Digital marketplace HomeAdvisor is being sued by the owners of eight small home-improvement companies who say the Golden-based company twisted a lead-generation business into a vehicle for greed and abuse.
The plaintiffs all paid to be members of the site and for sales leads. They accuse HomeAdvisor of misrepresenting its services, and allege that the customer leads the company sells are “overwhelmingly bogus.”
The plaintiffs, who include the owners of Westminster-based B&B Carpentry, are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, filed July 16 in U.S. District Court in Denver.
“The allegations are attacking the fundamental business that HomeAdvisor is operating,” said Kimberly Donaldson Smith with Chimicles & Tikellis, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
A spokeswoman for HomeAdvisor, which has agreed to take space in the HUB mixed-use development being built at 36th and Blake streets in RiNo, said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
In addition to Colorado, the plaintiffs own businesses in New Jersey, Illinois, California, Ohio, Florida, New York and Idaho, specializing in services ranging from home inspections to metal roofing.
The plaintiffs say they joined HomeAdvisor as a member between August 2014 and August 2017.
Brad and Linda McHenry, who own B&B Carpentry, told BusinessDen in an interview that they joined HomeAdvisor after a disappointing experience with the company’s predecessor, ServiceMagic, because they were told HomeAdvisor would refund them for money spent on “bogus” leads. They canceled several months later, having again been disappointed with the information provided. They claim they never received a refund.
Brad McHenry estimated they paid HomeAdvisor $3,500.
“I recognize that it’s not a huge amount, but it’s not chump change either,” he said. “And the reality is they robbed me of my time and my talent too.”
The McHenrys and the other plaintiffs are represented by Gordon Netzorg, Mark Williams and Carla Martin of the Denver office of Sherman & Howard, as well Donaldson Smith and other attorneys at the Haverford, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, offices of Chimicles & Tikellis.
The lawsuit makes claims about HomeAdvisor that range from the nature of the company’s business model to the culture of its Colorado offices. The allegations include:
• HomeAdvisor won’t tell companies, or “home improvement professionals,” in advance how much they will pay for each customer lead, but the amounts range from roughly $10 to $140.
• The leads sold to the companies are “overwhelmingly bogus” and “illusory” because they are often “over distributed” or contain, among other things, disconnected phone numbers, people who are not homeowners or contacts for nonexistent residences.
• HomeAdvisor represents that the majority of its leads are generated through its website, when a majority actually are generated by third-party affiliates, which generally result in less-useful leads.
• HomeAdvisor won’t let members turn off leads permanently, instead forcing those that want to avoid paying for leads to log in regularly to “freeze” leads.
• While members can set a budget for how much they want to spend on leads each month, if the budget is altered, it resets for the month, which can result in members paying for more leads than they want.
• When companies cancel their HomeAdvisor membership, HomeAdvisor leaves their company profile page on its website, and sells the information entered by individuals who attempt to contact the company to other Home Advisor members.
The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are familiar with HomeAdvisor. Two years ago, they filed a lawsuit against the company on behalf of Rochester-based Airquip Inc. That case is ongoing.
That lawsuit makes similar allegations to the one filed last week.
Digital marketplace HomeAdvisor is being sued by the owners of eight small home-improvement companies who say the Golden-based company twisted a lead-generation business into a vehicle for greed and abuse.
The plaintiffs all paid to be members of the site and for sales leads. They accuse HomeAdvisor of misrepresenting its services, and allege that the customer leads the company sells are “overwhelmingly bogus.”
The plaintiffs, who include the owners of Westminster-based B&B Carpentry, are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, filed July 16 in U.S. District Court in Denver.
“The allegations are attacking the fundamental business that HomeAdvisor is operating,” said Kimberly Donaldson Smith with Chimicles & Tikellis, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
A spokeswoman for HomeAdvisor, which has agreed to take space in the HUB mixed-use development being built at 36th and Blake streets in RiNo, said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
In addition to Colorado, the plaintiffs own businesses in New Jersey, Illinois, California, Ohio, Florida, New York and Idaho, specializing in services ranging from home inspections to metal roofing.
The plaintiffs say they joined HomeAdvisor as a member between August 2014 and August 2017.
