Service magic has crossed the line this time. - Page 2 - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

bbravo · 10-03-2007, 03:11 PM

Service Magic has been a sore subject for me as well. Hopefully this forum will lead to more contractors dumping them.

dougchips · 10-03-2007, 03:46 PM

A good website to dig up dirt. Or just google the company.

daArch · 10-03-2007, 09:08 PM

I am not surprised by any of this. I've never dealt with any of these types of companies because of all the bad reports I've heard. But SM has the most bad reports.

Now what bothers me more than anything else is at the beginnung of this thread about how they keep charging a credit card even when told to "pause" the account.

Two suggestion, refuse ALL VENDORS the right to automatically charge your credit card - including house utilities, newspapers, etc. If they keep you card on file, you WILL be ripped off, either by them or a hacker.

Secondly, cancel you credit cards periodically and request a new number. Citibank does this with no questions asked. It helps them control credit card theft. (this will also halt SM from charging you fees)

And finally - STAY AWAY FROM SERVICE MAGIC !!!

Mike Finley · 10-03-2007, 09:25 PM

When is one of you guys who have been screwed by them going to contact a lawyer and start filling them in on this? Class action lawsuits are very, very lucrative to attorneys. If there is any truth to all this, one hungry lawyer will smell the money and get the ball rolling. With the amount of money some of you have wasted with them over the years you're all looking at some bucks for signing a simple agreement to be part of the class action lawsuit once it gets underway.

Noah's Ark · 10-03-2007, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dibs

color=blue][/color]
I just posted this on S/M boards.
Service Magic Has A New Rating!!! * Thats One Star.... Here is Your Review.
While working on a large deck job the homeowner and I start chit chatting as per the normal stuff. Things like the weather, the condition of the deck and how fast Service Magic was in getting him contractors. He picked my company not only on price but because I took the time to walk through the whole process and informed him of exactly what to expect if we did the job.
Then I almost dropped when he says" I think you should know that Service Magic was pressuring him (homeowner) to sign with one contarctor over the others. They kept calling me (homeowner) and reccomending one contractor, saying they where a 5 Star rating company and it would best to use them over the others.". I was in shock, I was told beore siging up with SM they generate leads only and do not endorse partiular contractors. Sham, I smell kick backs...There got to be something illegal in this, I'm no lawyer but I worked in law firms in the Trade Center prior to 911, I smell something fishy. Makes me womder how many other bids I have lost due to pressure calls from SM!! How many other contacrtors have lost bid because of this? Before I seek what steps to take next I'm looking for feedback.Has this has happend to any other pros out there? Maybe instead of chasing down dead leads I'll contact all past leads as a follow up and pose the question"Did S/M contact you the homeowner as to promote one contractor versus another".
Losing all respect for Service Magic,
Ticked Off!!!

I have heard of this. Does anyone know of anyone that ever had a good experience with SM?

Sonoran West · 10-04-2007, 10:05 PM

I went to Service Magic once and put in some request for information and I got contractors calling on me. When I spoke to them they told me that they had to pay for the lead, my lead, which wasn't even a real lead. You put in a request and Service Magic sends out 3-4 worthless leads, charging the poor contractors $35, or more, per lead. So my thoughtless request forced 4 contreactors to pay Service Magic$140 bucks! Totally ridiculous. It's a license to print money! Or STEAL money?

That is a terrible company only designed to take advantage of people, pure and simple. I think that a class action law suit would be a slam dunk.

hbelectric · 10-13-2007, 02:45 AM

I guess i'm still with the service, but i will never take another lead again.
The lead price ranges, but its always the highest range with them. I never once met an actual customer, i think i talked to one customer and they cancel the job. 99% leave message, no return calls.

I told them there leads were crap, so they put me on this program, where you can choose the leads you want. but it still sucks and i never even look at the leads anymore. I just figured it was impossible to get this many non
return calls, unless it was fixed. I dont even do residential anymore, so its really worthless. i think i lost atleast $150.

I

mattd · 10-14-2007, 09:34 PM

Wow! this is really bad, I was with service magic for about six months. I did around 30 estimates and landed 2 small jobs. Now I hear all the b.s. about how they forward leads to more contractors and then they suppose to. They pressure homeowners to choose certain contractors, no wonder I only booked 2 small Ho jobs...makes me sick...got screwed.

RidgeWalker · 10-17-2007, 01:05 PM

Wow alot of negative feed back about Service Magic. I must say that I have been a member for over two years.

I clearly understood that all i was getting were leads, not jobs.
I clearly understood that I the leads were not exclusive to me.
I clearly understood that it was up to me to make the sale.
I clearly understood that I had to respond to the lead immediatly to better my chances of making an appointment.

I have received a credit for EVERY lead I have asked for.
I have received good leads and bad leads.
I have never to my knowlage competed against more then 3 other contractors, and I can guarantee that most of them never bothered to call anyways.

I beleive that alot of folks that have had negative experiance with Service Magic leads fail to understand the internet phycology of instant gratification. These leads are ready to hear from some one NOW, not next week. On the other hand I also believe that Service Magic doesn't work as well for some construction trades versus others.

I continue to use Service Magic and I take the good with the bad. Nothing ever changes in that regard to marketing. There is NO perfect solution in marketing to ensure all your leads are gold.

