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HomeStars review: Scam website 64

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Author of the review
8:51 am EST
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This website claims to aid homeowners/business owners in the selection process for contractors who are reputable and trustworthy and to also inform the user of who to watch out for.

Here is the reality of Homestars.com/.ca;

They take money from contractors to list with them which completely negates their ability to offer a true unbiased opinion.

When questioned about this I was told that ' we take our site very seriously and accusations very seriously'. Since enlightening Homestars about one of their listed contractors and the fraud in which they engage, I have received no more responses to my claim about Homestars from Homestars.

They have no screening process for the contractors they list. Homestars is a bought and paid for listing service. Homestars concern is not aiding the unsuspecting homeowner but in their own bank account.

Homestars will edit/remove your comments and complaints without explanation or claim that the comment info is not substantiated, they do not apply this same editing to a contractor about to purchase their 'premium' listing service.

Be warned, Homestars is useless unless you are trying to attract potential victims.

I know because I am one of them. See my post on Hawthorne Kitchen Design

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

64 comments
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bsharwood
bsharwood
Toronto, CA
Nov 02, 2009 1:43 pm EST

I am the President of Homestars and feel it important to respond here in addition to having answeredPSR directly,

We are a review site, similar to this one, only focussed quite specifically on Home Improvement.

I wrote this to PSR:
"Companies don't pay to be listed. They pay for premium listings which enhance their profile and their SEO. Any one can list their company, and anyone can write a review on any company - paying or non paying, as long as it fall in our guidelines. "

We did post PSR's review on Hawthorne Kitchen on the site.
http://homestars.com/reviews/41891?company_id=209492

It is possible that PSR hired Hawthorne based on a single review. Fair enough. There are plenty of Kitchen Companies with over 15-20 reviews, which of course, reduces the risk of hiring based on a single review.

If you want to look around the site and check out premium and basic companies the reviews are applied fairly between them. If we didn't do that, we lose trust, our most important commodity in this market. If we didn't to that companies wouldn't want to be listed on the site, nor pay for premium listings, because the credibility we bring to the table wouldn't be there.

Feel free to let us know more. If you think there is some bias to reviews on our site, please let us know. We don't see it, but are open to looking for it.

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 1:08 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of bsharwood

Dear President of homestars, do you think it is fair business practices to allow to publish and refuse to remove a comment that untruthfully calls a business owner a creep. This personal attack is so unprofessional and hurtful . However you look at this, spin it, or justify it, it is just WRONG. We have families, customers and children. To allow a spiteful customer to put personal attacks againest a person on your website it not good for anyone. I have no issues with your company allowing proven facts to be printed about workmanship, service ect but this is a level of disgust that is unwarranted. JESSICA DECKERT SOOKRAM should not be able to print her personal attacks on our employee and you protect her,

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Bohdan Lypka
CA
Mar 16, 2018 11:01 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of bsharwood

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.

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Dave Doolittle
US
Jan 21, 2019 12:33 pm EST

Take your hard earned dollar and advertise in your local paper. Send Homestars packing.

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Dave Doolittle
US
Jan 21, 2019 12:43 pm EST
Replying to comment of bsharwood

A little advice from one previously signed up contractor who has learned the disappointing truth about Homestars to ALL other contractors. Take your hard earned dollar and advertise in your local community newspaper.

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ebeach
Toronto, CA
Jan 11, 2010 4:14 pm EST

Just tried to look at your link, and it was still off..."This review is under review by the poster". It is quite surprising to me that they would even remove your opinion, because we have been falsely accused by a past client, on our profile, and they refuse to remove her comments, even though I have absolute proof that it is all lies...Even in the disclaimer it says that any reviews that are being questioned, will be immediately removed, and facts checked, but I am still waiting for them to care. They don't even care to review any proof that I have against this client. unbias? Sounds to me like that's a load of bull. And you are absolutely right that they do not screen the companies...anyone can go onto their site and "Create" a company...does not require any lisence numbers, proof of any work done, so virtually, anyone and their dog could go online and be a "Contractor." Also, anyone with a grudge against you, can look up your company and as long as they have a proper email address, can go online and slander your name as much as they want. Either way, this website is virtually useless...If you can't trust the companies to be legitimate, and you can't trust the reviews online, then how can you trust any of the information on it? If you ask me, anyone that wants to put up an add for their company, should have some kind of credentials, or proof of the work they say they can do, and also some kind of proof from clients for good and bad reviews, then it could be a heck of alot more reliable. This way, it's just a bunch of he said, she said, and who likes to play that game with their money, time, or businesses. And by the way, if you start a profile on Homestars.com...you can never remove it. This is not funny...

