# Anyone get calls from Service Magic



## MatthewG (Jun 16, 2009)

As title states Service Magic called me today, got my name from the SIMA website. They pass commerical or residential leads to you in your desired area. $49 to sign up for SIMA members and then any lead you take and sign a contract with is $18

Any thoughts, anyone use or get a call from them?

Yes I searched for this....


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## ADBsnowremoval (Aug 16, 2009)

I have not used service magic for snow plowing, but i did use them shortly at the start of my concrete season this year. I found it to be a royal pain in the butt, and charged $$$ for leads that would not even return calls, not to mention there are many other companies getting the same leads. Service magic was not a fair company to due business with IMO, but it may work for others. We have been very busy all year, and are booked through the end of the year with concrete work, but that is from our 39 year history and great reputation. I would not recommend using them. JMO.


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## ajslands (Sep 3, 2009)

They called me last week and then again today, dosn't sound like a good deal to me because I have to pay for somehing and I'm not getting any gurrantee.

And now that I read that last post; I'm going to tell them no, I do that snow plowing for troops tho!


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## Burkartsplow (Nov 1, 2007)

they have called me 4 times in the last week. they called about an hour ago to tell you the truth.


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## MileHigh (Nov 6, 2007)

LMAO...

I use service magic for leads on irrigation repairs, blowouts, residential lawns, etc.

Basically it all works and is legit for the most part...the thing is...you PAY for each lead they send you..whether you get the job or not. They send each lead to a total of 3 Contractors..so you will be bidding against people.

I get maybe 10%-20% of the leads they pass on to me.

I wouldn't highly recommend it...cause the leads aren't that cheap, and some are just plain bunk.


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## Brant'sLawnCare (Jun 29, 2007)

I don't think I want anything to do with them. I have advertisers call me all the time. I just tell them I am swamped with work and don't need advertising. They always make up the same dumb excuse: "Well, what about next year?" "Our program will get you booked again next year"

They are all the same. My best luck has been with phone book ads and newspaper adds. Oh yeah, and word of mouth too.


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## 496 BB (Feb 11, 2010)

They are a JOKE. Dont waste your money. I used them years ago for a brief time and did not get one single job from them. It was all a bunch of time wasting people just wanting an estimate so see how much it would cost when they do get the money or for how much they were gonna save doing it themselves. You pay for each lead and it adds up quick.

If you were out there low balling everyone else then Id say its for you but if you charge a fair amount and do good work then move on.


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## lilweeds (Aug 3, 2007)

They suck. You pay regardless of getting any job. Most people that use the service are tire kickers, or deadbeats looking for a deal. The one plus..... They list your info everywhere online. So I'd sign up (should be free) and keep your leads on hold forever.


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## Premier (Nov 20, 2007)

I am currently using them to drum up more business for summer work, you do get crap leads, but if you call them they refund for the bad leads, it is more work but so far in the last month I have had 3 sales of mulch and 2 tree take downs. I just got a email the other day for snow removal so we will see how well it goes for the snow end of things. I look at it this way. as long as i can make more money than it costs to have there service, then im that much further ahead, but that goes for all forms of advertising.


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## Jaysled (Sep 10, 2009)

They have been calling me daily....this guy will not give up!!


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## 496 BB (Feb 11, 2010)

Tell him your going to report him to atty generals office for harassing phone calls. Thatll shut his ass up real quick.


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## ajslands (Sep 3, 2009)

Jaysled;1082943 said:


> They have been calling me daily....this guy will not give up!!


Ya he's pretty annoying!


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## SDeVoe (Mar 26, 2009)

I get the calls all the time too, about once every couple weeks; its usually a different voice on the phone though. I haven't bought into it, because to me it just seems too expensive for what you (don't) get.


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## timberseal (Jul 24, 2008)

I use them with mixed results. We've closed alot of nice jobs from them (outside of plowing) but we've also had a good share of crap leads too. They dont do the best job of refining the customer requests though. We get stuff all the time that we dont even offer service for (gutter cleanouts - asphalt sealcoating..). I'm trying the commercial snowplowing this year but no hits yet


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## hoskm01 (Oct 17, 2008)

timberseal;1083038 said:


> We get stuff all the time that we dont even offer service for (gutter cleanouts - asphalt sealcoating..).


