CheckBook

I needed to have my driveway, steps, and stoops replaced and wanted to install a patio in my back yard. I search for a good concrete contractor and meet Sergio Olivar with Sergio's Concrete, Inc. Sergio and his team did an excellent job in doing the project I have asked him to do. He and his team are very professional, hard working, on time everyday, and made sure the job was completed to my satisfaction. He made sure area was cleaned before they left. He is very reasonable in price. If you are looking to have concrete work done, I highly recommend Sergio's Concrete, Inc. They did a top notch job for me!

The consumer ratings in Consumer's Checkbook are reliable, however, you do need to carefully consider the details provided within the results. One example is that volume of reviews needs to be considered. Example: a single 5-Star review is insignificant when compared to several dozen reviews with a 4-Star average rating.

In a Google search I see my business has one 5 star review from "checkbook.org" with no details.
My business is typically reviewed on Yelp, Google and my website. I have no idea who would leave a review for my (popular and successful) business on a relatively unknown platform as this one.
1- When I asked "checkbook.org" for the identity of the reviewer, they refused to provide it. I feel this should be illegal. I did not sign a contract to work with "checkbook.org."
2- I recently saw a job opening for "checkbook.org" on a jobs website that made me question how they really operate.
I do not like the success of my business from my hard being used to build someone else's questionable business.

Some of the things you need to keep on mind is how old are the reviews and how many reviews. I don't trust one or two reviews. I throw out the highest and lowest. I've always had good luck with Checkbook over the other forms of rating.

This business claims to accumulate reviews from business clients but in actuality there are no real client reviews that I can see or relate to as real individuals. Their main interest is in your participation in becoming a member of their organization.

I wanted new vinyl windows installed in our home. This involved taking the old ones out and putting the new one's in. I selected a contractor that was rated high on both price and quality of service. Connected with them, they came through with Millguard high end windows and one sliding door installed (with special color baked on them) for $18.5K tax included! The nearest bid was $22K with an inferior window. In all we had 30 windows and one sliding door. I liked the performance and had them replace windows on a rental that we own, again excellent job. Had it not been for Checkbook, I would have never been able to find this contractor. Fred A.

Interested in getting a subscription, read a review from a satisfied customer except the upgrade charge for additional features which one is led to believe is included as part of the subscription. Did she miss something? Am I

My business has thousands of online reviews with Google etc and avg 4.7 and above. On Checkbook.org 32 reviews and avg 1 star. Clearly not an accurate review service.

I'm surprised this is the first review. This review is based my experience over 2 years ago. This is a good site with valuable and extensive reports and ratings on service providers, plus insightful articles to use as shopping guides. It's a must have for the educated consumer. After joining however, I was aggravated when they site tries to upsell me to a larger more encompassing membership. To get all the industries listed on their site you have to upgrade. I was furious; to think that a consumer protection and advocate service would use this type of ploy. I believe there was a grace period to cancel and the upsell was a fair price. The rub is the marketing and sales tactic they use to get you to buy. You could end up spending 25-50% more than what you expected to get what you thought you were getting all along, whatever the price was.

After getting 4 estimates for a new roof on our house and shop we went with Summit Roofing Contractors and are happy we did! They were professional, punctual and the guys were great. Highly recommend Summit Roofing!

This is another Yelp type configured company that's putting together mismatched information and misleading consumers.

I received a two year subscription as a gift from my dad. When I tried to use it to find good doctors/veterinarians in my area, nothing came up. Apparently, I am outside their "subscription area" and can only recommend businesses 50 miles away! Wish they had mentioned that to my dad before taking his money.

I am reviewing checkbook.org from both the consumer and contractor side. As a consumer I have used their book and was not happy at all with two of the three top-rated companies I met with. From the contractors' side I can tell you that the rating system is strange and an unreliable. For instance, we have under 80% in the category "Letting you know cost early." I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that just isn't possible since we email a firm quote to every single customer without exception prior to setting up a service appointment. And we ALWAYS hold to our quotes even when it hurts -- and sometimes it really does. So, it is obvious to me that those who are marking us down for whatever reason are making sure we feel the pain in every category. Checkbook.org turns out to be just a small version of Yelp (and that is not a compliment -- to either company).

