Why Angies List Sucks

You are soooooooooooooo right ... YOU do need to get over it! AND yes you are more than immature, but you certainly have that right. I know the truth hurts YOU and no doubt you will have something to say about this too! Ahhhhhh YOU never answered any of the questions posed ... just running your mouth. Go figure!

Jenny Gray

It would be better if Angie's List rated only upon customer reviews, but they don't. They give their own ratings "based on a local expert." Unfortunately, I learned too late to ignore Angie's List ratings, and I am paying the price.

Im a small buiness owner and would have to say that Angie's List work ethics are a disgrace and are dishonest. AVOID DOING BUISNESS WITH ANGIE'S LIST. A Midwest Company

Hi Everyone

I am in Saint Louis and I like Angie's list. We bought an older house and have had to do some major repairs. We haven't been in town long enough to have a network and know who is good and who isn't. It isn't perfect but it is a nice place to start. Some small businesses are clearly aware that they have a good reputation on Angie's list and get a lot of referrals from the list. I think that they are also aware that the work that is done will ultimately be rated on the list so there seems to be an incentive to continue to do good work. In Saint Louis there does seem to be a relatively robust database that is helpful in determining who should bid on work etc. If there is a better way I would be happy to save the $50/year. Seems similar to the Homeowners Club of America in a certain sense.

The only plus I can see with that site (theservice 4guide.com)is the fact that the service is free. Their "strict standards" don't seem all that strict to me, almost on par with saying "do you have a heartbeat?" They are telling you to just trust them, but their revenues come from the businesses.

They say they turn down more companies than they accept. If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in. On the other hand, they could be a referral service created or financed by some of the businesses themselves to steer business their way, so they may turn down their competition. A lot of referral services work that way, unfortunately. I wouldn't expect much from them, but you never know I guess. Good luck.

I have been in business for over 25 years. We have over 10,000 repeat customers who would rave about our service, we also probably have 100 past customers who we refused to do or wanted something for nothing who would be the type to get on Angies list and complain. It is a crap shoot! We go out of our way to please our customers and 99% of our customers are very happy with our service. Most people expect and demand good service or they would go somewhere else they WOULD not go on to a place like angies list and PAY to say that they received the service they expected in the first place!

I am a small business owner. In my opinion Angie's List is very good for the consumer and blatantly unfair to businesses. This may sound like sour grapes but my company is listed in 5 categories on Angie's List and we have an A+ rating in all categories and have been awarded with the Super Service Award in these categories for the last 4 years. Angie states that only 2% of the companies on the list receive this "honor".

Anyhow - the majority of the subscribers on the list are simply using the list to find reputable companies and this works well for all involved. It is the other small percent that have found they can use the list as clout to "blackmail" companies into providing free services. No one from Angies List inspects the work done but will print anything a home owner states. Even though a very clear contract is involved specifying the work Angie will still side with the home owner and if you do not do exactly what the homeowner wants you no longer receive referrals from the list or worse yet receive negative referrals....

And the advertising rates are ridiculous and there is a substantial increase every year....Splitting of territories, spin offs and yearly increases - ridiculous - Glad someone is finally grading the grader!! I give Angies List DDDDD

Anyhow it is a good scam for Angie and friends and does benefit the homeowners, but small business beware. There is a huge price to do business with Angie's List -- feels like dancing with the devil...............

I am fifty years old, and I wish that I could believe in this perfect world of people just wanting to "help people." Maybe you can find that at church, but not on the internet, not matter what you try to "sell" yourself as. This Angie's list business is about money, and when money is the agenda, you must always ask yourselves if the data is going to be good. At 500,000 members and $60 a year each, that's $30,000,000! And on the way to the bank, they can tell themselves that they are "helping people," but really, would they care if they weren't, at that kind of income? And then, they charge businesses to have their listing upgrades, and get ad revenue. This is BIG money, so sorry folks, I am too old, and too cynical to believe in unbiased helpfullness, when that kind of money is being raked in. This is HUGE money, and common to all money making ventures, the person with cash to pay gets the attention, and the ones not paying don't get attention or written up. That applies to the customer who joins to angrily blow off steam, or to the business owner who "fakes" things, to get good reviews. It's likely that the satisfied customer doesn't waste $60 a year to tell anyone about a good experience. (Maybe good reviews should be free to post.) I wouldn't, I'd tell my friends and neighbors instead. That's the way it really works, and if everyone would just think about it, it makes sense. There is nothing like the recommendation of a trusted friend. Never has been, never will be.

What's wrong with Servicemagic.com?

I have used Service magic contractor three times and could not be more satisfied.
I recently moved into a new house. I got estimates from 3 movers I took the one that appeared to be more credible,( not the lowest price). The movers were three hours late
the truck was too small and, they were one man short. The company was American Van Lines in Fort Lauderdale. They broke a mirrord headboard and immediatele wrote out a
company form and I got a copy. The claim amounted to $66.00 and was denied. Their man packed it, unpacked it and it was broken. I followed all the usual precautions that we are advised to take when engaging a contractor.Without Angies list or Service Magic we would have no recourse or,warning the public of unethical businesses.

Service Magic sucks for a different reason. The trouble with Service Magic is once you put a request in on that site you get inundated with sales calls from every company that does the work (and a few who don't) and they all claim to be great. The companies hate it too since they have to pay for the leads but then they have to compete against the salespeople from every other business who also paid for the lead. On top of that, the prospect quickly gets ticked off by all the sales calls. I don't think a good business would have anything to do with service magic, so what is left is what the customer gets.

Great money making racket for Service magic though.

Honestly...I can't believe all the hubbub over Angie's List. Folks, what we're talking about isn't rocket science. Angie's List collects reviews from consumers and averages them. It's that simple. You either think it's worth the membership fee or you don't. For those of us who have found that Angie's List works...we'll keep paying our membership. I've been a member of Angie's List for two years. I can say from experience it's been worth it for me. Emergency plumbing problem on Labor Day weekend, Angie's List helped. Needed a tow truck to tow my car in at 7pm one evening, Angie's List helped. Needed an appliance repairman to replace the heating element in my dryer, again, I went to Angie's List. And my list could go on and on. Seriously, it's a chance to benefit from other people's experiences, without having to call five or six people about one contractor. You can quickly see the ratings, read the reviews and narrow down the hundreds, if not thousands, of unknowns you have when you need a contractor and need one quick. Angie's List works for me. It's that simple.

Sorry to say this Knaddison, first of all when you say some one sucks, you should look at you. With out having proper knowledge of a particular business simply saying that business model sucks is meaningless. It proves that "Knaddison Sucks". Let me answer your points, then you can understand why I say this.

You Said
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Why This Angies List Policy is Dumb
Let's say that I'm a consumer. If Angie's list charges me $5/month I have to get a lot of value out of the list for it to be worth that membership fee. They have millions of customers though, so apparently it's compelling to some folks. Let's say that I'm the business owner, though. If I can create a fake email account and use my home address (or my neighbors address) so that Angie's List doesn't know who I am, then $5/month is a pittance for being able to enter a review of my own business.

So, their whole "we charge a small fee to keep the reviews honest" thing doesn't work for the stated policy, but it sure does help them bring in revenue without worrying about advertising.
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In this latest technology world where you can track everthing its not possible to deceive all the times. As you said if a business person pays $5 and can write a review about him. If he dont provide proper service to the customer, definetly customers will call and complain to Angies List. In this case even though he pays $5, it wont be of any use, because he already got the negative comments from the consumers. Ofcourse if he provides a best service, consumers itself will rate him good. So you can sustain in any business only when you provide good service. Of course you can get away 1-2 times. This is common with every business. So as you mentioned its not possible to deceive and get good ratings all the times. Just because of this you can say that their privacy policy is dumb.

Not just that, for $5 fee they charge from customers they provide many other services. Example if a home owner used one of the plumber service, he didnt fix the issue as well he charged them more. They take of getting this issue fixed as well the extra charge refund. Do you think for $5 a month is it not worth??

So better you understand their business before commenting on them. I am a happy customer with them from 2 years.

You Next Point

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Paid Position/Advertising on Angie's List?
Here's the worst part - after your company gets added they contact you and say something like "your company has been added and reviewed. If you'd like you have an enhanced listing you can pay us for that."

So the whole "we are acting in our members best interests" thing is bullshit! They have one interest in mind: their own.
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Again this is a dumb statement. Every one starts a business to make money. See your site itself. Why at the beginning of the page instaed of providing content, you have placed google ads and other ads. This page is full of Ads. Similarly every one does this for the sake of money. Not just you take for example Google, they say we provide quality and better results than any one. But if you pay on the top you can be on the Top of the search reuslts pages even though you sucks. Thast how the system works. Because of this you can not say google sucks. Only thing is you need to know how to use a proper business model and get the most out of it. If you can not use then that is your problem.

You last statement
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The Review Problem is Real
The thing is - it's really hard to run a review site. Really hard. Getting valuable metrics is difficult. How does each user know if they should be trusting the other users of the site. Angie's List's paid membership program clearly doesn't make sense (though it may work than other current options). So, what's the future? Fortunately, it's the online corollary to the system you already use in real life: you ask your friends and colleagues via social bookmarking that helps guide you to the best local plumber. This is the clear way to solve the problem in the future.

Sorry, Angie's List. You could implement these features in your site, but don't pretend that the $5 is for anything other than your own pockets.
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Atlast you realized that providing 100% real reviews is not at all possible. No one can provide 100% real reviews. You need to depend on people who really used services of that particular company. Also as you mentioned "you ask your friends and colleagues via social bookmarking that helps guide you to the best local plumber." Actually this a very good option. I 100% agree with you. But there are pitfalls with this as well. How much time its going to take to do all this work. Also you will get teh reviews of the services those people have used. You can not see the reviews of the other companies. Also if no one has used those services what you will do??? Every one dont have this much time and energy. So instead of all these hassels i will better $5 and get the reviews of the local companies.

Hope this explains all your points.

As a person who recently moved to Chicago I have found Angie's List a fantastic resource. Without a strong base of friends here who can give recommendations for companies, I consistenly turn to Angie's List for advice. I think that the website is easy to navigate and the service is well worth the nominal fee. As a fellow non-profit worker, I also support their business ethics. I have nothing but positive feedback for Angie's List.

Yes, the problem with this company is that it does not disclose its advertising business to consumers who buy a subscription, leaving them with the impression that Angie's List is only out for their consumer members. I doubt anyone paying their subscription fee would view that as anything other than a ripoff if not a complete fraud. Angie's List looks more and more like a scam the more I learn about them.

Not surprisingly, many of the high rated companies on Angie's List are those that from my own experience, I would avoid like the plague.

Most of the highly rated companies are just that - excellent companies. My point is that contractors can and do pay exceedingly high advertising rates and in return Angie's List does give there name out much more frequently than companies that refuse to pay their outrageous rates.

I stopped advertising other than call center coupon and my calls dropped dramatically. Just an FYI.............

i have heard nothing but great things about angie's list so i'm not sure where all this fuss is coming from.