Brad and Linda McHenry, who own B&B Carpentry, told BusinessDen in an interview that they joined HomeAdvisor after a disappointing experience with the company’s predecessor, ServiceMagic, because they were told HomeAdvisor would refund them for money spent on “bogus” leads. They canceled several months later, having again been disappointed with the information provided. They claim they never received a refund.
Brad McHenry estimated they paid HomeAdvisor $3,500.
“I recognize that it’s not a huge amount, but it’s not chump change either,” he said. “And the reality is they robbed me of my time and my talent too.”
The McHenrys and the other plaintiffs are represented by Gordon Netzorg, Mark Williams and Carla Martin of the Denver office of Sherman & Howard, as well Donaldson Smith and other attorneys at the Haverford, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, offices of Chimicles & Tikellis.
The lawsuit makes claims about HomeAdvisor that range from the nature of the company’s business model to the culture of its Colorado offices. The allegations include:
• HomeAdvisor won’t tell companies, or “home improvement professionals,” in advance how much they will pay for each customer lead, but the amounts range from roughly $10 to $140.
• The leads sold to the companies are “overwhelmingly bogus” and “illusory” because they are often “over distributed” or contain, among other things, disconnected phone numbers, people who are not homeowners or contacts for nonexistent residences.
• HomeAdvisor represents that the majority of its leads are generated through its website, when a majority actually are generated by third-party affiliates, which generally result in less-useful leads.
• HomeAdvisor won’t let members turn off leads permanently, instead forcing those that want to avoid paying for leads to log in regularly to “freeze” leads.
• While members can set a budget for how much they want to spend on leads each month, if the budget is altered, it resets for the month, which can result in members paying for more leads than they want.
• When companies cancel their HomeAdvisor membership, HomeAdvisor leaves their company profile page on its website, and sells the information entered by individuals who attempt to contact the company to other Home Advisor members.
The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are familiar with HomeAdvisor. Two years ago, they filed a lawsuit against the company on behalf of Rochester-based Airquip Inc. That case is ongoing.
That lawsuit makes similar allegations to the one filed last week.
Bogus leads! I am shocked!
We have never used their services, but so many of our clients have horror stories about the leads they received and how oversold they were. No one wins when you race to zero.
What about the over 125,000 active contractors on HomeAdvisor that are paying for leads and are extremely successful ?? This article fails to mention that contractors can quit HomeAdvisor at any time and they decide how many leads they want and are in full control. If it was a scam and the leads were “overwhelmingly bogus” how come there are still active members? Some of which have been members for 5, 10 + years. At the end of the day this is advertising.. it is not an exact science.. if you put out a TV commercial and get 0 business off of it. No one calls sues the TV station to get their money back. There are too many X factors that play into the successs on an individual contractor on HomeAdvisor. What did B&B Carpentry’s profile look like? How good are they at providing estimates and winning jobs? HomeAdvisor cannot sell the job for you and there is a credit policy in place. Not every lead is perfect. They generate 6 million leads a year… I’m sure there are some good, some bad, some great and some that could completely change your business for the better. You just need to know how it works going into it and it sounds like to me that it was not clear.
@Jack The lawsuit highlights the representations of Home Advisor (HA) as being misleading when service providers (HA Clients) sign on. Lead generating businesses prey upon the emotion and desperation of many gbusiness owners across the spectrum. For Software sales, a company can pay $2K++ for just one lead. The value is there, if the leads are qualified. Businesses are fully away that not every lead presents a sale. Instead of alleging that the plaintiffs are simply hiring a lead service searching to shortcut solid business practices, check out HA’s claims.
HA promises to pre-screen leads. I’ve used them before, in search of a contractor to complete bathroom tile. The “interview” to qualify me was hardly anything. Just a few questions I clicked through online. How many leads do they distribute an hour, a day, a week. Do the numbers match? Website/App Completed Surveys vs Distributed Leads?
HA represents that most leads come from their site, however I wonder what kind of traffic data they use to back that up….what kind of research has gone into lead conversion to “your” success”? All I could find were testimonials and reviews. …ahem….Amazon Anyone?
HA offices are mostly comprised of sales teams tasked with client acquisition. Their “Clients” are service providers. The majority of employees are not hitting the street or phones or web in search of qualified leads.
