If the site itself let you down, for instance in how a request was forwarded, how your details were treated or an error in the text, send a note through the contact form. Mention your name, your city or township and the rough date of the request, describe the problem, and it will be reviewed and answered.

No contract for basement work ever includes this site as a party, which leaves it no standing to intervene between you and a contractor. Disputes over a contractor's work, price, paperwork, billing or conduct begin with that contractor: set out your concern in writing and keep a copy for yourself.

If that gets nowhere, several public offices can help. Licensing complaints go to LARA, the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, through its online complaint process at michigan.gov/lara. The Attorney General's Consumer Protection team takes consumer complaints at 517-335-7599 or toll-free at 877-765-8388. For a building permit question about a home inside the City, contact the Development Center at 616-456-4100. Outside the City, take permit questions to your own city or township permit office or the inspector it uses.

Poor treatment by a contractor you reached through this site is worth reporting to us as well. The site can't rule on disputes or require refunds, yet those reports weigh on whether that business may go on advertising here.

Michigan law governs this complaints policy.