A Complaint Registered, Then Expunged In this episode we look at Angie's List, and, up front, the Haggler should probably confess that he is very jealous of Angie. Because she has her own list! It's a website of crowd-sourced reviews of local businesses. Essentially, Angie's List is an online compendium of thumbs ups and thumbs down, or put more succinctly, a list of who's naughty and nice. You know who else has a list like that? Santa. Santa, ladies and gentlemen! That is pretty heady company. If the Haggler were Angie, he would totally rub this in. He'd meet strangers and say: "I've got my own list. Just like Santa. Do you? No? Heh, heh. That's a shame. There is no Haggler's List. Know why? Because the Haggler is interested only in who's been naughty. Nobody wants to be on the Haggler's List. Including Angie. Q.I had a ridiculously hard time getting a $257 refund from Shamrock Overhead Door, a contractor based in Norwood, Mass., that I found through Angie's List. I opened a dispute on the Angie's List site, where I noticed that a couple other consumers had similar problems. An Angie's List agent did a good job brokering a settlement, and eventually I got my money back. But Shamrock even made that unpleasant. It took weeks, and the first check sent by the company bounced. It bothers me that once I had my refund, all trace of my original complaint vanished from Angie's List. Just as bad, my options for leaving new feedback about the contractor were limited to a rating of A or B in all categories. I could not describe the original dispute. Once a member benefits from intercession of an Angie's List rep, any record of past disputes is essentially expunged. Today, Shamrock has an Angie's List "Super Service Award" badge. This doesn't seem right. Next to "disputes" on Shamrock's scorecard, it now reads "zero." Which means there is no way to tell the difference between a company that has never had a dispute and one which has had 10 of them opened and settled in the last few months, or hundreds over the years. Apparently, Angie's List is more interested in retaining this contractor's business than protecting consumers. Albert Steg, Cambridge, Mass. A.First, some background. Angie's List is a publicly traded company, founded in 1995 by Angie Hicks and William Seelye Oesterle, and based in Indianapolis. Consumers join by paying an activation fee of $10 or so, then anywhere from $2.60 to $5.20 a month. They review businesses in their area - - services for lawns, cars and so on; the reviews are never anonymous. This sounds like a smart way to get collective wisdom about contractors worth hiring - more trustworthy, it would seem, than some posts on Yelp, where the posters are nameless and a mysterious algorithm is said to weed out fake reviews. But like Yelp, Angie's List also takes advertising dollars from the very local businesses being reviewed. Some 64 percent of the company's revenue comes from advertising, according to recent quarterly results. On its face, there is nothing wrong with taking ad dollars. But it could complicate the balance that Angie's List seeks between consumers" desire to speak their minds and advertisers" desire to offer an unblemished version of their reputation. This all boils down to process, and at Angie's List, it works like this: When a member posts a negative review, he or she has the option of getting help from an Angie's List employee, who first asks a variation of "What would make you happy?" Maybe it's a refund; maybe it's another coat of paint. If the complained-about company then satisfies the consumer, that original review is deleted."We believe that is only right," said Cheryl Reed, a spokeswoman. If the company has stepped up and the member is happy, that negative review shouldn't be there. The member then gets a chance to post a new review, but now there are limits. "The grade has to be at least a B, and while the consumer can reference the original transaction, it can't be negative," Ms. Reed said. "You can't say, "I'm reviewing this company and they did a terrible job but I have to give them a B because they satisfied my complaint." " What is the rationale for this policy? "We want everybody to have as much information as they can have," she said. Now, that sounds kind of odd to the Haggler. If Angie's List were interested primarily in maximizing the information available to consumers, the original negative review would be part of the permanent record. If the company went on to satisfy the unhappy consumer, that would be in the record, too. And if, as was the case with Mr. Steg, the company's attempt at mollification added to a list of grievances, that information would be posted as well. The Haggler guesses that Angie's List doesn't operate with a complete-narrative ethos because it would scare off advertisers, which include Shamrock Overhead Door. Shamrock did not return a call from the Haggler. But for what it's worth, Ms. Reed said Angie's List would look at its process in light of Mr. Steg's experience. "I'm not saying we'll change anything," she said, "but we're always taking feedback, and it often has an impact on operations." How perfectly ambiguous and completely ungratifying. But to the credit of Angie's List, a look at reviews of Shamrock Overhead Door does reveal plenty to give a consumer pause. Lots of F's, D's and C's, and references to assorted frustrations. If there is ever a Haggler's List, rest assured, Shamrock will be cordially invited to join it.