ServiceMagic

I'm not sure if they are a scam, but they are deceptive in their sales practices. As a contractor, I went through the phone sign up process, which includes a general terms and agreement phase. On one, I took exception to being billed up to $400.00 a month for leads. The sales representative, Ms. ** said not to worry and that they would agree to bill me for one lead a week. Long story short, they billed me $753.00 for a month and a half service. When I asked them about it, their account manager stated, "you agreed to $400.00 a month." Deceptive? You decide. Anyway, out of 17 "leads" non panned out. Most never returned phone calls or emails and when I was able to contact someone, they seemed surprised or irritated that I called.

I asked ServiceMagic if they had any tree service that would work without charge for disadvantaged seniors. I have a dead tree branch about to fall on my roof and as an 80 year old on welfare, I can't afford to have it removed. ServiceMagic knew all of this but still referred me to three companies without telling them I couldn't pay for service. The tree removal companies were extremely upset because the reference cost them $20 each (they told me this) and one man even phoned me back three times, cursing at me for a charge he'd have to pay to ServiceMagic for a negative reference. Bad stuff!

On1 1/01/2011, I engaged in a written and signed contract for remodeling of a property I own in Florida located at *** *** ave, Longwood, Florida 32750. The person who I signed the agreement with is Kevin **. This individual is a handyman who actually with other hired subcontractors did the work. He allegedly acts and contracts under the following qualifying certified contractor: Fernando **

The qualifying contractor has been unavailable and is unreachable. He has never presented himself and as far as I'm aware of has not supervised the remodeling project nor its financial matters as mandated by Florida statutes 489.1195. I did try to contact him via telephone multiple times and certified mail twice, receiving no response, even though he did receive my correspondence and acceptance was verified by the USPS. Mr. ** has received $9000 corresponding to the first two payments from the $25000 agreed on for the remodeling project and $9360 for doubtful work which in its majority was illegal and material.

Unfortunately and not trying to excuse myself, I trusted Mr. ** and his qualifying contractor who continued working without permits, all the time assuring me that they were being processed. Up to the agreed termination date 12/24/2011, he had completed more or less, at most 10% of the scope of work, breaching the terms of the contract.

Throughout the months after signing the contract and checking periodically on the progression of the remodeling, I realized that Mr. ** was not working as agreed and never was present at the premise being remodeled, eventually surpassing the due date. At this point, I started doubting the credibility and trust worthiness of this man and took a defensive stance, sending him a notification of breach of contract. Also, with no success. Once again, I requested Mr. *** an itemized list of expenses of the project.

On 12/26/2011, I was confronted at my primary residence by Mr. Joe ** a subcontractor who had worked as a subcontractor in the remodeling project I'm referring to. He informed me that Kevin ** had not paid his wages more or less in the amount of approximately $3000 as agreed upon, even though I had paid Mr. *** fully in advance to cover all labor. Same thing has happened with an electrician. Due to the these circumstances, unlicensed activity, mishandling of monies and fraud, Mr. ** contract was terminated and he was informed that he is banned from my property.

Recently under pressure from the permit department of the City of Longwood, I requested an inspection and proposal from a licensed contractor in order to ascertain the condition of the property and estimate the cost of restitution in order to meet the original contract. Informally, I was told that the costs would be in the range of $40000 or more, that 90% of the work that had been done is useless and that part of the demolition had impaired the structural fitness of the home and that urgently this had to be taken care of.

As his qualifying contractor, Mr. *** has never been present (I haven't met this gentleman) to supervise Mr. *** and other subcontractors work and has always been unavailable, he is jointly and equally responsible for the unaccountable amount of money and all grievances. Mr. ** as well as Mr. ** are also mutually culpable in engaging in illegal unlicensed work activity, which has been reported to the appropriate Florida authorities. Let me add that Mr. ** lied that he had been processing and acquiring the permits for the remodeling and as such I have been issued a citation from the City of Longwood permits department in order to address violations which could incur in heavy penalties.

As Mr. ** and Mr. ** are totally unreliable, of questionable integrity and misrepresented everything, my communication with the former is broken. Mr. ** barely responds to my emails. I consider their handling of monies at this point fraudulent and require restitution of past, ongoing and future expenses and an itemized explanation of the whereabouts of my payments. Of equal importance are the establishments of procedures and penalties so that these questionable individuals will not harm other customers. Considering Mr. Fernando ** is the qualifying licensed contractor and as such is bound by Florida Statutes, this complaint extends unto him in equal proportion.

Mr. *** and Mr. *** are also a matter of complaint in case # ****.

When I asked for a quote on painting our kitchen I was called by PaintCrew.com. When I checked the phone number it was listed no number. I also call them at ** to cancel my appointment at 1:00. The person took down my info and said due to technical difficulty they would have to call me back. Shady company!

Two months ago or so, we filed a complaint against Service Magic in regards to a company they referred called Reese's Pressure Cleaning. After a long battle of proving our case against Reese's Pressure Cleaning, Service Magic finally came through under their "Service Guarantee" policy, refunding us $500 of the $600 we spent with Reese's. They discovered through the before and after photos that we were right. So in closing, Service Magic did the right thing and Reese's Pressure Cleaning was and still is a bad company because in the end, it's really up to them to make it right.

I hired an electrical contractor through Service Magic who showed up twice completing less than a third of the contracted work. When I complained to Service Magic, they didn't bother to call back for several weeks. When they finally called, they were spewing some ** lies told to them by the contractor. They didn't even listen to my description of the problem; they just took the word of the scumbag contractor. Remember folks, they earn their money from the contractors, so they will take their side every time. By the way, they only promise you a $500 refund, which is little solace after being ripped off for thousands.

They charged me for leads I did not ask for. They used my company name to get leads on the internet without asking or telling me. They used my cleaning company name with their telephone number on a website.

This is not a good service! The leads they send you are not all real leads. I had two leads the same week that had bad phone numbers. The people selling to you are getting paid by the leads. Yes, you can call and get credits, but it is not easy. I tried 20 leads and found that one was "ok". The lead rates compared to the work you get is so far off. Try it for yourself like I did--even after three people who had tried it warned me not to. I only want people to know it's not what they sell it to be. Very hard to get credits unless you go to the cancel department.

I received a phone call this morning from "Brad", claiming I had registered my business with ServiceMagic.com. I know I have not registered my business with any 3rd party businesses or websites. The guy who called me did not even have the correct name for my business. After reviewing comments on this and three other websites, I wont be returning his call. Thanks people, for your comments.

Service Magic called me and 'pushed' their services. They said that they will provide me leads for my handyman services. I received about 12 leads, only one was a real lead. 5 leads were already taken or stopped. They agreed to credit me for one lead only. 6 other leads, the customer did not return back the calls or did not meet me to see the job. Service magic kept telling me it was not their problem. I do not know how they are still allowed to operate with their fraudulent practices. I stopped the account after two agonizing weeks.

I signed up for ServiceMagic with the hopes of growing my small construction company. An enthusiastic salesmen promised me with world in order to get my credit card. From there, I was met with high monthly charges for "leads" that were unreachable, or on the odd occasion, I did contact someone they would inform me that they had no project to complete and the lead sent to me was a result of error. The salesmen who opened my account promised me that these types of leads were eligible for credit if the proper procedures were followed. However, after most of the requests were denied, I found out ServiceMagic does very little to resolve these issues.

Service Magic was trying to recruit our business over the phone promising leads for work in our area. They demanded SS#, date of birth and other private info to do a "background check" over the phone. And when we grew suspicious and asked them to send us something in the mail, they got all defensive. This is bad business practice. If you know in the state of Florida to be a licensed building contractor you already have to undergo lenghty background checks and fingerprinting, I find them ignorant and out to defraud the building trades.

I needed two jobs done. I first noticed that two contractors came to look at the job and neither had trucks. They both came with copies of their licenses. I chose one who seemed okay. I let him know that I had secured the funds so he requested on Monday to meet Friday and we would have to give him 25k; the two jobs combined to just under 40k. When I promptly responded that we can do 1/2 and 1/2 on the 6k job, which was to be done first, and then the standard This is a red flag! I googled the particular contractor up by name and his track record wasn't pretty. I hate to even give them a one star.

I started a Service Magic account with high hopes of growing my 2 man handyman business into a larger company. As it turned out, I ended up receiving leads that were bogus and dead ends. As a small business in a tough market, I could not afford to lose money. However, Service Magic automatically deducted $72.00 from my bank account without my approval. The kicker to the story is that I had closed the account several days prior to the charge. 6 months later, I'm still fighting and arguing with Service Magic reps and supervisors. They will not let me speak directly with anyone in the billing department, account managers or anyone with authority to help me with this matter.

We had just bought a new house that was only 10 years old. The deck was grey and needed to be restored and stained, so we looked online for local contractors and discovered ServiceMagic, who recommended Reese's Pressure cleaning. This guy, we felt he over charged us; but still we proceeded to use him. He totally led us to believe that all we need is to pressure wash, brighten and stain to make it look "brand new." His words. He went on to boast of the chemicals that he used, so we trusted in what he said. This guy totally ruined our decks. The first step broke, cracked and splintered the whole works. We contacted the contractor. No response. We contacted ServiceMagic which told him to contact us.

He did and he comes on our property with a four-wheeler equipped with an exposed machete, who was acting totally belligerent and hostel to the point that we had to call the police and file a report. ServiceMagic in turn attempted to file a complaint or resolve the issue. Not only did they not resolve the issue, but clearly said it was our fault. When we supplied them with all the evidence of the damages, police report, the works, you can't dispute clear evidence. The contractor Reese's Pressure Cleaning had none. Where we had before and after proof of the damages on photos that wasn't there until he did his work. Bottom line, ServiceMagic failed to help or resolve the issue and on top of that said that it was our fault. So I hope any one reading this will consider the many complaints with this horrible company that should have our best interest, the consumer.

We filed a complaint against Reese's Pressure Washing with the Better Business Bureau. If we have to take this to court we will, but Reese's Pressure Washing won't be alone. We want to get justice for the bad treatment that we received from ServiceMagic being that they recommend him but take no responsibility for how this turns out for the consumer. ServiceMagic has 425 complaints with the BBB in the last three years.

I had a service call for 85.00 dollars. I was not paying attention as I was expecting Cassidy's Plumbing Company (who came and gave a free estimate). I would give 5 stars to Cassidy. I would give no stars to Finnegan.

Through service magic, I hired Fresh Start Cleaning Services. They sent different people in bi-weekly to clean and I asked that the same people clean each time. I complained 3 times about the inadequate cleaning service and got no where. They did not clean as indicated on what they service claims. Horrible customer service and the house was left in a mess.

Service magic has stolen leads from our company. We have not worked for them for four months; we shut them down but they still are advertising our company. People looking up my company called them, and Service Magic tells them that we are no longer taking any work, and they send it to other contractors, so they get paid. A former customer lost my phone number and looked me up under handyman, the number he had gotten was Service Magic. I had not worked for them in four months. I called service magic four times and emailed them about this matter and didn't hear from them. I would love to see someone remove advertising for my company with Service Magic.

We agreed to a contract with ServiceMagic in January 2010 to have them provide leads for our building business. Of the 72 "leads" that they supplied, only 2 were valid. The others were either non responsive or not interested. ServiceMagic automatically charged us for over $3,500.00 for these bogus leads. The last "lead" they provided turned out to be a crack house where we were told to "Get the ** off the property or I'll shoot you!"

I also am a contractor with Service Magic and I have been noticing they have been deducting more money out of my account. I have called them and told them I'm not even getting the jobs and they're like, "Sorry, but we can't do anything about the problem." I've been thinking about dropping them. I haven't decided yet though.

A civil lawsuit was filed on October 19, 2011 in United States Federal Court against ServiceMagic, Inc., their subsidiary, Market Hardware, and Market Hardware's CEO Brian Kraff for bad faith business practices, unfair and deceptive trade practices, unfair competition, cyber squatting, and other serious violations of law. If you are a service contractor and have ever had a complaint against ServiceMagic, Inc, please consider downloading and completing the affidavit form provided at our website: ***

Back in 2010, I became a Service Magic contractor; they send me leads and paid for them. Most of the time, I couldn't get a hold of the customer, or when I did get a hold of them, they stated that they never requested the service or that they had an appointment with someone else. A lot of these leads were supposed to be exact match leads, and if they were exact match leads, why were they sent to multiple contractors?

The problem started a few months ago, when all of the sudden I stop receiving leads in the whole period of time. I received 4 leads, which out of the 4, I was able to contact 2. My account never got charge and I didn't receive a bill about it, then all of the sudden back in 07/20/2011, I received a bill asking me to pay $311.50. I try calling them to no avail. I try looking through my account to see what I was paying for the account had been block.

I tried contacting them through a chat service and was successful, he inform me that my account was sent out to collection and that I needed to talk to them, I explain to him that I wanted to see what I was being charge for and he stated that he couldn't help me to talk to the collection agency. I called CMI and I explain the situation to a gentleman and I ask to see what I was being charge for. He stated that he would send me an email, which I never received. CMI is billing me for $415.33; they are harassing me and refuse to give me any information. I refuse to pay because they refuse to provide me with information. I did not receive all those leads; therefore, I shouldn't be held responsible. Why didn't Service Magic call my phone? Why didn't they send me a text, or email stating there was a problem? They only contacted me after I was sent to collection, while I worked with them I paid thousands of dollars and got 2 good leads, service magic is a rip off.

I have, as a contractor, been taken advantage of by ServiceMagic as I have paid several thousand dollars in leads and have not had any work from their lead program. They do not replace bad leads as they say they would. I think the way to fix their lead program is to let the homeowners know that their contractors are paying a hefty price for their leads. Also, prescreen a little better on their part.

A rep named Josh contacted my business, asking if we wanted re-model work. I explained to him no and advised him to contact Home Builders Assoc of Southern Indiana for contacts. He then asked if we were out of business and made insulting comments asking why we don't need the work, etc. He was very unprofessional and he should have said okay and goodbye when we first responded with no instead of making rude and insulting comments.

I have hired different contractors through Service Magic and they all were good except one. The name of the house cleaning company is "Fresh Start." On August 3, 1010, a cleaning lady that worked for Fresh Start, cleaned my house. On finishing the cleaning of one of the bathroom bath faucet, she commented to me if I realized that that particular bath faucet leaked. I told her that that faucet did not leak.

When I saw that faucet, it wasn't just leaking, it wouldn't turn off. This faucet is positioned at 6 when closed and opens counter clockwise up to the 12 position. After she was done cleaning that bathroom, the lever was beyond the 12 position at 11. I called her boss and her boss spoke to her. The cleaning lady denied that she broke the cartridge of the faucet. The owner of "Fresh Start" brought two different "handymen" to try to fix it but the second guy used a wrench on the valve to try to close it and bent the valve.

Within the next two days, I had three different plumbers assess the bath faucet and all three said that a wrench on the valve should not have been used and that this caused the bending of the valve. The owner of "Fresh Start" was condescending and told me over the phone that if I called her again about my plumbing problems that she would call the police. I posted a negative review on Service Magic and the owner of "Fresh Start" has disputed it. She has 10 days to provide documentation that supports her side. I spent $550 dollars to fix what her cleaning lady and handyman did to my faucet. If Service Magic does not post my review, I might take "Fresh Start" to court.

I called a number listed on the internet to schedule an estimate for refacing cabinets. After I gave the person who answered the phone my number, she said "I see you have done business with Service Magic before". I replied that I had not contracted with any company through Service Magic. I told them I thought Service Magic was a ripoff company because my husband got ripped off by them to get leads for his business. He is still trying to get rid of them. They charged a lot of money for their "leads", which are mostly bogus. I hung the phone up and about an hour later, a man called from the cabinet refacing company so I know they gave him my number even though I told them not to send anyone. I'm sure this man is going to get "charged" for the "lead" even though I have no intention of doing business with him. I made it very plain that I did not want to have anything to do with Service Magic and they still gave my number to the business.

I hire them to get leads and that's when my nightmare started. They send leads that don't want any job done, people looking for jobs, and other kinds of person that don't pick up their phone. I had to pay for all that; then I cancel but they keep on. Now I have found out that I have a balance of $556.00 dollars after a year that I cancelled. That company is a fraud to the people who is looking for a better future.

My overall experience as a vendor with Service Magic is less than 1 star.

The quality of leads is so crappy. Consumers still do not know what they are getting into.

SM quickly charges me for each lead but try to get a credit. I believe their policy is to deny, deny, deny.

We turn our leads off until the proper credit is given, we both lose. Don't be a loser, ask your associates about Service Magic. Yes, there are some positives, but they are just greedy like everyone else.

Don't waste your money.

I went on ServiceMagic site to find a person to clean, inspect, and repair my chimney. I chose Kenny's Masonary and chimney sweep with a 4.56 out of 5 rating. Kenny refused to check anything outside like the roof flashing or brick on the outside. He took a brush and ran up the chimney a couple of times. He told me he would clean out the bottom clean out area for an additional $20. I told him that is part of cleaning the chimney, but he refused. He was at the house no more than 15 min and charged $125. I complained to ServiceMagic and tried to give Kenny a bad rating, but I kept getting an error message. I contacted ServiceMagic and they told me they would submit my rating for me. However, Kenny still has a 4.56 rating and no rating from me.

I hired them and got ripped off. I found these reviews after the fact. So, here's my question: if ServiceMagic is a fraudulent scam, how does the BBB have them rated A-? That's pretty good rating. Is BBB a scam too? Do they pay for their rating?

I used ServiceMagic as a lead referral service. The leads would come to my cell phone via email, text & call. I would call these leads back within 5 minutes (max) & the consumer already "found someone". Other leads I would call then leave messages (more than one) & I would never receive a call back. Other numbers were disconnected when I call back. The reason for my complaint is that ServiceMagic is still advertising using my business name & mailing address but is using the service magic number. With their continuous advertising it could lead to possible loss of my business. I can get possible complaints against my business, loss of income and defamation of character.

Prices are rising on bad service and bad leads are always generated. Now, they are rising fees. Not only did they rip us off but they also reduced our territory. We have to pay more for extending it. I don't understand why a company of this nature is permitted to act this way in the middle of recession. These people are trying to double their profits. I charge between $50 - $150 per cleaning a medium-sized carpet. With this kind of hike, I will have no profits. They are taking all your money. They left us with just pennies on a one time job. We survive with frequented or recurring customers; however, they don't provide us with any of those.

