HomeAdvisor review: fraudulent charges! 73

I am a General Contractor, and one of the sale Rep. call me to signe up with magic service, she aske me for my card # and later on when she start recording the conversation
I ask her how much is the registration? and I was told it depends with leads . since it cost too much I told her Im not ready yet. so She call me after a month and I told Her
Im not interested worst cases is they start taken out money on my account

Pls; Advice

Applied to receive quotes on kitchen countertops. Already in 3 hours I have received 3 calls from their automated system. This is ridiculous and I want it to stop NOW. I would never use their service again and will file complaint with the BBB if this does not stop.

I will probably file a complaint with the BBB anyway since this is no way to treat customers. I feel it is harassing and completely unacceptable. I really have nothing else to say except I am not a happy camper at all. I will not use any contractor associated with the company.

Hello Rob-

This is Angela from ServiceMagic customer service. I believe we spoke on August 23rd and cancelled your service request and put you on the do not call list. We have a strict policy that refrains us from sharing your information to telemarketers or other 3rd parties, however if you are still receiving bothersome phone calls please contact me directly at adoss@servicemagic.com or at 303.963.8125. I hope we can resolve this issue and I look forward to hearing from you.

-Angela Doss

I do agree with you all I have the same problem with them and now they are sending me to collection for the leads that is not legitimate and also I have found out this individual did not own a property and the bank owns the property and it is under foreclosure. They have been sending me fraud leads for years and if you look at my account you found out that, 70% of the leads were forcefully by me credited and the rest was charged for the fraud and I have not got even one leads for last year.
Class action sue is appropriate and I have been looking into that.
Harry
[protected]
hrk20878@yahoo.com

If you would like to be included in a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against "Service Magic" for their alleged "Fraudulent & Deceptive Trade Practices" among many other criminal & civil allegations, Please email me with your contact information & what exactly your experience was with service magic.

The “Terms & Conditions” you likely agreed to via voice recording, will likely be construed as an illegal and invalid contract by most judges, making such contract inadmissible in the lawsuit against them.

ServiceMagicClassActionLawsuit@gmail.com

Submitted to the Service Magic webiste on Nov 5, 2010
BUYER BEWAR OF SERVICE MAGIC
"Yes, today your Representitive called asking about me returning to Service Magic. I told her that after two years with never a job that I felt that you were only interested in my money and not my sucess. When I told her that Service Magic business model was broken and couldn’t last she hung up on me.

Nice! Diane Maki another Service Magic Rep restoring my faith that I did the right thing in leaving them. Maybe you should contact her for more magical service."

SERVICEMAJIC SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM AND POOR POOR POOR POOR POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE...That is if they have some...I am a General contractor in San Diego Ca. I have had the same problem with servicemajic, i have invested money and on all leads the give you get 2 answer after you call. fake or no lead or you are competing with 4 other contractors. They have send my account to collections that is after i send request to customer service to talk to a live person and no answer back. These people are fraudelent, they say one thing when they ask you to sign up for leads and as time passes they change the stories and keep charging your credit card. They donot verify any info...

We are a contracting geothermal company out of Atlanta and we were once members with Service Magic, this was about 2 years ago. Today we found a most disturbing advertisement fraud with Service Magic using our name, our address, but their phone number. Basically the listing was found immediately under our company name, but when we called the contact number listed it went directly to Service Magic. Here is our complaint: About 2 years ago or so we were members with Service Magic and yes, they definitley do not do thorough background checks, as we found our competitors on Service Magic, without them even having a license to do buisness/contract work. Needless to say, we are licensed, insured and bonded so we felt that we had the upper hand and decided to stay with them on a trial basis. All for 6 months, then we cancelled it. When we cancelled it was due to our own bad experiences with Service Magic and even a personal family experience with Service Magic that ended horribly for them, so that was it, we were through with Service Magic, and this was 2 years ago(2009). During the year of 2010, we hired a person to help us with advertising that use to work with Service Magic from her home, fielding calls for them. We found out quite alot of bad marketing fraud that goes on - which I am not allowed to disclose- but contractors beware! Anyways, we hired this very nice lady, again back in 2010. I just want to give all of you a timeline here.. Joined service magic 2009 for 6 months then cancelled, hired a lady that use to work for servcie magic 2010, today 2011 January we found they are STILL advertising our good name and business, but with their contact information. We called the number and it went directly to a lady who stated " Thank you for calling Electrical.. blah blah". We answered back, "that's interesting, because I wanted E*** ( can't disclose my company name) heating and air and not an electrical company?" The lady at SM answered back, "Oh yes sir, sorry about that, as the company is busy with their schedule, would you like to try "blah blah" instead and I can get you set up with an appointment right away." Ok that ticked us off. So, they are not only using our company name with their phone number, but they are also LIEING TO THE CONSUMER- our would be customers, and fielding them to other contractors. After a rather lengthly conversation with this Service Magic "professional customer service rep", they promised to remove their phone number from all associations with E *** ( my business ). PAST CONTRACTORS OF SERVICE MAGIC-- BE AWARE OF THIS SCAM and FRAUDULENT ADVERTISING of YOUR GOOD BUSINESS NAME - We advise you to immediately do an internet search of your name. If you should locate any association with Service Magic, as you are not a client of theirs, but once were, we ADVISE YOU TO TAKE ACTION! Thank You.

