PORCH (formerly ISN) is going too far

So I decided to opt into the PORCH thing on ISN so I could see if it could be a good thing. Unfortunately I lost a client last night that emailed me stating that they want an inspection only and they do not want to sign up for a marketing gimmick.

After opting into PORCH, this what ISN sends clients BEFORE the client can view or accept my Inspection Agreement.

By clicking below, I (Jo-bob Theclient) consent to have Texas House Check, Porch and my Home Assistant, and providers of products and services for my home to call or text me at the number I provide, including using automated, prerecorded or autodialed calls. I understand that my consent to marketing communications is not required to make a purchase.

This is what it used to say…

I certify that I am Jo-bob Theclient or I am able to execute legal documents on behalf of Jo-bob Theclient

ISN never stated they would do this. So I opted out of PORCH. I tried to ride the bandwagon Nick. But I am jumping off before I lose more clients. I am still working on an ISN alternative as well.

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Consumers have become more aware of the lack of value in Warranty Widgets and gimmicks as opposed to their privacy. Also with the huge influx of robocalls and other annoying marketing calls consumers are just tired of it all.

Thank you for sharing. As a consumer that would be a huge red flag for me.

This is an excellent example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Many inspectors balked at ancillary offers to clients that were Opt-Out, i.e. required the client to decline the service only after that service had been given their private contact information. So, some of these offer providers said OK, we’ll make it Opt-In, i.e. the client must offer up their information themselves so, therefore, they know what they are getting into. The thinking is that if the client signs up for the service themselves then the onus is taken off the inspector. Well, here’s the unintended consequence…some or maybe even many or most of the clients will still hold the inspector responsible for making them even consider the offer. There’s little to be gained from these type offers and gimmicks.

All Inspectors should Immediately Stop using ISN, and Porch !! If no inspectors use them, they cant make a penny of us and no more damage can be don’t to us, our clients and The industry as a whole.

We all need to hit all these scum bags where it hurts, in their pockets.

This is our industry, not theres it’s time we all take control and push these as…s clown vendors out of our business.

Jim

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Although a very noble action this type of action no longer occurs today. In this instance there are plenty of Inspectors still addicted to all of the kickbacks and payouts of selling their clients’ information and would never stop.

At this point the only one that can stop consumer information from being sold are the consumers themselves! All they have to do is stop using the Inspectors who sell their private information for a profit.

“By clicking below, I (Jo-bob Theclient) consent to have Texas House Check, Porch and my Home Assistant, and providers of products and services for my home to call or text me at the number I provide, including using automated, prerecorded or autodialed calls. I understand that my consent to marketing communications is not required to make a purchase.”

This is what bothers me the most about this. In the video with Nick, the Porch guy said they would get one email, and if they did not respond, that would be it. This agreement throws the gates wide open for any number of annoying and invasive marketing assaults, and I would not expect anyone to agree to such an arrangement.

By not stating specifically who the information will be sold/resold to, and pluralizing and generalizing all others, then it can make its way around the world if they so choose to keep selling/reselling the information.

Consumers have little idea how their private information made it into the hands of that Nigerian Princess scam, or the 50,000 robocallers that keep calling them, etc. These agreements go a long way to promote that aggravation to the consumers but may never connect it to something as simple as a Home Inspector selling their private information to make even more money off of them! As a result that trinket the Home Inspector is offering them might not be fully recognized as one of the cause of their aggravation.

May I make a suggestion?

Yes…!

“I am still working on an ISN alternative as well.”

Not sure if it helps but I just do it myself and save the fee.
-Get a call/text/email
-Put name/$ amount/address in Google calendar which is linked to maps.
-Copy and paste info. into Internachi Agreements (there’s other systems)
-Email agreement to client and agent

This takes like 4 minutes. I don’t blame you for not wanting to use Porch/ISN after that.UGH.

If you don’t like them, opt out?

ISN still does far more than just schedule though.
That’s the hard part of giving it up.

But to the OP, thank you. I’d never opt in,but it’s good to hear what happens to those that do.

I’d suggest you take one of those checks Porch gave you and mail it to Robert Hughes’s client.

Really? This has be a disaster since it started. Poorly announced merger, insufficient communication, lack of details and now this disclaimer thrown in the face of your client.

Perhaps they (Porch) should try to explain what it is they are going to provide and how the customer could benefit and then the client will have at least some information on which to make a decision. Then let the client choose if they want to participate in their program.

There seems to be a pattern of poor planning, execution and implementation without a lot of forethought. (aka poor management).

Part of this seems to be intended to put Thornberry out of business. Gotta admit Nick is a few steps ahead of Nathan at this time, go for the kill while Nathan is dealing with his lawsuit.

Actually the whole deal with Porch is starting to smell more and more like the Thornbury Fiasco we had several years ago. I’m not sure if you were a member yet, but it got really ugly.

I do not see anywhere in my ISN system where that type of email communication is set to go to a client.

I have the porch email that they set up for the client contact. I is sent to them after the inspection is released.

At what point did your client receive the message that you posted?
Have you contacted ISN regarding the communication, or are you just tossing up a torch and calling it quits?
Is there anyway to change that message?

Looks like it would have been displayed during the agreement signature process.

If you use the porch service, try setting up a dummy job with yourself as the client, then go through the process that your client would in terms of email communication and agreement signature. Heck run it through the whole way and get the full client experience first hand. If I were contemplating using this I would certainly want to know exactly what the client experience is, even with the post-inspection contacts.

great idea lets see…

Thats my email template that ISN just sent to me. so I clicked on the agreement.

Yep there is is… it appears I can click something to learn more, lets see what that says.

Looks like its just a notification telling me I will be contacted by someone with other offers. and tells me that If I do not want to be contacted just let them know.
So at this point my client could just sign the agreement and call me to tell me no, then I can opt them out. or they can tell Porch no later and be opted out.
sounds to me like if the OP had handled their clients concerns correctly and set expectations early on he probably would not have lost the client.