One conversation with a retired electrician made me question my whole review system

I was cleaning out a rental property I manage and the tenant recommended their buddy for a small rewiring job. The guy showed up 20 minutes late, no uniform, drove a beat up F150, but he was super upfront about what he did and didnt know. Said he'd rather lose the job than pretend about code stuff, and he pulled out a worn notebook with every job hed done since 1996 and called each homeowner by first name when they rang him. After he finished, I asked how he gets by without any online presence, and he told me he never asks for reviews because people only post when theyre mad. That hit me weird because Ive been chasing 5 star ratings for years, sorting contractors by that number, and honestly his attitude made me realize my whole system might be filtering for people who are good at marketing, not good at work. I still use the review sites but now I call at least one past client from the list they give me, and Ive dodged two disasters that way. Has anyone else stopped trusting the star count and started doing their own digging?

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wright.dakota1d ago

Hate to play devil's advocate here, but I gotta push back a little. That notebook thing sounds sweet until you realize he's got zero accountability if he messes up. Online reviews are a mess, sure, but at least they leave a trail. I've had old-school guys like that who were great talkers, but when the work got inspected, it failed and I was stuck paying to fix it. Calling past clients is smart, I do that too, but a guy who never gets reviewed could just be hiding from problems. Five stars aren't the whole story, but zero trace is its own red flag to me.