds good. Around 11:30 I get another call from the dispatcher saying that the technician's truck broke down, but they are still going to get to me that day, but it will need to be rescheduled to the 1:00-4:00 time frame. Ugh... I realize things happen, so I go ahead and cancel my plans for that time and continue waiting. Around 4:30 nobody has shown up, so we call again and they tell us they will still be there but it will be later. 5:00 the dispatcher calls and says that the tech will be at my house in 30-minutes. At 6:00 we haven't seen him, so at this point we are over it. We call the tech and he says that he wasn't sure if he was supposed to come because dispatch didn't let him know for sure. We then flat out ask him, "Are you coming?" and he starts talking about how late it is in the day and it may not work out, etc. so we thank him for trying and tell him not to worry about it. We then call the dispatcher and tell her that we are canceling, that we have wasted two entire days now waiting on them, and that we are done. We also called Home Depot and let them know that they are not being represented well by this contractor and that they have lost a sale because of the B.S. we went through. Ended up calling a great plumber that we had used before and had him install the water heater instead. He showed up on time, did a great job, and charged us about $300 less than ARS quoted. We should have called him the first time. Lesson learned. read more

Started out good but ended on a sour note was pretty much called a liar the install of the 2 tubs and 2 toilets was to satisfaction though one of the flanges on one toliet was cracked was told they would repair it then the next thing was told he never said that and pretty much called me a liar ..over all id used them again just not if the same plumber does it... read more

We arrived home late on a Friday and noticed water running out of our garage. Not a good sign! We realized our water heater was cracked and leaking. I started looking for plumbers that were open 24 hours since it was midnight and the shut off on our water heater had gone out too. Most places that list they are 24 hours are not. Several had me leave a message (That was returned several days later!) One did answer the phone but said they were booked until Monday. (Did I also mention this was Labor Day weekend?) The next one I called was ARS. A live person took down my information but said their appointments were full for the remainder of the night. She told me they would squeeze me in the next day where they could. The next morning, they had me on the schedule. Stephen Lopez (from Howard Lane) -came out and explained everything that needed to be done. (We knew it would be extensive since the previous owners tended to do things their own way and nothing on it was up to code.) Stephen immediately got to work and it took over eight hours in our hot garage! He not only ensured that our water heater was replaced and everything brought up to code but he had a great attitude the whole time. He communicated with us and was very professional about all of it. Needless to say, we were super impressed! Now, our hot water heater is up and running and working great! If I have any future plumbing issues, I am keeping Stephen's number handy! read more

scam artists. tried to say I needed a new system for 15k what a bunch of crooks. golden eagle repaired same day replacing one part the pressure switch. heater has ran great since. Invoice from ARS was a joke 15k and manager stated he would remove the 79 dollar charge for the bogus estimate. never happened. I would never suggest the howard lane team for heater repair. as during the coldest of times they ty to scam for new over priced systems. if you had less than 1 star I would select that. gougers and crooks and proven false by honest repair people. never again will I use ARS! read more

We had our yearly heating checkup. Mike F. did a very thorough job, and he was knowledgeable, friendly and polite.

Excellent service, ridiculous price. The hot water heater at my property had gone out. It had been giving me trouble for the past few months so my fear was that it needed to be replaced. If I needed a new one, I knew I wanted to buy a Rheem from Home Depot based on recommendations I had received from a few people. Since Home Depot has a contractor referral service, I asked them for an appointment with their provider. Their provider is ARS. The repairman was extremely responsive and courteous. I was very happy until he gave me the quote. A 40 gallon Rheem hot water heater was around $550. His labor: $1,450. He described to me that it could be a full day job. He knew I was wanted the equipment changed out that day and my guess is he used that to his advantage. To ARS' credit, they will put you on the phone with one of their customer service agents to make sure you are OK with the price or if you have any questions. Fortunately, I had 2 other people who came shortly afterwards and gave me quotes of $1,400 and $1,000. While I am sure that ARS has a reason for being so expensive, the work ended up being 3 total hours... not the almost full day the ARS repairman had told me. Had I gone with ARS, the labor rate would have been $500/hour. Ridiculous. While I appreciate the level of service, their pricing needs to be reasonable. The company I went with ended up have excellent service as well, and good / reasonable pricing. read more

