HomeStars.caReviews 194

When i tried them out they promised me i bunch of stuff and being a new business i was hoping that they would help us to get off the ground. But the problem with homestars is you must be an established business for there system to work. What they don't tell you that is if your a new business looking for work and you don't have the customers to do these reviews your not going to getting anything from them. So as a new business you only have one option is to wright fake reviews. If your a new business don't do homestars.

When i first started with homestars i was under the impression that i could cancel at anytime and that i had to give them 1 month notice. When i gave them my notice they told me i signed a 1 year contract. I never signed no contract and when i asked to see contract they try to change subject and wont show me this contract. Don't Trust Homestars.

Technician Ali K was very professional, pleasant and punctual when performing my furnace inspection, cleaning and tune-up, and offered top notch service and lined up a date for next year's servicing as a 'plus' customer

We have been with them, paying, for 2 years. When we first started they were great. Now that they have been bought out they have been getting suckier and suckier. Not because their rates are sky rocketing. If I get $5 for every $1 I spend with them it's still works. It's their customer service that is frustrating me the most. Although, I did hear the them at a banquet stating that we (the contractors) are not their customers, it's the homeowners.

They no longer answer the phones when we call, it goes to voicemail. They refuse to communicate in the manner that is convenient to us when we need to speak with our rep directly. Disgruntled employees are able to pose as customers and leave negative reviews (the investigation link is for show). Job leads are not evenly distributed. We have a great rating (98%) and we know people with less ratings in our field and we compare notes. They are getting leads almost daily while we were not.

Honestly, Homestars was a crucial stepping stone to getting our business going. But with these new price changes, unfair distribution of leads, and poor customer service now, I could not recommend another company to sign up with them.

I used to be proud to be part of HS, but now I'm looking for an escape route. If things stayed the same and they raised their prices, fine, I wouldn't like it but we would manage.

HomeStars (HS)advertise me during 4 years through publishing the reviews of my clients. During this time I have 128 positive reviews with 10 out of 10 score and 3 times was the Best of the Year. Unfortunately the last review was not as high. After the conversation with the client we found common ground and the review was removed. After this HS put the warning red frame with ambiguous comments: "... We also keep these flags up to alert those considering hiring the company Sometimes a homeowner feels compelled to remove their review due to negative encouragement by the company. In these cases, the user does not feel comfortable keeping their review posted and will ask us to remove it. While we do remove the review, the impact of the user's review is still taken into consideration..."These comments were posted without any contacts with me or client ( I ask the client). The words of HS create the impression that my company is not trustworthy and I am bulling the client ( both is not true). Anybody who reads this comments would stay away from my company.
Two times I contacted HS asking for explanations with no responses.It looks like instead of helping to good contractors to run there business the HS in certain situations is ruining there reputation.

Does not get any worse than this. Stay away. They do not do a background check on a business negative review before posting it to the account.
They make you pay for an account to give you positive reviews.
They do not advise a Canadian Business of the negative review they post.
That can hurt Canadian Businesses!
The CEO of Home Stars.ca comments are "If businesses hate us we are doing a great job" I don't think I need to saying anything more.

I have negative reviews on my business profile. I had brought to their attention ( this is going on for years) that these are not true nor are they my customers.

They told me they are not removing them and they have been checked. They ignore me.

I went to BBB to put the complaint in.

They finally removed some of them and sent me an email saying yes they were posted to the wrong account they made a mistake.
But they will not do anything about the old ones. I have been asking them to look into. BBB did there job. What I should have done is gone to them when this all started to get these reviews removed.

Don't trust them. Don't trust the negative reviews on a Business account seek other places to see if the Business is doing a good job.

They are a U. S company ruining the Canadian Businesses.

Hope this helps.

I asked Mint Leaf Kitchen Cabinets to give me quote for my investment Property at 148 Town House Cres, Brampton for full work to be completed during the month of February, 2017. They started work and completed in required time promised in the
Quotation. When the work was completed it was excellent. Total Invoice was $4746. 00
Including HST. All work was done by 18th February, 2017. After the work was done,
I refer my friends. Makhan Jadge was very pleasant person and good professional.
I really enjoyed working with him and his workers.

I had reviewed a company on Homestars and the review was negative. Homestar did not post is on their site. I am posting the review that I had posted on Homestars and their response to it. Please read and judge for yourself.

