The area you live in is the whole thing. Before I moved from (L.I. NY) when Angie's was starting up, I did find some great local plumbers and all around handymen. However since I have moved to South Jersey, I have hesitated joining because I am not sure that there would be enough "vendors" in my area. I was thinking of contacting them somehow to see if I could find out if there are enough services offered in my area. I hope this was a help to you.

I have not used AL. I'd looked into it when we were working on our addition, but didn't want to put any money into something that was then fairly new while having no idea how many people were listed there. Now I might do it if I had need, especially with the deal!

OT (sorry bee) but, *advanced* I'm in Gloucester County. Which part of SJ have you moved to?

I subscribed when we started thinking about remodeling the kitchen. I've been pretty happy with the vendors I've used (foundation repair, plumber, drain stoppage, appliance repair). But I've also found vendors on my own that I'm just as happy with. What I didn't like about Angie's list is that they constantly contact you for reviews. I get that...they need to keep their database growing, etc. But it got to the point that it felt creepy - like big brother looking at every search I ever did. They also call you for reviews but never leave a message. I finally googled the phone number to figure out who it was. I decided to cancel. I'm happy not to have them looking over my shoulder but being new to an area and for $16/yr, I might reconsider.

I have been a member for over 5 years. I don't rely on it exclusively to find contractors and service persons, but always check their reviews out on Angies List. It is especially helpful for excluding people. I had a GC recommended highly to me by a coworker, but found he had horrible reviews on Angie's List.

I also tell the contractors/service people that I found them on Angie's List, thinking that they might be even more careful if they know that I can review them on a public site.

It is well worth the subscription price to me.

I found a great plumber through AL after going through many others. That alone is worth the membership fee to me! I've had good luck with it, but it does depend on your location and how many people post reviews.

I signed up for it in my area, small town in central Florida. They listed a fair number of vendors/craftsmen/etc., but there were no reviews. Zero. Zilch. I guess no one in my area was using it. So, I was paying $3 a month to write reviews... then I realized that was kind of silly.

Yeah, it depends on your area.

I've been a member for many years in Denver. Every time my subscription comes up, I think about cancelling, but it doesn't cost that much, so I end up re-subscribing. I find that there aren't enough reviews, and many of the reviews that are there aren't very detailed. I also don't like the categories - often they are too broad to be useful. Here's an example: a friend at work had a rug she needed repaired because her puppy chewed a corner of it. Persian, I think, and expensive. I checked angies list, but rug repair is lumped in with carpets and carpet cleaning. I tried to sift through pages and pages of carpet and rug retailers and cleaners, but I gave up. And most of these didn't have reviews anyway.

I have used some service people that I found on Angies list with mixed luck, but mostly good, but I would use a recommendation from a friend or coworker or someone on the gardenweb forums before I would use one from angies list.

I just signed up to warn people about our gc and plan on checking out others there before trying new people. I use Yelp all the time for restaurants and while they have other categories, I don't think it has caught on as much for non-food reviews.

I think that the more consumers share our experiences, the less professionals can get away with shoddy work....

DH signed up for it when we started the kitchen remodel. We used it a couple times and had good experiences both times. I did get a call to do reviews on the companies. I definitely check on there to see reviews and have stayed away from ones with bad reviews. Also once company gave a 5% discount if you said you found them on AL. I think a few others do that too.

I tried it a while back, but in my area it was useless. I live in a small town about an hour and half north of a major metropolitan area, and all the listings were for the city folks, who charge an arm and a leg for travel to come up here, understandably. There were almost no local listings, and no local reviews, just as ladoladi said.

Naturally! :-) :-)

But, seriously, I have been a member on and off for years, and have had nothing but good experiences.

I've been a member on and off for a few years. When they first started up in the NYC area they offered a year free membership. Then when I was starting to think about doing the kitchen I signed up again. I've used a plumber, electrician and tile installer that I found on the list and have been mostly happy with all of them. I also received 5 or 10% off the price from the tile installer for telling him that I found him on Angie's List.

They occasionally run 'big deals' where you can get 40 - 60% off a service. I used one in the spring to get my carpets cleaned. It was a company that I had known for years sold and installed carpet, but never knew they also cleaned carpets. They did an excellent job at a great price.

I'm in Monmouth County, NJ and have also wondered about joining Angie's list. Is it really better than word of mouth?

GatorAlum - my son was Director of GatorGrowl when he was at UF - GO GATORS!!

Another Gator here. Go Gators!!!

I've been a member for some years and have found it very useful. I've posted reviews, too. I use AL as another tool, along with BBB and our state's construction contractors board, to learn about contractors before I interview or hire them. I would never rely solely on AL to hire someone.

For instance, one contractor got good reviews on AL but I learned with a little snooping at the state construction contractors board that the company had undergone numerous revisions in business name and ownership, all various derivatives of each other, changing business licenses each time and all in a relatively short period of time. Many years ago, we got screwed by a furniture company that did much the same thing, declaring bankruptcy multiple times and running away from responsibility but with the profits before our state's AG shut them down for good. I don't know the story behind the contractor listed on AL but their business history sent off alarms and I opted not to interview them for the job. If I'd not researched beyond the AL reviews, I might have hired this company and I might have been sorry I did.

There are great contractors out there and AL is one way - a relatively easy way, too - to find them.

I do and it's worked well for me. Got my floor refinisher off AL. . . a small independent guy. It certainly expands the list of people who are doing what you are looking for!

the idea that it is filled with "honest" reviews from customers is ridiculous. the price is low enough so any service person could just sign up and write their own, no? of course it does work for some but i'd still rather find someone through a trusted friend.

I joined Angie's List when we were starting to plan the remodel. I've had all sorts of extra reasons since to find contractors -- a broken garage door spring, a dying AC, birds nesting in a broken vent cover that was a size not available at local hardware stores, a drain clogged too far downstream for DH to handle. In each case I selected someone from the list with a multitude of good reviews and was very pleased with the service. Several of them offered discounts to Angie's List members that have essentially paid for my subscription.

I've also posted a number of reviews now of the people we've used. I live in Austin, TX, so there are lots of reviews available.

I looked at Angie's List several times. Couldn't find any contractors or other services in my area, so not worth anything to me. I live in southeastern Virginia, not too far from Williamsburg.

Thanks everybody for the information. I think I'll pass and just use word of mouth.

Sorry for the delay in getting back here to thank you all.

-bee

The best way to find contractors, repairmen, etc is by word of mouth. I got my landscaper through my next-door neighbor, my GC when we remodeled from our plumber, etc. I belonged to Angies List for a year. Didn't like their emails (print too small), or their magazine. I wouldn't bother re-joining.

I've been on Angie's List since 2004. It's $41 a year in my area, and every year when the renewal comes up and figure it's worth that much.

Once I tried getting a carpenter from Service Magic. I checked out the 3 people/companies on Angie's list and they were all poorly rated.

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.

YES. I live in a very large private community with 9 sub-communities. I find a few people and ask if they have references in my neighborhood. If it is a large amount of money I would not hesitate to knock on a door or two and ask about the work done.

It was worth the $16 bucks I paid to take the chance and I will probably keep my subscription as long as we have large projects planned.

I'm in Rochester, NY, and I signed up for the kitchen remodel. I used it to check out vendors that I found other ways. The reviews I found all verified recs I had for the granite fabricator, cab maker and GC.

My friend had a bad experience with her stone fabricator, and when I looked them up after the fact, someone else had reported a very similar experience. So I think it is a useful tool for checking up.

I think it was only something like $25-$30 here, but I probably won't rejoin until I need it again.