There are times when a lead is sent to us so we contact the customer right away. What happens? The customer is already mad because at least four providers already contacted them and sometimes, those calls were done hours ago and even a day before. I had contacted ServiceMagic and complained on these bad leads. Their answer is for us to submit a credit request for this "incident" without even an apology on their side. Why not begin a class suit against this company with all these bad practices? Why can't the federal government do anything to stop these abusive practices?

Service Magic gave me three names of handyman to fix the drip of the faucet. I chose Miguel to do the job. Miguel fixed the drip of the faucet but failed to put the base of the faucet correctly. I called him on August 19 and he promised to come on August 20 at 10 am. He did not show as promised. I called him and left a message which remained unanswered. I have already paid him $75 for the job and I expect him to put the base correctly.

I was sent a lead end of July. I called the lead up and found that it was not a good lead.

Ten to 15 minutes later, I called up Service Magic to let them know that the lead they sent was not good. They told me that they would review the lead. They end up charging me for the lead anyway.

I called them up and spoke with one of the representatives. He said that they could give me another lead. At first I was will to work with them but me and my wife were thinking if they stole from us once, they might try this again.

The leads they have sent in the past started to feel funny. So I went online to see the reviews and saw that they have done this a lot. Please help stop these guys from taking hardworking people's money.

After several conversations with the sales rep and being offered a no fee chance to try their service I reluctantly decided to try them. they assured me that they would get me quality leads for fabricating and installing laminate counter tops. After 90 days with them they sent me two leads. The first lead the lady wanted a piece of a post form counter top 29 inches wide and 4 inches deep for the back of a slide in stove.

I told them I don't do post form tops. that lead cost me $19.50. I had to fight tooth and nail for a refund which they held in escrow because they told me they don't issue refunds. After another 30 days I got a second lead. I called her within 5 minutes of getting the lead and she told me she didn't want to talk to anyone on the phone she was trying to get quotes online and had already hired Sears. Again Service magic told me that they wont give me a refund because she filled out the form online. and that constituted a good lead.

I called to cancel my account and was told I was in the phone que and they would call me but after three hours of waiting no one ever bothered to call me to cancel my account and you can't go online to cancel your account. Imagine that! I am now in the second day of trying to cancel my account and every time I speak to someone they put me on hold until someone else like a customer service manager answers the line and amazingly they don't have the ability to cancel my account either so they put me back on hold. It's just a big game. I would not recommend this company to anyone period. Now I have to get a new card so they cant start putting bogus charges on my account that they won't refund.

I signed up to use Service Magic for "carpentry remodeling" leads. I was told when I signed up that the leads are screened and if I ever had a problem with lead "information not correct, misleading lead work scope, etc.," the company would issue you a credit for that lead.

I have been only using Service Magic for one month and I found that these are not screened or serious consumer leads. I received a lead that I had an option to accept or decline. I accepted it based on the consumer stating she wanted to have cabinets installed within one week within my area. I followed up with the client within an hour over July 4th holiday weekend only for the consumer to tell me that she was not serious about installing cabinets and that she was researching products. I do not sell products, I offer installation services. I placed a request for a credit and was denied. My representative, who was so helpful when I signed up, told me that people change their minds and that's part of the business and we cannot offer credits for that.

I found out that these leads are NOT screened leads with serious consumers seeking services. The leads I received were misleading and I'm struggling to get a credit back. In addition to this, I have called on several leads I received from Service Magic and the consumer never answers the phone, responds to email or appointment date request. I received five leads within two weeks that I was told there were "Match Leads" that the consumer sought me out so I have to pay an additional fee for these leads. If a consumer sought me out, why wouldn't they answer the phone or emails if they want to personally work with me? It seems like a scam. I received five leads with three of them being "match leads" consumers seeking me out but none of them has booked an appointment with me or returned my calls/emails.

These leads come from Internet surfers who make a couple of clicks here and there. And we, contractors in a struggling economy, are chasing these false leads hoping that it will lead to a job, but they don't.

Service Magic harassed us on joining their company, offering great web space meaning, in turn, we would get more customers. We did sign up with them and I noticed right away that something was wrong. The first lead (a job they set up for you when a customer calls) was ok. It stopped their, no answer, no contact info, even just an inquiry, and we still got charged, for every one. If it stopped there, and there were no other problems, I would have been so lucky. They debit money you owe them for leads on a weekly basis. I had been told without a shadow of a doubt that they never ever refund money into a bank account; they only credit your account. Ok, not great, and I'm starting to rethink the situation.

I checked my bank statement, not only did they debit for the two leads from week one, they debited them twice, and credited them once. They told me it was my bank that did it. My bank assures me that this was not the case. Of course, so I cancelled. That's when I noticed that I did a web search for our company, it shows up only with a link to service magic. Previously, I had set up several listings on free sites but all these had been changed. Not only do any customers looking for us get service magic number, they completely removed my number, putting their forwarding number in its place. It is like that to this day and they said that it will take up to 60 days to fix this. Also, they changed my address to an address in a different city, with the wrong zip code too. When I looked it up, I saw it wasn't even a house, office, anything. It was a field, down an old road. That's when things got very peculiar. They have the same address listed for lots of contractors. And the ones that have different addresses listed? All bogus addresses, mostly dirt roads. I called them about this and said that they had no idea, maybe a glitch. One guy said it was the accurate address of one company. When I told him what I found on the map, he hung up on me.

I have a feeling something very bad is going on in that company. Now, if anyone searches for us, they only get Service Magic. Service Magic takes one job and sells it to 4 or 5 contractors, with of course only one getting the job. I'm afraid now, even though I've cancelled, they are stealing our business and name.

I have been using Service Magic for about 2 years to the tune of $5000. I got a lead yesterday for $82. I call the customer and they told me that the information was incorrect. I requested a credit but Service Magic denied the credit request twice within the same day. They owe me $72 of a balance. They told be that they are not set up to give refunds. So another $72 is down the drain. Has anyone considered a class action lawsuit against this corporate monster?

This is in response to your letter regarding Service Magic, Inc. and the collection of $1,755.00. This company violated every condition given to me when they initially sold me their "bill of goods." The calls from them to sign up for their service were borderline harassment. When I finally agreed to temporarily use their service, I followed up on every "qualified lead" they gave me. That was the first violation. The leads they provided were not qualified. None of the leads resulted in any business to me. When I tried to call them to cancel the service, not only were they difficult to contact, they refused to cancel the service and continued to charge my credit card.

It appears that other businesses had the same problem. I have enclosed 10 of 54 pages of complaints from Consumer Affairs reports with similar situations as mine. The people of Service Magic are thieves with deceptive and fraudulent practices. Do you really want to pursue this matter? After reading the enclosed Consumer Affairs reports along with others found on consumeraffairs.com, it would be in your best interest to discontinue your requests for payment and sever your relationship with this despicable company.

I have spent hours on the phone on 3 different occasions convincing someone at Comcast to send a technician to help me with 2 problems-- wireless connection and unable to use my remote. I was able after many painful, humiliating, frustrating conversations to get service calls scheduled 3 different times. Each time, the service call was cancelled and I was notified via an electronic message saying the problem was fixed in my area. I have been paying for wireless service since December 2010 and was never able to use it. My TV remote does not work. I simply cannot fix these problems by walking through the solutions on the phone which Comcast forces me to do every time I call, until they finally scheduled a service call only to cancel it the next day.

Service Magic is making millions from the contractors and the home owner by scamming them and cheating people. Do not share your info with them. Be careful, trust me, I spend a lot of money. Do not do the same mistake. Do not give them your email because they will spy on you on line, also they have different company called Contractor.com. Many people are suffering right now but Service Magic doesn't care the only thing they care about is your money and your credit card.

I had an account with Service Magic as a residential designer. They never screened their leads at all. When I would call on a lead, the customer would usually say that they just clicked the submit button and they couldn't believe that I called so quickly. Out of over 20 leads, I met two people and signed one contract.

Finally, I received two leads in a row for patent design drawings. This has nothing to do with Home Improvement. When I disputed the charge, they offered credit for one but not the other. I swear if someone contacted them about how to milk a cow, they would send out leads and charge for them.

I also received another lead and charge after I canceled my account, and they would not give my money back for that either. Finally, they said they could not put the disputed charge back onto my credit card, they could only offer a replacement lead. Considering I canceled my account, this was of no use to me. I had to contact my credit card company.

In my last conversation with them, they told me they would look into it and call me back. I am still waiting for that call.

Do not use them. It's a scam. I lost over $250 with this company and they refuse to put credit back to the credit card claiming it is not their policy.

I was first contacted by a ServiceMagic representative who, at that time, had called me many times before, and the answer to join was always no. This time, he said that I could tryout the service for $99 one-time membership fee plus a start-up bundle of $200, for the cost of only $150. If i do not like the service, I do not have to use it and that I would only pay for leads I accepted.

When the first leads were sent, I accepted three of them. It seems to be okay so I called customer service and told them that I told Mr. ** that I did a handyman service and is busy in the summertime. They told me not to worry and that I can turn it off at anytime. Then, I got a call saying that I can't. At that time, I told the customer service to just stop the service, which was not done. I still got some leads sent to me but never accepted any of them because I had already told them that I don't like it when everybody is giving me different answers to the same question.

I then received an email saying that I could not receive any leads due to the fact there was no more in the account. I told them to close the account. Now, I got another email saying that my service was back on and I have an outstanding balance of over $400. Plus, it was being turn over to the collection department for service that I did not use. During the time they said it was off, I told them that I never accepted any leads but they wanted to settle for $290. Otherwise, I will have a bad credit report.

Then, their collection department called me and said that I can't win so I need to pay up. I have not used their service after the first three leads, so I can't do anything but let the court have the last word. This is a company you just trust on anything they say or do. Why should one pay for something that don't work for them? ServiceMagic is trying to rip me off. Thank you even if you can't help.

Service Magic is anything but magic. I chose a contractor from their referral suggestions. The job was not completed. The cost to repair (what was done wrong) is crazy. The contractor bond was all spent on legal awards to previous lawsuits. The contractor's license has been revoked. Now, you would think that someone who pre-screens their contractors, would know about this? On top of these issues, Service Magic will not allow me to post a review. They say it's too harsh and doesn't meet their guidelines. We are all better off throwing a dart at a list and use that contractor.

I have tried Servicemagic a couple of times and both times received such bad referrals or leads that it ended up being a waste of time. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. They don't qualify any leads at all. Getting in contact with the person is nearly impossible and that's how I know they don't qualify their leads. On one of the leads that Servicemagic sent me, I asked the person about how SM got their info and they said all they did was filled out a form and there was never any verification. It turns out they were just curious about how much it would cost to redo their kitchen. And I paid for this.I ended up wasting time and money for what turned out to be bad leads. I did find another company called Find Professionals Now and at least they verified their leads.

I signed up to get leads for my small business. They stole my likeness and name! They put their phone number with my name in search engines and websites without me knowing it and effectively stole my internet traffic and sold it to me and other contractors. I have lost thousands of dollars in leads and business by giving these crooks my info to use to rope in unsuspecting consumers! They thought they were contacting me, but got ServiceMagic's crooked sales people who lied to them instead.

We hired a GC recommended by ServiceMagic to complete a renovation in our home. He in turn hired a plumber from ServiceMagic, as his regular guy was busy. This plumber procured a new fireplace, installed a tank less hot water heater, and did a few other installs for us. We figured he would be fine because he was ServiceMagic screened. The renovation is over and all the bills have been paid. But the plumber did not pay the Fireplace Company for any of the products he purchased which are now installed in our house. The supplier has now put a mechanic's lien on our house. Our GC paid the plumber in full, even extra to ensure that all of the work got done in time. But this guy never paid his suppliers and we are getting dragged into court. The plumber will also not take out phone calls. So, we have had to hire a lawyer.

If that wasn't bad enough, we started smelling natural gas in our house and discovered that this ServiceMagic plumber installed our hot water heater incorrectly. Due to this incorrect installation, the company which makes the hot water heater says our warranty on the device is null. I'm not saying ServiceMagic should have foreseen it but what's the point of offering a service which screens contractors if it doesn't really mean anything? The reviews people give are useless because at the time, we gave the review of the plumber, we thought he was great. Now, some poor person on ServiceMagic is going to think this guy is a good plumber. I am sure there are many examples of this. Be honest. Just tell people that you are a simple service which connects homeowners and contractors, anything above is garbage because unless you have an internal quality screening process. A license and insurance doesn't mean you are connecting me with the best choices. I will never use this service again. Shame.

They do not check the qualifications of the people that they list for home improvement. They sent an inexperienced tile person who did a terrible job. The tiles are starting to crack just days after installation. The person took my money and left his worker there. He never returned to examine the job. Service Magic avoid them. They don't check out their referrals for professionalism and experience. They need to be shut down.

Beware: Service Magic is a rip-off organization. Regardless of their cutesy ads, this company rips off the consumer. Promises verified leads for work and produces false and misleading trails. This company is currently threatening because of non-payment on bogus leads.

I was told that the leads were generated by interested homeowners looking for remodeling work and yet none of the leads produced anything but paying for gas traveling to speak with the homeowners and lost time getting bids together, which were not even accepted due to the owners just "window shopping". If the leads were authentic, then why were the people just looking and we are getting them as "good" leads? Because every time I enter their site looking around, they generate it as a lead.

Now take those lookie loos and bill everyone who signed up with them who does remodeling by $45.00-$90.00 a pop and you begin to see the big picture. I am waiting for further developments from them and I am ready for a lawsuit. Simply put, this is nothing more than a bait and switch business.

Thought I would be able to pick up at least one job from the original 6. I paid over $200.00 for but nothing was the actual reality. I spent countless hours putting together bids for non-existent work. All homeowners said that they were just curious as to what it might cost and did not know that the company would be sending out contractors to bid the job. They thought that they were on a site which might be able to give them a cost breakdown for the work that they hoped to get done somewhere down the road or if they could ever come up with the cash to get the work done.

I contacted ServiceMagic in August 2010 to have a three panel fence installed, by J. Gardner Construction Company at 248-996-5199. What a joke! The owner of the company sent his brother to install the fence. The fence was uneven. He used the wrong brackets. The poles were uneven. What a sloppy job! The brother of J. Gardner took three weeks to complete the job. He was digging holes in the yard in the wrong place. I had to buy more cement because he had his measurements wrong. And he charged me additional fees because of his error. At this time, I contacted ServiceMagic to advise them of the poor workmanship. They stated that they would contact J. Gardner Construction Company. They made contact with the company which contacted me two weeks later. They stated that they would take a look at the work, which they never did.

I contacted ServiceMagic again. They stated they would try again to contact J. Gardner Construction Company. I did receive a call four weeks later. Now it is September. Anyway, Service Magic had me going around and around with this. They stated if J. Gardner Construction Company was not going to take responsibility for the damages, they would. They never did. And I have been told now that J. Gardner is only going to pay for the labor and not the materials that were damaged. It is now Oct. They said that J. Gardner is going to send me the labor money sometime in November 2010. ServiceMagic is stalling. This is one of the worst experiences that I have ever had. I will never recommend this company ServiceMagic to anyone. Homeowner, beware!

Service Magic has taking me through so much. Service Magic charge me for bogus calls. I didn't even received the leads, also I found out later that Service Magic charge you for leads that was assigned to other people. My biggest charges was $1,300.00 through Service Magic. I received disconnected number, unanswered phone information and people saying they didn't put in a request for cleaning. Also, you have some of their Sale Associate that is very nasty. Something needed to be done.

They told me that I pay them for the leads that they give me for work. They said they would give me 3 or 4 leads a week but they sent close to 23 in 3 weeks. Most of the leads did not pan out. I never got any work from them. I tried to close my account but they say I owe them money, so they won't close it. I refuse to pay them. I did not sign a contract or anything with them but they are threatening to send it to collections.

Do not use ServiceMagic. They are a horrible and mean company. They sent us fraudulent leads one right after another then took our money . When I tried to get talk to them and get credit, they would only ignore the situation that was happening. They are mean to me also. The contractor relations department treated me horribly. Finally, they took my money, took my credit that they owed me and cancelled my account. They said it was because I complained too much.

On the complete opposite side of things, if you are a "valid, trustworthy and completely legitimate contractor", I highly recommend that you use ServiceMagic, Inc. As a very successful owner of one of the premier interior design and building companies in Denver, Colorado, I have seen tremendous success by using ServiceMagic. Their business model makes perfect sense! If you can pass a background check, meaning absolutely no felonies, no liens or judgments and have no bankruptcies, then you are considered a legit contractor and have the right to become a part of ServiceMagic.

Homeowners do demand and have stronger expectations for legit companies such as mine. If you can't sell, then don't attempt to join ServiceMagic. Their program is only for the best of the best throughout America. If you are a sub-par contractor that can't close business, or more so, looks to blame someone else for your misfortune or the simple fact that you are a poor businessman or woman, like I said ServiceMagic is not for you and don't apply. Again, ServiceMagic is only for solid legit business professionals seeking to better their business, close business. Talk to homeowners who only want to deal with the best and then want to grow their business. I have closed 80% of our leads, $40 leads turning into $4000.00 projects. No-brainer, I hope most would say, but then there are those who act prompt to criticize others for their own life and or business mistakes!

I am an interior designer in the Washington,D.C area. I signed up for trial service with Service Magic. The leads that I received were for contracting or landscape services, not interior design service. They sent me two months worth of leads but since they mistook my credit card info. they could not access my account. Now they have the credit collection company coming after me to pay up $379. I told them that I would only pay $200 for the leads that were given even though they were not for my services or people were not interested in my service as the lead indicated.

It was a waste of time. The original agreement was for 2 months at $99 per month and that the leads given would be filtered out for my company's type of service. There were one or two that were for interior design but when I called and emailed with no response from the customer. I do not even know if they need any service at all. I told the credit collection I would pay $200 and they responded by saying we will have our legal department deal with you. So what recourse do I take? I do not want my company's credit ruined or people calling to collect. I should not have to pay at all since the leads were not legitimate.

The only magic about this company is their ability to scam. I am a contractor, I have an ad on Google Place. Today I checked my Place page ad and found that Servicemagic had attached links to their website on my Place Page. They did this by placing false reviews in the reviews section that leads to their web site. They also placed photos in the section for photos of my work, when these photos are clicked on to enlarge they connect to Servicemagic web site. They are trying to steal potential customers from me. I am wondering if this is considered fraud. These photos were falsely submitted and the reviews have nothing to do with me. Servicemagic is just trying to steal my advertising. What honest company does this? I believe this just proves that they are dishonest.

