ARS / Rescue Rooter

Trudy C.

SENIOR CITIZEN FRAUD!!

They went to my mothers home on a Sunday and spent four hours hounding her into signing a $15,000 contract for plumbing work she did not need. If you spend 5 minutes with my mother you can tell she has dementia. She is 85 and has Sunday's to herself at home, this is when they pounced on her. Not only did they get her to sign the contract they also convinced her to sign a lien on her home and waive her right to a three day waiting period by convincing her that her house could suffer a catastrophic loss if she waited even one moment. She asked the salesperson if she had that amount of money...he responded that if she didn't have it, she could take out a reverse mortgage on her home to pay for it.

Of course I launched a huge complaint the next morning within 18 hours of her signing this contract and cancelled the whole thing, but not before they had an older gent digging in the yard. Rescue rooter cashed her $1000 deposit she gave them that fateful Sunday. They had promised me they would not cash it and she would be billed for any work they had already performed. They kept her $1000 and charged her $150 PER HOUR for what she describes as an ""old man"" digging up her front yard! I understand keeping a portion or billing us for a portion of work that was performed but that is highway robbery!

I called Adult Protective Services of San Diego and they asked if they could turn everything over to the District Attorney for potential prosecution. We submitted everything and we are now working with the DA on this issue.

Classic case of senior abuse! My mother is a Marine Veteran and in general from a generation of trusting folks. They are easily taken advantage of. Before hiring this company, please look around the internet at their reviews. There are several other families that are making the same claim we are making. Please help us protect our senior citizens from this unscrupulous company with shady business practices.

ADDENDUM: We had a real plumber come in and assess our home. He found one small issue with one single elbow in the cast iron pipe under the home. It could have been repaired for $700 which included some other work. Instead we opted for them to do a complete overhaul and remove all cast iron pipe from the home so she doesn't have to worry. This is the work Rescue Rooter ARS said was mandatory. Once the pipe was out it was found to be in excellent condition and would have lasted decades. But you couldn't be sure until pulled it out. Final and total cost for total overhaul that ARS wanted $15,000 for? $4,460 out the door and it is done now and working great.

Karen M.

ARS is the ambulance chaser of plumbers! Unbelievably aggressive and unethical. I live in a condo development. My neighbor had a leak in his bathroom and called ARS. Ultimately, it turned out the leak was in the bathroom in MY unit! ARS ""offered"" to tear out my walls, but I informed them I had my own, longtime plumber. ARS told the neighbor that they (ARS) would tear out his shower, since the leaking water came out from there, before even knowing what kind or how big the leak was! My plumber came out and then sent out a leak detection company who located the leak. Keep in mind, the leak into the neighbor's condo lasted about 6 hours (middle of the night) until my main line was turned off and stayed off until all was repaired! ARS showed up at my house twice, I did not hire them. ARS called the leak detection company to inquire about my plumbing! Luckily, the leak detection company called me to find out if ARS had permission from me...NO! My neighbor could and did speak to my plumber and the leak detection company , and never told ARS to contact either! I would never recommend this company!

Patty S.

My 88 year old mother had a toilet in her home that wasn't flushing. On 8/24/17 I called ARS/Rescue Rooter to take a look at it and although they did show up that night, it was somewhat later than they had indicated they would be there. They got the toilet to flush and checked others in the house since they all go through the same pipes in the basement of the home. A few hours later, long story short, they told me she needed to have 10 feet of the pipes inside the wall replaced. They advised it was eminent that she was going to have a much more serious problem and it could be done for the low price of $7821.....WOW!! They wanted me to approve it so they could begin demolition the next morning. I put them off since it is a huge expense and my mother is on a fixed income. I had another plumber take a look at it a few days later - they did the camera in the pipes again, the whole thing. They advised that they would be happy to replace the pipes if she wanted it done, but didn't think it was needed. If she wanted them to do the work it would at most cost only half what was quoted by the ARS/Rescue Rooter guys. So in the end, my mother paid just under $350 to Rescue Rooter for their work, and less than $100 for the second plumber to come out and evaluate the problem. I won't be calling them again.

Neil T.

