This is a report is the product of several months of investigations that stemmed from scams/ripoffs by individual illegitimate home improvemnent/contractors who have been scamming customers using angi Formerly known as angie's list).
The scope of this report will not go into those ripoffs as they are documented separately and considered separate matters, rather this report details how angi uses shills Fake users/profiles) to simp Post false glorifying experiences) to make fraudulent businesses listed on their site attractive to potential new victims.
My company and i had hired a contractor as well as several individual labor companies off angi to perform work on a residential community Mostly elderly and retired) that i manage.
The companies we hired off angi wanted payment up front First red flag) to perform the work and needed assistance from my crew. A lower level contractor that i used approved the contract against my better judgement and he had paid them off up front.
Needless to say, the companies hired off angi flaked and took the money and proceeded to spread libel/slander against myself and residents as an excuse to take the money and not work This matter is being handled by a separate case and law firm).
We reported the incident to authorities Sos, ag, local police) as well as filed complaints online Bbb and SCAMION) and when i wrote reviews on angi, their "integrety team" questioned the events via e-mail and as such i sent them evidence of the scams/ripoffs.
Their review team then requested "addresses, phone numbers, e-mails" from myself to "verify" for "review integrety".
I happilly provided them however they claim that they "could not verify" them. I had sent them public records showing their validility, however, no matter what "address, phone number, e-mail" i provided These were all legitimate and verifyable on public records as well as government agencies i am affiliated with) angi's "review integrety team" would respond with "could not verify".
This pattern of rejecting any report or review that negatively impacts and illegitimate business listed on their site seemed to be a way to censor any limelight casted on them.
I have noticed this pattern with several company listings of companies that were involved with the scams and it appears angi's list is basically a haven for "companies" looking to rip people off.
There several hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses involved and we do plan to take legal action against the companies involved as well as possibly persuing legal action against angi for facilitaing them and removing any negative reports/reviews about them which could put the safety of other customers/victims at risk.
Try to bill you with every lead even if it doesn't work in your category. When you try to get an invoice for the amount they're charging you they make it the hardest they can they don't give you the lead money back. And they take it directly out of your account anytime they want they make it is difficult as possible for you to get a return on your money.
Generating leads by themselves with customers not even wanting to get work done. Terrible business model for the contractor great for them because they can charge you on every single pole even if you don't even have a chance to get it.
Let's start with the fact that we advertised with the former Angieslist.com for a decade or more starting around 01. We got good customers and we were happy, that is until they doubled their price year over year until we were asked to pay astronomical prices for our advertising and told that our account would be deleted along with our 1600 reviews and 5 star rating if we did not pay their renewal fee which equated to a high ransom.
We are talking more than $5x,xxx for a measely print ad and their web advertising. We attempted to cancel and then low and behold they offered the same package for 20k less. We trimmed it down and advertised another year with them. The next year they wanted double again and we cancelled, supposedly losing our account.
In this time the company picked up or was picked up by homeadvisor. It essentially turned into homeadvisor. We gave it a try for a month or so. Instead of representing unbiased reviews so that a homeowner could select a good contractor they decided to have the contractors fight and bid over the leads. They collected consumer information and sold it to the highest bidder. This resulted in our opinion much lower quality customers (often customers who had no idea why we would be contacting them). Homeadvisor was and is a terrible business with extremely poor customer service.
Fast forward to 2022 - Homeadvisor has rebranded itself again (wonder why?) Now we're supposed to buy this Angi Leads garbage is going to fix everything . They have a pushy salesman who promised the moon. Only problem was that he lied directly to me. I was told that he could get back our reviews from our old angieslist.com (not deleted after all?) account with 1600 reviews and 5 star rating.
He repetitively said that they would be attached to our account before the thing went live. We got $200 of leads and only had to spend $100 so we gave it a shot. As soon as it starts the salesman Tom Johnson-Salvador (who also told me he'd be my account manager) disappears. The account goes live and starts flooding our inbox with "opportunities" and "leads".
The customer quaility was extremely terrible, they were not interested in having any work done or even responding to us. Our account had no reviews and it was never supposed to go live. Turns out the guy made two accounts and I couldn't control the one generating leads.
Their garbage leads flooded our inbox and burned up their little $200 gift in a couple of days. Then it starts charging our credit card. We're talking $15 - $90 per terrible quality lead generated through their misleading trap of a website. They are likely selling information because they are definitely not generating leads.
I callled customer service to complain about the lying salesman. They transferred me to their Review dept to get the reviews transferred and they said that it was impossible. The salesman had promised something that was impossible. I requested a refund and cancellation because I was lied to. I was denied any possibility of refunding my money even though nothing was done the way I specifically stated. "Is there anything else I can do to help you?" Standard corporate boilerplate BS designed to never fix any one's problem and never address the fact that their job as a customer service rep is completely pointless. Guess it would be hard to sleep at night if you were just being a piece of trash, but it's policy, hands are tied, etc. etc.
