Open Letter to Homes.com

by Jay Thompson on January 16, 2008 · Comments

in Life

Dear Homes.com (nofollow applied to link) -

I have politely asked you on numerous occasions to kindly stop calling me on my office and cell phones in your feeble attempts to sell me your “web site optimization” and search marketing products. 

I do not now, nor will I ever, need or utilize your services for brand advertising, print advertising, search marketing, Listing Advantage, etc etc ad nauseum.

For your reference, here is a link to the particulars surrounding the Federal Do Not Call List. All three numbers you call repeatedly are on said list. We do not have an “established business relationship” with Homes.com, nor is Homes.com a political organization, charity or telephone surveyor.

In other words, you are violation the DNC rules and regs every time you call me.

The next call gets reported to the FTC, the FCC, and state regulatory agencies. And yes, they do fine businesses for violating the DNC.

If you are so desperate for business that you must repeatedly call someone who has asked you over and over not to, then my guess is you probably can’t afford to be slapped with fines from the FTC. If you don’t think I will pursue this further, you are sadly mistaken. I suggest going into your little database and deleting my contact info. Pronto.

Oh, and one other thing. You may want to train your telemarketers in things like basic human interaction skills. While you’re there, throw in a little on how to use Google. I find it humorous when you call and tell me, “You are on Page 17 of Google but we can put you on Page 1!!” when in fact I am already on page 1 for exactly what you are trying to sell me.

Warmest Regards,
Jay

[tags]homes.com, relentless telemarketers[/tags]

 

 


 

Email This Post Email This Post Print This Post Print This Post

 

 

Thanks for reading! We value your thoughts and opinions, so please feel free to leave a comment. Please contact us if you have any questions or need help. You can also get automatic updates for this blog free via: Potentially Related Posts on Phoenix Real Estate Guy:
Ask the Broker: Should I Leave My Home During Showings?
Incredibly inept HOA action!
VAR Blog Brawl – Vote Phoenix Real Estate Guy!

 




Read this blog's Comment Policy
  • Good luck with this. I've tried for years and years to get them to stop calling. When I tell them to put me on the Do Not Call list, they tell me that because they found my number on the web, they can call. I want part of the fine.
  • "they tell me that because they found my number on the web, they can call"

    What a load of crap. I'm no attorney, but I see absolutely nothing in the DNC rules that exempts a number "found on the web".

    If that were true, there wouldn't be any point in the DNC. Just about every number on the planet can be found on the web...
  • Jim - That would mean that any phone number listed in whitepages(dot)com is free game, so somehow I hope that is misinformation.

    Jay - Thanks for posting this - it's exactly what I was tempted to post on my own blog. I have asked House(dot)com nicely to stop calling. I have told them rudely. I have hung up on them. (In the rare moment that I had the free time) I let them go on for 10 minutes and THEN I said "no thanks". You should have heard the response. Then I got hung up on. Another time I said, can you hold on and I'll get "Jason" - I then sat the phone down and came back some time later to hear a dial tone. But last week enough was enough - they called me again and after I told them, for the 100th time, that (1) I'm not interested and (2) my number is on the no-call registry, I got online and filled out the form reported them. I haven't had a call since (fingers crossed).

    Next on the list: those people "affiliated with Yahoo, the search engine" who call me almost as much as Homes(dot)com.
  • You and I were thinking the same thing...
  • Shenanigans like this make it hard to be a real estate tech vendor. Jay, our telemarketing staff will be calling later today. We found your number on a bathroom wall in NYC. I checked, you have no protection from the DNC on that one. :)
  • I still think ti would be fun to get their 800 number and have agents from all over the country flood their lines. We'd run up their bill and waste their time.

    But alas, it wastes our time, too.
  • You are right Jay every company that provides phone service provides a directory and now place this directory on the internet. What kind of business can operate with an unlisted number?
    Maybe we should start tying up their phone lines by calling them to try and sell them a listing we have. If we all called them at the same rate they called us, maybe just maybe they would get the point!
  • No Kidding!

    I understand the whole philosophy that you get 5 "No"'s before a "Yes", but these guys think that you get a "Yes" after something like 748,312 "No"'s.

    Harrassment has never really gained traction as a means of acquiring business... interesting.
  • Great post, Jay. I feel your pain...

    If these numnuts would take 5 seconds and do a Google search they would realize that they are wasting their time and especially OURS! Maybe if enough people blog about it and report them, they will get the hint.
  • Isn't homes.com the owners to some site a bunch of agents were using a few years ago to bookmark blog articles.

    I remember when the carnival of real estate came out, several bloggers were submitting their articles to that site as well.

    If they are the owners, depending on their TOS and if you ever bookmarked one of your articles there, you may in fact have an established business relationship. I do not know the name of the site, but I think it may have been realestatevoices.com or something like that?

    I know Jim the Tomato and Mary McKnight used to post articles on it at times so if that's not the right site, email one of them and maybe they can remember the site name and see who the owners are.
  • RealEstateVoices.com is run through HomeThinking.com, not Homes.com. Believe me, I've got not relationship with Homes.com.

    Besides, even if I did... from the DNC regulations:

    "One caveat: if a consumer asks a company not to call, the company may not call, even if there is an established business relationship. Indeed, a company may not call a consumer - regardless of whether the consumer's number is on the registry - if the consumer has asked to be put on the company's own do not call list."
  • I have a homes.com site. I freely admit that I hate them and have for years. I cannot get them to stop calling me even though I have made the same requests you have.
  • That's a nice letter. I wonder if anyone from homes.com even knows what a blog is? Most likely they just pay people on a commission basis to call every agent over and over again. The rules of cold calling are something like "7 calls to a conversion" -- so I would expect a couple more calls before they give up.

    <abbr></abbr><abbr>Aaron´s last blog post..Small Business Economic Bailout Plan</abbr>
  • As far as I know, both State and Federal DNC rules (they are not laws) Do Not Apply to Business to Business marketing. Only Business to Personal.

    That said, if you do request them to add you to their own DNC list, they should, but again, they don't have to.

    At least that is what I was told when reporting a business to the DNC list
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post: Ask the Lender: Should I Get Pre-Qualified, Pre-Approved, or Neither?

Next post: Phoenix Real Estate Guy Gets a Face Lift