There is a lead-generating company that associates themselves with Activerain called RECR (Real Estate Client Referrals) that, in my opinion, is a complete SCAM! Not that the other companies that are out there are above board, but I trusted this one because of their affiliation with Activerain and because they offer a NO RISK, 90-day money back guarantee for their services. I received a call from one of their sales people about a month ago that assured me that they had a "qualified" and thoroughly scrubbed buyer that was looking to buy in my area and they were not already working with a realtor, all they needed was someone to take the lead.
The assurity that I was given by the sales person was that for $495.00 I would receive 5 "qualified" and scrubbed buyer leads and if it turned out that the lead was bogus they would replace the lead with a qualified lead, but that if for any reason I was not satisfied with the service that I would get a full refund.
Needless to say, all of the leads that I was given were folks that could not get financing, at which point RECR did replace the lead with another person that wanted to buy a house but could not get financing, GREAT!
Realizing that this was going to be more work, just following up to make sure that I did not loose my investment, I asked for a refund. After phone calls and e-mails, I finally spoke with someone in customer service named Gary Taylor. He explained that I could not expect to get back my full investment, only the unused portion. I explained that none of my investment was used since I never received a qualified lead. At that point I asked that my issue be escalated to Clint Miller, the former Remax agent, turned lead generator extrodonaire, and also found on Activerain. He told me that he could not do that since Clint was not in customer service and did not have any hand in issuing refunds, then he promptly advised me to look at my contract! Oh, now I am seeing see how this company works. Even though their web-site touts NO RISK, and 90-Day money back guarantee, that is only if they don't send you any lead, so basicly the amount that I paid was debited for the buyer referrals that turned out to be bogus. Hmmm, that my friends is when I realized that I had been scammed. And to add fuel to the fire, the phone conversation with the CUSTOMER SERVICE rep ended with him stating "I guess, the next time you do something like this, you will read your contract more closely". As if I did not feel bad enough for falling into another one of these lead generation scams, I was scolded by the customer service rep!
So, in an effort to save others that may be tempted, please be forewarned and know that the only lead generator that can be trusted is you!
Shannon Gaskamp / Regional Realty / Northern Kentucky
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