By Ethen Kim Lieser
ABC News in Philadelphia recently produced a segment on the legal troubles of HomeAdvisor. In the latest development of the class-action lawsuit against the Denver-based company, about 1,300 contractors nationwide have jumped on board to challenge the well-known digital marketplace platform for home service professionals and remodelers. HomeAdvisor has unsuccessfully tried to dismiss this lawsuit for years.
Deceptive business
The news report highlighted the fact that customers do not pay a single penny with HomeAdvisor, but it’s the contractors who front their hard-earned cash, all in the hopes of gaining more customers through leads. The lawsuit claims that HomeAdvisors’ business model is inherently defective, deceptive and fraudulent — not fully providing what they claim they can do on their ever-present commercials.
All types of contractors affected
According to the class-action lawsuit, HomeAdvisor preyed on everyone from roofers and carpenters to electricians. Claiming that finding your next customer would be a breeze, contractors sometimes put up thousands of dollars for those golden leads, which ended up being empty promises.
$3K per month
ABC News interviewed siding contractor Rick Bevilacqua, who is part of the class-action lawsuit. At one point, he was forking over $3K a month just on leads. Although he did get some jobs through them, he believed that roughly half of those leads were bogus. Rick made it a habit to call his leads immediately after he received them, but all too often they didn’t even answer the phone. Many times, they didn’t know what HomeAdvisor was.
Business plagued with problems
Contractors have voiced their displeasure over the fact that HomeAdvisor often blatantly disregarded their lead budgets and utilized internal procedures that discouraged refunds. The lawsuit also alleges that representatives openly lied to service professionals.
‘There to take your money’
Contractor Scott Ziegler said, “At the end of the day, they’re really just there to take your money.” Ziegler, who signed up with HomeAdvisor in 2006 when the company was known as ServiceMagic, also began to suspect that the company was giving out bogus leads. He also said that HomeAdvisor began exceeding his set monthly budget of $400 and started billing him for an unknown service called “instant bookings.”
Search of proof
In the end, Ziegler said he was billed an estimated $8K over three months. Obviously angry over the charges, he called HomeAdvisor in search of answers. He demanded that the company show him proof that he had agreed to those terms or whether he had signed something related to the “instant bookings.” Instead of working with Ziegler, HomeAdvisor told him to get a subpoena.
Now it’s your turn
If you feel that you’ve also been burned by HomeAdvisor, Dmitry and Roofing Insights would love to know your story. You are also encouraged to sign up for the class-action lawsuit as soon as possible.
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You could be telling my story! Signed on Angies in 2010 and by 2012 was paying $5000 per month for advertising and it worked until 2016 when I was told that I even though I had over 100 A ratings that recently I had 4 bad review in a row ( they were bogus reviews not work we did) after telling them I didn’t want to resign I had several people contact me and basically threaten me to resign. After a week I got another call saying if I resigned they would offer me the same service for $3500 per month. I really got mad! I was told before that they never negotiated pricing. after another few days the same rep called back and offered again a discount of $1000 per month for the same service. Long story short, I went from #1 spot to 2nd page to 5 page with way more and better ratings than my competitors. I did try Home Advisor last year never told it was the same parent company as Angies. Spent $2000 to $3000 per months with no leads they charge if you get a lead and don’t immediately call back, ( leads often came in early morning hours of 4AM how can you call someone at that time!) I dumped them last March with no signed contracts from any leads. I do still have Angies ( until this December)and all leads are from Home Advisor-lousy leads that often aren’t what we do the Angies rep says they all fall under the same Category of landscape Design- hauling dirt? I build my advertising model around Angies and it worked for a while until it was bought out. The original rep I had was familiar with my business and work model. The current rep is always on the defense. After December I won’t be renewing with Angies and never again with Home Advisor.
After cancelling this bogus ripoff last year, received a new charge today for leads. Called Angis and they said no evidence of me cancelling. Cant give back the $78 new charge just credit me. I AM LIVID!!!!! They took me for over $800 last year and mow this is still going on.
I had my leads paused for a months and in the middle of the month home advisor has turned them on and I was charged for a lead. I called and got it credit back. If I would check every weekend, I would keep getting charged for leads thinking I’m still in pause. Beware check your leads.