Who Has the Last Word in Consumer Debate?

· Entrepreneurs have realized that time-starved consumers are hungry for information. After my column ran, I heard from the people behind http://www.servicemagic.com, http://www.urbanreferrals.com, http://www.rustreviews.com and http://www.yellowpages.com, all of which offer some sort of online rating or referral service.

· Consumers can't rely solely on sites such as these when picking a contractor. A reader complained that even contractors that get A ratings on Angie's List aren't necessarily licensed (a gripe of Sieber's as well). Hicks told me that licensing is a complicated matter and Angie's List can't be up to date with every contractor's specifics. Instead, she's working to provide links from Angie's List to the appropriate authority so consumers can do their own checking.

· These sites are themselves businesses, and they make their money in different ways. Several contractors complained that they were vigorously solicited by Angie's List salespeople to advertise on the site. Hicks said businesses that receive an A or B rating are invited to provide money-saving coupons for members, garnering a higher position on the site's search page. There is a fee for that. "If a company falls [below a B], the right to run the coupon is revoked," she said.

About a half-dozen of Sieber's ex-customers have come together as a sort of victims support group, meeting to compare notes on their experiences and urging local officials to take action against the contractor.

Bennett Rushkoff of the District's Office of the Attorney General said the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs "has received complaints from consumers [about SCS], and the Office of Consumer Protection and the Attorney General's Office are working together to inquire into the complaints and determine what happened and whether any laws were violated."

Sieber said Angie's List set out to torpedo him. "They ruined a company I was going to leave to my son," he said. "It's been crippled. That's the truth."

Whether that's the whole truth and nothing but the truth could be up to a court to decide.

Chat with me tomorrow at 1 p.m. Go tohttp://www.washingtonpost.com/liveonline.