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gabes1mum
Bramp, CA
Apr 14, 2011 3:26 pm EDT

Homestars absolutely is misleading to consumers and I might even go a far to call it a fraudulet site. Here's why. Our company is on homestars we have been for some time now . When we first signed up about 3 weeks later Terry Mardini called and asked for the $1200 we owed them because our company had a premium listing. I posted the listing so I know that at no point did I sign up for a premium listing that would cost me $1200 paid up front for the year. That is their first scam because if you tell them no they will let you know that others companies banners will scroll above your ad and every so often after that they call to get you to pay them for the "premium" listing. Terry Mardini has even hung up the phone on us mid sentence when she realized we were still not paying for a listing on a site that is supposedly free for companies to post, and we are never rude to her despite her harassment.
Another thing to mention is that they pick and choose which reviews to post. Customers who found us on homestars are unable to post reviews because despite several attempts their reviews are not approved. So many many of our customers have complained about this to us and it is very frustrating because how can we accurately get an idea of how a company does business if homestars decides which customer reviews are allowed! This website has drawn a lot of business our way but if things continue this way we will be petitioning to have it taken down and will blog all over the Internet to let everyone know not to trust this site! Frauds, yes.

Terry Mardini
Terry Mardini
Toronto, CA
Apr 22, 2011 4:24 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

gabes1mum, I am Terry Mardini. I have been part of the HomeStars team since June 1st 2006. FOR COMPANIES: you can be on HomeStars as a basic listing and your customers can still write reviews on your company. You can also use our Client tool to send out mass emails to your customers inviting them to write you reviews at HomeStars. For an enhanced listing, we call the Premium listing, you can load as many pictures as you like and get banners for more exposure within our site. The package is $100 to start and if you want more categories and additional service areas this costs more. At this time we do not have a merchant tool and our prices are not listed when you click the banner to upgrade. Since we don't have a merchant account yet, we don't ask for a credit card number and the company is under no obligation. Also, don't harass people or hang up on people mid sentence. That is just not my style (unless YOU were rude to me). One way or another, I don't recall such a conversation taking place. ABOUT THE REVIEWS: We do not pick and choose which review gets posted. We have recently implemented an automated tracking system that can track possible fraud immediately. In that case, the reviews must be investigated prior to being posted. The reviews are not posted until we get a response from the home owner confirming details about the work done and proof of purchase. Our website is built to give the home owner the best possible service, with regards to information they need to make a decision. It's been that way since the beginning. We do not claim to be 100% perfect, however we are trying to provide a great service and many people have told us we have. Regards, Terry Mardini ~ Director of Business Development at HomeStars.com

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 1:10 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Terry how does it feel to work for a company that makes a living scamming hard working businesses and lets customers put hateful personal attacks without merit on your website?

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what the heck!
Barrie, CA
May 24, 2019 1:13 pm EDT

Not true, we have someone posting a review who absolutely can not prove they have a contract with us. She even states she is posting for someone else . She names employees as well which I already read is not allowed. We also have proof this same personl is soliciting others to post reviews elsewhere that don't have any business dealing with us. That is not homestars concern I know, but it is still proof this person is doing what they can to ruin business and not giving a true review of work provided by a contractor to them as a client. We had your team review it and you still allowed it and not you are investigating our true customer review that were posted well over a month ago. Obviously flagged by the spam reviewer. IT not that hard, Simply ask us for the proof needed and we will provide. Endless emails to our pro adviser left unreturned . Only person who seems to care is the salesman that hooked us in to being with Homestars in the first place. Reviews do not work unless they are true, period. LEaves a contractor with no choice but to go seek a lawyer to have libel accusations and comments removed.

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gabes1mum
Bramp, CA
Apr 26, 2011 3:20 pm EDT

Non-premium members DO NOT get their reviews posted! We have done over 100 jobs from homestars and for 5 months straight did not receive any reviews despite over 35 customers contacting us telling us that they posted reviews, a few customers even told us that the review was posted then mysteriously disappeared. No matter what you Terry may say about homestars you guys are complete frauds and hey you're in it for the money thats cool we wouldn't go to work unless we were making money but your website is completely misleading to all homeowners and therefore should not be online. You are offering false reviews by picking and choosing which customer reviews go up and as far as your "automated fraud tracking system" goes does that include checking you guys yourselves for fraud? Because it should. Misleading a customer=fraud. You could be allowing con men to go rob customers blind while you sit behind your desk not allowing legitimate customer oriented businesses to have legitimate heartfelt reviews from actual happy paying customers posted.
As for you not hanging up on people, think about it Terry, actually think about it. You can lie to others but you know what you have done. Do an online search there are blogs all over the internet not just about homesteads but about you personally. People refer to you as unfriendly and cold and thats only people who have met you online.