I have used ServiceMagic for years whenever I needed a contractor for my home. I think if ServiceMagic would check my records in their database, they will see I have used their contractors in their database many times. I had a huge project I needed done and I contacted ServiceMagic to send me a list of contractors. I wanted to do some home improvements that consisted of drywall work, installing a bathroom so a plumber was needed, and someone to paint my home. After talking with several contractors sent to me by ServiceMagic, I decided to go with Drywall Masters and Repair. Larry ** is the contractor. Larry turned out to be very terrible. He has taken $2700.00 of my money and has not completed the work. It is not until I started to experience problems that I went online, and to my shock, were many complaints on this man. I was so disappointed that I had trusted ServiceMagic to screen their contractors that I did not even think to go online to check this man out because that was why I was using ServiceMagic. ServiceMagic was supposed to take that portion of the headache away so I could focus on deciding which contractor I wanted to use.

When I went online I saw the many bad reviews on Larry **. I could not believe ServiceMagic had sent this man to me. At present, I have hired Larry ** to do work for me and everything that was stated in the reviews by former customers of Larry ** is happening to me right now. I did ask him for references and he stated his work speaks for himself, and instead of giving me references, he showed me pictures. That was my second mistake. My first mistake was trusting ServiceMagic to do the screening properly. Larry ** lies and says one thing, then lies and says he did not say it. I have paid him most of his money and he still has not completed the work. He was supposed to come by my home (9/15/2010) and I had to call him to see where he was and he stated he was sick. This was the first time he missed an appointment which caused me to start doing some checking and found all these complaints.

Larry ** is very rude and unprofessional. He has yelled and raised his voice with me and has threatened to call his lawyer and put a lien against my home, too, which I knew he was lying there too because it takes money to do that, and he is too greedy to send money on a lawyer and court fees for a lien. At present, he still has work to complete on my home. He has been paid the bulk of his money and yet the work is not completed. Based on the reviews of former customers it is apparent he would start to back out in coming back to work on my home. I am so disappointed in ServiceMagic because as much as I know the Internet, the only reason I did not do a search on Drywall Masters and Repair is because I believed that Servicemagic had done what they said they had done, which is to research these contractors and make sure they were okay.

It is so sad that Larry ** feels he has to cheat people to get money. Just like the other reviewers, we were ready to pay him for the work, but Larry's business model is to come in, make you think he has good experience and good service, then get as much money up front and then do some work, but not all the work and leave having gotten a lot of your money, never intending to do the rest of the work. Larry ** is not the person you want in your home doing any work.

ServiceMagic is partly responsible for all the people who have gotten taken by Larry **. We would not have known about this person except for ServiceMagic. ServiceMagic needs to have this man taken out of their database because he is a con artist. He gets folks' money and then does not come back to finish the work. Now I have to find someone else which means I have to pay again and I now don't have the money because Larry ** got it all. Larry ** needs to be prosecuted and ServiceMagic needs to assist in making this happen. Larry ** needs to either come and finish the work on my home and do a quality job or I want a portion of my money back.

Listed below are links that show other customers' complaints on this person back in 2009 and yet he is still in their database, and now I have become a victim: **, **, **.

I have been a loyal customer of ServiceMagic since Sept. 2008. I am a painting contractor in Southern California. I, on numerous occasions, have tried talking with representatives from ServiceMagic regarding their unscrupulous practices of providing substandard and not verified leads to me, and can never get anything but apologies and **. I am amazed at how vague their screening process is and they beg to differ. I continuously receive bogus leads where customers don't own homes, are renters and have no authority to get work done, shoppers who want over-the-phone pricing and will not let you in there homes, bad contact info, and people who just try to get or think that they will get a price off their website and have no intent of hiring anyone.

My biggest problem is when I put in requests for credit, there is no reasonable explanations to why they deny credits. They will deny credit and say that the lead was verified and I have personally driven to vacant addresses to find that no one has lived at these places for years, but ServiceMagic will say they verified and another pro had completed the work.

When a customer doesn't want a quote (which by the way is not a lead), ServiceMagic does not accept that as a reason for credit. They say their pricing is such it compensates and is adjusted for a certain number of bad contacts. Great for them to assume the risk with my money. On the other hand, I had a customer not pay me for services I rendered 100% and when I sent the customer to collections, the customer called ServiceMagic to log a complaint and have them negotiate a lower price on his behalf. And while this was in the system, ServiceMagic turned off my leads, affecting my revenue while siding with a customer who didn't pay his bill. I have a 4.86 rating out of a 5 star rating and never had a complaint, but I was treated like a liar and had to prove I did the work correctly for this customer. ServiceMagic even recommended I take away the collection on the customer, over helping me collect my hard-earned money.

They actually have on the records of customer contacts showing that we the contractors are accepting these leads, in those exact words, and it is actually if a lesson logs on ServiceMagic as a customer just browsing and enters some info about their home, without notice ServiceMagic sends us leads unknown to this person and then when we call they say they were just trying to get some information from there website and didn't need to be contacted. Well to ServiceMagic this is an acceptable lead and all they tell us to do is keep their number and follow up with them in the future. But we pay $45 to $55 for this privilege. For that I can look in a phone book.

I would really like to find out what I can do to make sure these practices are stopped and we the contractors are not financially abused. The economy is hitting us hard enough, we don't need a company which is nothing without us taking further advantage.

Avoid Service Magic's lead program. They blatantly swindle business customers.

On May 19th, we (a roofing company) authorized a $450.00 package to try out Service Magics lead program. After doing so, we found that the leads were not good (at all) and decided to cancel. On June 9, 2010, we called and canceled. We were told that we had credit left that could not be refunded. We said fine, use it up; cancel us. Since that time we have been billed an additional $856.00.

On August 4, 2010 after receiving our July credit card statement, we contacted Service Magic and asked for refund, which was refused. In addition to that, they are trying to bill an additional $165.00 which will apparently not go through as they keep requesting updated credit card information (and are now threatening collections for).

On August 24, 2010 we called again, and re-explained that we had canceled on June 9, 2010. Not only were we refused credit, but they actually said it had been our responsibility to track the credit as of June 9th and call back after the credit was used to cancel. At no time was it related to us that we would have to re-cancel when our credit was used up. What kind of deal is that anyway? We canceled! We also found out that our account is still not canceled, but on hold due to the balance due. If for some reason the owing (in their mind) charge attempt went through, we would be considered active, up and running till we canceled again. However, they would be glad to process our cancellation once the outstanding balance is received.

Service Magic's excuse is their computer system, which they say cannot cancel you when you apparently have a credit, or outstanding balance due. That is absurd. The reality is they refused and are still refusing to cancel our account, along with refunding our money. We are disputing the credit card charges with the bank in hopes of getting our money back. We intend to file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and Attorney General of Colorado about Service Magic's deceptive business practices. I would encourage you all to take the time and do the same.

Mr. D. was referred along with 2 other painters for an exterior house paint job. The job was not done as discussed in the agreement. Service Magic was called in to mediate the problem. Service Magic is an advertising company pushing their clients. They could not mediate the many problems nor would they post my comment about the contractor. They have no credibility. I'm not sure whether I received a quality paint job or not since the contractor never came to see the final inspection and they did not send a representative.

I am (or was) one of the contractors that Service Magic conned into handing over my credit card number to them. I agreed to let service magic send me leads because they were offering a $99 credit for new contractors. I was told that the leads would cost $3 each after the credit was used. They also told me that many leads would be free of charge because service magic received so many leads that they didn't have enough contractors to return all the calls. It was as if I would be doing them a favor for handling this overflow work, & saving their reputation by returning the calls for them. Soon after accepting this "cheap or free" means of meeting new clients, the phone rang many times daily with new leads pouring in faster than I could deal with. My own well established clientele was also calling for work to be done as well. I had no need for this amount of new business and just didn't respond to the recorded calls from service magic.

The problem began when I found multiple charges on my credit card statements from service magic for referrals that I never responded to. They automatically bill your credit card every time the phone rings, whether you want the lead or not. If you go to their website and log onto your account, you will find no way to turn off the service. You can merely shut off lead acceptance for a maximum of 2 weeks. After that, the leads and charges start back up automatically. What decent respectable company has this kind of policy? They're like a disease that affects your credit card with no apparent cure! Once they get your credit card number, you will find hundreds of dollars in bogus charges that they will not remove. I just spoke to a Service Magic representative today, (8/12/2010). He said that my money could not be refunded. They could however issue a credit to my account for more leads! As if I want more of their bogus leads? Please. Get me an attorney.

I'm glad to see that other people have complained about ServiceMagic being a total scam company. I had been looking on-line for a carpet cleaning service in my area. I came across the ServiceMagic website and it appeared to be a legitimate service. I filled in the requested information and about five minutes after I hit the send button, my phone starting ringing. Thing was this was 12:30 AM on a Sunday!

My caller ID showed the calls were coming from other states. The one call I actually took, the man could barely speak English. When I told him my caller ID shows your number as being in Ohio, he said he just moved here and he was very, very aggressive I had to hang up on him and he kept calling back! What kind of legitimate business repeatedly calls customers at 12:30 AM! The calls continued for days. There is something very, very wrong with this so-called referral business.

When I looked up a company online that I wanted to use to clean my carpet, Steam Brigade, I got what I thought was their phone number from a yellow page website and called. I got Service Magic instead. The woman on the line said they make appointments for Steam Brigade, but sorry, they don't serve my area. It seemed odd since their office is just down the street from me. They connected me with Chem Dry instead. Chem Dry did a horrible job. The carpet was not even close to clean.

I called them back and they touched up a little, but the carpet was still filthy. They charged me $189, more than I've ever paid for 800 square feet of carpet cleaning. I had to call someone else, Shamrock, who did a great job for $139. Yesterday, my A/C went out. I read reviews of local A/C contractors online and liked what I read about Amazing Air & Heating. I googled their number online and called it. It was not their number.

A Service Magic person answered again. She asked for my contact info and I gave it to her. She said she would see if Amazing was available in my area. Suddenly, it hit me that this is a huge scam. I knew even before she said it that she would say they are not available. Yes, that is exactly what she said. I stopped her right there and said, no, I do not want you to give me someone else's name; I'm going to call Amazing myself directly. I hung up.

I was looking for the correct phone number when my cell phone rang (the number I gave Service Magic as my contact number). I answered and it was someone from another HVAC company, called HRM or something like that. The guy told me he knew I had been on the internet looking for an HVAC co. I said I did not leave any info about me on the internet, so that can't be how he got my number. He told me he could be out this afternoon. I explained I was looking for Amazing because they had positive reviews. He started to bully me saying things like "I got 30 years in the business. I'm the owner of the company! I'm not going to send some kid to your house like they are." He raised his voice and was very unpleasant.

I got hold of Amazing. They were available in my area contrary to Service Magic claims. They came by noon and the person working on my system was great, experienced and not a kid. Service Magic is a scam and should be shut down immediately. How can they get away with lying about people's businesses? I am going to call the contractors they steered me away from. I am also going to sue for harassment and for the money I lost by using the contractor they said was the only one in my area and for giving my phone number to the contractor after I said I was not interested.

I contacted Service Magic to help me find a contractor to install 3 exterior doors and 2 screen doors. I was given a contractor by the name of David **, DBA Right Choice Home Improvements. David came to my house and gave me an estimate for the work. I hired David ** for the job. After the 1st day of work David did not complete the job, and stated that he would be back tomorrow to finish. David came back the next day to finish, and when I started pointing out that the door did not close properly, and the there were holes in the screen door were he drilled incorrectly, and the doors were not level, and the handles on the doors that he installed were not working correctly, he said he would have to come back again to fix.

David never came back to fix the doors, and would not return any of calls. I did some research on David ** per the Department of Consumer Affairs. His license expired on 4/1/10. My work was done on 6/25/10. Also, his other business named Pro Masters Home Renovations, but his license was revoked on Sept 10, 2009 for too many complaints, and not addressing the complaints. David ** will give you a business card that states "David Redlo Construction, Inc. - Licensed and Insured", but he is not.

I called Service Magic on 7/1/10 and have been dealing with Holly. After 16 phone calls to Service Magic, I finally got holly to email the Settlement and Release form, but it was for only $200.00 which was not the correct amount. I have made an additional 9 calls to her and her supervisor Roni ** without 1 returned call back. This has been going on for a little over 2 weeks now that I cannot get anyone to call me back. Service Magic advised me on 7/1/10 that they can reimburse me a maximum of $500.00.

I told Holly that would not cover all the damages, but at least it was a start until my small claims suit is filed. I have provided Service Magic with around 20 or more photos of the damage to the doors and screen doors, proof that I purchased 3 new doors and 2 screen doors. For installation, and 2 more new screen doors that the new contractor installed, receipt for tear out and re-installment of the doors, and screens, copy of my contract with David ** that shows I paid him $200.00, and my new contract and proof of payment to have all the work redone.

I have proven my loss is well over $500.00 and now I cannot get Service Magic to uphold there service agreement. They will not even call me back anymore. They are blatantly avoiding me and making payment on my claim.

An online company providing leads to contractors nationwide have many on my side ripping us off of our hard earned money. A scam. Need help out right stealing from our banks. Contacting anyone that can help. I think you would call this racketeering.Thank you. Please respond.

Service Magic contacted me by phone and led me to believe there were active business leads for interior decorating services in the Jacksonville, Oregon area. I signed up and agreed to a $99 activation fee. I cancelled my account with Service Magic by telephone and email within 24 hours of signing up by telephone with their representative, Keith.

The details of my cancellation are in their computer records. I made several phone calls to make sure of the cancellation. Finally, a female representative informed me that Service Magic has a non-cancellation, nonrefundable policy of the $99 activation fee. This information was not provided to me verbally, by email or in writing prior to my signing up. I registered online and began creating a profile. When I checked into the potential leads that Keith mentioned for my services in this region, there were no active leads. I immediately cancelled. I acted in good faith. Service Magic acted with misleading and possibly fraudulent information to entice my business into a nonrefundable fee. I would never have signed up if this information had been provided.

I registered a dispute with my Visa card. I am now disputing the full amount that has accrued and that has been sent to CMI for collections in the amount of $209.33. I sent an email to them today informing them of this dispute. I have sent a registered letter by Certified Mail to Service Magic. I want this debt expunged from my account with them. I demand that Service Magic notify all credit reporting agencies and get any bad debt records removed from my credit history. Damage to credit history with all three credit reporting agencies and $209.33 in collection as of 7/20/2010. The original $99 fee has increased with additional charges by Service Magic.

Service Magic misleads contractors and customers alike. They say they offer free estimates. What they do is charge 3 contractors up to $100 each for your phone number and address. If all goes well great. The customer is happy and the contractor adds the $100 to the labor bill. As a contractor, many times customers get mad about me calling them, thinking they would get an email with an estimate. They have no idea they are not only taking money from contractors but wasting time.

As a customer you are able to leave reviews about contractors true or false, and the contractor has a chance to post a response to each review. But Service Magic never posts the response. That is just absurd. Why trick people like that? Anyone who is mad at a contractor for an unwanted phone call or no reason at all, can log on and post a bad review and it lives on the internet forever.

When I tried to cancel this service because all the "leads" were [worthless], they wouldn't return calls or e-mails. They continued to take money out of my account every month. I had to close out my debit card, and get a new one. It was the only way to get these [people] from stealing my money. Service magic [is bad].

I was given this name from Service Magic for chimney cleaning. They cleaned the chimney and then proceeded to clean out the fireplace with their vacuum that exhausted black soot into the house. Every surface area in the great room, dining room, upstairs hallway, kitchen etc. was covered with black dust. All upholstered furniture, carpets, hardwood floors, tables, bookcases, dining chairs, all accessories, windows, window sills and grids, everything! I was yelling at him about all this and he was yelling back at me! He claimed it was a faulty vacuum cleaner. But then he was going to charge me for the service and I told him "no way". Write no charge for service. I was left with a black dust interior and had to clean all surfaces! My sectional sofa and area rugs and upholstered dining chairs all need to be professionally cleaned! I did not pay but was left with all the labor for cleaning up after their mess(!) and cleaning supplies!

I found a professional, screened and pre-approved wrought iron fence/gate contractor off the ServiceMagic site. It turns out that the contractor had recently started his business and was not very professional. They took my down payment and then took weeks before he showed up. When he finally did show up, he did unacceptable work.

One year ago, we joined with this company to begin to accept leads from them. We run a small residential construction company. We accepted and were charged for 24 leads over the course of the past 12 months, finding ourselves increasingly frustrated that only two of the leads ever returned our calls or e-mails. While this company might extensively screen the contractors who subsidize this service, they do not screen the clients who call in. In several instances, the phone #, name, or emails were bogus. We only received one refund. $1200 poorer, I am attempting to discontinue our service altogether with this company.

I went online with ServiceMagic to get names of landscapers to do a small job at my home. The search returned 3 contractors. I received 2 estimates and hadn't gotten the 3rd estimate from the suggested contractor. I received a phone call at work from one of the landscapers I had already gotten an estimate from. He stated that the job had been completed and went on to say how I could take care of the payment? I was in shock because I never agreed to give him the job. He simply did the work without my permission.

I contacted ServiceMagic the next day and was told there was nothing they could do as they are not lawyers. They recommend these fools and don't stand behind the people coming in contact with whom they have recommended. ServiceMagic sucks and I would not recommend them to anyone. Homeowners would be better off finding a contractor on a bathroom wall!

I was a contractor listed with ServiceMagic. They were sending me all kinds of leads and billing me for all of them. When I returned the customer's calls, they usually had an answering machine. They never called back. I was getting hammered with bills every month and getting no jobs. Thank God the nightmare is over.

Google and the above website are just two of many addresses on the Internet where ServiceMagic.com has used our name and address to direct our customers to themselves. We were a Contractor Pro with them until we noted that 95+% of the leads they sent us were not leads at all. Our attempts to contact their "Leads" were not fruitful and they continued to send us and bill us for leads for two (2) entire months after we requested to be deleted from their Contractor Pro rolls. We maintained their "Highest 5 Star Rating" the entire time we were with them. We did not have a single negative comment at all, nothing below their five Stars and yet they continued sending us "Bogus Leads." Every once in a while, they would "Pro Actively" credit us for a lead. We spent thousands of dollars with them and would be lucky if we even break even with them.

Service Magic is a service referral company that claims they vet or "screen" their vendors. In fact they do not. Anybody who pays the listing fee can become a vendor.

I contracted a company, Service Magic referred me too to do some house leveling. The contractor not only damaged my house but never finished the job. Upon inspection, they weren't even leveling in the proper area. They were not qualified house levelers. They took my $4000, didn't complete the job, did damage to what little work they did do and left materials in my yard.

Service Magic claims they publish a $500 liability cap on their website. I can't find that claim. And in order to get that $500, you have to waive your right to publicly complain about them or to bring any legal action.