Angi Leads desires to trap and dupe consumers and contractors alike. We have been in business over 100 years providing quality work that can be relied upon. We cannot abide a business that does the exact opposite. We feel that angi leads and all of it's sister companies and subsidiaries are a scam in their entirety. I would suggest any service oriented business or consumer seeking a quality company to steer clear. A web search and reviews will likely turn up better unsolicitated honest results. They make yelp look like saints if you can believe it.
There is nothing honest about Angi Leads or whatever you want to call it. Even the people that work there don't know what to call their company.
Do not enable this company. Do not give them your information. Do not give them money, you won't ever see it again.
After using Angie leads for 2 to 3 months, I have realized it is a scam. The leads you are sent are often hours old, they are often people who don’t know what professional they need and the only system that promises to send you fresh leads, though they are not, automatically charges you for every lead you are sent regardless of its quality.
Other than automatically being charged, you can use opportunity leads, which it turns out are ones which have been rejected by other contractors so they are always old/outdated and often well outside your service area. The system is sold to you under the guise that you always get to choose which leads you want. This is false and once you have signed up, the information in their fine print shows the truth is you’re charged without getting to choose.
The final straw was when I called to cancel my account they inform you that also within their fine print is a 72 hour limit on any refunds on your funding deposits. This means you must determine within three days time whether the entire Angie leads system is a worthwhile marketing expense. In my case, I was leaving to go on vacation so the sales lady happily suggested we turn off the leads for two weeks until I was back.
She knew that meant there was simply no way I would ever be able to get a refund because there was no way I would be able to evaluate the system if I wasn’t using it. Regardless, I know of no business system which can be properly evaluated in this short of a time frame for its financial and marketing efficacy. Spend your marketing funds elsewhere.
I joined the service and with out giving me a orentation they let me ring up a 8 ,000.00 invoice. The leads that was giving to me was out of my area and they where leads that never called back and was window shoppers. So i called them to get them taken off my account because i was not informed of how to use the service and the supervior said to me that they cannot do anything about it.
becasue i signed the agreement and i am on the hook for the leads not matter what happens. SO I TELL ALL CONTRACTOR THAT WANT TO USE THE SITE THEY ARE A SCAM AND IT DOES NOT WORK AND THEY TRY TO TAKE YOUR MONEY . SO DONOT USE THEM . IT IS A SCAM
Angi Leads, Inc. Reviews
This is a report is the product of several months of investigations that stemmed from scams/ripoffs by individual illegitimate home improvemnent/contractors who have been scamming customers using angi Formerly known as angie's list).
The scope of this report will not go into those ripoffs as they are documented separately and considered separate matters, rather this report details how angi uses shills Fake users/profiles) to simp Post false glorifying experiences) to make fraudulent businesses listed on their site attractive to potential new victims.
My company and i had hired a contractor as well as several individual labor companies off angi to perform work on a residential community Mostly elderly and retired) that i manage.
The companies we hired off angi wanted payment up front First red flag) to perform the work and needed assistance from my crew. A lower level contractor that i used approved the contract against my better judgement and he had paid them off up front.
Needless to say, the companies hired off angi flaked and took the money and proceeded to spread libel/slander against myself and residents as an excuse to take the money and not work This matter is being handled by a separate case and law firm).
We reported the incident to authorities Sos, ag, local police) as well as filed complaints online Bbb and SCAMION) and when i wrote reviews on angi, their "integrety team" questioned the events via e-mail and as such i sent them evidence of the scams/ripoffs.
Their review team then requested "addresses, phone numbers, e-mails" from myself to "verify" for "review integrety".
I happilly provided them however they claim that they "could not verify" them. I had sent them public records showing their validility, however, no matter what "address, phone number, e-mail" i provided These were all legitimate and verifyable on public records as well as government agencies i am affiliated with) angi's "review integrety team" would respond with "could not verify".
This pattern of rejecting any report or review that negatively impacts and illegitimate business listed on their site seemed to be a way to censor any limelight casted on them.
I have noticed this pattern with several company listings of companies that were involved with the scams and it appears angi's list is basically a haven for "companies" looking to rip people off.
There several hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses involved and we do plan to take legal action against the companies involved as well as possibly persuing legal action against angi for facilitaing them and removing any negative reports/reviews about them which could put the safety of other customers/victims at risk.
I worked with Angi for over a year to get contrator services rendered...
After about 2 months they started sending me fraudulent bills...
After approx 9 months they fabricated an illegible fraudulent document, and tried to pass-it-off as genuine...
When I balked at this "JOKE", they swindled my bank into paying them...
NEVER - NEVER - NEVER do business with "ANGI" , unless you want unfinished projects, lies, and rediculouse charges for incompetent performance...
Try to bill you with every lead even if it doesn't work in your category. When you try to get an invoice for the amount they're charging you they make it the hardest they can they don't give you the lead money back. And they take it directly out of your account anytime they want they make it is difficult as possible for you to get a return on your money.
Generating leads by themselves with customers not even wanting to get work done. Terrible business model for the contractor great for them because they can charge you on every single pole even if you don't even have a chance to get it.
