Angie’s List Review

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How Does Angie’s List Work?

Angie’s List is a marketplace that collects verified reviews for home service providers. When you go on Angie’s List, you can instantly find local service providers for virtually any service you might need related to your home. That includes everything from a total home remodel to basic landscaping.

For free users, the service is just a review site. You can see the options available for your service and read through verified reviews. Angie’s List doesn’t allow anonymous reviews, so you don’t have to worry as much about inflated ratings. As you advance through membership tiers, your benefits increase.

At the highest membership tier, you get access to the entire network of service providers and some special membership discount offers. You also get guarantees about fair pricing and work quality and emergency support when needed.

If you need help with something like an appliance, a company like Select Home Warranty can insure those home items and help you repair them.

What Makes Angie’s List Stand Out?

Many review sites start out free for users and use lead generation to pay for the service. Angie’s List went the opposite route, and the result is a review service with a core dedicated to customer service and a reputation for high-quality services.

Angie’s List only recently started allowing free memberships to view their reviews and ratings. When the company started, all subscriptions were paid. The change allows businesses to appeal to a broader audience without sacrificing on the quality that Angie’s List makes a priority for customers. You can see the nationwide list of Angie’s List pros without spending a dime. Then, if you want to book a service, you can always upgrade to a paid membership so you can gain access to the other things that set this company apart: guarantees.

While other review sites may offer a limited guarantee for damage or failure to start work, Angie’s List is one of the few that offers a guarantee about the quality of the work performed. Even though Angie’s List is not a service provider and doesn’t do the work, their paid members get protection of up to $100,000 on the quality of work. Paid members also get fair price protection, helping to ensure they don’t pay more for a service than they should.

Common Reviews of Angie’s List

Angie’s List enjoys a generally high rating from users. By promoting the best service providers, the review marketplace produces a long list of satisfied customers. One of the biggest complaints about Angie’s List is about potentially deceptive advertising practices. Angie’s List originally derived much of its income from advertising fees paid by providers. These providers would get promoted listings, but that was not always obvious to users.

Now, Angie’s List has made things a little easier and more transparent by changing the way they handle these promoted listings. They still promote paid business listings, but only providers with high (four- and five-star average) ratings qualify to buy these promoted listings. In addition, these businesses are clearly labeled and come with annual background checks, helping to ensure a higher level of quality. Most people who use Angie’s List to find a contractor are happy with the experience.

Is Angie’s List Right for Me?

Now that Angie’s List offers free access to their reviews and ratings, there is no reason not to use the site whenever you have a home improvement project on the horizon. Even if you don’t book a job directly through Angie’s List, the site offers you another place to collect feedback and put together a short list of potential candidates to complete the work.

Once you’ve decided on the scope of the work and are committed to hiring, it might make sense to go ahead and upgrade to a paid Angie’s List membership. The $99 per year might seem like a stiff fee, but with the guarantees and possible discounts available, it could be a cost-saving decision. If you’ve ever had a contractor leave you worse off than when they started, then you can certainly appreciate the value of a quality work guarantee.

If you’re a new homeowner, just need a little bit of work done around the house, or are planning to sell up and buy a new home, Angie’s List has someone listed on their site that can help. Their more than 700 service categories mean that you can almost always find a professional with the expertise you need.

About the Author

Jeff Hindenach

Jeff Hindenach is the co-founder of Versus Reviews. He graduated from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism. He has a long history of journalism, with a background writing for newspapers such as the San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Examiner, as well as writing for The Huffington Post, New York Times, Business Insider, CNBC, Newsday and The Street. He believes in giving readers the tools they need to get out of debt.