Seargeants Remodel (ServiceMagic) aka JustinSchonna Huber have a remodeling scam. We have payed them over $8, 700 to tile one bathroom and one shower. The contract called for them to replace soffits, flooring, ceiling, etc. I realize they drag work schedule to collect payments (draw schedule) and then when you press them for time table the run.

Not to mention the quality of work is poor. They alledge to work for Sadler Homes, a large high end builder. One of the workers wife apparently works there. Don't rely on ServiceMagic reviews as the Huber's former business Infiniti Construction and J & S are prior businesses that have folded.

I signed up with Service Magic after they had sent me free sample leads which were looking good. I paid 49 dollars to sign up, they waived 50% of the fee, one lead was minimum $36, pretty high for murals.

The leads I got were all BAD. The last one was the worst. It was false, the person never had asked for the service, about 10 people called him. I was told that 1 lead goes to 4 contractors. Wrong. 1 lead is almost $400 for SM.

Service Magic rips people off who are truly searching for work, and trusted them.

Hello IronKnight-
My name is Angela Doss and I am the online customer liaison here at ServiceMagic. I'm sorry to hear about your experience with our service and I'd be more than happy to speak to you about your account and frustrations. If you could please contact me, that would be greatly appreciated. I can be reached at 303.963.8125 or at adoss[at]servicemagic[dot]com
Best regards,
Angela Doss

Hi - Try TrueBlueContractors.com. All leads are free with membership and organic (real people, really looking).

Its sad that a company who advertises them selves as the "Great white hope" for contractors and consumers. Continues to screw both with vigor. Ive been with them for a year. In that time I have had nothing but bad leads, expired leads (I had one person tell me that they had had the work done 6 months previous to me receiving the lead) 98% of the contacts do not return a phone call or e-mail. Those that I did make contact in their home were overwhelmed by the amount of contractors showing up to their home. I was told there would only be 3 contractors sent the lead. One contact had had 11 before me and had 9 coming the next day. All of us paid $50 for that lead. Every Time I have contact with them they try to make it right. BUT would not cancel the contract. Finally I quit paying for BS leads and now they are sending me to collections! Bad mistake. I will be posting this here, The story on my blog and on all 5 groups I'm associated with on Link In. I get 15000 hits to my web site a month. Lets see how they like that!

To all business owners finding that ServiceMagic is misrepresenting themselves as your agent -

File a complaint with the Better, Business Bureau
File a complaint with the Colorado Attorney General
File a complaint with the US Attorney General

This method of doing business is HIGHLY ILLEGAL.

They send feeds to the various local listings on a periodic basis, so if you manage to correct the information with the local listing service, it will later be changed back to ServiceMagic's contact information again!

Service Magic is a BIG FAT SCAM, they claim they are a service for the consumer, HAH! They contacted my husband several times and wanted to have him join, I was not impressed with how they go about wanting all the info (Lic, Ins/Bonds and your Bank Info) they charge the Contractor $50.00 for each referral, by electronic funds transfer, I laughed at the lady representing Service Magic, and told her she was not going to get any bank info from us. If my husband received an acceptance on his estimate and the consumer signed a Contract with our construction company, we would be more than happy to pay them, OH NO, that is not how they work. What really happens is that each contractor they refer for the specific job (weither you get the job or not) are charged $30-50.00. Wow, the contractors contacting the consumer could be as many as 20 plus, depending on your area. You do the math. They are making a killing and maybe one contractor gets the job, but they all paid a fee for the contact (the consumer). This is no Service! Glad my husband listened to me and told them he was not interested in their so called service. Since the construction industry was hit so bad, due to the Banks and Wall Street colapse. Sonm many contractors are desperate for work and you will have good and bad contractors. This is my recommendation, ask for refferals, the best advertising is word of mouth. My husband has a great reputation, work ethic, and always makes sure the customer is 100% satisfied. Period. We are barely making it in these times, due to the small populated area we live in, however, we continue to make sure our customers always come first and foremost. If you hear from Service Magic, hang-up, the call isn't worth your time or energy.