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gabes1mum
Bramp, CA
Apr 26, 2011 3:25 pm EDT

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THAT'S HILARIOUS! $100 to start eh? Omg you guys are the biggest scammers out there! How is it that you guys are still in business?! Homestars is a complete and utter joke!
PREMIUM LISTING=pay through your ###! And apparently you guys just make it up as you go! How about what you offered me, $1200 for the year there was no offer for $100 trial you told me 12 month contract or nothing!
Let's start a petition to get these con artists out of business!

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hatehomestars
US
May 16, 2011 9:02 pm EDT

I am so frustrated with home stars. It is apparent that it is a scam. I am too frustrated to write my whole story now. Basically if you write a negative review you will be "randomly selected" to verify your post. Then they will come up with a reason as to why your post does not conform to their "rules". If you write a positive post it will get posted no questions asked. I am talking about companies that pay to be on their site. If a company does not pay for the premium account they will have no problems posting negative reviews without further investigation. It is a shame more people do not realize what a scam this is!

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SallyC
Toronto, CA
Sep 14, 2012 8:39 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

A few months ago I hired an electrician to rewire my house. I had used him for 2 big jobs a few years previously and he was okay, not great, but I thought better the devil you know... After being lied + cheated to, I fired him halfway through the job. Googled him and up came some HomeStar reviews, a couple positive but most basically confirming that he's a lying ###. Today, on the site for another search, I decided to check back in and see how Mr. Electrician is doing. Imagine my surprise when I now see a Perfect Ten rating! Six fabulous reviews! All raving about him! All posted within the last 3 months! Nothing before that! HomeStars has allowed this dishonest contractor to erase his past and repost with a clean profile. Obviously, this goes 100% against their purported mission and confirms that yes, they are a scam site with zero credibility.

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Abraham Jacob
CA
Oct 10, 2012 11:45 am EDT

I was reviewing homestars. It looked as a good site. However, I found something lacking - most contractors had 10 star rating and the reviews had nothing critical written. It is not a perfect world out there. I am in the construction industry. This lead me to check the credibility of homestars and thus led me to this site. Happy to note that there are other people who are apprehensive of homestars too.

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Homestars is fraud
Richmond Hill, CA
Nov 28, 2012 9:57 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Please direct all future complaints to the owner of homestars at her personal address of: Nancy Peterson 169 Ridley Blvd., North York, ON M5M 3M4 or better yet give her a call and let her know that I think she is running nothing more than a gossip site that destroys peoples lives while lining her own pocket . [protected]

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stenb
Toronto, CA
Jun 26, 2013 7:53 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Homestars is a complete scam. I wrote a legitimate review about a bad experience I had with a contractor and they will not publish it. They wrote me an email saying they could not verify I had paid for the contractors service. I emailed back right away offering to scan my invoice and sent it to them. I of course am still waiting for their reply. Clearly they will not publish poor reviews of their preferred clients. I will not use them again.