Can you believe that Angie's list changes their contract before your subscription expires and refuses to allow you to use the service without agreeing to the new terms and conditions? Is this legal or just a breech of normal ethical business practices?

I was a member of Angie's list for awhile. We were having problems with our A/C, and there seem to be a lot of A/C contractors out there who don't know what they're doing, so the list was helpful in that regard.

However... I do think that it's overpriced for what you get. We hadn't used it since the A/C incident, and I decided I was tired of paying that monthly fee. I went to the site to cancel, only to find out that there was no link for cancellation. No way to easily opt out - they would keep dinging my credit card forever. It said you had to cancel by contacting them, by e-mail, mail, or phone. I e-mailed them, but heard nothing in return. I had to call, get disconnected, call again, get put on hold, and answer a lengthy survey before I could get conclusively cancelled. That whole procedure REALLY turned me off and made me angry.

I have read enough to have reservations about Angie's List here and elsewhere. I suggest that some of you look at Consumer's Checkbook. At $30 per year, it is cheaper than Angie's list, and it is a non-profit. I would like to see what others have experienced here.

If your interested in Angies List own business performance/ethics, just take a look at there own BBB file. 20 Complaints with 12 in the last year. I wish I would have known this before I ever decided to advertise with this company. From one business owner to another, you might want to look elswhere for your advertising needs. This company doesn't even come close to living up to the claims it makes. Why else do think they lock you into a 12 month contract??????

The comment made by a previous poster about Angie's List rings true in my opinion.
Not only can a business artificially inflate their own rankings, but they can TRASH an honest competitors good reputation on Angie's List as well!
ALL these Con Men need do is have a few friends join Angie's List.
Then, these Con Men "hire" their competitor and trash them !!
I saw a Bad rating on Angie's List given to a poor company because they "did not return" a sales inquiry!
To make matters WORSE, unless the poor company was an Angie's List Member, they might never know.
And, to the poster who pointed out Angie's List OWN poor rating with the BBB, thank you.

Angies TV ads are addressed to low grade morons. Who selects a plumber because he can walk a dog? What does color of paint have to do with the competence of a paint contractor? ... I have assumed their "list" must be as dumb as their ads.

As a small but growing Remodeling Contractor, I have a very hard time putting any faith in a referral service that charges contractors to advertise. It just seems hypocritical to me. I'm sure Angie's List, as well as other refferal services, started out with the best intentions and they may have even helped some people out...great, good for them. After being solicited by them to advertise to "increase my customer base", as a contractor I find their motives questionable.
I believe that an educated consumer is the best customer. DO YOUR HOMEWORK!! As a consumer and as a contractor, I always make sure to research the hell out of whatever it is I intend to puchase for my home and my business. It takes some time, some effort, and it can be a downright pain in the ass. But we are talking about YOUR money being spent to improve YOUR home, its up to YOU to do the homework!
Maybe this can help...
1. Start by asking people you trust, friends and family, if they have a contractor that they are comfortable with(Word of mouth referrals are hard to beat!)
2. You might want to try lumber yards, hardware stores, and/or paint stores for qualified contractor recommendations. Those types of businesses tend to be careful about who they refer as it reflects upon their businesses. (Your big box stores make money off of the contractors they refer, so I'd steer clear from those referrals)
3. Always get a minimum of three estimates (Most contractors might not answer your call right away because they're the one doing the work. However if you don't at least get a call back in 24 hours, then scratch that guy from your list)
4. Know the scope of work for your project, know what has to be done. (Have each bidding contractor spell the entire project out to you as they see it . ASK QUESTIONS you're not expected to know how everything is done, thats why you're hiring a proffesional! Have them explain it to you in detail)
5. Just because a contractor is the lowest bidder, doesn't nessicerily mean they're the best deal. (Get a WRITTEN itemized estimate. Again, have them explain how they came up with their number. Make sure they covered everything from permits to clean-up)
6. Always understand that UNFORSEEN VARIABLES do occur! Expect there to be changes and add ons and prepare for them. Sometimes things just go wrong, the job takes longer than expected, the scope of work changes, the extent of damage was not visable until the project was started, material shortages ect. Any decent contractor will provide a tentative time line and maintain a constant and open line of communication with their customer.
Remember its YOUR HOUSE, ask questions, be informed and involved in your project. (Staying out of the guy's way when he's working of course!)

I hope these points helped some of you who were on the fence. I'm sure that other contractors will have more good points to add. Again, ask questions and do your homework! Good luck with your project!

P.S. Speaking of homework, to all you grammar-hammers out there, I work with my hands not spellcheck!!

$67.00 for AngiesList IS a lot since all you're really doing is paying to see "advertising" from companies who have asked their friends to review them, or who have just gone out and reviewed themselves (and bad-mouthed their competititors). Just like you, business owners can pay $68 to join as apparent consumers --and then post great reviews of themselves. Angies List then charges each company between $3,000 and $5,000 a year to display them as "top-rated". Unbelievable!

The previous post has a lot of great suggestions on how to (1) find a contractor, and (2) even more important, evaluate their bids. One of the biggest problems with evaluating different contractors' bids occurs when you don't start from a level playing field. Have each contractor tell you what needs to be done, and how they will do it. Once you have heard their professional opinions, decide what you want them to bid on, be as specifc as possible, and have them all bid on the same job.

Obviously you're not an expert in their fileld– just don't let three different contractors give you three different approaches to the same job. That's how you lose control of the bidding process. When you get their bids, make sure that all they have quoted on all the things you specified, before you start comparing prices and checking your "gut feeling". You'll be amazed at the different prices you get for the same job.

Finally, when you're right down to deciding between Joe Blow and Dave Brown, ask if you can call a couple of their recent customers. That way, you'll be getting REAL reviews from REAL people who have used the business. There are (were) some good businessses on Angies List, but companies are now paying $68.00 simply so that they can review themselves. And when you constantly hear Angies List ads on the radio, or see Angies List ads in your newspaper, what do you think is paying for that advertising? Your $68.00? No--1,000s of contractors paying Angie $3,000-5,000/year so that they can "look good" and get your business.

Good luck!

I subscribed to Charter.com after leaving AT&T but one is as bad as the other. They overcharge you and you cannot get the service as no one seems to know what is going on in the company. They took over WAVE a few months ago and are in a state of confusion. I was told by an installer of theirs that the majority of the office employees quit cause they couldn't stand the confusion there.

They have a captive audience with the people in this area (S.California) and we are stuck with them and cannot do anything about their charges. One business acquaintance got a bill for over $800 and was stunned, refused to pay, could not get anyone to discuss it with her and they shut off her internet service along with her telephone. This is unbelievable and it is a shame they are allowed to stay in business. They are in Ventura, Calif. on Main Street. Something should be done about them.

I just saw a segment on my local news about Angie's List. I have been looking for a new Doctor, so I thought I would give Angie's List a try. I was surprised to find a fee for the service, as that little detail was left out of the news segment--either that or it was slipped in quickly as to make it nearly unnoticeable. I Googled Angle's List and that is how I found this site. I would never pay money to join a review site, because there are too many free ones available. I agree that they do a pretty poor job of justifying the membership fees.

Angie's List needs an Angie's List to evaluate how good Angie's List-like websites are.

Brilliant.

I have no problems with you critiquing my grammar or spelling. However, please do so behind my back.

The previous commenter says "i would love a database of “bad clients” to avoid." Exactly! I can't tell you how many of our small home improvement contractors tell us this.

This idea that "the customer is always right" is crazy. NO--the customer is NOT always right. The customer is often unreasonable, impossible to please, wants something for nothing, and/or does not want to pay for all the work they ordered.

We mediate complaints every day between customers and the companies they are "complaining" about. Roughly 50% of the time, when a customer calls or emails us with what sounds like a horrendous complaint, he or she is "wrong". (Sometimes they won't even give us their name, so there is no way to validate their "complaint"). When we contact the company being complained about, we often hear a completely different story. The customer has just got out of the psych ward, the customer hates his wife's expensive kitchen and now doesn't want to pay for it, or they simply just don't feel like paying the last bill (attorneys are the worst--just ask any contractor).

We even find that the company has NEVER worked for the customer--the customer has the wrong name! When we call the customer to tell them that they are, in effect, slandering the company, they don't seem to understand or even care. This is why AngiesList (and other review siites) are unfair and ultimately of limited use, simply because you can't "trust" the reviews.

If customers are legally allowed to say whatever they like about small businesses, many of whom are sole proprietors and therefore "individuals", what's wrong with posting unmediated and unsubstantiated "reviews" of individual customers. I can't see how that's any different. Free speech, right?

Workpost.com has a review system that allows contractors listed in the directory to respond to negative reviews.

If a client wants to negatively review a contractor, that's fine, the client can provide information relevant to the work that was actually done (or not done) and fire away. But once a client has initiated a negative review, the contractor should be free to respond, explain the situation and perhaps negatively review the client as well.

Creating a useful, fair and unbiased review system is difficult but we are a new company willing to tackle the problem. If you have any suggestions or questions, please contact us.

http://www.workpost.com

I used Angie's List to find a roofer in my area. I got several names of "A" roofers and after getting several who would not do my steep roof, chose Burns and Scalo Roofing. To make a long story short, they sent untrained subs to do my roof. I'm no expert and did not realize they were terrible (e.g., not using roofing nails, not using enough nails, doing the flashing incorrectly). So, $20,000 later (due to leaks and the need to re-do my roof), I sent a critical evaluation to Angie's List. Angie's List sent this evaluation to B & S and did NOT put my critical evaluation on their website! They wanted more and more documentation (I sent photos and description, just as positive reviewers do).

I've also used Angie's list for names of other service people who turned out to be fine. My conclusion is that you go to Angie's List for names of potential companies but don't believe all the reviews. Angie's List will provide names of companies that may or may not deserve their glowing reviews. Just look at the lists. Very few are negative, so there is a very exaggerated upward bias. Go to BBB for complaints (but many people do not bother to complain, since the damage is already done).

I had some good luck with Angie's list but I had no idea they would provide the vendor with my personal information when I made a review. I'd never had made one if I had known, whether it was a good or bad experience.

When the lastest subscription came, I was astonished at the rate increase and did not renew.

Unfortunately, they have decided my personal information is theirs to sell: Two nights ago, I got a phone call from AL (I hung up). The next day, I got a pure advertising flyer in the mail.

Greed, greed, greed. I am so sick of it.

I went out of my way to help a young couple in the coast guard. The job actually cost me money to do. I have a nephew in the coast guard so i figured,why not help them. These two people are self made con artists. They poor mouthed and blabbered how they were screwed over by other people. Well just because they live in a middle class neighborhood they dare not admit that they poormouth. I gave them an excellent roof and yes it took longer than normal, first they went on vacation then my schedule was tied up, I did the best I could considering they were actually costing me money. Too make a long story short. Months after the job was completed, I donot know if the youngman was drunk or whatever his state of mind was. He sent a slanderous report to ANGIES LIST, before they listed it, I was contacted about joining and told it is free but I could purchase certain extras for my site. Needless to say I told them I felt their site and others are basically B.S., extorting money to keep their fat little tails in ding dongs and spring water. The next thing I knew I was the lucky contractor to be on their front page as the kind of contractor not to hire. I contacted them to remove the persons statements and was told they didnot have too, since all their doing is relaying someone elses words. I have a news flash for them... their acting as a paid agent for the people they represent. I am going to go out of my way to put them out of buisness no matter what the cost. I have a good reputation and I donot need to pay someone, who does not even live in the state , to acquire me referrences for buisness. If all it takes to start a buisness is pay some people 40 dollars, then I guess I worked my ass off for 30 years for nothing........... go figure.
By the way, Andy Greenwood and angies lists are nothing but a bunch of young, lazy, social misfits who need to get off their fat tails and get a real job instead of feeling they have power to control hardworking people's lifes.

