Angies List Discounts

I touched on it before when I wrote about the discount movie tickets we found on Angies List, it’s what they call their “Member Benefits”.  Basically the service has enough members that they’re able to offer special group discounts for a variety of travel, shopping, dining, and entertainment merchants.

This is different than their Big Deal service (which is basically weekly deals on local contractor services), the Member Benefits are standing discounts for signing up for or using one of the merchants in the program.

So far the only discount we’ve actually taken advantage of are the movie tickets but yesterday I got an email that caught my attention about deals for 2 other services that we already use – Costco and ScoreBig.

Costco Promotion

We’ve belonged to Costco for several years now and I’ve written about a variety of Costco membership discounts you can use so I had to investigate when I saw Angies List members could get $50 worth of Costco coupons.

Unfortunately I don’t qualify because it’s for new Costco members only, which is too bad because we would definitely take advantage of it.

Promotion Details

The way it works is you get a special link to Costo once you’re logged into the Angies List website.  You’re taken to a page where you fill out your new member application online.  When you go into the store and become a member you’re given Costco coupons for $50 worth of free merchandise – right now the offer includes free coffee, bottled water, and rotisserie chicken.

Obviously it would be better if you got free Costo membership or even a discounted rate but the coupons are still a good deal.  We already buy all three of those things from Costco (a lot more coffee recently now that we have a newborn) so it would definitely save us money.

On a side note, I did find a promotion for existing Costo customers while poking around that’s not related to Angies List.  If you’re a Costo member and you open a True Earnings card or auto charge your membership to any AmEx card you get two months of membership for free.

ScoreBig Promotion

The second promotion that caught my eye was for a service called ScoreBig, where you can find good deals on tickets for performances or sporting events.

Unfortunately I’m also ineligible for this promotion since it’s only for new members and I signed up for ScoreBig last summer through a Klout promotion.

ScoreBig Rocks!

ScoreBig is basically like Priceline for event tickets, like concerts and sporting events.  It’s actually a great service for two reasons.

The first cool thing is that you can buy tickets for less than face value.  For example, last summer we went to a Major League Baseball game and I offered 50% of the face value for decent seats through ScoreBig and got them at that price.

The second thing that made me smile was that you don’t have to use Ticketmaster to buy your tickets.  We all know how many fees that Ticketmaster piles on when you buy through them, ScoreBig doesn’t charge any of those fees. 

Promotion Details

The way the ScoreBig promotion works for Angies List members is that you get a special link to the ScoreBig site from the “Member Benefits” section of the Angies List site.  You’re also given an Angies List only promo code that you enter when signing up for ScoreBig, that gives you $25 towards your first purchase of tickets.

Like I said, I had a similar promotion through Klout last summer, the combination of discounted tickets and the $25 credit meant I got my tickets almost free!

Angies List Membership

The main reason we use Angies List is to help us find quality contractors for house projects so these “Member Benefits” are just an added bonus.  It seems like they’re adding more of these discounts, which is cool, gives us more value for our money.

If you’d like to try it out but aren’t sure, you can always check out the latest Angies List promotions to get a discount on membership.

Getting Your Discount

If you’ve been a reader for a while you’ve probably heard me talk about how I use the service and seen the coupon codes that I publish in my deals section.  Since I’m such a fan of Angies List and use the site regularly, they’ve offered you guys the biggest discount you can get on memberships – 45% Off !  For the discount – Click here.

Thanks to the tech team at Angies List, you don’t even have to enter a coupon code to qualify for the discount, all you have to do is go through a link on this site and they’ll know you’re a Money Smart Life reader and give you the discount (they did mention that if you’re not seeing the 45% discount, you should clear your browser cookies, and visit the link again).

How to Use the List

Of course, the service isn’t right for everyone.  Earlier this year I wrote about 5 Reasons Not to Join Angies List, if these apply to you then it may not be a good fit.  The last reason on that list is – you don’t think it’s worth the money.  I asked the team at Angies List what the biggest reason is that people don’t join and they confirmed that it’s because people don’t want to pay for the membership.

