HomeStars.caReviews 194

My out-dated 70's lime green bathroom needed to go, so I called a couple companies and decided to go with City Works. Their quote was fair, and also, I felt very comfortable with the Technicians who came out and took measurements, and gave me different options. The job was completed 3 days prior to their projected completion day, and the finished job is perfect! I am so happy with my new bathroom, and want to recommend City Works to everyone.

I recently had a bad experience with Homestars over a bad experience I had with a company.

I wrote a negative review about a company that had many obvious fake positive reviews.

Homestars demanded I show them proof I was a customer of this company which would obviously void my anonymity and possibly start a lawsuit.

I was forced to refuse and they would not publish my negative review.

Is this how a company should handle negative reviews.

Do they do this with positive reviews of course not because nobody objects.

I think Homestars has it wrong and should fix their policy.

They even have an option to choose anonymity

I bought a Lennox EL16XC from Mersay Heating and Cooling. The salesman told me it was large, but should have made me aware that it was too large for the area it was going into. I told them it was unacceptable and was then told it could be changed for the EL XC13, which I agreed to and was told that they have one in stock. After taking out the old unit and them installing new coolant, I noticed that the new air conditioner was the Merit series 13ACX. Not something I wanted. Had they made we aware of this I would have cancelled the order. The model I wanted was on back order and could take anywhere from 3 to 10 weeks to get. So I had to settle for the Merit Series. Suffice to say that I am disappointed with my experience with Mersey.

Albert Elliott

Response to complaint posted by Homestars

This complaint is absolutely preposterous!

Homestars, you did not do your due diligence.

Did you request to see proof of payment or an existing contract between these "so-called" customers?

Certainly not, since no deposit was ever made to me or my company and I do not see any paperwork to support this claim.

Besides, the high temperature on March 25,2019 was 0 degrees and the low was -4 degrees. I can guarantee you that we did not do any digging that day. The ground is still frozen with these temperatures.

I have been in this business since 1998 and I can assure you that we are an honest company and we finish the work that is contracted to us. Every project is put on contract, which also protects us and the consumer buying services from us. We would not be operating today if we behaved that way.

Like any existing business, I had to fire people who worked for me in the past. Some of those people, among them my own brother, would love to see our company fail, since they harbour a grudge against us and will stop at nothing to hurt our reputation.

I can certainly provide good references from previous customers and I am asking HomeStars to do their due diligence in the future. Failure to do so may lead to legal repercussions.

Sincerely,

Owner of Mega InterlocKing.

We didn't think of hiring painters at first because we thought we could do the job ourselves. After hiring Wagg's, we're so glad we didn't do the job ourselves. Wagg's painters did an incredibly professional job. The result was magazine-worthy. They did everything from help select colours and paint-types to clean up.
They were also incredibly fast. If we had chosen to do it ourselves, it would have taken us weeks and we would have never been able to do the job as well as they did.
They also brought an impressive amount of materials, tools and equipment for the job. And we didn't give them an easy task. They had to do ceilings and walls, at times over stairways. They simply did it, efficiently, quickly and professionally.
The last thing we worried about was the price. But, taking into account the equipment and hours it would have taken us, they were very reasonably priced. Definitely a worth-while purchase. So much so that we hired them again for another painting job, decided to do this review and will hire them again for another job.
If you are considering painting an area of your home, we would highly recommend this team. Save yourself the headaches, the time and the mistakes and get this team do a very professional job
John T. And Grace S.

I've been working with HomeStars for many years, and have been very happy with their customer service, and their ability to direct my company to be even more responsive to our clients. A very effective consumer protection site that oversees ALL companies that do work in homes. Gone are the days that an unscrupulous contractor can come into your home, and fail to do the work promised, or provide the service expected by the homeowner. Our company has thrived using HomeStars as a way to show potential customers what our past customers think of our Stain Protection, and customer service. Our account manager, Jameela Baird, is extremely professional, highly responsive, and always helpful in getting the right answers to make our Profile as consumer oriented as possible. I would suggest, however, the company add a category - or a subcategory - for Fabric Protection/Stain Prevention as almost ALL cleaning companies provide Fabric Protection as a large part of their services. This is a multimillion dollar industry that may be as big as cleaning, and in some niches, much bigger. Possibly a great way for HomeStars to add more companies that wish to be associated with their services!
I would strongly suggest to all homeowners that they use HomeStars, and look up the contractor, or company they plan to use before making a decision. Moreover, homeowners can also use the HomeStars site to get multiple companies to bid for their services. Don't gamble with the companies you bring into your home, trust HomeStars to provide you with the best service, for the most competitive price!

ONE OF THE WORST COMPANIES WE'VE HAD TO DEAL WITH!

Our reno company signed up with HomeStars services 2 years ago. When we signed up, they were extremely quick in taking our money. Fast forward 2 years later when we called in to cancel our subscription, HomeStars has been very unprofessional. We called in 3 months ago to cancel, and over and over again, we keep getting the same BS from their side. We literally spoke to a dozen representatives and managers, promising they would be taking care of the matter, but after 3 months, they are still charging our company credit card.

Today we had to resort to calling the VISA dispute department to file a case. It is beyond my hands now so we'll have to wait and see what happens from here.

