Angie's List Read this before paying for an Angie's List membership Internet, Internet

Heavily-promoted Angie's List provides consumer reviews for a membership fee. The theory is that by paying for a membership, the user will receive more reliable critiques than from other review sites that depends on merchant patronage for their income. That may or may not be true. The fact is that Angie does aggressively solicit advertising from reviewed merchants, and offers little if any protection against a common flaw in review sites, the ability of a merchant to buy off a bad review. (If you've ever submitted a negative review to Amazon, say, and then received a call from the merchant asking what he can do for you if you'll withdraw your review, you'll know what I mean.)

The purpose of this writeup is to alert prospective Angie's List members to three easily demonstrated pitfalls that if known would almost certainly guarantee a decision not to join. Easily demonstrated in that they're in black and white in the agreements that each member must accept upon joining. Trouble is, these agreements are written in such a way, in tiny excruciating long text, that few will expend the considerable effort to get through them.

1. The privacy policy grants zero privacy

The super-diligent reader will note that buried in the privacy policy's interminable fine print is permission for Angie to disclose any information "permitted by relevant law." (So why all the fine print? Guess.)

2. You could be subject to liquidated damages of $10,000.00
 
The general membership agreement makes you liable for liquidated damages of up to ten thousand dollars for a single violation of its terms, which are about as easy to understand as those of the privacy policy. Moreover, you incredibly must agree in advance to any changes in the agreement made without notice to you. (In fact, those terms may have already changed since I wrote this!)

3. You're signing up in perpetuity
 
Well hidden in Angie's documentation is the fact that memberships are automatically renewed, until the member affirmatively resigns.

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A word to the wise
 

If you join Angie's List you should be (a) unconcerned about your privacy, (b) willing to wade through the extensive, opaque, and changeable membership agreement, and (c) prepared to re-read the agreement before taking any action related to the service. And you also should have opted out of automatic renewal, with written confirmation in hand.