They should be prosecuted for interstate fraud, false advertising and false claims.

My house leveling is still not complete and I am out $4000

As an electrical contractor, I used ServiceMagic to get some customers. I have noticed and complained with them for charging me fees for leads which I never accepted. I have stopped doing business with them for about three years. They are stealing my customers. I want them to stop using my electrical corporation with their phone numbers. People are trying to locate me for electrical work and they end up with ServiceMagic. This is illegal. I need help to stop them.

I needed a new fence and I went through Service Magic and was referred to Joby B. Service Magic assured me that he was vetted and did excellent work. When he gave me a quote it was for cedar fencing. I told him I wanted this fence to be of good quality because the original fence the contractor put in in 2006 was falling apart and I wanted to put my house up for sale. The fence he put up lasted about 3 days and started to warp, split and twist.

We left for 2 weeks and it was much worse when we returned. I took an extra piece of the fencing to a certified cedar fencing store and they told me the wood used for my fence was hemlock and they told me where it was purchased. I found the place it was purchased and we were told it was the bottom of the barrel for fence wood and it was hemlock, not cedar fencing as was written in the bid. They even said it was not meant to last and it needed a third rail across so as not to warp. I have sent a registered letter to Mr. B. and he chose not to pick it up and it came back to me after a few weeks.

I gave a written review to Service Magic and they e-mailed me back and basically said they could not accept my review because it was derogatory and I could re-submit a better one. Service Magic should be put out of business! I paid $1517 for the fence Mr. B. built and in less than 6 weeks, I need to have it torn down and replaced.

I am a retired teacher and I can ill afford to pay for another fence but I honestly could not sell this house with this awful fence. I do not want Mr. B. to come back to my property as he lied about the kind of wood and would never trust him again. My fence needs to be replaced as it is warped, bowed and split. I can't believe it was only put up on May 22,2010. I am out the $1517 I paid for this disaster. Many neighbors have looked at the fence and can't believe the wood was such poor quality. It had a light cedar stain so it looked like cedar. I now know better.

So, I did my due diligence when signing up with ServiceMagic. I am a small cleaning business and can't afford to waste my money. While most people said their leads were **, I didn't find this. Sure, not all of them turned out to be jobs, and yeah, you had to work to get some people's business. My beef is with their sales people. I didn't find their pitch to be that honest. They weren't upfront at all with how much of my time would be required to get business.

I don't mind that their leads are not qualified. I don't know if I would be able to afford a service with qualified leads. I just wish they had been more up front about it. Here is what I will say. I had my ups and downs with Service magic. They aren't perfect. They are a company. I appreciated how thorough the background check was. That way I was competing for business from other good pros like me. It wasn't that bad to get lead credits, I disagree with the other comments here regarding this.

I just want people to know that this isn't a company which is going to do everything for you as far as finding clients. You need to put in your own time and develop your own strategy. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or resources to spend developing my business. I had to close a few months ago. So, beware. You will have to devote time to your business. Servicemagic isn't going to do it all for you. Compared to other people, they are the better of the services out there.

I am the President of a licensed, insured, and accredited landscaping business with the BBB. I solicited Service Magic the first go 'round as a lead generating service. I was with them less than a year because they do not screen any of the leads. Anyhow, two years later, they contacted me and asked me to return as a client. The salesman had assured me that they are screening the leads that come in and stated that in the past, they did not. He admitted that previously the system had flaws and that they had been corrected. I didn't have to pay an annual fee or a first time fee, just return as a contractor. Well, I did. Huge mistake.

Once again, I only received one legitimate lead. They refused to refund any of my money. I repeatedly had people tell me that they were just curious to see if anyone would call them back, but they really didn't need any landscaping. I also had the experience repeatedly involving bogus email addresses, physical addresses, and phone numbers. Again, not one time did Service Magic refund my money. I tried reducing the lead areas to no avail.

Anyhow, if you are a legitimate contractor and want to use a lead generating service, do not waste your money and time with this bogus company. They will literally steal from you as they did me. They do not screen any of the leads. Essentially, they are merely a call center and website. They do nothing to ensure that you are getting good quality leads. $300.00 of lead generation down the drain--- all but one were bogus.

Stay as far away from this company as you can. I actually got an excellent contractor the first time I submitted for a job. I figured if this was the kind of contractors they had in their database, I wasn't going to hesitate to submit for bids to complete my concrete patio ($8200 job) and replace my deck ($9000). I went through the bid process, got all the info I needed and promptly fell hook, line and sinker for a concrete contractor that was horrible. The guy running the company has had several different company names...he changes every time someone submits a lawsuit against his bond, or he uses someone's name in his family and when they end up with a complaint against their name, he switches to another "owner" but it's still the same guy. Royden T in Washington State (Seattle area). This guy is a piece of work - he didn't want the checks made out to the company, he wanted to be paid in cash, he called me on a Friday and BEGGED for $2000 to make his payroll ad PROMISED he would be back on Saturday to finish my job. No call, no show.

Contacted Service Magic numerous times...never heard from them after they took my complaint. I haven't had my deck done yet, but I DID go through his background information and he seems very clean. He has numerous references and many repeat customers. If you are crazy enough to sign up with ServiceMagic, DO not pay for any service and check out your pro thoroughly before you sign any contracts!

Service Magic has the worst service in the world. With their hook, line and sinker approach just to nab the sale and not caring about either side of their client base. This company has been reported to the labor board in 6 states and needs to be abolished. Thanks Service Magic for keeping it fresh in all of our minds that there are great scamming businesses that reside right here on our own soil taking advantage of the poor American small business. DO NOT use their services! Service Magic prodded and prodded me to use their services, so when I finally broke down and agreed, 7 months after hearing from them at least once a week, they took my money and cancelled my membership for reasons unknown. What a scam.

While completing a couple of respairs for which this person was hired, he broke off eleven inches of my front stoop that I had just paid someone else to stain. Mr. Smith said he would fix it. That was about six weeks ago and whenever I call him, he makes excuses. But he never shows up as promised. I will now have to pay someone to redo the entire front porch. I am a senior citzen, physically disabled, without family or any help, and was laid off this past January. I am furious. I have had it with the ineptitude that seems to pervade this state.

I have the same story as all of the others. Service Magic referred this company to me that completely lied to me and took my money. They did a horrible job and agreed to re do the work. Instead they sent me a check for 100.00 to service as a refund. But to re do the job was going to be around 1000.00. I got five different estimates to support this and mailed it to Service Magic. They made me look like the guilty person and took up for the contractor. They said 100.00 was plenty to replace the flooring. They act like they are meditors but they are going to take the contractors side because they are the ones paying them. Everyone who has use their services were not satisfied with their referrals. They dont care who they refer to you as long as they are getting paid. The employees there have a bad attitude and are heartless. I paid the contractor a total of 4000.00 and he send me a refund of 100.00.

I gave my info to Service Magic and within minutes Phil B called & came with his father. I felt that Service Magic would refer a quality and trustworthy concrete installer. I signed a contract and within 10 days the work was started. They dug up the concrete driveway and replaced it with a stamped pattern. I had chosen a different pattern but Phil strongly suggested changing it. In the contract he agreed to overlay my porch and also changed the color and broom finished instead. The driveway was satisfactory but the porch looked like amateurs did it and what can you do with it. I contacted Service Magic and they did nothing about my displeasure.

If one person hesitates to use either of these services, this note will be worth it.

I'm an accredited Chicago painting/remodeling contractor with good record on BBB and many solid customer referrals. I have been in business for 15 years.I heard of ServiceMagic and decided to check them out to see if they could generate more business for me. I started the sign up process, but quit because ServiceMagic, an advertising company, is collecting SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS! Supposedly for background checks. I know better than to divulge such information to anyone, especially some advertising company. So I did not sign up. What happened later is what prompted me to write this complaint.

Next day I get a phone call from servicemagic sales talking about my attempt to sign up. I explained that I did not finish the process because they want my SSN. I told him I disagreed with collecting such information and would not sign up for fear of identity theft. I suggested there must be other ways of verifying background (references, BBB, reviews etc.) The rep went on the offensive and asked whether I had something against criminal background checks, filtering out child molesters blah, blah, blah. The question sounded completely as an accusation. He acted all surprised as if I was a criminal who just didn't want to get his background checked. He said that they are a Fortune 500 company (as if a Fortune 500 company is infallible and doesn't have low-paid unhappy humans working for it who would get disgruntled one day and take my SSN, or their database is hacker-proof, or they never lose anything etc.) I tried to object by saying that exposing SSN for reasons other than taxes or banking is just asking to get identity stolen, but the rep wouldn't listen.

He YELLED AT ME over the phone, at which point I asked then to never call again and hung up. I'm not even sure he heard it, he was busy screaming. But it wasn't over yet. Two days later I get another call (they just don't get it, apparently). I immediately said "I'm not interested" and hung up. The phone rang again right away. I said "what part of 'not interested' don't you understand? please stop calling!" and hung up. It immediately rang AGAIN! Same number! I lost it at that point and said "do you people want to get reported? I just told you to stop calling. Twice!" Even though I didn't lose any money with ServiceMagic, I felt deeply offended by their rudeness, accusations, complete disregard of my rights and requests for privacy. That is why,and considering other reviews on this site, Whether you are a homeowner or a contractor, STAY AWAY FROM SERVICEMAGIC. They are rude, incompetent crooks.

1. Their leads are predominantly bad, unqualified leads. Over and over again they charged or attempted to charge us for leads that were wrong address, wrong phone number, and wrong email addresses. Often the "customer contact" didn't even own the property in question, and had no authority to make any improvements to it. 2. When we finally gave up on these losers, they refused, yes REFUSED to stop sending and charging us for leads after we told them several times that we no longer would be using their service. I finally had to change my credit card number so that they couldn't charge it anymore.

3. They routinely sent and billed for more leads than we authorized to be sent each month. 4. They continued to try to charge us for leads even after I changed the credit card number, then have continued to send threatening emails and make threatening phone calls if we don't pay for leads they send literally MONTHS after we discontinued their service.

Under NO circumstances would I recommend that ANYONE do business with these crooks. You literally do better going door to door than using their leads, and you won't have the aggravation of having them try to steal from you the entire time. We spent a lot of money with these guys that was just wasted, plus we wasted many man weeks of our time trying to track down and quote their worthless leads. Dealing with Service Magic almost put us out of business, literally.

I advise all to avoid building within City of Philadelphia limits, run from Albert Hicks, and never never trust anyone listed with Service Magic!!!

I am a general contractor that used the services of the firm Service Magic, a provider of job leads to contractors. My experience with Service Magic is no different from the many complaints already listed about them on the Consumer Affairs website. My personal complaint is that I agreed over the phone to authorize them to charge me $150 a month, directly out of my personal checking account, starting in February 2010. This would pay for about 3 or 4 job leads. By the end of April, they had overdrafted my account by over $1000, by charging me extra fees that I had never authorized and was unaware of. I tried to resolve this issue directly with them with no success.

I am asking you to please stop these predatory practices from continuing to target thousands more contractors out there in California and the rest of the country who are desperate in finding work in this tough economy. I urge you to investigate this company and take action against the injustices against contractors who are already suffering from the weak construction industry and economy. Overcharged and overdrafted my personal checking account.

Service Magic gave us alot of deck estimates to do along with 3 or 4 other contractors, also gave us leads that we did not apply for & were charged.

waste of money, unqualified leads only generates fot SM any "fool can fill outrequest on line and hit "enter" ( how young are the people you know go to the internet ?) and then you get charges $90 for whim no returned phone calls .Also they bait with requests for leads "over your market" quote and then charge for a extra fee !

I contacted ServiceMagic to grow my business, but ended up losing money with this company. The leads they gave me were also given to 5 or more other companies, and some of them were bogus leads and they still charged me money. Absolutley refused to credit my account even when the customers informed me they made a mistake! Not only that, they took their time in responding to my complaints and then it was only a computer generated one! Never had the decency to speak to me anymore once my account was setup and they were taking my money. This company is horrible! I lost money and time and overall it was a bad experience. I cannot recommend them to a consumer or buyer. This company appears to be a big scam.

I foolishly used "service magic". Ended up with Schaefer Remodeling for siding and window job. Signed a contract on April 20, 2010. Paid %30 upfront. May 7th he was to start the job. He took the money and I have not heard from him. He gave me the copy of his license, his insurance, and a copy of all customer's rating (by which are all false, I discovered it later)".

After contacting and reporting him to Service Magic on many different occassions, they did finally post our negative review. Unfortunately that review has been taken down and he is left with one "5 STAR" review. Very questionable enterprise. Do not trust what you read on Service Magic, and do not trust H.E. Rogers Construction! $10,000 down the drain. Not a single project was completed properly.

I foolishly used the internet to schedule a window and gutter cleaning. Tonight the man called to say he could come tomorrow to do the gutters since he "would be in the area." Trying to penetrate his fog, I replied that we already had an appointment for tomorrow. His brain was not even tracking enough to know what day it was. Needless to say, I cancelled befoire I let this person case my house. DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY!!!

I used Service Magic to hire a contractor to build the three beddings around my patio and plant some trees, which was a very simple job. As a result, I had a bad experience with the incompetent contractor, GroundTec, LLP (Michael R is the president and the only employee from what I have seen). This job was completed poorly and not the way I told him to so it (I just didn't have time to babysit him). I would not recommend this contractor and/or Magic service to anyone. Their "pre-creening" process is nothing but a part of sweet talking... Make sure every small task is listed in the contract (even if this is not signed one, as per ServiceMagic veiw!). I will never will use the magic service again because they are useless! There is nothing they can or will do if a contractor screwed up. So I waisted over one months of my time by trying to e-mail and call them to complaint about Groundtech Inc. from Warminster, PA. Watch out for this contractor!

Service magic contractors are too many poor. Sorry, Service Magic, but your contractors are lazy, and lay around the job but they want to be paid upfront or at least half. Don't give a dime. Hold to your terms of once finish than pay. You got to look carefully at their operations. Have them give some clients for you to call. I find out that employees of the contractors don't want to work. They don't take pride in any work. So, advertised your job and give accurate duties of the job. Had to go look for another contractor. Work delayed one month. Lost upfront funds. Sorry job. It did not pay to fight them in court and they know it. Just cancelled the rest of the contract. Pay for what they did and get them out.

I also had to call him back to seal the floor properly over again. He did not start work when he promised to and he also showed up late and with a girl friend that after I found her on my premisses he brought in and said she was his helper. I am a women alone and a senior citizen and don't feel I can trust him to come back into my home ever again. I would be greatful for any assistance I can get. Thank You for your time. I find this extremely nerve racking and stressful. I have tried to find a telephone number for Servicemagic but there is none.

I get a call from a service magic rep offering "quality leads" and that I can limit the amount I spend. I spoke to a customer rep and that other companies had a 70% to 80% closure rates. After several months I decided to join. First mistake, I received 4 leads in two weeks and I could not even get a hold of the customers through the phone or email.

I called customer service and they told me that a 1 of ten is normal and they would not refund my fees. Stupid me decided to hold off a little more and got three more of same and called to cancel. At that point they credit me the last three leads. Shortly, after that I received three more crap leads and canceled finally. This company has great advertising but the quality of the leads are nothing but [lies]. I got hit either 7 or eight leads at 13.00 per. I cut my losses after my wife made me see the light.

Pitch: You can set your own limits for as much as you want to spend for leads.

Truth: They have monthly minimums that you must agree to.

Pitch: Your leads are only given out to a few other service pros

Truth: Your leads could have been given out to many Pros from different depending on what categories the work fall in to

Pitch: Quality leads

Pitch: Exact Leads cost more buy they are much more successful because they connect you directly to the customer.

Truth: Ask Service Magic how many of these Exact Matches you will get vs. the much lower producing market match leads. You get many many more low quality leads than high quality leads.

Pitch: You control your leads. You can start and stop leads any time you want.

Truth: They will only let you stop leads for a period of around two weeks. If you want them stopped longer, make sure you stay by a computer because they automatically resume whether you are ready for new leads or not.

A rep from ServiceMagic some how had taken information about me and has attempted to created an account with my company name and phone number to solicit service and goods with out my consent. I received a email with a password and phone number via email without even visiting there website and or signing up for such! During a job search they have collected information and called me to solicit there service trying to get cc info to purchase services, good, advertising. I explained that had not contact or wanted there predatory practices or be involved in such do the information about them on your website (consumeraffairs.com) and my fellow small business owners, contractors who also have complained about the predatory practices of this website Service Magic.com and reps. I would hate a bad rap for surfing the internet do to lack of work in my area. Again I did not sign up for a account emails, services, newsletters, etc. yet a account was created without my consent.

ServiceMagic provides mostly junk leads from people who do not respond to phone calls or email or are not serious about going forward with a project.

Over the past two years I have gotten 20+ "leads" from ServiceMagic for architectural services. Exactly 1 resulted in an actual job. I was only able to actually speak with 5 of the leads and those were only tire kickers. If ServiceMagic would contact the lead to verify they are real and actually interested in the service they inquired about, the lead quality would be vastly improved, but obviously they take in much more money by providing junk leads to their "service professionals". ServiceMagic is a complete waste of time and money.

Does ServiceMagic really screen their contractors? What if a contractor referred through them and commits fraud? Can we hold ServiceMagic responsible? They are a big firm. Would their high paid attorney save them even when a home owner is robbed by the contractor ServiceMagic refers?

I've been drained of my life savings by the contractor referred by ServiceMagic.

Service Magic contacted me a few months back, and I was not interested in their service. After two months, I reconsidered base on the statement that there are no long term contracts, and the membership can be discontinued at any time. This is false and misleading. They will drag this out for months. This is what I found. Service Magic promises quality "pre-screened" leads, but this is completely bogus. None of the leads I received was valid. Either the consumers never responded to phone calls or emails, or the one that did answer the call was ** off, because of all the calls they had received from other Service Magic providers.

I was charged nearly double for the leads, as opposed to what I was quoted for the leads. I notified my credit card company not to process any more fees from this company, and I am registering a complaint with the CA Attorney General's office. Avoid this company, and put your advertising money elsewhere. I'm out the registration fee, and $350 in worthless "leads".

I have had nothing but success since signing up with these folks. One bad lead that had nothing to do with my services and it was corrected. I found the customer service people to be pleasant and courteous. My leads have been good and my customers have been happy.

Like almost all of the other complaints and stories listed to date, my experience with Service Magic mirrors the rest.

