Best and worst contractors of 2007

Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))
Schmid:
Thanks for taking the time to listen up to the Angie’s List podcast. I’m Tristan Schmid.

Over the years, we’ve received some pretty amazing reports on service providers working in a variety of fields. Some companies provide consistently excellent service, while others do the opposite. So for the first time, we’ve decided to put a national list together honoring the best contractors of 2007 and wagging our collective finger at the worst.

Only 10 companies from across the country excelled enough to be called “the best”: they had to have received at least 20 reports from Angie’s List members in 2007 with an overall grade of “A” on every report, as well as at least 10 nominations to Angie’s List magazine’s Pages of Happiness, where companies are recognized for doing a terrific job.

Terry DeBartolo, co-owner of CCCM in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, is one of the contractors recognized as the best. He says a variety of qualities add up to a recipe for success and excellent customer satisfaction. Terry and his crew only take on one or two jobs at a time; I asked him why CCCM’s customers are willing to wait 4 or 5 months for a CCCM remodeling job.

DeBartolo: The quality of work, the honesty, and the returned phone calls, everything goes into one package so that when we’re out of sight, we’re out of mind. I think that because some people have gone through a more difficult time with contractors that take their money, they don’t show up, they don’t return phone calls, the quality of work isn’t good, you can’t get them to come back: all that goes away and they just want someone in their house so they don’t have to worry and they’re willing to wait for that. And I think the other thing is, when you’re a high quality contractor, you’re always extremely busy, and people are known to want to wait for that.

Schmid:: Terry has some words of wisdom for other contractors.

DeBartolo: Treat everybody just like you want to be treated. Same exact way. Show the same courtesy, return phone calls, etc.

Schmid: Thanks to his excellent customer service, Bill Bjorkgren’s phone constantly rings off the hook with customers. As owner of B J Appliance Repair in Westerville, Ohio, Bjorkgren takes pride in his work and says the key to his success is his ability to provide excellent service without assistance.

Bjorkgren: I do everything myself, I don’t hire any help or subcontractors. That way, every job is done correctly.

SCHMID: Brandon Jhun is also on our list of top contractors. As owner of Brandon Jhun Painting and Drywall in North Las Vegas, Nevada, Jhun says honesty is an integral part of being a successful contractor.

Jhun: You got to be truthful with the customers, tell them exactly what you’re going to do. One of the big things for me, I won’t ask for any deposit. I think that gives people a sense of confidence. Because here in Vegas, there are a lot of contractors who will take your money and not even show up. I put their mind at ease when I let them know that I ask for no money down and tell them that they can pay me once they’re satisfied and the job’s complete.

(interlude)

Schmid: Our five worst contractors of 2007 are all either convicted felons or facing criminal charges, and in some cases, both. They’ve also cost their customers a lot of time, stress, and money.

Paul G. Gordon, of 24/7 Home Repair in Tampa, Florida, is one of the worst. In addition to performing shoddy work and running away with customers’ deposits, Gordon allegedly threatened one unfortunate customer by publicly accusing him of molesting Gordon’s daughter.

Suzette Holder was another of Gordon’s unlucky customers. She says Gordon showed her a fake, stolen, doctored contractor license and performed shoddy work, which Holder successfully sued him for.

Holder: He deserves to be on the list of the worst contractors because he’s not a licensed contractor, he’s a fraud, and he defeats people out of their money.

Schmid: As an unlicensed contractor, Paul Gordon has operated his businesses under several guises.

Holder: I was gotten under A-Z Home Repair. He’s done business under several different names and has in fact changed his name, first and last, so he can continue defeating people.

Schmid: Gordon’s past is catching up with him, however: he faces trial in Florida on criminal charges including organized fraud and grand theft.

Douglas Cass of Long Island, New York, is another contractor who’s left lots of unhappy customers in his wake. In July Cass was arrested for trying to overcharge undercover officers for unnecessary repairs and now faces four misdemeanor counts of operating a business without a license. Charles A. Gardner, director of the Suffolk County Consumer Affairs Office, offers a summary of Cass’s offenses.

Gardner: Doug Cass, also known as Dan Russo and Drew Cass, is the worst example of an appliance repair business that we’ve ever had in Suffolk County. There’ve been more than 1,000 written complaints filed by consumers, from outright fraud, to taking appliances, taking parts and not returning them, overcharging cards, double-charging cards, physical abuse, verbal abuse, you name it, the complaints are there against him, his wife and his company.

