Concerns with Hometown Quotes

[stuartmoore10]

Ha ha Craigslist. I have put a few things on there. I got a 20 year old kid with 5 speeding tickets. He couldn't understand why I couldn't save him a bunch of money! I told him to slow down for a couple of years and we could try again!

 

[somarco]

I got a 20 year old kid with 5 speeding tickets.

Some guys are into that kind of thing. Not sure I would be talking about it on an open forum. "To catch a predator" might be lurking

 

[Alston]

The person could have gotten the lead from Hometown and loaded it into his Norvax system.

Nothing stops this, it's legit. In fact, it works pretty well.
Dan

That doesn't sound very legit. It certainly doesn't sound ethical.

HTQ definitely works with affiliates. I'm one of them.

They do also generate their own leads.

It is entirely possible that they only had a few agents signed up for a certain zip code and so then then sold the lead to Norvax.

 

[djs]

That doesn't sound very legit. It certainly doesn't sound ethical.

Why not? It's the same as putting it in any other CRM system. Don't forget, Norvax is a quoting system, lead management system, drip marketing system. It is not the reselling of the lead.

I think to often we hear Norvax and think PZ. It can be hard to keep everything straight.

Dan

 

[Alston]

Why not? It's the same as putting it in any other CRM system. Don't forget, Norvax is a quoting system, lead management system, drip marketing system. It is not the reselling of the lead.

I think to often we hear Norvax and think PZ. It can be hard to keep everything straight.

Dan

You're right. I got confused.

Norvax allows agents who use their quoting system to sell leads to them for states they're not licensed in. I thought that that is what was meant.

 

[souldeux]

Thought I'd give you guys an update on this thing.

I initially bought $100 of leads at $14ish/each. I got a total of seven leads, four of which were credited because they were sent out after a pause request was made and missed. The other three were valid, and cost about $42. A refund in the amount of $58 was issued to my account a couple of days ago, so that's all good.

A bad experience, but the credits were fair, the refund was timely, and the matter was resolved to my satisfaction.

At least, that's the post I would have written at about 3:35 today. At 3:37, I got another call from Home Town Quotes.

I was impressed at first. I thought it was an apologetic call, from the way she started out. Oh, my blessed naivety. I'm almost cute.

I went from "moderately pleased at this seeming turnaround in company policy" to "I wish I could start fires with my thoughts" at the following phrase:

"However, I think there's something you might have misunderstood."

I was then told, again, that my information must have been re-sold by a rogue affiliate. That HTQ would never ever dream of re-selling leads no sir. That I was simply mistaken, that's all, and that they'd be happy to reactivate my account whenever I was ready.

Now, I was standing in the middle of a Walgreen's when this particular statement was dropped, so I refrained from saying precisely what was on my mind. And I'm in polite company here, so I'll keep those thoughts to myself again. Suffice to say, I was highly upset. After everything else, to simply insult my intelligence like that was...well, it was extraordinarily unprofessional.

Bob, who's your contact at HTQ? I was going to just let this drop after the refund, but today's little "reach out and touch you" call was over a rather personal line.

 

[Hunter]

Thought I'd give you guys an update on this thing.

I initially bought $100 of leads at $14ish/each. I got a total of seven leads, four of which were credited because they were sent out after a pause request was made and missed. The other three were valid, and cost about $42. A refund in the amount of $58 was issued to my account a couple of days ago, so that's all good.

A bad experience, but the credits were fair, the refund was timely, and the matter was resolved to my satisfaction.

At least, that's the post I would have written at about 3:35 today. At 3:37, I got another call from Home Town Quotes.

I was impressed at first. I thought it was an apologetic call, from the way she started out. Oh, my blessed naivety. I'm almost cute.

I went from "moderately pleased at this seeming turnaround in company policy" to "I wish I could start fires with my thoughts" at the following phrase:

"However, I think there's something you might have misunderstood."

