I used them twice now, and unless I have a connection for what I want done, I'll use them again.
First time was a furnace problem, and worked real good. Second time an Anderson window pane replacement, and that worked good.
The furnace guy was fast, a real pro, and honest. Instantly diagnosed the problem, gave me a fair price, and stuck to it even when his supplier caused him another trip to the city because they gave him a wrong part.
The window guy might have been a little high on price, but I have no complaints. I don't go always for the lowest price anyway.
How it works is you click on what you want done and put in your phone/address. It comes back with 4 or 5 contractors doing that work, with their info and customer reviews.
You won't have time to call them though, because they start calling you within minutes. They're hooked to the service with pagers/cell phones. So get ready for that.
First time I used it my wife was getting the phone upstairs and told the first 2 furnace guys to buzz off, because I hadn't told her what I was doing. I didn't think they would be calling so fast, and thought it was the kids calling. Anyway, seems the contractors using the service are hustlers - in the good sense..
For the furnace work, you're basically either looking at reviews or talking to the contractor, or both. I talked to my furnace guy before I read the reviews and just had him come out. He wanted $75 for the service call, applied to any work done. I told him my furnace model and that I wanted somebody with experience on it, and he said "That's me, Vic." All I needed. A couple times I got what I thought was an office person calling. I don't like that.
The window guys that called, except one, gave me prices that seemed too low to put food on the table. I had window size ready. About 22' x 50' as I recall. The guy I had come out said he'd come out the next day and give me a price, and I went with him. I like dealing face to face. He put in a much thicker thermopane than the cracked original, and charged me a total of $230 for about an hour's work on site. We both did well on that I think. He laughed at the "estimates" I got from the others.
Anyway, I like ServiceMagic. I think those reviews keep 'em honest. Others may have different experiences.
--Vic