Service Magic....

Jason Whipple

Must be your one of those High School drop outs too, judging from your spelling? If your going to imply that you're a businessman; at the very least; spell DOLLAR right

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Jason E Whipple, General Manager
Historic House Restoration, Cincinnati, Ohio
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Duane1982

lmao. I called that "company". Got a sales rep(answered reception phone" that spoke about as well as this guy typed. Leads can be up to 100.00 a piece blah blah. Had no answers to my questions and was very poorly trained. I give them a f-. Anyone else call?

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http://www.pooleconstruction.net

MIbeachbuilder

I have been contacted by them twice and they keep sending me emails to 'try it free for a month'...so silly me.........i enter ALL my info only to get to the part where you have to enter your cc# just in case you decide to stay on beyond the 30 days but there is a catch to that.....In order to cancel they say that you have to send them notice IN WRITING at least 10 days before your 30 day trial membership is over so that they can "replace" you with another client. If there is no "cancel" button obvious to me, im not signing up.

Lead generation services SHOULD verify the lead FIRST before asking the buyer of the lead to waste his/her time and money on said lead. If someone is 'just curious' about having their kitchen remodeled and you pay 50-75$ for the lead because it is a rather big job..... I don't think the HO's are aware how much it does cost to get these leads...

I appreciate that you are all sharing your experiences with these lead gene services. I will save my loot for other advertising avenues.

silvertree

I am a high school dropout so let me say this. Your grammar and spelling are proof of your less than stellar educational achievements. I can understand someone being weak in this area and being exemplary in another. But you have the gall to preach to a group of savvy business owners, some of who have degrees from prestigious universities and all the while spouting nebulous statements that convince me that your picture is the dictionary under the word hyperbole.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

wpc07834

Service magic leads suck.......

GATOR_

Hello all,

I am an owner of a fence company in Colorado, but before my company got up and running I was an employee of ServiceMagic. Let me tell you...ServiceMagic has it's "ups and downs." To get full benefit from the service, you just have to know the tricks of the system. The two main things to remember when setting up an account with ServiceMagic are as follows:

1. Set up a coverage area that you can handle. When I worked at ServiceMagic, contractors would call me everyday and set up a radius of 100+ miles. Think about it...ServiceMagic receives a significant number of hits each month, so why travel so far to do a job? You can have work in your own back yard, basically.

2. Set your monthly spend cap high. ServiceMagic's lead generation system is an automated system, and let's all face it, they are in business to make money just like everyone of us on this site. What I'm trying to say is if you set your monthly target high, you will get more leads. Go out, bid on the projects, and close as many leads as possible. Once you spend what you really want to spend that month on leads, then shut your leads off. Don't get me wrong, ServiceMagic does have it's flaws and you will have to get some replacement leads once in awhile, but if you own the system (don't let the system own you) and you know how to actually sell, then YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL WITH SERVICEMAGIC. If you need more info about it I would be happy to help you discuss the "ups and downs" about ServiceMagic. Oh yeah, make sure you call the customer right away. If you don't, you won't get the job! Good luck!

SM Employee

I was told about this site from a contractor with Servicemagic.com and I just wanted to share some of my advice. I work with nothing but the homeowners at servicemagic.com and here is what I hear everyday

- Contractor never called
- Contractor called and made an appt but never showed
- Contractor was late
- Contractor showed and took a look and promised an estimate but it's a week later and I still don't have it.

Let me tell you something. SM tries it's very hardest to provide quality leads. There are filter depts and my dept (Home Owner Advaocasy) to try and make sure that these people are serious. If they are not they do not get through to you. But it is hard to filter every single lead that comes through. My best advice is if you get a lead call it right away, make an appt, show up early and if you don't want the job tell them. Don't blow them off by ignoring their phone calls. And do what you say you are going to do. And keep in mind that they are GOING to get other estimates. They would be stupid not to. So make you and your company stand out above the rest. Good exsample - I talked with a cons that was building a garage and he had a GC that came out there and offered to take him to another job site he was working at. The cons hopped in his truck with the GC and they went out there and met the crew and the other homeowners. WOW. Thats consumer was impressed! I realize that not all contractors can do that but find something that works for you. Go out of your way for them. Thats apart of business. I am not here to put anyone down by any means but this is what I hear 90% of the day out of the 150 calls I make to homeowners.

J F

To SM employee

good call on upfront name

much easier to read your post if you hit the "ENTER" key every few sentences

going back to my cave...gracias

Jason Whipple

SM employee,

If what you say is true, why do the majority of users (self included) seem to have so many leads that can't or won't be contacted? We do as you suggest, call them right away, email them right away, follow up with the same later that evening and again a day later, then a few days latter. So why are 80% of my leads no contacts?

Another thing, if a contractor doesn't use your exact match system. How do you feel you have the right to use our companies names to market and redirect to your site, then charge us for it?

The last thing I'd like to say is, I noticed your pro forum is closed down. Is seeing the contractors view on things starting to bother you guys? Or is it that you really don't care about our needs/wants? There have been on going threads there about how you could change thing to better our experience with Service Magic. By closing those forums you (SM) have proven that it's all about your wallet and you don't care about anything else.

By the way SM employee, my suggestion to you, sharpen up your resume'. I see "down size" in SM's future if not a total shut down. I've been emailed 3 times in the last 4 months from lawyers pursuing a class action law suit.

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Jason E Whipple, General Manager
Historic House Restoration, Cincinnati, Ohio
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mastertrimmer

Hey JW looks like maybe we made an impact on the SM forums, probably why they shut it down.
Maybe I was right....Tucker went over to Reliable remodeler.