Angieslist and other "review" sites claim that they can publish anything they like about a company because they (AngiesList) are not saying it themselves--they are only relaying the words of others, for whose opinions they cannot be responsible. Yahoo, Yelp, Insider Pages all say the same thing. "We have absolutely no legal liability--we are protected".

It seems hard to believe that these very definitely for-profit corporations can be exempt from lawsuits for malicious libel, especially as they actually charge consumers money to access their bullshit reviews,( that's not "free" speech). Since anyone can post anything on AngiesList, and AngiesList does not check the veracity of what's being said, so as publishers, they ARE liable for what they say.

I am sure that any money-grubbing, class-action lawyer could make a whole pile of money out of this. Either that, or the laws permitting this kind of libel will be changed very soon. When a lawyer thinks about winning a judgement against Google, or Yahoo, or AngiesList they get very excited! Millions of dollars at stake in a case like this. Just think how many aggrieved business owners will sign up as part of a class action.

I'm an HVAC contractor. I got a phone call from a prospective customer last week. She's about to spend 12,000 to 18,000 on a new heating system (she hasn't decided which boiler/water heater she wants yet). She says "my neigbor said I should check out Angies List before I decide who to go with. You may want to check out what someone wrote about you".

I got nuked by this bitter customer. There were bumps with the job, yet she embelished everything and lied about other details that were quite incriminating.

We do high tech heating systems and charge a lot of money. When the average HVAC contractor recommends replacing the heating appliance, we go in and quote an entirely new system with Euro panel radiators. Big bucks.

My point is simple: Some trades professionals can not do the same stuff others can do, especially in the 'skilled' trades (high tech HVAC being one). It will be either sad or humorous when some start up green kid with a "high rating" on Angies ends up trying to troubleshoot one of our Tekmar TN4 systems.

I realize I charge at the top end of the spectrum. I equate that to living by the sword, and the customer's expectations increase as they spend double or triple what the regular companies quote.

A service like Angies List can't qualify these non-tangibles.

BTW, The prospective customer wants to give me a 50% on Tuesday.

The following holds to be true with regards to Angie's List:

1. Reviews submitted to Angie's list can be faked.

2. Reviews submitted to Angie's list can be factual.

3. Observed reviews are too infrequent in number for any given company to assert predictive probability. You just cannot depend on low averages to determine a reliable trend for what amounts to 2 outcomes, positive or negative. See #4 below.

4. Each individual's positive OR negative experience with a company is their own, a unique, and does not necessarily mean someone else will incur the same. This is the Achilles-heel of any review.

5. The design of charging reviewers a 'membership fee' to improve integrity, is ultimately, flawed at best.

you are right if some one provide services like this .it is sure sucks.

I interviewed for a job there and in the short time I was there got the impression it is very cult-like. One of the individuals who interviewed me seemed to be using my supervisor experience and online experience against me, which really through me for a loop because why wouldn't any company want that experience for a middle management position. Seems to be lots of perks if you work there, but then the tradeoff may be if they sense you can't be brainwashed into their "Angie's List uber alles" mentality then you are immediately thrown back into the pond.

Yes Sucks is a bit strong in my case. I also have a MAC and couldn't log in. This should be explained before going though the pain of trying to log in. Thanks for posting my opinion

Angie is obviously a woman scorned. EVERY commercial for this stupid service is negative, except for the hack plumber walking little poo poo the papion.

I wonder if she is upset over all the prostitute ads listed her ex's, Craig's , site.

I though this was a free service to customers! Ha!! Silly me. You have to pay to get others opintions of service providers...how rude. I went there to tell people about a good tree cutting service I had. I am sure not going to pay to do that, I was just trying to be helpful. I hope they go broke, I am offended.

I saw the ad on TV so thought I'd give it a try. I live in San Bernardino County in Southern Cali. When I put in my San Bernardino County zip code I am defaulted to a LOS ANGELES chapter list. Why in the heck (for lack of a better word) would I want services from a Los Angeles company when I live 45 miles East of Los Angeles? So I put in a different zip code in San Bernardino County and it told me "You're already on the LA Chapter list." I tried every San Bernardino County zip code I could think of and they alll told me the same thing: You're already on the LA Chapter list. It could be a really cool service if they actually gave companies in my area. If I wanted to hire a housekeeper, I don't want her to drive from Los Angeles to my house. The closest one to me was 27 miles away. It's ludicrous and perhaps ANGIE should look at a map of Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County. I requested an immediate refund.

I have homes in DC PA and FL. If i join Angies list can I get referrals for all of these locations with one membership or do i need to pay separate memberships for each area?

I joined awhile back and really was disappointed with what they disclose and requested my $ back.
As another poster stated, you could have a dozen relatives send in good refs, and reimburse them. Do your own leg work and save the money.

Most BBB will give the info you need, always ask for references and hire a licensed, bonded and insured contractor.

Angieslist is all about them making money.

Did Angie's List ever expand into the European market? I remember first reading articles and press releases about it in 2007. They got a lot investment capitial to expand overseas in 2008. Did that ever come through? 2008 is almost over.

I will never pay for info that is already available.

[...] at the same time.  It screams “conflict of interest” to me in an alarming way, and this heavily hit, fourth-position-in-Google blog post (and subsequent comments) shows that indeed, Angie’s List is basically the Geek Squad of consumer business listings: [...]

GUESS WHAT?

TO PROVE THAT A.T.T. DAMAGED ANGIE'S BECAUSE OF ALlEGED TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENTS, ANGIES LIST HAD TO DECLARE THAT IT LOST REVENUES FROM CONTRACTORS WHO ADVERTISE ON THEIR LIST.
Wow!
THEY ADMITTED IN COURT, IN WRITING, THAT CONTRACTORS PAY TO BE RATED TOP AND TO BE ON THEIR LIST!

go to:

http://indianalawblog.com/archives/2007/12/ind_courts_angi.html

In ANGIES' OWN WORDS YOU WILL SEE THAT THEY EMPHATICALLY ADMIT THEY ARE PAID BY CONTRACTORS!

In Addition, you will see how the real barracuda is not Palin, it is Angie's.......:-(

Wow, I thought people were smarter now. At least the Nigerian scams promise huge sums of money in return...

Let's see:
- For a trivial sum, a company could easily manipulate their rankings
- For many of the services they list, there are already numerous agencies collecting and reporting complaints, comments, etc.
- It's expensive, especially when you consider that most other ratings services are free

If you're seriously considering this service, you need to examine the voracity of some of the defenders here, and ask yourself what typical user of the service would respond in this manner, versus what some paid lackeys might post. There doesn't seem to be much integrity in this case.

ANGIE is that you?
I thought you were in BLOOMINGTON, MN. how did you end up in Indianapolis.

This is all such crap. Angie's List is located in Indy and has no "offices" anywhere in the U.S. That "news report" is bogus. Also, you can't just sign up and post reviews for your business once you've posted a few reviews. How do I know? Because I did work at Angie's List and I am quite familiar with how things work there. They really do read every report and verify the information. Also, that isn't some PR hack writing above from Angie's List. Their PR people are better than that. All said, as now an outsider looking in, Angie's List is a credible way for homeowners to find good service contractors and avoid the bad. Bottom line.

My company has an excellent rating from angies list, unfortunately 12 of the 14 reviews were posted by my staff, so yes, their system isn't foolproof, I suspect 20%-40% of the reviews are planted. We did this after a vindictive former client posted numerous rants and raves on angies list about us. This client was so hard to deal with, before we started the job, we actually fired her and gave her back all her money (even though we were stock with thousands of dollars of custom ordered non returnable materials).

Even though we have an excellent rating, as the previous poster mentioned, we too do not like Angie's list clients.

I never heard of angieslist before, but today I received a call from a high-pressure sales persons who informed me that I as "reviewed" by one of their "members." Furthermore he emailed me the following:

"If you’re ready to take on more of our members, look at the information I provided. You already have a company in your area that is participating with our offer. He is seeing 13 times the interaction with our members (for every member who will view your information, he will have 16 members look at his).

Individual Elements for Remodeling (Can be purchased individually)

Web: $41/mo
Call Center: $38/mo
Web Enhancement: $50/mo
Full Page Color E-Pub: $63/mo
Total: $192/mo.

Package 1: Web & Call Center: $52/mo (Save $324/yr.)
Package 2: Web, Call Center, Color E-Pub: $112/mo. (Save $360/yr.)
Package 3: Web, Call Center, Color E-Pub, & Enhancement: $132/mo. (Save $720/yr.)

*IN DECEMBER IF A PACKAGE IS PURCHASED YOU WILL RECEIVE AN ADDITIONAL 10% OFF YOUR MONTHLY PRICE! "

From this email it is obvious that angieslist's is primary concern is selling overpriced advertising to be distributed to its limited--members only--market. If access to this website was free, or at least somewhat viewable to those who is not registered then these prices may be justified.

I hear a lot of good comments from businesses getting referrals from Angies, but I don't get it either. Yelp is free, and as always you have to read reviews with a skeptical eye. Like this one (which is a great way to generate traffic by creating controversy).

So, I am a painting contractor (Fresh Coat Painting) in Portland, Oregon who uses Angie's List. I've read hundereds of reviews of other contractors and found them very useful to understand what customers are looking for and I really like Angie's List customers. They tend to be informed and focused on cost effective jobs rather than just cheep work.

A contractor can comment on negative or possitive reviews from customers. If there were a problem with fraud that there has been so much speculation about on this thread contractors would point it out. If a competitor had people hire me so then they could give me poor reviews I could comment on it. And, that would be increadibly expensive to have friends hire me for painting just to give me a bad review. And contractors could pay the yearly price and give themselves good reviews but I doubt that happens much. Especially when contractors like me have dozens of reports on Angie's list. And if you were to ever think that a review is not real at Angie's List, or my site http://www.portlandhousepainting.com, you can ask for that customer's number and call them.

I don't like paying for advertizing on Angie's list but I really like their customers. And what is the alternative?

I have looked at all the sites people have mentioned and found them very problematic. All the sites are much more open to fraud then Angies. I've had a problem on a site for a while where someone can give me a rating with no login much less a yearly fee.

If you look at Portland Painters on Angies you will find hundereds of companies and thousands of comments. If you go to a site like yelp that people have recommended you will find 0 reviews.

It's not perfect but the fraud people have been talking about is a minor to irrelevent issue in my opinion, fraud is a much bigger proplem with any other site, $5/mo isn't much money if your thinking about large projects (and you care about quality, reliability, service or price) and most importantly I see nothing even close to the quality of Angies List in the links folks have suggested so far.