Terry Mardini
Terry Mardini
Toronto, CA
Jan 30, 2014 11:25 am EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hi gabes1mum, I had some time to spare and thought I'd address your comment from April 26th 2011. About your statement 'Non-Premium members do not get their reviews published', I would like to invite all viewers to go to www.homestars.com and check out listings that have reviews with no pictures or logos. These are non paying listings. There are thousands of companies like this at the site with thousands of reviews.
I know it is frustrating for reviews not to be publishing, for everyone believe me.There is a process that HomeStars has to follow and internal flags that need to be looked at. The individuals who read the reviews are trained to look out for certain things as well. HomeStars also consults with lawyers when need be. It's all part of trying to be a trustworthy website.
gabes1mum, in my entire career at HomeStars, I can only remember hanging up on one individual who started swearing at me about a negative posting he had on his listing from one of his customers. I am pretty sure this individual was not you. So, if I did hang up on you, I am sorry. I can tell you that during the spring of 2011, balcony renos were taking place in my building. Part of this time I stayed at a hotel to work, but I also worked from home at times. We never new when the drilling would start and it was deafening. The only thing I could think of is perhaps I hung up thinking that our conversation was over because of the noise, otherwise I really don't remember.
Correction: '$100 should have read '$100 a month'. The package now starts at $150 a month.
So, if I called you, I would have asked if you wanted to stay on and if so, it was starting at $100 a month. Therefore $1200.00 for the year.
If you were asking your customers to review you on HomeStars, you probably saw the value in it yourself. It's a challenge for HomeStars to continually have to appease the companies and consumers about why reviews are posted or not. I can assure you that it has nothing to do with whether you are a paying customer or not. It has to do with credibility. It is to HomeStars' advantage that reviews are posted, positive or negative for volume of content at the site.
As I said before, it's hard to always get it right, as thousands of reviews are submitted every month. And I don't know of any other site in Canada that is as thorough as HomeStars in the publishing of reviews. So, I hope this gives you a clearer understanding and that these days your experience has been better.
About your statement of accusing me of lying, that's defaming in case you did not know. If you would be so kind to point me to other sites that have said that I am cold and unfriendly, I would greatly appreciate it as your comment is the only one I have found online and I am not a cold and unfriendly individual. Thank you.
I would like to point out that I myself have had negative experiences with companies, but I've only written about my positive experiences. I like to address my concerns with a company or individual directly. Negative statements can be hurtful, especially when you have no idea who the person is. I think it's unfair, but that's how the internet world is now. For this reason, it's important to tell the other side of the story and let the reader make up their own mind.
Abraham Jacob, the reason why you are seeing extreme ratings is that when HomeStars launched the .com, the questions were narrowed down to 2 questions - 1) How satisfied were you with this customer 2) How likely would you be to hire this customer again. The reviewer is obligated to write at least 30 words before the review is posted. You may much older reviews, where this is not the case. The questions were narrowed down to 2 questions, so as to not discourage reviewers from writing reviews.
HomeStars is fraud - can you please ask the administrator of this site to remove Nancy Peterson's personal address and phone number. It's illegal. It should not have been posted. Thank you.
Whomever wants to talk to Nancy can reach her at [protected] x701. You can also post a you comment at the site's forum asking Nancy to respond. Thank you.
Best wishes to all.
Terry Mardini

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Jerome Garneau
Toronto, CA
May 11, 2014 11:41 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Homestar is essentially trying to corner contractors into paying $100/month so their reviews will not get drowned.

I created an account in anticipation that a customer would leave me a review, as he had said he would.

I soon was solicited to pay for a premium account. To be left alone, I had to be very clear that I would never sign up.

My I search for my company name on Homestar I do NOT come up in the search results. I have to use the link they gave me or I have to search my company name + "reviews" on Google.

On my page, they drown my listing with giant ads for their premiums clients, to the point that I'm not very noticeable on my own profile page !?

So my problem with Homestar is that I find their tactics cheesy. I'm also doing a startup and I understand technology. Using a freemium model is fine, meaning a free option with a reasonably price upgrade.

$100 / month by extortion is underhanded no matter what the company says to justify it.

Terry Mardini
Terry Mardini
Toronto, CA
May 12, 2014 5:05 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hi Jerome, your profile says you are from Toronto. The rate of $100 a month was increased to $150 a month for an enhanced premium as of September 2012. So, this tells me that it could be some time since you've spoken to anyone at HomeStars. If you type your company name exactly how it is spelt with the right city or postal code, your company name should come up, otherwise it is probably a bug that HomeStars needs to address. Yes, there are competitive banners in the listings, as part of the premium package, however the actual ranking of your company in a search result is dependant on the number of reviews, the average of your reviews and other content related criteria. You may want to touch base again with your rep to get an update on what is going on. You should see your rep's name when you sign into your listing. I moved on from HomeStars at the end of June last year, to give my attention to a family related matter. Wishing you much success in your business. Sincerely, Terry Mardini

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Jerome Garneau
Toronto, CA
May 12, 2014 9:06 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

$150 a month is even worse. Again I see a moral problem with how this company is monetizing itself.

But working there you probably have it justified that you're providing a service that helps contractors and homeowners.

What Homestar has factually done Is to place itself at the top of the search engines, which consequently puts contractors at a disadvantage unless they pay you $150 a month for a review system which is not even accurate due to a poor scoring algorithm and due to the inevitable bias that comes from accepting money from the contractors.

That's why I've used the word "cheesy"to describe Homestar's tactics and "extortion" to describe what they're factually doing.

As a technology startup itself, Homestar is a bad role model for young entrepreneurs with it's immoral sense of execution and poorly implemented monetizing strategy.
It's not a source for good in the world, it's a capitalistic cancer.

And it's ironic that Homestar is getting bad reviews on the Internet such as on this page as well as others.