I doubt that SM will watch these fourms, even if they do they can't shut down CT

Jason Whipple

What was your name there?

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Jason E Whipple, General Manager
Historic House Restoration, Cincinnati, Ohio
Facebook | Twitter

mastertrimmer

Hey JW - brianc

ATH

SM Employee,

Allow me to submit that much of the problem about which you are complaining can be blamed on ServiceMagic themselves. Ask yourself, "what is ServiceMagic doing to attract the best quality of contractor?"

I believe that SM is confused about who their customer is. That is, who gives you the money to pay the bills? We used to be a SM customer and we do all the things you are asking for:

- Call all leads
- Show up on-time for appointments (calling if unavoidably more than 5 mins late)
- Respond with a proposal or to tell them we prefer not to take on the job

SM did pretty much everything it could to make more money from us without even a gesture toward improving the product they sold us.

We are no longer doing business with SM. Since we have an excellent reputation with our customer base, it isn't as necessary to deal with the poor product SM provides. Perhaps those who don't have as good a reputation with thier customers find it necessary to continue purchasing SM's poor quality leads.

I have lots more thoughs on SM, their business model, and execution, but, perhaps this small taste will get at least one employee thinking about the business from the customer's (i.e., me and my fellow contractor's) view ... hmmm, isn't that really what you are charging that contractor's should do with the customer leads you sell to them?

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Wayne
Around the House
http://www.MyPowerCouple.com

r1motorhead

Sales man david reed claims to be able to hook your website for your business to hundreds of other pages and sites and promises that your website will be directly linked to service magics site free of charge as soon as you sign on. They list only the beneficial ratings of companies, and through 'direct match' wash there hands of bogus leads. Before you sign up for the service it is promised that they filter leads both coming in and also going to the contractors. Once your signed on they then claim its just advertising. Fraud comes to mind.
They claim they do checking and research for licenses in the areas you wish to serve, false claim and to prove it I was able to add Iowa for my line of work who requires contractor licenses for the state, but I wasn't able to add minnesota who does not require any licensing for my line of work. They offer there so called services in all 50 states of the United States, the goods or promises they make are vigerious 10 point screening. (more like 3 point screening)
What they call a Ten point inspection turns out to be a check for insurance to make it look good and a check on the contractors routing number along with the account numbers. Another false thing they do is tell you leads are direct match, but in fact they sent that same $30 to $60 lead to roughly 3 customers on average, equals about $180 per lead for them, and a piss off customer that go's with someone else completely do to being bombed with calls. Injury to my bank account and my reputation is on the line for buying into there sales pitch, empty fraudulent promises.
This company is immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous; and substantially can injure consumers and contractors alike by mismatching professionals the consumer believes to be qualified, contractor that is slow on work that is having a rough time, by being mismatch and potentially running there reputations.
End result, out of work contractor that may have been legit for there original field, an unhappy customer that has to pay more a second tine to have work done twice, and the people that run ServiceMagic a few dollars richer off this miss portion of others. They fail to disclose material fact at the time of sale of profiles to the consumers who later in the system are the contractors, also to the home owner slash consumer that hires these screened professionals.
They also speak against other lead companies saying how they can't do anything for anyone, (Product disparagement). The whole things built in bad faith.

Blackhammer

Great first post!

Tom The Builder

I had Service Magic since they started. they were good in the beginning, good leads at reasonable prices. Now that they fished in all these contractors they started with the lousy leads at EXTREMELY high prices. After all these years I finally got rid of them.. I am in NY and just heard from a friend that he is opening his own web site for generating leads just to get back at Service Magic. his site is going to be "EstimatesMadeSimple.com" and the first 50 or so Contractors to join would get FREE membership. I already signed up and look forward to doing business with them. They should be up and running by May '08. Give them a shot if your in NY.

Paul Joseph

I tried to sign up ob your friends site, but when you push enter nothing happens. Have him contact me at preplus767@aol.com

Paul Joseph

Tom, have your friend contact me at preplus767@aol.com

woso

... wish I had done my homework and research before signing on with Preferred Remodeling Service. We signed on for $149 a month and we were SUPPOSE to get unlimited leads. We tried it for 3 mths and only received approx 10 during the 3 mth period. We cancelled 3 times only to find we were still getting billed at $149 a month (that's what I get for not monitoring my credit card more closely). In addition, they charged us $199 for some website that we did not request which they apologized for and were going to credit our account. Now, 4 mths later, the $199 has not been credited and the credit card company sided with them for the additional 3 payments charged after the cancellation request; so we lost that $$$. But what about the $199 that they agreed they would credit? Well return receipts are attached to the emails I've sent and it shows they are reading them but there's not been any communication.

Preferred Remodeling Service sucks!!!

Whole House Fan

We are a Whole house fan, Attic Fan, Ceiling Fan installation company in the Midwest. We used to use Service Magic however- just like some of the others that posted here- the leads actually turned out to be very expensive. 25.00 per lead for a customer who is shopping price is a Very expensive way to go.

We now use a company that charges us a flat fee of 250.00 per year and we get all of the leads in a 100 miles radius of our business.

At first we were not sure about using this service however it turned out to be a good investment.

They actually market the products that we install. And IF we had to pay them on a pay per lead basis like Service Magic it would have cost us thousands. I am not into endorsing either however this company delivered what they promised for me. Talk to Mike or Robert good guys!
The company is suburbanfan dot com.