Please inform me of good alternatives and I'll use them.

Name of 18th century play (not Angie).

AngiesList bugs people because it is both deceptive and hypocritical. Deceptive in that the people who pay $60/year to access a list of supposedly "recommended" contractors do not realize that many of the contractors pay to be listed, and to have their "bad" reviews demoted or removed, and "good" reviews emphasized. Furthermore, an unknown percentage of the reviews are completely fake--"good" reviews written and posted by the companies themselves. From the consumer point of view, It's not what it looks like, and it is not unbiased information. or pro-consumer. People are paying to see what is paid advertising.

The hypocrisy is that they promote themselve as being some kind of consumer protection business. Yet their main source of income is from the businesses whose "reviews" they list on their website. This is not "Consumer Reports". Surely this flim-flam can't go for ever...

What shocks me the most is that I just spent an hour of my life reading all of these posts. I personally would never hire anyone to do work on my home or any of my posessions, that was referred to me by Angie's list, the BBB or any other "listing" service. It's not that difficult to find a good business on your own. It could become a bit time consuming, but it's worth the satisfaction of a well done job at the end.

First seek out friends and neighbors who have recently had similair work performed. Get several "first hand experiences" and their opinions. When driving, keep an eye out for similair work being done. ( This also usually assures the business is local and does a lot of work in your area which to me, is one of the most important criteria. )

Second, call these businesses and several others from your phone book to get a clear idea of the cost and work involved. Believe it or not, but usually the first several listings and the one's with large and even colored ads will be the best. Why? Because that tells me they invest to get my business. Stay away from neighborhood advertisement flyers.

Third, use your common sense. Meet with them, find out how long they have been in business, try to view some of their work "on site" where it is in progress. ALWAYS look for the negatives of any business, not the positives. And get everything in writing including cost quotes. Be completely comfortable about doing business with them. If it sounds too good to be true, always assume it is not good. NEVER pay more than half up front for any work! Only after work is completed and inspected. If they won't do this, forget them and move on. And last, try to avoid salesmen, and never let them get you on that "we're friends" level. Their only job is to sell you their sevice.

If you can't do these simply things, then no matter what list or whoever you deal with, your most likely going to pay premium prices for elementary services. There, I just save you a lot of time and money. I'd like a refund on my hour of time please. All smiles, have a great day and good luck!

I just got off the phone with the Angie’s List office. I was inquiring about the “trial membership” that the Angie’s List website mentions.

I had to point the phone rep to the requisite place on the Angie’s List website that talked about trial memberships. Clearly this ‘trial’ was not in the cards, and outside of what the phone rep was interested in talking about. His focus was sales. And that’s it. He parroted a few lines about the value of the service, and then wanted to sell. I told him I might buy the service online, he tried to get me to buy on the phone. He didn’t want me to get off the phone without a sale. As a last sales resort, he told me he could discount an annual membership if I bought from him on the phone (but not a monthly membership).

Generally, hard sale tactics should make one suspicious.

From reading this website, clearly the Angie’s List model is flawed. Consumers are not generally made aware that contractors listed at the top pay for that privilege. Contractors are vulnerable to malicious consumers or competitors.

The defense of these limitations is pretty weak. The “not everybody is dishonest” defense is really kind of pathetic. Similar arguments could be made for spending no money in stores to prevent shoplifting. The “eventually the abusers will get caught” seems pretty weak too. Can anybody show those who have gotten caught. I have a suspicion that anybody could test the system and find that very few actually get caught.

I did use a friend’s login to access Angie’s List. I reviewed a certain type of business in my area where I have great knowledge. While Angie’s List did have some of the better companies at the top of the list, they had a few downright bad apples too. This alone is “proof” to me that the system is imperfect.

That employees from Angie’s List posted in this forum anonymously pretty much seals the deal on the corporate ethics of Angie’s List. It this were not true, I would guess that Angie’s List would refute it – legally if need be. The act of poorly written anonymous rebuttals from corporate puts the corporate ethics and character of Angie’s List on par with MLMs and ponzi schemes.

All that stated, I can actually see where Angie’s List still could be a good indicator to find a business to do a job. In a world where referrals from neighbors and checking BBB and other sources is pretty imperfect too… the flawed and hypocritical Angie’s List still has value.

But the potential value of a business indicator is not enough to make me “dance with the devil” as stated above and pay for this service.

Best wishes to somebody who can develop a better application of the stated model.

My company is a kitchen and bath remodeling contractor. When I was first exposed to Angies List, I was impressed. I liked the idea that consumers could rate companies like mine. Since we have a great track record of completing jobs on time and on budget, I was thrilled when one of our customers posted a review of our company on Angies List. He rated us "A" in all categories and had some glowing comments. I soon got a call from a salesperson from Angies List offering enhanced placement on the local Angies List web site, and we had the chance to include some company information and a coupon in the posting. We agreed to a one year program at $167 per month. The first problem surfaced shortly after when we never received the "Comment Cards" that were promised. I had to call / email our sales rep 4 times over a 2-1/2 month period before we received the Comment Cards. We mailed or hand delivered the Comment Cards to a dozen of our recent customers. I believe that all were filled out and returned to Angies List. What happened? Nothing! Angies List doesn't post the comments from the Comment Cards on their site. You have to be an Angies List member and send the Comment Card information to them over the web for it to be included on the web. Yes, I understand that some companies might fill out the Comment Cards with glowing comments and send in a bunch of them. But we played it straight and had our customers fill out the information and mail them in (we did provided stamped addressed envelopes for their convenience). Of course it would be easy for companies to send in false information by having friends and relatives sign up for one month and send in positive reports. We paid for 5 months on Angies List and never received one call. So the money was a total waste. You are better off reimbursing customers for the one month subscription to Angies List (~$15.00, I believe) and encouraging them to send in the information via the Angies List web site. Through all of my dealings with Angies List, I found the same thing that you see in numerous other posts here re: Angies List. For a company that portrays itself as a dream come true for consumers, its a nightmare for companies. The people at Angies List were often rude and unprofessional. Our rep, Kevin, is a complete jerk. I wouldn't recommend that any other companies invest their marketing dollars with Angies List.

I used to be a member, but $5/mo is too much for something that I may want to refer to maybe once or twice a year.

It also seems too much for since all their reviews are user generated. I have not used ServiceMagic, but maybe that is where I am headed next. Also, some contractors that were rated high on Angies List turned out to be too busy to come over even for an estimate.

So, it maybe good for those who need some contractor or someone every other week, but not for me..

I've used Angie's List since it came out. We've had 100% reliable and repeatable business with every one of the vendors from this list with whom we've done business. With all the fly-by-night charlatans out there, it's nice to get reliable work done by people who care what consumers think of their work.

Thanks for standing up for everyone with a bit of common sense. But, man, you've had to deal with some real losers over the last few years. I hope I never have to meet that Jenny character -- she's the most boring thing I have ever read. Oh, and Angie's is a scam.

Thanks for standing up for everyone with a bit of common sense. But, man, you've had to deal with some real losers over the last few years. I hope I never have to meet that Jenny character -- she's the most boring thing I have ever read. Oh, and Angie's is a scam.

When it first came to our area, I thought it was a great idea. After the List has been around for a few years, there are MAJOR flaws with it!

First, I love how Angie's list tells their subscribers that they are unbiased and yet, they allow companies to purchase advertisements that come off as Angie's List promoted companies. I have seen companies with a D rating get promoted just by paying Angie's List to do so.

Second, there is hardly ANY verification of facts on behalf of the staff at Angie's List. If a SUBSCRIBER writes something, it MUST be true. I have challenged this to no avail even with the facts being on my side.

Third, Angie's List can remove your response to any comment at any time whenever they want. And they do it all of the time. I had to revise an answer 3 times before they'd post it only to have it removed a few months later.

Also, they no longer give a time limitation on reporting. Had you had a bad experience with a company 20 years ago, the staff at A.L allow it to remain on your record permanently whereas any fellow subscriber may take it as a current issue.

Angie's List is a big waste of money. A consumer can get reliable information from their local BBB....you can't say the same for A.L. To this I say that anyone interested in reading fiction such as the BS placed on Angie's List could go to their local library and read it for free.

Folks, you all have WAY too much free time on your hands. I was exhausted reading the posts on this site. Geez. You could save a lot of time and money using your energy to check out the references of contractors yourself.

In any event, after reading just part of this, I realized I couldn't possibly pay a monthly fee for a service that accepts revenue from the very entities it is supposedly reviewing. At least Consumer Reports has a 'no advertising' policy. I'm not sure how Angie's List got so popular in the first place.

Yes, there are problems and potential problems with Angies.

But anyone that wonders whether it is worth it, get a guest account and login. It has a ton of valuable info on contractors that you can find no where else.

I'm a painting contractor in Portland, OR. If you want info on painters in Portland I know of no place were you can find the wealth of factual information you can on Angies list.

No offence, but the alternatives people are trying to sell on this site are not useful at this point. People come here to trash angies and promote there own services. From what I've seen none of these services are as useful, informative or fraud resistant as Angies.

Some of the other online services, like merchantcircle, are just so filled with fraud that they are useless. Any site where someone can post annonomous ratings and comments is going to be filled with crap. That is why Angies has great information, they make you pay before you can post a comment.

When people can comment for free it turns out to be a good conversation, like this one, but it also get filled with self promotion and unedited crap.

Angies is the best source to find Portland, Oregon house painters. Other contractors, other areas, I don't know. But I know my market and I know if you want to know real info from real customers you'll find more real info with Angies than anything else I've seen.

Thanks, everyone, for a spirited discussion about the merits of Angie's List. I'm Cheryl Reed, from Angie's List, and I wanted to chime in.

First, I want to apologize to everyone for the unauthorized postings from people here at Angie's List, which quite rightly incited Greg's ire. We don't allow "rogue" posts -- even those that may be well intentioned. We've put a greater emphasis on explaining this policy to our staff to be sure everyone knows that if a staff member is blogging or commenting on blog posts about the company, the affiliation must be clearly stated.

Angie’s List appreciates honest discourse on sites like this because the feedback helps us take a hard look at the way we explain our policies. We never want any confusion surrounding stuff like the removal of negative reviews or whether companies can advertise. First, there are only three instances we would ever remove a review on Angieslist.com and we’d never do so without first alerting the member who submitted it:

1. We find out the report was fraudulently posted.
2. The member who posted the report chooses to remove it.
3. The report was a successful part of our Complaint Resolution service. ( You can read more about that at: http://www.angieslist.com/angieslist/Visitor/ComplaintResolutionFAQ.aspx )

Regarding companies that advertise: yes, companies that maintain an overall grade of A or B are allowed to advertise by offering a coupon on our website, through the call center or in our monthly magazine. Only companies that maintain these high grades (as rated by our members) are allowed this opportunity, and if their grade ever falls below a B, the opportunity is revoked.