Having to pay a fee was the reason I didn’t join for a long time.  In my Angies List review I mention that I first tried the service out for free by logging into my co-workers account and searching for painters in our area.  After finding some good candidates I realized that it was worth my money to access the reviews and signed up as a member. 

Earlier this year I did a write-up on the process I use to find and filter good contractors on the list.  I put together a spreadsheet you can use to get bids from contractors and compare their costs and services.  I use Angies List to build my short list of contractors but you wouldn’t have to, anyone can use my contractor checklist to narrow down the bids and choose the best company for what you need.

Angies List Members

I remember a few years ago when the site was excited to have 1 million members, now they’ve reached almost 2 million members. Of course, the reason that matters to you is that the more members there are, the more reviews that are left for contractors in your area. 

As they’ve grown it’s also given them the ability to get better discounts for their members.  A while back I wrote about the Angies List Big Deal, kind of like a Groupon for local home improvement work. I’m notified via email when a new deal launches in my area – looking back through my email there have been deals on things like landscaping, tree service, carpet cleaning, window cleaning, junk removal, plumbing, sink & bathtub restoration, home organization, and A/C tuneups.

Angies List Answers

Something else that they’ve added recently is a section on their site called Angies List Answers.  You can ask your home improvement questions and have them answered by someone at Angiest List or by a contractor. 

I tried it out this morning, I asked a question about sealing our windows and had an answer back in under an hour.   You don’t have to be a member of the service to ask a question but you do have to register with a name and email address.  Here’s an example of the kind of questions that were up there today:

• How do I handle mold in my a/c coils?
• Can we get a building permit after a room addition was built by a contractor?
• I want to patch and caulk my home to conserve energy. What type of contractor is best?

Most of the answers I’ve seen are pretty detailed, the contractors answering them leave their business name and contact info so they want to make a good impression and make sure they give you a good answer.

Angies List Discount

Thanks to Angies List for making this exclusive discount available to Money Smart Life readers!  If you want to give it a try, you can take 45% off with this link.

Finding Contractors

Unfortunately for our budget, our back patio needs to be mudjacked so I went through my usual contractor search process yesterday afternoon.  I actually ended up calling 5 different places – I left a message with one of them, the second one specialized in foundation work, and I made appointments with the other three.

Everytime I go through this process I end up with a piece of scrap paper with a list of company names, phone numbers, appointments, notes, etc scribbled on it.  More than once I’ve misplaced my list which makes it a pain to remember who I called, who I liked, and who’s coming to give estimates (and when).

Contractor Checklist

So this time I decided to make a spreadsheet template I can use each time I have a big project I need to get bids for.  It’s actually too bad Angie’s List doesn’t have a feature like this built into their site for members, I imagine it would get a lot of use.  They’re pretty good about listening to customer feedback, maybe they’ll read this and add it.

But for now, here’s a link where you can download the template.  Of course you don’t have to find contractors on Angies List in order to use the spreadsheet. Anytime you’re researching companies and getting bids you can keep track of everyone you’re considering with this tool. However you find your list of potential companies, first add them to the spreadsheet. You can always add more as you go but I’d start with at least three contractors so you can get a range of bids.

Contractor Evaluation

If you’re busy like me you may not get to all of the companies in one sitting so it helps to include the date you called them.  This can help you remember which you’ve talked to and which you have to call still.  In my case there was one that really sounded good, they had great reviews but they didn’t answer their phone so I left a message.  Recording the day you called also lets you keep track of how long it’s been since you contacted them.  If I don’t hear back by Tuesday I’ll probably try again, or you may decide if it’s been 3 days with no response you don’t want to hire them because it could be sign of how responsive they are.

Appointments

There’s also a place to record the day/time of any appointment you make.  When you’re dealing with several contractors it helps to keep track of who is coming when.  You don’t want to miss the initial appointment because in a way they’re evaluating you as well. If you don’t show up for your first meeting they might decide that you’re not worth their time.