(interlude)
Schmid: Unfortunately, when you look for a contractor, it can be easy to hire the wrong person for the job, according to Suzette Holder, who wasn’t an Angie’s List member when she hired Tampa’s Paul Gordon.

Holder: I tried to make sure I wouldn’t get messed up with this. I thought I had a licensed person, but it’s very hard nowadays with criminals out there who have the ability to make themselves look more than what they are.

Schmid: There are ways you can avoid hiring contractors like Paul Gordon and Douglas Cass. In addition to asking people you know about those they’ve hired, do your research. Check Angie’s List, trade associations, the Better Business Bureau and your local consumer affairs office for a contractor’s performance records and be sure to ask if he or she is licensed, bonded and insured.

For more about how to protect yourself and to read about all of the best and worst contractors of 2007, visit the Angie’s List magazine website, magazine.angieslist.com. Also, if you have comments about this episode and would like to share them with other listeners, visit angieslistpodcasts.com and click the “Comments” button for this episode. Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to List-en!

Coffee shop culture

Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))

Schmid: Love it or hate it, Starbucks is here to stay. Though the company’s experienced a recent slump due to tremendous expansion efforts, some would say they’re back on track with the return of former CEO Howard Schultz. How this will affect Starbucks — and, in effect, its competitors — remains to be seen, but the controversy surrounding Starbucks is sure to continue. Some people say the java giant is nothing but bad news for local, independent businesses, while others insist it helps communities thrive.

I enjoyed a cup of coffee at Lazy Daze Coffee House in Irvington on the east side of Indianapolis to find out what the regulars think about Starbucks and local coffee shops.

Gonzalez: I believe in the locals, which is pretty hard in this kind of business because some succeed and some don’t.

Schmid: Rudy Gonzalez is a fan of the white tea offered by Lazy Daze.

Gonzalez: I’ve been coming here for about two and a half years. It seems so peaceful. Someone like myself needs a quiet area just to do some studying. I really enjoy it here.

Schmid: Dani Blanchard frequents Lazy Daze not only for their fine coffees, but also because of the employees and customers.

Blanchard: I was studying and working here and it was a sense of community. I think we’ve lost that sense of community in our hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Schmid: That sense of community was slightly shaken with the arrival last year of a small Starbucks store just around the corner from the already well-established Lazy Daze, which opened in 2003. Lazy Daze owner Jeff Coppinger held a music festival to “celebrate” the arrival of his coffee shop’s greatest competitor.

Coppinger: Starbucks is a tremendous benefit to the community. It’s fixed up that corner and it can attract investors. But at the same time, it was kind of rude for them to come in our - I don’t want to say territory, it sounds like caveman – but other independent coffeehouse owners here in the city would never have done that. But the guy sits in Washington and he can make these decisions, and it’s aggressive. It’s good or bad; it depends on what that coffeehouse that’s there already is doing. That’s really the tester: Starbucks comes in and it’s going to let you know whether you have your I’s dotted and T’s crossed, because if you don’t, Starbucks is going to take your business away from you.

Schmid: Coppinger, whose favorite drink is a straight shot of espresso, says unique qualities have helped Lazy Daze compete successfully since Starbucks’ arrival.

Coppinger: I knew that when I opened up and if I was successful, they’d come in behind, after they let me do the marketing. When I found out they were coming, I was already totally aware it would either increase my business or wipe me out because there are statistics that show both. I prepared myself to be competitive with them. I was bringing in extra products: I brought in organic, loose-leaf teas — that’s something they didn’t have.

Schmid: A strong emphasis on local culture and arts also helps Lazy Daze.

Coppinger: You know, coffeehouses are neighborhood hubs. I don’t advertise my coffee. What I do advertise is music, poetry, and the art hanging on the walls. We do a meet-the-artist once a month. Because people from the neighborhood are most likely going to come here anyway, or Starbucks. The only way I can expand my customer base is to have things going on and events that are cultural, then I can expand outside the Irvington area and have people come and make a purchase and help my business along.