We’ve improved our FAQs on these and other topics. I encourage anyone with questions to take a look, or contact me directly if something still isn’t clear. Our FAQ page can be found at http://www.angieslist.com/AngiesList/Visitor/Faq.aspx or you can reach me directly at cherylr@angieslist.com or 317-396-9134.

Thanks.

I agree with you on almust evrything, but a c a good point on angieslist directory.
I would say the free listing is some thing good for small business people like me!

I don't write blogs (and don't usually care to read them), but I stumbled upon this while trying to research if I should pay for a membership on Angie's list. Although I have to admit I had pretty much settled on that I would not use it before coming here, I thought maybe something written herein would change my mind. It didn't.

Here's why: their entire business model is completely screwed up. I bought a house in the Bay Area in 2005 and am now getting ready to do some remodeling (most of it I'll do myself, but some parts like deleting a window I'd feel better about a contractor doing). I just can't see the point of paying monthly for a service that I might use 2 or 3 times (at most) a year.

It seems like if someone is paying every single month for this service then they either bought something that needs a lot of work over a long period of time. The monthly business model seems force-fitted to me.

Worse, I checked the price in a few places I used to live: Vincennes, IN (no presence).. Bloomington, IN ($1.30).. Hayward, CA ($6.95). I'm sorry, but that feels like I'm getting gouged because of where I live and its, frankly, somewhat insulting!

Regards,

Greg

Sounds like a pretty good scam to me.

Angies List seems to be just another online scam...the old "HOW TO MAKE A MILLION" (everyone send me a buck and I'll tell you how I made a million)! Don't Use It!!! It is not reliable...

Cheryl from Angie's List here. Angie's List sends a notice to service professionals who are reviewed on the List the first time they're reported on, telling them they've made the list and giving instructions as to how they can register -- for free -- to see the details and to sign up for a service that alerts them the next time they are reported on. This occurs whether the reports are positive, negative or indifferent because we think the service professionals have a right to know what's being said about them, as well as the opportunity to respond. We believe this gives our members the best chance of having both sides of the story.

We also advise members of this practice each and every time they submit a report, as well as spell it out in the membership agreement. We believe it to be an important part of making the reports as fair and accurate as possible.

I signed up a year ago and they put me on the Automatic Renewal Plan (I was given No Other Option) They said I would be contacted in Advance so I could decide not to re-enroll if I Chose) They Lied. My Credit Card was Slapped with a $59 Charge for a Renewal I did not Authorize. There is No Place on the Membership Site to Cancel Memberships. I've sent Three Emails, Spoken with a Customer Service Rep with No results. It's been almost two weeks!

They Need to be Put in a Penalty Box. My next step will be to file a Chargeback with my Credit Card and contact the Better Business Bureau. Shame on This Company!

Please contact me with your name and information. I'll make sure we take care of this. My direct email is cherylr@angieslist.com. You can call me at 317-396-9134 if you'd rather confirm I'm really me first. I'm sorry you had this trouble.

My husband uses bighardhat to list his services for free. He has gotten some work off of the site and we have also utilized the free service to locate employees from time to time. The service does not rate the contractors or tradespeople profiled on the site which is fine by us because my husband likes to personally check into the backgrounds of the people he hires before hiring them. Regarding AL, I don't personally understand how anyone would be comfortable hiring someone based on a potentially biased rating system tied to monthly fees. Just my opinion.

-Contractor's Wife

We really appreciate you taking the time to review nilaam.com. You made some valid points above and we are hoping you will let us address them.
1. We accept that reputation management is hard. Nilaam's system however, may not be as weak at it appears at first blush since we only allow users to review those service providers who have actually bid on their ad. We are in the process of adding heuristics to the system to deal with fake ads posted purely for the sake of promoting a particular provider and hope that these changes will significantly improve the reputation management system.
2. Regarding the service being impractical, we think, for certain types of jobs, changing a leaking tap, fixing a cistern, repairing a dent in a car, it is in fact possible if photos are posted, to provide a pretty decent estimate of how much a job will cost. For other jobs, the "bids" really are just leads for the home owners so that they have a general idea of the per/hour rates a service provider may charge. The bidder is free to request a visit to the home before providing an estimate. Nilaam is really designed to provide a meeting place for those who need services and those who provide them, it is not an action service per se.
3. We love Craigslist. Unfortunately Craigslist gets so heavily spammed that it's hard to really find what you are looking for and it's completely lacking in a reputation management system. Nilaam lets you have service providers come to you rather than you having to call several providers only to be told that they can't come at a certain time or they don't work in your neighbourhood or that they charge a rate that you are shocked by.

You are correct, we are not VC funded and we don't plan to be for the near future. We do however, have deep pocketed Angels that have faith in the founding team. You are correct, we do not have much traffic as yet but that is exactly why we are making an effort to convince leading bloggers like yourself to review our site and ask you to encourage your readers to visit our site and give us a chance.

I need some wide spread Good Press to counter the bogus press on Angie’s List.
In my experienced opinion, Angie’s List is lousy at providing useful or accurate information on their popular website. They allow users to post information without verification. Blatant lies can only be refuted by service providers in a manner that is ineffective and makes the service provider sound like a whiner and excuse maker. Also, it is easy for an unscrupulous person to post made up reviews to slam a good competitor. Why would this be the case for a company that purports to be a facilitator of good information to help consumers make informed decisions? Follow the money! Angie is making lot’s money by both selling subscriptions to home owners and advertising to service providers. Is she getting her bread buttered on both sides?
How do I know? I am a victim of the Angie’s List scam. My company, while not perfect, has completed 100% of our contract obligations (over 3000) for 100% of it’s clients (over 1200) in over 26 years of business. Has some of our staff made some mistakes and at times lacked judgment? Of course they have, as it happens on occasion in every company that has staff and clients. What I do promise is that we always have and will finish every project in a way that is fair if not in our normal exceptional fashion.
My company has only 4 Angie’s List reviews and all happen to be C/D in ratings and two of those ratings are by someone who was never a client. That poster just said that they called us and didn’t like what they were told. As this alleged caller, never left any contact information with us (name or phone number) it is impossible for us to respond to intelligently. Another poster says we charged her too much on a project that we under charged her by 40% of the market rate. The 3rd poster was a real client whom posted in the middle of her kitchen remodel at the normal point of maximum discomfort. While we understand the emotional rollercoaster of most remodeling clients we feel she was unfair in not following up with how the job finished. We also have written proof of the inaccuracies of her allegations but didn’t feel it worth the expense to pursue a law suit to get her to get her facts right, maybe we are wrong in that conclusion. Regardless, this same owner has had no problem having us come back 3-4 years later to fix some minor paint issues under warranty or hiring us to do additional work for her. For some reason she has not given us good feedback on the additional work she hired us for – I guess that she can’t do it after she decided that it was not worth continuing to be an Angie’s List Subscriber.
When I complained about this situation to the staff at Angie’s List, the best answer that they would offer was for me to recruit my good clients to join Angie’s List to post good reviews so that our happy clients posts could overwhelm the one’s that were not so good. I have a HUGE problem with this being the right or a good solution. Am I alone in this thinking or do I just smell something fishy! In my book Angie’s List rates an “F” for posting unfair feedbacks and providing a blackmail response to my complaint.

I started to subscribe to Angie's list and chose not to when I learned about the subscription fees. This is okay; I'm all for free enterprise. However, even though I didn't subscribe, Angie's List captured my email address and has been sending me emails - scam - and there is no Unsubscribe at the bottom of these emails which violates Federal Law. I called Angie's List and the first person who answered the phone was unable to Unsubscribe me. It took 15 minutes to get to a person who could who also had lame excuses as to why Angie's List captured email addresses and sent scaming emails.
I finally spoke with a supervisor - lots of apologies but the bottom line is that Angie's List is not the nice, consumer service that they market themselves as. They are out to use every trick in the book.

Hi All,

I rarely post complaints about businesses online, but felt this one deserved a big thumbs down. My issue has to do with Privacy, specifically the deceptive process Angie's List uses to create a membership account.

For a paid service I would have expected a typical e-commerce experience:

1. see the item and its cost
2. choose the item and its quantity
3. provide the account information if you don't already have one
4. enter payment data and confirm your order

If you don't want to purchase you can exit without creating an account or providing personal information.

The process I experienced was as follows:

1. Create an account with personal information - zip code, email and a password
2. get to the subscription type selection page
3. presumably enter payment data and confirm your order

I chose to exit before getting to step 3 because I did not want to pay for the service. In fact the prime reason I was willing to create the account was that angieslist.com doesn't go out of its way to advertise the fees up front. I figured this was an advertiser paid enterprise like epinions.com and others.

I may be a little naive, but you have to dig around on angieslist.com to figure out that membership costs money. (Yes, it's in the FAQ and implied on the How It Works page ("Angie's List is better than free review sites:"), so I didn't follow the old maxim caveat emptor or is it TANSTAAFL? But being in a hurry I created an account and bailed after I found out they wanted to charge me.

I figured it was pretty dishonest that they wouldn’t advertise their fees openly, so I began to worry a little bit about that personal information I gave them – that account with my zip code, email and a password (who knows how securely they store passwords). I hoped that since I didn't actually pay for a membership that my account would be dropped. No such luck! I left the site and then returned to find out. I was automatically directed to the members area by a browser cookie and greeted with a popup message that said:

Welcome to Angie's List!
It looks like we have limited information on file for you. For access to thousands of local reviews, help from our complaint resolution team and member discounts, please finish signing up. We're so confident you'll be a List lover that we offer a 110% money-back guarantee!

I closed the dialog and tried clicking on a link in the member’s area. It returned me to the first create account page with my zip and email filled into the form. The password field was blank.

OK I thought, maybe I got lucky and they stored the email and zip in the cookie on my web browser instead of in their site’s database. I went into the browser cookies area and deleted the angieslist.com cookie. Then I returned to the site and was directed to the home page. So far, so good. I kept my fingers crossed. Then I entered the account data (email and password) again and bummer . . . I was redirected to the members area with the same Welcome Popup encouraging to finish creating my account (aka "give me your money").

I closed the dialog and tried clicking on a link as before and it returned me to the first Create Account page with my zip and email. The password field was still blank, but now I knew they kept it.

I’ve sent them an email requesting to have that account information deleted, but how many others have decided not to pay for a membership and still had their email, zip code and a password stored while believing that it was deleted? Imagine how much “direct marketers” would pay for a list of emails tagged to specific zip codes? Oh well, I’m bracing for some geographically targeted spam . . .

For a company that claims to help consumers find the most trustworthy service providers in your area, this behavior seems pretty dishonest to me.

FYI – the Federal Trade Commission accepts complaints about companies such as angieslist.com. To quote the FTC web site, “Your complaints can help us detect patterns of wrong-doing, and lead to investigations and prosecutions.” Here’s the link:

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

Paul

I have worked in the construction field for over 25 years. Angies List is nothing more than fluff. It does not back up its statements or its information. It only rewards contractors and customers that pay them. It's that simple. Last time we used the list, they led us to a sub that couldnt even provide a builders license although on there site they said they were registered, insured, and bonded. Angies list is a scam.

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I was a leading SSA provider in one of the big cities that served multiple states through the hub location Angie's List picked.

