Best and worst 2008

Sue Wiltz Interview:

Twinkle VanWinkle, List-en Up! producer:
Why was the “Best & Worst” from the List started last year and why did Angie’s List choose to make it an annual report?

Sue Wiltz:
Well, first of all we receive lots and lots of reports — thousands of reports — every year. Many of them highlight extremely awesome experiences, or highlight a really bad or horrible experience with a contractor. Because of this we decided that a special issue devoted to this topic was something that made sense for Angie’s List Magazine. We started our first issue last year. Interestingly enough, it’s hard sometimes to measure what people like and don’t like. Our e-ditions were able to track open rates and click-throughs. We know from tracking the folks who opened and read those stories this was the most popular issue we had last year in terms of people turning to and reading about this topic. Anecdotally, when we started receiving a lot of feedback on the issue — which we did get a lot of letters also — we had a lot of people who liked the issue but they wanted to see more local coverage, more contractors profiled in their backyard. So this time we got a lot more ambitious: We have profiled best and worst contractors on a national level and best and worst contractors in more than 60 cities around the country also. We are trying to bring as much local information about good and bad contractors to our members. I do believe we will be doing this on an annual basis.

The reason Angie’s List exists is to help members find good contractors and steer clear of bad contractors. That’s why we have both Pages of Happiness nominations — people sharing their good experiences. We also have a complaint resolution area where people can get help with situations where they have had a bad experience with a contractor.

TVW:
What does Angie’s List want to accomplish by publishing Best/Worst?

SW:
I think that our mission as a company and as far as this special issue goes is to highlight and help members find the best and steer clear of the worst contractors.

TVW:
What can people do to get their favorite service companies recognized?

SW:
Essentially the best way to get your favorite service provider recognized, is when you submit a report about your experience and if you like them you will give them all “A’s.” When you do this you will be prompted to recommend this person for the Pages of Happiness for Angie’s List Magazine. You can nominate your favorite providers, give them a Pages of Happiness nomination, and when they receive enough, they can be selected to be profiled in the magazine.

We encourage people to share their positive experiences. Nobody but members can submit contractors for the Pages of Happiness. Currently, those reports are nominated by members only.

TVW:
Angie’s List is a source for homeowners to find reputable contractors. In the case of A1 Construction of Chicagoland, the company was in good standing with the List until May 2008 when a string of negative reports, plus a suit filed by the Illinois attorney general, brought the company to a spot on the List’s “Worst.” Can you speak to the importance of members remembering to report not only the good, but also the “bad and the ugly”?

SW:
Oftentimes, we have actually come across this in several cases this year both on our national best contractors as well as worst contractors and on our local list. Contractors may have a really good rating on the List for years, they may be an advertiser and then suddenly they run into trouble, so if you don’t check the List right before you hire and you go off of old information or you go off a neighbor’s word of mouth about an experience they had a couple of years ago you may not have the most current information. Angie’s List always recommends that you always check the List before you hire because grades do change.

In the case of A-1, they were a highly rated contractor until middle of this year when obviously something started to go very wrong and they got several  “F” reports right in a row. It’s usually the case of a business running into financial trouble and getting in over their head. We often find that. I don’t know the precise example of what happened to A-1, but from the reporting that sounds like what might have happened with them.

So check the List before you hire each and every time.

TVW:
Is there anything you would like to add?

SW:
Each and every contractor that was selected for the Best Contractor of 2008 at a minimum qualified for the Angie’s List Super Service Award. To begin with it is a very prestigious award. It’s only given to about 5 percent of the contractors on the List. That’s to start off with. The best contractors had to at least get that designation or be eligible for it and even then they had to have a higher grade. It’s a complicated formula figuring out all the “A’s,” and whether a “B” factors in there or not. Essentially these contractors could not even have a “B.” We looked at their Pages of Happiness nominations and how enthusiastic our members were about their experiences with these contractors primarily as a tiebreaker. All of our contractors on our best list had to have at least two Pages of Happiness nominations. So these truly are the very best that are on the List for 2008.