The worst of the worst !!! When I called a woman answer and couldn't answer my plumbing questions told me they could send someone and I could ask when they got here ahhhggg !!! So the guy arrives says I have to pay just to knock on my door ?? $125 for what ? Told me the water heater needed to be replaced $1850.00 I told him to leave !! I didn't pay so I called rocketman plumbing over the phone they advised me the tank needed to be flushed so I invited them to do it costed me $75 bucks so friendly they told me if the water heater needed to be replaced it would of only of been $950. Wtf ARS !! Tried to straight of rip me off !! I wonder how many people get burned by these guys ? BTW water heater working great sense it was flushed rocketman plumbing saved the day my hero !!

Amy B.

Today, my toilets were making funny bubbling noises and my shower had spewed out sewage from its drain. My whole house smelled like a toilet bowl. I was utterly disgusted. That's when I called Rescue Rooter to come out and handle this nasty situation.

Richard Hill, from the company, was very helpful by not only literally getting to the root of the problem but provided me with pictures and excellent customer service!

He even left my shower spotless when I thought I was going to have to put on gloves and mask my face. I was very grateful.

Thank you Richard and to your Supervisor who took the time to thoroughly get to the bottom line issue.

I appreciate it!

Amy

Chef J.

Came out today and fixed my man drain for $88--coupon special on their site. Xzavia is the man---ask for him..Very helpful and polite. Rotorooter charges $145 to $176. They accept AAA for 10% off of non specials. No issues at all but their number was not from this office I don't think. It was a 619 number. Couldn't be more pleased. The bad reviews...I think it depends on who you get. Ask for Xzavia!! 90 day warranty.

Darren C.

Based on our experience, i would never do business with this company again. We had a hose leak (extendable hose within kitchen faucet) and we simply wanted that replaced. The guy who came out recommended that we let him pick up a 200 dollar faucet at the local store, which he would mark up to 350, and then install, for a grand total of 872 (LOL) ... That is more than our new dishwasher (installed). We ultimately fixed the problem for 10 dollars (thanks youtube). Looking at the existing reviews, I see that my experience is not unique. Please protect yourself by not doing business with dishonest people.

DJ F.

Where to begin. First off these guys are a bunch of rip off artists. Under no circumstances should you use them for anything. This story is a little long but it goes to show how low they will stoop. July 3rd we had a major mainline backup leaving us to barely use the bathroom. The next day being 4th of July we knew we were in for it. I waited until the 5th, called rescue rooter, and hopefully they could clean the blockage out. My wife left early from work, and met the tech at the house. They proceeded to charge us $300 to ""clean out"" a root invasion in our mainline, and scope the pipes. They told us they drilled a small hole in the root ball. That's it, no clearing of the roots nothing else. I paid $300 essentially for nothing. They proceeded to tell us we had a broken pipe down stream and it needed to be replaced. There was going to be tearing up of the sidewalk, 35 feet of lining and some other stuff. We were told we had a Max of 3 days to fix it otherwise we'd be in for $30,000 repair bill, including digging up the street. I was floored to say the least. They gave us 3 estimates ranging from $8700 to almost $18,000. I called a plumber friend of mine and he advised me to wait until he can talk to some people. I called another company who came out and not only cleaned out the roots FOR FREE. but gave us an estimate of work that was a whopping $2100. Rescue rooter essentially didn't do the work that was initially requested, than used scare tactics, hopefully forcing us to make a hasty decision and spend thousands of dollars. Luckily this wasn't my first rodeo, I'm a grown man, not a kid and I was able to save myself from their shady business practices.

Bin Y.

I had clogged toilets and my friend recommended me ARS. I called ARS at 7pm and was able to make the same day evening appointment. The appointment window was 7:30-9:00, and Jose Ruiz showed up at around 8:10. He was very professional and had all the problems solved quickly and smoothly. I was very impressed and would definitely use ARS for my drain cleaning service next time.

Jorge T.

This company is HORRIBLE!! I called them because I had a slab leak and they came out pretty quickly. I told the ARS plumber I had a slab leak and he looked for a couple of minutes and told me he had to wait for his supervisor. An hour and a half later his supervisor shows up and tells me I need to re-pipe my supply line and he would give me a really good ""deal"". I talked to my insurance company and they told me they would only pay to repair the leak and not for a re-pipe. I told that to the ARS supervisor and he lost interest, he would not return my phone calls to set up a time to come over to do the repair. I got fed up with their unprofessional attitude and I called another plumber. They came out right away and troubleshot it down to the drain line. They replace the cast iron pipe the next day and patched everything up the following day. if I would of went with ARS, they would of charged me for a re-pipe that would not of fixed the problem. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!