Southern Trust Home Services

Laurel R.

One of their plumbers unclogged my bathtub drain. Took him less than 15 minutes. The discounted bill was $733.00!!! I called the office the next day to question this charge and no one was available to speak to me about it. I called again three days later; again, no one to talk to! I called the third time and was put to a manager's voice mail because he ""wasn't picking up his phone"". Since they cannot talk to me I do not need to use their services again. This is HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!!!

Pamela S.

We had a back up in the summer2018 , it was about 12:30 in the morning, My washer backed up in the laundry room, The guy came cleaned out my main floor drain, but the clog was where the washer drained , he tried to unclog it then said he could not and thought the pipe was broke, . So he said to drain the washer in the floor drain which I trip over. He said he would get back with me, never did, I called and left a message no one ever got back to me. I joined that club to save 15% but I still paid over a thousand dollars to clear a floor drain, never fixed the other pipe which I called for. I will never recommend them. I now can not afford to change the washer from draining in the floor. Horrible company.

Beatrice L.

We will never uses southern trust again . Found out these guys work on commission and will try to sell you expensive products. They over charged us on a new electrical panel board. Once they do their work they are nasty when you complain about anything not working. I am going to file a complaint with the bbb.

Chris B.

Called at 7:30 one morning needing a plumber. Their answering service was very polite and seemed genuine to help. However after two hours of waiting for a callback I called them back. The answering service told me they gave the message to Southern Home Trust and that someone should have already called me back. I received a callback from this business later that afternoon wanting to know if I still needed someone. I had already found another person who responded within 30 minutes. Will not call this business again for help.

Eric V.

UPDATE/EDIT: After speaking with Ted (owner) at Southern Trust, we determined that the technician was, in fact, mistaken in his diagnosis. They kindly refunded the cost of my service call, which I appreciate.

My first experience with Southern Trust was positive. We had a clogged drain, and they were the only company I could get in touch with on a Saturday. The person they sent to snake the drain was courteous and professional. I was actually so impressed by him that I purchased a year of their ""Total Care Club.""

Fast forward one week, when I was having an issue with my upstairs HVAC. They sent a technician to come out and have a look. He poked around for over an hour and couldn't find anything. He then had to call his ""buddy"" who knows something about Carrier HVAC systems (since he apparently did not know anything about them), and he then concluded that we had a ""mismatched system."" Our compressor outside, he said, was made to run on the newer R410a refrigerant, while the upstairs air handler was made to run on the older and now obsolete R22. His solution? We needed to replace THE ENTIRE SYSTEM, inside and out, and that if we wanted something comparable to what we have now, it was going to cost us roughly $12,000!

I thanked him for his time and, as politely as I could, told him that I was fairly certain he had made a mistake. We have a Carrier Infinity HVAC, which is Carrier's top of the line system, and it is sensitive enough that it simply wouldn't run if the systems were mismatched like this. I paid him for the service call and showed him to the door.

The next day I got a call from Southern Trust. They wanted to make sure I was happy with my service call. I wasn't happy, and I conveyed as much to the woman on the phone. She passed the message along to Roger (service manager?), who called me back to discuss the issue. I told him the story that I just told you, and he told me that he was going to side with his guy until I got a second opinion, and that I should call him back when I did and that he would refund the cost of my service call if it turns out that the problem was misdiagnosed. I told him that was fair.

I called an in-town Carrier dealer, and they sent a technician out to take a look at my system. He confirmed what I already knew: that we did not have a mismatched system. ""Whoever told you that has no business working on HVAC systems. I've been looking at your system for five minutes and I know it's not a mismatched system,"" he said. When all was said and done, we did need a new compressor, which wasn't cheap, but it was a far cry from a $12k total replacement.

At this point I called Roger back to see about getting reimbursed for the cost of the service call. And to my shock, Roger had conveniently forgotten all about our conversation! He had no idea who I was, and had no memory of our conversation, or so he said. He took down my name and told me he would call me back in the morning. Five days later now and I'm still waiting for that call.

I was optimistic about Southern Trust after my first visit, and I thought for sure I had found a home service company that I could keep on my speed dial and call for any and all emergencies. That changed very quickly when they sent a technician who either 1) had no idea what he was talking about or 2) was trying to take advantage of me. From subsequent conversations with former employees of Southern Trust, I know that their service guys work on some kind of commission plan, so I'm guessing he was just trying to jack up his paycheck.