Our criteria is not exactly the same for the worst contractors. We obviously take a really close look at our “F” rated contractors on the List as well as if they landed in the Penalty Box. In some cases we had contractors that landed in the Penalty Box two, three or four times. But in addition we looked at court records. Are they facing or have they been convicted of criminal or civil charges? Had their licenses been revoked? Are they in good standing with attorney generals’ offices? We looked at contractor reports across the country, so we not only took service providers on the List; we also looked at other indicators. Whether they had a lot of complaints with consumers and members alike. So not every single one of our contractors came off of Angie’s List. Some of them did, but we wanted to make this go beyond the List to make sure that we were finding the very worst out there. We judged them by both the volumes and the seriousness of the allegations that customers say they experienced with these contractors.

This project is the most labor-intensive project our magazine has ever undertaken. Last year we did do coverage and we did a national list and local list where we did profile best and worse in about 11 markets. But we certainly took on a lot more than we anticipated when we decided we were going to profile best and worst local in more than 60 cities. We started working on this project in July, if not before, so this is the culmination of six months work.

We really wanted to tackle this issue and give it the kind of attention we think it deserves because it is a serious topic, it’s one that is very relevant to our members — they care about contractors on the List. They want to steer clear of the worst and hire only the best and we want to be able to help them do that.

Twinkle VanWinkle, producer of List-en Up!:
What is your name and location?

Elizabeth Cowlishaw:
My name is Elizabeth Cowlishaw; I live in Long Beach, Calif.

TVW: How did you hear about Angie’s List?

EC: I don’t really remember how I first heard about it. Maybe I bumped into it on the Internet. I know various people I knew were talking about it as a good source.

TVW: You haven’t been a member very long have you?

EC: No, I haven’t. I joined after I had had a few unfortunate experiences with contractors. I still have a lot of work that needs to be done to put my home together, so I thought I needed to go with a source where I could find out something about the contractors and read about other people’s experiences with them. Get some recommendations from them that were different than the type I had been getting.

TVW: Have you had any good experiences?

EC: So far I haven’t, but I haven’t used anyone on Angie’s list yet.

TVW: Why did you come to the List?

EC: This is why I came to the List: The husband of a colleague whom she talked about at work all the time as a high-end contractor — it first started out when I bought my condo — one bath one bedroom condo. He was supposed to do some painting, finishing some walls and refinishing the floors. Then the job just grew from there. He had beautiful pictures of work he had done or been involved with. She talked about his work all the time. I felt really confident and really lucky that he suddenly became available. It turned basically into a bathroom renovation, a kitchen renovation, and yard work. In the end, he basically collected a lot of money without one thing remotely finished. I had a bathroom torn down to the studs, a kitchen with a little bit of the plywood replaced, electrical hanging out of my walls. Still working on putting things back together.
After that I ran into a decorator at a kitchen store and we were working on getting a bathroom in where I would at least have somewhere to bathe in my home. She recommended her cousin.  By the way ¬¬–– the other guy turned out to be not even licensed. Anyway, the second guy had a license. His people did mostly put my bathroom together, but I had to keep speaking up about things all during the process. For example, my bathtub was put in backwards and when I mentioned it to the site foreman he said I had bought the wrong kind of bathtub. Finally I spoke to the owner who rarely came around because he used the site manager approach. He came down and they ended up taking my bathtub out and putting in back in facing the right direction. In addition to that, there were a lot of tile issues. Including using my things to clean up, my linens to wipe things up and then they would disappear. And in the end they left me with small things that weren’t finished. I have to get someone to finish them. Then my sink started falling off the wall in the bathroom and they wouldn’t come back and fix it after many contacts. I have never gotten a closed invoice from them. They charged me quite a lot for some things I thought — like $1,200 for a door you could get at Home Depot for $200 – was a bit of a mark up. So anyway I still have things to follow through with that one, too.
In the meantime I still need a kitchen and just about everything else. I don’t have a bathroom sink I just ended up having it taken it off the wall by another plumber until I can get it fixed. That’s where things stand.  Those were my experiences so far. I’ve contacted some people (off) Angie’s List. Someone’s coming out today. They called me right back.
I really appreciated reading about other people’s experiences with various service providers. And another thing I really appreciated seeing was ballpark amounts that they spent on things that people listed. And there was pretty good details. One thing I did find out — that first guy that ended up taking about $52,000 and I got nothing but a torn up home, other people got well finished work for much less than that. Anyway I’m hoping for better things in the future.