Numerous years I received credentials that allowed me the ability to tote their SSA award. With that came many conditions. Out of nearly 100 service providers in my profession, over 120 positive reports, I STILL was not at the top of the list.

Why?

Because those are "bought" placement locations. They are the first to be mentioned if you do a call-in to Angie's List when looking for service providers.

Is it fair? Well, depends on which way you look at it. There's nothing "honest" about Angie's List, other than the name.

I personally managed to grow through Angie's List with my customer base and turn a measely $1000 in advertising into $100,000 in earnings through the customer base on Angie's List. BUT, the customer base is not loyal, even though they give you positive reports.

I actually took Angie's List as a huge stepping stone to get my company to a better level, and I'm pleased with the "all good things come to an end" mentality. It worked for a while, I refused to spend money with them and that was the end of it.

I felt the customer base derived from that system are not always the most pleasant to deal with as well. Most are those who were blungeoned by previous service providers and now like a rape victim they are far more cautious in their actions, not too easy to spread their legs at the next invitation.

But ignorance breeds ignorance and it was time to move away from hand fed institutions. I've managed quite well since the departure. Don't get me wrong; it had its place at one time but now I feel it is known for its greed and unwillingness to be something the core value started off with; integrity. They have moved away from that value and the rest will be a downhill ski slope.

But ask yourselves this very important question, homeowners...

Why have you been so compelled to rely on others, formatted opinion bases instead of using the gray matter between your ears? It's not my problem as a service provider that you're too inept to make clear and concise buying decisions when it comes to home ownership 101.

Naive is the first word that comes to mind when I see two people with a checkbook asking a million questions thinking you've accomplished your home ownership degree. Many times I don't trust the homeowner to make rational decisions, especially when so much is always financial based reasoning.

But hey, I'll work for the stupid as much as I will work for the smart. Always do I come into situations in people's homes where they tried their hand at the DIY realm or work a deal with the handyman thats knows about as much as a pamphlet at a bookstore.

Then I am called to sort it out, watch you spend twice for the mistakes you should of never made in the first place.

Does this sound familiar?

Am I ringing any bells, readers?

As a contractor who has had a very good reputation for the past 25 years in small town USA, we were recently given a horrible review by a customer who we worked really hard to please, we acted promptly and thoroughly to give him the job he wanted and deserved. Angies list's advice to contractors in my position is to try to resolve the problems. We feel like we bent over backwards to try to turn the situation around. My conclusion after reading my client's review, is that there
really is nothing more we can do, we did everything he asked us to do and more, and we did it the next day in most cases or as soon as the weather allowed. My conclusion is that this man is just vindictive. In my honest opinion, his project looks perfect now and has added value to his home.
So now I am saddled with this blight on my company's name. What can I do? I can ask the 98% of happy clients to write a review, but this I know will cost them a membership fee, so I am hesitant to go that route. I can write a response.
It is very difficult to write a response that doesn't make you look defensive. About the only thing I can say, is that
I am really sorry that they are not happy and that I am very eager to correct any problems and to resolve the situation.
In my case, I sincerely believe that my client just wanted to let off steam, even though we corrected all the problems.
My problem is that I now have a bad review that I can do nothing about. We rely heavily on internet advertising.
I have employees who need their jobs and I am terrified of getting another bad review on Angie's list. We have changed
policies to avoid the problem reoccurring, but how does one recognise a vindictive client ahead of time so you can stay
away. Angie's list is a scam to me because, good reviews cost clients money, and who benefits? - Angies list, not the clients or the contractors in the end. I believe Angie's review system is flawed in that it attracts a certain type of person.

Please do not add my comment. As a former employee, Angie's list will come at me with all their legal might.

Watch your credit card entries. After 3 months, without notification, my subscription rate doubled from $1.30 to $2.60. By the time I realized there was something amiss, I had paid in almost double the annual rate. Customer service refused to do anything more than refund the last payment. I was told that the member agreement states that rates are subject to change and are applied automatically. So be aware you will not be notified of any increase.

I never found the list helpful. It was a total disappointment and totally not worth it. You could say it sucked

Angie's List published my name and address without my knowledge or permission. I do not do business with them. I am very careful to keep my name out of my publicity for my business because I testified against a child killer many years ago. The child killer was released from prison a couple of years ago and he would love to kill me or my kid. He hates me and has sworn revenge. Angie's List told him where we are. I've spoken with them and they know this could be a huge security issue to publish business representatives names without permission, authority, or verification, but they don't care. They say they are Christians, but they risk children's lives for profit. Doesn't sound very Christian to me.

I use the service, it provides filters I need when there are so many companies and individuals that are incompetent, not professional, inexperienced, etc. etc. Good comments are likely written sometimes by family members or friends but the more comments the better. Need more reports!

I am looking for a plumber in my area, a friend recommended I search through Angies List.

I established my search via my area code and my need for a local plumber ... but I get a blank... as if there are no plumbers in my area of 15037 or surrounding areas for that matter.

Sad to say after an hour of searching Angies... list I give up.
Im going back to the old school of internet find;
a plumber in the 15037 area.

Angie I recommend you make it easier for we the public to search your listings.... you appear to be set up to gain contractors.... but what about we the people that need one?

If its just me lacking some type of pc skill then I represent a group of individuals that you are not reaching.
You think about it.

Some interesting information above from someone who clearly works for, or owns a BBB franchise. (How would a consumer know about the comparative differences in web traffic?).

However, the BBB is almost as bad as AngiesList. My business has been a member of the BBB for at least 15 years. Nobody from the BBB has EVER done any kind of background check on us, as the poster claims above. Once a year I get a renewal call from a telemarketer, and that's it. Late last year, at the height of the recession, the BBB started sending my company postcards saying, "Last month, the BBB received 32 calls inquiring about your company" In January, I got the same card, saying they got "27" calls about my company that month.

That's interesting. Business has been so dead that I'm not sure we got 32 calls from all sources that month. There was no way that 32 people had called the BBB to inquire about us in December, and 27 more in January. It was clearly a sales pitch (which was stupid in itself because we are already members). This blatant BS annoyed me, so I called them and demanded to see some accounting of these "32" calls--if not who from, at least when and what date. Massive buck passing all the way down the line. I persisted. Finally, the local owner was supposed to get back to me--he never did.

The fact is that each local, owner-operated, BBB is a for-profit, independent franchise. It has nothing to do with the government or the Small Business Administration. The only businesses who belong to the 'better' Business Bureau are those who choose to pay them. Plenty of very good businesses do not choose to pay them, so they are not listed as "better" businesses. And good luck getting the Better Business Bureau to help you if you have a dispute with a non-member company. They won't touch it. What this means is that some companies can go round ripping people off all day long, and the BBB won't (and cannot) record a complaint about them. They can only record complaints about members. So what real use is it to the consumer?

$500/year, no questions asked, buys us a sticker we use on our marketing--and what we are finding nowadays is that very few people aged under 60 know anything about the Better Business Bureau.

Cancelled many months ago and they still are charging me and only this month put through one month credit....when you call, they know all about what contact you have made with them EXCEPT cancellations........really a shoody organization

I have been screwed by so many customers in my lawn care business. I wish angie's list would make a review of home owner's. I have lost over 10,000 dollars to customer's who had horrible financial situation's...yet they are driving MERCEDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with Greg that there are holes in her "system." I agree with Greg that the site is only out for what those behind it can get out of it. I like Craigslist myself. Don't have to pay for it. They do give you warnings that every turn may have a scammer waiting. They allow you to flag total bs postings. I don't have to "sign up or in" to browse. When searching the jobs it only comes up with Indianapolis, IN. BLAH! There's several sites you can post your business on and get ratings and reviews for free. Why would anyone want to pay for it? "WE check every review before you do." Yeah I bet you do! Smells of dirty laundry to me. So if Bob The Builder gets a crappy review you do what with that? Spice it up a bit? Uh huh. Make BTB feel good and keep paying up? Uh huh. "Prefer a live person call us now!" So you can bill me? No thanks!
"No anonymous reviews." As Greg stated it can be the same person over and over boosting their business. Anyone can say what they want on there and you'll never know it was the same person 100 times. Did the people behind this really believe there's not one person smart enough to know this fact? "Certified data collection process." Like what? Give me a break!
"Help if a project goes bad." Oh so does this mean those behind Angieslist are going to get those folks lawyers that have the "bad project" happen to them? Not hardly! They'll just allow a few bad results/reviews/postings about the company until they pay up(to shut Angieslist up for the time being until they figure out how to scramble their way out of the mess they created for a family). Heh we know the drill.

It's only common sense. They accept advertising from contractors and businesses. Them posting a bad review against one of their advertisers would be biting the hand that feeds them. It's damned near impossible to be unbiased, impartial and fair while taking money from the very people that pay you, therefore keeping you in business. It doesn't take much thinking to figure this out.

Thank god I found this blog or I might have given AL some money. My problem is as a person recently relocated to a new city, where do I find a dentist, doctor, bike shop, etc.? From what I can tell from info here, there is still a niche in this market waiting to be filled.

What's amazing to me is that in the 4 years since I wrote this blog post nobody is really starting a serious business to address the weaknesses in these rating systems.

BTW, if I were a venture capitalist, I would bankroll greggles in this or any business he might want to start. In a heartbeat. There are tons of great ideas just waiting for someone to pick up the ball.

Angie's list may be too profitable to change. I call it the Microsoft phenomonen. They keep putting out crap products but they make so much money they have no incentive to improve. I don't think capitalism has a good answer for this problem. In our free enterprise environment, we have seen many, many best of breed products bite the dust. So those companies did something wrong? Bad marketing? Wrong partners? Under capitalized? I don't think so. The US Justice Dept. went after Microsoft to stop its market manipulation and it ended in a draw. Just be aware that this is how it is.

I can't say whether Angie's List "sucks" or not, and the range of opinions given here show that there are both those who believe it does and those who have found value from Angie's List. What I can tell you is that Angie's List operates on a two-sided network business model. That is, they are monetizing both sides of their audience. The services I work for, BusinessCard2.com, was confronted by a similar challenge: do you monetize one side or both sides of your user base? For use it was just more practical that the professional side of the market should subsidize the consumer side (consumers use it for free). Not only have professionals been spending $$$ since the beginning of time to gain awareness, inform and educate consumers, but they do so with the intention of winning business. I can't imagine how a two-sided network business model doesn't get displaced at some point, and by a service that is open and free to consumers. My $0.02.

I am the owner of Best Choice Contracting llc. I have thought about using these Angie's list and service magic for quite sometime. They just didn't add up to me. All they seem to do is get money from both ends while making you raise your prices for work which ends up with less customers in the long run anyway. If your a big company, people are going to know your name and notice your work. If you are a small company you certainly are not going to get big by utilizing Service Magic or Angie's list. You need to beat the pavement and do top quality work.

It seems that everyone today gets caught up in the illusion of instant success. That may work if you stumbled upon some great internet marketing strategy, but if you are a contractor and you have to do real work on real places, their are only two names you can make for yourself. A good one and a bad one. No matter what technologies present themselves today, tomorrow and into the future, remember one thing. The quality of your work will be judged by real eyes, your professionalism will be judged by real people and finally, people can be who they want to be on the internet and not nessasarily who they really are.

