Nice Little Gem from Hometown Quotes

[Norwayguy]

I haven't Used Hometown Leads in quite a while...Do you have any ability to change Zip code selection or anything via the website...If so you can change to just 1 zip code for this situation.

I haven't used internet leads because they burned me out it was to much fighting with the lead vendor over bogus leads and since everyone on here is always saying the same thing and these leads are sold to other agents how come I never got a lead vendor saying "Oh we are sorry this lead has been proven fake by another agent and we are crediting your account"

I'll tell you why this never happens and why fake leads will NEVER go away is that as long as the vendors can sell enough leads to enough people and are making bank on fake leads they will never clean up thier act.

 

[Guest]

This exact situation has happened to me with hometown as well.

Its your fault for not managing the clock and/or setting the lead cap and delivery times. You are a business owner were is the accountability.

Just work the leads anyway they are only 2 days old.

 

[djs]

Correct. Work the leads. Some will be bogus, get credit for those.

Sell one or 2 of the rest and pay for them.

I feel your pain. I've done the same thing with lead vendors. My solution has to always have a daily lead limit that is low enough I can keep up with it, but high enough to keep it busy.

And yes, to make internet leads work, you really do need to jump in with both feet. Buying a few here and there is a tough way to go.

Dan

 

[PatrickJoseph]

yeah i mean, those are questions you need to ask prior to opening up an account ... automatic re-charging! I don't use any programs that automatically charge me.
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granted i pay up front for everything....i'd rather do that then have my card charged at random points

 

[Guest]

youll be fine man just work the quotes. If you are dead set on getting your money back Im sure they will take care of you. Hometown quotes are good people in a bad industry

 

[Medigap]

You all need to lay off the guy. It's not unreasonable to expect to be able to shut leads off at any point. I don't care who owns the lead company ... Built-in account pauses that expire and lack of agent controls is good for the lead company not for the lead buyer. He has every right to be upset.

 

[Guest]

i thought that too at first and I brought it up as an initial concern but this is how it works:

They have a limited amount of pause because they market to areas based on agent need. So infinite pause would actually hurt the leads quality or quantity.

Now I'm not defending HT because I just cancelled my account with them today. I'm just saying he should just be more aware of the giant box with a countdown pause timer and work the leads.

 

[shepnerd]

Well, I gotta say that they couldn't have handled it any better. They credited all the leads, and put the charge back on my card before I even talked to them.

I still think its crazy that they have an automated system that can turn things on, with way to turn them off for two days. I did have to cancel my card to keep it from charging me again on Sunday, which is gonna be a pain since for some unknown reason I gave them my main checking account instead of the one I have for internet buys and recurring payments (which I have for exactly this kind of scenario).

They did say that they are looking at not letting the pause come off on the weekend, which I strongly think they should do. Honestly, I'd have been frustrated that I missed the pause thing, but wouldn't have been here bitching if I could have turned it off. That was on me, but not being able to do anything about it after I knew it was happening was frustrating as hell!

Anyway, its obvious by the way they handled things that they weren't doing it to intentionally generate revenue. Like I said, they were good to work with when I was getting fake leads before and surprised the hell out of me on how they handled this scenario. They did the credit based on my customer service ticket I put in on Sunday, there was no push back whatsoever.

So the moral of the story is, good folks, bad system. The difference between a good company and a bad company isn't whether or not they make mistakes, its how they handle them when they occur and I gotta say I'm impressed with how they handled this.

I actually feel a little guilty getting the leads and not paying for them now- I'm gonna work them and if I sell anything go back and pay them for 'em.

 

[VolAgent]

I actually feel a little guilty getting the leads and not paying for them now- I'm gonna work them and if I sell anything go back and pay them for 'em.

If you want to be honest, you should pay for them all if you work any of them, sales or no sales. Well, pay for the valid ones, obviously not the ones you would have returned. But if you work them, man up and pay for them, otherwise delete them all.

 

[mfancher]

You all need to lay off the guy. It's not unreasonable to expect to be able to shut leads off at any point. I don't care who owns the lead company ... Built-in account pauses that expire and lack of agent controls is good for the lead company not for the lead buyer. He has every right to be upset.

I feel the agent should be in control of all aspects of their service they are the employer. If they want to pause their campaign to catch up that should not be a problem, and they should demand that all information is not only correct but verified because time is money. That is why on commercial lines you should pay by the hour and hold the company to what they promise and have total control over the service YOU are paying for.