Comments on Advance Indiana™: Class Action Lawsuit Exposes Angie's List As A High-Tech Protection Racket

As a paying service provider on Angie's List I...

2015-05-23T19:28:44.201-05:00

As a paying service provider on Angie's List I can testify to the fact that the more a service provider pays, the more exposure you get, and the more positive reviews you will get magically posted. When I started advertising on A's list in 2008, I paid $47 mthly. Today, for the exact same service areas, exact same advertising content, exact same everything, they extort over $2000.00 mthly from my company. They say that it's because of the growth in the member base. This year they want $7083.00 mthly for the same as I've always had. I am categorically the highest rated company by leaps and bounds over 2nd place, yet i always place in the lower 1/3 of the page of paid advertisers behind several big spending new comers to A's List that have 3 times the amount of reviews as we do that they accumulated in less than 1 1/2 years. They are high priced extortionists. I hope they go down!

Wow, didn't know Maurer was on Angie's boa...

2015-03-23T19:53:32.494-05:00

Wow, didn't know Maurer was on Angie's board. Interesting how there is still no mention of this lawsuit in the Ibj. Even the Star for posted an article today.

Great post Gary! Considering the scumbags in charg...

2015-03-23T19:50:02.003-05:00

Great post Gary! Considering the scumbags in charge of this worthless company these accusations didn't surprise me at all. The ship is going down folks. I feel bad for the many people who work for Angies who don't see what's coming. I really hope this isn't another Enron where staff is continuously duped into plowing money into company stock. Anyone out there think we will see Angies execs on an episode of American Greed in a few years?

Not publishing this suit is a horrible violation o...

2015-03-23T08:22:26.885-05:00

Not publishing this suit is a horrible violation of the journalistic code of ethics and a deliberate suppression of news.

Nothing new for dumb Indianapolis. If you go to another part of the state, you'll learn more about what occurs in Indiana government than you will from the Indianapolis media.

Your'e probably correct, anon. 7:22. The IBJ j...

2015-03-23T07:36:02.210-05:00

Your'e probably correct, anon. 7:22. The IBJ just sent out its 8 news pick stories for the day. There's no mention of the class action lawsuit. I would like to personally hear IBJ Publisher Mickey Maurer's response to this lawsuit, particularly since he's a member of Angie's List's board of directors.

Poor Angie's List. This case was filed outside...

2015-03-23T07:31:34.558-05:00

Poor Angie's List. This case was filed outside the Southern District of Indiana and within a train ride of New York City, so Angie's List is outside its home protection network.

I doubt Barnes & Thornburg means much to Philly.

Let me guess our worthless local news media will s...

2015-03-23T07:22:27.165-05:00

Let me guess our worthless local news media will suppress this story just like Angie's List suppresses negative reviews of dues-paying service providers at least until after the council approves its $18.5 million taxypayer giveaway?

Another sorry angle about the foul and corrupt Ang...

2015-03-23T07:05:29.781-05:00

Another sorry angle about the foul and corrupt Angie's List deal is that liberal Democrat and establishment Republicans brag about their super-hero ability to "save jobs" (good luck with that) but are completely silent about Angie's List's economic harm and damage done to consumers like Janell Moore, the apparently unaddressed real complaints of ratings prejudice toward subscribing contractors by members like Anon 6:37, and the inability to effectively combat online/internet companies offering the same service for FREE and advertising as thus as does HomeAdvisor.com (go look, it's true).

And yet we have Earth's most ignorant Councilors bragging that their
Tax Dollar Give Away...just like their votes for digital billboards... are justified.

Any Councilor voting for Angie's List broadcasts his or her complete corruption to the monied corporatists. No matter what side of their face they speak.

As a member of several years, I attest to the vali...

2015-03-23T06:37:49.371-05:00

As a member of several years, I attest to the validity of the lawsuit. I complained for the same behavior...

The City should NOT invest TAX MONEY in this scheme!

This is more damning news for our corrupt City Cou...

2015-03-23T06:31:37.359-05:00

This is more damning news for our corrupt City County Councilors favoring yet another give-away to Ponzi-scheme-like Angie's List under the phony guise of "saving jobs". Can our Councilors actually be so crushingly
ignorant when it comes to municipal Economics as it really is and not as they want it to be? Could it be that we elected so many Councilors who are outright plain Just Stupid?

With Advance Indiana's presentation of yet more facts underpinning the reality that Angie's List can only exist by shaking down contractors, by stealth extensions for "subscriptions about nothing", and through recurrent injections of taxpayer dollars by Councilors damned stupid enough to buy into that "it's worth it for the jobs" excuse used long ago by the super-stupid Angie's List supporter and now ex-Councilor Angel Rivera. What we are seeing is the legacy of David Brooks' ability to put Council pawns like his darling Rivera in place; pawns who had to be pre-pumped to support just about any of DB's political games of chess.

Is there some place for all Marion County voters to view easy to read lists of the votes cast by all Councilors on this issue and other proposals rather than dig up the votes Councilor by Councilor? Then we can see just who the fools are, the ones who allege like Zach Adamson their ability to blithely use our hard-earned tax dollars to make money (yes, Zach actually made a statement like that about this deal). And then we can vote against every corrupt one of them. Like that damned digital billboard corruption pushed by Moriarty Adams and Zach Adamson and other Councilors, let us see how these people waste our dollars so we can vote them out next election.

The City streets are again even worse than dodge ball and the neighborhoods decaying faster than week old bread, and these Councilors give cronies more of our tax money to burn.

If it were not for Advance Indiana and Gary's friend Paul, we wouldn't have the information or truth about what is actually going on in this town behind liberal Democrat and establishment Republican closed doors.

Not surprising. You really can't trust "r...

2015-03-22T22:48:20.703-05:00

Not surprising. You really can't trust "reviews" and "ratings" when there's companies out there like Reputation that people can pay to post fake positive content to raise your review ratings on places like Yelp, etc.

Even WRTV's "A-List" is nothing more than a big popularity contest as a business with a large social media presence can "gin up" their customer base and get them to "vote" --- sort of like our elections.

Maybe this explains why Angie's List goes thro...

2015-03-22T22:26:15.240-05:00

Maybe this explains why Angie's List goes through so many CFOs and CIOs.