Terry Mardini
Terry Mardini
Toronto, CA
May 12, 2014 10:17 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

The website is called HomeStars, Jerome. With an 's' at the end. Like I said, I left a year ago to attend to a family matter.
Yes, I worked at HomeStars for 7 years and was part of building a site that was very special and envied by many, with a group of very talented people. You have an opinion and everyone at HomeStars, including me, had an opinion. Yes, HomeStars does appear in top Google searches. Leading this division is Andrew Goodman, who is one of the founders and also a respected Google expert. No one is paying to be at the top of searches, whether it be for HomeStars or for Google. You are responsible for how your company is found at Google, through SEO services or your own doing. As far as the HomeStars search results, as I explained to you, the results are strictly based on criteria. The company does not pay to get at the top of the search results. Please do get your facts straight. It makes things a lot more interesting.
You are entitled to your opinion about HomeStars, Jerome. Yes, some weaknesses do exist, with the website, but it is constantly evolving. It's mission is to provide a credible service for consumers, with the best of intentions.
Regards, Terry Mardini

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what the heck!
Barrie, CA
May 24, 2019 1:19 pm EDT

and we were lied to about that as well. When the sales team of Homestars approached us to join we were assured Homestars would appear on top page when someone used a key word like landscapers in their area. Nope, never happens. A total waste of money that our company could have been using to get on search with GOOGLE. Scammers! Will never ever renew after this expensive mistake to trust Homestars and will be spreading the work to other contractors not to waste their hard earned money.

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Jerome Garneau
Toronto, CA
May 12, 2014 10:41 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I've never said or suggested that Homestars Is paying to be the top of Google search -- of course not. It put itself at the top of the search engine on Google legitimately, but it's essentially extorting money from contractors through a cheesy business model. You probably won't be able to see this because you're too used to drinking own Kool-aid.

Terry Mardini
Terry Mardini
Toronto, CA
May 12, 2014 11:11 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

If you have any suggestions, by all means, post at the site's forum. That's what it's there for. Someone will respond to you. Take care, Jerome.
Regards, Terry Mardini

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Jerome Garneau
Toronto, CA
May 12, 2014 11:48 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I must say that is a fair thing to say.

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JaNar
US
Jun 03, 2014 9:43 am EDT

We called a furnace company after seeing favorable reviews on homestars. It was a total scam. They estimated $400 dollars for something we fixed the next day with a $10 investment and 20 minutes of research. I am disgusted that they are promoting scamming contractors. Luckily we just lost $60.

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well77
Toronto, CA
Jul 31, 2014 12:31 pm EDT

On homestars.com some profiles have over 2400 of fake reviews!

Everyone should complain to google.com, coz google promotes and gives an unfair advantage (in Canada) to cheating sites like homestars.com

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 12:50 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of well77

I wish that can be true. Homestars is a bully and allows people to put untrue and unfair comments on hardworking companies. Oh you can have them deleted if you PAY. This is mafia terms and as many people have written quite sleazy way of making money.

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Maestro60
Mississauga, CA
Oct 20, 2014 4:21 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Having used HomeStars on multiple occasions, I'm also now a very dissatisfied user of HomeStars and won't be using it again. It's ratings are entirely inaccurate and biased. It only accepts reviews on services that were actually contracted, signed or verbal, and WHERE MONEY WAS EXCHANGED. So a company, such as Delroy Appliance Repair can get a 9.8 rating regardless if they actually show up or not, as was my case. Delroy was tied up the day I called for appliance repair but promised to call the next day and have the appointment early that morning. I had no issue with that. Never heard from him again. When I wrote a review about his lack of showing up or even providing a courtesy phonecall, HomeStars declined to publish it...because no money was exchanged. And Delroy keeps his over-inflated 9.8 rating. A contractor who promises to follow-up and do the work, but doesn't does not deserve a high rating. If HomeStars was really true to its mandate, it would publish all aspects of customer service with a contractor - not just those who actually do some work. Just like HomeStars' contractors can be rated, I rate HomeStars as a "0" stars - and will strongly encourage everyone not to use the site. It's nothing more than a contractors' club.

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Mr. Steamer
Brampton, CA
Feb 21, 2015 11:16 am EST

This site takes a free ride off my companies name... They make money by getting you to bring your customers to this site. The plan is to get them looking here first for other services. They attract people to leave reviews but offering free Tim Hortons or Starbuck coffee if you do so. As a company if you sign up they allow you to write reviews yourself under customers name. You'll notice that a lot of the reviewers only make one review. They sell you on the fact that one bad review can be drowned out by make tons of new reviews if you are willing to take a premium package. They are sleazy people, that don't care about the customers or the companies. They have found a way to make money out of this niche market they have created.