Schmid: Though attracting people from outside the local community with a familiar name has been one of Starbucks’ strong points, Lazy Daze customer Rudy Gonzalez says Starbucks cannot compete when it comes to giving customers a sense of place.

Gonzalez: What I see when I drive or walk by Starbucks, they have a certain client base that shows up there. Mostly I’d say they’re business people on their way to downtown. They’ll stop in, drive in, and go. There’s no sense of a group that will sit around and converse like here.

Schmid: Cass Audette’s also a believer in local coffeehouses. She regularly buys coffee from Bellevue, Washington’s Belvi Coffee & Tea Exchange.

Audette: When I drink a hot drink, I drink mocha, and when I have a blended drink I have a Michelangelo, which is cream, chocolate, espresso and mint. It’s very good.

Schmid: Cass appreciates the personal touch that Belvi’s owner, Penny Stafford, puts into her shop’s products.

Audette: She’s an independent and one of a kind. She’s very conscientious about her product. She’s always tasting so that her shots are consistently to her standard, and she uses the freshest ingredients.

Schmid: Cass says it’s hard to avoid Starbucks, especially so close to Seattle.

Audette: They’re on every single corner, in every single office building. They’re just everywhere. They’ve taken over everything. They have exclusive deals with property management companies so every time someone opens an office building, there’s got to be a Starbucks in there. Or strip malls: they get in there and they’re opening all these drive-thrus so the little coffee shop down the street all of a sudden loses business because you can drive through Starbucks. It’s great for Starbucks, you know, they’re making money and employing people. But it’s just crappy coffee. People should have better taste, especially in a city that has so much coffee.

Schmid: Penny Stafford, the owner of Belvi Coffee & Tea Exchange, is in the midst of legal action against Starbucks. She alleges that the company exploits its power and engages in predatory practices to eliminate competitors.

Stafford: Starbucks is now showing its true colors. It is in the ball field of Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s. They pretended for a decade they weren’t, and now the truth is out that that is their level of competition and the level of their quality. But you can’t come out and say that while you’re charging $5 for a coffee. And now they’re pushing this dollar cup of coffee. I think that is the real Starbucks. They’re the McDonald’s of coffee. They should not be perceived to be in my category.

Schmid: She says her shop and Starbucks are quite different, in everything from the colors to the coffees.

Stafford: You will not find beige in here, let me say that! You will never find beige in one of my stores. I have a German 14th century piece of art on the wall, and the rest of the place is red- and gold leaf and black, so it’s very Renaissance-Italian. I have a lot of European customers because everything is legitimate. My coffee is legitimate. It’s Italian-style. It’s hand-batch roasted. Starbucks has little to do with my type of business. They really don’t have a high-quality product. From an outsider’s perspective, you’d think we’re doing the same business. But it would be like you were calling the Morton’s Steakhouse chain and saying “so what do you think you and McDonald’s have in common?” I do have a soul, I don’t just say I have a soul.

(interlude)

Schmid: For those of you who may not have checked out your local coffee shop, Cass Audette and Rudy Gonzalez have some words of advice.

Audette: Try something different, you’d be surprised at how good a cup of coffee can be if you don’t go to Starbucks, you know. Support your local businesses. Some of the local coffee shops don’t have very good coffee, either, but some of them have great coffee, and cheaper, and just as nice a barista!

Gonzalez: Give a chance to any local coffee shop. These are the people that live and work in the same area who are neighbors to you, and it shows a lot of love if that support is there.

Schmid: Much has been said about Starbucks and the little ma-n-pa coffee shops it competes with, but what about the other big fish? Dunkin’ Donuts has been on the coffee shop scene since 1950. Though not as ubiquitous as Starbucks, the company recently announced plans to expand further into Asia with its first store in Taiwan, and here in America, Dunkin’ Donuts remains one of Starbucks’ fiercest competitors. Loyal patron Rich Dunston of Columbus, Ohio, is a fan of Dunkin’ Donuts’ speed and large servings: He drinks at least 48 ounces of their coffee almost every day while traveling for work.

Dunston: Their coffee is so much more available to me on a drive-thru basis than just about any other coffee around, and they seem to be everywhere I go. Although Starbucks has about three times as many stores, I just don’t care for their coffee anymore. Cost is really not an issue: I’m pretty well trained that I’ll have to pay somewhere between $2 and $5 for coffee. And atmosphere isn’t important to me because I don’t spend much time inside the places.