Genuinely awful. My wife and I moved into our first home at the end of May. During the inspection, it was noted that the AC needed its annual service. Part of negotiations, the seller agreed to have it done and supplied the receipt. The service was $268 for annual maintenance (no filters) on two central air units/condensers. Fast forward 2 weeks after moving in, our downstairs AC cuts out. Given we have had almost 70 - 100*+ days in Austin this summer, this wasn't good. We called our home warranty and had a technician out the next day. He went through, diagnosed, and determined the condenser drain line was very clogged with debris. He had to blow out the line and since this was a maintenance item, had to charge me the regular rate ($150); not the deductible for the home warranty. When I explained the story, the technician agreed that this absolutely should have been covered in the annual maintenance and there was no way it would clog in less than a month, even after running the units all day. I contacted ARS about the situation and was transferred to three different people, explaining the entire story to each of them. I finally got in touch with the customer service supervisor whom reviewed the home's file and took notes on my case. She first alerted me that since it was after 30 days since the service, the work was not warrantied. After more pressing, she agreed to discuss it with the service supervisor. Four business days go by, no phone call. I reach out and leave two messages and finally hear back. She says that, "yes, this should have been done in the annual maintenance". She also agrees that we should be refunded the cost of having another company out to fix it ($150). Here's where it gets fun. She agrees to process a refund check for $150 and send it out to me. One week later, no phone call, no check, so I leave a voicemail for her. Two days after that, she calls to tell me that the check was issued and sent. Wait another few days, nothing. I call back and leave a message. She checks with accounting and they concur. I wait two more days and receive an email from the previous owners saying they received a check (made out to them) from ARS. I have to explain to the previous owners and leave another message with ARS. She claims to cancel the check and reissue (correctly this time). Another week passes and nothing from ARS. However, I get a letter from the previous owners with a note that ARS sent them another check for $150 (made out to them) and that I should probably get this squared away. They also included the check and stub. I could tell the previous owners felt bad about the situation. We are now over 2 months since initially contacting ARS about this issue. I call and leave two messages over two days for this same customer service supervisor to no avail. I leave a third threatening legal action (which I had in place) if this was not taken care of. The entire situation was passed along to the next incapable employee. The first mistake was the shoddy work that put me out of AC for a day and $150. After that, there is absolutely no excuse for problems. This situation should have been hand held from the beginning. I ended up getting a call at 7:30AM on Monday the 15th from the supervisor; she actually sounded concerned at this point. On Friday I received the check in the mail, deposited yesterday, and cleared today. Having lived in Austin for only 18 months, I have tried to embrace the slogan, "Keep Austin Weird" and support the local businesses that fuel the community. This is case-in-point why. With locally-owned, small businesses you deal with the people who founded them and the passion for customer care oozes out of everything they do. ARS is the quintessential example of corporate oversight and lack of accountability. This wasn't a very difficult situation; nobody was hurt, no property was damaged. After admitting they were wrong, it took them 2 months, three checks issued, a couple of dozen phone calls, and hours of my time to get this rectified. Stay away and support a company that cares. read more

We just spent 8k$ on a unit and within 2 weeks it has already went out. Obviously we still have a warranty, but these guys are doing everything in their power NOT to repair it. I've missed 2 days of work at this point to stay in this hot house and wait for these guys to get it running. 2 separate workers came and said THE SAME EXACT THING, but again, did not have the equipment to get the job done. This took 8 hours for them to tell me we needed a new compressor (For the second time) with ZERO results. The last tech, Robert told me that he knew how hot it was and he would be back first thing in the morning. I then took another day off and had to call when I noticed no one was coming in the morning. They then told us it wasn't scheduled til 5pm to come over and repair the new unit. It has been over 100 degrees outside and these guys have no empathy. The tech, Robert also had mentioned that the techs that originally installed the unit did not do it properly and that he felt it was them that should fix the problem, not him. Big regrets choosing this company read more

ARS / Rescue Rooter came out to fix my A/C. I got a time window for the same day, the tech called in advance to let me know he was on his way, and fixed the problem competently. read more

Wow, wish i had loomed at their yelp review before i called them. I am furious with this company. I had an emergency plumbing situation, and scheduled something from 8-12am the following morning. They called in the morning saying they were on the way. Then they said they were running late. Then they called saying they would be here in the afternoon. I called at 430 and they said they couldn't make it today. I told them it was an emergency and they said they would come later in the evening. Then i called their office to make sure someone would actually come because it was an *emergency* they had me wait on hold and them told me they woild not be coming and would i like to reschedule? I could have had someome 8 hours ago if they had just told me! So mad! read more

Came out quickly to look at my AC which was good. Immediately tried to sell us a $10k new unit (market price, $8k). I called Texas Air Conditioning Specialist, and $500 and 2 hours later I was back in business. Do not call ARS. read more

