Home Advisor being Investigated, Who Is Next

So today on the news they did a piece on Home Advisor and how they are scamming and lying to the public said the States Attorney. This reminded me of what Porch is doing like with the fake roofing company Jim B set up and is receiving offers from porch to sell him clients data as long as he pays. Remember he is not a roofer and porch is offering to sell him leads. They also never did any type of background checking, so basically porch will sell anyone full data on people to any contractor (or who knows who else) willing to pay.

The people buying this lead information from companies could be criminals, rapists, murders, child molesters etc… It has been proven that no real/thorough background checking whatsoever.

Hopefully this is just the beginning of the states attorneys getting involved and all these scum and those involved with them get shut down, (at a minimum).

Jim

Interesting.

I wonder if a similar investigative reporting video will be coming out regarding other identical operations, like Porch. Here is Nick’s big opportunity for his first live “Good Morning America” broadcast. :smiley:

Sounds like Jim B is going down!

appears to be kind of a stretch, just have to see how it pans out.

Part of the argument is that when a consumer hires a home advisor contractor, only the owner of the business is screened not the sub contractors that may be hired.

These lead companies like home advisor are a data source to the consumer to find a contractor. Granted they do say that the contractor is screened and even from this news cast it appears that they are.

Why should Home Advisor be held liable for the contractor choosing to hire a sub that is incompetent. That should be the contractors problem.

I really hope you do not get shut down over this James Keilson. I like our conversations you keep me thinking.

I shut down my roofing business 59 minutes after I started it. I only started it to explore the process and, never having professionally installed or repaired a roof, to see if Porch would actually allow me to learn on the job by providing me customers. After 59 minutes in business, I changed my mind.

From that time until now, however, Porch has offered to sell me the personal contact information for 13 different consumers with roofing issues. They have not inquired as to my qualifications or background. Assuming that they are also selling the same private contact information to others … without regard to their qualifications or background … I don’t see too much difference between Porch and the company that this attorney general is suing — other than the fact that NACHI has formed a partnership with them.

As for my roofing business … it was only a passing thought. I’m too old to start a new business, anyway. :wink:

One can only hope (I can almost guarantee) more will be coming out soon. Also I agree, GNA could not only help the investigations but also Interview one of the key players all in one interview… :slight_smile:

Jim

Bump

Some good stuff in here:
Contractors Join Class Action Lawsuit Against HomeAdvisor – Today in Law

I can only speak about my experience with HomeAdvisor, which has been overall positive.

Do I get a fair amount of useless leads? Yes, but in about 75% of the cases I get a credit or refund. Sometimes it’s as easy as a click of the mouse, other times it takes a phone call and a little time.

Their fee structure can be confusing. Some leads give me first shot, but I have to fast, I mean REALLY fast, to get them. If I do, I pay $30. If not, I pay nothing. Some leads go out to 2 other inspectors. Again, I have to be fast. I pay $20 for these whether I land them or not.

HA’s contention is that they are an advertising platform, and I do get direct responses from people who have found me there and called me directly, since HA allows me to display my phone number and website to people who are just browsing.

I get the occasional call from people seeking services I don’t provide, but in the vast majority of cases HA will credit me.

HA has been instrumental in helping me get jump-started. It’s costly, but effective. I am taking steps to free myself from dependence on HA leads, but that takes time. In the meantime, I do enjoy working with the knowledge that I am not beholden to a Realtor for my work. In fact, a lot of my clients through HA say they chose me over their agent’s “preferred vendors” for that very reason.

I see HA and companies like them as a paradigm shift in how customers find service providers. They have their advantages and disadvantages. Use them or don’t, just don’t trash them because you would prefer things be different.

William, maybe try running adwords. it is a lot cheaper. There are videos showing how. Google and Bing will even assign a person that will help you throughout the process for several months at a time.

Thanks for that. I did Adwords last year but did not get the business I was hoping for. Now that my web site is “new and improved” I have started my campaign up again, and have seen some results, but it needs to be better.

Could you tell me how to get that personal help you mentioned?

The problem with the Home Advisor set up in my humble opinion is it favors the home inspector who is relatively new.

I’m not picking on William, but per his story, one has to be fast to get the lead/job.
OK, if you have nothing better to do than sit by your computer all day.

It’s harder to jump right on those when your driving from inspection A to inspection B, or in an attic, roof or crawlspace.

And the time devoted to getting refunds, again, hard to find that time if you’re in the field all day.

Which isn’t a knock on new inspectors (we were all new once) but Home Advisor has set itself up to only deliver new inspectors to their users over experienced inspectors.

And if it’s that way for Home Inspectors, it must be similar for plumbers, electricians, HVAC, etc. Only those that aren’t working get the leads.

As far as the advantage over being “beholden to a Realtors” every Home Advisor lead is worth one job. Maybe occasionally a client will refer you to a friend.

A good agent will refer you several times a year, perhaps more.

Which isn’t to say I kiss rear ends, or bow down to them; quite the contrary. But I do look at it as marketing to people who will (potentially) lead to multiple jobs instead of marketing to people who will only lead to one job.

Videos AdWords Help

Phone Support 855-808-2978

My complaint with home advisor is that when they asked me to sign up they explained their program as

  1. client searches for the contractor services they need.
  2. client request contractor service contacts
  3. Lead is sent to not more than **3 **professionals in the service area.
  4. each contractor is able to submit their bid for the service.
  5. client choose which contractor to use.

there is a failure in numbers 3 and 4.
I have had potential clients state that within minutes of submitting the request they received 5 or 6 calls. that may be an exaggeration on their part

when I contact the potential client and they state “We have already hired someone” or simply do not answer their phone because they know it is probably another contractor calling.
I have been denied by ability to submit my bid per my agreement with HA. and therefore I request a credit of the lead.

Home Advisor does not notify the client that multiple contractors will be in contact with them. or that they will receive multiple bids.

I used to suspect they were sending it to more than 3 vendors, but when I have the chance to ask, I find they are counting phone calls, not separate vendors.

Yeah, that “will be able to submit your bid” doesn’t play out in the real world. HA’s go-to excuse is that they have no control over the customer.

@Ian - All very fair and well-reasoned statements. I literally have to drop everything when a call comes in to have a decent chance at the lead. Once in a while, I can snag a job with a late call or an email, but that’s rare. I look forward to the day when I can say good-bye to HA.