Is Angie’s List Worth The Membership Fee?
At about the time Rosa and I were planning to have some home maintenance work done, I received an offer from PayPal for a 60% discount off of a membership to Angie’s List. I had been hearing Angie’s List advertisements on the radio for some time. The discount persuaded me to give them a try.
Ratings based on customer reviews
Angie’s List rates contractors and other businesses in a local market based on customer reviews. Ratings range from A for the highest rating to F for the lowest rating. Angie’s List advertises that the consumer can trust the ratings because they are based on actual customer reviews.
Automatic membership renewal
From the registration process on, I was disappointed with the Angie’s List product. During registration, I was made aware of the Angie’s List policy of automatic renewal of membership without notification. For a business that claims to look out for the interests of the consumer, this is a very consumer-unfriendly policy. I was offended by it, and immediately made a notation in my calendar to cancel my membership a month before the expiration date.
Annoying pop-up during log on
Angie’s List reserves the right to change their terms and conditions at any time without notice. An annoying pop-up appears every time I log on to the site that requires me to agree to the Angie’s List terms and conditions. This makes me suspicious. Are the terms and conditions changing that often that I need to agree to them every time I log on to the site? What changes are being made? How will they affect me? As a practical matter, I don’t read the terms and conditions every time I access the site. I doubt that anyone does. Again, for a consumer-oriented business, this is very consumer-unfriendly. How can I trust Angie’s List ratings when Angie’s List policies make me distrust them?
A dearth of reviews
Once I accessed the lists of businesses, I was disappointed by the lack of reviews. The market in which I live has a population of 800,000. Yet, the search results for “Remodeling Kitchen & Bath” produced only five businesses rated A with more than 1 review and only 3 with more than 2 reviews. That’s not much information to go on when deciding on a contractor. The vast majority of businesses listed had no reviews at all. I found this to be true for every search I conducted.
A search for “Plumbers” produced only 9 rated A with more than 2 reviews and only 6 with more than 3 reviews. A search for “Home Security Systems-Alarms” returned only one A-rated business with more than 2 reviews. “Appliance Repair-Large” and “Automotive Repair” produced only 2 A-rated vendors each with more than 2 reviews. Two of the automotive repair shops rated A are ones which have given me terrible service in the past. So much for my confidence in Angie’s List ratings.
Membership fees
Angie’s List charges a $5.00 activation fee plus $3.25 monthly or $12.00 for a 12-month membership. Memberships for longer periods cost proportionately less. That membership fee provides access to Angie’s List only. Additional fees are required to access Angie’s List Health and/or Angie’s List Classic Cars.
Better Business Bureau is better
We ended up using the Better Business Bureau (BBB) accredited list of businesses to find a contractor for our home maintenance project. Businesses must meet certain criteria in order to earn BBB accreditation. In addition to accreditation, the BBB rates businesses on a scale from A+ for the very best to F for the worst. There is no fee to search the BBB database and no restrictions. I can search for contractors, health care providers, or car dealers at not cost to me. By the way, I checked and the BBB rated one of the automotive repair shops with which I had had a bad experience as A+ just like Angie’s List did.
No membership renewal for me
I won’t be renewing my Angie’s List membership. In the market in which I live, I feel that I get more complete information from the Better Business Bureau than I do from Angie’s List, and it’s free.
K.C. Knouse is the author of True Prosperity: Your Guide to a Cash-Based Lifestyle, Double-Dome Publications, 224 pages
Here’s two additional big gripes about Angie’s List:
- Canceling can’t be done online. Yep, you can signup but to cancel you have to call them or send them an email and they’ll get back to you. Does this sound like other shady outfits like ProActive? Sure does. Does it surprise you that an outfit like Angie’s List would pull this. It shouldn’t.
- The site has become another whitewashing destination. That means that reviews are by far on the positive side. Knowing how much people like to complain you might find this surprising. But there’s secret! A key reason that people don’t put negative reviews up on Angie’s List that when you review a business negatively they will provide your personal home address to that business. Am I saying this based upon speculation? Nope, here’s the actual message they provide:
Please remember that your name, address and this report information will be available to the service provider being rated.
They do this under the pretense that they don’t allow “anonymous reporting”. Of course sense they know who made the report there is no such thing as an anonymous report. And they don’t provide personal information about the people that work for the organizations you’re reporting on. So the deal is that you write the reviews, they sell them to other people, and then they expose your personal information to anyone you review. That effectively means that they drive out most negative reviews and there is no real check on bogus positive reviews. That’s how you become a whitewash site which is what Angie’s List has become. So don’t bother spending your money. These aren’t really reviews that represent what most people think. They’ve stacked the deck to make sure that it isn’t that.
Thank you, Ted, for your detailed comment.
Yes Angie’s list sucks
That because most people are ignorant. But ask yourself 1 question we all know that most of the skilled trade people will rip you off if they can with or without Angie’s list, for you the member who swear by Angie’s list how do you know that all the positive feedback that you have left and all the positive feedback that are left by others….how do you know that you “all” have not been ripped off? The problem is you the consumer (you the members of Angie’s list) you are so blind that you made it impossible to your own self to even contemplate the idea that you have made a wrong decision, let alone the question. Angie’s list is successful because you the ignorant people naturally gravitate toward advice and reviews left by other people rather than no advice and no reviews! That is understandable.
So yes Angie’s found a way to be successful by exploiting your ignorance. But remember next time you hire someone through Angie’s list ask yourself “what if I am being ripped off right now?” The repair man was nice (duh) he fix my problem he cleaned up after himself and I feel happy therefore I am going to leave a positive feedback. The bottom line is you have been brain washed into believe what others believe, and if you think for one second that you did not, well that’s why you are a member:) naive, naive, naive. The beauty of Angie’s list is it is powered by you the members, Angie’s list don’t know if you have been ripped off or not that’s not their problem it is yours, and you will make a decision based on people reviews right? So if I have been ripped off and I don’t know that I will leave a nice review so that you too in turn get ripped off, plus we paid a membership fee for it
Thank you for your comment. Rarely have I been satisfied with the work of contractors that were referred to me by friends and acquaintances. I’ve decided to rely on the BBB ratings. BBB receives the complaints of dissatisfied consumers. I also recommend checking with the local District Attorney’s office and the state Attorney General’s consumer protection office to determine if there have been complaints of fraud filed against a contractor.