You can only thank yourself for that. The categories are endless and are set up by you... the customer. Go online and change that up. Stop paying for leads that you cant even begin to consider fulfilling.


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## Scottscape (Nov 27, 2005)

servicemagic charges too much for there leads.


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## hoskm01 (Oct 17, 2008)

Scottscape;1083647 said:


> servicemagic charges too much for there leads.


But do they charge too much for THEIR leads?


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## KBTConst (Oct 25, 2009)

I signed up over a yr ago and have never recieved a call I would not recomend thier seervice to anyone just a way for them to make money.But I have to give the woman credit she had a good sale pitch normally I wouldn't fall for a sweet voice over the phone.


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## OBRYANMAINT (May 20, 2001)

*leads*

we used them in the past ,,also too expensive for plow leads..i paid around 8 bucks each, i do remember when they set me up they did it by zip codes they wanted ti give me many but i insisted only on the ones that we actually service that limited my leads by a lot but also put the leads i got in a better light


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## RLM (Jan 12, 2006)

I got 3 solicitation calls last week, first one they left a message which I didn't return, second I answered told them I wasn't intrested & hung up, third he call back said I must have them confused with some other service I told him we only do commercial & didn't see the benefit. I was VERY awhere of who they are, how they operate, etc. in addition I really don't do residential work unless we are approched by someone, then I explain that yes we can help them, BUT they conme last on the list, ussally this is fine with them because they know we will show at least. My commercial is all target advetising, not blanket. Annoying how everyone "knows" the best way for you to advertise without knowing a thing about your business other than to take the money we bust our butts for.


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## cold_and_tired (Dec 18, 2008)

I use them in the summer and they bring me quite a bit of work. Yes, I do get tire kickers but maybe only 1 in 5. Service magic, when compared to the phone book or postcards or some forms of internet advertising is actually pretty cheap per lead.

I spend $300 a month with service magic and stay fairly busy all summer.


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## Fiske Plowing (Jan 4, 2010)

I have used them on and off for little over a year for construction and landscpae leads. I just about agree with everyones point of view. it definatly has its pros and cons. as far as commercial snow plow leads i have a pretty good luck last year got a 70 home private community for plowing ,sanding shoveling and year before that go a 4 building condo complex and this year bidded on a contract for 15 convenient stores so as far as that goes have had good luck with them on that part. but over all there services are ok


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## Pristine PM ltd (Oct 15, 2005)

They are advertising like crazy on Howard Stern these days if that means anything.


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## dumbyankee (Jul 30, 2010)

I use them for smaller jobs including snow removal. The bigger the job the more it costs for the lead. (stay away) I found over the past 3 years with them they are good for reaching out to my out of state clients that would have not found me other wise. I have a lot of return on the investment because we provide a wide range of tasks, rather than doing just one or two. If I can sell a customer on one thing, I can usually sell at least one or two other services either now or in the future. When you get to a point where the customer calls you directly Service Magic dose not get a cut. Yes there is a lot of tire kickers. Let be known you charge for your time and you weed them out pretty fast. This srevice is NOT for every one. It works for me now. At some point I will cut them loose. And yes it costs. For me, right now its worth it. Other wise the service they provide is crap.


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## PGHplowguy (Oct 13, 2009)

I agree with 496 BB. I have found that most of the leads are crap. It is just people getting pricing on a job to see what it would cost IF they ever wanted to actually go ahead and do it. I can waste my time doing other stuff and save a few bucks by not paying for all the hollow leads.


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## RSL (Oct 13, 2010)

Service magic sucks


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## MatthewG (Jun 16, 2009)

Since I posted this originally I thought Id let you know that I declined their service. They would have been providing leads in an area greater than I would prefer to operate in. I'm concentrating on 2 towns and anything further would really spread us out.


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## timberseal (Jul 24, 2008)

hoskm01;1083590 said:


> You can only thank yourself for that. The categories are endless and are set up by you... the customer. Go online and change that up. Stop paying for leads that you cant even begin to consider fulfilling.


No actually its the customer filling out the request not knowing what they're doing. Our catagories are refined to what we do and where we do it. The last lead was in fact to clean and sealcoat a asphalt driveway..... we clean and seal decks, fencing, siding and log homes - not driveways.


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## FLC2004 (Aug 29, 2010)

Glad to see i'm not the only one getting "harrassed" with this company. I've answered before when they call and i tell them i'm not interested but they continue to call. They literally call me and leave message after message week after week.