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 12:48 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

This is true and sleazy is a good name to refer to them as. My personal experiance with Homestars has shown me the unfair side of having a business and them trying to bring you down in the process. They are bullies and now after the lastest lawsuit that a company did to a "customer review" will make people think twice about lying in their comments. Finally they will be held accountable.

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Service of my home
US
Mar 09, 2015 4:13 pm EDT

Tried to log a comment on homestars.com regarding a bad-service experience I had with a service provider. Apparently, homestars.com did not feel the need to post my comment notwithstanding that it was a legitimate and courteously drawn complaint . So my question is, is homestars.com impartial in their comments' section?

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Gotoguy
US
Apr 29, 2015 8:05 am EDT

Why PAY anyone, when you can go straight to BBB? If you want people to take your business seriously - ie, you are honest and put customer first then you should do the RIGHT thing by getting your company accredited with the aforementioned! This goes to everyone out there that wants respect and their business to prosperous for years to come. There are too many BAD APPLES out there that ruining it for everyone!

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
Your concerned citizen and social activist!

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 12:42 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of Gotoguy

I have 27 years of credibility with Alberta new home warranty and am a valuable, trustworthy company in Edmonton. When someone googles my name, they see a nasty comment that is all lies and untrue. It personally attacks my husband and calls him a creep. How is even legal or fair . Goto guy. I am not a bad apple, I have been bullied by Homestars and treated very unfairly by simply having a business online.

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Walter K
Toronto, CA
May 10, 2015 10:56 am EDT

I agree that Homestars is a scam. I noticed a crazy number of 10 star reviews nearly always from reviewers that were just posting once to Homestars, which generally indicates a bogus posting (not always, but usually). When I tried to post a negative review of a company that was truly horrible, I noticed that my review and another negative review posted the day before me, was 'flagged for verification'. when I read what that meant, homestars basically said "This could be because a company has contacted HomeStars to say that they do not recognize the review as one of their customers and we are now trying to verify the content of the review." which goes to the crux of the issue. The contractor that I was critical of, gets to control the reviews. 10 star reviews, no problem posted right away. reviews that are critical? They get flagged and not factored into the rating. bogus.

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Still Scorned
Orangeville, CA
Jun 04, 2015 10:58 am EDT

I thought that homestars was a fair company and that they were out to protect the consumer until I had a run in with a kitchen manufacturer that supplied a curved cabinet door through one of *their* approved dealers, or so he was until he messed up the job and then they turned on him and forced him to write a deceitful account of what took place even to the point that he is saying that *I* owe him money!
They have intimidated not only him but also another installer to lie to the BBB. So I posted my review on Homestars and then they said it was not allowed due to the fact that I did not pay them directly, despite the fact that I have proof that they supplied the cabinet door that is peeling and will not replace it.
Now you would think, if Homestars was out to protect the consumers, that they would want to ensure that the truth of the matter(s) be told, but here is the thing, the manufacturer is saying that I am not their customer and I cannot write a review of their product unless I paid them directly. BUT, at the same time although they claimed to me in writing that they do not deal with the public and all their dealings are through Dealers/Installers, so it distances them from any kind of implication. Homestars, even though they were made aware that this company has made this clear, has left up a 10 Star review of this company from another homeowner. This is just wrong in my opinion and I will NOT trust any reviews on Homestars again, they pick and choose what they publish.
Another example would be that they edited down my review and took out some of it about Brampton Hardwood Flooring, so they don't look nearly as bad as they are. I wonder how much they got paid for that?
Plain fact is, this cabinet door is not being replaced and they won't protect the public by allowing the truth to be told, they are a private company and they don't give a darn about the consumer, bottom line is that they are consumed with their own power to veto whenever they choose to do so.

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Anthony Fernando
toronto, CA
Jun 14, 2015 4:50 pm EDT

Tried to list positive feedback for a contractor who did a roof for us three times with no luck. The contractor called me twice begging to verify to Homestars with all details. Never received any notification form Homestars for this verification. I was told by the contractor that since he stopped paying Homestars the monthly fee all positive feedback were removed from first page “for verification purposes” . Homestars is affecting contractors who don’t pay. What a scam.

Searched the net to find more about Homestars scam

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 12:38 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

HOmestars do not play far in the contractor, customer game. This has been the same problem I have had. If you dont give homestars money, they have no interest in protecting you from people putting unfair and defamatory comments about you personally on their site.

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rama34
US
Aug 03, 2015 9:05 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I would like to ask the owner or any employee of homestars this question. Just googly computer repair Toronto reviews. Your website will come first. Just explore the top result and you will see that all of these companies especially with over 100 reviews are fake. You really can tell from the title and the content. Very clear they have been posted by either the owner or freelancers. I would agree that bad reviews for premium listing will not be posted. I'm not blaming you homestars but shame on you Google.