What sounded like a good start and possibly a new beginning, nothing transpired. I was immediately given leads for photography and it stopped there. From the very first "lead," not one single call or e-mail was ever returned or verified. Several of the "leads" were from people not even interested in service for as much as a year in the future. When I inquired about the first lead not responding, I was immediately offered a replacement lead; then I was notified that the first lead was true and for real and billed again and told basically, "too bad".

I again tried calling "SM" to ask about ways to improve, follow up, verify, and even relaunched my website to absolutely no response from potential clients. Just more leads, more time to call and e-mail; and not one single reply. Service Magic maintains that all of the leads were true and correct and they continued to apologize. I was told how each and every one of the leads that I was given have gone on to success with other photographers since they were passed to me.

Again, I called and asked how I could improve my client base and was offered an increase in leads and their "professional" assistance in building and marketing my website; for an additional fee of course.

Finally to add injury to insult, I called and personally spoke to a representative and stopped all leads for the time being, only to still receive leads and billing that overdrew my bank account on three separate occasions! Over a month later and many angry calls, they told me that they are not set up to return money to bank accounts, just take it.

I know that they send the same leads to multiple clients like myself; therefore, they make money regardless. I still do not know of a single person or company that this service works for.

I signed up with Service Magic about less than 2 months. I pondered for a while whether or not to give it a try. Then I finally made my mind up to just do it. So I started off by doing the minimum of $250 a month to receive leads from them. Long story short, three leads got no answers and then on the fourth lead the lady was wondering why Service Magic was still having contractors to call on a project she changed her mind on doing 4 months ago.

So common sense tells me Service Magic is regenerating washed up leads from months earlier. So believing this was just an odd misfortune, I called Service Magic and told them this seemed a little weird. They told me that unfortunately they couldn't replace the leads because it didn't fall within their guidelines. Yet they convinced me if I was to raise my spending level I would see results. So I raised it to $1000 in great hopes. Same thing: about five and no answers. One person didn't know who called from their own house. Another changed their mind and did it themselves. And the last two leads already had between 8-10 contractors bid the project. They said it was way out of their budget.

For the record I am very good at my profession. I have a lot of knowledge and I love my profession very much. But I really (for the first time) felt more scammed than ever before. By the way, I spent hours on the phone trying to explain all this to some guy at Service Magic and got absolutely no where. I cancelled my membership. For the record I was the perfect Service Magic person. I called all my leads back (5 times each) ASAP and emailed all of them at least twice. I lost $100 membership fee and $1000 in no leads costs and about a week of my life chasing dead end leads. I've been looking into BidClerk: $50 a month and a lot more action.

I submitted request for lawn aeration and as promised got three companies to return phone calls. After talking to all three I chose one and set up a specific time and date for them to come. Well, they showed up 2 hours early after I told them that no one would be home and that we needed to be home so that they could get into the back yard. This company only finished the front yard. I attempted 5 times to make appointments with them to finish the work and every time they missed an appointment they had some new excuse.

Ultimately my complaint is in the ratings system used by ServiceMagic. I gave a real accurate description of the company (TGD Property Services) and the experience that I had and even allowed ServiceMagic, via a checkbox option on their ratings and review form, to contact the company to get their side so they could post a response to my rating. Low and behold, 2 months later my rating is not posted on servicemagic.com. So I sent an email to ServiceMagic. The response was a legally cleansed auto-response with generic language: "We will investigate this for you, thank you." Sure enough a year later, we are looking to do the same work again and wanted to contact the one that came and completed the work, and still no rating from me on TGD, which was an average of 2 stars! So this is how these contractors all "look" good on the ratings from ServicMagic! Omitting the bad ratings and only keeping the good ones. Well, I have lost all confidence with ServicMagic after seeing this complaint a few times from other people; of course I didn't believe it to be true until it happened to me.

After canceling their service (and canceling my credit card), they started using my registered business name and address with, yep, their phone number on search engines. And since they pay for these ads, they get listed first. I have called them. They assure me it was an accident. Bull! It has only gotten worse. I have filed a complaint with the Attorney General and everyone else who has been ripped off should, too. I have screen shots of my registered business name and my address with their phone number and a link to their site.

I have spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours promoting my business online, only to have them use my name and address and substituting their phone number. We are talking tens of thousands of dollars worth of damages in lost work. There is no way to know how much they cost me. Then they sell my jobs to countless other contractors. I am not the only one they have done this, and worse to. Someone needs to stop them and I have the proof to nail them. Do a search of Service Magic complaints and collect names.

We submitted our information to Service Magic in February 2010, to get bids on finishing our basement in Commerce City, Colorado. We had several calls right from the start, and bids that came along with it. Then yesterday, March 18, we received a call from Simmons Construction to set up a bid. The problem is, we are already done with our basement! One month later, we get a call for scheduling a bid? The worst part of it is when my wife told the guy, that we no longer need bids, and that we are done. The guy got rude with her, saying it costs them $75 to call us, and that we are at fault! That is totally unprofessional! Dude, you snooze, you lose! Don't wait 1 month to call me, when I'm interested in finishing my basement right away! You'll never get the sale that way! I would need to reconsider ever using Fast.Service Magic again in the future, because of that **.

I am a painting contractor in Northern California and found this company through some advertising. We contacted them in hopes of drumming up some business and were sold a service we thought sounded very good. Boy, we were wrong! We were told that if we pay the onetime fee of $99 dollars that it would get us up and running. Well that part was true but the rest has taken us for about 300 dollars and they are still trying to take more even though we have the so called leads turned off.

We signed up for the "market match" which is supposed to match us and at maximum two other contractors to a prospective client or that's what they sell you. We received 10 names and I repeat names because two of the people were not even real (wrong numbers) and the other 8 did not answer the phone or call back. I did finally talk to one client and he was so upset he did not want to talk no less discuss a painting bid. I finally cooled him down to find out that he had received 22 phone calls from no less than 11 different painters.

This "service (scam) magic" is a complete rip off. They sell you a good lie and proceed to take your money and shop a lead (if the lead is even real) to I do not even know how many contractors profiting off of every one. We have been calling them for two weeks trying to cancel the service and they will not call back and are continuing to send us names and charging us for them even though we have had the leads turned off. We are printing out the consumer affairs document and going to our bank tomorrow 3-12-10 to try and stop this. This company is a complete scam and needs to be stopped. We've been burned for 300-400 dollars and they are still trying to take more without our consent. Do not use this service and any help for us would be appreciated.

I went online to Service Magic. So John ** called at my home, and I told him I had a problem with my flood light. He said that I need a sensor and I said okay and that I want him to put a new door handle on my storm door. He said okay and I said how much would it be to fix them. He said $125. So we went outside. As he started up the ladder, the light came on.

He said there is nothing wrong with it. Then, he tried to fix the door handle and he could not fix it. So I said, "how much do I owe you?" He said $125. I said, "even though you did not fix anything?" Then he said there is a surcharge. And I said, "you did not tell me that on the phone." Now he is threatening legal proceeding against me, because of the rating I gave him.

I've been with ServiceMagic for several years. Yes, they're not perfect and constantly doing dumb things, but still it has value if you use them with limited expectations. I have noticed that with my Handyman and other designations, someone inside the company has deleted an internal link that would send these leads to me. Well, go figure. The national and international trade companies must be buying their way inside the workings of ServiceMagic.

ServiceMagic makes it difficult to see what you are getting charged for. I have paid dearly for leads that were never designed to produce an active job. Now I feel that large companies have usurped the rest of us by funneling leads to them without us knowing. I talked to a SM rep on live chat, because calls just quit coming in for jobs like Handyman and others. This is strange because the phone usually continues to ring. Well, the rep said some of my job categories had their service areas discontinued and that he would hook them back up. Well, the phone still isn't ringing for those jobs. I am losing time and money each day because of this. ServiceMagic is not performing as advertised.

Service Magic is a registered scam. They are currently being investigated by the District Attorney in California. Beware of any agreements you make with them. They are dangerous.

My husband is a remodeling contractor. Due to the economic downturn, work was slowing. We were contacted by ServiceMagic and offered a package deal for leads on jobs in our area. It would cost us $450 [non refundable], our first mistake. Not a single lead panned out. Bogus phone numbers and emails. One woman agreed to meet him and then wasn't home. He would call promptly when a lead was offered. No one ever called back. I would email these people and ask politely if they had chosen a contractor or even changed their minds, if they would kindly let us know since we were being charged for their lead regardless. Nothing.

We repeatedly attempted to cancel the service and were given the runaround that we still had a credit. OK, we agreed to stay on until the credit was used. This weekend, we owed $112. I turned off leads and immediately sent an email to cancel, no response. Monday, I went to our account to see if they had canceled our account as requested. The amount is up to $138 with the leads turned off. I then faxed a letter to their corporate headquarters stating my great displeasure with their business practices and again told them to cancel.

The only upside is the credit card number they had on file had been compromised and a new number issued so they have no way to withdraw the ever mounting debt. I told them I would send them a check as soon as I was assured the account was closed. I also let them know I didn't trust them with credit card information. I would urge contractors to stay far away from this company. They are a scam, preying on hard working individuals during tough economic times.

I have become overwhelmed with complaints of what ServiceMagic gets away with and how much they charge. Our small company spent nearly $95,000 in advertising in 2008 and part of 2009. Out of all the advertising we've done, and we've done it all, ServiceMagic was the biggest waste of money. I would be the contractor that had my account set up for automatic calls and I would be talking to the homeowner while they still sat at the computer. We averaged "maybe" one appointment out of every 10 leads. Thousands upon thousands of dollars were wasted with ServiceMagic and our leads averaged $50 a pop!

What can we do about it? I tell you what. I took my shop to FastPoolQuotes.com and spend $99 bucks a year. They also have FastConstructionQuotes.com as part of the same deal. They have a $1,000 guarantee not to charge me more than my membership and they have the same set up as ServiceMagic with emailing me leads. Can't beat the deal! A guarantee. Go figure that!

Service Magic was selling my leads and customers to my competitors. They sell bad lead. Contractors beware. We've lost business and customers that were redirected to competitors.

They are a contractor referral service. They have charged me for bad leads and would not issue credits. They are taking my good name and selling it to my competitors. They need to be stopped. If you are a contractor, beware. They will rip you off. They are bandits. I have lost business, lost work.

Service Magic took 413 pounds out of my account and it should have been 150 pounds. I received 26 leads but 16 of them did not reply to any phone calls, emails or text messages. I phoned Service Magic and was told the leads are correct and I will not receive any repayments. The next step will be court for fraud. I lost 263 pounds for untrue leads. Service Magic are con men do not use.

Service Magic charged me, the contractor for bad leads. I repeatedly called the rep that "credited the account", never did they refund. We had several calls, several bad leads and they were not qualified leads. Some prospects screamed at me for old (one as much as a year old lead) leads and not soliciting the request. Service Magic after threatening press and attorney involvement assured me they would refund and clear the debt. I am now in collections with no end in sight.

I have disputed the claim repeatedly without success. They have a long list of qualified, decent business people and contractors all in the same position, all launching the same complaints daily. They will not clear the debt as promised and re-route me, and I would like to investigate the possibility of a national class action suit against the company for grand theft and fraud. I am convinced there are hundreds like me, whose credit has been significantly impacted, and who have had nothing but anxiety, headache, frustration, hardship and heartache from this company and the employees. I would venture to guess the number of people like myself, willing to come to the table to launch a suit is substantial.

I stupidly put my number in their system because I do need help, but not realizing that I would get harassing calls from the people they picked. In the small print, it said that I would receive the list and call the people myself. Well, these people are so annoying, they will not stop calling me even though I asked them not to and have resorted to blocking some of them off my phone. I may need help, but I'm not about to be murdered for letting a stranger inside my home, that is what I fear due to the calls.

I am an actor in a commercial for a company called "Service Magic". I was paid a small fee for the shoot day and told it would only be airing in the Chicago area. To my surprise, I started getting calls from friends of mine in Seattle, St. Louis, New York City, Kansas City, and Detroit saying they had seen my commercial. I then realized they were playing this commercial nationally, and it is still being played a year later. This was a non-union commercial and normally there is a "buyout" for this type of usage. It varies anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000. If this had been a union job, I estimate I would have been paid $25,000.

After many talks and complaints to my agent, Service Magic agreed to pay me a measly 300 bucks, which I still haven't received after a year. They agreed to stop airing the commercial as of Jan 31, 2010. Then, to top it all off, my agent called on Feb 4 and said Service Magic wants to use my commercial for another week for $100 and I said no. I thought that was the end of it, but my mother just called and said she saw it again on Feb 8th, 2010. They showed it again without any compensation! This company is the lowest of the low. They deserve to be sued for every cent they are worth. Do not use Service Magic. Ever.

I signed up for Service Magic which is a website company which acts as agents to introduce people who need building companies to builders. I signed up, and they promised to provide services to me. I have had no work from them. As I wasn't receiving work, they said that I wouldn't be changed, only when they send me work.

When I went to my bank to try and withdraw money from the machine, it was showing credit but not giving me any money saying not enough funds in account. After two days of this, I made an appointment to speak to the bank. They said that there was money waiting to go out the bank. I asked them who it was for, and they said Service Magic. I told the bank that I hadn't given them authority to take any money out of my bank and that I'm on benefits and the money in the bank was all I had to live on.

After a long conversation and the lady on the end of the phone saying that the card was a visa debit card and that they had to honor payment, she agreed to credit the money back to my account, which she told me to take out of the cash point machine whilst she waited on the phone. Then she cancelled my card and arranged for a new one to be sent out.

Then I get a phone call from an American man who seemed to be a long way away (that much that we had problems communicating) saying my account is 99 OD. And when was I going to clear the balance, I told him the situation, but he said there was no record of my conversation on record. I started to put on record what I had said, then we lost connection. And when I tried to call them back on the number he rang from, it said, "This is HSBC call centre. You can ring this number back."

It seems that this company has offered to provide me with services which they haven't. I spent days deliberating about dealing with them after having the same problem with one of the competitors. They assured me that they wanted long-term business with me and that they would only charge me for leads. Can you help me, please? I'm in serious financial difficulties, and this company seems to be stealing what little I have left for food and electricity.

I am a contractor who agreed to pay for leads and referrals. I also agreed to pay up to $42. They now charge $52. Many leads are bogus--bogus name and telephone. Unable to contact, this resulted in dead ends. When calling to complain, they act as if it's part of the deal. It's hard to get them to stop charging your credit card. It's hard to turn them off. As a consequence, I spent money on nothing, and I have low-quality referrals with much too much competition.

I started with Service Magic and got lots of leads in 2 months. Only one of them turned into work. Many times I would call, and people would not answer phone or e-mail. Most of their leads are people "just playing around on the computer" to quote one of their leads.

The people that use SM are flooded with calls. If I did not call the lead within seconds, my chances of talking with them is zero. Please do not use Service Magic. It costs the contractor way too much. SM knows that a high percentage of their leads are worthless. Service Magic is to line their pockets and not help the contractor.

Service Magic is a complete scam. I agreed on a 300 a month limit with them before Christmas. They sent through lots of supposed leads and I followed every one up. Not one came to anything so I canceled the contract with them after a month. They kept on taking money from my account and wouldn't respond to my calls and emails. I reported them to Trading Standards, the fraud department at Barclays and am now pursuing them through the courts to get my money back. Beware! They're still taking money from my account!

ServiceMagic is a scam. They tell you only four contractors will get the lead you pay for, but the truth is they give it to as many as they want. On the second lead I went on, the customer said he got six contractors calling him within 30 minutes of calling ServiceMagic. When I called ServiceMagic to complain, they lied then tried to spin it like a sales person. Then they transferred me to a supervisor who, after arguing with me, admitted that more than four get the lead, then backpedaled and denied that he said that. Then he said it didn't matter if 10 people got the lead even though that's not what they tell you to get you to sign up. Do not use this service. It is a waste of time and money.

This has to do with what John has commented on from MO. You're right on, John. Service Magic has not given me credit requests even though they are legitimate one! I have spent over $2000 for leads that were not a good investment and didn't have a choice if I wanted them or not. They just charged my account. Somebody has to investigate this practice.

I had cancelled service with Service Magic in Dec 2008. I just discovered that since then they had been withdrawing money from my account every month since the cancellation which has been a year now. When I called to complain and demanding all money back, they all (Customer Service Reps and Supervisors) all say the same thing " Give me your number and someone will call you back" and I have yet to received that call back. I tried calling their Corp number they have listed but it links back to the same customer service reps. It has caused me a great deal humiliation and disappoint. Till this day they still have me funds on hold.

This company is both good and bad. They will get you some leads but they will only give it out to no more then 3 to 4. Well, that's a lie. Test them out and send out a request for a basement remodel job like I did and I received over eighteen calls. They also resend out old leads that are over a year old. The sales representative there admitted this and he said that it was an error and this happens a lot. Their motto is, "You never know they might need something by now. If many contractors just complain about getting credit for lead as I'm tired of getting credit for credit leads, This company has other construction lead companies with different names and home owners. Beware. Not all contractors are fully screened as they say they always check with local state licensing for contractors.

I cannot understand all these complaints. I have been with SM for over 3 years and they are fantastic. I dont win every job, but at least it is a qualified lead. At the comparative cost of mediums like Yellow Pages, the paltry fees are a drop in the bucket. It sounds like many of the complainers just dont know how to run a business or give customer service. At least with SM the leads are qualified. If you dont call them back quickly enough, it is your problem. Stop complaining and start working. If you want, go ahead and pay dead money with Yellow Pages or Google Adwords, that charge you whether or not you get a lead or not. At least with Service Magic, you are in the hunt.

i,m a tree trimmer i gave them prices.itold servicemagic about what happen,but they servicemagic toke the money from my account.idid,nt get the job.

Got referrals from Servicemagic for large drywall project. My big mistake was not looking further into contractor expertise - he had over a dozen listed ranging from landscape to maid service to drywall. I doubt he is highly skilled at ANY of them. Did horrendous job on drywall, 2 weeks later every seam is starting to crack. Dog door was left open on interior wall side showing wall studs. When I asked him if it looked right to him and if his wife would want to see interior wall studs in her dining room he replied 'I don't have a dog.' Not the least bit professional either.

Advertising is Advertising, BUT:

apartment for her.

Otherwise, they were threatening to take me to small claims court over it.

