Alan Sung wrote:
"Seerialmom" wrote in message
I considered checking Angieslist after I saw the "ad" in our local
newspaper. But that consideration changed to "never mind" when I saw
you had to pay to see the comments and recommendations. And of course
they don't mention that on the ad.

They use the same model that Consumer Reports does which is that they don't
accept advertising to remain neutral and unbiased. As a result, you have to
pay to read the recommendations. Sounds reasonable to me, but it does
present a barrier to entry for most casual browsers.

-al sung
Rapid Realm Technology, Inc.
Hopkinton, MA

Alan, I COMPLETELY agree with you -- indeed, I don't frankly see how
anyone could trust a site that did __not__ charge the consumer. Why on
earth would I want a site that relied on the fees necessary to its
continued existence . . . being collected from the very community that
is the object of being independently reviewed? You could drive a truck
through the conflict of interest this business model presents imho,
which is why your comment about Consumer Reports is so pointedly
accurate.

As to the cost of Angieslist, if I'm not mistaken you do not need to
subscribe by the year. For about five bucks you can get in; do your
research and make your report(s) for a month; and get out. In other
words, for about the cost of an issue of Consumer Reports, you can not
only get considerably finer detail (by ZIP CODE no less), you can
populate the site with your own first-hand experience.

I am enrolled with Angieslist on their free one-year trial and I'll
tell you what my first impressions are. Oh, by the way, this was to
find a local plumber.

In my immediate zip code I had access to reports made on about 15 local
plumbers, 5 or so of which were within about 10 miles of my house. I
contacted one of the highest-rated plumbers for an estimate . . . and
was __profoundly__ unimpressed (!!). The prices this plumber charges
are beyond belief, which leads me to believe that all the reports made
on this plumber were from relatives and employees.

In short, the reports were of dubious authenticity; BUT WAIT!! I lined
up a plumber on my own, simply by calling the yellow pages and doing
the hard work of comparing prices myself, and I LUCKED OUT. I got a
guy who charges $75/hour (as opposed to the $200!!!!!!/hr. charged by
the outfit highly-rated on Angieslist); he's a 3rd generation plumber;
he is so modest that he wouldn't even let me pay for the job he did
until he gave it a week to see if there were any leaks (in other words,
he made another trip out to inspect the quality of his own work) -- and
then, when I tried to write out a check to him, he said "Oh don't
worry, we'll just bill you. It won't be more than a couple of hours',
don't worry." He had never even heard of Angieslist, and his only
comment was "Oh. Okay."

But here's the best part:
This was a broken water main folks, meaning, the job was an emergency.
It was a Friday, and he interrupted another job he was on to come out
and fix the pipe at no additional charge.

So why is this relevant to Angieslist? Because I'll go right over
there and not ONLY make a detailed report on how pleased I am with his
work . . . I'll also expose (what I think must be fraudulent reports)
on the other plumber I called, and encourage people to
--independently put my observations to the test. If my judgment is
flawed, the consensus of others will allow its veracity to be
SELF-HEALING. Hey, maybe I caught the guy on a bad day? Fair enough;
I'm happy for others to, er, 'flush out' his credentials.

Yes, a site such as this is wide-open for contractor abuse -- no doubt
about it -- but the more individual and honest homeowners such as
myself __participate__ in the content on the site, the more readily
apparent these fake reports are going to be. The report I write will
help someone else, and that shared intelligence is worth the equivalent
of a Grandé Latté at Starbucks any day of the week. I personally
doubt I would subscribe for the year; but the site owners don't require
that of me to access the intelligence my neighbors have contributed to.
The ability to join for just one month is what WILL save this business
model from rapid extinction, as I would imagine others would use it the
way I do. Put another way, we can all pray we don't need a contractor
every month of the year heh heh.

Now lastly, I visited some of the other sites some of you recommended,
but their model is flawed. A site like this must be unconflicted as to
who its patrons a It is we, each individual consumer-by-consumer,
who need to support the site financially . . . or all you have is a
SPONSORED ADVERTISING model that isn't worth the graphics you see.

As for those contractors who whine and cry "We were 'victims' of Angies
list snip" I say this to you:

--I'LL be the judge of which information I consider specious, thank
you. You obviously ****ed someone off somehow. I can make my own
judgment as to whether they are really angry about the cost of the job
or the quality of the work. I want to hear ANYone's impression of a
contractor, however unfair and inaccurate it might be. If even one
portion of the complaint rings true, the report will have fulfilled its
role.

Power to CONSUMERS
LOCALLY! (for once)

50-Sumpin'