In my experience with lead generation services, the majority of their staff is tasked with optimizing their product….meaning getting qualified leads for the sales team to sell! If the leads are good, the sales are easy and customer service issues reduced.
It appears HA is in a hamster wheel sights set on new revenue generation….Client Acquisition: Service Providers Who Pay to Play. Typical strategy when the actual product is sub-par and customer turnover is high. It’s too bad…because the “handyman” world is ripe with mediocre business savvy and limited business networks.
P.s. My post is heavily influenced by multiple conversations with HA employees at a local watering hole in Lakewood….many laughs insights shared.
Well with 125000 contractors it’s been said only half have their leads on at the same time. I worked for Homeadvisor for over 2 years and used their service as a contractor. I was very frustrated for paying for leads on work I don’t even do. Bad contact, disconnected numbers, and I still paid. I feel the contractors pain and I stand with them.
This article does not look at the success a lot of businesses have had with Home Advisor, but it does bring up some plausible points. We have had success with Home Advisor and continue to use them, but I am concerned about a couple key flaws in their corporate structure. First, their return policy is unfair and seems to be set up to maximize profit not pursue a sense of fairness. Second, the third parties that try to generate leads seem to be incentivized to produce as many leads as they can, no matter the quality. When you combine an unfair return policy with overzealous telemarketers whose incentives run counter intuitive to the businesses that pay for Home Advisor’s leads; then there are going to be people that feel cheated. I don’t think Home Advisor intentionally tries to push fraudulent leads, but they have allowed their corporate infrastructure to be compromised to some extent by short term greed which has negative consequences for the businesses that use Home Advisor and Home Advisor’s long term profit outlook, if there is adequate competition in their marketing space. I hope that other businesses can easily invest in this arena without any restrictions. Monopolies are always bad for the consumers of products and services. We will continue to use Home Advisor while monitoring their behavior carefully. In the interim, they should be regulated by the people and it’s government correctly to protect their clients from the residual impact of short term corporate greed.
I am so angry right now 7 days 5 completely non-viable leads and they won’t give me my money back. Asked to talk to the boss of the boss and got hung up on.
I did work for Home Advisor for six months and tried to turn off my leads number of times and would still receive leads I would call them and they would tell me it was a error and they were correct it so I would do the same thing so I got number of leads that was so bogus it was crazy first thing I told Home Advisor when I signed up with thim I didn’t want to be overwhelmed and I didn’t need that leads and they assured me I would be overwhelmed I would get just six leads a week and it was more like 60 craziest company I’ve ever dealt with is it anyway I can get on the class action suit or is it to late.
I will tell you why my leads are still turned on. After 52 leads in and only won one job because 80% of the 52 were bogus, terrible, non existent leads that you don’t get money back you just receive free leads. In my case I had over $2,300.00 of bad leads that they gave me a $1200 credit of free leads. All of the free leads were just the same. So I’m still in the hole. Once the free leads were exhausted we were uninfated with a ton of leads that we paid for. Even though I had my lead flow set to the minimum which is $200 per month I ran up $650 so now I’m on free leads again and hoping one is good so I can recoup some of my investment. Today I was turned down for a credit from a lead that wasn’t in the scope of what I did. I called the homeowner anyway and she told me she was sick of all the contractors calling her from HA and that the work was completed months ago. I paid $150 for that lead and was told by HA that when a lead is $150 it is only sent to one contractor. If that was correct then I would be talking to the same homeowner I talked to and listen to her explaining her utter frustration with HA.
I joined home advisor in March 2018 after the first month of receiving all bogus leads I told them to turn off my leads and max they could do was 90 days at a time I kept doing it until the end of my contract but then at the very end even though I turned them off they kept sending me leads and charge me $1000 and they want me to pay for it when I’ve never use their service this company is a total rip off I advise all contractors to stay away .
Completely false statement. Home advisor will have one valid lead but will dispatch 20 plus tradesmen to that call and charge every single tradesmen regardless if they call or not. That’s a ripoff. They also send false leads that your stuck paying for. I personally traced 7 calls I recieved and found out they were spoofed and wrong numbers. One specific homeowner that was a valid call told me she had 37 tradesmen call within 30 minutes. Now if your charging $20 usd
To each tradesmen times 37 HomeAdvisor is making a killing while the hard working man suffers. One day they will be stopped.