TVW: So are you using Angie’s List to help you make decisions now?

EC: Yes I am! Several actually got right back to me when I contacted them.

_________

Twinkle VanWinkle, producer of List-en Up!:
Can you just first off, tell me your name and where you live?

Gunnar Gufstafson:
My name is Gunnar Gufstafson and I live in Austin, Texas.

TVW: How did you hear about Angie’s List?

GG: I was doing some research to try and find a dentist and some people to work on my house and I ran across it on an Internet search.

TVW: How long have you been a member?

GG: For just about a year now.

TVW: Have you used Angie’s List much?

GG: Not too much. Just somebody to fix my washing machine and looked at having some flooring done, so got some good contacts through that.

TVW: Is there a good experience you can share that you have had with a service provider?

GG: Yes. There is one person who came to fix my washer and even though he couldn’t fix it, he showed up when he said he was going to. Also, he didn’t charge me anything and even gave me a reference for somebody who might be able to fix it. That was a pretty good experience, even though I didn’t get my washing machine fixed.

TVW: How about a worst experience?

GG: No, not really. I think partly because I’ve used Angie’s List I’ve been able to prevent that from happening. I looked at other services to look at who have complaints. I’ve had good service so far; I haven’t had a real bad experience.

TVW: So you do check the List for service providers before you hire somebody?

GG: Yeah, I like to try to get somebody who has at least “B” or “A” ratings, and then somebody who has at least three or four people that have commented on them because sometimes if you get one or two it is hard to make a decision on that.

TVW: Anything else you would like to say about Angie’s List?

GG: When I first joined I was a little reluctant to pay money, I thought this should be a free service. The people I worked with on that were very nice and said well if you don’t get value out of it you can get your money back. I really have gotten great value out of it and I am pretty impressed with the quality of the service and how they keep pure comments in there instead of letting anybody put any kind of comment. It seems rather realistic for lack of a better word.

Twinkle VanWinkle, producer of List-en Up!:
Can I get you to state your name and location?

Salena Sanford: Sure, of course. My name is Salena Sanford, and my Angie’s List chapter is Portland, Ore.

TVW: Well, first off, how did you hear about Angie’s List?

SS: Well, my neighbors up the street. They have been members a couple of years, and both of us do a lot of remodeling, working on our homes. She told me about it. I had never heard of it before.

TVW: How long have you been a member?

SS: Oh, a little over a year.

TVW: Why did you become a member? Did you have a good experience or a bad experience?

SS: I’ve had both experiences just getting referrals on my own from friends and neighbors and people I’ve worked with. I’ve always gone out and gotten bids when I needed to have work done, but you still never know until you have someone to come in and do the work for you. My neighbor Cecilia knows that we are always working on our house, updating and stuff, and it sounded like a really good resource so my husband and I looked into it. I read some of the reviews some people had done and it seemed pretty useful, and more useful than websites that aren’t really administered by anybody. What I liked about Angie’s List is that it seems to be moderated and I think that you get a more balanced review of the service providers that are listed in it.

TVW: What is your best experience with a service provider?

SS: I would say my best was with a carpet cleaning company that also does repairs. We had some carpet installed by a company quite sometime ago, and the carpet just really didn’t hold up like we expected. The installation should have lasted better. Carpet Surgeon came in after the other contractor installed the carpet. They fixed all the buckling all the loose seams, and they cleaned the carpet. They even gave me $100 off the whole job because there was one little stain they couldn’t quite get out. It wasn’t even a big deal. They didn’t want to charge me the full price. But they still did a great job and the carpet looks great. I’ve always used them ever since. They are just really honest.

TVW: So what are some qualities you look for in a service provider?

SS: When I look through reports honesty is very important to me and whether they bid out a job fairly and accurately. I want to know that they come out when you call them, that they show up for the job when they agree to show up for the job and they don’t reschedule on you. I want to make sure they have completed the job, especially something that is done over time like reroofing. It’s important that they come back and finish the job in a timely matter. They don’t just leave you and come back a month later. Also, [I look for signs] that they are not over charging, that the prices are fair to the area you are in. Sometimes I can get that info from a report. You don’t always get that, but that is what I look for in a service provider.

TVW: Do you have a worst experience with a service provider?