I am glad I didn't use these services and continue beating the pavement in search of more jobs and happy clients.

Thanks from Best Choice Contracting llc

I am a consumer. A first time home owner who is doing some various upgrades to my home. Without going into too much detail, I had a company come out to give me a quote for a condo patio (PowerHouse Remodeling, a subsidiary of Dream Home Remodeling). They spent an hour showing me Angie's list reviews, explaining Angie's list and "selling" me on how they are the only true consumer review site. Of course I only saw the positive reviews. Not only was their quote double what 2 other contractors that were advertised locally in my community newsletter were offering, but their sales guy apparently felt it appropriate to do anything to get the sale, including sexual advances. After kicking him out of my house, I launched a complaint with the company. You can bet your a$$ I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use a company that shows me reviews from Angie's list again!! I am now completely horrified to have contractors at my house.

Bottom line, Angie's list sucks. You do not need to pay for the same service you can get for free on Yelp, City-data, or other free review sites.

Found not a thing about contractors on either site. If that's what I'm looking for when I do research for contractors, neither of those "free" websites are of help at all. I still vote for Angie's List. I've found two contractors on the list last week (and at no CHARGE, I may add) and have had one over to do an estimate (too high!) and another will be coming Monday. I've also in the past read comments about a mover, which turned out to be true as I had to use that mover (assigned by Sears) and the experience was just as described on Angie's List. Again, at NO charge to me.

Don't see where all the animus is coming from on this website? BTW, they also have a link to BBB on their site so you can check what BBB has to say about the contractors.

What else do you guys want???

[Angie's List Hate, sent to their suggestion box on 2010-04-17.]

1. When I first thought about joining, I filled out the form, then canceled to think about it a bit more. Apparently, Angie's List grabbed and used my information, in spite of my not completing the registration process, because I received an offer email minutes after canceling.

2. The email offer was to waive the registration fee. It's flaky to charge a fee to people who want to join immediately, but offer to waive it for "wafflers."

3. Joining via the web site did not work. I had to call Angie's list to join. Flaky.

4. It was difficult to find information on how to cancel my membership. There's an FAQ that says, "...membership may be canceled by phone, e-mail, fax or U.S. mail...," but provides NO contact information. I finally found the email address after 20 minutes of searching, buried in Angie's Terms and Conditions.

5. When I tried to cancel my membership, I discovered that if I don't do it on one of Angie's business days, it's Too Bad for Me; I risk another month's membership fee because I didn't read the fine print of your Terms.

6. I can JOIN 24/7 (when the web site works), but if I want to CANCEL, I have to send email or a letter, and then only on business days? Flaky!

For a site that purports to be in consumers' interests, I find these practices not only flaky, but ironically disturbing. I'll be telling my friends on "Rick's List" to avoid doing business with Angie's List.

Have a Nice Day,

You guys just live in your own little worlds despite all the facts otherwise. Grinches? This site is worthless. YOu guys are the examples of all that you criticize Angies List of. It's callled..........projection. Buhbye.

Thought I'd found something worthwhile. Just another websites with mainly trolls on it.

I like the site below. It's probably just as prone to abuse as Agalina's, but at least it's free to view, and I assume, post. Plus, FWIW, the post's are dated and with a cross check with the BBB you should be able to at least get a good start in heading in the right direction provided you have no immediate friends that could assist you in your search for a local contractor that you can later hunt down and harass should things not meet your expectations. I would also assume that as with most everything, most business relationships will fall into the "your mileage may vary" category.
http://www.kudzu.com/

I'd gladly pay 5 - 15 per month read about peoples unbiased experiences with companies . . . if you are pinching 5 dollars per month then you are NOT looking for quality as quality cost money. You get what you pay for . . . I have used Angie's List for 5 years now. Grant I own multiple properties and actually care about the quality of work performed. I think AL-Haters people should embrace Craigslist . . . full of hacks, you'll feel great about dealing with the owners of these struggling companies that cannot meet their commitments and have stories/excuses about failures! You people are not my neighbors so I am happy for miserly ways! YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU GET!

YES! Angie's List sucks! It is a ripoff business, comparable to a Saigon Whore House!

I acquired a membership mainly to research home repair contractors; however, if you decide to research a suspected crooked dentist (or several other categories), you have to pay Angie an extra membership fee. Home Repair members can not see info on Health Care until they pay Mamasan Angie more money.

YES! Angie's List sucks! I should have been suspicious from the beginning. Angie'sList is a sponsor of the Sean Hannity show. What an ignorant ranting ditto head, he is!

I used the Angie's add a Chapter option so that my sister could find a roofer in south florida. She based her decision on Angie's list so called A rating for Hamiliton Brothers in Pompano Beach Florida. They came out to her house and replaced the old roof only to create three times the leak in her house. She can't even complain to Angie's because she is not a so called member. Angie's List is trying to pressure her to become a member. Now her only option is pursue this "A" roofer in small claims court. Do not use Angie's List. I am canceling my account with Angie's List.

I am a small plumbing/heating contractor with 20 plus years experience living in a major East Coast market. Two years ago, based on the fact that two people had given me A ratings, Angie's List contacted me to place a web ad. I was apprehensive of the cost and the fact that you have to make a year commitment to advertise. I went ahead with the decision to advertise, and from personal experience it has been the best business decision I have ever made. My first year's investment of $2400 for the year resulted in over $20,000 (you are reading correctly) additional income. My second year of advertising was even better, even in a poor economy. I recently renewed my ad for the third year and I am certain that such results will continue. I have been rated in the top 3 percent of more than 350 plumbers for the past two years (Super Service Award designation). My initial two A ratings has grown to close to 70 with more appearing every month. I am not doing anything different for Angie's List subscribers than I have my entire working career. Do quality work and treat clients fairly! As for needing to write my own positive, "fake" reviews......I don' think I could personally such glowing words of praise as do my appreciative home owning clients whom I have helped!
Angie's List is essentially word of mouth recommendations......real people in your own neighborhood, except you can skip the phone calls and head right to your computer. Does Angie's List make a profit.....sure, but what service business doesn't? They are in the business of providing information. I do think, totally in their defense, that the service they provide is valuable and helpful. Homeowners with problems can find good, experienced help that matches their needs. In all, EVERYONE WINS.......the homeowner finds a great service provider, the contractor can substantially increase his/her income, and Angie and her team earn a nice living. Do the right thing and all the above complaint disappear into thin air!

I cannot believe there are so many people willing to pay for this. There must be a lot of suckers out there. You can find everything you need to find about any company on the Internet for free. As far as the argument that companies can't post positive reviews about themselves on Angies List I strongly disagree, and I can smell those out anyway. It is usually pretty obvious when they are doing that. I'll take all of the free resources on the Internet over Angie's List any day. This business model is all wrong.

I subscribed to Angies list for some small amount so I could find a good local moving company. When that was over, I went to the website to try to cancel my membership. On the accounts page it says, your membership is from xxApril2009 to XXMay2009. Then it has a "renew membership" button, and no cancel membership button. Although I admit that I read somewhere previously that the membership was automatically renewed, this membership page was designed to make you believe differently. I thought, oh isn’t that interesting, if I don't press that button my membership will expire. WRONG. 2 months later I wrote an angry email explaining the set up. I got what I perceived to be an angry email back explaining that somewhere it stated that the memberships automatically renewed and that you had to call or write to cancel. It seemed hypocritical that this service which should be helping you find some honest service would not have an honest service themselves. While part of this is my fault, I admit, the site is still deceiving and is designed to make you forget that they are still taking your money. I got my refund but I’m still bitter about it, because its not about the money.

My other antidote was that my father used the list to find a contractor and the dude said he had initially used the 'enhanced' feature when he first signed up to boost his appearance on the list. When the contractor stopped paying for the service, AL put him in the penalty box/ bad review or whatever it is, and he can't get that problem resolved because its between him and the list. WTF. I won't be using this service again.

I just submitted a review on "angie's list" - I meant it as a joke, I was having problems navigating the new website changes and I was trying to give them feedback in a way that would demonstrate that they too are accountable. So here is what I got back, with all kinds of additional patronizing "have a nice day" language:

"We do not currently accept reports on Angie's List or our competitors due to the conflict of interests. However, we're always looking for feedback from our members and ways to improve our service. We have sent your feedback along to our IT department to consider for future website updates. If you have any other suggestions or specific feedback you'd like to provide to us, we'd be happy to receive your input"

It is my hope that this reply willl reach innumerable Angies List potential victims. Those who think AL detractors must be biased will find no substantive reason to challenge my negative conclusions. I am not an Angie List customer but when I "bit" on their marketing angle, I got a lot of interesting insight on just how they do business. As a business owner for over 35 years, I understand very well the importance of a good reputation and marketing. As a highly compassionate and caring medical doctor, I have been blessed to have people assume that I am both trust-WORTHY and relatively bright person. At the risk of not seeming as humble as I am, I believe I have repeatedly earned and honored that trust and respect.

Unfortunately my recent interaction with AL list representative Charles (no connection with me), showed a corporate culture that is not as noble as they pretend to be. Based on BOTH the way they set up their business model AND the disrespectful and pedantic (look that up, Charles) attitude of AL's rep., my biggest regret in contacting AL recently is that I allowed them to waste 15 minutes of my time as I politely (until the very end) encouraged them to be more open about disclosing the cost of their subscription service BEFORE requiring the caller (net contact) provide personal information like email address and password, etc.

My impetus for the call was to confirm (or refute) my impressions about the apparent NON-disclosure of service costs in a reasonable manner, before invading my privacy. As the call progressed, I came to see that the AL representative had no objectivity about business ethics. Even though the "List" does subject its viewers to overt advertising as I assume many or most service providing sites do, there is NOTHING in the way of a visible or public disclaimer about vested financial interests AND a FEE REQUIREMENT to get the promoted information from "The List", until it is quite possibly "too late" (for the sake of your privacy).

DESPITE my prior instruction to erase any information they had gathered about me from their lead development intake process (which I had objected to in writing and by voice mail), I received a rather impolite and cocky sales call from what I can best describe as an arrogant twit who chose not to understand my concerns. His "company position" was one of a sarcastic and false apology for my own "confusion" about their wonderful service. Apparently anyone would have to be stupid to object to their "bait and switch", or more correctly, their tease to get you to invest time and disclose private information before FIRST announcing that they want you to ALSO pay for the same service as their advertisers.

As I now read the comments in this blog about the other fees and procedures that are built into this self-annointed, angelic-sounding "LIST", the "Buyer's Beware" RED FLAGS go up all over the place. Beside the Better Business Bureau the most obvious place to look for reputation problems with a potential contractor for your home projects (etc) is the public record. Between the Clerk of Courts in your region, the state licensing agencies and other truly free resources, one does NOT NEED the self-promoting list. Just be sure you get the whole name of the contractor(s) who would actually do your work and hit the websites creatively - and cross check references in detail. Several readers above have pointed out how AL can be gamed, just like the List-folks game the poor suckers who get sold and give data before they find out about a fee, and another fee,... and a membership... and an upgraded listing... and so on!!

