Angie's List Unethical business practices- what they DON'T tell you Indianapolis Indiana

It's what Angie's List DOESN'T tell you that matters. I signed up with Angie's List ans a PAID advertiser in January to get my business listed with them, when a consumer was looking for a remodeling contractor in 3 zip codes. What they don't tell you about, as a paid adveriser, is that there is a 'ranking system' on that page showing the number of reviews each contractor has received. What they DON'T tell companies like mine is that ONLY Angie's List customers can give my company a review (and I thought that I'd joined to GET Angie's list customers). If you look down the line of advertisers, you will see some advertisers with many reviews, while a new company like mine will only have 2 reviews. What do you think the odds are of a consumer checking out a company like mine with 2 reviews, when they can look at a company with maybe 50 or more. I paid them to get ME more customers. This puts the 'new' advertiser at a distinct disadvantage, while still paying for their advertising. When I spoke to a rep. at Angi'e List, I was told that "WE" needed to get my company more reviews. The only way to do that was for me to send Angie's List my customer list so they could send my customers an e-mail to try and get them to join up to become members. So now, I have to provide THEM with MY customers! It gets better!! They also told me to hand carry review forms to some of my customers for reviews and to ask them to fill them out and send them in. I did so with 2 customers who filled them out and returned them to A.L.. In looking at my 'dashboard', I found out that unless a consumer has paid to become a member of Angie's List, their review of my business does not count and is not listed. So, now I figure that the only way I can get more reviews that will help my buisness on THEIR site is to pay the membership fee of my current customers to becme members of Angie's List, so that they can give my business a review. What's wrong with that picture? I guess it basically comes down to this: The people who are paying the large fees to adverise have to also pay additional fees to bring THEM business. I know that advertising is imperfect, but what they're doing doesn't show up very highly on my 'ETHICS' chart.

I spoke to my account rep. last week and cancelled my advertising. I was told that they would refund the unspent 65% of my account in a day or two. Oh yeah, if you cancel, you pay a cancellation fee of 35% of remaining funds. To be fair, that IS in their contract. As of a week later, I have not received payment. They took money out of my bank account within a couple of hours when I signed up. Now they tell me that my refund will come when their accounting department gets around to it. Hmmmmm. I wonder just how long they can drag it out!

Good luck to you if you decide to buy into their 'game'. You've been warned!