Every Contractor Transcript January 10th, 2008
Following is a transcript of notes from calls made to everycontractor.com, in regards to the account of First Klass Window Cleaning, Inc., opened on March 16th, 2007.
History:
On or about February 15th, 2007 I received an email regarding joining everycontractor.com. I spoke with Dustin Quinn about their preferred contractor program, and was connected to Len (last name unknown) the National Account Manager. After a few phone conversations and assurances from Len, I joined the Preferred Contractor Program for the sum of 3000.00 (three thousand dollars), with the assurance that First Klass Window Cleaning would receive a 15 times ROI (return on investment) from work generated via the marketing practices of everycontractor.com. This work was guaranteed to be delivered to me in one calendar year, or I would receive a full refund of my initial investment.
My program officially began on March 16th, 2007. I received no work, calls or leads in March of 2007.
I had received no calls or leads in April 2007, and contacted everycontractor.com asking why this was happening. I was told to expect things to begin picking up in a couple weeks. (Note at this point in my relationship with everycontractor.com, I was not taking notes during phone calls) Then I contacted regarding something in April, I called them, and they told me they had a guaranteed job for me, in the NEXT STATE! No where near where we service. Mind you, I am on the web site at least once per week at this time to update & check my profile.
Nothing in May. THEY CALLED ME, but it was a cold call from a salesman asking if I wanted to join EveryContractor.com. I informed him that I was already supposedly the preferred Contractor for the South East Wisconsin region, and that he should check his files better.
I received no calls or leads in May, 2007. April and May are usually very busy times for First Klass, as we are coming out of Winter, and have a lot of work. I basically put everycontractor out of mind, because we had a good workload and I had a company to run.
Here is the profile update table from my home page at everycontractor.com: It shows that I had updated my profile on the following dates:
First Profile Edit: 3/16/2007
Profile Date: 4/1/2007 11:37:12 AM
Profile Date: 4/5/2007 2:07:05 PM
Profile Date: 4/5/2007 2:11:33 PM
Profile Date: 4/5/2007 2:11:43 PM
Profile Date: 4/5/2007 2:11:56 PM
Profile Date: 4/27/2007 2:33:32 PM
Profile Date: 5/16/2007 6:17:16 PM
Profile Date: 6/18/2007 12:58:31 PM
Profile Date: 7/2/2007 8:28:17 PM
Profile Date: 7/6/2007 8:02:09 AM
Profile Date: 7/31/2007 9:52:18 AM
Profile Date: 8/13/2007 5:42:52 PM
Profile Date: 8/17/2007 2:18:31 PM
Profile Date: 8/27/2007 9:26:01 AM
Profile Date: 8/27/2007 9:26:40 AM
Profile Date: 9/5/2007 12:15:29 PM
Profile Date: 9/12/2007 1:01:21 PM
Profile Date: 9/17/2007 8:47:40 AM
Profile Date: 9/26/2007 10:38:38 AM
Profile Date: 9/27/2007 10:32:09 AM
Profile Date: 10/8/2007 9:21:04 AM
Profile Date: 10/23/2007 7:35:21 AM
Profile Date: 10/23/2007 7:38:21 AM
Profile Date: 11/13/2007 1:19:11 PM
Profile Date: 11/21/2007 4:38:51 PM
Profile Date: 11/29/2007 9:16:22 AM
Profile Date: 12/6/2007 7:32:02 PM
Profile Date: 12/12/2007 9:58:19 AM
Profile Date: 12/18/2007 12:08:49 PM
Profile Date: 12/27/2007 5:13:13 PM
Profile Date: 1/8/2008 9:13:21 AM
Profile Date: 1/9/2008 1:58:16 PM
Today's Date: 1/10/2008 0 days since last profile
In June, 2007, I was again on the site to make sure my profile was correct, and to see if any leads, jobs, or anything had come in.
The View Jobs received button on the web site was a different color than normal, and I clicked it. Lo and behold, there was a lead on the site, for a Nancy Cummens, submitted June 5th, 2007.
I received no email on June 5th, No FAX on June 5th, no Voicemail on June 5th, No mobile call on June 5th, and no office call on June 5th regarding this job.
I was on the everycontractor site on June 18th and pretty much stumbled onto this lead. I called Mrs. Cummens immediately, and ended up getting the job for a total of 208.00 (two hundred and eight dollars)
After completion of the job, I filled out feedback on the job at everycontractor.com.
I received no further leads or work for June 2007.
I received no work or leads in July, 2007. (This begins when I started compiling dates of calls, person spoken with, and topics covered.)
