A friend and excellent lifelong renovator discovered he was listed and reviewed on a contractor directory website. After years of success, literally thousands of happy customers and a comfortable retirement imminent, he had three reviews on a site he didn’t know existed, one scathing.
It seemed unfair to me, so I emailed to ask the bad review be taken down, but no, I was told, it could not be taken down. However, if my friend contacted the site host, they could explain to him how to mitigate its effects. Did that include buying a listing, I wondered? It felt like blackmail.
The review remains, but as much to remind me that facts published online about anyone, mayors and renovators included, don’t necessarily help you know the truth. There are very good contractors that have run into to very bad customers and no amount of concession would have made them happy and nothing makes them happier than to dump on someone else. On the other hand, there are great reviews online that don’t deserve attention because they are written by the contractor’s best friend or they are paid for.
In other words, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.
