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Angies List

rosebud5

rosebud5

TUG Member
Joined
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Location
Northern Virginia
I went to look at this site looking for a roofing company and was surprised to find out you need to pay for a subscription. I thought I would try "homeadvisors.com" because it was free.

Is Angies list worth paying for? I seem to get the same kind of information from homeadvisor, ratings and all for free.
 
I can't comment on "homeadvisors" but Angies list covers a lot more than just home improvements. I subscribe to "Angies List" and have been very pleased. The cost is very low so that is not an issue for me.
 
I've also been very pleased with Angie's list. It's well worth the money to me.

The key is not necessarily looking for the company withe the most reviews, but rather looking for companies where the same craftsman or small group of craftsmen do all the work.
 
AL must have improved since I was a member probably 5 or so years ago. If so, that's great.
I dropped my membership after a year back then because they had minimal reviews on most things of interest to me.
 
I always wondered how they come up with these so called experts. If they just pay a fee to be on the list or is there more to it?:shrug:

PHILL12
 
I dropped Angie's List after I found out that businesses have to pay Angie to be on her list.
 
We dropped Angie's list after two bad experiences. The first was a bait and switch - Angie's List refunded our money (it was a groupon-like deal), but the vendor is still recommended. The second is a co-worker who hired a general contractor for a major kitchen remodel based upon the Angie's List recommendations. The guy that she hired removed a load bearing wall and never pulled permits for anything. She is now working with an attorney to recover some $$ from the original contractor and had to hire a new GC to redo everything. The extra cost is over $20k. The original GC is still recommended on Angie's List. :shrug:
 
klpca said:
We dropped Angie's list after two bad experiences. The first was a bait and switch - Angie's List refunded our money (it was a groupon-like deal), but the vendor is still recommended. The second is a co-worker who hired a general contractor for a major kitchen remodel based upon the Angie's List recommendations. The guy that she hired removed a load bearing wall and never pulled permits for anything. She is now working with an attorney to recover some $$ from the original contractor and had to hire a new GC to redo everything. The extra cost is over $20k. The original GC is still recommended on Angie's List. :shrug:
Click to expand...

That sums it up. Angie's charges contractors to list, and clients to see the list. When terrible contractors continue to be listed, then it becomes clear that AL is nothing but a double-draw marketing scheme, and "reviews" are not to be trusted.
 
There's a reason why a contractor "advertises" by listing themselves on A-L...
It's becuz they find it hard to get work otherwise. Sometimes, for good reason.
But there are also reputable contractors for whom, it's simply a marketing tool.
It's not easy distinguishing btw the two, so it should not be one's only source.

I found our last contractor (siding) through homeadvisors.com and was pleased.
.
 
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I joined Angie's List as I was looking for a contractor in a specialized field. The Yellow pages are extinct; contractors in my area come from 3 different states; internet skills are LOW for the small contractors.

I get the monthly little 'news' booklet and it has its own pile on my bookcase. I keep them to hand out to neighbors who always seem to think I am going to cough up MY CONTRACTOR'S phone number ... ain't happening and he will tell you, "not interested in any more work or weekend work".

And I was NOT impressed either by the list or the quality of "her" referrals. It is a advertising venue .... IMHO.
 
I'm not big on reviews of any kind from internet strangers. I would prefer to ask around my own circle of friends, family, co-workers, etc. Paying to see reviews just rubs me wrong so I have never done AL. I was honestly shocked to see the business catch on and grow, and even more surprised that it is still around.
 
Angie's List...

I "joined" (...once) Angie's List to find contractors for tasks for which I have either inadequate skills, too little available time or no local contacts of my own in that field.

It's not fair to generalize, but I can (and hereby do) state that in the few instances I've used AL, I was monumentally unimpressed with the quality of work of the "recommended" contractors I hired. In one instance, I actually had to spend two hours fixing the shoddy work of (allegedly) "skilled finish carpenters" myself.

I now belatedly conclude that AL is essentially just an advertising venue with no particular credibility or any real or implied assurance of quality work.
I will neither renew the membership when it expires nor ever use it again as a "source" for any contractors before the membership expires.

A good idea and successful business model for Angie Edwards, for sure --- but with "not so good" results for many dissatisfied consumers.
 
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geekette said:
I'm not big on reviews of any kind from internet strangers. I would prefer to ask around my own circle of friends, family, co-workers, etc. Paying to see reviews just rubs me wrong so I have never done AL.
Click to expand...

Agree. My alternative is to Google what I am looking for; look for companies in the area; focus on those that have been in business for a long time; concentrate on the small guys; call and see how they sound on the phone; and make a selection. I have to say I have always been happy.

George
 
Not true. My handyman is on her list once I volunteered to review him. So is my nail technician, who I know wouldn't pay to advertise anything other than in a local publication.

Angie's does have paid advertising, but that is not the same as being listed.

Fern
artringwald said:
I dropped Angie's List after I found out that businesses have to pay Angie to be on her list.
Click to expand...
 
bogey21 said:
Agree. My alternative is to Google what I am looking for; look for companies in the area; focus on those that have been in business for a long time; concentrate on the small guys; call and see how they sound on the phone; and make a selection. I have to say I have always been happy.

