Friday, July 24, 2015

I-Team 8 Investigation Catches Angie's List Issuing Flawed Ratings For Bad Contractors

Imagine, an investigative reporter for WISH-TV's I-Team 8 takes a look at how Angie's List rates contractors and catches it scoring bad contractors higher than what its consumer members actually rated them. It turns out a contractor who took money from a consumer but never performed the work wasn't being scored an "F" because its rating system didn't consider the work done. Angie Hicks says the company plans to make changes to its online rating system within the next ten days to address the problem to ensure that companies receive a failing grade when they take money from the customer but fail to do the work. So it only took them 20 years to figure out this flaw in their rating system?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was the contractor mentioned also paying Angie's for "advertising"?

Anonymous said...

And this is the company whose political City County Council backers were crowing would begin a construction renaissance on the City's near east side???... I wish flash in the pan political chess piece Angel Rivera and total Stepin Fetchit for DB was still in town to see what his vote for that corporate whore Angie's List resulted in....which was a complete waste of Marion County taxpayer money and property

Anonymous said...

Let us hope that this helps bring about the downfall of Angie's List!

Anonymous said...

Word on the street is some of the Angie's List crowd are freaking out about the company's future. They should because they may actually have to rely on their own talents to get another job. Besides how many other employers would allow their workers to behave like immature self indulged teenagers like it is claimed by some Angie's List does? The whole place seems like a weird New Age Movement.

Anonymous said...

It appears Angie's List is a fraud. The ratings are not apparently actual consumer ratings. I, myself, had one of their advertisers try to defraud me. The reason I joined was to get good service when needed from a reliable company. Angie's List rationalized why they didn't put that company in their "Penalty Box."

Angie's List delayed in violation of policy and then the company that tried to defraud me of $1200.00, refunded the cost of their service, BUT DID NOT PAY THE COST OF THE SECOND OPINION THAT TOLD ME I WAS BEING DEFRAUDED!!!!

When I complained to Angie's List, their superiors tried to rationalize their misconduct. I believe the law suit against Angie's List in Federal Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania spells it out accurately!!!

Anonymous said...

Gary, I regularly pass through Indianapolis' near east side Moonie sector known as the "Angie's List" campus. It grows more eerie and unreal by the day. I take no succor in the fact that the employees will soon find themselves hit by reality and probably without paychecks. Angie Hicks and Bill Oesterle used hard-working and mostly unsuspecting persons to create Hicks's/Oesterle's millions through a Ponzi scheme and then a politically connected series of land deals. The Madoff-like scam could only exist with massive and continued taxpayer cash infusions.

My question becomes why are Angie Hicks and Bill Oesterle not being investigated by a Grand Jury??? Why are Angie Hicks and Bill Oesterle not imprisoned for the lie they perpetrated first on our City and then on national investors???

Timid authorities hound low hanging fruit from Ballard's corrupt Indy Land Bank but allow the multimillionaires who fund liberal Democrat and crony GOP campaign coffers go scott free and walk our streets as though they've done nothing wrong. But if a private citizen everyday paycheck-to-paycheck Hoosier did not pay a traffic ticket, a bench warrant would be issued faster than liberal Democrat Zach Adamson could praise Angie's List as totally worthy for another round of Indy's taxpayer money. That other City Councilors like Zach Adamson were more than too willing to shove barrels more of our tax dollars to this blatantly fake company informs us of just how clueless are many of our City County Councilors. Sorrier still is that we elected them to be stewards of our taxes and our assets.

Anonymous said...

At that place there is always an excuse for bad business practices. Has anyone ever listened to one of their quarterly earnings conference calls? It is quite literally one of the funniest things I have ever heard. Oesterle used to sound like a snake oil salesman. He never truly answered tough questions and his responses were so full of "ums" and "uhs" that you could tell most of what he said we're lies.

Angie was clearly coached on exactly what to say, it wouldn't have surprised me if she was reading from a paper, or if she had an earpiece in and was being told exactly what to say.

The 20 year party "business" on the east side is clearly now in its death throes. Watch for the accounting and finance team to turn over here shortly to cover their asses.

Anonymous said...

From reading the post and comments one can only assume that Angie's List would be rated a F?

Anonymous said...

Where will their employees be able to find jobs when this scam folds?

Gary R. Welsh said...

It's not a Ponzi scheme in the classic sense that term is used, but it is true the company would have long ago been out of business but for its ability to find swap out one group of investors for another to infuse enough money to keep it afloat. The problem is when it shifted from a consumer-based revenue generated business to a service provider/advertising-based company. The advertising dollars from service providers is the only thing keeping the company afloat. You have to keep those advertisers happy to keep them paying those heft fees. That begs the question of what compromises are made to ensure their happiness and have those compromises resulted in a fraud being perpetrated on the consumer members. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence that is occurring. Aside from the culpability of Bill & Angie, why has Mickey Maurer staked his reputation on this company as its most prominent board member? His name is on the IU law school at Bloomington. If he's a co-conspirator to a fraud, is he any better than Ken Lay?

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:09: Angie's List is rated an F around the country as a simple Google search will verify. It boggles my mind that the Chubby Marine and his cast of clueless Indy cheerleaders are so brain dead as to not do a simple Google search like, oh I don't know how about "Angie's List sucks" before cozying up to this very damaged brand.

I'm convinced that Ballard actually believes this is a cutting edge high tech brand. He keeps saying it, by golly and the average Hoosier laps it up like my cat does milk. I wonder what they think of this clown in places like San Francisco and Denver, that is, if they think of him at all.

Wanna change it? It has to start at the bottom and everyone who cares to make that happen (all 15 of us) are already here. That's why I'm gone. I'm not as young as I used to be and rather than spend my Golden Years in Greggie's cesspool, I'm gonna find a place where people have vision and the courage to seek positive change. My short list is pretty impressive, and any one of these places will work. Goodbye Indy. I look forward to reading about you in years to come. My fervent wish is that Ballard's cellmate finds him physically attractive.

Sir Hailstone said...

"That other City Councilors like Zach Adamson were more than too willing to shove barrels more of our tax dollars to this blatantly fake company"

Has anyone read his CFA-1?

Anonymous said...

5:19,

I also want out. Hit me with your short list.