Lead Service with a problem

I use an online lead service, it hasnt been that great, but I still take my chances when there are nearby jobs, im finding people use this as kinda a last resort, to hope to find a dirt cheap landscaper, sometimes not anyways hears the situation.

I purchased a lead which stated:

Ready to hire? Ready to hire
Scope of project: Landscaping
Work to begin: Immediately
Budget estimate: Standard

Additional details: we want to redesign land in fron of our building. the land is an oval shape. we are looking to ad benches new grass lighting

So im thinking its a commercial landscape job cool, bought it $15.00...kinda pricy, normally the price decreases over time but I bit at it early. So i send them an email and call the number provided 2 days later nothin, great. Next day i get an email, its a high school kid getting information for a school project. I was bummed out so i asked the kid for more details yea Ill help ya out. Couple days later I email him saying I did spend money for his project do you think you could spread my name around or something for me. Today I get an email from his mother she is livid and says im taking advantage of her son. What would yall have done?

Jeff

 

Whoa, that's weird. Sounds intriguing that the mom is mad at you.

Hard to say, Maybe telling the kid that you spent money led him to feel pressured. Which seems understandable. Maybe if you had left the money part out and just asked him to pass your name along, this spat wouldnt' have occured. But this isn't a bid deal unless the mom is a sue happy OCD. I've run into those before

 

BTW, my online lead service won't return money you've deposited to recieve the auto leads. I've got around fifty bucks just sitting since summer and I regret getting started with them. Better ways to spend money for online ads are a website and Google adwords. At least in my area

 

Well thanks for your response hopefully ill get some more, I sent the mom back a nice msg. about i just thought it would be kinda of her son to pass along my name. I tried getting my money back from the lead company, they were gladly willing to do so, but were having problems with re-embursting me, so i gotta call em back.

Jeff

 

NNJM- You did nothing wrong. The kid is a tool for making up a fake lead. The mom should of yelled at him.

Matt

 

That's really weird Jeff. I've used online lead services for years and have learned that you've gotta go through several bad ones to get to one good one. The great thing is that the cost per lead is low enough that in many cases it's still a great bargain even if you have to weed through a few to get one that's legit.

 

Hey this is Jersey, tell her to go f-herself!

J/K I was expecting someone from out of state to throw in a comment like that.

 

I can kind of see the mother being mad a little bit. For example, imagine a salesman showing up at your door, and your kid answers it. The kid is nosey and asks a lot of questions, and at the end of the questions the kid finally tells the salesman sorry, my mom isn't home. So the salesman says, "well since you wasted my time, go and hand out my fliers in the neighborhood."

 

Jeff didn't come knocking on his door. The kid falsely put out a bid request saying he was ready to hire and start immediately. Jeff paid for the privelage of helping the kid with his homework and asked for a little help in return. It's not like he asked the kid to pay. I almost made the mistake of signing up for one of those services and now I'm positive I did the right thing.

 

I know he didn't knock on the door and yes he did help out the kid, but I still don't think that asking the kid was right. Perhaps asking the kid to state in his report whom he got the research from would be better.