bj
Miami,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, May 03, 2007
I'm sad to admit that the complaint from the customer sounds accurate. How do I know? I'm an EX-EMPLOYEE of Buy Owner. The description of high pressure sales tactics and not being up front about what the prices start out at is the way the sales training is conducted. You are correct, no one needs dozens and dozens of photos to sell a home.
All anyone has to do to find out for sure is to call or email some of the customers from the Buy Owner website. You can find out for yourself if the customers are indeed happy or not. My guess is that you will find many more customers just like the ones that posted on this site.
Nina
Miami Beach,#3Author of original report
Thu, April 26, 2007
I cannot stress this enough: BUY OWNER LIES. This time they have gone so far, as to lie about a resolution that never took place. It was all a manipulative rouse, to try and get me to go away, and to drop my claims against them. If I thought they were bad before, I can tell you now, that they are so much worse than I could ever have imagined. Nothing was cleared up and nothing was done to rectify the situation. I was stupid enough to fall for their false advertising and lying salesperson in the first place, but they were stupid enough to promise to resolve our dispute amicably, ON TAPE, and then do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Yes, that's right. They promised to resolve the matter, and then I've never heard from them again. What I can't believe, is that they had the gall to state that our situation was rectified, in print. That could not be further from the truth. In fact, it is a downright lie.
Here are the facts: On April 11, 2007, at 3:01 p.m., I was contacted by, a customer service manager, at the South Florida Buy Owner Branch. He stated that the franchise owner wanted an "amicable resolution" to our dispute. He offered to change the package I was sold at $10,149, to the package I had inquired about in the first place. I finally found out how much the Platinum package was: $5,149. My salesperson led me to believe that $10,149, was the lowest price I could pay at the time. Anyway, the customer service manager said, if I agreed to the lessor package, they would then refund my credit card $5,000, the difference between the two prices. I agreed. I asked him if I had to sign anything. He said no, they would just issue the credit, and he would call me when it was done.
Well, as you can imagine, I never heard from him again. Of course, I called to follow up. On April 17th, 2007, I called to ask when they planned to issue the credit. He literally said, "Oh, well we sent you out something to sign a few days ago, haven't you received it yet?" Another lie. They never sent me anything. If they really wanted to send me something to sign, they would have done it certified mail. Furthermore, you don't need to sign anything to have a credit issued on your card- (Just like I didn't have to sign anything when they charged my card. They just did it !!)
In the interim, I had filed a claim with the Better Business Bureau, as well as this fine consumer protection vehicle, The Rip Off Report. It is my guess, that they were trying to manipulate me into saying our dispute was resolved, and then totally bail out on the whole deal, once the case was closed, in the end never fullfilling there end of the settlement. Well think again, Buy Owner, because I have all of your false promises on tape. While I contemplate what to do with it, I urge anyone and everyone who has been scammed by Buy Owner, to file a complaint against them with the Rip Off Report, and The Better Business Bureau as well. What they're doing to people is wrong.
I dare Buy Owner to refute any of this. I have you on tape, so STOP LYING !!!!!
If you are lucky enough to have never fallen victim to Buy Owner, please, please run in the other direction. Just ask them what their statistics are on selling homes. They won't give you any, because it's completely, and utterly useless. They will just take your money, and leave you with nothing. All of that advertising they claim to do is only targeted at you the seller, and not the all important BUYERS. Think about it. Those "Thanks Buy Owner" commercials are directed at you. You'll be soooo much better off, if you avoid them like the Plague. Like I said in my initial complaint, if you're dead set on selling your home by yourself, use either a flat fee listing service for a couple hundred dollars, or the original and far superior For Sale By Owner. Otherwise. just use a good old fashioned Realtor. Trust me on this one, using Buy Owner is like throwing your money away. Learn from my mistakes, and stay away from Buy Owner.
P.S. The Buy Owner employee who gave the rebuttal to my original complaint is also lying about the procedure checklist. Nowhere on there does it address anything substantive. It is a totally nonspecific form, that has nothing to do with your particular package. It is ludicrous for him to suggest that this would clear up any of the lies or misrepresentations of the salesperson. What they should give people in written form, is a breakdown of all of the pricing, per package, per picture, per virtual tour, and per placement. This is what would eliminate any confusion or "misunderstanding", not some vague checklist which says things like,"The Buy Owner advertising program you purchase does not include closing costs." Well gee, thanks a lot.
It's totally bogus. They don't want to give you a list of the prices, because they are trying to get you to buy the most expensive package they can. If you knew you could pay $1,000, you might not want to pay $2,000, or $4,000, or even $10,000 like I did. It's a classic case of sales manipulation and omission. They want to keep you in the dark as far as pricing goes. For them to try to justify it is disgusting.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you now have a better understanding of what Buy Owner really is.