I also include approximately how long it will take them to start the work if you decide to work with them.  If it’s an urgent issue and one contractor can start weeks before the others that’s a good thing to know.

Estimates

If they give you an estimate over the phone or after they’ve come and given you a bid you should record it in the spreadsheet.  This can help you compare the different contractors and also helps you remember how much each one bid.  It’s not a good surprise if you get the bids mixed up and after choosing to work with one you find out the cost is higher because you lost track of which bid was from each contractor.

Some companies will give you an Angies List coupon if you found them via the service.  Most businesses will ask how you got their name and I always mention that I saw them on Angies List. 

Some places offer a fixed amount off their services and others do it a a percentage.  Typically if they do offer an Angies List discount it’ll mention it in their company description as shown here.

Rating

If you only go with companies that have an A rating, like I have, then you might not use this field.  However, Angies List does have several different sub-criteria that members use to rate contractors (Price, Quality, Responsiveness, Punctuality, Professionalism). 

They could have a B in a few sub-categories and still have an A rating overall.  It’s nice to note any B ratings so you can be aware of those when you’re evaluating providers and trying to choose between two of them.

Notes

I actually have two different places to keep notes in the spreadsheet.  One of them is to keep track of anything you find out in your phone calls or face to face visits with a contractor.  For example, I found out that one of the companies worked mainly on house foundations and didn’t do much with patios.  I’d prefer someone who had experience with patios so I moved that company to the bottom of my list and made a note of why.

The other notes section is to record anything that jumps out at you from other customer reviews.  Some reviews are pretty short and don’t offer much in terms of specifics.  However, some people go into detail about particular aspects of their experience – for both positive and negative reviews.  If there’s anything that really stands out you should make a note of it, particularly if it’s mentioned by more than one person and you see a pattern emerge.

Comparing Contractors

Once you’ve spoken to all the candidate companies and have all your observations in your spreadsheet, alot of times the information you’ve gathered will make it easy to choose a contractor.  If you do find two that are pretty similar and you’re having a tough time deciding between them, hopefully having the detail you’ve captured in an easily comparable list will make your decision easier.  Some of the spreadsheet columns, like Angies List coupons and customer reviews, won’t apply if you’re not using Angies List – but the others will.

So, whether you’re using Angies List or not you can use this tool to compare contractors and find the one that should do the best work at the most reasonable price.  Good luck!

Obviously, I’m all about saving money so I don’t want to suggest that you sign up for a membership that you can’t use. In light of that, I’ve put together a list of 5 reasons you might not want to join Angies List.

1) No Contractor Reviews in Your City

The main benefit of the service is hearing and reading the experiences other consumers had with individuals and companies they’ve worked with. If you go to search on a certain type of review and there are only two pieces of feedback for your area it’s not that helpful.

To avoid situations like this, Angies List has certain criteria they use to determine whether a city will generate enough consumer reviews to make it worthwhile to potential customers to sign up for the service. Here’s a list of cities with Angies List reviews, if you don’t live near one of them then the service won’t do you much good.

They are adding new cities as demand appears, if you want to signup for my newsletter, I can let you know when new ones are added.

2) Extremely Specialized Work

As I mentioned in the first point, the big value of Angies List is that you get a good sample of feedback on someone before you decide to hire them.  However, if you’re in need of a very specialized service that may only turn up one or two reviews in your area, then it won’t do you much good to check on that kind of work.

If you have a question about whether a specific service is reviewed you can contact Angies List, their customer service has always been helpful for me and they might be able to answer your question about a specific type of work in a certain area. 

You can also contact me with questions - I won’t be able to look at service providers in your city but I can get an idea of whether the kind of contractor you’re looking to hire gets reviews in a major metropolitan area – and if so how many.

3) Emergency Work Needed

The great thing about Angie’s List is that it helps you find the best service for your needs.  I’ve explained before that I like to choose three different providers that meet my criteria and get bids from all of them.  Then I pick the one with the best price and service for us.

