Review Title: SERVICE MAGIC CHERRY PICKS THEIR REVIEWS!! RED FLAGS! [ View All Reviews ]

I just would like to share my BAD experience through SERVICE MAGIC. When we tried to hire contractors through their site. I have heard of them and you prob. have heard of them too. If you are like us, we hire contractors for works we cannot do ourselves and the process is stressful sometimes. So this is our first time using them. Of coarse I requested 3 ppl from their site who has 5 start ratings (highest rating). Supposedly they have to go through alot to meet this ratings. After talking to each of them, we requested references from each and that's pretty normal. However, one company refuses to give references with reasons that they don't want to give out ppl's info. So we offered to give our cell phone for his references to call us instead. He got upset and told us he no longer wants to be considered for the Wood floor installation job.

Through service magic you are given the opportunity to rate your contractors weather or not u hired them. So I thought that's pretty cool. Homeowners can help other homeowners to weed out the bad contractors. After I submitted the rating and is APPROVED by the department the next step I expect was to be posted (that's what everyone told me through their customer service so far). I asked if they cherry pick the post and comments. The customer care said Nope. Anyway, today I found out otherwise. Read their email below.

So I just want to warn you that your comments are cherry pick by the departments. Service Magic is not looking for the interest of homeowners who like to hire trustworthy contractors. Their 5 star ratings now means nothing to me at this moments because I did my job as homeowners to warn others not to hire this company that NOT ONLY refuses to give references to us, but got upset and asked to be released from the job. BUT MY WARNING WILL NOT BE POSTED. Our initial meeting with this company is VERY pleasant, southern hospitality. But when it comes down to SMART homeowners like us that actually doing their homework and going above and beyond in not just trusting the website ratings before hiring the contractors, the company back out and no longer wants to do the job. Oh did I mention that the company only been in the business since Jan 2010? I love giving opportunities for new companies to start their business but if we are not allowed to ask for extra references, then there is SOMETHING WRONG. So BEWARE when hiring through SERVICE MAGIC. Their ratings are NOT necessarily 100% true. Is BEST to find someone that is referred by your friends and someone you trust that have used them. Even with that still do your homework and be a diligent homeowners and it will save you a lot of pain.

We hired a roofing guy that ran with our Down payment money. He has an A- ratings on BBB for 15+ yrs. And now SERVICE MAGIC ratings just proofs to me that is JUST a rating and is not a true ratings.

Remembers that those ratings is just one of the checklist you need to check, but is NOT the only thing you trust in hiring contractors. Remember Service Magic makes their money if we put in the request for all the companies we requested. So you think they will truly WEED OUT the mediocre contractors? NO, if they do, no contractors will want to sign up and when no contractors sign up they will make NO Money. It is ALL ABOUT the money NOT looking out for other homeowners.

BE SMART PPL. Do your own homework and interviews, ask lots of questions. By asking questions about the project you will know if this person actually knows how to do it or just talking giberish and making stuff up.

I emailed the customer care and told them that SM is not looking after the interest of homeowners. That the process of hiring contractors includes when you interview them. If they give us the opps. to review and post comments why other customers cannot see it? In this situation I told them that the 6 ratings for this company that just started is 5 star. But how many of these ratings are his own friends that helped him out to get his business started or his own family rating him. As long as they click on the site and uses him, they can post the great reviews. IF this guys is truly good and has great reviews why not try to impress me by giving references that will make him look good and gain our trust? That's because this guy is shady and hasn't really done anything yet. I wanted to warn the ppl in my city about this company BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED??? huh, then why should I use your service because the contractors in there might not even be legit or the bad ones are not weed out! The answer is because contractors paid SM to give them lead. So if they weed them out SM has no source of income. See, is always about the money. No one is REALLY looking out for other ppl's interest. READ EMAIL BELOW FORM SM CUSTOMER CARE.

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Dear Karen,

Thank you for your email. At this time, we are showing our Ratings Department has approved your rating, however ratings for professionals that you have not hired are not posted on the site for consumers to see, but rather are sent anonymously to the professional as feedback. We do however, post all feedback for professionals you have hired. This feedback is extremely important to our system. Not only do we note this in the professionals account, but it is also used as a tool for the service professionals to improve themselves and their service. Unfortunately, once the request is closed, you cannot see the profile and ratings any longer.

Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to assist. And keep in mind, you can submit a request via our service by clicking on http://www.servicemagic.com/ext/797241 and we can assist in locating any professionals for over 500 tasks in our system. You may also visit our contractor directory by calling 1(800)Contractor or www.1800contractor.com. Thank you for using ServiceMagic.

Sincerely,

Sugihara, Jessica
Consumer Customer Care
ServiceMagic, Inc.
www.ServiceMagic.com