ServiceMagic

Teetorbilt

Anyone else had experience with this company? They ragged me to death about 2 yrs. ago with some woman who barely spoke English. Now they send me some smoke and mirror deal. My reply was;

You have got to be kidding! I'm sick and tired of all of the 'rebate' crappola.
I'm a contractor and have little enough time for all of the rest of the rebate garbage related to tools and office equipment. Why don't you just offer a straight-up deal?
I think that I will just stay with the other National companies that get by without all of the marketing hoopla.

Maybe I did have a bad day starting with 8" of tubing stuck up my nose but I'm getting tired of others trying to make money off of my endevours for doing so little.

Comments?

hatchet

They've ragged on me quite a bit for advertising on my website - I finally told them that I don't get many contractors on my site.. no more calls

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

Grumpy

Jeez hatchet, I'd have given them a cost per impression deal and claled it a day.

Teetor, the rebates are instantaneously. You don't have to send in a filled out form, they are automatic.

hatchet

They only wanted to do a cost per sign-up.. which IMO only clutters up my pages with misdirected advertising.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
Superior MT Contractor

DecksEtc

When I told them I was in Canada they stopped right away!

scott Hartman

i used them several times and was able to meet with prospective customers, but never won a job. i think the customer just wants to see how much it will cost them to do the job, but are not motivated

Cole

You must not be selling hard enough!!!!

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Tulsa's Leader in Outdoor Living Construction | Facebook | Tulsa Pergola Builder | Tulsa Outdoor Kitchens

Grumpy

Agreed

Grumpy

Ya know... I am gonna quit advocating them because A) I get nothing for it. B) I seem like the only contractor who knows how to use em and C) Why boost the comitition?

I kid, I kid!

Mike Finley

There may be something to what Scott feels about them. I had only just started using these online services before the season slowed down and out of the few that I took, I had 2 very flakey experiences. The flakest was one where the wife set an appointment with me, the husband called back the next day before the appointment to cancel it. It seems they were having a "discussion" about redoing the bathroom and the wife took it upon herself to immediately start the process, once the husband found out what she was doing he ended it all immediately.

I have never had that expercience from someone calling through an advertisement I placed. Like I said I have only had very limited experience with these services, but to have 2 out the 6 be so bizarre might say back-up Scott's statement.

Grumpy

Yeah they all suck!

<thinks to himself> More leads for me! <end evil thoughts>

Glasshousebltr

Service Magic pressed on me for awhile with alot of promises, I didn't let them in.

Bob

QualitySmith

Ok, I admit I work for one of the better companies, QualitySmith. We work hard to make sure both contractors and customers talk directly to real human beings, and we follow through. You all know that follow through is a big reason you get the bid (or don't). So, we keep that policy at the fore.

I'd love to hear from contractors like you to find out what you need, how we can supply it, and what other services you'd like to see provided.

Glasshousebltr

OK Quality, find me some homeowners looking for glass rooms in the mid west. I'll give your company a commision.

Bob

Teetorbilt

Update: I have played around with ServiceMagic since the original post.
The deal they gave me is this; $30.00 per lead and I have to give them a CC# to charge it to, giving them carte blanche to charge me. HEHE!
I filled out the list on their site as to what I would be willing to do and for the first week recieved nothing but dodo's and then the rep calls me. I describe the problem and we narrow things down (supposedly) and start all over again.
I have been recieving 2-3 leads per day and so far only two have matched the modified profile and they were in a county in which I am not licensed. I have to assume that I would have been charged for these 'leads' as quickly as they were sent (a lot of stress is placed on realtime turnover) and then have to spend more time explaining why the leads were not qualified. I have a sneaking susption that they do not remove the charges from your CC and opt for future credit.
I may have fallen off of a banana truck but it wasn't yesterday!

ProWallGuy

Teetor, that happened to a fellow paperhanger I know from NY. His only 'lead' was a call he received from another paperhanger in his area, asking him if he had been having problems with Servicemagic. He informed the company that the call he recieved was not a lead, and the charges on his card should be credited. Well, obviously, they didn't, and it got ugly from there. After hearing this story, it left a bad feeling about this company. Other NGPP members have had similar experiences.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

Mike Finley

This is my biggest problem with these online leads services. Each of them seems to have some kind of kink to their modes of operation. I'm at a loss why these businesses resort to these twisted scenarios if they trully could just do what they say they can do.

If you have a honest to goodness homeowner who wants something done and is willing to choose one of the contractors who buys the lead to do the job, why do you have to do anything other than sell the lead? It stinks to me that what they have to offer isn't exactly what they say they do.

It reminds me so much of people trying to sell Amway to you, it takes you an hour to get them to admit it is Amway they are representing.

I bought a bogus lead from Improvenet.com, I contacted them as their guarantee states, of course you have to do it by phone, not email, then described it to him and he tells me that he is going to have to pass it along to his superiors because he isn't sure it qualifies as a bogus lead. The details were a wife put the project out to improvenet, I bought it and contacted her, turns out her and her husband were not on the same page and he nixed the whole thing, really bitching her out I got the feeling, apparently all they did was talk about doing something and she runs out and starts getting bids. The guy from Improvenet wasn't sure this would qualify, because technically the lead was put out from her in "good faith" she did want the work done.

What a load. After I get their approval they give me store credit, and of course it isn't automatic, the next time I wanted to buy a lead I needed to call them and tell them the lead I want and they would apply my credit - what a freaken mess. I said wouldn't it be just a bit easier to just void the original charge or credit it back to my credit card and lets go from there? No way. Like I said, they just don't seem to be legit in the way to do business, everything is a chore and some sort of kink.

tandom

Leads are not quality leads, I used them, Got some jobs, but unless you pay for what you sell, NO referral service is worth it.

Mike Finley

What does "pay for what you sell" mean?

Grumpy

I believe he means give a "win fee", like improvenet does (or used to do), and pay only for the jobs you sell. This means you don't pay your lead broker unless you sell the job, but if you do sell the job you usually pay out more.

You will find this is the model most lead services follow at their startup stages and once they get contractors hooked they switch over to pay per lead.