[jcataw]

WARNING !!!
As a member of Talk of the Villages, I have come to rely on the very helpful advice and recommendations of other members. I would like to make sure that others do not fall victim to the same situation that my husband and I found ourselves in recently.
We needed service on our garage door. We went to the CONTRACTORS RATINGS/REVIEWS category under TOTV and found that Discount Garage Doors had a 4-1/2 star rating. We did not realize that we should have checked the forums for reviews as well.
The star rating system under Contractors Ratings/Reviews that TOTV uses does not necessarily represent (or even correspond to) actual reviews posted under the forums by TOTV members.
A prime example is Discount Garage Doors, which has a 4-½ star rating on the Contractor Page but if you look at the forums under Discount Garage Doors it tells a completely different story. We were one of the victims of this company. If we had realized the difference between the Contractor Page Star Reviews and the forums we would never have used these people. So my suggestion to you is to read all forum reviews before selecting a contractor.

[villagetinker]

Thank you for pointing this out, will check forums FIRST.

[memason]

I find it interesting that no matter how bad the reviews, there is no contractor/service with less than 4 stars...

Aren't all of these businesses advertisers on TOTV?

[Bubble Gum]

Yes, another thank you. I would also recommend that if you are speaking about the rating of a person or company, check to see it there is a review and/or rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Better safe than sorry as the OP has indicated.

[Investment Painting Contractors]

Originally Posted by jcataw

WARNING !!!
As a member of Talk of the Villages, I have come to rely on the very helpful advice and recommendations of other members. I would like to make sure that others do not fall victim to the same situation that my husband and I found ourselves in recently.
We needed service on our garage door. We went to the CONTRACTORS RATINGS/REVIEWS category under TOTV and found that Discount Garage Doors had a 4-1/2 star rating. We did not realize that we should have checked the forums for reviews as well.
The star rating system under Contractors Ratings/Reviews that TOTV uses does not necessarily represent (or even correspond to) actual reviews posted under the forums by TOTV members.
A prime example is Discount Garage Doors, which has a 4-½ star rating on the Contractor Page but if you look at the forums under Discount Garage Doors it tells a completely different story. We were one of the victims of this company. If we had realized the difference between the Contractor Page Star Reviews and the forums we would never have used these people. So my suggestion to you is to read all forum reviews before selecting a contractor.

Always check the (POSTS) before hiring anyone, ask to see a copy of their Insurance Form, Check Seniors Against Crime, and best of all ask your friends and neighbors. Len & Chris

[rubicon]

Originally Posted by Bubble Gum

Yes, another thank you. I would also recommend that if you are speaking about the rating of a person or company, check to see it there is a review and/or rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Better safe than sorry as the OP has indicated.

Bubble Gum I have as much faith in the Star Ratings listed above as I do with BBB. In all my life i never known them to anything more than record what the get which means neither businesses or customers benefit. its he says she says kind of thing

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by jcataw

WARNING !!!

As a member of Talk of the Villages, I have come to rely on the very helpful advice and recommendations of other members. I would like to make sure that others do not fall victim to the same situation that my husband and I found ourselves in recently.

We needed service on our garage door. We went to the CONTRACTORS RATINGS/REVIEWS category under TOTV and found that Discount Garage Doors had a 4-1/2 star rating. We did not realize that we should have checked the forums for reviews as well.

The star rating system under Contractors Ratings/Reviews that TOTV uses does not necessarily represent (or even correspond to) actual reviews posted under the forums by TOTV members.

A prime example is Discount Garage Doors, which has a 4-½ star rating on the Contractor Page but if you look at the forums under Discount Garage Doors it tells a completely different story. We were one of the victims of this company. If we had realized the difference between the Contractor Page Star Reviews and the forums we would never have used these people. So my suggestion to you is to read all forum reviews before selecting a contractor.

Thanks for the warning. Sorry this happened to you.

[TOTV Team]

We think this is a great topic that was brought up to discuss. We will create a 'sticky' for it as well.

We would like to add more to this discussion and hopefully some clarification and support of the Home Improvement/Contractor section.

- The 5 Star rating is TOTALLY a separate feature from the reviews section. As a registered user you can offer up a review on a specific contractor, offer a 5 star rating, or both.
- The 5 Star rating is an average. If someone votes a 1 and someone votes a 5 then it will average a 3. This is an automatic calculation done by the software. We encourage every registered user to rate any contractor they have used in this section. If there are enough low scores then they will not want to advertise on TOTV and that is good as we do not want anyone with a low star rating to be on the site in that section. So you the user have the control over the star rating. ALSO - with that said each user can only vote 1 time per contractor so the system only counts your vote 1 time for each contractor so we can minimize any abuse of the 5 star rating.
- Feel free to leave a review on any contractor that you have used in this section. If there are enough bad reviews then that business will not advertise and that is good for everyone to maintain a high quality of contractors in the section on the site.

As mentioned above by other users use everything you can like the BBB, Seniors Against Crimes, the contractors insurance, etc. to make the most informed decision.

Yes the only businesses are advertisers listed in this section. This is a free site and this section is a free section for all the TOTV residents and the cost is offset by the support of local businesses. This entire section was custom coded for the users on this site with much time, effort, and cost put into it.

However, as mentioned above if a business is getting a bad star rating and reviews then they will leave and we are perfectly ok with that. The amount of money from 1 of these business's advertising is so small compared to what the quality of the section means to us.

Thanks in advance for your time to read this and support. We hope this helps other users in the future as that is the intent of the section to add just another layer of value and information when selecting a contractor.

Best Regards,

TOTV Team