I doubt there is any successful contractors on HomeAdvisor.
How do I get in on a lawsuit against this company? They are a complete scam! I am having a hard time canceling and do not want to incur anymore bogus fees.
How do I get in on a lawsuit against this company? They are a complete scam! I am having a hard time canceling and do not want to incur anymore bogus fees.
This article does not have a look at the achievement plenty of groups have had with Home Advisor, however, it does bring up some plausible points. We have had fulfillment with Home Advisor and retain to use them
My name is Tom Herman owner operator of Herman’s Quality Painting was a member of Home advisor and spent a couple thousand on leads the were bogus and would like to be involved in this lawsuit! Who would I need to speak to ?
I understand the suits. We signed on with Homeadvisor over three years ago and initially the leads received were decent with occasional bad ones that we’d receive instant credit for with the rep that answered the phone. In the past year the lead quality has plummeted to the toilet. And if you call in to report a bad lead, the rep passes it on for “review”. Bad phone number, work out of your task, whatever, your request WILL be denied. We have 100 reviews on Homeadvisor and have received their “Best of” designation every year we’ve been with them but we are leaving. This company no longer delivers the value to us. Their lead fees for smaller landscape tasks are ridiculous in some cases being 75% of what we charge the customer! Pointless.
hello! I see so many people involved on home advisor fraud, what if we all together sue them to make them close the place
my name is Melissa Idarraga an I want to be involved too. someone else from Texas
We are a victim of Home Advisor. They sent us to collection and now I am trying to fix this and I get a run around.
We don’t want this on our credit report if collection agency doesn’t work with us. I need a lawyer to atleast get us off the collection before it gets reported to Credit Bureau.
Home Advisor took my $288 membership fee plus false Lead charges.
Please help!
I to was misled by home advisory they debited thousands of dollars totaling 6000 Without permission or any given notice, And then when I call them on it suspended my service and refused to refund money…
I would like to join this lawsuit too! I cancelled my Home Advisor subscription on 4/9/2019 that was due to be renewed om 4/12/2019 . what everyone has said in these posts, i have also experienced…bad and bogus leads, jobs being given to others when you were an “exact match”, not getting refunds because I didnt call “in time” whatever that means. not respecting my budget. I would have to pause my leads every 2 weeks because they would allow to to do it for longer periods!! It has been nothing but a pain!!! So glad to be free of them. I as always get more leads by word of mouth than I ever got from Home Advisor. also, now that I have cancelled, they will not take down my Profile. Hmmmm? why would they do THAT? Thinking that they use all cancelled subscriptions as “proof” of how many people they have have on their service, “which is no proof at at all!! Bogus all the way around!!
HomeAdvisor is a scam. They charge each professional for the same lead regardless of which one actually wins it. Not to mention that 99% of these leads either don’t answer the phone or we’re not even looking for a contractor in your line of work or at all for that matter. They are making Immeasurable amounts of money each day and I can honestly say the I got maybe 5 jobs total. Each job was only $40 and HomeAdvisor wanted $10-$40 for each lead. Which meant I wasn’t making anything but only losing all the way around. I really wish my husband and I had done our homework on this company first because they are “Dirt Bags”! This company needs to be sued from every professional and shut down for not being a legit company. I have so many more complaints about their scam but I am looking for an attorney to file a law suit currently. Please heed my warming and stay away from these “Money Hungry Bastards”. They’re making I can’t even imagine how much of your hard earned $$$ for literally doing nothing that they claim. And their sales people are only there to sell you a line of BS but when you have problems they will ignore your calls and just keep charging you money. I’m out over $3000. And will never get a refund and they’re trying to put this on my company’s credit report. I paid my company’s bills but I won’t stand for being ripped off! We need to fight together to rid the world of criminals such as them!
