Servicemagic not posting negative comments

I used ServiceMagic.com to locate a masonry contractor to do some work on my property in NJ. I used a recommendation from their website considering the plethora of positive reviews on their site. The contractor turned out to be far different than the glowing reviews on the site. Frankly it was a disaster. I then posted a negative review on ServiceMagic.com to ensure that truthful, factual information was available for anyone looking to use this contractor in the future. ServiceMagic.com touts their review capability to allow consumers to properly evaluate contractors on their site based upon actual work performed. A nice unbiased feature I thought.

After several weeks of my review not being posted I contact ServiceMagic.com to see what the hold up was. They told me it was still in the review process. I called them a week later, they said they don't have a record of it. I sent it again, waited a few weeks and after not hearing from them again I called them. They told me someone would contact me shortly to ensure that the review was accurate as they don't want to post negative reviews unless it's screened first. I never got a call.

ServiceMagic.com derives the lions share of their revenue from vendors who use their services such as web site creation/management and referrals. As such they are high incentives not to damage those relationships by posting negative feedback. It should be clear to anyone on the above sequence of events that this is the case. I've given up on trying to get the negative review posted and instead am going to tell everyone I know not to use service magic.com as you are getting a completely biased picture of vendors which is in direct opposition of what their stated purpose is. Shame on you ServiceMagic!