You have probably seen it on the news: Home Owners all over the country are getting screwed by bad contractors they found on Home Advisor.
NBC Highlights Home Advisor Complaints In This News Story
You might ask: “How is it possible if they screen contractors?” Well, here are few things you need to know about HomeAdvisor screening and sales process: It has nothing to do with your security in mind but rather their profits by selling your information to as many contractors as possible, reputable or not.
To understand it you need to understand the HA business model.
They have created the ultimate cash making machine. It’s not legal, it’s not moral but it works (for them).
It starts with a $350 background check (worth $20 tops). They only check business owner and only for the applied state and only one year prior. This goes the same for sex offenders as well. So if you have a criminal record in one state. You can move to another state, sign up for HA and get your license to rip more people off. It gets even worse. If you cannot pass the background check. The HA sales rep will most likely tell you that it is not a big deal. They will then run the background check on your wife just because they need to run a “background check”. Many of these felons will not come forward with their stories, but some will, like Karen from West Virginia who called us to tell her story.
Her husband is convicted felon and HA sales rep recommended to run background check under her name to sign them up. In 1 year on Home Advisor, they landed 2 jobs after paying thousands for names and numbers of people who never returned their calls. We hear stories like that every single day.
BBB receives complaints like this every single day (1.5-2 complaints per day). But Home Advisor has been paying BBB to maintain their “A” rating for years so no matter how many complaints or negative reviews (passed 90% now) the HA will get, they will always maintain a high rating.
Home Advisor is not in business to connect you with reputable or best. They are in business to sell your contact for as much as they can to as many as they can reach.
During our investigation, we found out that average contractors spend $2000 over a year. $350 goes to a background check (worth $20). Contractors are usually able to reach 20% of all “leads” they get from HA.
HomeAdvisor rating based on BBB reviews and other reviews from the internet shows whooping 90% disapproval rating with only 10% positive feedback. Would you buy from anyone, let’s say on Amazon, with 90% negative reviews?
Unfortunately, it gets even worse than that.
Contractors for years have been reporting false leads from Home Advisor. Whistleblowers from the company were confirming their fears: accusing the company of “lying to contractors” and “recycling leads”.
As of right now, HomeAdvisor has 214,000 paying professionals. That’s 214,000 credit cards!!! The average cost to sell homeowners information to them? $30-$80 depending on the category. The average cost per “Exact match” is over $100.
80% of “connections” are never made or verified. Think about it.
Let’s say the company sells 100,000 contacts for $50 on average. That’s $5,000,000!
How do they sell it? Well, they charge cards on file immediately when they send information to contractors.
Get this: HOMEADVISOR NEVER REFUNDS MONEY!!!
The moment they send bad leads they charge cards. No-one can ever verify if numbers or homeowners are real or fake. Home Advisor representative commented to answer it: “It’s not Guaranteedjobs.com, its HomeAdvisor.com”
We couldn’t say it better!.
Unfortunately, it gets even worse.
Once contractor signed up for HomeAdvisor and they will not cancel!!! It takes 2-3 attempts to cancel and each time HA will make an additional $700-$800!!!
Here is how it works: Contractor calls HA and requests to cancel. Home Advisor rep agrees. 6 months later HomeAdvisor resumes sending leads and charges card on file. We have seen cases where they send 10 per day. Contractor sees the charges on the account and calls to cancel again. HA rep will say something scripted like this: Yes, I have notes that you have requested to cancel 6 months ago, but at the end of conversation you agreed to paused it instead, so we resumed your campaign.
So, if you are contractor make sure you request cancelation in writing and make sure they delete your profile completely.
If you are a HomeOwner who got screwed by bad contractor, Contractor who got screwed by HomeAdvisor or HA employee who wants to help expose their illegal practices, please contact us or comment with your experience below.
We highly encourage you Read their reviews on BBB (Please disregard their paid “A” rating, sorry about that, sometimes money can buy you a few things in life).
If you have experienced it for yourself please file a complaint with BBB as well.
Here is the link to the class action LawSuit against HomeAdvisor.
Share with love, we need your help to stop HA Greed from destroying the construction marketplace. 1-star company needs to be treated like a one-star company. Don’t risk your safety, do your research, don’t hire on HA.
About Author: Dmitry is the owner of Storm Group Roofing, and host of Roofing Insights youtube channel: leading channel in roofing industry (the voice of roofing community).
Thank you so much for your information in the article I wish I had known about it a few years ago. I hired a contractor from home advisor who did a job for me and it was what I thought was decent at the time later of course I’m seeing it’s not. I’m concerned that here in California if there’s an earthquake my bedroom ceiling l might just collapse on my bed, and several other issues. I later hired him to do a complete kitchen remodel and some other work in my home and he basically took $25,000 tore out my entire kitchen in about a day and took off. There’s more to the story later but I don’t want to get into it now but I’m happy to share it if you want me to. I looked at the website for the class action lawsuit but it looks like it’s only for contractors and not for homeowners or consumers. Unfortunately I wasn’t the only person who got screwed and I did not know that hiring somebody who is bonded is not necessarily protection because it’s first come first serve and I was clearly not the first in line. It’s been pretty rough.
Now a couple years later I am constantly getting scammer Contractor calls wanting to come out to get three bids and it’s a bit scary for me with one I dealt with yesterday. If you would like to contact me that’s entirely up to you my phone number is 805-453-5257. I understand if you choose not too. It just felt good to kind of vent after reading what you wrote which validated my feelings. Thanks again wish you all the best