Complaint Review: GetMyHomesValue.com - Lancaster Pennsylvania

On the afternoon of March 2, 2006 I got a call from a sales representative named Jack Kelly at GetMyHomesValue.com, Inc. Jack said his company sells listing leads to real estate agents, and claimed that their program was different from all the others. The difference, he explained, was that his company would introduce to me by 3-way conference call to customers who wanted to sell their homes and were ready to make listing appointments with a RE/MAX REALTOR.

I asked him to clarify this, because if his company was going to set up listing appointments with qualified customers, I was certainly interested. Other companies I have worked with in the past only verify customers contact information and their reason for inquiry (buying, selling, foreclosure, etc.) before distributing leads. I said that normally I say no to these lead generation companies because my experience has been that most of the leads I get are people who can't qualify to buy a home and it's not worth it the money I paid for them. Jack assured me that their leads are qualified SELLERS and that I would get the call only when the lead was ready to make A LISTING APPOINTMENT with a RE/MAX REALTOR. Actual listing appointments are something I'd be interested in paying for. Jack assured me that this is what his company would provide.

I asked Jack how many listing apppointments per month I could expect to receive. He said TWO TO TEN PER MONTH.

He explained that territories were divided by zip code, I chose 91505 in Burbank, California. Jack said that zip code was $473 per month, I was to pay the month of March (prorated since it was March 2nd) and April up front, then I'd be obligated to pay $473 each month for May and June. At that time I could terminate or continue month to month. The total up front fee would be $913 ($440 for March prorated plus $473 for April). I told Jack that I couldn't pay that right now; I had an escrow closing sometime after March 7, 2006. Could I pay $440 on two cards today and the balance after the escrow closes? He put me on hold and came back with approval.

Jack asked me for my credit card information and explained they would email me the contract and a customer service representative would call me later the same day to go over the terms and conditions, then get me online to show me how to use their system. I gave Jack my credit card information at this time IT WAS NOT MY INTENTION TO AUTHORIZE ANY PAYMENT TO HIS COMPANY UNTIL I HAD READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE CONTRACT. I expected that this step would be completed with the customer service representative later that day.

An hour or so later, Ashley from customer service called and asked if I received their email of the agreement. I said that I did not. Then she asked me to verify my email address. I gave her my email address and she said that the one they had was incorrect and that's why I hadn't received the contract. So while on the phone with her and at my computer, she directed me to their web site, got me logged in and directed me to the web page with the contract (I can provide a copy of this UNSIGNED contract to interested parties). We started to review it and

1. The first thing I noticed was my email address was incorrect.

2.Next, the amounts in the Order Summary were incorrect. I told Ashley that I couldn't sign a contract that had incorrect amounts in the agreement, that this had to be corrected immediately. She assured me that she would get it corrected, but that we should continue to review the rest of the terms through to the end of the contract, so we continued.

3.Then, under Our Promise it says we will provide no less than an average of one (1) exclusive Lead per month and under Lead Guarantee it states Our guarantee of no less than (1) exclusive Lead per month is based on the average Lead performance of each subscribed zip code over three (3) consecutive months and calculated separately for each subscribed zip code. Leads are primarily gathered from the zip codes(s) in your subscription, but can also be gathered from unsubscribed zip codes within a twenty (20) mile radius.

Ashley explained that the leads could be buyers or sellers and assured me that all contact information and reason for inquiry would be verified before I was contacted. I told Ashley that Jack had promised 2 to 10 leads per month, that the leads would be qualified SELLERS, and that I would get the call only when the lead was ready to make A LISTING APPOINTMENT with a RE/MAX REALTOR. Ashley said, So you're saying if we get buyer leads you don't want them? I said no, that wasn't it at all. The issue was that I wanted what Jack promised to be in the contract, 2 TO 10 LISTING APPOINTMENTS PER MONTH.

4.Under Special Interest Zip Codes the terms of the contract state that these leads are not guaranteed, but that can be had for at or below prices of $89. I was reading this while Ashley was telling me that I could have these leads for free. So again I noticed that what was being said was different than what was actually offered in the terms of the contract.

At this point I realized that this company had no intention of providing the product and service they originally promised so I told Ashley that I did not agree to the terms of the contract and did not want my credit cards charged. She said that it was too late, they had already been charged. I said that I hadn't signed anything yet, that I did not agree to the terms; she said there was nothing she could do. I said I wanted to speak with her supervisor. She said that no one was in the office at that time, it would have to wait until tomorrow.

First thing in the morning on March 3, 2006 I called the company several times asking to speak with a manager. I was told that everyone was in a meeting, that the manager was aware of my situation and would call me as soon as they could. I asked for the manager's name and asked to be put through their voicemail. I was put through to Tabitha Valleau's (not sure of spelling) voicemail and left a message that the terms of the contract did not match what Jack Kelly had originally promised and that I did not want my credit cards to be charged, could she please call me as soon as possible? Tabitha did call me back later that day and said, It's too late. I'm not going to give you your money back. When I explained that the terms Jack Kelly offered were different than the terms in the written contract and that I did not authorize payment because of this she said, Well, you should have asked to see the written terms before you gave us your credit card information.

This company tricked me into giving them my credit card information before I had a chance to read their contract and decide whether or not I wanted to enter into this agreement with them. They misrepresented material facts about not only the terms of the contract but also about at which point in time I was actually entering into the agreement. I was induced into entering into the contract against my will by these misrepresentations. Because of this, I dispute their charges to my credit cards and want my card companies to remove these charges from my accounts.

Update: On March 8, 2006 at 8:30 am, Jack Kelly called to request that I make an additional payment. I told Jack that I was disputing the charges to my credit cards, that the contract terms were not the same as the terms he described and that he took my credit card information before giving me a chance to read the terms of the contract. Jack said that there wasn't anything that he could do about that, that's the way the corporation has set up their system and that's how they've been doing it for three years. He said that the only way he can make a sale is to take the credit card information first, THEN the contract is released to the customer for their review.

So it's a standard practice for this company to trick consumers by getting their credit card information before allowing them to read the terms and conditions of the contract. I guess it's the only way they can make a sale. I can provide copies of the actual UNSIGNED contract to any interested parties.

Margaret

Sherman Oaks, CA, California
U.S.A.