I was then told, again, that my information must have been re-sold by a rogue affiliate. That HTQ would never ever dream of re-selling leads no sir. That I was simply mistaken, that's all, and that they'd be happy to reactivate my account whenever I was ready.

Now, I was standing in the middle of a Walgreen's when this particular statement was dropped, so I refrained from saying precisely what was on my mind. And I'm in polite company here, so I'll keep those thoughts to myself again. Suffice to say, I was highly upset. After everything else, to simply insult my intelligence like that was...well, it was extraordinarily unprofessional.

Bob, who's your contact at HTQ? I was going to just let this drop after the refund, but today's little "reach out and touch you" call was over a rather personal line.

Nick, I am Bob's contact at HometownQuotes. It sounds like we dropped the ball with you on your requested pause. Sorry about that but it sounds like we refunded your money so the leads were free…good luck with those.

I think the only thing that was misunderstood is that we were truly calling to say "sorry". You wrote us a well written, articulate and professional email and we thought it deserved a response. I asked our head of Agent Services to do just that and she called multiple times until she was able to get in touch with you. Did she want you to come back to use our service? Of course...I am sure you would want the same with any consumer that left your agency. Sorry if you took it any other way.

To address some of the other issues in this conversation:

Do we use affiliates? Absolutely and it is a shame that the word "affiliate" has gotten such a bad wrap. It is like saying all insurance agents are bad. There are PLENTY of great affiliates. Alston, who posted in this thread, is one of them and one of ours. He is a respected agent who flat knows the insurance business and we are proud to partner with him. In fact we have a TON of agents that are affiliates, it is a good way to monetize their website for consumers outside their area. The problem is when a few bad apples spoil the bunch. I would be telling a lie if I said we hadn't had bad affiliates or that we wouldn't have them in the future and while we are doing everything in our power to not let them send the first lead to us some get through and when they do we give credit. It is the right thing to do and the way we run our business. Trust me the last thing we want to do is send bad leads…it is bad business.

Do we have a relationship with Norvax? You bet we do…we also have a relationship with Quotit, Insurint (coming soon) and other lead management systems/CRM that allow you guys to do your job better and faster. If you arent using one I suggest you at least give it a try. I am happy to refer you to somone.

Thanks for everyone for their feedback and opinions on the subject. It seems we lead vendors tend to be the red headed step child of insurance forums and I am ok with that. Hell…I was an agent for several years and I know what it is like to sit on both sides. Both of us have a tough job.

Ultimately we have two missions at HometownQuotes:

1.Provide an unparalleled consumer experience. This means giving the consumers an easy to navigate website, a complete shopping experience and great agents who will treat them right. (Yes we occasionally "fire" agents for mistreating the consumer as that isn't good for anyone us, the consumer or the next agent that calls).

2.Become our agents #1 source of new business. We truly want to be just that for every agent. Do we succeed 100% of the time? Heck no. Do we try? Heck yea. This means doing the right thing, giving credits when credits are due, offering $100 in free leads with no string attached to members of this board, making calls to agents that had a bad experience and kicking out bad sources of traffic when the situation calls for it, no matter how financially painful it is.

Some of you will never know the painstaking efforts we go to do these things and that is ok but I think it is important that you at least "hear" what we are trying to do…at least once.

I don't get on this forum as much as I would like these days. Our 40+ employees and our business keep me pretty busy so I probably won't spend much time rebutting comments made from this post but if you want to talk to me feel free to email me at the address below.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Hunter

P.S. Nick...let me know if you want to talk. I will be happy to get on the phone with you. Shoot me an email and let me know a good time.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

I feel like this guy could get into politics lol!

 

[Hunter]

I feel like this guy could get into politics lol!

LOL! Ingram/Paul 2012!!!!!

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

This means doing the right thing, giving credits when credits are due

I didn't find that the reality matched this rhetoric, and was the reason I ultimately left HTQ.