A few months ago, I purchased some leads from Best Rate Referrals. I purchased 25 telemarketed leads and 2500 pre-screened credit data leads. My rep, Cody Bennett, was phenomenal. He was very patient with me, as it was the first time I had purchased any kind of leads. It took probably 10 phone calls before I was ready to buy. He wasn't pushy at all, I was very impressed and grateful.
My telemarketed leads were to be FHA mortgage leads. I got 5 one day, 6 the next day. The first 3 I managed to make contact with were not FHA leads, and best rate referrals did replace them, even though I was a day or two outside of their return policy. I was very impressed. I didn't care for the leads and I asked them to stop sending me those leads. The next day I received 5 more after I had asked to cancel. Best Rate Referrals did not charge me for those. Once again, very impressed.
I wasn't able to contact the remainder of the leads right away, most for a couple weeks after they were issued. Turned out, of the 11 leads that I purchased, 10 were not FHA leads. Best Rate Referrals refused to credit those back to me because because they were outside of the return policy. Which was true. But I had no way of knowing that within 48-72 hours since it took me so long to make contact with them. It would be one thing for 2 or 3 of them to not be FHA, but 10 out of 11?? I didn't get what I purchased. Rip off.
Regarding the 2500 pre-screened credit data leads, I had the same problem with those. The first 3 applications that I took were not FHA loans. I got suspicious. As a lender, I have the ability to put property addresses into the FHA system and it will come back and tell me the status of the FHA mortgage insurance on the property. I picked out a random 100 leads and plugged them into the system, and less than 20 were actually FHA.
I told my rep (Cody) about this, and he vowed to look into it. With regards to the telemarketed leads, I was told that I was out of luck because I was outside of the return policy. I was obviously not OK with this, because I was clearly ripped off. With the 2500 leads that I bought, I was told by him that the Experian rep mentioned to him that they had had some complaints with those leads, but that they were FHA and that I needed to call more of them. He clearly wasn't listening to what I was telling him. These leads were NOT FHA leads.
Finally after a few weeks he came back to me and said that Best Rate was going to refund me approximately $850 (I had spent $1550 with them, however $500 of that money had not been spent, it was a credit with them) and replace 1250 of the 2500 leads that I had purchased. I thought that all in all that was a very fair deal, even though I was probably going to be getting crap leads again and I lost $800. But I understand that Best Rate was probably on the hook for some money to Experian for the leads, they had probably already compensated telemarketers, etc. I was also told that Best Rate Referrals was no longer interested in doing business with me. No lost love there. I didn't get a damn thing from them I ordered.
About a week later I received a check for $500 (the amount of the credit I had on file with them.) I called Cody back to follow up on the remaining $350 or so that should have been sent and the other leads that they were replacing. He said he would follow up on it and get back to me. He called back and said he wasn't sure how I came up with the $850 figure, but they were not going to do that. The way that I came up with that figure was that that was what he told me. I told him I was not ok with that, and that if he did not follow through with his promise, that I was going to make sure everyone I could tell knew about how I got ripped off.
He then began yelling and said, and I quote "If you put anything on the internet I will sue you for slander! I will destroy you!" Mr. Bennett did not understand the defintion of slander. But I was threatened to be destroyed?!?!?!?!? I take threats like that very seriously and Mr. Bennett is very lucky that he was in another state. I would have loved to show him how I handle threats like that.
Well here's your chance Mr. Bennett.
Best Rate Referrals took $1050 of my money and gave me nothing of value in return for it. I still haven't received the replacement leads that I was promised either. This was a complete rip off. I am very well known in a mortgage company of several hundred loan officers, and a member of several sites for loan officers. For the price of $350 and 1250 leads, Best Rate Referrals has insured that I will do everything I can to make sure that everyone I know hears about my experience. The honeymoon was great, but in the end, Best Rate Referrals chose not to do the right thing and they threatened me. I hope it was worth it.
So I guess I'll be seeing you in court for the slander suit?
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