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David Bell71
CA
May 27, 2016 10:39 am EDT

Our firm recently engaged in a Homestars Ad Campaign in hopes of improving our brand awareness and reputation. We sent out requests to our clients requesting they review us honestly on Homestars. For the most part our reviews were very positive but there were 2 clients that really seemed to have an issue with our service. But instead of contacting us about the issue that made defamatory statements online. We requested that HomeStars consider removing these statements based on lack of merit but we were told that these clients were entitled to their opinion ( regardless of how damaging and untrue they may be) On the one hand Homestars is selling their service to companies as a means of bettering brand awareness and reputation but on the other hand they refuse to act in an unbiased manner. We are in dialogue with our Legal Counsel as we see these untrue statements made by these 2 clients to be defamatory in nature and complicit in this is Homestars.

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 12:36 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

HOmestars are bullies and this is how they get people to pay them. I am looking in to the same thing from the personal defamatory remarks that have been attached to my business for 5 years. Truly unwarranted and cruel for homestars to leave a comment on that personally attacks someone on their site.

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Detanete
CA
Jun 19, 2016 9:41 pm EDT

I met someone at a timi who said he gets paid to build profiles, guess what? When i looked at his scrern he was writing on homestars

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 12:34 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of Detanete

This is very true. I find it terribly unjust that HOmestars can ruin businesses because customers believe the trash that is written about them. If you do not pay them off, homestars leaves it on. I only found about my review when a sales agent called me from homestars. true story

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Arisss
CA
Jul 18, 2016 1:01 am EDT

scam,

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M Gharib
US
Jul 29, 2016 4:51 am EDT

1) I wanted to hire a contractor for flooring project. He was busy and was not providing any quote; Upon my complaining he started insulting me "on the phone" while on email exchanges he was polite. I reported this to Homestars and they said contractor must be hired first before you can place any reviews. All these contractors know about that and they make sure they 'pick' customers who provide good reviews.
2) I went to another contractor; Against my better judgement I agreed that the floor be prepared based on his recommendations and the crew that he sent to my home. They asked for cash and did the floor prep in one day. This was the worst floor prep job I saw. It was 1/4" drypack job which was peeling off as we were vacuuming the floor. So I had to tear 85% of it out and pay for the disposal bin, etc.
3) After >$2k of repairs, and then some extra material cost on my part to prepare the floor for tiling myself, I hired another contractor from the same site; who again wanted cash. His performance was very bad. He was very polite, but his work was terrible and he was very careless. Evey time I would point his mistakes to him, he would get upset and say; "It is not you; I should not have accepted the job". I would come back from work and see what he had done during the day while I was away and would point out the parts that had lippage, un-evenness, etc. This ( pointing problems ) happened perhaps twice. Meanwhile he was getting paid cash. He was 2 days away from completion and I found yet another "series" of issues and sent him a very polite text pointing the issue. Next thing I know, he came to our home @ 10pm and packed his stuff and left. The job was left unfinished. My wife and I insisted that he be paid, but because we did not expect to pay him that night I had to write him a cheque. This is where he was refusing the money; He probably knew that if I paid him by cheque I would be able to write a negative review and his reputation would suffer. In fact, he was saying that I don't want you to say I left the job unfinished if you give me the cheque.
Anyway I had to make a promise to him that I would not put a negative review so that he would take the cheque and as he claimed pay for the salary of his assistant.
This last guy did not even have knowledge of mortar. For instance he would mix the polymer modified thinset with water. Then an hour later he would add water to make it thinner as if he is dealing with paint while right on the bag in the mixing instruction there is a statement saying you should not add water once mixed. Another thing: to make his job easy, he would used 1" thick mortar between tile and floor. which cost me 3 times as much as it should have to provide the mortar. Another issue I pointed to him in the final night was in a span of 1 foot there is a variation of 1/4" in tile setting and floor is uneven...just horrible. I have pictures to show anyone who is interested to prove I am not exaggerating any of the above.
Since I have promised I cannot mention the names but these are three instances that I have dealt with contractors on this site. They all had perfect or near perfect score.
I hope this helps other people with their decision.

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XXO
CA
Aug 16, 2016 4:08 pm EDT

HomeStars is a scam website where contractors are pressured to pay 300 bucks a month for them to be allowed to upload content. It is a for profit company and they really don't care about the consumers.