Count me in. Got me for 6-7k in 3 months. didn’t notice the 1st wave because i forked out a bunch of money on subs but the 2nd wave of 2k was after i knock my budget down to the 100 min and didn’t accept any leads. will be calling tom but doubt i will have success
I just started our Handyman service a few months ago , when I contacted home advisor to sign up I was told the highest price I would pay for a lead would be 40.00 and my budget was set for 300.00 a month the 1st month they deducted almost 1000.00 out of my account when I called to see if they could hold the payment because I didnt have that much , they refused . I paused my leads for 2 weeks and re ieved a few calls from people that got my number from google and got the jobs then one of my customers showed up as a lead that I know for a fact he did not call home advisor and they made appointment while I was standing in front of the customer I called home advisor and called them on this they refused to give me credit and they say they he called them and he was in front of us when they called him they are liers and another customer we got from google showed up a week after we completed the job and was paid, on the opportunity list as they chose us to discuss a project , if I had clicked on that I woukd have instantly been charged .I dont know how they got those names but it was so wrong of them .I dont trust them anymore to even turn my leads back on and most of the credits I ask for they also deny.
how do I join this suit
How do I join this lawsuit? I Cancelled my agreement with them and they continue to charge me, and now ill not refund the monies for the 40 bogus leads. I had one lady I called that was literally looking for the work to be completed for free. I called my HA rep (Andres at 516-350-8638) He went on to argue with me that this is a valid lead for work. Compensation is not guaranteed. He further went on to explain that he was a contractor and knows that I just didn’t sell her on our service. I should try calling her back in a month. They completely suck. I have so so so many bogus leads they refuse to reimburse me for.
I completely understand if I bid a job and do not get the work. Maybe I was too high, they didn’t like the way I looked or for whatever reason. I understand that is not HA fault. But when they keep sending AND CHARGING me for leads that are not for our service, then I get angry. If it is too late to join this suit I am prepared to hire an attorney and file suit separately. I am also contacting my attorney General;s office to investigate their business practices.
No, you CANNOT quit at any time. I spent about an entire week’s worth of attempting to get my account canceled and the only way it worked was to stop payment on my credit card. Now I’ve been sent to collections. HomeAdvisor was the worst marketing decision I ever made.
is it possible to be apart of this class action lawsuit. my girlfriend Andi have a small business out of dallas tx and have been lied to several tines and have paid for leads we did not ask for. i placed my leads on hold and was still charged. when I called homeadvisor I was given the run around. I made a complaint with the BBB by home advisor is a member of the BBB and I again was given the run around. my email is [email protected]. I agree we should make a huge class action lawsuit and make them pay for misrepresentation and corrupt business practices.
Marina Raimondo
I also am a small contractor and business owner and would join a class action lawsuit in a heartbeat to shut down this company. Even if all the money went to lawyers, the amount of advertising and marketing this company does to steal money from hard working people is criminal.
I had a homeowner call me and say that had selected a contractor but their insurance company needed a second bid. These are the leafs home advisor charges contractors $144 for. The only reason home owners use this service is because of aggressive marketing. They have no idea the costs that are passed to small business people:
Jim bell, same I’m looking for lawyer to sue them if you can help let me know
Anyone has any information on how to join the lawsuit?
Please tell me how I can also join this lawsuit.
Did you ever figure out how to join the lawsuit? I’m experiencing the same thing and the unexpected account withdrawals and no refund after doing my due diligence to call leads back is in fact financially debilitating.
Let me know if you are serious and I will join in another lawsuit against them. The exact same thing happened to me. Received leads when account was paused and charged for leads in areas that I never asked for or approved. They saw that my leads were paused and they weren’t making money so they added areas without authorization and “somehow” my leads were unpassend long enough to be charged, This company is so unethical and deceitful it’s unbelievable. Until contractors stand up and sue they for the lies and underhanded business practices they will continue to operate the same. All I can say is stay far away as you can
It had to be too good tp be true..Over $2000 paid to HA..I have 3 customers from the leads..
I want in on the lawsuit too..
Apparently, im not the first person they took advantage of how can I join this lawsuit.
They still won’t post the cost of leads, make false promises of refunds, and Lie about the other online presence they provide. I am sick of this. I was told that I could have a refund after 90 days. 90 days came and I can’t get a refund after 3 days of signing on. On top of that, HA is making money off my name and not giving me any of it. Click on my name and you will get other contractors in the area too! and they’re paying too.
I to am in the same situation with home advisor. Paying for leads that are just looking for estimate or no contact from home owners. I cancelled card and no am in collections for 3600 in unpaid unopened leads that I had turned off after the first week.
Obviously you work for HomeAdvisor.
