• Many companies claim to be licensed and insured when they are not. Many even have official looking documents and business cards that read “licensed and insured”.

• Because they aren’t regulated, unlicensed companies often use inferior materials and provide shoddy workmanship. Workers are often unfamiliar with building codes and ignore needed inspections. It is unsafe and can also make selling the home in the future difficult or expensive.

• It often costs a homeowner more in the long run than if they had hired a licensed, insured company in the first place.

• If a homeowner hires an unlicensed company or person and someone is hurt, courts have determined that the homeowner was the employer and therefore liable for the worker’s injuries and lost wages.

• Many homeowner insurance policies exclude damage done by unlicensed, uninsured work, making repairs and injured worker’s expenses the homeowner’s personal liability.

• Hiring a licensed and insured company does not guarantee quality and satisfaction. It is important to investigate a company’s quality and customer service record.

• The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior whether it is customer service or the criminal activity of an employee. It is important to understand the history of both.

• Many criminals use their employment to find their next victim. Once on the property, criminals can learn what belongings are inside, if there is an alarm system or dog, when the owners are home and where the easiest access points are, rather than walk around looking in windows where someone is likely to notice and call the police.

• Many service companies who claim to background check their employees do not. Of the few who actually perform checks, many perform them incompletely, only checking one county or state or doing an unreliable internet check.

• Of the small percentage of companies that perform proper background checks, many do not have written guidelines as to who they will not hire and even when they do, those guidelines are at times ignored by a hiring manager in a hurry to hire someone, a complicit HR person or even an owner who decides the candidate “seems like a nice guy”.

• Every day companies large and small introduce dangerous felons into their customer’s lives.

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How Are We Different?

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AsktheSeal.com is a free service to consumers. You do not have to pay and you do not have to enter any personal information. AsktheSeal.com verifies state license, insurance, customer satisfaction and performs annual criminal and sex offender checks on the owner and employees who interact with the public or their personal information. Employees are issued AsktheSeal.com photo IDs verifying their background checks and companies with the Seal of Approval can email you an appointment confirmation with the employee’s photo and verification of background check so you know who you are opening your door for. 

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Companies with the AsktheSeal.com Seal of Approval can email you an appointment confirmation that includes a photo and verification of background check of the employee coming to your home or business. The employee will also be wearing a company photo ID badge issued by AsktheSeal.com further verifying their background check and identity.

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