Bob's Carpet Mart - deal or no deal?

[Californianz]

Great comments - I'm going to check with Wade's and Chappies too - thanks everyone!

We've already selected the exact specific (Anderson - American Scrape - made in USA) flooring we want to purchase, so any pricing would be apples to apples only - we won't go for a no-name competitive product.

As far as "Angies List" is concerned - I design websites and as far as I'm concerned I think they are a scam.
Why would any consumer PAY for the privilege of looking up services and goods?
Last I checked the internet is free.
And there are countless ways to search for information/references - including for instance - this forum!
Why would business owners PAY to be listed when there are a zillion other "directory" services out there?
Many of the countless free directory services allow and encourage user reviews - free.
Arguably "Google" is the one the businesses should be paying - or Yahoo.
"Ad Words" advertising dollars buy higher search rankings and ad boxes.
SEO Optimization get higher rankings for web search terms for the company.
Good web design will give actual references with contact info. (not just made up ones)
And yes, anyone can fake ANYTHING on the internet if they really want to - including/especially things like Angies List reviews
Besides checking up on their licensing and credentials - check BBB.org - it's also free. Bob's does seem to average 12 BBB complaints a year across a chain of 17 stores that likely do tens of thousands of transactions per year. Hard to say what this means.

I could go on and on but you get the idea - I'm not a fan of Angies List. lol

Avalon, also thanks - you did inspire me to lookup the BBB cases for Bob's though, so we know what to watch out for - even though there were many manufacturing related claims, some were service related. We'll make sure to get guarantees and specifics in writing if we do decide to go with them. They did seem to resolve every single complaint - so that's good.

[Avalon08]

Angie's List is used extensively in my area (Phila.) and it is extremely helpful when you're looking for a contractor, where quality can vary widely. It was worth it to me when I was looking for things like "gutter installation" or "plumbers" where I didn't want to pick a name out of the phone book. The businesses cannot pay to advertise in it, apparently, so the subscribers pay a small yearly fee. It contains a lot of detailed information not listed on other sites (e.g., cost of the project being reviewed). I am not familiar with all those sites you mentioned, and it's worth it to me to have a centralized large review site rather than a bunch of scattered reviews. I've had success with it so far.

Let us know how you make out with Bob's. I will be looking for new flooring in FL later this year.

[Californianz]

Just a small update here - neither Wades or Chappies were able to compete - not even close. A surprise however was Manasota - they are really working hard to beat Bobs pricing and even did it on the flooring materials alone - however they are struggling a bit to even be able to match prices on - tile removal, molding & transitions etc. - in the end it looks like they might be close to matching and possibly beating out Bob's, though so far they haven't given "floating" floor prices - only glue down - which then also requires approx $1800 of glue materials on top. FWIW I gave them a scan of Bob's quote, but getting apples to apples compared as line items is still eluding me just a bit.