Schmid: He says that Starbucks lost their focus in recent years.

Dunston: It seems to me that their management change probably hurt them quite a bit. They concentrated all their energy on expansion. They got into CDs, they got into coffee machines, they got into chinaware: they just lost sight of the product and I got pretty well disgusted with them about three years ago.

Schmid: Though Rich is a devoted Dunkin’ Donuts drinker, he does have an affinity for one small coffee shop.

Dunston: My favorite independent coffee shop is a place called Pheasant Creek Coffee in Apex, North Carolina. It’s just a fantastic little coffee shop that serves some super-gourmet coffees down there that they import directly from South America and other countries.

Schmid: It took Rich some time to find that great cup of independent coffee, but like anything else, it was worth the wait.

INTERLUDE

What’s your favorite coffee shop? Let us know by dropping us a line on our website, angieslistpodcasts.com, where you can also share your opinions about the independents and java giants with other listeners. You can also find links to the coffee shops mentioned, as well as transcripts for this and all of our episodes.

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to List-en!

Pooper-scoopers

Angie Hicks, founder, Angie's List
Hicks: Thanks for joining us for the Angie’s List podcast. I’m Angie. We’re talking about one of my favorite categories: pooper-scoopers! As the one in charge of lawn mowing in my family, hiring a pooper-scooper was at the top of my list when we got a dog. Tristan Schmid, host of List-en up, talked to some pros about the business of animal waste removal and why pooper-scoopers serve such an important need.

Schmid: Thanks, Angie! According to an Angie’s List poll, more than half of our members own dogs. Those pets create an awful lot of Scooby doo-doo that has to be cleaned up somehow — but what if you don’t have time to deal with it? A professional pooper-scooper like Denver’s Sam Johnson will do the “turd herding” for you.

Johnson: Most of our clients hire us because it’s a time saver more than anything. It’s an opportunity for people to take advantage of a service, similar to a house cleaning service or just about any other service.

Schmid: Johnson, “Scoop Master” & president of Pet Scoop Services, started his business cleaning up dogs’ business 14 years ago while going to college.

Johnson: My mom just couldn’t believe I did this because I used to hate doing it as a kid. Now, we actually have kids pay us with their allowance to come out and clean up for them.

Schmid: Animal waste removal is not an enjoyable thing— I know from the all-too-personal experience of cleaning up regularly after my three rather large dogs. What would possess someone to get into such a poopy profession? Phil Wade, owner of Poopie Puppies in Indianapolis, says that his love of dogs, combined with his background as a wastewater treatment professional, makes animal waste removal a natural business to be in. I couldn’t help but ask how Wade stands the smell.

Wade: I’m kind of immune to it, for the most part. You’re out in the open with fresh air; typically it’s not too bad of a problem.

Schmid: Sam Johnson says safe disposal’s more of a concern for professional scoopers.

Johnson: The most important thing with dog waste is to get it out of the yard. It’s not safe to be in the yard and let rainwater carry it into storm drains. The best way to dispose of it, because it does not make good fertilizer — there’s really no good use for dog waste, in particular — is to dispose of it in a waste-approved container. Generally it goes to the landfill where it can be managed and degraded there.

Between houses we sanitize our equipment with a kennel disinfectant, which kills just about any kind of a dog disease, like parvo or giardia, so it doesn’t carry those diseases to the next yard.

Schmid: Bill and Nicki Walters, owners of Pooper Trooper in Seattle, started their company as a service not only to humans, but also to dogs: they give more than 5% of their profits to animal welfare agencies. Bill warns that it’s not safe for people to use dog doo as compost or fertilizer.

Walters: They could be running a risk if they were to use it to grow tomatoes or some other vegetables or something. Dog waste contains lots of different harmful bacteria and parasites. Kids go out there and play in the yard, and the next thing you know they touch something or put something in their mouth and then they’re sick. So it’s important that it gets picked up on a regular basis.

Schmid: Karla Hangsleben hired Pooper Trooper to clean up after her dogs.

Karla: We have a lab cross and we have an American hairless rat terrier. It has whiskers and that’s it.

Schmid: There’s one main reason Karla and her family hired Pooper Trooper.