Beware of this company! Had an AC/Furnace system installed by this company years ago. When the variable speed blower quit, this company quoted $1500 to replace it. I called manufacturer, and got the manufacturer to replace it with a new blower under warranty. However, this company HAD to make money on the deal. charged $350 for less than 30 minutes of easy work to replace the blower. Now, I have found out that when they installed the AC/furnace, they did not replace the drain line, nor did they clean (rooter?) it out. The drain line was completely clogged, causing to water to leak into the foundation of the home. I called this company, asking for just a simple question about the leak, but the only answer I could get was for them to send out a service guy for $80 and once there I could get my answer. read more

Always canceling/rescheduling appointments or waiting hours passed schedule time. Technicians get upset if you express dissatisfaction or call out rude behavior even in a polite matter of fact manner and refuse to provide service. If you can get Passat that and they do the work, the work is good. read more

I could write pages and pages of sad experiences... I purchased a maintenance plan with these folks and it has been nothing but pure headaches. Watch out... supposedly, if you have a plan, the onsite visit to diagnose is at no cost, but every visit has AT LEAST an $89 charge even when nothing is wrong. They provide a time window that starts early in the morning and at 400p in the afternoon, we are still waiting for them to show! Every job requires lots of back-n-forth to feel satisfied or get the requirements right. As other customers point out, it is extra stress to manage this company. Ocassionally, we have a good experience, but you realize it has a lot to do with the character of the individual that is showing up who goes beyond the call of duty to get things right. Otherwise, as a service company, this one is a big disaster :( read more

Technician came out to look at heater at an office leased out to a tenant. He misdiagnosed the problem and wanted to charge $800 to replace a part or $2,700 to replace furnace. I had another company come out and look at the problem and he lit the pilot light, replaced a small $40 part and had the heater up and running again. I would not recomment ARS. Seem to be a complete rip-off. read more

Waited 3 hours for rescue Rooter they didn't even call me to let me know that they were not coming finally called them they they wanted to reschedule me after I call them I just simply cancelled their service that was so unprofessional read more

It has taken two trips and almost $800 to fix a leak under my sink. My confidence in their abilities to fix the problem is sorely lacking.

This company is super high on there pricing. Got an estimate from them today to install an electric water heater for 1549.00. That's only installation. Ridiculous. Technician was rude also. I got quotes from different plumbers for 650.00. Wow.what a difference. It pays to check around even if you have to take a cold shower for a day or two. read more

We went through Home Depot process to get a quote for a Hot Water Heater installation, they of course use ARS Rescue Rooter in Austin. We had a quick first response within about 30 minutes of filling out online request. ARS set us up an appt for the next day between 9am - 1pm. We called at 2pm to ask for an update and we were told they could not reach our plumber to get an update but that they left a message and would get back tome. By 4pm still no update so I called again, this time the person transferred me to phone of plumber assigned to me. Of course no pick up from them so I left a message asking for an update. By 6pm I called a 3rd time and now no one answered the phones. It's now a day after my initial appt and have not heard anything from ARS. This let me to Yelp where I read this problem is not unusual, also read lots of complaints about cost and quality so in the end maybe it was a good thing they left us hanging. read more

You guy always show up when you say you'll be there and are professional. My issue is with you charging me $295.00 for a 40CFM capacitor. $295 dollars!! Talking about mark-up, this is ridiculous. I do believe I was way overcharged and need to be charged a more reasonable price. read more

Our A/C went out in July, we filed with American Home Shield (AHS) (a home warranty company) on Thursday night, and they assigned ARS. It was fixed on Friday afternoon with no issues and I only paid the AHS deductible. Currently (December) our furnace is out. I think I will call ARS for that too since the other company assigned to us by AHS has been a disappointment. That review will come later. read more

Doug L came by my house after a 12 hour day to help me in a small water emergency. He's went the extra mile to diagnose the problem that eluded several previous plumbers. This required him to crawl underneath my house beneath beams, and through puddles to find the leak. Another plumber was to come out to assist with the substantial amount of work to be done. When the other guy was redirected to another emergency Doug again went above and beyond to make sure my family could have water THAT night. I appreciate his thoroughness and work ethic - both are rare these days! read more

Don't bother. They make appointments that they don't keep, then they tell you that they didn't tell you what time they were coming and then they blamed it on the fact that they have a call center in another city. I hung around all day for them to finally come before nightfall. I asked for someone from management to call me, and of course no one called. The technician said with the root problem, they need to get someone out to do an estimate on the following monday. Set a convenient time. That was a week ago. Has anyone shown up at your house to provide an estimate? Well they haven't come here either. NO show, no call, no nothing. Find some other company. These guys are totally unreliable. read more