7/11/07 I called Chris Rondini, my Project Coordinator, told him who I was and he stated he did not know of me, and didnt know how to spell my company name. This is supposedly the personal Account Manager that is going to bring in loads of work. Mr. Rondini stated that he was supposed to be contacting me regarding what leads and jobs we are or arent receiving. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
7/16/07 Follow up call to Mr. Rondini, he told me there is something going into development for marketing of First Klass services. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
7/31/07 Follow up call to Michala Angelini, my Account Manager regarding lack of work. I was transferred to Ta-Tanisha Holden. Tanisha told me that You dont have an account manager assigned to your account, Michala is now the V.P. of the company., and that she would call me back with new account manager name and contact information. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
7/31/07 I called back and asked to speak to the Customer Service Manager, to find out who my Account Manager was. I was connected to Tara, who stated that Michala Angelini IS the account manager for the First Klass account., and further, that First Klass, as far as she could tell, has been following the Terms & Conditions of the Contractor Agreement. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
8/14/07 Called Chris Rondini, left a voice message, for call back, no return call.
8/17/07 Called Chris Rondini, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
8/20/07 Called Chris Rondini, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
8/20/07 Called Michala Angelini, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
8/20/07 I called and asked for Tanisha regarding lack of work. I was offered the leads on 2 jobs in Illinois, out of our service area. I turned down those leads. The Illinois border is a minimum of 1 hour away from our location. I asked Tanisha to connect me to Michala and Tanisha again said that Michala was, Not your account manager. I asked who my account manager was, and Tanisha told me that Michala has not gotten around to assigning me an account manager. I asked Tanisha what her specific duties were in regard to my account and she told me that she was basically a sales rep (sic) there to handle any needs I may have as to upgrading my account or adding tasks covered to my account. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
9/5/2007 Called Chris Rondini, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
9/6/07 Called Chris Rondini, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
9/17/07 (Six months into the guaranteed program, with 1 job received thus far) I requested a refund, and was told that I signed up for a one year program, and had to fulfill my year. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
9/27/07 I contacted Chris Rondini to let him know that the First Klass web site was now live. He visited the web site while we were on the phone and commented on how well designed it was. I informed him that since the site had gone live I had already received 2 requests for estimates from it. He did inform me that he was now in a different office and area of the company, but as far as he could tell, First Klass was holding up our end of the deal. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
10/23/07 I called again, and was told by Chris Rondini that he had been moved to business development, and he believed that Kyle was my new Project Coordinator, but that he was going to have Jonathon Proctor call me to discuss First Klass status with everycontractor and confirm who my new Project Coordinator was. I asked Chris for Kyles direct number, and he stated that he did not have it. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
11/1/07 I contacted everycontractor because I was having profile update problems. I was told by reception that the new system was in testing; I should give it a couple hours, and re-try. I was informed that Tara, the Customer Service Manager was my new Account Manager. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
11/2/07 I spoke to Tara, she stated in no uncertain terms that the buck stops here when dealing with refunds, and that in regards to First Klass and our status with everycontractor, Everything looks great on this end. I posed a hypothetical question that if it was March 17th, 2008, and I was requesting a refund, would I receive it. She refused to answer that question. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
12/12/07 Called Tara, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
12/14/07 Called Tara, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
12/17/07 Called Tara, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
12/18/07 Called Tara, left a voice message for call back, no return call.
12/18/07 Called and asked to speak to Tara, Judy (reception) told me that Tara was in a management meeting for at least 2 hours. I told Judy about the 4 previous calls with no return. After 2 hours and 15 minutes, I called back to speak to Tara. I was disconnected a total of 5 times from the phone system. I finally did get through to the switchboard, and asked for Jonathon Proctor, who is now listed as my Project Coordinator on my welcome package. I was placed on hold, and re-routed back to Judy (reception), she stated that Jonathon Proctor told her that my issue was, a customer service call and that she should transfer me to Tara. I specifically asked to speak to my Project Coordinator, Jonathon Proctor, and was put through. I received his voice mail, and left a message at 2:19 Central Time.
12/18/07 I called back and was put through to Tara. She told me that she felt it was unfair that First Klass had not received any work and that she was writing a letter to David Johnson, the owner of the company regarding my situation and that she was going to look into a refund in March, but couldnt do anything about it until then. I asked her to send me a copy of the letter sent to Mr. Johnson, and never received it. At no time were the words INACTIVE ACCOUNT spoken to me.
1/9/08 I called Tara regarding getting a copy of the letter to Mr. Johnson, she was not in. I did get extension 2292 from reception as David Johnsons extension number.