All they care about is filling their bank accounts

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 3:10 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of XXO

They don't answer fheir emails, phone or Facebook messages . They are not credible and bullies that make companies pay to dispute a bad review and when a good review is sent, do not publish it until That company pays a membership . Mafia tactics . I believe the recent lawsuit awarded to a company by a customer that published defamation comments will help us all. You can go around and pretend to be a service and good company when it's all for profit and full of lies

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John Roberts1
US
Aug 22, 2016 7:10 pm EDT

I wrote two complaints about a pool company named Leisure Industries, Homestars never published them, I wrote emails twice and still no answer, there is something really fishy about this company. The only reason I can think of is that they avoid publishing negative reviews for certain companies.

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ashgul
CA
Mar 23, 2017 12:31 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Very true! Totally “Not reliable.”

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.

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 3:14 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of ashgul

Homestars how would you like to be publicly called a creep and liar ! His happened to our company and it is not true and disgusting . You do not allow he review above but your refuse to take down review that is a personal attack on our employees and just a disgusting display of abuse of power by you and our spiteful customer . Shame on you and your unprofessional polices .

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 3:18 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of ashgul

Homestars you are unprofessional and your business practices set you and your reviewers up for lawsuits . If you value your business, why do you allow personal attacks on owners of businesses? Take people's money for protection . Look at all
The reviews and lawsuits your business has . Your motto that upsettting businesses is your job ! Reckless and immoral is what you are doing

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Atuls.1
CA
Oct 09, 2017 9:47 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I recently posted true review about Paradise Contracting LTD of Milton to which the owner, Jamie, responded incorrectly. I responded back to highlight what was incorrectly stated and with pictures to prove my side of story but after a few days I noticed that my negative review with pics about Paradise has been taken down and only the good reviews remain. This clearly proves that there is some kind of unholy Nexus between Homestars and the contractors. Not a site to bank on.

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k anne
CA
Nov 01, 2017 12:31 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Home stars is a site that makes money off holding companies for randsom and scamming innocent contractors out of their advertizing dollars.
If you really feel you are a service to people, why do you allow comments that personally attack company employees. This is unprofessional and terribly hurtful to the company and his family. Anytime someone googles my company name. there is a review that pops up from Homestars calling my husband a creep. How do you justify this as fair? Please help me understand why my future customers and children have to see this untrue and nasty comment.

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ben haz
US
Apr 16, 2018 10:44 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Homestars is big fake company reviews as owner of business that paid to homestars for 1 year all reviews was great from my customer since first month that I cancel my account with them every month have negative review so we try to check it and we took 5 customer that we did great job from them those customer written the review when our tech was at the location and surprise none of those review was publish and even without any response from homestars but when 1 customer complain even without to be at his house the review publish same day so we try to call that company and as fake company we still waiting for them to response 5 months also when I ask to remove to my company from there list even that I have 60 good reviews and 6 fake reviews they didnt response for that so for the owner of homestars its better for you and your staff there stand behind there words and publish outside how your company working if you paid all great you stop pay than you discover real fake homestars company I hope that one will help for another companies outside dont spend your money on them.

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Caplancustom
US
Jun 29, 2018 9:31 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Anyone interested in a class action suit against homestars?

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Carpenter Toronto
CA
May 09, 2019 6:30 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

We are. Terrible treatment after years of loyalty and significant monthly payments. What a complete disappointment they turned out to be.

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RyMorgy
US
Dec 20, 2023 12:57 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Yes RM13@ROGERS.COM

  1. HomeStars Contacts

  2. HomeStars phone numbers
    +1 (877) 488-0312
    +1 (877) 488-0312
    Click up if you have successfully reached HomeStars by calling +1 (877) 488-0312 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have successfully reached HomeStars by calling +1 (877) 488-0312 phone number Click down if you have unsuccessfully reached HomeStars by calling +1 (877) 488-0312 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have UNsuccessfully reached HomeStars by calling +1 (877) 488-0312 phone number
    Home Service Pros
    +1 (855) 569-0690
    +1 (855) 569-0690
    Click up if you have successfully reached HomeStars by calling +1 (855) 569-0690 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have successfully reached HomeStars by calling +1 (855) 569-0690 phone number Click down if you have unsuccessfully reached HomeStars by calling +1 (855) 569-0690 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have UNsuccessfully reached HomeStars by calling +1 (855) 569-0690 phone number
    Homeowners
  3. HomeStars emails
  4. HomeStars address
    49 Spadina Ave. № 206, Toronto, Ontario, M5V2J1, Canada
  5. HomeStars social media
  6. Stan
    Checked and verified by Stan This contact information is personally checked and verified by the ComplaintsBoard representative. Learn more
    Oct 30, 2024

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