I got scammed last week

OK, I should have know better. Live and learn...and pay through the nose!
Last week I signed up with company out of California that was to provide me with names, emails and phone numbers of consumers looking for real estate services in Vero Beach and Sebastian. The company, Reply Real Estate, gets the contact information from on-line forms that are filled in by each of the prospects. They described these people as being 'scrubbed' leads, fully screened and just sitting there waiting for me to call them. The initial set-up fee was only $35 and each name cost $59+change. It's a small price to pay for an introduction to clients eager to buy or sell. Plus, I was told without hesitation that any who were unreachable or not valid would be credited to my account.


Well, guess what? Of the 10 or so I've been sent so far, at least 8 didn't want my services at all. They didn't just change their mind after they filled in the form. They merely went online to look for information about something specific and couldn't get to what they wanted unless they filled in a form. Once they filled in all the 'required' fields and were able to search for their specific information, they signed off and promptly forgot about it.


So there I sat, on the phone, making calls to people who said they didn't have anything to sell or didn't want to buy anything and questioned why in the world I was calling them. One guy did say, yes, he was looking for information on a specific property near Gulf Port, Mississippi and wondered if I could help him.(That's at least 10 to 12 hours away!)


Finally I got smart and asked these unsuspecting 'leads' if they could be willing to provide statements for me detailing that they did not intend to have an agent contact them and were not in the market for real estate services. I explained that I was paying for these so called leads and might eventually need some type of proof for the customer service folks at Reply Real Estate. They each responded in the affirmative.


So imagine my shock when I wrote within the necessary 72 hr. time frame to ask for credits just to have my requests denied. Repeatedly the service department did not feel that the situation required credit...one service rep couldon't even see that a lead to a guy wanting info in Mississippi was invalid. The company simply keeps cranking out bogus leads and charging my American Express card for each one. CAAAA....CHING! CAAAA...CHING!


I have been credited with a few...one duplicate where the guy was neither a buyer nor a seller. And another where the phone number isn't live. But each credit received has been a fight and a challenge to blood pressure control.
So, here I sit, waiting for my contract to expire, continuing to battle for credits, and vowing to tell everyone in earshot about my experience with www.replyrealestate.com.


For the consumers reading this...DO NOT FILL IN FORMS ON WEBSITES UNLESS YOU KNOW THAT THE INFORMATION IS GOING TO SOMEONE SPECIFIC AND YOU WELCOME THEIR CALL.
And for real estate agents thinking that a scrubbed and polished lead service might be a nice addition to your marketing plan, SKIP THIS COMPANY!


Am I afraid of them coming after me for publicly complaining about them? NOT ONE BIT!!! Everyhing I've said here is true. They are the bad guys and they deserve to be exposed for their total lack of quality control and unwillingness to do the right thing.

Remember the name www.replyrealestate.com. Avoid them like the plague.