Plumbing leak, right? I pulled off the sheetrock to expose the leak. ARS charged me $595.00 "to locate the source of the leak". They then charged me another $1695.00 to "cap the leaking pipe" and run a four foot piece of pipe from the dishwasher connection to the kitchen sink connection. Why so much, I queried??? (I'm 6' 1", 230 pounds, and I was intimidated by the three service guys!!!) This $1695.00 charge was to "locate a new source of water to run a new connection." Heck, I showed them where to connect to, but they insisted on cutting another hole in the sheetrock behind the fridge 'cause sometimes connections can be found there....this was after I carefully, and slowly explained I designed the house, and knew exactly where a "new" connection could be found. After tearing a new hole in the sheet rock, (and a new hole in me, as it turns out!), they finally concurred that the next place to look was behind the dishwasher, right next to the kitchen sink.....GOSH, who would have thought they could connect a new water pipe to an existing water pipe at that location???? Did I mention they service guys were two hours late? Seems they could not find me although it turns out, the main service tech drives by my road every day, twice a day....hmm.....sounds like padding the bill to me.....my complaint letter resulted in a refund on my credit card for the $595.00 + tax to locate the leak that I had already found.....BUT, three weeks later, still no credit on my account.....so, another complaint to the management.....Okay, we will process that tomorrow, and it will take 5-10 business days to show up on my account....that was 4 weeks ago, and still no refund..... Will keep you posted....but, I don't recommend ARS for anything after this horrible experience. read more

I called ARS/ Rescue Rooter because I had a $69.00 cupon ad. The ad said ARS would unstop any dralin for $69.00, perfect, bacause my bathtub would not drain. I placed the call in the morning and the guy finally arived around 9PM. He said that he could not do it, for some lame reason, but he could if we paid him $250.00. I told him to leave. We called another more reputable plumber who came tne next day, un cloged the tub drain and fixed 2 other mlinor un related problems and only charged $125. So there are some good Plumbers out there but ARS is not one of them. Don't get ripped off call somebody else. read more

Scheduled arrival time not kept. No call to let us know they would be running late.

I have been using ARS for 5 years in two different houses. They are always professional well trained on time and deliver great service for AC and water heater service. They even installed a softener. I couldn't be more happy. read more

These reviews are funny. It's either 5 stars or just 1. I'd vote 5 but I don't want to be one of those extreme cases. I've been a customer of ARS for over two years now. I subscribe to their "member service plan" or whatever. Basically, you pay a fee for work on any of your systems -- from plumbing to appliances. They'll come out and give a free diagnostic and you get 10% off your services (look it up). I had a problem w/ my washer/dryer. I called and I don't think they ever charged me anything. I had several plumbing problems, including a MAJOR one today. ARS was here for around 4 hours, but they only charged me for the first hour! The problem was so bad that we had to call the city. The city had to get a back-hoe and come dig up my street. Seriously, the situation was grave. ARS stayed the whole time, and even helped me transplant my poor little plants that stood in the city's way. Again, they only charged me for an hour's worth of time! All in all, I highly recommend becoming a regular customer of ARS, and signing up for that "member service plan" or whatever. It's cheap. I've done it two years running and I think it's paid off in spades. And I am INCREDIBLY proud of myself for getting through that entire review w/o one stinky sewer joke. Kudos. read more

We have an eco-smart tankless water heater. It is leaking. We contacted Home Depot who sells this model of tankless water heater. They sent out ARS/ Rescue Rooter. We paid the $59 service fee to get the water heater examined and diagnosed as to the problem. They came out and diagnosed the issue. The service technician completed an estimate for repair and/or replacement. We received an email showing the $59 service fee but we did not receive any email regarding the estimate. I know they have the correct email address because I got the service fee document. I have called everyday, (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), requesting a copy of the repair/replace estimate. I still have not received it. I am concerned that if they cannot get me a simple repair/replace estimate can they really do the job of the repair or replace. I just want to know if it is cost effective to repair the tankless water heater or to just replace it with a new one. I suppose that next week I will need to contact another plumbing company and see if they can let me know what I need to do. The tankless water heater is still dripping on the floor. I am trying to keep it dried up but at some point it could ruin my floor. read more

Told me they would arrive between 9 and 9:30 to replace my HVAC system, one of the gentlemen knocked promptly at 9. A crew of 3 worked professionally and quickly to get the work done. Very pleased. **They finished the work well ahead of the time they told me it would take. Superb service. read more