Im from Texas also and would like to be involved in this suit against HA.
I am looking for People to join me in filling a class action Lawsuit again Home advisor. Please let me know if you interested in join in!
Hello from Accurate Home Inspections llc, I’m in to sue the company, I have lost more than $6500
I did the exact same thing
They took Almost $2,200 from me after sending me over 30 phony leads. I called them and told them what happened. 3 supervisors agreed that they were suspicious leads. Refuses to give me my money but instead would give me credit on HomeAdvisor…I don’t want to work with them and I canceled my account. See if I activated my account again and took that credit…it’s a matter of time before they bill me again for fraudulent leads and the cycle continues. I am going to take legal action against them. This is ridiculous! This is not what a$$ hole Danny said to me when I signed up. Misinformation and misrepresentation at its finest. I will be a cancer to them and I will fight for not only the $2,200 they took from me but for the time I wasted in fighting this fraud!
I have been with Homeadvisor since 2008 and have had mixed reviews about their performance and now you can’t turn off leads and have to pause them every other week and I called and complained about pausing my leads and still getting calls and I called and they said Yes they are paused and he would make changes so I would not get any calls and I still got calls and I find out they were turned on and I was charged $173 and paid my auto renew that I did not want to do and they said to leave it and I could use it to pay for leads. Over $500 later and no money made. They are worthless and no compassion. I did not want to renew then I wouldn’t get calls. now I have to change my cc so they can’t charge me anymore. And 1 in 10 leads is a good lead, so ROI is way low.
30 year contractor , have been scammed by home Advisor..want to get in on this lawsuit
I have so been scammed from this company they put the wrong email in and sent it to that email and charge me for every one of those emails and I had no clue I had no idea that I was even getting anything to bid on $1,300 later I’m f***** excuse my language. If I could do anything to help anybody out to help bring these people down I’m in
I’m dealing with bogus leads,an leads that are weeks old an come back an no one calls you back
same story with me
I found this online; I’m dealing with the same thing.
https://chimicles.com/class-action-lawsuit-filed-homeadvisor-iacinteractive/
It appears that many of the leads are bogus, the categorys are not right and they send incorrect job details.
We get leads that it is impossible to get ahold of the customers, several in a row. some of the phone numbers are incorrect and I call HA and they tell me its a “numbers” game.
We also get repeat leads on occasion. Also, some of the jobs are for a small concrete pad (tool shed 8′ x 10′ ) and we get charged $123. which is the same price as a full 3000 sq ft house foundation.
Another example is we are licensed to do concrete and are not carpenters. They send us wood fencing leads and when I call them to tell them that we are not licensed to do wood fences they state that wood fences are in the same category as concrete, which is not true and charge us anyway.
We would like to join in this class action lawsuit.
I am a contractor in Wisconsin and having major fraud issues with Home Advisor. I am doing a full investigation over the last 6 months and will be contacting our news agency. This is fraud that needs to be exposed on a National level. The amount of revenue that Home Advisor is receiving at this scale is staggering. Please join me in the fight against them. 262-498-6824. http://www.completeconstructionwi.com
For some time now, I’ve heard complaints and scenarios just like what’s being discussed here, about HomeAdvisor. While it’s extremely frustrating (to say the least) and unfortunate, there is still a need for folks to have a resource from which they can review and find a contractor for their particular want or need.
The purpose of my post is not to raise additional ire against HomeAdvisor, but to introduce an alternative: LikeRE.com. We’ve built LikeRE.com to address what’s missing in this equation, which is an organic, simple process for folks to network and find the contractor/provider with whom they feel comfortable in using. Likewise, LikeRE.com allows business-owners of real estate services (of all types) to showcase their experience, seasonality, testimonials and knowledge – the stuff that consumers need to make a truly comfortable, informed decision.
The best part is, LikeRE.com is FREE to join. No gimmicks. No surprises. A social media network that’s only about real estate, and everything real estate-related.
We’re growing quickly, and soon will be nation-wide; so if you’re a contractor/service provider, we’d love for you to join us now. Build your professional page (also free), and use LikeRE.com to showcase your skills, talents, testimonials and experience, so folks can connect and network with you. If you’re a consumer looking for a product or service, come check us out.
Yes ready to start a class action against them.