SS: Yes, unfortunately I do. It didn’t come out too badly but I did have to go without some plumbing for a while. It was just for a Roman tub, not something really vital. I had this company come out who shall remain nameless; I’ve done a report on them. They were just coming out to bid on the job. I wanted to replace the spout on my Jacuzzi, going from brass to chrome. That’s all it was. I was looking at a lot of different options; either putting in a new spout or maybe having the one I had replated and putting it back in. The guy came out and took off the old spout. The bottom line was that he said he wouldn’t put back the spout unless he changed out all the plumbing. He said that I would have to change all the plumbing underneath, so what was a $150 job turned into a $1,500 job. All of the sudden the job went to 10 times more than I expected, which is fine because it was just a bid, but, he had taken off my spout and he wouldn’t put it back on, because he said it was an old one and it could leak or something. I had discussed the option of having it replated, because there is a company here in Portland that does that. He said, “Oh no, no. That’s not a good option and I won’t do that because I am a quality plumber.”  I said OK, and that I would take his option – although he was only leaving me one option, the $1,500 one – and said I’ll get back to you.
In the meantime, I called up our realtor who had another plumber that he has worked with that has done great jobs in the past. Checking Angie’s List, the guy is one of your top-rated plumbers for the Portland area. In fact he is one of your best providers. So I had Pipeline Plumbing come in. They came out and bid the job and they said they could put in the old piece no problem, and if I wanted it replated they could do that and put it in as well. So it ended up being $200 – so $150 for the plumbing and a little bit more for the replating.  That was what I was expecting to pay. Unfortunately, when I wrote my report on the guy who was giving me such problems, he was saying I must have just hired a handyman, some incompetent know-nothing to put in my plumbing work. I’ve never done that. It’s important to me that I use licensed service providers. Anyway, they were full of very sour grapes. In the end it all worked out because I did find someone else who did do a great job. But that was an example where he really overbid the job, and not only that he really left me with no option — he was trying to back me into a corner. Not having my spout on my tub anymore, I couldn’t use my tub. Somebody else might have thought they didn’t have an option. They would have had to do what he wanted them to do. I know that’s highly unethical, but it happens sometimes. What can you do? What I did was write my report on him and hopefully that will be a guide to someone else.

TVW:
Do you think Angie’s List is a valuable service, especially since your experiences?

SS:
I definitely do. I’ve been remodeling for years and years. I do a lot of my own work in fact. I probably have more knowledge of remodeling and of how to do work. I do my own painting, some pretty extensive stuff – painting of a number of different surfaces in a house. I can do electrical wiring. I can do some minor plumbing. I can do some carpentry; I do my own gardening and landscaping. So I can judge a lot a better than some people the scope of a job or the cost of a job. I don’t think everybody knows that, they don’t always have the skills. So if you don’t know that or know what questions to ask, or know what to gauge a bid for a job, I think its very important if people really read the reports because it may bring up things you never thought of to consider. Maybe like with a reroofing job, you want to make sure they are going to agree to make sure they get the job done within a certain time frame. You want to make sure they get the job done because if they walk away from the job for a couple of weeks you could have a major rainstorm. Here in Portland we are very sensitive to that, but if you live in Arizona you may not think about that until you get some monsoonal rain come through and you have an open roof. I do think that when you have reports that are written by people that are specific, don’t get personal, but talk about the scope of the job, talk about specifics, it helps a lot. You don’t always know what you are getting into ahead of time with a job. It just always helps to get other people’s experiences and to know things you might not have even thought of.

DTV transition

Phone Interview on Dec. 9, 2008, between Jeremy Stacy, podcast associate producer for Angie’s List “List-en Up!” and Megan Pollock, senior manager for the Consumer Electronics Association.

Jeremy Stacy:  Please give me your name, position and who you work for.

Megan Pollock: My name is Megan Pollock and I’m the spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association.

JS: What does the CEA do?

MP: We are a trade association that represents about 2,200 member companies and our mission is to advance consumer electronics so that consumers know more about them, that products are readily available and able to get in this country and be sold in this country. We do a lot of work up on Capitol Hill to make sure that our products don’t have some sort of crazy regulations attached to them. We also host the International CES, which is held in Las Vegas every year.

JS: Tell me about the DTV transition. What is it, when is it and who will it affect?