For those of you working at Service Magic, who are vigilantly defending this service, I suggest you start looking for employment elsewhere because the mounting public dissatifaction with this service is only growing each year and will either end in lack of business from being reg flagged or bankruptcy from class action lawsuits. I understand that Service Magic has to make a lot of money in order to stay in business, but if they worked with Contractors in being more flexible with credits, then they would gain much more business and good credit in return. Being a hard assed big steam roller is what they are good at though and it is the natural progression of business economy for services like this to be eventually replaced by better and more satisfactory services that suit more consumers and contractors. They treat contractors more like they are ignorant employees that don't have any other choices to make because Service Magic is a BIG Advertiser on the Web. I am here to tell Service Magic that we are small business owners that have other choices and can easily cancel your HIRED service that WE PAY YOU to PERFORM for us. If you don't believe this, look at AT&T and IBM back in the 80s and you will see that their monopolized empires eventually fell apart and were replaced by more efficient and satisfactory competition.

I own a painting company and joined Service Magic for the purpose of getting more leads. At the time I joined I did not have liability insurance since I was new to the industry and didn't know I needed it. They immediately sent me leads. Nearly every lead I got went to voicemail boxes that had no message. I rarely was able to reach any clients.

One time when I reached the client for an exterior painting job they were hostile with me. They said they were getting tons of calls. Since I had their address and wanted to find out what was going on, I went to their house. I told them I wasn't concerned with getting the job but wanted to know what their experience was with Service Magic. The woman said they had 14 different companies call immediately after posting on SM. Of the companies, I was bidding against a landscaper, handyman, roofer as well as other painting companies. My quote for the job was $2300 ($400 of it was materials). They accepted the landscapers quote for $500, materials included.

The other clients I was able to reach were merely price shopping. When I complained to Service Magic, my Rep read a script saying the lead may have gone out to more people given a computer error. They did not give me credit for the lead. These guys are crooks and do NO screening. I went live the same day.

which was the phone number for Progressive Plumbing. I was informed that Service Magic handled Proggressive Plumbings calls. I was told they could not get to me today and was given an alternative number for Pooles plumbing who I made an appointment with. Shortley after a plumber called and asked what my problem was. I asked if he were from the company I had spoke with since he was not familiar with my problem. He was evasive so I called poole Plumbing and found out he was not from their company. I called Service Magic back and them was told they normally call serval pllumbers. I feel as if I was placed in a position that if I had let the second plumber come and Poole showed up I could have been billed by them for an appointment I had made. I should have been informed 2 additional plumbmers would call me so I could have told them no.

Service Magic DOES NOT BOTHER SCREENING BEFORE SENDING REFERRALS. Send referrals for services NOT PROVIDED BY YOUR SCOPE OF WORK. DO NOT CREDIT FOR UNAPPLICABLE WORK. THE "right" hand dosen't know what the "left is doing. Leads are BOGUS!

They need to be SHUT DOWN! Leave messages, NO CALL BACK. Sent check for what I felt was reasonable & proper. Check was returned indicating I owed an additional $8.00. E-mail sent this a.m. indicates suite. Go figure!

I have'nt been called by a lawn keeper. I was notified a few days ago that you had someone who said he would do it for $45.00.I have'nt heard from him. I think my problem is that I don't know the procedure that is expected . I tried finding his name again on your e-mail,but another name was on it today.I'll try again.No one ever came out to look at the yard .Tell me how this works,thank you

They are a fraud and I wish some good lawyer would take them on and have them return all the monies they stole.

Saw TV commercial about Service Magic and lead services for contractors. I paid $450 for supposedly "$600" worth of leads. What I got was DEAD END LEADS! People that do not own the homes, price shoppers, people that are impossible to speak or meet with, you call and leave messages they never return an e-mail nor a phone call. And to add injury to insult, when you try to get credit for the leads they deny you, at $36 per lead, I DO NOT RECOMMED SERVICE MAGIC!!

Service Master was referred to me by another contractor in a different trade as a good way to get leads. With business slow, I thought I'd give it a try. I was approved to join the network within 6 hours of applying. Got my first lead at 7 AM the next morning. I got four leads in the first five days after joining. The cheapest leads for my trade are over $30.00 each. I followed all leads promptly and left brief but detailed messages. Never got a call back on any of the four. The kicker was the fifth lead from a renter with authorization to do the work. I didn't bother to call. I had to pay $36 for a renting tirekicker. I called and cancelled my service immediately to stop the bleeding.

I just received an exact match lead from ServiceMagic from "Jane Doe" at 124 Elm Street, Lincoln, NE. The lead free was $75.00.

How likely do you think it is that there is a Jane Doe at 124 Elm Street? No likely? You're right.

There is no 124 Elm Street in Lincoln, and the City Registry has not a single person named Jane Doe.

Just about every address in the U.S. is now mapped - certainly they all are in Lincoln. How hard is it to verify that an address is real??

I have been with ServiceMagic almost from the beginning. 70% of their leads are useless - but you still have to pay for them. Of the useful lead, we can sell 1/3rd. But these are fairly rare.

I am just about ready to cancel.

after being with SERVICE MAGIC for some time and had 20plus leads that never panned out due to bad phone numbers or addresses i decided to tell them to take a hike well they were quiet for a few months then started sending me leads again and billing me for them. call them and hummmmm no there is NO record of me canceling my services. on some of thoses leads were supposed to be EXCACT leads where I was to be the only only one getting leads well.... the REAL leads(2% of them) had other poeple from service magic. I think they just made up names and numbers in my area just to bill me and make it look like they were doing something for ,e.

A friend in the biz is with SM. He also has his own site. Guess what? You cannot even find his site because the first five or six unpaid listings that come up when you Google him, link to SM! Obviously the IT folks at SM know their stuff and they apparently know how to jazz Google so everything heads their way.

If you like getting your own leads and just want to use SM for "filler," you may want to think long and hard about signing up with them. It would appear that once you sign up with them, they "own" you.

My experience hiring contractors through Service Magic has been hit or miss. The really bad time (and last time) is the "electrician" who didn't fix anything and stole our checkbook and forged a check after we refused to pay him! What kind of screening is that?

On the flip side, I previously hired a bathroom contractor through Service Magic who turned out to be ok. He did a really beautiful job on the installation, but we had serious problems communicating what we wanted because he didn't understand a lot of English.

In retrospect, I should have used recommendations from family & friends, and followed up with the BBB. I won't be using SM again.

This Company does not throughly screen those they recommend for serice of any type in your home. If you happended to have good luck with them it was a cinicidence and not the rule. Way too many complaints to list here however most recently they send a Company here for Painting and tile work that were comprised of illegal aliens. I questioned them about it and they avoided the subject. I submitted a complaint to service magic who refused to publish my findings condoning laborers who work for registered Service Magic Contractors to use unsponsored aliens primarily from Belarus, Romania, and the Ukraine to work as laborers. Serice Magic dismissed it and refused to discuss it any further.

Agree with every other negative post I read: Service Magic overpromises quality "pre-screened" leads then underdelivers mere curious customer inquiries. These "leads" are simply tire-kickers with no skin in the game; their decision to make a free internet inquiry comes to us in the form of a $33 charge with $0 return. Completely bogus. Service Magic sales people also contacted the contractors we submitted as references to solicit more business for themselves!

These are our business partners and they were not happy to receive this solicitation with our name attached. I'm not sure if this is covered by their privacy policy but the practice is - by any measure - unethical. They will try to string you along by modifying your search criteria or providing free leads, all part of their game.

The results won't change but the charges will keep coming. The business model may generate nice profits for Service Magic but it is completely self-serving and void of any value to the users. So far the smoke and mirrors of their marketing is overshadowing their complete lack of substance but soon a superior business model will prevail from a competitor that truly delivers on their promises. We're out our $99 registration fee + the $450 we paid for $600-worth of "leads". They will not refund our account balance so am checking with credit card company for recourse.

Service Magic is truly a waste of time, money, and if you value your reputation you will want to steer clear.

Lets start from the beginning with my experience.

2) I received a number of leads from people that lived in apartments, rented homes, and/or property managers. The renters had no authority to request work . After requesting a refund Service Magic informed me that they would not refund it because "Sometimes" these renters are allowed to do improvements on their properties. These leads were not qualified home owners.

3) Exact Match Leads. I decided to pay the extra money and go with EXACT MATCH leads which are provided at an extra cost. These leads are not supposed to be given to anyone but me (since I paid for the exclusive lead). After asking 20+ customers if they had received any estimates from any other contractors I was informed that service magic provided them 2 or more other leads! Service Magic was ripping me off!

4) I decided to turn off the service and a customer called me to inform me that "some company" online was telling my customers that we no longer accepted work in the area. Well, Service Magic was advertising my business (which was highly rated on google) and telling any customers that called their hotline that I no longer did work in the area. I called the number myself and nearly dropped dead when the customer service rep told me that I was no longer accepting work. Still to this day I am fighting to have my information unbundled to their call center.

I spent over 4k in 3 months and only received 1,500.00 of it back. There are companies on service magic that do not carry insurance (I know because I researched it myself) and these companies are bidding $1.00 a sq ft on hardwood flooring etc.

Recently I was looking to do some work on my home and saw a commercial for ServiceMagic. ServiceMagic is a company that helps you find local contractors to help with your job. They claim to have a "10-point" screening process that all contractors go through to be a part of that network. This is a very sore subject for me as I know some people who have had their trust "violated" by those who have been let in their home to do work. Unfortunately, ServiceMagic's process is mostly style over substance. There are many independent contracting companies out there that do not background screen their employees for such simple things as a criminal record, whether they are a registered sex offender, is their drivers license valid, etc. One of the reasons I chose to look at ServiceMagic was this 10-point claim of theirs.

However, when I actually looked at what they do it is nothing like what they advertise. In reality ServiceMagic, "ServiceMagic uses 3rd party data sources to conduct a criminal search for any relevant criminal activity associated with the owner/ principal of the business." What a load of crap this is. They check the criminal record of the owner of the company...ha. How does this ensure my safety as a consumer when the owner sends his employees into my home to do a repair? Why aren't the service men/women being screened? I don't care if the owner has a record I want to know about the person being sent into my home. They say the same thing about their sex offender search. You want a reason why knowing the background of those being sent into your home is important read this link http://www.sueweavercause.org/ . There are hundreds, if not thousands, of companies out there that can do a background check on the employees of these companies and the only reason why a company like ServiceMagic cuts a corner like this is to save a few bucks. Nice to see the safety of their customers is more important to them then saving a few bucks. Here's an idea ServiceMagic either do what you claim and check all employees of the companies in your network or don't bring attention to your lackluster system. It might not have caught up to them yet, and I sincerely hope they fix it before it does and we have another tragedy like what happened to Sue Weaver.

Service Magic sent a contractor to my home to repair a roof leak. 3 times this contractor came to the house and did repairs, I was charged all 3 times.

I called service magic for Months trying to get help with a roof which was leaking because the contractor they sent could not fix the problem. I received no help from service magic. I was told numerious times someone would get back with me but never heard from anyone. Well this caused additional damage to my ceilings. Finally, I called the top representatives of the company. They had anther contractor come to my home. This contractor said the individual that service magic sent to fix my roof should be in jail for fraud. Well with further investigation I found the contractor service magic had sent to the house was wanted in Houston, Texas for practicing without a license. Service Magic paid me back for the first payment I mage to the contractor they sent even though I provided them with all receipts & the other contractor they sent was floored by the horrible job of the first contractor. My house had exstensive damage I would not have had to deal with if I'd called anyone besides service magic. All this company does is try and make money by providing crapy service any indivdual can do much better on their own.

After 3 months I cancelled my particapation, but spent the next year fighting additional lead fees applied to my Credit Card they use for service charges. They actually used my telephone number though their exchange to refer leads to a local competitor.

They placed advertising controls on a local yellow page company so that I could not get new advertising until the Sevice Majic Exec. VP got involved and GAVE HIS APPROVAL. I paid fees of $25 each for leads that were not workable. Untold losses from the use of our phone number to push lead through their phone exchange to a competitor.

My husband--a carpenter and handyman-- signed up with Service Magic. We spent a lot of time customizing his account--an entire day--to reflect his good character and superior abilities. They spent a lot of time interviewing Stephen, asked for his license and insurance, and called his references. I'd say about 25% of the leads turned into jobs and they were pretty good jobs. Plus, as everyone knows word of mouth is your very best marketing channel. The 4 leads/jobs we got from Service Magic have turned into other jobs. I have to say we're pretty happy with the service. I suspect some of these posts are from competitors.

I called Service Magic (referral company that works with a number of contractors) when my bathroom ceiling collapsed due to a leak that had not been fixed by my landlord. J. Dinapoli from Indoor Environmental Cleaning Systems (IECS) contacted me and set and appointment to come my apt the next day. He showed up with another person, looked at the ceiling and confirmed what I suspected, that I had mold in the ceiling. He asked me if I would like a mold sample to be tested at the lab from a piece of mold that he scraped off of the ceiling. I said yes, definitely. He said that it would cost a little over $100. I asked him if he like a credit card number then and he said that I would be billed for it. He said that he was friends with the people who worked at the lab so it wouldn't take long. He gave me a rough estimate of $1000-1500 to do the mold remediation in the bathroom. I told him that the super and landlord would make the final decision on who they want to hire for that part of the job, but I would definitely pay for the mold test from the sample he took.

I waited a week and never heard back from Joseph, so I decided to call him because I thought about also doing an air sample as well. He told me that the mold sample had been given to the lab and they found nine different types of mold, three of which are toxic. I asked him when I would receive the written lab findings and he tried to talk me out of getting it because the air sample would be proof enough so I shouldn't waste the money for the mold scraping sample. I told he that I wanted it anyway for my evidence to document the mold. He agreed.

We then set an appointment for between 10 am- 11 am the next day (Friday) for him to come to my apt. to do one indoor sample and one outdoor sample for comparison. At 12 pm I decided to call him to find out his status. He apologized and said that he was running late and had left my file at his office so he couldn't call me. I told him it was okay, that we could reschedule the appt. for Monday same time.

I never heard back from him. I left several messages for him every day since and even called Service Magic to see if he would respond to them, still not even a courtesy call back. Since this has all happened my ceiling has been repaired, so now I cannot hire another company to do a mold test. I needed this for evidence in a court case. This may end up costing me thousands of dollars because I do not have any proof other than photos that I took myself.

When I called Service Magic the second time and spoke with Karen Stevenson, she told me that she had spoken with him and he told her that he hadn't taken the mold sample to the lab yet. So he lied to me about it already being at the lab. My guess is that when he figured that the landlord would hire his own mold remediation company, Joseph just threw the mold sample away and moved on the find a bigger job that he could make more money on. I believe that Joseph is unethical and unprofessional and I do not recommend his company for service. Find a reputable company to hire.

Service Magic often gives bogus leads they have a reputation for being disreputable. I would not recommend any contractor or customer to them. I would rather have free leads than bogus leads that I paid for!

Company made promises, and continue to advertise the same, that are totally untrue. They claim to give you qualified leads, but based on contacting over 50 leads, almost 100 percent were never qualified by Service Magic. They claim to only give the prospect lead's contact to 4 contractors, which has proven to be totally false. Most contacts told me that they had been contacted by numerous contractors. I would warn any contractor to not affiliate with this service.

This company needs to be STOPPED immediately if not sooner.

in 2003 my home building firms sales manager set us up with this sham co. we gave them our co amx with the understanding that they would provide us prescreened,qualified leads.after about 3 mos we realized that every lead we purchased was either impossible to contact or an unqualified deadend.we wasted several thousand dollars and cancelled their service in early 2004. imagine my surprise when while surfing i saw our co. name pop up in 2008. i clicked on it and to my surprise i was sent to the service magic website,you know the one with the bald guy dancing around. icould not believe this outfit would use our domain name to scam people to their site. to get them to stop we had to hire an attorney. wish i knew if it would pay to sue these crooks,but an attornys exspensive. maybe we should join together in a class action?

In August 2005 I put in a request with Service Magic for a company to put a roof over my deck. I hired a company called Maintenance Made Simple that Service Magic recomended.This year I have had to spend Thousands of Dollars to tear down the roof and make repairs. This company tied the deck roof to my exeisting roof with 2x4's and placed the support poles on top of the deck instaed of the ground, this structure was not square.Eventually the weight of the roof started pulling down my facia and soffits, the birds had nested inside my roof and made a mess of everything including the insullation. Once the roof was torn down we could see the dameage to my support beams in the roof itself. Of course I can not find the company Maintenence made simple or the "engineer/Manager" Janice assuming they are out of business. Anyone using Service Magic should do their own background check of the companies they use.

in april of 2009 my father wanted to have his porch done over, he contacted this certain company and they agreed to do it (verbally) the day they were suppose to start work, they never showed up, when my father tried to reach them by phone, the number had been disconnected. After two weeks had passed my father hired another compay, they patched up the porch and the job was done.

three months later, the other company that pulled a no show, suddenly showed up at 8 a.m. in the morning and ripped up the $500.00 job that my father had just had done for him. I told them to stop and the owner of J A Masonry, said He was told by my father to do this work.

They lied and said that my dad signed a contract, my dad never did, when we asked to see it, he claimed to have lost it, and now he wants $1000,00. for the job. My parents are elderly and he is trying to take advantage of them.

They could not control the customer who might decide they did not want to use Service Magic after putting in their request. I responded these could not be considered legitimate leads. That was not there problem. I am contacting my charge card company and disputing charges for services not received. I spent over 800.00 in 45 days.

YO! All you people out there complaining about the stale or useless leads from Service Magic that you paid for, I'm going to let you in on the dirty little secret. Whether your a contractor, lawn service, or whatever, that lead you purchased was also sold to at least twenty other companies offering your same services. After going through the same situation as described in most of these complaints, I decided to turn the table on Service Magic and entered as so called "Job" as the consumer looking for a contractor. While I was still on the phone with them being so called "qualified", my cell phone started ringing. They sold my lead to at least twenty contractors. I finally stopped answering my phone because this proved what I thought they we doing. Service Magic is a scam & they are raking all of our hard earned dollars, probably at about $1,000.00 per lead that they sell. And yes, cancelling thier service is just as hard as getting a good lead from them.

Not only do you waste hard earned money, you waste valuable time driving around doing free estimates, for leads that are not solid at all. Service Magic only seems to care about themselves and pocketing your hard earned money and ripping you off. They could care less if you stay or go. They in no way run an honest business. Things seem great at first than go down hill from there. I will even go as far to say I think that they plant bogus leads, to make more money. I feel something needs to be done about this company. They need to be investigated by local news, and the B.B.B.

In response to all the contractors complaining about ServiceMagic's customer's costing them $$ because they are not ready to sign and pay them on the spot or who were only researching the deal - isn't that the point of ServiceMagic? RESPONSIBLE homeowners will research a project, get several bids and then hire the company they preferred. Perhaps if you were less whiny and new that free estamites are a part of your business, more of your free estimates would turn into work. Maybe the people matched to you through ServiceMagic didn't follow through bc they found someone BETTER or who didn't have such entitlement issues. Just a thought.