If you’re having an emergency, you don’t need the best, you just need someone to fix your issue. For example, if the water main downstairs is spraying water and filling up your basement.

This does bring up the the other big benefit of Angies List, it helps you avoid deadbeats and people out to cheat you.  When I follow my process it accomplishes both, eliminates crooks and finds the best provider.  But if you’re in a major hurry you don’t have time to go sign up and search for providers.  If you’re already a member, it doesn’t hurt to go pull the most highly rated name and call them.  But if you’re not, call a person you really trust to get a quick referral who can show up immediately.

Pre-Screening Contractors

This also brings up the point that it’s not a bad idea to do some research before you have an emergency.  It’s probably worth your time to spend a few minutes finding the top providers for a few categories, like plumbers, electrician, heating/cooling, roof repair, etc.  Basically things that you might have to call about right away – like a water main break, if the heat quits middle of the winter, or a big leak in your roof on a stormy spring day.

Then over the following few weeks, call them up and find your favorite. Make a list of your tops picks and keep it somewhere handy.  You might want to pick two of each in case one is busy or unavailable when you do call in an emergency.

4) You Don’t Want to Give Reviews

Angies List has grown to the point that there are millions of users around the country leaving feedback, so chances are you can get first hand reviews of companies you’re thinking of working with.  Users have a vested interest in leaving reviews, particularly once you’ve found a good provider on the site.  If you find a quality company, you want to share it, with the understanding that the other members will do the same and you’ll be helping each other out.

Of course, you can still be a member and lookup reviews even if you don’t leave your own feedback but it’s not as helpful to the people in your community if you don’t.  I’ve actually felt guilty about that in the past year, I’ve been so busy I haven’t taken much time to leave my feedback. But what I’ve found out is that Angies List actually has employees whose job it is to just call up members and ask them to give their reviews over the phone.  While driving home from work last week I gave reviews on our HVAC contractor, pediatrician, dentist, and lawn mowing company.

5) You Don’t Think It’s Worth the Money

If you don’t want to pay for a membership, I know how you feel.  You already have enough expenses, you don’t want to add one more.  But I did give away some free Angies List memberships just a few months ago and I’ll be doing it again in the future. If you’d be interested in winning a free membership, enter your email below.

In terms of cost, Angies List has recently reduced the price of a membership.  Their logic in dropping the price seems to make sense. They know that the more people they have using the service, the more valuable it is to everyone. 

They realized that by reducing their prices they’d actually help consumers in two ways.  First off, the lower cost would save new members money and get more of you to join and give people more access to the service.  Secondly, the larger number of people using it makes the service more valuable – basically customers get a better price and more value.

So if you’ve checked them out before and price was a concern, you might want to take another look.  You can also save money when signing up with these Angies List discounts.

Contractor Scams

I recently heard examples of some of these in our area.  One local news station profiled a woman who hired a contractor to install new windows.  He started the work but then started making excuses for why he couldn’t and eventually just disappeared.  Another TV show did some undercover reporting on duct cleaning companies that pulled major bait and switch jobs with their advertising and then didn’t even do all the work they upsold the homeowner on.  Lastly, our realtor paid several thousand for home improvements and then the contractor never even showed up to do the work.

How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off?

I think the first lesson from these is to avoid paying up front for the work.  Most contractors ask for some down payment to get started but if they require full payment prior to starting I’d look elsewhere.  I’m sure our realtor wished he’d only put down half up front.  Of course it stinks to lose any money at all but half is certainly better than all of it.  That case hits even closer to home for us because in a way, it was our money that was stolen.  We paid him thousands in commission to sell our house, then the contractor defrauded him out of some of that money, ouch.