MP: The DTV transition is happening on Feb. 17, 2009. On that date, Congress mandated that all analog broadcast signals would be shut off and from that point forward, all over-the-air broadcast signals would be digital. While that sounds very technical, what it means for the basic consumer is if you watch TV with rabbit ears, you need to make sure you have something that can read the digital signal. Whether that be a new digital television or if you have an old analog television, you’re using a converter box that can read the new signals.

The people who don’t need to worry, which is a much larger percentage, about 91 percent, are the ones who have already purchased a digital television, have cable or satellite or some other paid TV subscription like Fios.

JS:  So, 9 percent of the population still needs to prepare for the digital conversion? Is this higher or lower than you expected at this point?

MP: It’s lower than any month we’ve seen previously. This is a number that continues to change because people are becoming prepared.

JS: From your perspective, how has the transition process been going?

MP: It’s been a really smooth process. What we’ve been watching is the fact that to get a box, what you can do is apply for a $40 coupon from the government. That started at the beginning of 2008 so we’ve really watched how that process has happened and on Nov. 10 we hit our 100-day-out mark for the transition and we’ve really seen a greater spike in consumers applying for the coupon, which is exactly what we expected. You sort of expect a bell curve that in a year out, so February 2008, people were thinking about it, some people did it, but then as you get closer more and more people are going to make the switch and start adopting. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing. We think the transition has gone very smoothly.

JS: Where can people get the coupons?

MP: The best place to get the coupon is at the government website, DTV2009.gov. It’s really easy to go on and apply for it. You get two per household and they basically look like gift cards so most people are very familiar with how to use these. The website also has a couple other interesting features. One, you can type in your zip code and it will tell you retailers in your area where you can get a converter box.

JS: What about those who don’t have Internet access?

MP: You can dial 1-888-DTV-2009 and all the same information is available and you can apply for a coupon over the phone.

JS: Have there been any problems with people being able to get the coupons?

MP: Early on, one of the problems was because [coupon qualification was determined] by the census numbers and you have to have a unique address. So say two families live in one apartment that has one address; you are going to only be able to receive one [set of coupons].

The big problem we ran into early on, which has been resolved, was, say you were in a nursing home and that has one basic front door — there’s one address for that complex, but everyone has a room. So they may have an address, but then they’re in room A, B or C. The rules have since been revised so anyone who fell in that category are now eligible for coupons.

There is still plenty of time to get the coupons, so if you thought your weren’t eligible to receive a coupon because of those rules, they’ve since been revised.

JS: When is the deadline to get the coupons?

MP: The end of March. There are always going to be those people who wake up the day after the transition and think, “I should have done it.”  You can still go on at that point and apply for a coupon and make the transition.

The good thing for consumers to realize is that you don’t have to have a coupon to get a box. They just won’t get $40 off. And it’s not pro-rated so you can’t go back later and apply for the coupon.

JS: What are some common misconceptions people have about the transition?

MP: The biggest misconception right now is that you need to wait. In actuality, digital is here now. If you go out and buy a convert box today, you can receive a plethora of new digital stations right now. What’s happening on Feb. 17 is the end of analog. So if you went out and got your coupon and got your converter box and set it up in your home today, you would begin receiving digital, over-the-air- stations. That’s great because then consumers are already prepared versus waiting until the 17th, plugging it in and realizing, “Oh, I didn’t get the box I wanted” or “I don’t actually know how to do this,” or run into any problems when it’s too late.

One of the other pieces that’s important for consumers to realize is all the things that still work. A lot of people still have an old analog TV hooked up to a game console or a DVD player or a VCR. All of those devices will still work. If you have a closed system — like if you just have a DVD player hooked up to your old TV — you don’t even have to worry about a converter box. If you’re not watching TV on that set, [there’s] nothing to worry about. If you have a VCR and you do want to continue watching, you can still do that with a converter box. You just need to make sure the converter box is plugged in right after your antenna and that the VCR is plugged into the converter box and then into the TV.

JS: Are there any websites that can instruct people on how to set up their converter box?

MP: We have a website, dtvtransition.org. There’s a very basic, step-by-step guide on how to hook up a converter box. It really is a simple process. The website also has a quiz to learn if you are impacted.

