The dreaded Angies List

You all know my disdain of Angie's list as a business.
We are only seen now because we pay  $400 a month to be seen.
You can have reviews up the wazoo but if I didn't pay them you would not see them. 
They would bury us. That sounds fair to their members doesn't it?
They don't keep up with your license, your worker comp or anything as she states on her commercials. It's all smoke and mirrors.  I wouldn't join them for anything.
Okay, maybe if you paid me 12 million but no other good reason to be a member.

Last week I received an email saying my payment was late and to contact them. 
What? You automatically deduct these payments from my account monthly. 
How is it that I could be late?
I immediately pulled up my bank information online.
I saw that they took out a payment. I picked up the phone and called them. 
Of course, I could only leave a message. I did so....twice.
Then 2 days later as I was paying some bills I opened my account online. 
I saw that they took out 2 more payments of the same amount.   3 days in a row they hit me.
They have now taken over one thousand dollars so that is enough to notice don't you think?  

I called them right away and they told me it was the 3rd party who does all their ACH debits who did this. (ACH debits are the payments that are taken out automatically from my checking account.)   I told them I didn't really care who did it, when will they refund me?  Oh no later than August 8th. You take over $1,000 from me and I have to wait for my money?  I think that is all kinds of wrong. If my payment had indeed been late they don't wait a week or 2 until I get my affairs in order do they?

I got an email Wednesday telling me that checks would be cut and mailed no later than August 6th isn't that wonderful?
By the time, I receive this check it will be 3 weeks since they took this money from me.
They wrote it in such a way as if to say that we all should  be so pleased that it's early. 
I guess they think I will be thanking them. 
Instead when my contract is up in October I will no longer be renewing. They are dreadful in every way to work with and I honestly don't like their sleazy tactics.  

I had heard they were losing members and if this is true I would not be surprised. There are free services out there for reviews and as far as reviews go they are no better or worse. You must take reviews with a grain of salt anyways.
Currently, all of ours are great but someday there will be a nut who has a cross hair and it won't be fair or correct and what can you do? Nothing. Comes with the territory. Most people are rational when they read these and  you just have to learn to live with it. 

One of our favorite reviews is the lady who only gave us 4 stars because while the work was perfect in her words, the fact that we weren't plumbers bothered her so much she couldn't give us 5 stars. I mean, we worked in her bathrooms so for heavens sake we should be plumbers then. I guess when we install her counter tops she expects us to be chefs too.
So while it wasn't a perfect score, the job we were hired to do she thought was excellent. 
Most people can read that and see clearly who the nut job is. 

So next time you are looking for a contractor, ask friends and family or neighbors who they have used. Best is word of mouth. Then look online at yelp and others that are free to you.
Don't pay to join something, it's honestly not worth your time or money, you're just buying Angie a bigger house.