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Homestars used to be a consumer advocate website generated by consumers. It is now driven by profits derived from a new feature where contractors can pay a $150/month to Homestars for premium placement and an extra $30 per month to have Homestars contact a contractor's clients incentivizing the clients to write testimonials.
This website used to be free for all contractors, contractors were honestly listed by the number and quality of testimonials consumers provided.
Everything is changed now, it's all about the money. Too bad for homeowners you're still on your own to find an honest, quality contractor.
It's understandable that Homestars would want to make a profit but there are better ways than financially pitting, one contractor against another. From my experience the most financially successful contractors are those who provide the worst service at the highest cost.
I tried to place a negative review about a company with whom I was very dissatisfied. It did not show up at all on the website. There were 186 review of which there was one 0/10, one 1/10, one 8/10, one 9/10 and the other 182 reviews were 10/10. I was born at night but not last night! Nobody is that good, and certainly not the company I was trying to comment on. By the way, I would have been the second 0/10.
I am a business owner in Calgary that signed up with a Homestar account to increase my credibility as a contractor in the city.
This Homestars website is a scam. They have blocked/removed all of our positive reviews claiming they are "fake" this absolutely not the case. We kindly have started asking past and current clients that were happy with our work to go online and submit a review. They have blocked every single one. They had no problem posting the 2 bad reviews we received. 1 of the bad reviews we received, we have absolutely never even done work for the person, he is obviously a competitor trying to sabotage our business. The other we had done work for, his complaint was that we did not doing anything the way he asked, when in fact we had to follow code in order for it to be done properly and legally. Very frustrating how Homestars does not even allow us the chance to defend ourselves and will except a horrible review with no proof but not except a good review. Very un reliable website, Luckily our work speaks for itself and this bad rating hasn't impacted our business, however I would highly suggest that you do not sign up for a homestars account and I would hope this website be taken down, as it is a biased fraudulent website.
This is absolutely true. All ads are paid for and the more you pay the more "10" reviews you can post without them being deleted. Don't pay they will delete even good reviews WOW!
I'm not sure how you would expect a company to stay in business and pay its staff without charging some sort of fees. The paid model allows contractors to remove ads from their profile and add photos of the work. I am on the site and see countless top ranked companies that don't appear to be paying customers.
I guess Angieslist is another option but I think you have to pay just to become a member. How does that help me when I am only looking to do a kitchen reno?
You must be a ###...it is free for businesses. I'm actually a Best of Homestars award winner and have never paid them a cent.