Karla: Actually to keep family sanity. We’ve got a small child and he wants to play in the backyard all the time. It always turned into “whose turn is it to pick up the dog poop so our son can play?” And nobody ever wanted to do it. So it seems to be the best way to keep sanity and not be outrageously expensive to do it.

Schmid: She says it’s important to know that a scooper’s disposal practices are in line with local regulations.

Karla: Make sure that you’re asking them how they’re going to dispose of things. Pooper Trooper double-bags it and leaves it in our trashcan, and others from my understanding haul it away.

Schmid: There’s a lot to know about animal waste removal. The Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists, or aPaws, was formed in 2002 to increase the level of awareness in the animal waste industry, and also to raise the level of the public’s awareness of the scooping profession. Deb Levy, president and one of the cofounders of aPaws, gives us an idea as to why professional pooper-scoopers are so important.

Levy: The American Pet Association estimates there are 71 million dogs in the United States, producing over 4.4 billion pounds of waste. They say that is enough to cover 900 football fields with 12 inches of dog waste.

Schmid: With that much waste produced every year, it’s good to know pooper-scoopers can help us out. According to Levy, scooping prices generally range from $9 to $18 a week per dog.

Levy: What goes in must come out. Depending on the size of your yard and how many dogs, and the use of your yard, you do want to keep it picked up on a regular basis.

Schmid: She says it’s important to scoop year-round.

Levy: One lady thought, “You know, I’m going to quit for the winter time, save some money.” She called me back hysterical — she has white carpeting. Dogs don’t look where they walk. They look at your yard and they view it as a toilet.

Schmid: In addition to her duty with aPaws, Deb Levy is owner of Yucko’s, a scooping business in St. Louis. She says that regular scooping is also one way to help monitor your dog’s health.

Levy: You can see a lot in a yard. You can see what they’re eating that they shouldn’t be eating. Sometimes you see different-color crayons, sometimes money. They should have a good, firm stool. And sometimes they get runny, sometimes you see worms in it, you know, lots of things that we can tell the homeowner. And it has saved lives.

Schmid: aPaws, the only association of pooper-scoopers in the country according to Levy, holds its 5th-annual conference this month.

Levy: Scoopers gather together along with other people in the pet industry. This year we’ll be in Atlanta, Georgia, January 25th-27th. We have different speakers; we talk about different topics, things to help us in the industry. And we have a “turd-herding” contest. The turd-herding contest is to see who’s the fastest turd herder. Each scooper has a different technique. Some actually will pick up by hand, then we have the different tools that are available out there. Some people are rake, and some people are shovel. It’s an ongoing thing between scoopers saying “this works better,” “no, this works better.” So we put it to the challenge.

Schmid: For those of you who clean up after your dogs yourselves, Poopie Puppies’ Phil Wade says using a common kitchen product on your scooping tool of choice can make your backyard chores easier to handle.

Wade: I like to use baking spray on it. It helps with cleanup, and the waste product will slide off a little bit easier.

Schmid: Sam Johnson of Denver’s Pet Scoop Services says certain scooping tools can make the job easier.

Johnson: There are probably 100 different kinds of products out on the market. A lot of people just use a shovel and a bucket — whatever works best for them is great. We make our own scoops, and it’s based on some of the other designs out there. I recommend a two-piece pan and a scraper. That is the easiest. Schmid: you don’t have to get close to the waste; it’s the most efficient way to clean up your backyard. And then just bag it real good, and depending on your local area ordinances, that’ll determine how you dispose of it.

Schmid: Johnson had one customer whose dog may’ve disposed of more than just its waste in the backyard.

Johnson: I had a client come out and say that she was missing a $100 bill one time. She was wondering if we could kind of keep an eye on the waste because she thought her dog may have eaten that $100 bill. We never did find that $100 bill.

Schmid: Poopie Puppies’ Phil Wade says his job isn’t all about the cleanup — it’s also about the dogs themselves.

Wade: I do have one dog that just loves to play fetch. I can’t even get out of my truck because he’s up there wanting to play. I probably spend about 30 minutes in that yard just playing fetch with him.

Schmid: Throw us a bone! If you have comments about this ep-poo-sode and would like to share them with other listeners, visit angieslistpodcasts.com and click the “Comments” button next to the episode’s title. You can also find links to the companies and organizations mentioned.

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to List-en!