Complaint Review: Calfinder Inc.

Us Contractors, we know we can never guess the quality of a lead service no matter what the sales rep tells us.  I figured, with the $145 a month, it's got to be higher quality than ServiceMagic.  I figured: "you get what you pay for". 

(1) When I first signed up for Calfinder, that same day they sent me 4 leads.  The first one I reached by phone said they put the request in with Calfinder "a couple of weeks ago", and already signed a contract. The other 3 were completely unresponsive after multiple calls and emails.  It went downhill from there, the lead flow quickly trickled to near zero, and this was in the middle of the summer.  I went 2 weeks without a lead.  So basically Calfinder dumped a bunch of old leads on me on DAY ONE of my service with them.  Those bogus leads makes it easier for them to hit their promissed lead flow, which is tied to the $145 monthly charge.

(2) You only have 7 days to report a bogus lead.  There is no date on any leads, that is deliberate to have you go over the 7 days

(3) They won't ever credit your account for anything.  Even when threatening to cancel, the best they would do is offer STORE CREDIT for bad leads

(4) I got about 7 leads before pulling the plug on Calfinder.  I didn't get a single appointment out of it, and only spoke with 2 on the phone

(5) The other lead I spoke with said they were called by Calfinder right after placing the lead (which I thought was good, that's what they promissed), but listen further....she was very upset that I called. She said that she told Calfinder EXPLICITLY that she does not want any contractors calling her, and does not want any appointments with Contractors.  All she wants is a list of contractors to contact, in the future, if or when she is every ready for the project.  And this is what Calfinder calls a real lead ?  I paid $80 for that ??? 

(6) The sales rep told me, firmly, when he was selling me their services, that the $145 monthly charge is only levied if Calfinder provides the promissed number of leads. When they hit me for the $145 for the 2nd month, I immediately called them to protest, and all they would offer is store credit. Even when threatening to cancel the account unless I got a real credit back to my credit card, they put me on hold, then came back and said that's the best they can do.

(7) They insisted that I reactivate WINDOW leads, which I canceled because what I really wanted was kitchen and addition leads. And most of what they were sending me, bogus or not, was window leads.  If I kept WINDOWS active, they'd fill up their monthly quota with nothing but window leads.  That's not my business plan, to spend all my time running around chasing window leads. I want the bigger jobs. That's why I joined Calfinder. It might be true that their sales rep originally called me about windows, but when I said I wanted kitchens and additions, that's what we talked about.

(7) They claim to be the 3rd largest lead service in the United States, right behind ServiceMagic and Reliable Remodeler.  I somehow doubt this as well.

(8) I processed a request with my credit card company to get credited on the $145 for the 2nd month.  Looks like it went through