For those of you who contend that SM is charging your credit cards without authorization, why don't you just call them and have your account deleted immediatly? Then if any charges appear sue them.

homemaderecipes · 10-18-2007, 09:51 PM

We signed up about the middle of Sept. after 10 days we had 6 calls and only 2 would answer the phone. They say that we owe them money, but I cancelled the credit card and ordered a new one. If you don't they keep trying to charge your card. We have a friend who lives across town, he said they sent him a lead and the HO said where is your bussiness, he said Olathe Ks. The HO said I live in Las Vegas why did they give you my lead.

Frankawitz · 10-19-2007, 07:50 AM

I have got e mails and phone calls from Service Magic and I keep telling them I will look into it, But after hearing what you guys have gone thru I will tell the guy when he calls to remove from the list their company uses to find contractors. I also got a call from RR and they said they were bought up so this tells me a lot about these lead company's

Dibs · 10-19-2007, 05:37 PM

I got a deck restoration lead from S/M,we get the job. While there the H/O inquired about interior painting, we gave them the estimate. Four months later H/O sends a request through S/M for interior painting. I get the lead,my cc charged $35, I call and ask for credit, they say no it is a new lead. I explain to them what happened, to no avail!!! They sing the same old script,bla,,,bla,, policy,,,bla,,,bla,,, I was told when I signed up two years ago once a lead is give it is ours, no matter what service they request after that. Just tired of hounding them down all the time, trying to get credit with wrong leads, that don't fit me profile or work area. On the rare occasion we get credit, they just send another bogus lead. Funny how it always happens on Wednesday their end of billing cycle day! . It's not just the money, $35 every couple weeks no biggie,its more a intergrity thing. S/M has been ok with our ROI, but leads as of late are terrible. I'll stay with them until my Web site is up in about two weeks, then we drop em!! Thanks to the other pros on this site got me motivated on getting a Web Page.
Peace
DiBs
Oh.. We did win that interior paint job so all was not lost!

eagleandbaby · 10-19-2007, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RidgeWalker

Wow alot of negative feed back about Service Magic. I must say that I have been a member for over two years.

I clearly understood that all i was getting were leads, not jobs.
I clearly understood that I the leads were not exclusive to me.
I clearly understood that it was up to me to make the sale.
I clearly understood that I had to respond to the lead immediatly to better my chances of making an appointment.

I have received a credit for EVERY lead I have asked for.
I have received good leads and bad leads.
I have never to my knowlage competed against more then 3 other contractors, and I can guarantee that most of them never bothered to call anyways.

I beleive that alot of folks that have had negative experiance with Service Magic leads fail to understand the internet phycology of instant gratification. These leads are ready to hear from some one NOW, not next week. On the other hand I also believe that Service Magic doesn't work as well for some construction trades versus others.

I continue to use Service Magic and I take the good with the bad. Nothing ever changes in that regard to marketing. There is NO perfect solution in marketing to ensure all your leads are gold.

For those of you who contend that SM is charging your credit cards without authorization, why don't you just call them and have your account deleted immediatly? Then if any charges appear sue them.

I think you are promoting what the say they do and these posts are about the abuses.

cincylawn · 10-22-2007, 09:36 AM

I have paid money on both service magic and contractor.com, same story from both, dead leads. I found out some contractors are showing up to give an estimate from competitors sites, i guess they share them. I did get one lead from ************.com, i found them through google. Free sign up and all leads are free, not sure if that means worse leads or not, but at least i am not spending money on it. good luck.

Kingfisher · 10-22-2007, 11:00 AM

Tried them for about 2 months, Aug and Sept. Very small work area and only large additions and remodels is what I wanted, I got junk. Of the 5 leads only placed 1 bid and that was too small, the rest were not even real jobs just handman fix-its. Could not even get my leads turned off only down to $100 so I quit. Just waste of time and only the cheap work. May work for service guys like plumber, electricain, and handymen but not real contractors who what to pull pirmits and do larger jobs.

deckman22 · 10-23-2007, 09:56 PM

Has anyone heard of or done business with Reliable Remoldlers? Sounds like the same deal as Service Magic.

deckman22 · 10-23-2007, 10:04 PM

I just noticed that reliable remolders has an ad on this site. I would hope that who ever runs this site isn't promoting a company like SM that is scamming us contractors.

**Cole** · 10-23-2007, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deckman22

I just noticed that reliable remolders has an ad on this site. I would hope that who ever runs this site isn't promoting a company like SM that is scamming us contractors.

The ads you see are not sponsors of this site, those are Google ads.

As far as the owner of this site, promoting a lead company, just search the site and see what you find!

dougchips · 10-23-2007, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deckman22

Has anyone heard of or done business with Reliable Remoldlers?

Let's see how I can carefully word this........ XX would send me the same leads that XXXXXX and Preferred XXXXXXXXX would send---not all of them but some of them. There are some rumors about some lead companies selling their leads to other lead companies. Most of these companies claim that they source their leads only from their OWN websites. One of these companies wanted to buy my leads from my site.
I could go on for hours, maybe even days.........now I get my own on-line leads and they are almost free (my own site).

deckman22 · 10-24-2007, 12:19 AM

Doug, Thanks for confirming what I suspected.

Cole,

Are you saying that is site has no control over what ads google places here? I would think a site owner can request certain type ads not be placed on their site ie; porno sites ect. In this case since SM, RR & the like are such a sore subject with contractors maybe the site owners could request not to have their ads here. I've notice both SM & RR on those google ads.

Let's be real, business owners have websites to make money. Ones like this has to generate $ by selling ads since it's not promoting their individual businesses. How much revenue would be lost dropping those specific google ads? Not much I bet.

I don't mean to ragging on the site owners, I'm new here & really like reading the opinions posted here & hope I don't get banned for this post.