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Phone Interview Dec. 8, 2008, between Jeremy Stacy, podcast associate producer for Angie’s List “List-en Up!” and Rex Ableman, owner and operator of Ableman TV and Electronic Service of Vancouver, Wash.

Jeremy Stacy: For the record, please give me your name and what you do.

Rex Ableman: Rex Ableman, Ableman TV and Electronic Service. Mostly we service consumer electronics.

JS: What problems are you seeing with the digital transition?

RA: Getting people to understand that they’re going to be using these [converter] boxes with antennas [and] that they’re going to be fine if they’re using satellite or cable. It’s really just an issue for people wanting free TV. And getting them to understand that they get more with free TV than they ever did before.

JS: When should consumers make the transition?

RA: They should get the converter box as soon as possible or buy a new TV as soon as possible so they’re ready when that happens on Feb. 17.

JS: Are there any special problems people who are prepared for the transition could face on Feb. 17?

RA: In our area [Portland, Ore.], when stations first started broadcasting digitally, they were also broadcasting analog. What they had was a separate transmission that was digital and that transmission was in a different space than the analog transmission. Say a television station was broadcasting on channel 8. That could actually be UHF channel 46 where the digital channel is coming in right now.

On Feb. 17, they’re going to stop transmitting the analog signal. That’s going to free up space and they can move that channel 46 UHF back to channel 8. If you’re aiming an antenna right now and trying to pick up UHF channel 46, it may be different in a couple of months when everyone settles into where they’re going to stay. You may find that you have to re-aim the antenna again and for sure everyone is going to need to know how to reprogram their converter boxes so that it again looks at where the channels are and puts them in the list for the box.

JS: Can consumers reprogram the convert box themselves?

RA: Everyone can do it themselves. The whole purpose is that when they first get the box and they turn it on, that box knows pretty much nothing. It’s going to be connected to an antenna and it’s going to look around and it’s going to see where all these stations are. It’s going to put it into its own internal memory and it’s going to keep that memory until you change it. That’s why it’s important to let the converter box channel scan again once we make the switch.

It may be looking for channel 8 on 46, and when that goes off, the converter box will just say, “No signal.” It needs to look again and say “Oh, it’s moved from channel 46 to channel 8.”

JS: Why should they get their converter boxes early?

RA: So they’re prepared. The next step is for them is figuring out their antenna situation.

JS: What do you do to help them get ready for the transition?

RA: The first thing we do is make sure they’ve signed up to get the $40 coupon from the government — either going online, or by giving them a phone call, I believe that’s 1-888-DTV-2009.

If they need us to, we just go out and connect it to the TV. It’s very, very simple. You can either use a coaxial cable just like you would from an old VCR to an old television set and just screw it on. The preferable way to do this though, if you have the colored plugs on the television set — the yellow, the white and the red — would be to use those connections rather than the coaxial connection.

JS: Why?

RA: It’s going to give better picture and better sound. And some of the boxes do not adjust their volume through the RF (coaxial) connection. Some of them only adjust the volume through the colored plugs. If they don’t have enough [colored plug connections] the can go to any TV shop or Radio Shack and buy a switch box. So if they’re using those colored plugs for say their DVD player and they only have one set, they can buy a switch box, which will cost about $10, and it will allow them to plug both devices into the inputs.

JA:  Do consumers need to buy a whole new antenna if they’re making the switch to digital?

RA: No, they don’t. What they need is a good UHF/VHF antenna. If they look at their antenna and it’s very, very old, but it doesn’t have any broken elements, they’re probably fine. If they see the elements on the antenna that go sideways, but no elements that go up and down, most VHF/UHF antennas are shaped so that it looks like an open mouth at the very front of the antenna in a V shape, up and down. The other elements go side-to-side. The ones that go side-to-side are for VHF and the shorter ones that go up and down at the front, that’s for UHF. It’s important that they have both because digital television will be broadcast on both UHF and VHF.

There’s also something new for these converter boxes called a smart antenna.  There are several manufacturers — RCA, GE and a few others — that have a smart antenna interface. After the coaxial cable goes from the converter box to the antenna, there is something called a smart antenna. It provides another connection that allows the converter box to communicate with a smart antenna and it can adjust itself. Instead of having to get up and down, especially if you live in a place where you have to have rabbit ears, this antenna should be smart enough to pick out the elements it needs to provide best reception without you having to get up and move that antenna all the time.

