David Johnson COO and CEO of everycontractor.com, you are not getting out of this one. Here are the facts (all of this documentation is supported by e-mails, phone records, and recorded calls by the quality control system in our office (yes the recorded calls are legal). Just in case they try to hide behind the statement of I the contractor did not keep my end of the agreement, I would do the updates to their system and it would tell me they went through, too bad it only started sending error messages on 10/29/2008 after I tried entering feedback info and picking up or rejecting leads, so if they try to say I did not do it right, then the conversations I had with their support team telling me they finally got the system fixed must have been from someone elses support team and not theres. Also I contact customers immediately, my closing percentage is 85% when I give my customers a presentation, and I receive leads off my own website:
1.) Contracted with everycontractor on 08/01/2007 for leads in my area all ready to give to me once I fill out my profile in full, for a grand sum of $499.00 instead of $999.00. I was told by Rich Taylor ( by the way Rich, when this turns into a class action lawsuit, I will name you personally like everyone elses name here in that lawsuit due to the hundreds of hours wasted with the bogus system you got me started with)would receive a minimum of 12 leads in 1 year. Was told I would have support at everycontractor and all of my leads would be scrubbed and prequalified. Filled out profile that night, called next day and all leads in my area were gone except the one they sent me that day, the one they called me on, too bad it was too far out of my area, I asked if it was in Orange County Ca. and was told yes, too bad it was in Riverside over 45 miles away, was told they come in all the time and they were doing new advertising and I would get some soon.
2.) Several weeks go by and no leads, I continue to make phone calls to everycontractor and I am reminded they did not have to fulfill their end of the bargain until the year was up. Finally start speaking to Tara Downey who was supposed to be the supervisor in charge of that department.
3.) I then received a phone call from everycontractor, but, it was not what I wanted, but, the pitch was the same hi this is Inisha Ligon with everycontractor, we are contacting you today to see if you are looking to take on extra work, we have over 2 dozen leads in your area right now.? I said WOW that is great, I am a contractor with you guys already, I am ready to write that scrubbed lead info down right now?, after a long pause and the jaw being picked up off the floor I was told that these leads were not for me and for new people, they told me they would make sure I was off the list. Finally on 09/25/2007 Tara Downey tells me she is so concerned about me being contacted and that she was going to give me her personal cell number to make sure I was taken care of.
4.) After over 7 phone calls back and forth, I am told I should be a preferred contractor. Tara Downey told me that by reading my profile, viewing my website, and talking to me about my business that I was a perfect candidate for the Preferred Contractor program, and that they normally do not let people in unless they were with them for a year. I wish they would have told me that this meant that I preferred to get out while I still could. Then I was played a beautiful symphony by Richard Colquitt. He told me, With this program we do a higher level of prequal, call and speak to the customer one on one, verify everything, and then set the appointment for you, we will guarantee that you get $69,890.00 worth of sales out of this in one year.? This all sounded so great I swallowed it hook, line, and credit card. I spent an additional $3,000.00 on 06/11/2007 with them to get this program; this money was pale in comparison to the amount of time they were going to save me chasing down leads, right. Needless to say, the leads still did not come.
5.) Between 11/09/2007 and 11/25/2007 I received a total of 5 leads, too bad 4 were out of my area and the other would never call back. I called to find out why I was getting leads out of my area, again, and I was told it was a programming error on their side and they would fix it soon. Lets take a look at the stats;
A.) Between 08/01/2007 and 12/11/2008 total of 43 leads.
B.) Number of leads out of my area rejected 6 leads
C.) Total number rejected due to misinformation 8 leads
D.) Total appointments booked, no bid given, No $ 1 lead
E.) Leads not reachable by phone or email 16 leads
F.) Hired contractor before I got lead 7
G.) Were only looking for price, not serious 5
H.) Number of phone calls/emails. 314
I.) Time wasted total so far w/leads 235.5 hours
J.) Time wasted with everycontractor 42.25 hours
K.) Times I had to edit profile/ w bad system 19
6.) I continued to receive the phone calls asking me to join because there was work in my area, after a total 17 of these calls, I finally got through to David Johnson. He then starting asking me allot of questions about how I process the leads from start to finish. I even emailed over some of my quotes for him to look at to tell me if I was on the right track. He told me that my quotes were the most detailed and in depth in description of the project, what was going to happen, and when, etc. He mentioned that it was not crazy with every square inch of everything noted by some other contractors bids and like mine, but, very solid, easily readable, understandable in laymens terms and well drafted.
He did state one flaw, I was giving everything in bulk, and he recommended that I give the customer a basic package, and then give the other items as a-la-cart. He also complimented me on my website which had a higher page rank then his for several key words, and that I had ranked number 6 in the whole country for Bathroom Remodeling?, and that he wanted to talk to me again about my SEO and how I gained that knowledge. He also stated that my profile was superb on every contractor and he rarely sees anybody take the time without prodding to get there profile appearing and sounding that professional.
I took his advice along with his promise that I would be high on his priority list and he was going to assign someone to my account who would take care of it. To bad that person got reassigned 1.5 weeks later and left me in the dirt.
7.) Called in about 2 weeks later on 01/18/2008 after an email from David that he was trying to get a hold of me. He stated that he took a look at my profile again, and recommended to increase my service area from Orange County Ca to expand into the surrounding areas. I agreed and they expanded my service area. He told me to contact him personally if I was not being treated as he promised. Needless to say, still no qualified leads.
8.) Got 1 lead Feb 4, 2008 not able contact, 1 lead March 14, 2008 not able to contact, this usually means that the lead was not valid and they more than likely bought the persons info from a survey company, this is what I was told when I finally reached someone, they told me the only thing they went online for was to do a survey on a toaster they bought and were bombarded with people calling to remodel their kitchen, too bad they did not think it was funny. If the customer is really interested, a majority of their info will appear on the lead sheet after you accept it, if all you get is the same phone number listed under all three with no address and no good description of the project, then more than likely the lead turned out to be bogus no matter how many times you called or how soon.
Kept calling everycontractor to find out what was going on. Turns out the new, new person was gone to another department and that I finally put up enough stink that they assigned someone else. This person and his promises and never came through. This next person told me that they did not have to call the customers to prequel them for me, nor set the appointments. I told him that it was in my contract, he said yeah, you might have been told that, but, it really is not done we do not have the manpower to do that. Why do they have that as one of their answers on the rejection system everycontractor set appointment?, well see how long it stays up there after this letter?
9.) After more broken promises I call David Johnson again. I call and ask for his extension, the naive person puts me through, and David Johnson picks up the phone and is immediately displeased that it is me again. I go through the problems again with him; he states that I have not followed their program on getting the leads in time. I then review the problems they have had with the website, and this time I saved the bounced back emails, and took snapshot of the page stating that I rejected/or accepted the lead for proof that I was following the protocol and getting my leads in a time specified.
All of the leads they claim I did not pick up in time. If you notice they are all in November and December, which we know are the slower months for leads for contractors, and we all know that we are always looking for as much work as possible, particularly to get through the slower months, there would be no reason not to jump on these opportunities. Later on, they claimed these would not affect me when it came time for my warranty, I was wrong to believe them, I should have insisted they fix them right then and there, they claimed it was not possible.