Let's start with the fact that we advertised with the former Angieslist.com for a decade or more starting around 01. We got good customers and we were happy, that is until they doubled their price year over year until we were asked to pay astronomical prices for our advertising and told that our account would be deleted along with our 1600 reviews and 5 star rating if we did not pay their renewal fee which equated to a high ransom.
We are talking more than $5x,xxx for a measely print ad and their web advertising. We attempted to cancel and then low and behold they offered the same package for 20k less. We trimmed it down and advertised another year with them. The next year they wanted double again and we cancelled, supposedly losing our account.
In this time the company picked up or was picked up by homeadvisor. It essentially turned into homeadvisor. We gave it a try for a month or so. Instead of representing unbiased reviews so that a homeowner could select a good contractor they decided to have the contractors fight and bid over the leads. They collected consumer information and sold it to the highest bidder. This resulted in our opinion much lower quality customers (often customers who had no idea why we would be contacting them). Homeadvisor was and is a terrible business with extremely poor customer service.
Fast forward to 2022 - Homeadvisor has rebranded itself again (wonder why?) Now we're supposed to buy this Angi Leads garbage is going to fix everything . They have a pushy salesman who promised the moon. Only problem was that he lied directly to me. I was told that he could get back our reviews from our old angieslist.com (not deleted after all?) account with 1600 reviews and 5 star rating.
He repetitively said that they would be attached to our account before the thing went live. We got $200 of leads and only had to spend $100 so we gave it a shot. As soon as it starts the salesman Tom Johnson-Salvador (who also told me he'd be my account manager) disappears. The account goes live and starts flooding our inbox with "opportunities" and "leads".
The customer quaility was extremely terrible, they were not interested in having any work done or even responding to us. Our account had no reviews and it was never supposed to go live. Turns out the guy made two accounts and I couldn't control the one generating leads.
Their garbage leads flooded our inbox and burned up their little $200 gift in a couple of days. Then it starts charging our credit card. We're talking $15 - $90 per terrible quality lead generated through their misleading trap of a website. They are likely selling information because they are definitely not generating leads.
I callled customer service to complain about the lying salesman. They transferred me to their Review dept to get the reviews transferred and they said that it was impossible. The salesman had promised something that was impossible. I requested a refund and cancellation because I was lied to. I was denied any possibility of refunding my money even though nothing was done the way I specifically stated. "Is there anything else I can do to help you?" Standard corporate boilerplate BS designed to never fix any one's problem and never address the fact that their job as a customer service rep is completely pointless. Guess it would be hard to sleep at night if you were just being a piece of trash, but it's policy, hands are tied, etc. etc.
Angi Leads desires to trap and dupe consumers and contractors alike. We have been in business over 100 years providing quality work that can be relied upon. We cannot abide a business that does the exact opposite. We feel that angi leads and all of it's sister companies and subsidiaries are a scam in their entirety. I would suggest any service oriented business or consumer seeking a quality company to steer clear. A web search and reviews will likely turn up better unsolicitated honest results. They make yelp look like saints if you can believe it.
There is nothing honest about Angi Leads or whatever you want to call it. Even the people that work there don't know what to call their company.
Do not enable this company. Do not give them your information. Do not give them money, you won't ever see it again.
After using Angie leads for 2 to 3 months, I have realized it is a scam. The leads you are sent are often hours old, they are often people who don’t know what professional they need and the only system that promises to send you fresh leads, though they are not, automatically charges you for every lead you are sent regardless of its quality.
Other than automatically being charged, you can use opportunity leads, which it turns out are ones which have been rejected by other contractors so they are always old/outdated and often well outside your service area. The system is sold to you under the guise that you always get to choose which leads you want. This is false and once you have signed up, the information in their fine print shows the truth is you’re charged without getting to choose.
The final straw was when I called to cancel my account they inform you that also within their fine print is a 72 hour limit on any refunds on your funding deposits. This means you must determine within three days time whether the entire Angie leads system is a worthwhile marketing expense. In my case, I was leaving to go on vacation so the sales lady happily suggested we turn off the leads for two weeks until I was back.
She knew that meant there was simply no way I would ever be able to get a refund because there was no way I would be able to evaluate the system if I wasn’t using it. Regardless, I know of no business system which can be properly evaluated in this short of a time frame for its financial and marketing efficacy. Spend your marketing funds elsewhere.
I joined the service and with out giving me a orentation they let me ring up a 8 ,000.00 invoice. The leads that was giving to me was out of my area and they where leads that never called back and was window shoppers. So i called them to get them taken off my account because i was not informed of how to use the service and the supervior said to me that they cannot do anything about it.
becasue i signed the agreement and i am on the hook for the leads not matter what happens. SO I TELL ALL CONTRACTOR THAT WANT TO USE THE SITE THEY ARE A SCAM AND IT DOES NOT WORK AND THEY TRY TO TAKE YOUR MONEY . SO DONOT USE THEM . IT IS A SCAM