JS: What do people still watching over-the-air television need to do to make sure they’re not without TV come February?

RA: Make sure they get the coupon, get the box and make sure they have some sort of antenna. For some reason there are a lot of people coming in here and saying, “Well I thought if I buy a converter box, I wouldn’t need an antenna.” That’s not true. Every box needs to have some sort of an aerial to pick up digital TV.

JS: Is it preferable to have your antenna on your roof?

RA: In most cases it is. The higher the antenna goes, the better — usually. But, it’s very hard to predict reception. With rabbit ears, you could have great reception on one end of the room, then you rearrange the furniture and you don’t get any reception at all. It’s just a hit and miss.

JS: Do the digital signals come in differently than the analog ones?

RA: Yes, you can think of analog as going up and down and bouncing off clouds. You can sort of think of digital as being more of a straight line.

JS: So if you live in a valley, the digital signal could have more trouble finding your antenna?

RA: Yes, you could have a lot more trouble. In which case, it’s time for Direct TV.

JS: Anything else you’d like to share?

RA: Yes, if they’re out there trying to get the antenna installed themselves, there’s an incredibly useful website out there called antennaweb.org. They can type in their address here and what it will do is it will show them where these channels are going to come from and approximately what direction they should be aiming their antenna. It’s all down to their local area. It’s an incredible resource for helping you try and get it set up for this.

Another thing is the importance of having an analog pass-through box. When you’re buying a digital converter box you’d like it to have analog pass-through. This isn’t going to be important for people right in town because all the major stations are going to be broadcasting digital, but as you get farther and farther out, some stations are going to repeat their transmissions in analog. They won’t be required to switch to digital until I think 2012.  So if you’re 75 miles out of town, you may still be receiving a station in analog. When you have an analog pass-through box, is it sort of works like a VCR. When you turn the converter box off, it allows the television set to reconnect to the antenna and to use it’s own analog tuner to pick up those stations that are still broadcasting in analog. If you don’t have a pass-through, you would either need some fancy wiring or you would need to disconnect your box from the TV and then reconnect the TV directly to the antenna. That’s why having an analog pass-through box is important.

Two contractors best 2007-2008

CGS Electric, Los Angeles
Claudio Sanchez

PAUL POGUE [interviewer]:
[You were one of last year’s winners. How have things been since last we spoke?]

CLAUDIO SANCHEZ:
This last year has been a tough year, with the economy the way it is. I’ve managed to stay steady, but the daily totals are different, which affects the weekly and monthly totals. It’s really difficult to project how the next week is going to be. For the first time in three months I’m in a real lull. With the election around the corner and the stock market and everything, people are apprehensive about doing work. The only thing I have the upper hand on the other guys is that Angie’s List has just been phenomenal for me. It gives a little insight into what we’re about. And when I say what we’re about, it’s basically me. That gives me another leg up. When I come and do an estimate for a customer, and then I do the work – I may have an assistant with me or another journeyman electrician – I do all the work, so they’re getting 100 percent from me. That’s the beauty of my business. I’m not sending out a bunch of flunkies to do my work for me. That’s one of the biggest complaints, and one of the No. 1 questions: Are you doing the work? Yes, I am. I’m responsible for all the work, and it’s going to get the best attention, to no matter what it may be. I think that’s why I’m so busy still.

I always have an open line of communication with customers. They’re my conduit to future work. They tell their friends. I get work sometimes from people and say, where did you get my number? Because I don’t advertise. Angie’s List is my means of advertising. They’ll say, so and so gave me your number. I try to trace where my work comes form, and it seems like it’s always word of mouth or Angie’s List, and many of my Angie’s List customers have passed on to other customers. I’m doing something right, in following up and always being available to answer questions, whether it’s telephone or e-mail. I’m grateful for the way Angie’s List operates. You can’t cheat the system. There’s no fooling it. You’re either on top of the game and honest and straightforward, and a consistent amount of reports shows that. I couldn’t ask for a better niche to be in.

Customer service is everything, and lighting is everything. When I install lighting in someone’s home, they’ll say, “Wow, what a difference!”

PP:
[A lot of our reports give you serious credit for innovation and getting around tough problems.]

