You should see the refinishing job I got! 
It’s an Indy company, and I have known a few people who have ended up working there (not close friends, so I have not heard reports), but I have never used it. I didn’t even know you had to pay to use it until I read this thread.
I’d be surprised if either of those happen. They continue to buy office space around their main office here in Indy - their expansion plans have been implemented fairly rapidly of late. Plenty of companies don’t turn a profit for a while. It’s certainly not a great position to be in, but they provide a service that needs to reach a certain tipping point of service-providers before they become effective in any particular area. I believe their Indianapolis database is (obviously) well beyond that saturation point. I haven’t dug into their financials, but I’d be surprised if locally they aren’t making money.
I live in a smallish (26,000) town that’s close to a major metro area, but I have found Angie’s List pretty useless. There never seem to be any providers of what I’m looking for near me, and when I expand my search, I turn up lots of results, but many of them don’t serve the area in which I live.
Two other major annoyances:
If I do a Google search for a particular service, a lot of times I’ll get an Angie’s List link that says there are X providers in your area. Then, when I actually log into Angie’s List and search for these providers, they don’t show up in the search. WTF?
Another is that I have searched a few times on Angie’s List and then afterwards get repeated nagging e-mails saying “You used So-and-so. Please rate them” - only I didn’t use them, I just searched for them.
It’s only $7, but I can think of more fun things to waste $7 on.
New Shimmer is both a floor wax and a dessert topping!
I’m a long-time user of Angie’s list and a huge fan at that. Not just because it helps you to find and vet contractors, but medical professionals as well.
One thing I’ve noticed about PPO healthcare plans; you get to choose from a list of doctors/providers, but you have no way of knowing which is a scam artist and which is a legit good provider. Angie’s list helped me ID and avoid a shyster dentist and have let me know that the orthodontists my dental plan includes in network are the worst ones in town and if I want good orthodontia work, I’m going to have to go out of network and basically pay for it myself. This is good-to-know information. I’ve even found veterinarians and animal services from AL.
It’s more than just handymen. I wish more people knew that.
Please expand on this: Why do you hate Angie’s list? Why are contractors talking about a national boycott? Why is this so awful for contractors?
It’s one thing to say a company sucks, but it’s another thing to expect me to take you words with any level of seriousness when I can’t determine what the major issue is.
Aww man, that sucks. You shouldn’t be afraid to post honestly on Angie’s list because part of your subscription cost goes to keeping this from happening! They have mediators you can contact when things go bad and they can help you get money back or get the job fixed.
The List doesn’t work right if people are afraid to leave bad reviews - which is why it should be better than Yelp who has weird policies about what gets posted. If someone shows up and attacks you like that, then you have recourse through Angie’s List!
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Angie’s List deliberately misleads homeowners into thinking the subscription price generates their revenue when actually contractors and service providers provide over 70% of revenue.
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They are incessant telemarketers with very strong sales tactics.
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They asked me for my customer list, repeatedly
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There are plenty of review systems out there that a homeowner does not have to pay for.
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Angie’s List customers have a higher percentage than the general population of being a major pain in the ass. If the general population is 5%, AL customers are 15%. They seem tto come more from the default mindset of thinking we’re out to screw them. Perhaps they’ve been screwed over in the past and are more likely to sign up for the service because of that, dunno. It is very noticeable, though.
I meet with contractors from all over the US, and in some markets, it’s very good for them and the homeowners. Not so much in ours.
I do believe that homeowners need a reputable, unbiased source of information about contractors and service providers. I think we can do much better than Angie’s List.
Oh, and they will manipulate the reviews if they think there is revenue to be had. Not blatantly, but a couple nudges here and there. I’ll testify to that.
You wonder why I think they’re unethical?
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