I am a small business owner and I was contacted by service magic today. I am so glad i told them to call me back in a week. Sorry to hear all of these hard working people being ripped off by this company. I know as a business owner that every dime made is valuable and cant afford to be waisted with crap like this. I sure hope something is done so this doesn't happen to anymore people. Thank you to all the people that took the time to tell others of there experience with companys like this.

I was a member, about four years ago, and was scammed like the rest of you guys. I just wanted to comment on how they lie to the public also. They tell them all contracters are licensed, bonded, and insured. I was only insured, they still accdepted me. Now they are calling wanting me to join again. I told them now I am not licesed, bonded, or insured. They said it didn't matter, I could still join. Yaaaa right!

Mary is FOS, this company has zero bussiness ethics. Ia m not a contractor but a customer that used thier website. It turned out to be a nightmare. I work graveyard and the phone rang off the hook for two weeks straight. My wife say we are still getting calls and it has been over a month. They pimped my number out to god and country. Not only did I not go with one of thier contrcators, I will never do bussiness with anyone associated with these clowns. Now I know why I was getting the hard sell you poor saps are getting popped for 60 bucks just to get someone like me who is pissed off because they recieved too many calls.

service magic sets up web sites with there phone and your name and after you stop there service they still get leads from your company name

Good afternoon The Pool Guys –

It sounds like you are referring to the exact match program. I apologize if you had any confusion around this and wanted to help clear any questions up. Here is how it works. If a service professional has Exact Match activated, we promote our member’s business profile online using different advertising and keyword matching methods. The point is to get the contractor’s info out there and create a strong online presence. This site does have a phone number that connects to our customer service team so that we can still verify the type of work and zip code associated with the consumer. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me directly at 303.963.8066 or mblack [at] servicemagic.com.

Thank you,

Mandy Black

Mandy Black

They are unethical, and unscrupulous. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM, they are still calling our home. Of course, I don't answer!

I have not used them. However, I did get a call from them today using the number [protected], which I searched google for and ended up here on this site. I'm glad I did.

I thought the person on the phone was quite rude to me to start with. When I told them I did all my own PR, web and advertising, so I was not in need of their service, she said "Well, we'll just call your competitors then." I said "thank you" (LOL), and hung up the phone.

Then I wanted to see what I found about the rude company, so I searched their number. Thank you for all this information.

CNC

Cancelled account with ServiceMagic.com and they continue to advertise using my business name with their website and phone number.

Good morning DJulien -

I apologize that your experience led you to cancelling your account and that your exact match listing has not been fully removed. When your account is cancelled, it can take some time to be removed from the search engines; we have to wait for each one to do a web crawl update. I sent your information over to one of our representatives to help you. If you have any questions, please contact me directly at 303.963.8066 mblack[at]servicemagic.com.

Thank you,

Mandy Black

At last, the ball is moving and attorneys in Washington are working on investigating Service Magic for their unethical practices. I had one call me the other day wanting all kinds of information about them- facts, figures, people I spoke to, the business arrangements, and dates.
He said to send him any further legitimate evidence of business fraud and deceit that may have been committed by this corporation. Richard Toikka with Farkas & Toikka in Washington. DIR 202.337.7802
Please don't call to just wine and complain about them. He wants facts, figures, and clear cut evidence that can be used in court.

Don't bother calling them back. They will only sweet talk you into doing nothing and tell you that they are really not responsible to stealing your business from you. This is called business piracy and it is illegal for one business entity to be stealing business from another business entity using unethical and devious means. You have to do something about this or they will just continue to raid potential business using your name that you have worked so hard to build.

At last, the ball is moving and attorneys in Washington are working on investigating Service Magic for their unethical practices. I had one call me the other day wanting all kinds of information about them- facts, figures, people I spoke to, the business arrangements, and dates. He said to send him any further legitimate evidence of business fraud and deceit that may have been committed by this corporation. Richard Toikka with Farkas & Toikka in Washington. DIR 202.337.7802Please don't call to just wine and complain about them. He wants facts, figures, and clear cut evidence that can be used in court.

