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Have to agree with this assessment, just recently tried both of those services in the hunt for a plumber. Everyone I called from HomeAdvisor didn't return my ca

Have to agree with this assessment, just recently tried both of those services in the hunt for a plumber. Everyone I called from HomeAdvisor didn't return my calls or else called to tell me they weren't actually plumbers. Angie's List was a laughable disappointment with only one search result for my entire zip code and a testament to how the pay-walled garden approach just doesn't work. I finally resorted to asking around in my neighborhood and found a good plumber who was not listed on Google maps or any other online source. Reasoning was obvious: one bad review and your business is shot down forever, the best thing to do is to stay off the radar.

noxToken 9y ago
I have found that this is one of the most redeeming qualities of Next Door. Among the people selling "gently used" crap that no one would even take for free, the NIMBY crowd, the easy racism under the guise of neighborhood watch, the MLM moms, and the "THINK OF THE CHILDEN" crowd, Next Door has been spot on for recommendations. There are small business owners who make posts every two weeks are so about their super amazing lawn care business providing 10x the quality of TruGreen, but if you ask for recommendations, people flock in droves on both sides. Users give glowing praises for good experiences, and they will absolutely crucify a business for bad experiences. Sometimes you have to tease out details, but it's way better than a context-free review post to Google or Yelp. It's very common for a review on a website to have a business with a 4 star rating and a couple negative reviews. The negative reviews will only say something like, "Terrible experience. I will never user ${business} again!" Thanks buddy! You've given me 0 reasons to avoid this place. Next Door allows you to engage other locals on why the experience was poor. I just hope that Next Door doesn't try to pivot and capitalize on this. The system in place is perfect for recommendations, and I would hate for them to create some weird Yelp-esque review system within the app. Edit: This isn't confined to Next Door. Any forum where you can engage neighbors or locals with conversation will be better than a review site. People rarely go into enough details on why an experience was positive or negative. An HVAC company can refill refrigerant for a low price, but their duct work can be extremely pricey and sub-par. Reviews probably will not capture that type of information without asking what the user had done, how much it cost, promptness, time to complete the work, etc. Added these interview-style questions on a review site probably won't help, because will likely not submit a review where all of these are required fields.
- rayvd 9y ago
  Next Door is great for the neighborhood watch stuff. It would be kind of cool to aggregate camera feeds...

noxToken 9y ago

I have found that this is one of the most redeeming qualities of Next Door. Among the people selling "gently used" crap that no one would even take for free, the NIMBY crowd, the easy racism under the guise of neighborhood watch, the MLM moms, and the "THINK OF THE CHILDEN" crowd, Next Door has been spot on for recommendations. There are small business owners who make posts every two weeks are so about their super amazing lawn care business providing 10x the quality of TruGreen, but if you ask for recommendations, people flock in droves on both sides. Users give glowing praises for good experiences, and they will absolutely crucify a business for bad experiences. Sometimes you have to tease out details, but it's way better than a context-free review post to Google or Yelp. It's very common for a review on a website to have a business with a 4 star rating and a couple negative reviews. The negative reviews will only say something like, "Terrible experience. I will never user ${business} again!" Thanks buddy! You've given me 0 reasons to avoid this place. Next Door allows you to engage other locals on why the experience was poor. I just hope that Next Door doesn't try to pivot and capitalize on this. The system in place is perfect for recommendations, and I would hate for them to create some weird Yelp-esque review system within the app. Edit: This isn't confined to Next Door. Any forum where you can engage neighbors or locals with conversation will be better than a review site. People rarely go into enough details on why an experience was positive or negative. An HVAC company can refill refrigerant for a low price, but their duct work can be extremely pricey and sub-par. Reviews probably will not capture that type of information without asking what the user had done, how much it cost, promptness, time to complete the work, etc. Added these interview-style questions on a review site probably won't help, because will likely not submit a review where all of these are required fields.

rayvd 9y ago
Next Door is great for the neighborhood watch stuff. It would be kind of cool to aggregate camera feeds...