Dear Rescue Rooter: It's the weekend before Christmas, and I had a drip on my outdoor spiggot that was siphoning off water by the bucketfuls! I watched the YouTube videos and was sure I could fix it myself until I found out that my water cutoff has no handle for me to turn! Friends assured me I could turn it off on the "city side", but I was afraid to mess with that on my own with so little knowledge. Ya'll said you'd be out later today, but called almost immediately to let me know you could come right away! I printed off the $50 coupon on your site, and waited (not for long) for Larry to show up. BTW, Larry is awesome! He showed me the city side valve (which was actually very tightly on - I may not have been able to twist it on my own). He switched out the spiggot just like I had planned to, and wrote me up a ticket for $119 (that included the coupon). Other companies had quoted me as much as $180 for the same service! AND were going to charge a weekend premium. Thank you for doing the knight in shining armor routine and getting me fixed with nary a snag. read more

AVOID AT ALL COSTS.....These guys installed a faulty PRV resulting in 130 psi pressure (70 is city limit) and a broken water supply line in my house. Over $75,000 in damages later and threat of lawsuit, they entered my property illegally and replaced their PRV!!!! Now denying fault. Lawsuit pending. DO NOT USE or get excellent insurance if you chose to use these fools!!!!!!!!!!!! read more

I had my washer back up into my sink. I called a couple of places and they wanted me to wait almost 48 hours for someone to come out. I had no clean sheets and could not cook or wash dishes. I looked them up on BBB. They were courteous. Scheduled right away. Came the same day. Fixed the problem. It was also not outrageous for same day service. I would definitely call again. read more

First on a Saturday after 3 Pm, let's give a big thank you to the weekend staff that managed service call requests to get my AC serviced by Ray Smith. My house is S Austin, Ray came down from N Austin as the S Austin Tech was still working a job. Ray fixed my ac capacitor and got the cool air flowing in no time. It was a big deal because my son had some asthma symptoms going on today and we needed that AC to be working. Money well spent and thanks for the immediate service as my Saturday continued for me to grill some steaks. Thanks ARS. read more

I had a clogged bathtub and these were the only folks I could get to come out on a Saturday. They got me all fixed up and working again and I felt what they charged me was reasonable. Would definitely call again in another emergency situation. read more

I had a backed-up main line that my plumber couldn't get to today. I called ARS and they did a great job! They came in a timely fashion and my tech was polite and gave extra advice about maintaining my system. My only complaint is that it was $30 over what my plumber would charge, but in the end that is minuscule compared to having a backed-up main line. read more

As others have said, we purchased a high efficiency water heater from Home Depot because of rebates offered through our city utilities Home Depot uses ARS for installation. They came out and quoted $1,700 just for the installation, plus $600 more for code requirements ($2,300 total). The man who came also told my husband that he would never buy anything from Home Depot because all they sold was junk! HELLO! You have this job because Home Depot referred you! (We will be informing Home Depot of our experience.) We said no thank you and called our regular plumber. In the mean time I researched code requirements for water heaters in my location and none of the "required" code updates were needed for our house. Our plumber came out and installed the water heater for $500.00. Beware, do your research and get second opinions on quotes if they seem too high. read more

My mother, who is elderly, and lives alone called me in a panic due to a pipe having burst. It was spewing out water and she could not get it to stop. This was around 8pm, and understandably she was very upset and in tears. I told her not to worry and I would call and get someone out there to help her. I called ARS Rescue rooter and they assured me they would get someone out there that evening, but since it was a weekend it might take a little while. After several hours of waiting I called them again, and they told me she was next in line and there was no need to call anyone else. Well, we did not hear from them, EVER. They never called at all. I eventually called another service who showed up in 1 hour. We called many times over the next three DAYS to find out what happened and were told a manager would call us, he never did. So finally we called and got a hold of a manager and he said he was very sorry this happened and promised he would look into it and call us back. It is two weeks later and still no phone call. This is one of the most unprofessional services I have ever dealt with. read more

I have used ARS several times over the past 7 years and have always been very please with their service and professionalism. Most recently (this past Spring) we had our ductwork redone. Alex Kuzamanovski led the team which completed the work. He explained everything that was to be done and why, gave us all of our options, oversaw all of the work, filled for our energy rebates and called several times to followup and make sure that we were happy. I cannot say enough good things about him and the crew. This summer our house has been cooling more efficiently with far fewer "hot spots" and we have even seen a reduction in our energy use. Thank you! read more