Consumer ratings, WTF?

[SCcaretaker]

A small OT rant here regarding user ratings experience. Having had a couple of experiences lately with incompetent companies, both highly rated by AAA in the local automotive community and Angie's list for a residential plumbing job, I have personally decided that these ratings are only relevant if the individuals doing the ratings are informed as to the basic requirements of whatever they had done by the rated vendors. Two examples: GM serpentine belt noise problem, after a long and expensive summer of attempting to solve it, the local GM tech at the AAA highest rated independent throws up his hands and says " I don't know how to fix it"! No follow up, no resolution...Second, plumber comes out that could not plumb an outdoor ****ter if the holes were already cut in the seats, is the highest rated firm and plumber on Angie's list. I am thinking that the automotive ratings are based on the coffee in the service area and the plumbers on how to dance around the lack of craft knowledge in the employee, and doing much of it sight unseen to the consumer..Anyone else notice this?

[Bugsinrugs]

In my area of California there is a company like Angie's list called Diamond Star. They advertise that they interview customers of a service company and only the highest rated companies get their certification. Bulls..t. They called me ( I am a contractor) and told me how much it would cost me to be Diamond Star certified. I told them to pound sand. Personally I think Angie's List is the same. You got to pay to play!

[SCcaretaker]

I think Diamond Star runs adds on cable, advertising the fact that there is no suscriber fee as is the case with Angie's list. Very frustrating for me, as I used to put some value in the ratings, AAA motels being the exception, in some cases they turned out to be an updated Bates motel!!

[Baz]

I have never in my life used any contractor or service provider that was not personally recommended by a friend or friends.

Conversely - I always have someone to recommend - if asked by interested parties.

Word of mouth is still the only way to go.

[matt f]

Word of mouth.....WORD!
Best way to grow a biz.

[craigster59]

Better Business Bureau is another crock. You pay, you get good feedback. I know Yelp can be sketchy (rivals posting bad reviews, etc), but I'm with word of mouth. Unless of course I post here for a PPOT recomendation, then I know it's Gospel.

[techweenie]

I use Yelp a lot. It's usually pretty easy to spot the ringers. But in a lot of cases the negative reviews are over-represented (human nature). I've been pretty happy with the services I've checked out.

The only category that's a total minefield is carpet cleaning. It seems the industry is based on copying the pitches companies the over promise and lowball.

[biosurfer1]

Its easy for me to see past the BS on Yelp. Like Tech said, ringers are easy to spot and if I want a good laugh, some of the snobbery in some of those reviews is over the top. I just read one for a restaurant in Tahoe that gave them a 1 star review because "They ran out of free app's they were handing out while we waited for our table"

[legion]

I don't put a lot of stock in online reviews. You have to figure that for every 100 happy people, maybe one of them will bother with a review. On the other hand, every single person who feels they were overcharged by $0.50 or didn't like the socks of their repairman takes to the Internet to complain. Those are just my issues with the reviewers. We all know that all rating services (eBay, Amazon, Angie's List, etc.) allow businesses to "clean up" (whitewash) their ratings. We all know that the ratings that complain about socks get left (because they are obviously ridiculous) while the ones that mention the business destroying property or jacking up the prices with unadvertised fees and surcharges are the ones that get removed.

I had a realtor outright rip me off, ended up suing him, and it was amazing how all of my reviews miraculously disappeared from wherever I posted them.

[azasadny]

Originally Posted by Baz

I have never in my life used any contractor or service provider that was not personally recommended by a friend or friends.

Conversely - I always have someone to recommend - if asked by interested parties.

Word of mouth is still the only way to go.

Amen!!