1/9/08 David Johnson called me. He informed me that the First Klass account had been INACTIVE since June 6th, 2007, because I failed to pick up my lead within 24 hours. I explained to him that the lead was never sent to me, and that I found it by accident while going to update my profile. I asked him, after all of the documented calls I have made to everycontractor, how no one in his office could have told me that my account was INACTIVE all this time, and he stated that my people are like amoebas they dont have any backbone. And that We are all only as good as the people we hire.
I explained to him how whenever First Klass receives a lead from Servicemagic (a different company), that in an almost instantaneous manner, I receive a mobile call, a landline call, and an email. (I have never NOT received notification of a lead from ServiceMagic, and in 2007 I received a total of over 30 leads from that company.)
He stated that he believed me that I had not received the lead, for WHATEVER reason and went on to tell me that he had phone records in his hands at that time that stated that a FAX transmission taking 24 seconds was shown to have gone through, and that a completed call was shown to my mobile phone. He suggested that I add text messaging to my contact methods, which I did while we were on the phone. I also suggested at that time some web site improvements, and he stated that, This is great feedback on our web site, this is the type of feedback we need.
He stated that Many times AOL looks at emails coming from their servers as SPAM, because of the sheer volume of email leads they send out. He didnt think these emails ended up in the recipients SPAM folder, and they didnt bounce back to everycontractor, they jut vanished. He stated that, I dont if you ever check your SPAM folder and I replied that I check it multiple times per day, as I am also on the B.O.D. of a window cleaning association, and many times the electronic applications that association receives WILL get sent to my AOL SPAM folder, and I constantly check that folder to make sure I am not missing association emails. I asked him if he felt it may be helpful to contractors that join everycontractor and have an @AOL email address, if his employees would tell these people to create a Yahoo, Gmail, or some other email account to make sure that emails get through. He again said that his people didnt have the backbone for things like that, but that everycontractor had just installed a new server that was guaranteed to talk to AOL.
I asked Mr. Johnson, if my account had been inactive since June 6th, why then did Tanisha offer First Klass 2 jobs in Illinois on 8/20/07? He stated that she offered those jobs, Because she isnt well versed in our system.
I asked Mr. Johnson if my account had been inactive since June 6th, 2007, if he thought it would be a good idea to have a flashing red banner at the top of the account page saying INACTIVE so that his people would know that the account they were being asked about was listed as inactive. He stated that the screen did show inactive as account status, but he was changing the staus of my account back to active as of 1/09/08.
Mr. John assured me that he was going to personally test the lines of communication between everycontractor and First Klass, including email, FAX, text, mobile and land line.
There were heated words exchanged on both sides of this conversation, as I feel that I have been taken advantage of, and he feels that I violated the Terms & Conditions of my contract by not picking up that lead I never heard about.
Mr. Johnson asked me to allow him to show me how well the system can work, and I expressed the fact that in Wisconsin, in Winter, window cleaning is not a great business to be in. He mentioned extending the agreement between our companies, and I was non-committal. I did say that I knew that this was going to end up with me fighting for a refund, over the phantom lead, and that it was going to get ugly. I also told him that he had 9 weeks, and that if he could even generate a break even amount of work, (2792.00) I would give the program another chance, (AT NO ADDITIONAL COST) and remove the negative posts I have made regarding everycontractor at RipOff Report.com. He stated that he wasnt going to set himself to fail and would not commit to that agreement. I mean it if they come through with break even money by the date of March 16th, AND show that they can reach me the same way everyone else on the planet can and does, Ill give them another chance. (UPDATE - As of January 13th, 2008 STILL NO CONTACT FROM everycontractor.com)
Mr. Johnson said that, We are going to have a very interesting conversation on March 16th. I think he is alluding to me requesting a refund and him denying it due to that violation.
Please consider this If I was receiving dozens of leads, I could see being in violation, or not picking them all up in a timely manner because of workload, etc. However, check my records with Servicemagic when I get a lead from them, I call back within 10 minutes, every time. Why would I jeopardize 3000 (three THOUSAND dollars) of my money by NOT picking up ANY lead that I was notified of? Not just a single lead, any and all leads.
This was written on 1/10/08, I have yet to receive a FAX, phone call, mobile call, email or text message from everycontractor.com.
UPDATED January 13th, 2008 STILL No calls, FAXES, emails.
I also have my mobile phone records from June 2007 there was NO INCOMING CALL from everycontractor.com on the 4th, 5th, OR 6th of June 2007. My land line phone records will need to be subpoenaed, I am waiting until March to pursue that avenue further.
Jeff
West Allis, Wisconsin
U.S.A.