This experience was unfortunate not only because of the technician that they sent, but more significantly, for the company's unwillingness to side with the customer when the customer was clearly in the right!

No technician from Southern Trust will ever set foot in my house again. I encourage you to read other reviews on here and other media for similar stories of price-gouging.

James B.

My brother had Southern Trust come out and give an estimate to replace his gas water heater. It was going to be over $2,000 but with a small discount because he was a veteran the total would be $1,800. I am appalled that this company scams people much less retired and a veteran with this kind of price. I told my brother to call Lowes and he is getting a guess water heater installed for $700. Please tell everyone you know what a rip-off this company is. Especially for seniors and veterans. This company knows it does not cost that much for a gas water heater plus installation. Shame Shame shame on you Southern Trust. I think the word trust should be taken out of their name. Because clearly they are not a company that you can trust.

Judy W.

The word Trust needs to be removed from the name of Southern Trust Home Service because you can not trust them. On January 19,2018 my husband who is 77 was home alone when he realized our toilet was clogged. He called Southern Trust and they sent out a service person named Mike. All Mike did was pull our toilet, used a router to clear the line, and reset the toilet. These are his words taken from his work request
form. He did not even replaced the seal after removing the toilet. He charged him $962.63. My husband told him that was a great overcharge but he said the book stated that charge. We did receive a generous military discount which made our final payment $866.37. He then for the next hour proceed to try to sell him a ST total care club plan. My family members have called the company over six times regarding the over charge and the fact that we were taken advantage of. We got no where. We requested a call from the owner or an appointment to discuss the overcharge but we were told the owner only took messages from the reception and he was too busy to set an appointment. We will never used this company again and we do not recommend that you use them either. We want to rate them zero because we were not treated fairly.

Dale S.

It started out great. We had a water heater that was leaking and needed an urgent visit on Saturday. They were quick to dispatch a technician. Turned out the water heater was rusted in the bottom and that is where the entire thing went bad. When the repair man told us it would be $1891 to replace our 50 gallon electric water heater. First off, its in the garage easily accessible, it has screw on connections from the valves requiring no soldering or CPVC fittings. I asked what the cost of the tank was as I had done some research and this seemed like an extremely high price. The technician wouldn't tell me and said they don't price each item, just a price for the entire service and they have a set price regardless of how easy or hard the job was. I paid the $99 service fee and sent him on his way. A quick call to CMC supply in Salem and they were extremely helpful getting me a professional quality tank for $398 and the two fittings I needed based on the picture for an additional $42. 30 minutes later (YES that's right ONLY 30 minutes to install) the water heater was installed and working. Total price $442. I totally expect to pay a premium for an install on a Saturday, but $1900 is beyond ridiculous. Then they responded and said it's because they don't use fittings and give a 10 year warranty( although they tried to sell me a warranty in addition to the $1900). I'll take my chances to save $1500!

Valerie G.

The young man was courteous and on time. However, the upsale to total care was pushed and almost $3000 for a gas hot water heater replacement was unreasonable. Even after some discussion it was almost $2000. For the same installation I was able to get the same brand installed at $1000 with good warrenty. It took 2 hours to get to $1900 and paying for the visit. He also left me with pilot light off which I was able to do myself.

Sigma Alpha P.

Prompt response and cooperative, knowledgeable technician. Have used George on 3 separate occasions now for rental property in Blacksburg VA. Use for troubleshooting and electrical issues that we consider 'beyond DIY' repairs and/or pricing is reasonable. George provides estimates on the spot and can perform any work agreed upon immediately. Went out his way on last visit to wait until we had security camera system functional before leaving site to ensure his minor portion of work was installed to our satisfaction.

George is 5-star, only discounted to 4 due to Southern Trust Home Services pricing/estimating/cost basis. Everything is priced on a unit cost for a given task regardless of simplicity or complexity of individual task. This results in very high pricing points for some very simple tasks. Try to make up with coupons but would be good if technicians had pricing flexibility for overly simple tasks.

On plus side we now have company 'on-call"" that will send technician immediately to fix a problem rather than trying to chase down an available technician. Great for emergency situations such as clogged drains and broken down HVAC unit.