In two of the cases I mentioned (window lady & our realtor), it turns out the person they hired had a history of not delivering on their work.  That’s one of the reasons we use Angies List to check out any contractor or business we’re considering.  If they have a history of issues then past customers may report it on Angies List.  You can search for contractor reviews by name or phone number as shown below:

If you don’t have a specific person you want to check out but just want to find some good referrals to call you can search by category or keyword.  For example, the lady in the air duct scam I mentioned earlier could have checked out the “Air Duct Cleaning” category in her city, or just searched on air duct cleaners.

Avoiding Contractor Scams

As I referred to above, Angie’s List magazine points out bad contractors and scams – one of the main ones from last year was air duct cleaners.  Sounds like many of the shady ones setup shop in a city for a few weeks, with a store front and phone number, and then move on.  So you couldn’t depend on reviews for companies like those but reading about the air duct cleaning scams would give you the red flags to look for when evaluating companies.

For a company that does have a history of consumer complaints, look for a scam alert like the one below.  This shows you what it looks like when you search for a company on Angies List and they have a record of issues.

Of course not everyone uses the service to leave reviews so there will be questionable companies who don’t show up in the search results.  The way I try and avoid companies like that is by sticking with contractors that do have a good number of positive reviews.  Last summer I explained how I find local contractors using the service and also did an Angies List review. 

It is a paid service, which is why I avoided it for a few years.  But now that I’m using it I think it’s definitely worth the cost, I also have some Angies List coupon codes you can use to save some money on your membership.

It only runs for a few days but you can get an Angies List membership discount of 40% through their promotion.  BULX is kind of like Groupon for furniture, I haven’t really seen many partner deals from Angies List but this one is a cool idea.  I got the email announcing it since I’m a member, here’s what the page had to say about the service:

• Reviews are submitted by verified members, not anonymous visitors.
• Companies don’t pay to be on Angie’s List.
• The only review site certified annually by BPA Worldwide, a respected auditing firm.
• Find and submit reviews in more than 500 service and health care categories including plumbers, roofers, dentists, and medical specialists.
• See both sides of the story: Companies and providers can respond to their reports.

We’re members and I gave away some free Angies List memberships a while back to let some of you try it out. I’ve written before about some of the ways we use the service to find local contractors but another benefit I’ve never really mentioned is that they give you a heads up on scams to watch out for in your area.

Since they get so much good and bad feedback on local companies they keep track of common problems and send out summaries via the Angies List magazine.  For example, last year they highlighted air duct cleaners who lured customers with too-good-to-be-true coupons, false advertising locksmiths, real estate short sales scammers, aggressive door-to-door alarm salesmen, and Internet car sales scammers.

Anyhow, if you’ve read about the service here before and ever thought of trying it out, you can get a pretty big discount.

I also wanted to mention that in order to sign up for an Angies List membership, you have to fill out your name and address so you can recieve the welcome packet.  They also send out their monthly magazine via the mail as well. 

Since I’ll be getting the gift memberships for you I won’t know your address at the time I buy it.  I’ll just need your email address and cell phone number if you win so Angies List can contact you to confirm your membership and put your address in the system. Here’s the city list:

Update:The giveaway has ended but Angies List recently lowered their membership rates. In addition, they frequently offer promo codes that give you a discount on the price. I’ve been keeping track of them, check out the Angie’s List membership discounts.

We actually don’t use the service as much as we used to because we’re finding such good people that when we need more work done we just call them back up.  I guess in a weird way that shows the service is actually working. But occasionally something will come up and we head back to Angies List to find the right person for the job.

Angies List Reviews

One thing to note is that although we use it for home maintenance and repairs, it’s not just for home owners.  Angies List has member reviews on health care providers (doctors & dentists), auto repair & service, appliance repair, animal boarding & grooming, child care, and about 300 other categories.

The also offer a feature called Angies List Big Deal that’s in a way like Groupon.  They offer big discounts from local businesses on services like furnace maintenance, salon service, computer tune-ups, carpet cleaning, etc.

I just wanted to tell you about those features so you won’t avoid the giveaway just because you don’t own a home.

