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Do you need a home improvement contractor who is
dependable and can get the job done within the
planned schedule? How about a gardener who can
landscape your garden and keep it
beautiful? So what do you do when you need these
services?
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... the first thought
that came to my mind was that this was just
another glamorized form of the yellow pages. But
since ... |
We usually ask family, friends, and neighbors first to find
out if they can recommend someone for the job.
In cases wherein they do not know of anyone to
recommend, our next option — although not
necessarily the best — is the yellow pages. Others
go to craigslist or do some endless searches on
internet forums for recommendations.
One time, my husband and I were talking to a friend of ours about doing
some home improvements and mentioned that we
might need some contractors. Of course, the
conversation lead me to ask whether she might
know of someone for the job. The unfortunate
answer was a "no" but she added ... "ever heard
of
Angie's List?"
Of course we've heard of Angie's List but had never really seriously considered it at all.
In fact, when I had first heard of Angie's List
before, the first thought that came to my mind
was that this was just another glamorized form
of the yellow pages. But since she brought this
back to our attention, we thought ... what the
heck, we might as well look more into it.
So What Is
Angie's List?
With our trusty PC and blazing fast internet
connection, we did some research on the internet
and this is what we found out.
With over a million paying subscribers
all over the US, Angie's List
has been providing user-driven report cards on
services right within our neighborhood.

Watch the video and learn more about Angie's List
Angie's List was created by Angie Hicks back in
1995. When she moved to Columbus, Ohio that
year, she was frustrated with the difficulty of
finding contractors to use for home repairs and
improvements.
Angie decided to go door-to-door within her
neighborhood and among friends to collect
consumer reviews. Eventually, this list of
consumer reviews grew and gained popularity.
During her first year, Angie had 1,000 members
throughout Columbus. Today, Angie's List serves
cities and communities all over the US and their
list of service categories and memberships just
keeps on growing.
Angie's List has become one of the
fastest-growing companies in the US. Angie’s List was named to the Inc. 500,
Inc. Magazine’s list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the
US for three consecutive years (2002, 2003 and 2004)
.
Company: Angie's List
Address: 1030 E. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
No. of Members: +1,200,000 members
Click Here to Watch Angie
Hicks' Interview on FOX News
What You'll Find On Angie's List
»
You will find
thousands of unbiased
ratings of service companies and
health care professionals in 450
categories on the site.
»
You will have 24 hr./7 days a week access to reviews and ratings from
members in your area about local
service providers, ranging from painters
and electricians to dentists and
dermatologists.
» Members rate service providers
an overall grade from A to F, just like
a school report card.
» Service providers are rated
based on the following criteria: price,
quality, responsiveness, punctuality,
and professionalism.

Sample
Angie's List Ratings Report Card
» Before
reviews are posted, these are all checked in order to guard against providers and companies that try to report on themselves or their competitors. This process was reviewed and approved during a 2009 audit by
BPA Worldwide.
»
You can also call live support whenever
you have questions.
»
You get access to a complaint resolution
team.
»
You get discounts from highly
rated service companies.
Here are
just some of the service
categories
that you will find on
Angie's List:
Auto Repair |
Heating, Ventilation, Air
Conditioner Maintenance and
Repair | Electricians |
Doctors |
Dentists |
Handyman |
Hair Salons |
Beauty Experts |
Tanning Services |
Tatoos and Piercing |
Fitness Experts and Trainers
|
Home Improvement
|
Plumbers |
Primary Care |
Physicians |
Real Estate Agents |
Veterinarians
and Pet Services |
Child Care |
Accountants | Acupuncture |
Allergy & Immunology | Appliance Repair |
Basements |
Cabinet Makers |
Cardiology |
Carpenters | Carpet Cleaning | Catering | Chimney and Fireplace |
Chiropractors |
Closets |
Computer Repair |
Contractors |
Cosmetic Surgery |
Dermatology |
Drywall and Doors |
Exterior Painters |
Financial Planners |
Secretaries |
Insurance Agents |
Tax Consultants | Flooring | Garage and Driveway | General | Home Inspection |
Housecleaners
|
Maid Service |
Wedding Planners |
Interior Painters |
Internal Medicine |
Kitchen |
Landscaping |
Lawn Care |
Massage Therapy |
OBGYN |
Oncology | Pest Control |
Plastic Surgery | Psychiatry |
Physical Therapists | Roofing | Roofing and Gutters | Snow Plowing | Snow Removal | Travel Agents |
Tree Service |
Urology |
Vein Surgery | Windows Home Security Systems
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Movers
How To Use Angie's List
»
Whenever you need a plumber, roofer, electrician, auto mechanic, landscaper or any other type of service company, contact Angie's List by phone, fax, website or by visiting
a local chapter.
»
You will then receive
the names and numbers of companies with
which other members have had good
experiences. They will also tell you
what type of work they have done for
other members and what they thought of
their prices, whether they were
punctual, polite, finished the work on
time, etc.
» Once the
service provider's work is finished,
contact Angie's List and share your
feedback about your service experience.
Your input will become part of that
company's rating on Angie's List.
Click
on Image Below To Watch How Angie's List
Works

How Much Does The Service Cost?
» If you opt for monthly billing,
membership is $5.95 a month plus a
sign-up fee of $10.00
»
Annual memberships, which starts at
$47.00 a year, are tiered and you
get special discounts depending on
the number of years you sign-up for.
Additional sign-up fee is $10.00.
»
How about refunds? You may cancel at any time. Annual memberships are backed by
a 110% money back, satisfaction guarantee.
There are no refunds for monthly memberships
so you are better-off signing-up for an
annual membership in order to have a
chance for a refund.

