I used Angies list to find businesses when I moved. Three leakers had great reviews and did miserable work. Angies list is very easy to post good reviews even if you never bought the service.
Two different businesses I bought services from told me how Angie;s List uses high pressure sales on businesses. If a business buys advertising then their business will automatically pop to the top of the search list. One was a cleaning service and the other was a retail flooring company.
Of the 5, three were so bad that I will never use Angie's List again. One is a "computer business". The guy claimed to have 23 years experience and had only 5 star reviews. He claimed to know hardware. The problem with my computer turned out to be hardware. Meanwhile he destroyed the operating system. He replaced with another windows os but didn't have the authentication key for it. So it is useless. He also whined and blamed me for his "work". The reviews on Angie's List are spaced one months apart for oever a year. Come on! That is just plain ridiculous. They are obviously planted.
Another was a "contractor". All 5 star reviews. Nice guy but really inexperienced. He doesn't even know how inexperienced he is. He painted a room without portable lights that professional painters use. Without those lights you just can't see well enough to paint evenly. There are steaks in the paint where he didn't apply it right. And he claims to be a "contractor".
He left 2 open gallon cans on paint on my carpet with no protection from spills. He had another job that "had to be finished" so he had 2 friends come to finish the paint job. The work was amateurish and needed touch ups and clean ups. He is not experienced enough to be honest with a customer. But he has all 5 star reviews on Angie's list.
The third leaker is an "organizing" service. Fantastic description & all great reviews on Angie's list. I hired this guy to help clean and organize my garage. I had a plan. Instead he started pressuring me to give things away -- to him. He even wanted a brand new 7 ft X 9 ft rug. He never did the organzing. He never used my plan. He just kept pointing at things and saying "what are you going to do with that?". He was ripping me off. He has a friend who runs a resale store. He was stocking his friend's store. He has great reviews on Angie's.
When you can buy a high ranking for crappy service a customer is smarter to stay away from Angie's List.