Before You Sign Up for HomeAdvisor Leads

We’ll be blunt; HomeAdvisor has caused more headaches than it’s worth for contractors and homeowners alike. For the most part, people seem to be less satisfied with their experience working through HomeAdvisor because they didn’t get a good idea of who was coming out on top regarding customer satisfaction until after payment had been made. Alongside this is the fact that many reviews show that work done by HomeAdvisor Contractors wasn’t up-to-par or timely — some even said they received little to no communication from them at all!

As you’ll learn, we’ve had terrible experiences with HomeAdvisor that back up some of our harsh claims. We strongly believe that both contractors and homeowners have good reason to steer clear of HomeAdvisor, and we’ve listed out some of those reasons below with a detailed explanation.

Why Contractors Should Be Wary

Dead Leads

As a contractor, the success of your business is dependent on quality leads. There’s nothing worse than chasing a dead lead—let alone paying for one. Expensive dead leads are one of the most significant issues coming from HomeAdvisor. Unfortunately, the struggle doesn’t end there. Many contractors have reported having an extremely difficult time contacting customer service about these dead leads or resolving their problems. With the price of $127 per lead, this is a giant issue.

Cancellation Difficulty/Poor Customer Service

The number one issue we’ve found is that contractors typically have a tough time contacting HomeAdvisor for support. Contractors have reported having to call up to 20 times to get in touch with someone at HomeAdvisor, and it can take several days or even weeks for problems to be fixed, leading to recipients of bad leads.

Because of the poor quality of leads and lack of customer service, many contractors attempt to cancel their HomeAdvisor subscription. Unfortunately, the keyword there is “attempt.” From the multiple poor reviews and conversations we’ve had with contractors, we’ve found that HomeAdvisor makes it remarkably tough to cancel memberships. Various contractors have reported that HomeAdvisor will simply pause their account after requesting cancellation and then reactivate it again six months later without notifying the contractor.

Continuing on the trend of poor customer service, getting refunds for dead leads is near impossible with HomeAdvisor. It’s a standard business practice for HomeAdvisor to simply “credit” contractors for future lead payments rather than issuing a refund. To add insult to injury, it’s commonly reported that getting that credit applied to your HomeAdvisor account is also a struggle.

Our Experience

Founder and CEO of Roofing Insights, Dmitry Lipinskiy, narrated his negative experiences with HomeAdvisor and concluded that the company is a rip-off. Having tried to cancel his sign-up four separate times, HomeAdvisor reactivated the account without his knowledge and resumed withdrawing his money. A representative of HomeAdvisor made a defense that HomeAdvisor is not “Guaranteedjob.com; you pay whether you get the job or not.” Unfortunately, the response does not sound like what a reputable and reliable company would do with small business owners.

Why Homeowners Should Be Wary

Quality of Service

We’d like to start by saying that not every contractor on HomeAdvisor is a “bad” contractor. Many contractors have been roped into HomeAdvisor at no fault of their own and genuinely offer excellent workmanship and customer service. With that being said, many quality contractors quickly realize that they don’t want to work with HomeAdvisor, which leaves homeowners with whatever contractors are left. 

Additionally, as a homeowner, you want to work with a contractor that’s excited to be working with you and provide you with the best quality of work they can. If that contractor is continually worried about the poor quality of leads and the lackluster service from HomeAdvisor, their work on your home will likely suffer.

Poor Employee Reviews

Further insight into HomeAdvisor reveals 200 negative comments from its former employees.  One of the reviews titled “Seven Years Wasted” disclosed that the company renamed its name from “Service Magic” to HomeAdvisor to distance it from hundreds of lawsuits against it. The employee disclosed that Home Advisor’s profit hangs on lying to the contractors and homeowners about cost and prescreening. 

Another review disclosed that the management empowers the employees to lie to customers to close the sale. Many other reviews have a similar negative tone. Most homeowners want to work with companies that pride themselves on quality and integrity, and with HomeAdvisor, you just won’t get that.

We understand that finding quality leads for contractors can be a difficult task. But ultimately, we believe that HomeAdvisor will do harm than good for your business. And for homeowners, refer to trusted resources like Roofing Insights or even Google reviews to find a contractor to work on your home.