George
Click to expand...

George, I definitely like to keep the little guys in business. They seem to try harder, including follow-up calls, just to see if the work remains satisfactory.

I had my basement water proofed earlier this year. I was pretty sure which company I wanted to use, but the one I went with was the one that called me to offer a large discount if I would go with them NOW because they were running out of work and did not want to risk losing employees that they couldn't pay. For me, a company that cares so much about its people gets an edge. And the people were phenomenal.
 
Fern Modena said:
Angie's does have paid advertising, but that is not the same as being listed.
Fern
Click to expand...

Agree completely, and I thought the paid advertising showed up later? I didn't think it was part of the mix at launch.
 
I am not sure about how A-list works, but here is my experience.

When we hired a moving company, and they were finished, they asked us to give a rating on Angie's list. I told them I was not a member. He then said, "write a good review and I will reimburse you the A-list membership fees."

This had a slimy feel to me, so I did not join.
 
Were you satisfied with the job they did? If you were, then I don't see anything wrong with it. He's trying to cultivate a good reputation. And he does that by having satisfied customers make reports.

Slimy would be if he had friends who didn't have work done to post. I've seen that on Rover.com, and it turns me off.

I've used Angie's for many things. And I've used several of their deals for work as well, at a good discount. But not without checking them out first. A while back I needed some electric work done, adding 220 for a cooktop in my kitchen. I needed to run a line to get the 220, and my electrical panel is on the opposite wall of the house, in the garage, some 60' +/- away. After talking to the electrician, he came up with a great solution which saved me a good chunk of money. I was a happy camper, to say the least.

Fern

Sandy said:
I am not sure about how A-list works, but here is my experience.

When we hired a moving company, and they were finished, they asked us to give a rating on Angie's list. I told them I was not a member. He then said, "write a good review and I will reimburse you the A-list membership fees."

This had a slimy feel to me, so I did not join.
Click to expand...
 
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We've been members for a while. Found a few great businesses (including a mechanic) through them. We still renew, but haven't had the need to use them for a while.
 
Despite reading the bad reviews here, I checked out Angie's List since we have lots of upcoming home improvement projects scheduled. Joining was much cheaper than I expected. I found a 40% off promo code plus 20% off for using paypal. I then searched the site for 15 minutes and I am not very impressed. I was expecting more from this site as it has been around a long time.

Only time will tell if I like the service providers on the site...
 
Sandy said:
I am not sure about how A-list works, but here is my experience.

When we hired a moving company, and they were finished, they asked us to give a rating on Angie's list. I told them I was not a member. He then said, "write a good review and I will reimburse you the A-list membership fees."

This had a slimy feel to me, so I did not join.
Click to expand...

Did they do a good job for you? :ponder:

PHILL12
 
Phill and Fern,

You are right, they did do a good job for me. I guess my uneasiness was in the fact that the prompting for reimbursement was based on writing a good review. Yes, this probably is a legitimate way to cultivate good reviews for good work. This would bias a review, in my opinion.

I am sure that if I was not happy, or had not posted a good review, they would not have made the offer to reimburse. It made me think that this was the way that businesses generated good reviews. Of course, I could have declined the offer to reimburse and write the review anyway.

Makes me think about our TUG reviews. If the resort offered a free ____ for writing a good review on TUG or some other travel website, this would inject bias into the review process. Similar to book reviews on Amazon (or other products for that matter) where I sometimes see the writer disclose that they were offered a free product or compensation for a good review. Often, they say that they were offered the free ____ but the review is unbiased and entirely their own.

At any rate, this was my first impression of Angie's list. I appreciate the thoughts here and I may give it another chance to check it out.
 
Thanks for the replies. I guess I just dont understand why anyone would pay a subscription service to find a contractor, especially for small jobs. If I needed my roof replaced (big job), I would ask the company to give me recent references and I would check them out.
 
rosebud5 said:
Thanks for the replies. I guess I just dont understand why anyone would pay a subscription service to find a contractor, especially for small jobs. If I needed my roof replaced (big job), I would ask the company to give me recent references and I would check them out.
Click to expand...

Completely agree, paying for reviews is ridiculous to me, but AL is not just home remodelling. Easy to poll the neighbors on work they had done as roofs get hailed on in same storms, ditto flooded basements, etc.

One of their commercials has a lady saying "now that we're pregnant, I like the fact that I can find pediatricians..." which, again, I would ask around vs trust some internet bloke. I once took a recommendation from a friend for a chiropractor and that was a disaster (for me and my back) so paying strangers for their opinions on medical professionals is just never going to happen again with me and of course I would never ask that "friend" for a recommendation on Anything Ever Again.

AL can narrow the field for you, but one can do that on their own. Like we always did before the internet spawned reviews of every type imaginable.
 
I've used both Angie's list and HomeAdvisor. Between the two I prefer HomeAdvisor. I hired a few contractors through them and had no problems.
 
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