I completely agree that home advisor is the biggest scam ever, and I cant stand them, not only do they give bogus leads but they also discriminated against me! HOWEVER…
Why are you only charging $40? And why would you agree to $10-$40 per lead if you’re only charging $40? That’s not nearly enough money.
Idk what line of work you’re in, but change it! I don’t ever sell a job for less than $750, (it’s our posted minimum job) and the majority of our company’s jobs range from $3,000 to $6000 with many in the $7000-$15000 range. You’re simply charging too low.
Even with the absolute best advertising service, you’d lose out when you’re only charging $40 a lead, honestly
Jack, I get what you’re saying in the sense that contractors need to have a quality product, a quality website, good reviews on other websites along with good reviews on HomeAdvisor, and know how to be a good salesperson. This is all true.
HOWEVER, Even when you have all of that, if the lead is going out to over 10 people, there’s a very small chance of you getting the job…
And usually when the job is being bid out to that many people, you ALWAYS LOSE EVEN IF YOU WIN THE JOB. Let me explain.
If 10 contractors bid on the job, and the customer chooses you, the vast majority of the time you had the absolute cheapest price (Or you provide high-quality, expensive work and you gave a RELATIVELY low bid to be competitive). Either way, usually you under-bid your work if you got the job, with that many people estimating usually SOMEBODY under bids.
So with HomeAdvisor, you basically never get the job for a good price where you make a good margin.
And a lot of the leads are completely fake, with spam/fake numbers that are disconnected, or people who said they already hired someone for that work weeks/months ago.
Trust me, I’m very good at sales and my company that I own grosses over $700,000 annually, and I make $200,000+ personal profit a year. I know how to market, sell, manage a company and provide high quality work. The main issue is simply HomeAdvisor’s low quality leads and also their sketchy cancellation/unauthorized billing techniques
If you’re going to act like home advisor is this amazing service, then you’re just not being honest and you might secretly work for them
I recommend Angie’s List, and Yelp
Have you found a lawyer to represent you we are ready to hit on
Yes!yes!yed!
I own a small HVAC company in Kansas City, Missouri. I totally agree with the complaints against Home Advisor. They should not be allowed to continue to rob hard working Americans! I am hopeful this becomes a class action law suit. I have called Home Advisor multiple times. The last attempt I waited on hold for 46 minutes. When my call was finally answered, I informed the rep that “This call is being recorded”. He immediately referred me to a supervisor. After another 15 minutes on hold, a recording stated that there are no supervisors available for 3 days and requested I leave my contact info. This was on a Tuesday @ 1 pm. I can assist with any evidence and will stand with the “People” if there is a People vs. Home Advisor law suit.
Same issue. Please contact me
So I was told yesterday by home advisor that they now own Angies list so should we all jump ship there as well. I don’t like Homeadvisor platform they keep trying to get me to join and I was skeptical of the lead charging because what if they send a lead 5 contractors go bid and people were just kicking tires and we all paid $100 they made $500 and we all got robbed but they are relentless with their phone calls even tried to tell me they would wave initial fee if I sent them $300 deposit like that’s what you told me it cost to join but they said if you give us deposit we will send you that many leads for free I’m glad I have done my homework and didnt let them suck me in
Did you ever find out how to get in on the class action?
Been a contractor and am using home advisor. I have been recieving leads and can never get in touch with the customer. Call for refunds and I am always denied. Have to call back to speak to supervisor.
Thinking about dropping it. Is there a lawsuit I can jump on??
They just offered me today only 100 dollars to join and 300 dollars in leads now that I read these reviews I have second thoughts folks are seeking lawsuits ????
Please include me in
This is what happened to me exactly I joined went on vacation for two weeks came back found out they charge my credit card over $450 on top of the $300 membership fee and I was not supposed to receive any leaves until I came back.I asked for a refund in the cancel my membership they told me I would not be receiving anything back Adam
I have been using HomeAdvisor formerly Service Magic prior to 2010 and I can say for sure there business model is predatory and has been since the company rebranded from Service Magic to Home Advisor. I have protested numerous leads by attempting to get a credit and I get some lame excuse why they will not give me a credit, although I have gotten some credits for leads that match exactly their choices on the their site. The majority of the leads the service sells have bad phone numbers, emails, names or do not own the property. If you report a lead as inadequate (which I have numerous times) staff will never investigate the validity of the lead and just dismiss the $50 paid because of the company policy. I can tell immediately if the lead is good or bad because often leads come through with bogus names or phone numbers, etc, such as 00 Baldwin Way.
