Review on Home Advisor should we contact the BBB Better Business Bureau

Ron Musgraves

Exterior Restoration Specialist
Staff member
http://www.homeadvisor.com


Review on Home Advisor should we contact the BBB Better Business Bureau

The Home advisor has been contacting members of our industry through Bulletin Boards & other forms of social Media.

Seems they like to misrepresent themselves in the Engagement, they seem to imply they are affiliated with the National Association.

Home Advisor some feel its a good service others Feel its a bad service


Whats your thoughts on them and this Situation?
 
I believe it's high time to go after them aggressively. They have obviously used the UAMCC in a intentionally fraudulent way so I'd say contacting the BBB and even the FTC would be in order.

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I'm sick of Hom e a dviso r, thum btack,an gies list etc... they are basically get rich quick schemers that steal local leads and sell them to local contractors. They dominate the first page for everything and are screwing all the local contractors that have a web presence and basically spend money for SEO, to no avail. The first page of google is literally 1-2 real local companies and the rest are scammers pretending to be from around here stealing leads. I'm wondering if a barrage of complaints to google will result in any relief? I have purposely spaced out the names of theses thiefs so I don't help them with SEO
 
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Im on the verge of sueing them on harassment......they are terrible
 
Hoke` advisor calls me at least once a week. I let them get threw there spell then I proceed to tell the individual that they work for a chitty company that scams business owners out of money. It is pretty funny at the end on the conversation becuase i get them to agree.

I have the same complaints as the guy in the video.
 
They called me yesterday. Told me they got my name and number from the UAMCC Contractor Directory, which there is no law against, however I will not pay a yearly fee of $288 + $10 per lead. I told them no thanks that I would generate my own leads. Seems like a scheme to me.
 
They are getting better and better at getting through to me... I received a phone call from a local number about a week ago.

A woman says "Hey do you do pressure washing? I am looking to get about 13 buildings cleaned. Do you have the ability to clean these buildings or is it too much work for you?" That's basically how the conversation went for about a minute... She then says well I'm so and so from hoe advisor and we have 13 people who need buildings cleaned in your area... CLICK!

Hoe advisor, and several other listing companies call me constantly... They all have been calling from local numbers, and continue to waste my time.
 
I would put it up on the UAMCC site that they are mis-representing themselves, how the UAMCC is not working with them or affiliated with them in any way and then have an attorney send them cease and decist letters along with phone calls so they stop this nonsense.

I have received calls about every other day from them for over a couple weeks now, I just hang up on them if I answer, when they call from the numbers I saved on my phone as "scam" I do not answer knowing who they are.
 
So, why not send them a bill? I figure a $288 start up fee and then $10 for every time that they have called a UAMCC contractor, contributing, or not, should be fair.

Hey, whats good for them, is good for the UAMCC, right?
 
What are Home Advisors initials HA for hahaha got your money sucker. Went through this with Service Magic with my remodeling company. Now my margins were much hire $5000- $150000. and still it cost a fortune. Same issues as the video poor response rate, tire kickers and bidding against lowballers. They were pretty good about lead cost returns but it drove me crazy wasting time
 
I realize this is an old thread, but I am new to the forum and ran across it and figured I'd give my HA experience.
Personally, for us, it works great. I set a monthly budget (ex. $500.00) Each lead is 14.00-25.00 In my line of work, it's pretty standard that no one is giving "free estimates". All of my competitors along with myself have a standard truck trip that is charged before going to the house. (if not they don't stay in business long) Once inspection and estimate of repairs are given if the customer chooses to have us do the work we knock of the inspection fee. If they choose to think on it for a bit, then I've made a small amount of money and covered my expenses. There are times where HA absolutely stinks, the calls that come in are tire kickers, wont call you back or respond to emails, etc. It's all part of the game I guess.
During my busy season when I'm dealing with repeat clients I adjust my monthly budget a little lower which in turn keeps my phone from ringing while I'm working.
You can throw all the money you want in your monthly budget, if the leads arent there you arent getting charged. Period. There are months where I do not exhaust my monthly budget.
Over the years, I've done almost every type of advertising you can think of. For me, HA has been a huge ROI. Also, once I make contact with that customer, they no longer go through HA for my services ever again. Business cards, follow up emails, etc. Forward scheduling all ensure that I never pay for that customer again. Not to mention the referrals I get from these jobs. Also, once I have that customers lead information (after all, I paid for it) I keep their info. Even the leads that I did not make contact with or the ones that I didn't win the job. They are all on my annual mailing list in which my postcards I sent out just before my season approaches. I can't begin to tell you how many people call and say, I'm glad you sent this to me the company I chose last year is out of business or they weren't happy with them.
I can see where for some businesses HA simply would not work. It is and can be a headache at times.
 
Yeah, whether or not there is good ROI and quality leads are not the only issues. What I can't stand about them (and thumb and angie etc) is that they can position themselves (due to massive budgets and nationwide seo) above actual local contractors. In other words...if you have a decent ranking website then join up with home advisor...you are competing with yourself. Its like stealing what is mine, and selling it back to me. Home advisor actually had the gall to claim one of my local listings on an obscure search engine and put their phone number in there. Wish I knew what can be done about this.
 
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Yeah, whether or not there is good ROI and quality leads are not the only issues. What I can't stand about them (and thumb and angie etc) is that they can position themselves (due to massive budgets and nationwide seo) above actual local contractors. In other words...if you have a decent ranking website then join up with home advisor...you are competing with yourself. Its like stealing what is mine, and selling it back to me. Home advisor actually had the gall to claim one of my local listings on an obscure search engine and put their phone number in there. Wish I knew what can be done about this.
spot on. google has partnered with home advisor also so not much can be done. Besides dominating seo and paid ads, they also have several aliases they go by to try to completely take over search rankings. More and more pop up everyday. They have pressure washing sites and power washing sites, gutter cleaning driveway cleaning, everything.
 
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