For starters, Neighbor2Neighbor is a small, locally-based business, not a publicly traded online enterprise. We are committed to providing our Los Angles area neighbors with a reliable directory of great services. We take time to personally research each one of the handpicked services in our guide, checking their licensing, speaking with their customers, interviewing the business owners. When complaints arise we hear both sides of the conflict and do our best to help the parties reach a mutually agreeable resolution. We want our directory to benefit everyone connected.

To this end, we only list companies we believe in, and we don't tolerate the fake reviews that are so common on other sites. You don’t need to weed through a ton of reviews trying to figure out which ones are authentic, and which ones were written by the plumber’s wife. Many times (and always for the initial reviews) we speak with the references directly on the phone for 10-30 minutes each. This way, we get a good sense of who’s real and what their experience with the company was like.

People have tried to fool us! For example, we recently called the references for a landscape company, and they got evasive as we dug into the specifics of the work supposedly done for them. We let the company owner know that his references weren’t working out. He got angry and said that was impossible because he’d given us the numbers of his brother-in-law, his cousin and so on! This is the kind of stuff we run into more often than you might imagine!

Each of the for-profit handpicked services pays a membership fee to be listed in Neighbor2Neighbor. This income allows us to provide our service at no cost to Los Angeles area residents and to support local nonprofits that we believe in. A company must always pass our screening process first to achieve handpicked status and cannot simply pay their way in.

We know there are other business models out there, but we see no reason why our readers should have to pay to find a good business, let alone pay to write reviews about them.

First, we believe it’s in our interest and, for that matter, everybody’s interest to follow a strict screening process and only promote great services. It’s in our interest because our success depends entirely on our reputation. If someone were to try one of our handpicked services for the first time and had a bad experience, they'd be done with us. They would complain to their community, and our reputation would suffer. We owe it to our readers and to the great business people in our community to keep the standards as high as possible.

That said, we recognize the potential for conflict of interest, since the businesses pay to join Neighbor2Neighbor. So we built in a system for handling legitimate, verifiable complaints. If a neighbor has a poor experience with one of our handpicked services, she can get them removed from the Neighbor2Neighbor community if the company does not take reasonable steps toward correcting the situation. We want to make sure this works for everyone involved.

All of the services listed in Neighbor2Neighbor have come to us via our Nonprofit Benefits Program, readers, handpicked business owners and online groups that we belong to. Once we hear about a company, we take the first step of doing background research to check for proper licensing and insurance (when applicable), as well as the company's reputation in the community.

Most importantly, in order for a company to become a handpicked service listed in Neighbor2Neighbor, they must pass our screening process! We only include businesses we believe in strongly and would recommend to our own friends and family.

In order for a recommended company to become one of our handpicked services, they must first pass our screening process. The company you recommended should show up as a Recommended Business underneath the Handpicked Services on the search landing page.

Neighbor2Neighbor is a homegrown, Los Angeles native. We began on the westside, and have expanded to cover four different editions within the Los Angeles area: Westside (West of the 405, from Mailbu to El Segundo), Central (East of the 405 and out to Silverlake), the San Fernando Valley and the San Gabriel Valley. As we grow taproots and gain requests from community members and small business owners alike, we plan to launch future editions in the South Bay and Conejo Valley.

First we contact the reader to verify what happened. Then we contact the business owner to relay the complaint. 99 percent of the time it’s an honest mistake: a call was missed by an answering service, or some paperwork slipped through the cracks. A good business owner wants to hear honest feedback, so they can improve their company’s service and they’ll contact the customer to take care of the mistake.

We follow up to make sure the reader is satisfied with the results.

Since 2005, we have listed maybe a half dozen businesses in the directory that did not belong. If a business does not make it right with the customer, and the complaint is legitimate, that business is removed from the website, as well as from subsequent editions of the handbook.

In order for a recommended company to become one of our handpicked services, they must first pass our screening process. The company you recommended should show up as a Recommended Business underneath the Handpicked Services on the search landing page.

You may submit anonymous feedback to us that we will add to the company's file for our internal use. That said, we never publish anonymous user reviews. We take feedback very seriously and it is important for us to be able to verify that it comes from legitimate sources. This is to avoid publishing a glowing review left by the plumber's wife, or a complaint filed by a company's competitor.

Certainly! We always value hearing your feedback when issues arise and it is not necessary to publish a complaint on the website if you do not wish to. Simply select your publishing preference as part of the Review-A-Service page and we will oblige. With your permission, we are also happy to reach out to the business owner to learn more about what might be going on and to see if there is a way they might make the situation right for you.

We appreciate being in the loop in these cases. There are lots of reasons why someone might not be in touch right away, but even if the business owner suddenly left town to care for their sick aunt, they should always have an outgoing message to let people know. Many of our businesses are individuals who might not have office staff, and your feedback allows them to refine their customer service.

We are happy to reach out to the service provider and to make sure that you have prompt assistance for the issue at hand.

Yes. Just submit your review without clicking the button that gives us permission to contact the company's owner.

Glad you asked! Always get at least three bids for a larger project, and speak with at least three references from any company before hiring them. Make sure you have good rapport and clear communication with those people whom you'll work with directly. For home improvement projects, don't forget to check the Contractors State License Board for proper licensing if your project is over $500 and requires a license. For each company listed in our directory, you'll find direct links to their licensing pages listed under their Contact Info tab.

When you search for a service, N2N's handpicked entries will appear at the top of the list of search results. Below this you will find services that have come recommended to us, but that we have not fully screened. If you still can’t find what you are looking for, feel free to email or call us to see if we have any recent recommendations not yet listed. We can also ask check with our handpicked services to see if they have any leads.

In order to become one of our Handpicked Services, a company must first pass our screening process. For the most benefit to the community, on our website we also publish the companies that have come recommended by at least one customer as Recommended Services. We'd love to hear your feedback so if you end up using any of our recommended services, please let us know how it goes!

Since our first edition in 2005 we’ve donated free pages of advertising in our handbooks to locally-based nonprofit organizations. The idea is to give them a platform to educate our readers about ways they might improve their impact on the local ecology—both environmentally and socially.

Our Nonprofit Benefits Program works like this: we will donate $10 to the handpicked nonprofit of your choice every time you recommend one of your favorite services.

It’s a tough climate out there for nonprofits with so many people in need. We’re looking at other ways that Neighbor2Neighbor can contribute. Let us know if you have any ideas.

And if there’s a local nonprofit you love, please let us know about them.

Yes! Contact us for a free subscription! You will receive one handbook per year around the end of January. We do not share or sell our subscriber list with anyone.

To subscribe, scroll to the bottom of this page and fill our our subscription form. You can also email us or give us a call at (310) 857-7768.

We publish our printed directory every January and mail it throughout the year. Our online directory is updated every week.

To share our resource with the largest benefit to all, we distribute Neighbor2Neighbor to various neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area throughout the year. We purchase our mailing lists from our list provider, Valassis, who gets their information from public records that are cross-referenced with the United States Postal Service.

If you would like to receive an edition that is different than the one you currently have, just let us know. We will happily send an extra handbook your way. We can also send books to your friend or family members. Finally, you can look to the bottom of each page on this site for PDF versions of the current handbooks.

Email us if you would like to unsubscribe to our handbook. Please include the full name and address on the back of the handbook. We will remove you from all of our future annual mailings.

We always start with a recommendation from a real customer who is not affiliated personally or professionally with a company. That customer can email us, call us or simply go to our Review a Service page.

Next, we'll run your company through our screening process. Check out Become a Handpicked Service to learn more about how joining the N2N community can benefit your business.

We cannot reprint reviews from other sites because we cannot verify them in any way. We also do not have approval from the reviewers to publish their reviews on our site.

Also, we stand by our vetting process. We require 5-8 references whom we speak with directly.

Each review is our endorsement of the company that we have personally selected for inclusion in the N2N directory. By the time we have fully screened your business, we have more than enough information to write a review that captures the essence of your business. We welcome your input on your page to ensure it is accurate and emphasizes the qualities you feel most represent your service.

You can submit high resolution photos for publication. There is no additional cost for having your photo taken by a professional N2N photographer.