How listings get here — and how they leave

The check

We list an operator only when we can check five things: the business name, the base city, a working phone number the business itself publishes, proof that it offers mobile service, and its service area in its own words. The source is the operator's own website, or two public sources that agree. If we cannot check the phone or the service area, the operator is not listed yet. They wait in a queue. That is why some regions start short. It is also why a new state opens only after its own census passes the same bar.

The death clock

Every listing prints the date it was checked. We re-check listings on a rolling cycle. A listing we cannot re-check is marked stale, then removed. A directory full of dead numbers is how the big sites failed. Listings that "haven't been updated in years" are the known failure in this trade. The clock is the fix.

What we never do

No invented listings, reviews, ratings or prices. Rates appear only where the operator publishes them. Each rate is stamped with its source and the date we read it. Ratings appear only where the operator posts them on their own site. We do not copy text, photos or reviews from other directories or from operators' sites. No business can pay to change a rating, a checked date, or another operator's listing. This site does not link out to listed businesses. Names and facts print as text.

The anti-shell rule

We list the business that shows up and does the work, and its name is the name on the bill. A listing must be the business that performs the work and invoices the customer. Lead resellers, brokers, and shell or front listings are excluded. Marketing help — someone running a real business’s page, ads or phones — is allowed and is not a violation. Listings are held in moderation when the number answers under a different name or rings a call center, when no registry or insurance anchor exists in the business’s own name, when no named human is attached to the profile, when the claimed service area is implausibly large, or when near-identical listings appear across towns or trades. There is also no margin in gaming this: service requests are free to every claimed local pro, so cornering or reselling them buys nothing.

Why it matters in this trade

Florida — our first market — has no state license for boat mechanics. Its written-estimate law covers cars, not boats. Owners say no-shows, lost parts deposits and bills that grow with no warning are routine. So this directory prints the checks an owner would run alone: a real business footprint, a checked date, published rates. As operators claim their listings and attest to their terms, deposit and written-estimate policies become listing fields too.