My dear fellow readers - talk with your friends and neighboors and get direct referral information from people you both know AND TRUST. Then just do your projects in an ordinary business like manner with partial payments at specific performance steps, see the insurance policy or decvlarations page of someone who claims to have insurance, verify licensure and lack of disciplinary actions or legal complaints, and do anything else that might protect you from the unscrupulous contractors and those who would sell you a gimmick for you to do less homework about the people you let into you home or business. There are lots of companies, INCUDING ANGIE's LIST, who will take your money by pretending to be worth the fees they charge you by surprise and then charge you again and again.

With "NO axe to grind", I wish you "good shopping" for your projects and services. Unfortunately "Angie's List" appears to JUST be another group of strangers with BUILT IN INCENTIVES to cost you more than they are worth.
Dr. Charles G. of Ocala, Florida

I live in No. Va.
Joined when we had a big bathroom remodel. My rating of the company we hired and the job they did
would be a solid C. Not nearly the high rating on A.L. My guess is that the company rated themselves.
Incidently, we didn't re-up with A.L. and they flooded our inbox til we finally blocked them.
Two thumbs down for A.L. at least for a paying site.

My primary response to Angie's List is, what a badly written and perhaps amateurish website.

It turns out you can join as a non-paying member and write reviews, but i could only find that out by sending an email query to the site. Why make it hard to get information?

The store i wanted to review was not in their list, so I opted to add it myself. I filled out the whole form, including the address and phone number of the store. The submit failed without an explanation, and a lame suggestion to try it again.

So I contacted help again, and got a prompt, nice reply from an employee who said she manually entered it for me.

The trouble is, it's still not on the site.

Wow, I've sunk a lot of time into this. If it's this much hassle to use, how many people is this site actually reaching?

Greg

I was motivated to google "alternative to Angie's List" today after visiting the Angie's List page. I found this instead and am pleased to see that other people out there are using their noodles. (And let me be clear, those of you who are defending Angie's List based on some poorly written philosophy or claptrap don't have a leg to stand on. The people who agree with that Angie's List sucks will not have their minds changed by viral marketing or fuzzy logic.)

1. They charge the very people who provide their content! So, the people who write their copy -- the reviewers -- get charged to provide a service!! That is hysterical.
2. They charge the people who use their website, while they also advertise! Again. What the heck are people thinking? Did you know Craigslist makes (we guess) in the hundreds of millions per year, and have you seen a whit of advertising on their site? Besides the ones you're looking for. ;) Who pays to be a member of a site where you do the work AND get advertised to?
3. They charge an activation fee. This is the epitome of snake oil salesman behavior. I won't bore you with the details of what it takes to make a site like theirs. But let me tell you, the cost of creating a template to take in accounts was paid within the first advertising or company membership paycheck they ever got. This fee is based on a thing as real as unicorns. It costs them nothing to set up your "membership account."
4. Consider this. They have a million members across the entire country. How many people do you have living in your city or township? Consider how many reviews get written. Consider how many companies there are in your local geography that could be reviewed. With a million members across the whole U.S., how many useful, legitimate reviews are you going to get for, let's say, even ten companies in your local area that do the one thing you need. When there are fifty companies truly in your locale that can offer the service you need. If I need to spell it out further, then stop reading and go join Angie's List. Because you'll feel much more comfortable in that company.

They have so many problems i don't know where to start. So here are my top one:
If you use their complaint process about a service-person, they will take the liberty to print your full name and complaint in their national magazine without ever allowing you to say you don't want this done. I had a situation that they were helpful in resolving, but then months later my friends told me they read all about it, with my full name, in the Angie's list magazine. When I called angie's to complain and mentioned that this is not posted anywhere on their FAQ section nor anywhere on their website, they said that it's only posted for a moment when you sign off on your complaint online. Beware unless you want your dirty laundry aired in public. Appalling that a national company would do this. I canceled my membership and will never sign on again with them until they change this policy.

What's wrong with you people? Paying a company for leads? lol Ever heard of advertising in the newspaper or doing a mailing?

Good grief. Good for me that so many people have no clue how to run a business.

Go Me!

I am a talented, licensed contractor. You call me for high-end work and/or when the job not only has to look right it - it actually has to all work and last, be completed on time and be as economical as is realistically possible. We are wound that tight ... I know, I know, dinosaurs like us don't exist you say, well we do - just few & far between.

Now let me explain something to ALL of you ...

The vast majority of Homeowners ( condo / upscale housing / apartment owners / commercial ) DO NOT CARE. Period. They would not know quality if it bit them right in the behind and said 'Hello'.
All they want is the job done as cheaply as possible and have no clue how 98% of the, what they would call a 'good contractors', do a sub standard job that is anything but near code compliant. (Remember code compliant is considered the MINIMUM building, remodeling standard. It goes up from there). Some of that is changing now that the economy tanked & will stay tanked for some time - i.e. people who built what we call 'movie sets' in order to flip real estate (turn max profit) now have to live in the 'paint thin' quality of the house the other person flipped to also max out profit. The warts and all are starting to show & now the bill is due. Why people spend 40% to 60% of their money to only get 50% of the quality is beyond us. Now they have to either replace or repair. They only pushed the Pied Pipers visit out into the near future and not only will it cost them more now, than if they had done things correctly the first time, but they must endure the intrusion & hassle too of the repair- not to mention that they could have been enjoying quality all this time.
Lesson: NO CONTRACTOR TAKES MONEY OUT OF HIS OWN POCKET. You are not saving ... He or She knows way, way more than you do. Often their profit margin ( margin mind you ) goes UP (?!) when you try to do it the cheap way. It becomes easier for them and they get to cut corners with your semi implied consent AND they can use lower skilled labor. (more about that later).
WHEN YOU HIRE A CONTRACTOR YOU ARE NOT BUYING AN IDENTICAL FACTORY MADE PRODUCT OFF THE SHELVE. Every job is very, very different. Just because Jane says that " He did such a great job on my kitchen " does not tell the whole story. Jane is usually leaving a few things out and in our experience, when we hear your sob story and resentment of having hired the same Shmoe's that Jane 'the idiot' used, we start to hear all sorts of Red Flags that would have been obvious to any experienced, conscientious contractor.

The average homeowner just cares that you were clean, careful, respectful ( all musts ) and that the job sorta looks ok and most importantly the 'price was right'.
Well it's not a game show. What ever these guys do, no matter how fast they got it done or how cheap YOU NOW HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT FOR THE NEXT 3 to 15 years or so. And guess what ? When it comes time to sell the buyer hires the most anal inspector who discovers what you didn't know was messed up or was endangering your life all this time and DEDUCTS it from the price ! Yup. You lose again. But hey ... think of the money you saved (duh).

Well then Angies List must be a good idea RIGHT ? Even after my brief attempt to slap some sense into you most 'consumers' will still think " Yes !" . sigh ... this is why construction is in the state it's in. Angie's List if you still haven't figured it out is NOT an answer. My considered opinion is that it's causing more harm than good. But whatever ... put on your rose colored glasses pour the wine, open the beer and turn on the fake news and ... believe, believe. There, now doesn't that feel better than doing your own homework.

You could never in a million years imagine what these contractors say & think about you behind you back to their construction buddies. We overhear these conversations 24/7.

I could go on but frankly but ... , well I should keep this as polite as possible, let me just leave you with one tip - something to keep an eye on. 90% of the time you hire your licensed contractor they are not doing the work. They only show up now & then ( drop off materials, then to pick up the check ). So the work is being done by poorly trained laborers, perhaps with one overworked, preoccupied 'supervisor' ( + a nervous you ) all of whom you are paying top dollar for but the owner is only paying $10 an hour for. Ask if the owner will be on the job at all times... he will respond " er .. uh well I have to pick up materials (i.e. visit girlfriend / play golf / cash your check / bid other jobs - get those jobs & then pull skilled worker off your job so he can get another check) and just do a little bit of cleaning up at another job ... hummpff ..". Tell him that you are only looking for a contractor that is going to be on the job for at least 4 hours a day and that you will not accept anything else & you want it in the contract. Yup your much better off writing your own rider to the contract or even your own contract ( yes most contractors would bristle at this but certainly you need to get the things you want in writing ). *Another tip: Don't be unrealistic and expect them to rush the work (quality suffers /tempers flare) to meet a spoiled brat deadline. Your not ordering something online that you can pay 'next day' shipping for. Quality work takes a bit more time - remember what I said 'Quality lasts longer and can be enjoyed' (well somebody said it). *Yet another tip: don't get 'chummy' with your contractor just because you want to be friendly or feel that if you 'get along' with him he will take care of you. (God I LOVE IT when these guys leave the job, after we have been busting our butts, and the owner finds out (after the check was cut) what a real buddy they were and the set of problems he left behind (hey more for $$$ us). Let me give you an example - For a fact Doctors who get sued the most (and pay the highest insurance) are the most competent and thorough. WHAT ?? That could not be, you say ! Sadly it's true. You see, fool, the ones with the best 'bedside manner' rarely get sued. They smooth you over with their social skills, listen to you intently and make you feel all warm & fuzzy inside. Great - if your buying 'Warm & Fuzzy' not if you have to live with what they have done for the rest of your life ( what's left ). Same with contractors. ALL YOU WANT TO CARE ABOUT IS IF THE CONTRACTOR CARES MORE ABOUT THE QUALITY OF HIS WORK THAN HE DOES ABOUT YOU. It's always the work. That's what your left with when they leave. ( 0165066101 )

I am a highly rated company on angies list and I hate angies list all they do is harass me by phone and e mail to pay big bucks to advertise.I especially love they part where I get bad reviews for work I do not get or get to perform but a customer still gives me bad reviews because they do not like the price or they want the work half assed angies list customers want high rated work for very small money and they want it right now or they get very upset and trash business .I am very glad to see this website and I finally get to express my opinion without getting an grade from a customer who has nothing better to do.thanks for this website

Isn't this kind of the same thing as Angie's list. Maybe not reviews on business, but certainly reviews on an article and an author. Some of you rave, some of you rant. No matter what the review is for or where it is at, people will always disagree. It's just in our nature to be opinionated. It doesn't make anyone wrong since everyone has the right to their own opinion. But just a side note: Some of you are giving bad reviews about a site that has bad reviews. Isn't that hypocritical?

I subscribed to Angie’s List about 7 years ago, but it was of no help in selecting reliable contractors so I let it lapse. (I’m in a city with a metro population of nearly a million.) Things have changed, and there are now other options evolving. I’d put my bet on the Google Map reviews, which should be large in number over time. I hope it becomes as valuable as Amazon’s reviews are for products. Not infallible, but very helpful.

I found an interesting site that offers Angies List type home contractors in Dallas, Plano and Frisco, TX and it's free to use:

www.HandymanFinderDallas.com

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Don't pay Angie's List up to $89 just to see a list of Handymen in your area. I wouldn't. That's ridiculous. Use a free service.

http://www.HandymanFinderDallas.com

P.S. I like your web site. It is fair and balanced.