Realestate.com, formerly Service Magic, utilized deceptive marketing practices (lies) regarding its service, then does not honor its commitments, and will not cancel contract. I was approached by one of their sales personnel, offering 8 leads per month, from 12 specific zip code areas in which I gave him for $150/mth. I don't normally utilize these types of services, but was evaluating for our four offices.
When I gave him the 12 specific zip code areas, he stated that they normally would recommend more zip codes, but he had sufficient lead funnel to guarantee the 8 leads/mth.in those areas. I am not going to complain about the specific quality of the leads, as I expected less than 20% quality in the first place.
My issue is that about three weeks after I signed up for the service, I began to get leads and 95% of them were in zip codes over 40 miles outside our market area and nowhere near the zip code areas I had agreed to. When I called, I was told that the rep that I had worked with had added the additional zip codes and they assumed that he had spoken with me. I assured them that he had not and requested that they put the areas back to my original agreement. I was told that they might not have enough leads to do that. I informed them that this is what was agreed and I want them put back. She asked if I wanted to cancel and I told her that we would try it for another month or two with the old areas and if there were not enough leads to meet the commitment, I could cancel then. My thought was that even if I only get half that number of leads it might be worth it.
Over the next month I continued to get leads from well outside the zips I had selected and none from within the zips. When I called back they stated that the areas I had would not provide adequate leads. I told them that if they could not meet the commitment that I wanted to cancel. This is where they became quite rude and informed me that they would charge the remainder of the contract and they had no way of knowing what I had originally signed up for and basically that I was not being truthful.
The way I look at it, I wanted to test them out for our offices and the cost in total for the lesson was only $900, but I wanted to pass along a little advice to others that might be considering this outfit. Stay away! All in all, it is their loss as we have 4 offices and a over 100 associates, many of whom serve on the local realtor boards and we are very vocal. For them I hope it was worth the $299 remaining on my contract.
0 comments