SANCHEZ:
The innovation is 18 years of experience. I’ve been an electrician for 18 years, I started digging trenches and working as a helper and apprentice, and over the years I’ve done a wide variety of electrical, from electrical signs to industrial work, and when I decided to go into my own, after a few solid years of residential work, my wife encouraged me to start my own business, and I wanted to focus on residential. I’ve gotten pretty darn good at it, and I don’t say that with any lack of confidence. I’m good at residential. I focused on what I knew best, how homes are built and how to get into walls and all the tricks, and a lot of it was about trying new things and new tools, learning how to cut into a wall and patch it without having to bring in a drywall contractor. I really try to focus on leaving a home as if I hadn’t been there except for the improvement or installation I just made.

PP:
[They like your honesty and dedication, too.]

SANCHEZ:
It took a few previous employers and talking to other contractors and being open to learning — and learning from mistakes — that got me to this point. No job is perfect, but there are days when everything goes right. I put my energy into trying to do the job right and walking away and making sure the customer is satisfied, and no energy into trying to make a fast buck. I promised myself when I started my business that I wasn’t going to be one of those guys. The contracting industry has very a low bar. There’s a lot of guys with no integrity in their work, they just want a quick buck, and they’re doing it, but they don’t get repeat business. And in tough times like this, guys like that won’t be working. I could make more sitting behind a desk and having 20 electricians, but I’m not a manager. I’m an electrician. I’m me.

It’s all the hands on work I’ve done myself and I’ve gotten really good at it. I’m not out to make a lot of money at this. When I’m done paying my insurance, the rent on my shop, the payments on my truck, I’m not making a great deal of money. But what I am doing is, I’m making some decent money and I’m keeping my customers happy and I’m sleeping really well at night, and I don’t have headaches and chest pains and indigestion like I had when I had 4 or 5 employees working for me. My health is pretty good and I like it that way. I tried to be a big time operator, and it doesn’t work for me. We have another family business, my wife and I. We do okay. Not great, but okay. I like keeping things really simple, and I think that’s where I’m successful. I think by keeping things simple all these years and learning hard lessons, I’ve managed to stay successful and keep my AL reports clean. That’s just being willing to go the extra mile for the customer. There’s always going to be that one customer that you just can’t ever please, and fortunately I haven’t had that issue with any AL customers. People who subscribe to AL, I think have already been burned once, and they’re looking for just good service and quality, and I think I’m providing that.

I owe part of my success to angie’s list by sending me those little gold start and giving me the reports. When you’re having a tough day, week or month, at least for this contractor, I learned to go back and read some reports, read what people said about me. I can say, look, I got 84 straight a reports. I’m doing a darn good job! AL gives that to me. These other contractors don’t have that opportunity, or the chance to have work handed to you. Bottom line is, if people read the report and like what they’ve read and you answer the phone and give a fair price, follow through and keep them happy, you’re going to do fine. Collect a decent check and move on to the next one.

Brandon Jhun’s Painting & Drywall, North Las Vegas, Nev.
Brandon Jhun

PAUL POGUE [interviewer]:
[How are things doing since last year?]

BRANDON JHUN:
It’s not quite as busy as last year, but still pretty good. I’ve still got about 20 guys right now – anywhere between 20 and 24.
I was one of the first ones on Angie’s List when it came to town.

PP:
[This has always been a multigenerational thing for you, hasn’t it?]

JHUN:
My grandfather was in the union, and my father was doing it, and now me. And hopefully my son gets into it eventually. He’s only 4, but he goes out there with me on estimates and weekends. Maybe he’ll get into it in about 15 years!

I can remember being as young as 6 or 7 years old, going out with my dad. We got what was called the labor jobs, cleaning everything and the prep work, and as you got older, that’s when you got to hold a paintbrush and stuff.

What I lived [as a kid], my kids are now doing! It’s stuff I remember doing with my dad. My daughter is 7, my boy just turned 4 in September. [I have two children —} one boy, one girl and two dogs — I’m done.

No. 1 thing, of course, is quality. It goes back to me hiring only guys that I know. There’s a couple of guys I’ve hired with no painting experience at all and I’ll stick them with my lead guys and train them in the way I want things done. That’s the way I grew up with my father. Keep people in the loop. Everything comes back to cleanliness and quality.