I haven't yet registered with them, but I have received a phone call 3 days ago while working at a job site. The caller made me believe that he was a potential client looking at engaging my services. I said that at that particular moment I could not talk but that I would be available toward the end of the business day to discuss the matter. He did not call me as agreed. I then decided to called him and left him a voice mail message explaining that I would try to make myself available on the following morning although morning time is normally bad for me because I work and I cannot concentrate on calls. He called me again on the following morning catching me again unprepared. He asked for my contractor license number, date of birth and social security number indicating that it was his company policy to run a background check before proceeding with a contractual agreement with me. This is done quite often and is not uncommon, but then he asked for my credit card number and explained what his company (Service Magic) exactly does. I did not have the card at hand, and I told him to call me back another time. I believe he wants to finalize the deal next week. My question is: has everyone gone thorough the same procedure? I mean: has Service Magic asked for all this personal information to everyone, and has Service Magic stolen identities? Their Internet site shows their privacy policies, and how they guard the information, but one never knows.

I must thank all of you for taking the time to post your experiences with service magic as I was thinking of using them. Fortunately I found this site (as well as numerous others) that sold me on not doing business with them and thereby saved me the loss and frustration that so many of you speak of! Thanks Again!

You contractors whine too much... see it from the consumer's point of view. When we set up the search for pros to fix our broken down homes, we put in the best descriptions we can without being knowledgeable of the contractor lingo. Then service magic's database uses the keywords to find the best pros for the job in our zip code area. Today I got three pros for choices. As I can not nor do I NEED three contractors to do ONE job ... I have to choose by having them come and convince me that they can do the best job for the best price without padding the price. It's up for bids, literally. If my Uncle Norris was still alive he'd do all of my home repair for free and even add stuff just because he is a proud worker and loved his profession. Old homes need just as much love and more care than new homes ... you all should be ashamed of yourselves. One of you said you only get the crack house jobs... shameful that you say such things... shameful.

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i am a lic. ca. contractor who has had the same experience and the same complaints you read about with service magic aka home adviser, i have also had to close my credit / atm card and will have to deal with a collection agency wanting to collect money for phone number or lead's that don't exist, I took the time to look at who own's service magic, it is a company called i a c. If you google i.a.c. click on the iac, you will see all of the company's they own including servicemagic . i found it interesting they own a lot of dating service co. ect. pretty much scam company's, you will also find service magic in small print. now go back to google and click on (about i.a.c.) click on management, take note of last name's ect i found it quit interesting. now go back to the top of the page and click on the board of directors, look at how is #5 on the list. google that name and see who she is married to, now the interesting part. google the husband;s name then google the father, look at the bottom of the wiki page, he has quit a history. it seems the whole company is is run by a bunch of liars and scam artists and they probably own the collection agency and the phone numbers that they sell as lead's. ( who know's what else ) They have a lot of power and money behind them, that got a lot stronger with the new kid on the block. make's you wonder ? it's bad enough home owner"s get bad advise ? ect. who they could give a dam about, or the lic. & unlic. contractors. From the very bottom ( lead's) to the very top it"s all about making money from the middle class.(both side's) this whole scam needs some good exposure. I don't know how to do it but somebody must, there are a lot more people out there who are going to lose good money to pay overpaid corp. salaries.They have no mercy and a lot of greed.

yes... i joined service magic and thought this might work for me. well just like alot of you this was a scam. I got 14 leads and not one worked out...One lady told me that she has never heard of service magic (home advisor) and to off her property...They said that would give me a credit for this...No i was still chared for it...Now im getting phone calls from a collection agency saying that i owe them over $600.00 ... WE ALL NEED TO SUE THEM... File your complaints with your state board of consumers and the B.B.B...Lets put them out of work and get (us) that have a legit busienss for over24 years, back to work for someone that CARES about the real working family...Anyone out there that has been SCAMMED...Service magic or so-called Home Advivors...Please VOICE your Anger ...GOD BLESS AMERICA

They are relentless in their pursuit to, "snag you in". Okay, so after many conversations with them over the phone..they got me! The 8 months go by with disappoint after disappoint. Oh, and let me not forget to mention loss of time and money. I have been on many of erroneous estimates;text message Hassel's from people texting me or calling me about fake leads.Can not some adults get a life?! I have wasted fuel and business time.They have charges me unknowingly at times too. Leave any messages regarding your displeasure? "A slow boat to China will get you there faster". In conclusion: Do not let there superficial customer service fool you. This company is, " a sheep in wolves clothing". The worse business experience I have ever had.,