Free Angies List Membership

We’ve gotten a lot out of the service and I’ve written a lot about it so I thought it was time to give some of you a chance to try it out.  Every day next week you can win a free Angies List membership if you’re a member of the Money Smart Life newsletter.

It’s a one year Angies List membership and I’ll be announcing the winners via the email newsletter so you have to be signed up for it to win.  The email newsletter is free you can enter your email address below to request access and enter to win:

Good luck!

Angies List Free Trial

Since the biggest value of the service is the large number of user reviews I can see how it would have been hard to get the initial group of people to sign up.  What incentive is there to join a user review site when you’re the first one leaving a review, right?  

One thing I learned from the interview is that when they first start offering reviews in a new city, they offer a one year free Angies List membership to get people using the service.  They’re able to accumulate enough reviews using the Angies List free trial offer to make the service worthwhile in the new city.

Angies List Live

They’ve also added a new feature called “Angies List Live” where you can see in real time what kinds of services members are searching for reviews on.

If your area was just added to the Angies List cities you won’t see many people searching in your town but you can get an idea of how people are using it in other nearby cities.  Here are some of the services that scrolled by in the short time I was watching:

• Plumbing
• Roofing
• Chimney Sweep
• Windows
• Carpet cleaning
• HVAC
• Ophthalmology
• Computer Repair
• Exterior Painting
• Glass & Mirrors
• Air Duct Cleaning
• Pest Control & Exterminating
• Metal Fabrication and Restoration
• Exterior Painting
• Lawn Irrigation
• Masonry
• Landscaping
• Gutter Repair
• Home Inspection
• In-home Child Care
• Mattresses
• Family Medicine
• Florists
• Accountants
• General Surgery
• Siding
• House Cleaning Services
• Lawn and Yard Work
• Fencing
• General Remodeling
• House Cleaning Services
• Interior Painting
• Carpentry
• Moving
• Dentists
• Kennels
• Tree Service
• Windows
• Appliance repair
• Concrete Driveways
• Auto Repair
• Property Appraiser 

As the WSJ article revealed, in her early days Angie probably had no idea that one day there would be hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people using the service every hour. Pretty cool, nice work Angie!

We’ve been busy moving into the new house so I hadn’t gotten around to giving feedback on the companies we worked with.  Since customer feedback is key to the value of the service Angies List reminds you to leave a review when you login but I hadn’t logged in during the moving process.  However, on the way to work yesterday I got an interesting phone call from a lady at Angies List inquiring about our experiences.

Apparently Angies List is launching a new feature where there will be audio reviews of contractors and she asked for my permission to record our discussion of the companies I had gotten bids from.  I think the new audio reviews will be an added benefit for customers for two reasons.

More Contractor Reviews

I imagine the new audio review format will increase the number of reviews in the system.  People are busy and not everyone remembers to leave feedback on the electricians, plumbers, handymen, etc that they’ve worked with.

The audio version allows Angies List to be proactive, they can call up people and ask them about their experiences with contractors and record their answers (with their permission).  For example, I had forgotten to leave feedback but was driving to work when they called and captured my experiences.

More In-Depth Reviews

Writing a review does take a few minutes and some people just don’t like to write or don’t have the time.  An audio version, on the other hand, is much faster and easier to create.  Most people are willing to talk about their experience with someone they worked with and are probably more likely to go into more detail.

For example, we got a bid from a company for foundation work but didn’t end up using them.  It wasn’t because we didn’t like what they offered, it turned out we didn’t have to do the work.  We scored them a NA for price and quality of work so people might have wondered why we didn’t hire them.  However, in our phone conversation I explained the reasons so other customers wouldn’t think it was because we didn’t like the company.

Overall, I think the audio reviews will be another tool to help people find qualified contractors so I’m glad they’re adding the feature.  The phone rep couldn’t say exactly when the audio reviews would be available other than pretty soon.  I’ll keep an eye out for them, in the meantime you can use an Angies List promo code for a discount if you want to try out the service.