Back in 2005, I was looking to do my kitchen remodeling, and they referred me to a company named D-Best Kitchens of Cleveland, Ohio. This company did a lousy job, the workmanship being very poor. The company's owner, Mr. David P., made several mistakes in measurements, resulting in the cabinets around the space where the refrigerator would go, being too low and too narrow, so my new side-by-side refrigerator was sitting in front of it. Of course the cabinets had to be re-done, but be a mench and admit your mistake. But no, Mr. P. had an audacity to blame me, saying that since I signed his drawings, I was equally responsible. I am like, what? Excuse me? I have completely no idea what I'd signed for, and then again, I relied on your workmanship and expertise. So he had to re-do them at his expense. Didn't even say sorry for my inconvenience. Oh well.

When his sub-contractor John came in to take my old cabinets down, he took them down alright, then sat them on the floor in the middle of the kitchen and left, claiming he didn't have his truck. Later on, he showed up and proceeded dragging the row of cabinets across my living room toward the front door. My objections did no good. I asked him why wouldn't he take them out the back? His response was that he is taking them out front, period, as this is where his truck is parked. I had to help him to avoid possibly damaging my carpet and furniture in the process, and this thing was heavy. I did address this issue to Mr. P., asking him to get a helper for John in the future. Needless to say, this was not done.

Later on, John came to do some work on the site, and then had to up and leave in the middle of it. The reason being? The battery on his drill quit, and he did not have a spare one. I called Mr. Pessar and asked him to buy John a spare battery, but to no avail. On another occasion, I found out that John didn't even cut the opening for a new sink in the countertop the right way, and that he did not use the right tool. The other company had to do it the right way, at my expense. This issue was addressed as well to Mr. P., who did nothing to correct it. Of course!

Now, a few years later, I am having a problem with the pantry shelves, that caved in because the little bitty plastic supports are not holding in several places. I left several messages on Mr. Pessar's phone, as well as emailed him about the problem, but he hasn't responded. So I have to hire another company to put in L-brackets, essentially rendering the shelves permanent vs. adjustable. But this shouldn't have happened with the kitchen shelves in the first place. Gosh, my good old kitchen cabinets that were made of some pressed stuff, were stronger than that.

Furthermore, Service Magic claims that they pre-secreen their contractors and particularly, search for the court judgments against them. Well, I emailed them numerous times about update on their so-called "screening" process, on this particular company. I found out that Mr. P. has several judgment liens against him, case numbers JL-05-239067, JL-05-239068, JL-06-265639,JL-07-283894, and besides, Countrywide initiated a foreclosure against his home residence as well as his 2-family house, case number CV-09-687022. Furthermore, his apparently not-so-satisfied customers sued him, case number CV-95-285831. All this is a public record and can be confirmed. I sent numerous emails to Service Magic about this, but judging from their replies, they didn't even look at my emails. I still think that the general public has a right to know this before making a decision to hire this particular company.

ServiceMagic sent a convicted child molestor in the state of GA (where we live) to finsh my childs room!!! They knew about him in the past and did nothing about it. Now they won't even tell me how they are going to deal with this. They said to trust them and that something will happen. I taped all of our phone conversations and have proof of all the lies they have told me, but I don't know what else to do. This is unheard of.

I was sold an oppurtunity to recieve job leads for my construction busines. The leads were suppose to be for homeowners that had plans, permits and finacing in place. Also within 25 miles of our location. I had to pay for these leads prior to recieving them. They never had plans,permits, and not within 25 miles. They were a complete waste of time and cost me money to go to the site and estimate. I emailed Service Magic several times and never got a response. When I called to cancel I had a remaining $140.00 in my account. I was told it was not refundable. Out of the leads I recieved One was a possibility and I went out and made contact. It was a homeowner that didn"t have an intention of having the work done, it was for entertainment purposes only and just wanted to know how much a project would cost. I started out with $400.00 in my account and had other start up costs involved. This was the only lead that was close by and I made contact with. I was lied to and taken advantage of.

After being contacted several times by Service Magic I finally agreed to use their services....disservices. When I first signed my rep. told me that the leads would run between $7 AND $12, and to sstart I would only take 10 to start and see how well it worked.If I thought it was worth the money then of course I would increase the leads.Well the leads at first were worth it, not amazing, not earth shattering but worth it all the same.I then started noticing more than the discussed charges on my bill.Still worth it no complaints to service magic from my company.Soon the leads went from (worth it) to wild goose chases and bargain shoppers,NOT the quality clients that my rep. had said (would be screened and put into a category that would be a perfect fit for my company).I then called service magic and let them know that if I was only going to close 1 or 2 out of 10 referrals that the excessive charges would have to come off my bill in the future....this never happened.

My wife who takes care of the billing in the office then brought it to my attention that our monthly billing was over $400.00.This would NOT be a problem for me IF I had agreed to it but in no way shape form or fashion (I hate that term) agreed to these terms.Fed up I called them to cancel the service and that was a chore.The young lady who took my call then put on a supervisor who for 20 minutes tried to convince me to stay with them @ a reduced rate.FOR THE NEXT 3 TO 4 DAYS and I say this in anger,service magic called trying get me to come back......NOT going to happen.One month later more calls from consumers with referrals from service magic calling, I let them know the situation with service magic NOT talking bad of service magic only that I was no longer a client. I was then billed for these referrals.

I just got off the phone with service magics rep. Blaine. He informed me that service magic WILL NOT remove charges under ANY circumstances. I then told him that I can do more damage than the charges totaled. Blaine then ask me if that was a physical threat? NO Blaine this complaint is what I was referring to,I'm sure that 1 or 2 people will read this and not use service magic.That is the threat that I was making,is it worth for the extra $77.00 your company is billing me........I think so

Signed up for there lead service was told I would recieve 5 leads a month under a $25.00 per lead, they said they would waive my iniation fee of $100.00 dollars they didnt, before I knew it I had 15 leads over $700.00. I called my credit card in stolen because Service Magic was robbing me blind with there bogus leads, know they going to report my last bill which they could not charge on my card to the credit bureu what a scam.

I paid a fee of $100.00 to sign up nwith servicemagic and agreed to pay $50.00 per lead. After getting 5 to 6 bum leads I asked to be removed from their service but they persuaded me to stay by giving me credit for the existing leads. I then done indept research, talked to service providers and concluded that all the providers I talked to were paying up to and in excess of %50 of their NET profits generated from service magicleads. Servicemagic charges multiple providers for the same lead without ever qualifing the customers. The service is FREE for the customers which attracts all sorts of tire kickers and time wasters.

When I again called servicemagic and insisted I be removed from their service, they agreed. This was over a month ago. I have just recieved an email from them stating that they will be sending me more leads on 5/31/09 and charging my credit card automatically. How do I get rid if these shisters. Around $1000.00 was spent and lost due to time wasted with bum leads. I guess I was luck I noticed a pattern almost immediately.

I'm a contractor and I joined up with this group several years ago, paid for quite a number of leads, and got nothing but poorer. The leads were awful. similar to what one person stated, dreamers, people looking for pricing, people who weren't serious, you name it. I was unable to even contact large number of the leads at all. And getting credit from Service Magic was extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. I think this service is a scam and I would warn any contractor to stay away. I am also convinced that the positive reviews I find are plants by the company. I think these people should be investigated.

In October of 08 I opened my 1st business and was looking for ways to expand my business. I looked at a site that might help (service magic). After typing in my name, business name and work phone number I recieved a call from Lisa (service magic). Being new to business I was a little impressed by the response time! (Boy do i have a lot to learn!) After speaking with Lisa we agreed to send each other info about our businesses.

I sent my info the next day and to this day (may 28 2009) i have not recieved their(service magic) Info. I will not do business with anyone who does not do what they say their going to do. After about 2 weeks went by Lisa at (service magic) called, Having caller Id I never answered. She kept calling at least once a week at first, sometimes more, then less often.

NOW SERVICE MAGIC IS RUNNING AN INTERNET AD WITH MY COMPANY NAME AND ADDRESS THAT TAKES PEOPLE TO THEIR WEB SITE! I HAVE NO RELATIONS WITH SERVICE MAGIC! I CALLED THEIR OFFICE: 1ST CALL I WAS TOLD I WOULD BE TRANSFERED TO THE MANAGER, VOICEMAIL! I CALLED BACK AND WAS TOLD I WOULD HAVE A RETURN CALL IN 15 MINUTES. NOW APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR LATER NO CALL!

I've contacted the B.B.B. and my attorney. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! A GOOD NAME IS A LIFTIME OF WORK, AND FOR SOMEONE TO THINK THEY CAN USE IT IT IS CRIMINAL!

I enlisted Service Magic and in approximately 3 months time I received 5 leads, 2 of which were not authentic, even by Service Magics admission. The other 3 leads were questionable to say the least. Shortly after having received the 2 bogus leads I called to question them on why my credit card had not shown a refund. I then learned that it is company policy to only credit back to my in house account for future leads.

I told them I was unsatisfied with their service and would they please refund my money. They again refused to issue a refund to my credit card stating company policy. I find this type of business practice unconscionable and in bad faith. These are tough economic times and I am only looking to be treated fairly.

I run a small company and I don't have $12.00 to give away and to give free estimates to people who are looking for free advice.

I am using Service Magic as my sole source of advertising. I am getting good leads on a consistant basis. I have won over $75,000 worth of bids in the last 6 months. Their customer service is very helpful. If a lead does come thru that is for a task that I don't do they are prompt in refunding with another lead. I recommend this lead service to others.

A couple of years ago, I went through Service Magic to find a landscaper. I had gotten quite a few calls from contractors thereafter, and selected one to do the work. I was very pleased with the work performed. I haven't used Service Magic since, but I have been contemplating going that route again for some work on my home - until I found this website. I did some research and noticed that all of the company's execs are well-educated - a conglomerate of MBA's and a mis-match of people to the customers they serve. Their company roster looks more like something you'd see at Microsoft rather than Service Magic.

I also checked out Service Magic with the BBB. In the last 36 months, they had 265 complaints. (They are not a BBB Accredited Business either.) I then did a google search for used car dealerships in Denver and randomly selected one. (I had never heard of it before or bought from them.) The used car dealership had 16 complaints in the last 36 months, far fewer than Service Magic. It seems to me that something is very wrong with Service Magic. Thank you for all of you who have posted here. I now know to toss Service Magic's Little Black Book I got in the mail away.

i signed up for thier lead service. i got a couple of good hits. mostly people wanting free estimates. which is hard to give on the phone for a broken heater or ac unit. i got several competitors trying to abuse system. i got severla renters who service magic says they do not allow to go thru. they do not screen or care about your leads. thay care about getting your money for a lead. if they do credit you back they do in house credit. it takes talking to at least 5 people to get things resolved.

they csr's are very rude and could care less if you stay or go. they are very nice in the begining offer you help and free leads which never came thru. than they stop calling to check in. god forbid you want to change something you have to call in to do it. you cant control your leads or anything without their God given approval. i also got several leads 24 hours or more late. customers had already had jobs done by that time. they also had me listed for work in areas i do not serve. and for jobs i do not do. stay away from them as a customer or client!

it cost me several hundered dollars or more. lots of headaches. lots of time wasted having to call in to them to ask them to get thier end correct or do thier jobs.

i signed up with this company to get leads.they posted my business on superpages/citysearch/local.com and more.i am in lawn care and they added to my websites that i do concrete work.i have had 4 of my old customers go elsewhere because they thought i changed my business..they still have me listed in citysearch and i quit them 8months ago..mis-leading customers

This is a website online which I visited once and since then have been deluged with emails. There does not seem to be any way to ask them to take me off their mailing list. My mail is always returned and there is no contact button on their website.

All five leads were bogus. Refused to acknowledge the fact. Warning to anyone contemplating membership, you could end up paying $1,000 for one good lead. This isn't explained up front. Waving activation fee was come on.

Refused to return balance ($82.50) in account. Total loss was $200.

We signed up with Service Magic for so called leads from homeowners. Service Magic DOES NOT screen these leads before they send them to you AND CHARGE YOU. I was charged anywhere from $12 to $75 for a so called lead. I was sent a lead from someone who rented an apartment and had no authorization to even make any changes to the building she lived in and one of her comments made on her lead said that she was looking to spend little or next to nothing. I was charged $33 for this !!!! What kind of lead is that ??

Other so called leads were from people who you could never contact or just were not serious about work they wanted done. I called to have my account credited for these bogus leads. No one would ever return any of the phone calls and emails I was leaving day after day. I finally called Service Magic and acted like I was a contractor who wanted to sign up with their service and within 30 minutes my call was returned !

I finally got credit for 2 so called leads ( this was not an easy task) that cost me $63 and a replacement $12 lead. After that, I called my credit card compmnay and told then DO NOT let them charge my card for anymore services and then I cancelled my account with Service Magic. They can keep the $12 lead. Not worth my time. Luckily I figured out what this company is all about before i got in any deeper financially with them. This is a scam service in my opinion and from many webistes visited in the last few days, its a scam in MANY peoples views. Anyone on this site that say Service Magic works for them .... my comment to you would be YOU must work for them !!

Being charged hundreds of dollars for a service that is a scam.

I have been a licensed contractor for 35 years, working mostly on referrals and return calls. A year ago I signed up as a contractor with ServiceMagic. I have not received A SINGLE SOLID LEAD! Most of the time I will return a call the same day I am contacted by ServiceMagic, only to be told Oh, we're still thinking about it, or We've decided not to do that now.

On the very few occasions that I was able to receive an invitation, the client seemed only interested in the lowest price. ServiceMAgic seem to be only interested in making their lead commission, not in pre-screening leads or providing a valuable service. I believe it was PT Barnum who said There's a sucker born every minute, and I've been that sucker.

I have payed upwards of a thousand dollars for what I consider bogus leads!

my son signed up for service magice leads and had to used my credit card, well when he did not pay my credit card bill i called service magic and had them stop useing my card so i thought, 6 months went by and we have been charged for leads and they refuse to remove my credit card number. this sevice is month to month. you are able to cancel anytime. so i thought. so do not use them

it has cot 700.00 to a 1000.00 and over charges

I started with this service in Nov 08 under the impression I would be receiving qualified leads. They had a disclaimer for payment but the sales people stated the leads would be ready to go customers. I paid their fee & received 'leads' almost immediately. This was a bathroom remodel looking for budget numbers. All he wanted was a ballpark figure for summer 2009. that cost me $25.

The second lead was for a roof replacement. We went to the site to do an estimate. This roof was a huge, steep Victorian in shambles and needed replacement years ago. After speaking with the owner I knew there was no funds. I sent them to the County Dept of Community Development for a grant and offered to put a tarp on for $500. She didn't even have the money for that. I paid another $25 for her call.

Our next lead was similar. I complained to Customer Service and they suggested changing my demographic. I did that and received a request to modify a trailer who's floor was failing (not likely to have funding), several other leads fishing for prices and one viable lead which was also provided to 3 or 4 other local contractors. Service Magic has no idea who their customers are and if they are qualified. In January & $500 later I said enough was enough. I have been receiving Spam, 'Surveys' and phone calls from Customer Service to the point of harassment. They got their money, I get harassed.

The $500 for 'advertising' with Service Magic provided $0 in sales. They did not qualify a single lead as their sales people claimed.

I spent about $3500.00 on lead fees in one year and never was able to land one job the system they use flat out sucks they dont prescreen leads as well as they say they do most people are just testing the system or just curious what something might cost, they waste your time and money because it doesnt cost them anything for you to go to they're house and waste your time, most leads don't even return your calls or e-mails, not what I call quality leads, and then they're rating system is another farse, they wouldn't let me use past customers for ratings, I have been in business for 15 years and have a 99% satisfied customer rating, but because of they're system I looked like a new business to service magic customers with no ratings, so that didnt help either, kind of a catch 22 you have to get jobs in order to get ratings, but you have to have ratings to get jobs, so stupid. the contractors who got on the system when it first started are the only ones with any success, SERVICE MAGIC YOU NEED TO CHANGE!!

The referalls we receive were nothing more than shoppers with no intention of utilizing services. Servicemagic refuses to offer any credit, even when the shoppers did not even speak with us.

They provide leads for Contractors. I am a General Contractor. The problem is that they charge AUTOMATICALLY on a VISA card for each lead, and they don't verify the leads or ask the prospect to register. A really significant percentage of the leads are totally invalid. Some even have the provided phone disconnected. Most of them are not interested even on an appointment. Service Magic does not refund the money, they just issue a Credit against future leads. We are cancelling because of this game is a loop, have had not valid leads at all, they owe us $150 for 3 invalid leads since September 2008.

Most of ServiceMagic's contractors probably do a good job. But beware. I submitted a mildly critical review of the services of one of them (landscaping). Instead of accepting and posting it, ServiceMagic construed my carefully worded complaint as a offer to negotiate with the contractor. In brief, what consumers read on the ServiceMagic website is most likely closely screened praise-back, not real, honest feedback.

I have been using them for three years now. I spend less with them then I spent on the yellow page ad I had for six years. I decided to post on here because after reading all of the complplaints, I saw that you also ask for positive comments, even though your comment form suggests otherwise by asking only for the 'perpetrator's info. I get consistent quality leads from Servicemagic and I now use them solely for my marketing. I get some bad leads, but I got more bad leads from my yellow page ad which I spent $500/mo on. I mostly recieved calls from other companies trying to sell me stuff.

So if its negative comments you're looking for, I would like to complain about the yellow pages and the fact that they charged me so much money with no recourse for the way only solicitors seemed to find my number. I highly recommend ServiceMagic, and will continue to use them as long as I own my business.

We initially were interested in Service Magic and how they worked, i.e., giving you leads (for $55) and supposedly could enhance our business. After numerous telephone conversations and emails from their company representatives, we agreed to their $99 enrollment fee, although we stated a few concerns regarding our profile and not being able to access it to make changes to the areas where we wanted to accept leads, etc. We were told someone would be calling to help with that. A representative called me and I explained to him how the cities that were on our profile were not what we wanted, along with other concerns. I also asked if he could call me back on my home line, (because due to the excessive calls from their salesman on my cell phone, I was using too many minutes) and he said sure, I'll call you right back.

I had stated that while I had given him my home number to call me, I did NOT want it added to my info on my profile. I waited for him to call me back, and when it didn't happen in over an hour, I called and left a message for him to, once again, call me. Meanwhile, our salesman called again, and I expressed my concern, once again, with the cities, etc. that were not what we wanted. He said that that would be taken care of when my account manager called me, that he was just in sales. When I told him he hadn't called me back in over an hour, he said he would let him know. I waited all day, leaving two more messages and several emails - NOTHING happened.