Too bad people are no vetted on this site. Checkbook has many bad contractors with glowing reviews.
I think they prey upon the elderly.

Checkbook claimed that there were 14 reviews of my business (although suspiciously none were available for viewing) and a cumulative 1 star rating. Its just a scam designed to boost ratings of businesses that pay them off for a good rating. Completely false and unreliable.

Checkbook.org is an independent service provider review organization that provides reviews and ratings of many service providers, from auto mechanics to Wood Floor refinishers.

They provide three levels of review - "Ratings", "Comments", and "Advice"

For a "Rating" article, they perform a survey, measuring quality and a baseline "price" index- which illustrates the pricing of a particular service relative to other service providers -they obtain estimates for a number of services, and then create an index price, using "$100" as the index. A provider that's listed as being "$90" will generally be 10% below the area average. They also include a survey "quality" ranking - that is, the number of respondents who rate the firm as "excellent" for quality of work.

Generally, these ratings include an "advice" article about the service provider type - how to contract with a provider, do's and don'ts, that kind of thing. The most useful thing is the searchable table that lists local providers, their reputation for quality, and their index pricing.

"Comments" are a consumer-driven "comment" board where people can recommend/review specific companies, and can be a useful screening tool. Access to the "Comments" boards are free.

"Advice" articles are basically articles on how to contract certain service providers, or how to "do it yourself", etc - it generally doesn't include the "price and quality" rankings because the nature of the business doesn't lend itself to that type of evaluation.

Access to the "ratings" and "advice" articles require a subscription, currently $34 for two years. At least in the past, you could purchase individual reports. A subscription provides access to the articles on the website, and includes a printed magazine

I first encountered and used checkbook several years ago because I was contracting to have a fence replaced, and the quotes I was getting seemed high, and the contractors seemed pushy and a bit skeezy. So, I bought a report from checkbook for like $3 on fence builders, found a local firm with a good reputation, and saved $1800 over the previous quotes I'd received.

I've been a subscriber since, and have no doubt they've saved me a lot of money and stress over contracting with service providers. Hiring firms that overcharge you is bad enough - hiring firms that don't show up, do shoddy work, etc is even worse.

Checkbook only operates in certain geographic areas - but if you're a homeowner who lives in one of their service areas, definitely recommend you check them out (no pun intended) - I know they've saved me far more money finding and selecting contractors than I'll ever pay for their subscription.

In fact, just a few weeks ago, I put in hardwood flooring from a local store I'd have never considered without their reviews - it came in almost $2500 less than Home Depot's quote, and nearly $1000 less than the best quote I'd gotten before.

We received a bid from Greene's duct cleaning service to clean our all our ducts including our dryer vent for $125.2 men came to our house made a quick inspection and the lead drew me a diagram showing us that to clean all the ducts inputs returns etc would be $750 dollars. They played around with all our floor mounted ducts-allegedly wire brushing and vacuuming them. They said they could not clean the dryer duct and as we objected the lead (John) said our new price was now $75./ When we said we would pay by credit card the lead huffed and puffed and said no charge and left having done virtually nothing - essentially leaving no bill or business card. WFD Dumfries VA 29April 19

I am a licensed, Ph.D. Level, Clinical Psychologist, I am smart. I have subscribed to and used Consumer Reports for more than 30 years, I trust their work and never disappointed by their recommendations.
Every one of the people I have used that were recommended by Checkbook have been WONDERFUL. Checkbook's problem is that there are scam review services out there that make $$$$$ for and from their reviews. The other problem is that there are not enough people like me who subscribe to Checkbook and provide reviews. So some topics, parts of the city, have very too few reviewers or reviews that would provide recommendations.
What I KNOW is that no one gets a +++ review because they paid for it. What I also know is that a service that once existed but is no longer did have a way for businesses to pay for good reviews.
In last 10 years I have gotten very good auto service, appliance repair, hearing aids, electrical service, dry cleaners and plumbers based on Chicago Checkbook's reviews. I give Chicago Checkbook permission to share information about my membership.