Complaint Review: Home Advisor Inc. - Golden Colorado

Absolutely horrible company to do business with. We were told initially (in order to get the sale), that if a lead was invalid for some reason, ie: if customer could not be reached after multiple attempts, customer had no intention of completing any work, wrong phone number was given, customer was not homeowner authorized to make decisions...), I could simply indicate that on a "credit request" for the bogus lead. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! In the beginning, we were given a credit for a bad lead, but after a couple, we were automatically denied stating we were not eligible for credits. They change their "rules" for credits regularly and now claim that the fact that the lead will not answer or respond to calls, has no means to or is not authorized to have work done, flat out denies they contacted Home Advisor... WE ARE BILLED - UP TO $125 PER "LEAD".

Out of almost 50 leads since joining, only 2 legitimate leads. I called and discussed it with Home Advisor customer service (the call was eventually escallated to a manager). I initially called Home Advisor and spoke with a customer service rep named Kyle - we had received a lead for a roof replacement from a man who clearly listed his Apt. # in the property address. When I called the lead, he was extremely irritated and wanted to know how I got his name and demanded we not contact him further. After apologizing to him, he told me he rents an apartment and clearly does not have the need for a full roof replacement! He didn't even know what Home Advisor was. After explaining this to Kyle (HA), he put me on hold and came back 10 minutes later to tell me the lead did not qualify for a credit, that it wasn't their fault  it doesn't matter if the leads are legit or not, we are expected to pay for them anyway. The lead was obviously bogus, they had the ability to verify that, and we had to pay $93 for it. I asked to speak to his supervisor and was told, "Fine, he'll just tell you the same thing, Jackass..." and I was transferred. That's right, he called me JACKA*S! (I can provide an audio recording of the call). I was on hold for 30 minutes and no supervisor answered. I called back and asked to speak to a supervisor, 33 minutes later one got on the phone. Of course he apologized and agreed it should have been credited immediately, especially considering the property address was obviously an apartment and a roof replacement would not be an option. But didn't address Kyle's name calling when addressing a customer. Keep in mind, we are not given a lead's direct phone number, all calls are funnelled through HA when contacting the lead, they have the ability to record and listen to the response from the "lead" if a credit is requested.

One more important point regarding Home Advisor AND Angie's List, since Angie's List was bought by Home Advisor's parent company, we have stopped receiving leads from Angie's List (we pay a substantial amount to advertise with Angie's List) and are an 8 time Super Service Award Winner with almost 200 legitimate 5 star reviews. We have a lot of our advertising dollars, time and effort invested in AL. Now, AL customers have the option to be automatically matched to service providers, which (surprise, surprise) funnel through Home Advisor and we are charged for the lead! Seriously??? We have contacted several "Home Advisor" leads, only to be told they found us through Angie's List and had never been to the Home Advisor site. This not only makes us look like we don't know what we are doing, but is obviously a "bait and switch"! The parent company is getting paid substantial amounts for advertising AND getting paid up to $125 per referral by up to 3/4 service providers per lead. This is ludicrous and more contractors need to be aware of the double dipping and protest. We have.

Home Advisor has proven to be totally incompetent in producing the quality leads, and unscrupulous in their business dealings. Stay attempted, don't believe anything this company promises, they are not to be trusted!