I want to sue them too. They have been thieves for the longest time. I have an archive of evidence for their mishap. I want justice. They tried calling me today in matter of fact. Asking what they can do different. I been with them since service magic. During the last 3 years I’ve noticed the leads being worse and worse every month. My return isn’t there at all. Oh boy and let me tell you. They have every excuse in the book to why you don’t get credit back for a lead that was bogus. How can 23 leads out of 30 not answer the dam phone?!!!!!!! Seriously ?
-Luke diamond
I would like to join the class action suit against H.A.
Bogus leads, poor communication, people I have called as prospective clients who have no idea what I am talking about, unresponsive clients to phone calls, text messages and emails. Getting a refund is like pulling teeth.
I have been sucked in by Home Advisor. I am being charged outrageous price for nothing in return.
Home advisory is a complete scam. Lazy scammed ripping off hard working builders that keep the world going is not right. Signed up and got heaps of junk leads. Paid a fortune. Could not terminate our account and finally changed debit cards. Before this we could not get hold of anybody. Suddenly they start calling us looking for MONEY. What? Like a robber coming back asking for his wallet he lost robbing a bank. Ridiculous. We had some good discussions with their “helpful” staff looking for green paper. Then they turned it to a collection agency who talked till he was blue in the face but simple logic destroyed every one of his points and we quickly trapped him in his own words. Finally hung up trying to say it’ll hurt our credit score. When I told him we don’t care about our credit score he stuttered. Complete rip offs. Must be shutdown. Completely. Natural selecton should weed out the bad guys. Weed em out. Negative 5 star review.
Interesting comments from others. My story: Im an Architect; I also have received many bogus leads over the years. HA barely pays for itself. Now im loosing money. Recently I had two clients who gave me horrible reviews on HA. I have no idea why as they were quite happy with my service and design, yet their reviews were complete lies and demagoguery. Very odd to say the least. I have emails parsing my service to back this up. I reached out to the clients but no replies. When i contacted HA to ask them to take down the reviews or at least investigate, they refused both. They even went as for as to post these bogus reviews on other sites. BTW, they did not post any of my good reviews. When i threatened to cancel HA subscription they promised to investigate and solicit more good reviews but they did neither. They did absolutely nothing. I feel because of HA, my business reputation is now tarnished beyond repair. My sales hit ratio has tanked.
I will join you guys if you decided to suit them
I’m interested, please call me, my phone number is +18329859223
I’m in for any legal action. Within a week of joining I had over $500 charged to my account. When I started I asked for $250 a month. Guess they didn’t pay attention!
My name is Shawn I want to be involved you can reach me at 281-903-6090 I can teach you a lot about this garbage company the lone Angie’s List
Please include me in any lawsuit. I had to cancel my credit card to prevent Home Advisor from ringing up my credit card like a slot machine. So called “leads” about 99% bogus.No calls answered.
adam gutierrez
My name is Mr. Brickell I have payed home advisor close to $10,000.00 during the last 12 months. The bogus, bad, fake, duplicate leads are one thing, but the fact that they cant even provide receipts or some kind of statements, now that its tax time is outrageous. I have called them a dozen times with no results, I just get the run around. I do however have 85 out of 85 five star reviews, and that gives me a very good rating. you would think they would try to resolve this problem.
I wasted 2k on this company and never even got in front of a potential client. Now they refuse to quit calling me trying to get me to sign back up. When I got a “lead” I followed up promptly and consistently. When I wouldn’t hear from the customer I would continue to follow up with phone calls and text messages with pictures of customer testimonials and photos of my work. Learn from my mistakes and please stay away from this modern day legal type of theft. A big waste of my time and money. They don’t understand there actions are hurting families. Digital marketing of your own brand is the way to go folks!
Hello my wife and I are currently going thru the same situation they are expected to take out my bank account $1320. We sing with them 3/8/21 about a week ago. How do they appear on the bank statements, do they appear as Home advisor or a 3rd company???? I’m about to cancell them before it get charge.