My review of Ottawafurnacefilters.ca posted on Homestars -

"Beware of this company. I ordered furnace filters and made a mistake on the size of the filter. Within 2 hours of placing the order I sent them an email requesting a cancellation but they never responded. Sent 6 more emails after that but no response. Then they delivered the filters which were ordered in error and did not honor their cancellation policy which is detailed on their websites, even though it is very unreasonably worded. As per their cancellation policy if an order is cancelled within 12 hours of placing it they will cut 10-20% from the price to cover their losses incurred in having someone to cancel the order (utter nonsense). But if they had even done that I would have at least received a part of my money spent in error. But they chose to ignore all my emails and sent me the filters anyway which I have no use for. Please stay away from them. They have no address or phone number listed on their website probably for reasons best understood by us now. The address registered here on Home star is also false and is of the Confederation Park in downtown Ottawa. Even the phone number that they have registered with the credit card company and on Homestar does not exist. They are a company BEST AVOIDED. Do not take a risk with them."

Homestars response -

"Hi: homeowner_full_name,

Thanks for your recent review on Ottawa Furnace Filters. Unfortunately your review has been rejected because it doesnt meet our guidelines. Please edit your review so that it focuses only on the work completed. Although you might feel very frustrated with the company right now, try to keep your criticism constructive.

To edit your review, log in to your HomeStars account and click on your profile picture in the top right hand corner. From the menu on the left, click on My Reviews. Locate your review for Ottawa Furnace Filters and click on the Edit button at the bottom of the review. A new page will load where you can make the necessary changes to your review. Once you are happy with the new version, click Submit Review at the bottom of the page.

Well take another look at your review and approve it if it meets our guidelines.

Thanks for editing your review.

Your review is important to us and the HomeStars community."

So please use your own judgment to depend on the reviews posted on Homestars.ca. They only post positive reviews which could be written by the companies friends and relatives but they do not post the negative feedback written by genuine customers like us.

I had part of my backyard resurfaced with concrete by this company. Run far. Inferior work. Barely put down two and a half inches of concrete. Created a step which was poorly formed. The finish on the concrete was terrible. Failed to form proper edging on concrete. Removed my fence panels to facilitate the concrete pouring by cutting the fence brackets. When the fence panels were put back they did not replace brackets. When I showed the contractor, Anthony the work he shook my hand and said he would come back and fix everything. Smooth talking LIAR. This work was done in July. He keeps telling me next week. We don't know which next week it is going to be. Unfortunately I trusted him and paid him in full. SMOOTH TALKER who wanted his money before the job was done. BEWARE.

After two days of trying to unblock a pipe from our basement to no avail, I turned to professional help, Mr. Rooter. Less than a hour from my first call, George Shakh arrived and with his camera equipment showed me the blockage, 44 feet from my bathroom.
We discussed what needed to be done and within 15 minutes I had a quote, accepted it, he made a appointment for the next day. Three men arrived by 8:30 and began work. By 4:00 they found the pipe 8 1/2down and repaired it. A very hot humid day, Alex, Andrew, and Eugene all went beyond the call to finish the job. A huge Thank You to all for a great experience and I will definitely call for future help.
Thanks, Bill Hope

I would like to recommend Knox Insulation and Roofing and acknowledge the professionalism of service and quality work. I just had my condo ceiling sound proofed with cellulose insulation. It took approximately 4 hours and a lot of insulation blown into my ceilings. I have a 829 Square foot condo that I purchased in November. The unit above me has been vacant since I moved in 4 months ago and finally sold. I was so upset when they showed it about how much I could hear every friggin thing they did. The footsteps and general noise from above is not acceptable for a 8 year old building. I knew it would be a nightmare once someone moved in. I would either have to leave or rent it out and live somewhere else. I research on line about sound proofing ceilings and sourced Knox. I called and left a message. I very quickly had a response from Kyle. After speaking to him and my knowledge of this sound proofing I booked the instal for the next week. When they arrived, they quickly assessed my ceilings and did a sample hole. Kyle was concerned that they might not be able to do the work due to the shawdy workmanship of the builder and was not going to do it if he could not give me the quality of sound proofing I desired. He was willing to walk away rather then try to do the work incorrectly. Kyle did a couple more check holes and tested to see if the blowing of cellulose would work. It did and it was keep going to finish the job. The two person team worked non stop for 4 hours and my ceiling is now stuffed. I cannot commend yet on how much this has improved until the people above me move in which will be soon. If I get 50% improvement then I am already keeping my sanity. Thank you so much for a great job and a great price and service excellence. I completely recommend your product and service. I may end up having you come back at a later date to do my inside wall to the hall as it is totally not sound proofed either. Thanks again Nancy Carnegie - Barrie, Ontario