Angie's List
homepage
Our Bottom-line Thoughts on Angie's
List
A common negative feedback that we have seen about
Angie's List is the cost.
Some people do not want to fork-out $5.95 a month saying
that it is "outrageous" to pay just to get reviews on
contractors and other services. They say that they would
rather look for free reviews elsewhere.
Do
we think a membership fee of $5.95 a month is well worth it?
Of course we do. We would rather pay
for the convenience of having one-stop access to all the
unbiased reviews we can find on services available within
our city or neighborhood. We just
don't want to waste our time surfing the net looking for
reviews and recommendation on local services. In fact, if
you have ever gone that route before, you know
how frustrating this can be. It will take you countless
numbers of hours going this route, which is not a great use
of your time. Angie's
List can save you time, frustration, and aggravation in
looking for the right service provider for whatever project
you are planning to do.
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... alternatives to
Angie's List (such as the yellow pages, Craigslist, contractor forums, etc.) are still like a roll of the dice — you won't know if you will be dealing with scammers or real professionals ... |
Keep in mind that if you will be
spending hundreds, if not thousands of
dollars for a home project or some
urgent home repair, a measly $5.95 a
month investment is just a drop in the
bucket compared to the value and
time-savings that the service provides.
Furthermore, alternatives to Angie's
List (such as the yellow pages, Craigslist,
contractor forums, etc.) are still like a roll of the dice
— you won't know if
you will be dealing with
scammers or real professionals — that is why we
consider Angie's List to be a valuable
resource for consumers to help find the best contractors
or service providers within your city.
To summarize, we think Angie's List is
worth it and better than free review
sites for the following reasons:
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Please Note: This exclusive coupon code for instant 25% savings is not available elsewhere and only works with the link above. Make sure to apply this coupon code when you check-out. |
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(1) You won't find anonymous reviews on
the site. Angie's List members submit on
average 40,000 reviews each month for
all the various service categories;
(2)
Customer service ratings and reviews on the site are certified by
a third party company to make sure that
service providers do not game the system
by reporting on themselves and that
competitors do not provide false
negative reports;
(3) Service providers can respond to
reports on them so that you can get the
whole story and make better informed
decisions;
(4) Angie's List has a
complaint
resolution team who can help intercede
in the event that services provided do
not go as expected;
(5) You can get discounts from
highly-rated service providers within
your area (the savings you get from this
alone more than pays for your membership
fee); and
(6) You get access to
Angie's List
award-winning magazine which features a
comprehensive library of
helpful
videos and informative
home and property improvement and
maintenance tips to keep you
informed on contractor and
service-related matters.
Some of the
most
common questions about Angie's List can
be found here in case you still have
some lingering questions on the service.
So there you have it. We have provided
you the reasons why we use Angie's List.
Should you join Angie's List? The choice
is really up to you.
Gigi S.
PS. Just to get an idea of how many people are using Angie's
List these days, here's a real
time activity tracking view of what's going on live at
Angie's List.
PS2. For some reason, people interested in Angie's List have
also been interested in
Carbonite, an online backup service for the secure
safekeeping of your family photos, videos, music, and other
stuff on your PC or Mac. Hence, you might like to check our
review of Carbonite. Carbonite is also
running a promo for up to 21% in instant savings so in case
you are interested in this remote backup service ... feel
free to take advantage of the promo.
Click Here
to see our Carbonite review.
Disclosure:
Compensated Affiliate
Angie's List
Live: Click On Image Below To See How
Busy It Is
Click on the image below to see live
what types of services people are
searching for and what types of reports
are being provided by Angie's List
members. You can see that a lot of
people are using Angie's List in cities
all over the US. It really is very busy.

Visit
Angie's List Now
Angie's List
screenshots
Below are sample screenshots of what you will
see on Angie's List
In
our example below, we are looking for a
house exterior painting contractor.

You will then get search results as shown below.
Please note that we blurred out the company
names, phone numbers, and websites for this
example.

For each of the house exterior painter that
comes out in the search results, you can get a
report card chart. In the example below, out of the 8
reports (or customer feedback) for a
particular contractor, 88% of their customers gave them a grade of
"A".

You can also get more detailed information and
ratings report on the contractor. Below is a
screenshot.

Below is a sample list of reports on the
contractor. You will have access to all
these detailed and very useful reports.

Here's a sample report on this house exterior
painting contractor.

Here are additional info in the sample report on this house exterior
painting contractor.

Angie's List
marks 15 years
In June 2010, Angie's List marked 15
years. Angie's List now number more than 200 cities in all 50 states, 400 employees, 1.4 million service companies, 1.2 million members, and more than 2 million reports.
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Please Note: This exclusive coupon code for instant 25% savings is not available elsewhere and only works with the link above. Make sure to apply this coupon code when you check-out.
Visit
Angie's List Now
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