If your town or city has anything like a home and garden show, the folks from Angie's List usually are there, and the price to join is much lower at the show than if you just Google'd it and joined that way (the membership renewal prices are lower at the shows, too). Yes, it costs to go to the shows, but usually there are newspaper and Groupon-type coupons available. I've ordered from Footsmart before; they're OK. I also order from Zappos -- just compare prices. Some items I've seen on Zappos were more expensive than other places even once you factor in shipping (I believe that Zappos' prices are slightly higher here and there because of that).

Once you find one or two good trades people, you can also ask them to recommend others. That has worked well for us. We joined Angie's list recently because we were going to do a pool remodel. My husband handled that so I don't know if he found it worthwhile, but there was one creepy aspect to Angie's list. A few months after joining, we got a phone call from them soliciting reviews on areas where they need more reviews - the list of what they were looking for started with neurologist, went through a bunch of medical specialties. Quite personal information to ask someone to reveal - I told him that after he had asked about the first few that I wasn't going answer questions about which medical specialists I've used and so he moved on reading the list. The next category wasn't any better and I told him that if I had a review I wanted to post, I'd go to their website and put it in, but I didn't care to spend any more time on the phone with him and didn't want to be quizzed about what services I use.

It's a long story, but the contractor's guy did the knockdown texture, and didn't do it well. Most of it I can live with or fix, but there were 2 areas that were so bad they just needed to be redone. When I texted the contractor to tell him the two areas weren't done right, he texted back that it would be the same price to come back and do it over as many times as I wanted to pay for it. When I asked if he didn't guarantee work that was done on an hourly rate, he replied: "How do I know it was not don't (his typo) correctly when it could be just your perception that you did not like the way it turned out. Not being done correctly is a broad statement. I will not get inito this discussion with you. It is not a warranty issue it is an issue that you don't like the way it turned out. That is not work was not done correctly." This was without even seeing the work, or saying he wanted to see it. And as many of you know, dh has been in the paint business since 1976, first as a painter and then in sales, and his father was a builder. Dh has seen A LOT of texture, both good and bad, and he thought this was really bad. The contractor also knew dh and knew that dh knows his stuff. So that text message blew me away. Dh was gone at the time I sent the message and received this one, and I was so taken aback that I didn't even respond to that text. The contractor's next text was to say he was coming over to look at it. When he got here, and of course dh was gone, he admitted that both areas looked bad. Then he apologized. Sort of. He told me "I apologize for the tenor of my text message but I do not apologize for the reason I sent it." So I'm not sure what he was apologizing for. He thought I was one of those nit picky people who look for problems and didn't give me any credit for knowing what I was talking about. Very condescending attitude. A lot of you have hit on the main reason I don't know if I want to post about it. He will blast me and I won't be able to counter, and he will make me look like I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know for sure, but I assume from the replies to comments that the contractor is given the name of the reviewer. btw, after seeing all the work done, the contractor sounded surprised that I only wanted 2 places redone and he agreed to send someone out in the morning IF we would skim the walls and tape off everything so the worker only had to come in, shoot the texture and knock it down. Dh bought a texture sprayer and did it himself. Not a great job, but better than the one we paid for, and not bad considering dh hasn't sprayed texture in over 10 years and this guy supposedly does it all the time. The crazy thing is that he kept talking about how great it looked. p.s. I just checked one of my reviews on AL, and I can go back and change my review. So even if you can't respond to the contractor's reply, you can go back and change your initial comment. Pictures on photobucket This post was edited by marti8a on Fri, Oct 18, 13 at 20:30

kateskouros - When we were redoing our bathroom, one company we really liked didn't have a lot of reviews, but we "had a good feeling about them." When I went back to double-check the reviews, the best one was gone. I contacted AL and was told that they had determined that an employee had written it, so they removed it, but that they were pretty sure the head of the company was not involved (I don't know how they knew that). I emailed AL again to ask if it was an actual employee or a sub-contractor (I thought it might make a difference), and they replied to say that they couldn't give me his name. Weird, since I hadn't asked. We reluctantly decided against that company. So yes, a company can post its own review, but they also do check into them somehow, so that gives me a little comfort. I use AL as a starting point and then do my own research.