When I didn't receive any phone call from my account manager or anyone else all day, I left a scathing review on their How are we doing portion of their website. I thought that would get some action. Surprisingly, the next morning all we got was more sales pitch emails and no phone calls. I then called my credit card company and disputed the charge as it had already gone through. I left Service Magic another email stating I wanted nothing to do with their company and since enrollment I had not been given any assistance with setting up our profile and city preferences. I asked them to quit emailing us and to remove our company info from their site.

I believe it was 2 days after that that our salesman called and asked what was wrong? I told him how I couldn't get any help and he acted all upset and couldn't believe that someone hadn't called me. I reiterated to him how disenchanted I was with Service Magic as he tried to hard sell me again. I told him there was nothing he could say or do to make us change our minds about it. Period. I thought that would be the end of Service Magic. Oh, but NO, they then started the emails like we had never even spoke. I then received a message from Brad, sales manager on my home phone to call him about the problem. I ignored it not wanting to hear another sales pitch.

This happened over a month ago, and we see that our profile is still on their website, and now to add insult to injury, they have highjacked our company name so that when we put in a search for our website, domain name, Service Magic comes up on every page. They have our home address displayed and also direct you to competitors in our field of work. I called Brad, the sales manager and left a message for him to call me stating my concerns about this. To date, he has not returned my phone call.

Incidentally, they never refunded our enrollment fee and as I read more and more on the internet that we are not alone in this, I fear they will never go away and will always be attached to our company name with which we have been doing business for over 20 years! WHAT ARE OUR RIGHTS IN THIS? From our brief, but frustrating, encounter with them, they appear to be an unscrupulous, dishonest, deceptive, manipulative company with no fear of consequence whatsoever!

Our biggest concern is that our trustworthy reputation that we have built in our business will be tarnished by ServiceMagic as anyone that has ever dealt with them will surely not want anything to do with a company whose name appears alongside theirs! Also, no one is able to get to our website because ServiceMagic has highjacked our company name and directs them to their service and other competitors in our field!

In an online survey from a cigarette advertiser, a screen came up that had me look at Service magic screen and would not let me continue the survey. (My dumb fault for doing online surveys. ) I didn't even send the the survey back. I x'd out of the Email then a half a dozen contractors called to do a job I never sent for. The advertiser used a pretty crooked tactic to get business and I have been had. I have used [Servicemagic] before but now I'll go to Angies List because of shady advertising tricks.

I am an architect and i get leads through ServiceMagic, the company solicits comment from customers that they call ratings and reviews. They use this to demonstrate that the quality delivered by those who buy leads from them are high. I have a high rating at ServiceMagic. I recently received a bad review and a comment that my client says she did not make. ServiceMagic is refusing to remove the negative false comment and requires that I submit proof that I am innocent by demonstrating the comment is false. That would be expensive for me. That policy is destructive. They publish the bad comment on my profile page which is the first thing a prospective customer looks at rather than the many positive comments my clients have actually made. The company engages in systemic error and does not act responsibly to remove false statements.

It is costing me $1000.00 dollars a day to deal with the negative impact of this false statement.

I was contractor with service Magic I had noticed they were sending me leads and charging me for them and they were for jobs that my company does not do ...I tried to call them and write to them by E mail but could not get any satisfaction. They also gave me the wrong log on name 2 x Well I finally had my credit card Co .take back 2 payments ..and I e mailed them to cancel my acct ..Yeah right! next thing Im getting calls from a collection agency trying to collect the bill..

There customer service sucks and they have the nerve to check you out before becoming a member ..maybe they should do the same to themselves My advice is to get another way to receive leads ,we have many and we do very well without service Magic There is more to my story but you would not believe how we were treated by this company.

This compsny has gone by several names and been charged before. We were contacted by them through Service Magic while looking for someone to build a garage. The job was not completed, and we cannot get the company to call us back. We have 30,000 paid for no service. There are at least 6 complaints to this same account for the same man operating under various names at several thousand dollars each over 3 or 4 counties and 2 to 3 years. What are our options as far as legal advice and the possibilty of any money return.

We pay for leads and recently a lead we paid for was not valid (this was not the first time we had this happen). I spoke with cusstomer service when it first took place and he called and could not verify the contact information either. I then submitted a request for a refund and it was denied. I called and ask to cancel service and they have threaten to take me to collections for $13. I then went on to say that the lead was not valid, etc... and spoke to 2 different managers. The last, Mike hung up on me.

Stay clear of Servicemagic. As a homeowner, you do not know what you will recieve as Servicemagic does not screen contractors apart from insurance.

As a business looking to pay for leads, stay clear. The leads are not screened enough, I could go in now and request a lead and not be interested yet you will still have to pay for the lead.

The contractor I hired took $27,500 to start the job, Aug 24th 2008. He never did any work, and now refuses to return the money.

I contacted Servicemagic, and they told me they are only a matching service, and are not liable. Additionally, they have no control over the contractors and cannot make them return any monies. Also, their $500 guarantee, I was told, if and when the contractor did not repay me, then to contact them about it...

The contractor is now being charged with a felony, and is under investigation by the BBB and the Attorney General's office. As for Servicemagic's claim that they remove contractors that don't live up to their standards... they must have really low standards, because they are still listed on the site.

We are out $27,500 plus interest. Can't afford to hire another contractor to complete the project, so it's possible my mother could loose her home.

I am a small business owner with a contractors C license.They refused membership with their services staing I had to upgrade to a class B license.I have been checking the contractors whom they do employ,and found a number of them with the same class license as me.

My license allows me to contract work in Virginia just like anyone else.How can they make up rules of employment as they go?

This July (2007) I hired Bruce B of Premier Renovations & Constructions, Atlanta, GA, from an internet advertiser website (Service Magic) for the renovation of my house. His profile said he was a member of Better Business Bureau and he offered me left over marble from another job at a very low rate and I immediately fell for the fraud.

Even before we had finalized and signed the contract he talked me into paying him $ 4000.00 to order materials. He started on some demolition work, before even getting a permit (resulting in stop work order from the city and a delay in getting the permit). For the next three weeks he kept making excuses on why the material had not arrived yet then asked me for another $ 5000.00 advance.

When I requested him to deliver the previous orders first and meet me to sign a legal contract before I paid him further, he promptly disappeared and stopped responding to my numerous e-mails, phone calls and certified letters. In the meantime, in my absence, he dumped a huge amount of possibly hazardous construction waste from his other construction projects in my property.

I contacted his references, Better Business Bureau and his advertisers to pressurize him to contact me. I finally received an e-mail full of false allegations that tried to shift the blame of his non-performance on me that I had breached the contract (that was never finalized or signed) by not paying him 40% upfront, stolen his material, did not respond to his multiple calls.that he would return to work only if I paid him another $5000.00. Despite my anger and frustration at these white lies, I urged him to meet me again in the presence of a mediator to try settling this case peacefully. Guess, what? No response again. The deadline I had given him to respond is way past. That one e-mail was simply a weak attempt to not look like a crook in front of his advertisers and clients who I had contacted.

It is now almost a month and a half since I paid Bruce B for building material that was never delivered. He has left my house horribly damaged with no windows, no cabinet doors, a hole in a roof, water damage from storms, a demolished wall, damaged plumbing and wiring and a dump of other people's construction waste in the backyard, while defrauding me of $ 4000.00. The office number (770)934-7533 and the fax he provided me do not seem to work.

I have now found that he had also lied about being a member of the Better Business Bureau. Not only is he not a member but has actually an unsatisfactory record and listed under multiple addresses. My only recourse now is to take legal action; although I don't know how long it will be when I will finally be able to get my money back, if I can get it back at all.

I was surfing the web looking for contractors. Somehow, they got my info from ServiceMagic. Peter C showed up to bid on the job. We checked his license and insurance and the BBB and Angies List. We did not see anything negative and gave him the job. We were under the impression that they do their own work and do not subcontract.

We subsequently found out that Mr. C does not know how to do any of the work and did not supervise the laborers.

We have given him a total of $56,000 since March 2007. The work remains incomplete, despite numerous requests to have it finished. Also despite numerous requsts, they have damaged personal property that was not broken, and have not fixed it. The put siding over rotten wood by the threshold of the front door. They charged $4800 to replace posts with round pillars that hold up the sunporch only to wrap the pillars around the existing posts when we were told they were replaced. Only because the posts were not sealed at the top, my husband climbed on a ladder and looked in and saw the old posts. When we drew that to the attnetion to Mr. C, he apologized and explained that he was not there when the laborers did the job!

I complained about screens the put in with the new sliders and they said they replaced them, but they only turned them upside down. They broke a 1200 window and said nothing. Only when we noticed it, did they finally agree to fix it, but they have not fixed it yet and tried to make an excuse that they thought they might break a window if they worked on the wood around it when replacing the siding.

They broke the back patio and have not fixed it for the last 2 months. They did not finish putting siding around the front door. They do not show up to complete the work when they know we are there. They replaced a door and the new door is damaged. The did not seal 3 sliders they replaced and water comes into the house. They were told many times about this over and over again, the remains unselaed the house is on the water.

They have been requested for the last 2 months to do it and it still remains unsealed. They said they were going to the house last Weds., July 25th to review the situation and they have not called.

We paid $56,000 and the house remains unfinished and I do not even know if the work they did was really done because i was not there when they did the work and Mr. Cooke - the boss - told me he wasn't there when the laborers wrapped the old posts instead of replacing them. And i found rotten wood under siding by the front door and there was other rotten wood on the house that the said they repaired or replaced, which is now under siding that i cannot check. SO i don't even know if what they did everything they said they did or if the sunporch is even safe becuase they wrapped pillars around the old posts when they said they replaced it.

First of all, Aaron D is the sales representative for his father's business which is Denton Custom Construction which is located in Loveland, Ohio. Aaron uses a p.o. box for his address and a cell phone, but the company is listed with Service Magic where I got his number for an estimate for a split rail fence with a liner for my back yard.

The website states the company has been in business since 1985. It also states Denton Custom Construction has a four out of five star rating. The Better Business Bureau also lists the company doing business since 1985. So, here begins my complaint.

On October 17, 2006, I signed a contract with Aaron D also signing and gave him half the amount of the total cost as stated in the contract. I gave him a check for $2,038.00. He told me he would take care of obtaining the permit from our zoning office.

He called the next day and told me the permit would be $50.00 and he would take care of it. He also stated the fence would be done by the end of October. By October 30th, I had not heard anything further from him.

I called him twice that day and asked about the status of the fence. No answer on the cell phone, but I left 2 messages. Same thing on Oct. 31st, and Nov. 1st.

I called the zoning office myself on Nov. 1st. They stated no one had filed a permit or even asked about a fence on our property. I then called Service Magic and filed a complaint. I also called the BBB and filed a complaint online and also with the attorney general's office. I also emailed Denton Custom Construction asking him if he took off with my money. He replied via email that he was sorry, but his company was going out of business and that he would repay my money next week.

I emailed back and told him I wanted the money back in a money order. He then emailed back stating it would be in a cashier's check. He also stated I was to take his word on it.

I am now out $2,038.00 needed to get a fence built.

I was referred to Air Force Design Corporation by Service Magic who offers a Web Service to find contractors in your area.

Well basically, my AC unit, a small ductless unit stopped giving cold air, so we thought that the gas was out and need to be refilled.

I made an appointment with Airforce Design to come out and gas up the unit.

The called on a Friday and made an appointment for Saturday at 11:00 am.

At 11:30 am on Saturday, I called the company to report that the technician had not shown up and re-confirm they had me down for an appointment.

They confirmed and said someone would be out within the hour. It wasn;t until minutes to 2:00PM did they show up.

After showing the technician where the unit was located both on the inside and outside, he checked the gas level. He said that there was gas and he should look at the unit on the inside. Perhaps I did not turn it on!

He played with the remote for about 1/2 hour schooling me on how to work the unit. I assured him that I've had the unit for 3 years and knew how to use it. He then stated that he did not know about my specific unit, he had never worked with a Bryant Model.

I said that I would then call the company that I had it installed with. He said he was going to look on the outside and see if the unit had come on since he had pressed some buttons on the remote.

He came back in 10 minutes with his box of invoices and said that I needed to change a part called the capacitor. I said, how can you be sure that that's a problem? He said, that most of the times that part goes bad in these units? The part would cost 249.99 plust 125.?? to install plus tax.

I said well what if you change it and its does not fix the problem? He said well then you don't pay for the part. Then he asked me for a $200 deposit. I said, why do you need a deposit? If I did say yes change it, wouldn't you just collect the full amount at the end?

He said, Oh I don't have the part, I would have to get it and come back next week. I said well I'm not interested.

He said, why did you waste my time? - Clearly I did not waste his time, I had previously told him that I would call back the company I originally installed it with.

I hired Richard Schriner through an internet sight called Service Magic. He was hired to repair a leak in the roof of a new home I was purchasing. Well, I bought the home, moved in and scheduled the repair with Mr Schriner. He arrived late for every appointment we had, once over 9 hours late! The roof was supposedly done, but still leaks! So when I called Mr Schriner to tell him that the roof is still leaking, he said it can't be, I have never had a roof leak. It must be leaking in another place.

I explained to him that I did not tell him where the leak was, I just asked him to fix the leak and it is not fixed so I want him to fix the leak as he was originally hired to do. I told him that I either wanted my money back or him to muchactually fix the leak and he said there is no way that I will ever get my money back and that he did $900 of and that if he was going to do any more work it would cost me more money.

He then told me that the house I bought is built badly and I paid too much for it and that is why the roof is leaking. How would he know? It could actually be leaking where he fixed it, he wouldn't come out to even take a look at it.

My roof is still leaking

Mr. G of Class Act Painting lied to me abuot his team's experience with textured paints. In my online request from Service Magic I clearly asked for experience with textured paint. Mr. G said he had no problem with it. I took his word in good faith. His team did an unprofessional and sloppy job not only with the textured paint, but with the wall reapirs and prep. They left the apt a mess when they finished, painted over electrical outlets and switches, and got paint on the wood floors.

Mr. G said he'd come by to fix problems. He scheduled an appointment with me for Sat July 30 at 9am, but never showed up or called. He continually postpones future appointments. I am not looking for my money back.

I've since repainted the damaged walls. I only want this complaint filed so no one else will have to suffer through Mr. G's services.

I contracted with American Roofco and Remodeling Services, LLC for a construction project on my home in 2003. This company was a member of ServiceMagic.com, from which I received the referral. He completed the project, I paid him in full, but am now being sued by a subcontractor (TrashKing) who was apparently never paid. (By the way, my contract with American Roofco stated that I would be held harmless for any subcontractor claims against me.)

In investigating American Roofco to prepare for this small claims suit, I discovered that Mr. J misrepresented to Service Magic and also to me (as written on my contract) that his company was a corporation (LLC). The Secretary of State has no record of American Roofco. The Dallas County Clerk does have a dba for American Roofco Services/ dba/ J.W. J.

I also discovered that the insurance company Mr. J told me that he owned (Town & Country Insurance) has the same address as American Roofco AND that this insurance company is not licensed or registered with the State of Texas. I contacted the Texas Department of Insurance and they are looking into this.

I am currently preparing to defend myself against this lawsuit, and plan to subpoena Mr. J as a witness.

On September 3, 2004 I contacted Service Magic a subsidiary of Lending Tree, Inc. in response to an internet advertisement that was emailed to me by them. After reviewing their material, three days later on Sept.6,2004 I responded to them via email indicating that I was not going to go forward with their offer. The reasons I gave had to do with my personal schedule at this time of year and the upcoming tax season for which I work as a tax practitioner. I just would not have the time to devote to their service, which would cost me $300. per mo. if I stayed with it.

When I intially received their material they were advertising a 10 day FREE Preview of ServiceMagic. When I clicked on that link to preview their service, I had to provide them with certain information regarding myself. The next thing I know I get a phone call from their fast pitch salesperson named Julian V who told me that the ten day free was just a review of their program and that I would not get free leads, but because I contacted them he would give me 10 leads at half price, or $150. for the first month. I agreed to take his offer until I had a chance to read the terms and conditions. Those terms were so comprehensive and long and not to my liking, coupled with the lack of time I was facing, I decided not accept the terms and so told them in an email as mentioned above.

I had already given the sales rep. my credit card and my account was charged on the next business day Sept.6, 2004 in the amount of $150.00.

After much back and forth with their reps asking for my money back, I was told by Ms. C that I could not have a refund because the terms and conditions clearly state no refunds. I told her that I had not received the terms and conditions until after I gave my credit card to Vigil. She could care less and told me that she would tell that to any agency to which I cared to complain. She said I could have my leads, but not my money.

I also complained to the BBB of Denver and they solicited a long winded diatribe from Ms. C explaining, why in her opinion, I was not entitled to a refund.

In that missle to the BBB, she sends the Fee section of the terms and conditions. Item (h)of that section is somewhat confusing to say the least, to wit: ServiceMagic is not obligated to refund to you any amounts of prepaid

Lead Fees or other prepaid fees for which services have not been rendered to you by ServiceMagic. have not been rendered....

i was told that they would give me a $15 per lead rate. first they charged my checking account $60 then they charged my checking account $30 per lead for a total of $150. my checking account became nsf and i was charged $30 everytime service magic charged my account.

i was over charged $90 for the leads and i was charged $165 by my bank for nsf charges.

Our first visit by Mr. Micheal P was around the end of May earily June of 2001. Mr. Micheal P knew that this room extention was for a class room for my daycare. I had told hime that the room had to be aleast 30square feet per child. And since I wanted 14 children for the Pre-kindergarten program. It had to be at least 400 square feet. I had told him that I need it done by September. After I couldn't come up with the money for the down payment. I told him i would have it my August of 2001. He told me, then the room would be finished by october and not September.

We signed the contact and made our first payment on August 21,2001 for the said amount of $3257.30. At that time Mr. Mike P stated that the job would begin seven to ten days after receiving the work permits. Which would take about two weeks from signing the contract.

After about three weeks we made several phone calls Which we left nemerous messages that was never returned. Then somewhere around the beginning of october Mr. P finally called and Stated because of the 9/11 attack It took him longer to get the permit. But that he had the permit and the work should begin in two weeks. Which put us around october 21,2002.

He gave me his cell phone number which turn out to be the wrong phone number. Because after the two week period came and left I started calling and leaving message at the office number. And I kept trying that number mention above. This was a period for late October to late December early Jan. We have not heard on word from Mr. Mike P.