ATTENTION TO THE PUBLIC: PLEASE BECAREFUL USING HOMESTARS AS A SERVICE. WE DON'T WANT THE SAME THING TO HAPPEN TO OTHERS OUT THERE.

---------------------------------
UPDATE:
HomeStars refunded the latest payment they charged us for, after VISA Dispute Department got in touch with them.

They present their website as a place for people to leave comments and rate contractors, but what people don't understand is they completely manipulate those ratings by deleting negative reviews for their subscribers, and would you believe even deleting POSITIVE reviews of contractors who DONT SUBSCRIBE TO THEIR SERVICE! So they will call you harassing you to pay the $450 a month to be "verified" and if you don't they start harassing customers who left positive reviews on your company to email them invoices and pictures to prove that they did work for you. Avoid this website and trust google reviews only, if anything.

Im using HomeStars for last 8 months... we have 11 reviews 10stars, my score is 97%... a small job Less that CAD2000. 00.

I spent over Cad1500. 0 alredy, abd got a job less tgat 2000. 00.

In kijiji or letgo, I had spend 16.00 montly, and got tons of clients... in my google business same... im my website I had got minimum 5 clients week...

I still trying Homestars, and I will give a last chance... but 197.00 monthly and get nothing back? Doesn't make any sense

I run a small snow removal company, they called saying they had several leads in our area but since they just launched here they didn't have any other companies on their site to give them to. My partner had heard of Homestars in Toronto and had heard good things so decided to give it a go. None of the leads we got were from before we signed up, we got very few in general and only one that we were actually able to take on. We've been trying to cancel for weeks and all they do is bounce us around from person to person and don't do anything. The also just charged us for another month when we have clearly wanted to cancel our membership.

For a company that is specifically made to help customers find good companies to work with, it's ironic how terrible of a company they are.

Jason from Ambitech home comfort was great, five stars all the way!. Had him replace my furnace and a/c recently as both went on me. Was recommended from a friend of a friend. He came out right away and took care of us, replacing both units at a great price. My wife and I liked the fact that he returned phones that were made to him( not chasing) and that he was very helpful. Would highly recommend Jason to install anything that is needed. Thanks again.

I started a small company. Joined Homestars on the promise of referrals. What a joke! You cannot get any referrals until you have had reviews!
Once I learnt that, I tried repeatedly to cancel. All I kept getting is that you are locked in for one year! As far as I am concerned, for a company that is all about "customer service", their ability to understand and assist the people that pay them is less than zero!

Buyer beware when using Homestars. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. The credentials contractors provide on HomeStars is NOT 100% ACCURATE. Contractors said to be Better Business Bureau accreddited ARE NOT ALL BBB members. HomeStars also knowingly keeps up contractor posts for companies that are fraudulent. One company in particular has been sued by several national banks and home owners, and has fled. His company website has been removed, his company registration has been revoked and removed, he fled his leased home and took his leased truck. Several people have posted about this individual, and HomeStars has made an effort to REMOVE those posts WARNING OTHERS not to get ripped off by this guy. All of my posts also warning others were removed and I was 'reminded of HomeStars stringent and honest and holier than though guidelines' when posting. They also state confidentiality reasons in preventing users from contacting each other in hopes of coordinating efforts to sue the jerk who ran off with all our money, to PROTECT the 'criminal' err I mean the contractor and other users and their identity. I'm sure they'll come back with a bunch of stuff about how I tried to post my email so the other person could contact me or how I basically said that the guy did not finish our project, never took out a permit, had us unknowingly sign a fake contract, and then took off with an unsafe structure with our money, using some fake excuse about his mother having cancer and dying (while he worked on several other projects and took their money too, before fleeing the city). His mother does not have cancer. But apparently HomeStars wants legal documents (none of their business) and other PROOF of our accusations before even CONSIDERING taking down an advertisement for a company that does not exist, portraying credentials that do not exist, and have deleted all the countless bad reviews that would have lowered his rating to a point where their own guidelines would have forced them to remove his profile. Until his paid subscription runs out HomeStars has no reason to remove a paying contractors ad from their site.

Posted a negative review based on our experience with a fence company that worked on our property. They removed it because the owner complained, and we did not have proof of purchase (because it was paid for by the neighbors). Because of this fact there was a portion left unfinished on our property.

Even though we showed Homestars a picture of the completed and uncompleted work, as well as text messages to and from the owner about completion, Homestars would not accept this.

It has been about a month since the company came back and worked on our property to fix this issue, but my review is still "pending moderation". This is even though I have emailed them to have it taken down because the work got finished!

Now I am stuck with an account for this dumb site because they wont let you delete your account.

Homestars will say "if you do not pay for the service you cant review them". Even though they worked on our property, and I felt people should be aware of the issues we had.

If they came over and tore up our lawn and broke things could I give them a review then? What if it was a good review? Would they ask for proof then?

Homestars, deletes bad reviews for the ones that pay to be on their site, and strong arm those that don't pay by altering their reviews.

Do not use, very corrupt, stick to google reviews. If you're a business owner, do NOT put your company on here because you will be on here for life, and you will be forced to pay to get good reviews.