[cthermond]

Has anyone used home advisor?

 

[B4T]

There are lots of info here about HA and Angie.. most of it negative...

But the bottom line is you should go out.. spend the money.. and try it yourself...

I personally would never pay for leads on jobs... rather put that money into advertising...

 

[HARRY304E]

Has anyone used home advisor?

Yes they used to be service magic ,,

Ripoff artists.

http://www.pissedconsumer.com/reviews-by-company/service-magic.html


http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/servicemagic.html

Along with many others I got tired of getting leads from people who did not have any work needed to perform and for which I could not get a refund from Home Advisor. I told Home Advisor unless I get a refund for such leads I would cancel my account with them. Upon refusing to provide me with a lead refund I cancelled my account. After cancelling my account I learned that the website link Home Advisor had created for my company was modified to discourage would-be customers from hiring me. I expected the website link to be deleted... leading people to a standard "web link not found" error. Instead it read that I was no longer "approved." This made me angry because it sends the very real message that my services are not satisfactory and that my company can not be trusted to do good work.

This is damaging to contractors who have passed around the former "useful" link to view photos of work and learn more about the contractors and companies. So I am contacting a class action lawsuit law firm for possible legal action to stop such practices and seek damages on behalf of all contractors who have cancelled their accounts with Home Advisor and unknowingly been subject to malicious business practices. This has the potential of costing tradesmen thousands of dollars of business depending on how many people have been impacted by the malicious message on the website after the account should have been closed.

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[Sparky J]

About Service magic now home advisor (I have not used either of them) I do hear they suck and are basically there to make money off contractors who use their services by sending as may leads as they can. True? Don't know like I said never used them, I did years ago go online and filled in asking for more info. man they called me almost non stop there after to sign up. I guess they have a call list of maybes and I was there. Needless to say I did not sign up.

 

[oldschool]

Has anyone used home advisor?

Ive been using them for about 6 months

You have to be quick, if its a small service call, the first call back usually gets it. People aren't getting 3 estimates for a small repair.

People do get 3 estimates on crap that you know that they can never afford

Set your service area low to start out (I set mine at a radius of 30 miles) that way you wont get slammed with leads from all over (some people want that kind of volume though)

I pay $29.99/month with the leads averaging around $15.00 each

I was 0 for 16 on the leads and over $600.00 in the hole before I actually got a job from them which ended up with a $1,650.00 profit.

Then 2 more bogus leads and then another job

Im 2 for 18.

Im fairly busy without it, I look at it like money spent on advertising. Any way I can get to a potential customer, that's what I want

 

[robnj772]

There are lots of info here about HA and Angie.. most of it negative... But the bottom line is you should go out.. spend the money.. and try it yourself... I personally would never pay for leads on jobs... rather put that money into advertising...

So what is negative about Angie?

 

[Chris1971]

So what is negative about Angie?

She could stand to lose some weight.:laughing:

In all seriousness. I've gotten a lot of business by using Angie's List.

 

[Sparky J]

So what is negative about Angie?

Can't people pay for ratings there? Don't know if its true with them or BBB but that's what I've herd.

 

[Hack Work]

Can't people pay for ratings there? Don't know if its true with them or BBB but that's what I've herd.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean that the general public doesn't still use them.

 

[wendon]

It's just that it's hard to get through these people's head that I'm not looking for their type of work. Why would I want to pay someone for a puny business lead that I'm expected to bid against other contractors for?
Even BBB tries to pry some money from my stingy fingers but so far I haven't bit. Don't need them. Don't need Home Advisor. Don't need Service Magic. Don't even advertise in the local papers..........

 

[chicken steve]

I've invited the reps to ET to forward their deal btw

told them that they could get a ton of sparky's on board

no soap

small wonder, eh?


~CS~

 

[butcher733]

I've invited the reps to ET to forward their deal btw

told them that they could get a ton of sparky's on board

no soap

small wonder, eh?


~CS~

I'm sure it's just a matter of your eloquence stupefying them.

 

[CaptainSparky]

It's pretty simple. It all comes down to knowing your call taking closing rate, your tech closing rate' your average sale, then if you know your cost per lead you can figure your cost per sold lead, the cost per sold lead should be in line with the percentage of revenue you spend on marketing, which needs be based on the percentage of new customers you need to acquire after you figure out what percentage of your customers are repeat and referrals. Then you spend that percentage of revenue to acquire the number of clients you need to meet your budget . Then you could determine if the fee they charge is reasonable or not.

 

[robnj772]

Can't people pay for ratings there? Don't know if its true with them or BBB but that's what I've herd.

No you can't pay for ratings.

 

[wendon]

No you can't pay for ratings.

What good is it then if you can't fix it???:laughing: