Opinion On Service Magic ?

framing 97

Hi

I was wandering if anyone has any experience with Service magic the online service company that provides you with job leads. I am thinking about joining but Im not sure. I might try to put an ad in the local newspaper ( pennysaver). Ive been on my own since 1997 doing all new construction for builders but now I'm thinking of just doing home improvement. Im from Suffolk County on Long Island. This is my first time posting to this site.

CheckmateOhio

Okay, you just opened a flood gate here Did ya try the search feature ?
MANY MANY say they SUCK.

I joined 2 weeks ago and have had 5 leads so far
I paid $245 for these 5 leads
I got one job that I am on now and will profit about $2200.
I looked at another one today which seems like a sure thing, but smaller. Probably profit $1,000
I got stood up on one (so far)
And I still have to go look at 2 of them this week.

As of right NOW I am happy with service master and all the leads I got SEEM to be good leads. We will have to see though as I am sure they probably throw the good leads at the new guy to keep em.

SuperiorBuilt

Hello Framing 97,
I am also from Suffolk County NY . I used Service Magic in March of 2005. I had nothing but a bad experience. I would say RUN AWAY

tinner666

Spend your money on flyers and put them in the neighborhood you want to service.

yockremod

I would not use them. We kept buying leads and then they would just people who were just curious about how much it would cost. They weren't serious. We have had luck with Reliable Remodeler. They call a person before they send the lead to make sure it is a for sure thing.

IBUILD

Service Magic SUCKS!!! Enough said

danzu20

I used them, and I had bad experience,they sell the same lead to many contractors, they are suposse to sell it to max of 5 contractors..
they suck. I paid about $400,00 and I did a small job for $130,00

Ahidjou

i am from Oregon and i have been using Reliable remodeler.com I have a guy there that hooks me and all my friends up. He dishes me a few here and there. I used service magic when i first started my company. I hated them I'll never suggest them to any one. If you want to generate real business like the person above said. reliable remodeler. You get your own guy to talk to and e mail. any way I have landed about 45% some times less but over all Im very pleased with my guy there. If you need any info on these guys e mail me. boscott270@gmail.com

MRHH

I'm using ReliableRemodeler. You pay 30/month and get a preview of the leads and choose what to pay for. I will post some that I have received. Spent $100 for leads and have 2 appts. I'll let you know how they turn out. I'd say this is a better set up.

IBUILD

After you pay the referral fees, you have to pay a bid fee for plans on the project, and if you dont get it too bad!!

MRHH

The guy I go thru, Ronl @ reliableremodeler . com is very good about this. If you can't get in to meet the person, let him know and he will credit you for the bid price. He's been good to me so far.

Shoalsfugro

I use http://www.constructiondeal.com/ have been very good leads I get update daily emails of available jobs.

Rob Saxon

Service Magic SUCKS!!!

deck king

I have used service magic in the past and their service has been fair, but not great. I did have a problem (with a past customer who defaulted on our contract and we stopped work on the project) who contacted Service magic and claimed my company ripped them off even though service magic did not provide that customer as a lead. This customer was able to harass me through service magic's automated system sending me hundreds if not thousands of text messages( which I had to pay my phone company for) at all hours of the night & day. When I addressed the situation with service magic management they did nothing and did not even verify if the customers complaint was accurate they just suspended my service. after a month they reinstated the service but would not offer a refund or appology, so I cancelled the service. The customer to lead ratio was about 25% I could sit down with, of those 5% purchased, 15 % were not interested in a bid but got lost in the system 40% unreachable

As far as reliable remodeler.com goes, I purchased over 200 leads and was only able to contact about 7% of the leads I bought. about 2% of those
purchased, the disturbing thing with this company is they claim only 3-5 contractors get each, lead but as i talked to the customers I actually could get on the phone, they ALL said they received more than 20 calls from different contractors. I was able to get replacement leads but I think they would only give leads that were a couple of days old and they were no better than the origional leads, and after a while they started to charge $ 5.00 for replacement leads. thats when I cancelled the service.

Now alot of these companies will try to charge you anywhere from $40.00 to $160.00 per lead, don't fall for this, you can talk them down. after all they need contractors to get consumers, if they don't budge on price, go to the next one.

The one company I did like was Quality Smith. the leads were about $ 100.00 but they set the appointment and if you don't sit with the customer you don't get charged, but they moniter you appointments so if you constantly cancell appointments they will drop you.

good luck guys.

Curb Guy

ServiceMagic sucks. Was told to expect a 10% close rate. I told her my current rate is 80%. She said I was a lier. How old are their referals? Did a job for a customer in 2007. Signed up with ServiceMagic in the Summer of 2008. Got a lead for the job I ALREADY FINISHED 1 year earlier! Then I understood just what a scam it really is.

SK Builders

If you have anymore info on quality smith, I'm sure we all would like to hear about them a little more in depth...do you have a choice on purchasing the leads? Thanks for anymore info...I'm going to try and check them out right now...Scott

__________________
Scott-master of my domain...

Trojan

SM is equvilant too arming old people and kids against an invading army... It really dosn't work; however my concern is SM is getting too big, and its saturting the market - My experience have been poor.

jolin39

How is Service Magic results in San Mateo, Santa Clara County for contractors? We spent about $2,000.00 per month for Reliable Remodler in '06, '07, '08, '09. Tom hampton is a crook. He gave us $3,000.00 in leads in a row... All bad plus he would take money off our company credit card all the time. He always said "sorry john it was an accident." but never gave us a refund. I saw a response to Bo Scott of Reliable Remodler. He was good for a long time but he was fired for using peoples credit cards for personal use including ours. I did get some good leads from him. I DO NOT RECOMEND them at all. I have used Service Magic years ago but not lately.

Busyman

I am also from Suffolk county, so I know how competative it can be out here! Oh and Tinner had a good point about the flyers. I started throwing flyers on peoples driveways this year, (at the begininng of the end of our economy) and within the first 100 I got a 5k patio job witch makes the next 20 years of flyers worht it.

I used service magic for about a year starting in 08. I cant say they were great but I have no major complaints. As long as you respond to the leads as soon as possible you have a chance at getting them. The customer service was pretty good as well. If I had any complaints or discrepencies they helped me out, at least most of the time.

Bad leads are a part of the business. I am not defending sm but understand that that will be a part of the cost of doing them.

Towards the end of my membership I did a little detective work and found out that on more than one occasion the lead I received had been BOMBARDED with call from contractors. IF this happened once or twice I would chalk it up to a very curious quote crazy customer, but the slower it got (in general) the more times this seemed to happen.

All in all, I got some of my biggest jobs to date from SM, so in that respect I like them, but trust is another issue entirely.

I am going to give bid clerk a try... Unless someone has anything to warn me about.

jolin39

[I am also a member of bid clerk and bid sync and onvia I beleive bid sync we paid up fron 3100.00 for the year jobs are ok mostly goverment jobs and they take a while to get paid.Bid clerk is cheap about 99.00 a month i beleive,The problem is the leads sometimes are old or already heave past,they are not up to date but you will find alot ok jobs but 20 to 65 others are also bidding on the same job..JOHN