HomeAdvisor’s home improvement leads needed work

If you’re in the home improvement business — whether it’s kitchen remodeling, landscaping, or something else — getting quality leads on people looking to hire a business like yours might be worth paying for. That’s what HomeAdvisor — which is affiliated with Angi — promised businesses if they paid $287.99 per year to join the company’s network and an extra fee for each lead. But according to the FTC, the company didn’t produce the kind of leads it promised.

According to the FTC’s complaint, HomeAdvisor not only misrepresented the quality, characteristics, and source of its leads, but also mispresented the percentage of leads that would turn into jobs. As a result, businesses who paid to join the network lost time and money pursuing people who weren’t looking to hire anyone soon, didn’t want the kind of services the business offered, or weren’t located in the area the business asked to focus on.

In addition, the FTC says, HomeAdvisor’s sales agents misrepresented the cost of a one-month subscription to its mHelpDesk software, which helped service providers do things like schedule appointments, process payments, and handle other tasks. Instead of getting the first month free with an annual membership, the first month of the subscription increased the cost of the annual membership by $59.99 to $347.98.

Has your small business experienced something similar? Tell the FTC about unfair and deceptive business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.