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## forestfireguy (Oct 7, 2006)

We signed on for a trial pre purchased $600 in leads for $450, with a written garuntee that they refund us 100% if they can't supply us with an average of 15 "good leads" a month for 3 months, not looking good for them so far I've gotten 4 total, one from Brickmann looking for subs, one from a local competitor???? Haven't figured that one out yet, and 2 which we technically "good" leads, not from competitors and in the areas/services we listed, this is in 5 weeks.....


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## Meatplow (Oct 2, 2009)

Short and Sweet:

They are not worth the money you pay for the service. I did a $750 deposit with them, and when I showed up to the first client, they said I was the 9th person that showed up.. God know how many more came after becuase I was 2 miles from the client!

Stay away in my opinion, unless you don't mind calling them every other hour and talking for 45 minutes to give you a so called "free lead."


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## RepoMan207 (Oct 7, 2008)

Well.....it looks like I was invited to the party a bit late. Thanks for all that posted here, I had a call from these guys today, after about 15 minutes of sales pitches, I told him that I needed to do some research first. Almost everyones insight here, confirms my initial thoughts.


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## weekendwrench (Jan 29, 2009)

Yah I’m late to this thread too. I did a search on them when they called me about a month ago. Found that they have a lot of bad publicity from contractors they screwed. Told them to pound salt. It’s a scam.


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## Metro Lawn (Nov 20, 2003)

I used them back in 04 with poor results. I resigned up last month. So far I have been sent 5 plowing leads and 2 landscaping leads. Of those I got 1 landscape job for $750 and 1 plow account at $10,500. Cost me 126.00 so far. I am pretty happy.


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## Silverstreak (Oct 25, 2007)

i do paving, just about every job i estimated was someone priceshopping and either had a contrct signed already by someone else, or they had no interest in getting the job done, and just want to know what asphalt would cost if they did decide to do it.

my leads are 47 dollars, i get duplicates and have been denied a credit request, they automatically charge my cc every week or 10 days i forget, i told them i wanted a cap of $200 a month, i think the one month i paid out almost 670 dollars. 

the snow jobs i was asked to bid on the prop managers wont return any calls or emails, and now i see why, going to lunch with 2 friends who are both landscapers, they both got the same sales leads from servicemagic, and if thats just two people that i know, im sure it went out to at least 1000 other landscapers in the area, who wants to compete with that?! and service magic sits back and makes its 33000 dollars for dishing out its snow leads @ 33 a piece, what a jip

ive bid at least 30 jobs for paving/snow and have gotten two, its barely paid for itself

not worth the days spent estimating in my opinion


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## unit28 (Jan 1, 2007)

they don't refund leads anymore for bad leads,
they give you a credit. wich is unlikely too.

Anyway.
Last time I was in with them they would have 9 bidders on a lead.

Here's what it is for snow plow contractors* in one area*.

http://www.servicemagic.com/c.Snow-Removal-Service.Minneapolis.MN.-12067.html

30 contractors?.......


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## Premier (Nov 20, 2007)

we have been using them now for alittle over 2 months, our average weekly cost is around 128.00. I have signed several contracts for snow a rough guess is right around 9000 depending on our season and i have 2 more bids to do tomorrow. 
4 tree jobs 6900
3 mulch deliveries 600
1 top soil deliver and install 350
By my accounts Im coming out on the winning end of things.


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## Pinzgauer (Oct 31, 2007)

9th bidders? I thought the contract says they can only sell a lead to 4 total.


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## Camden (Mar 10, 2007)

SM called today to ask if I could take on some more commercial accounts. I said sure and then when I asked if he knew anything about the accounts (square footage, trigger depth, ect...) he said they didn't have any accounts RIGHT NOW but that they wanted to establish contact with someone in my area in case one of their clients needs snow removal services


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## YPLLLC (Dec 4, 2008)

Although I have never signed with Service Magic, they call me about once a week in the late fall and early spring. I am not a fan because you have to pay to get the leads no matter if you land it or not. I have a buddy who owns a window cleaning and powerwashing business, and he tried them this year and never once got a good lead from them, most of the time he found each potential customer was getting up to 7 phone calls from contractors. He did not land a single job, was charged for all the leads, and basically decided it was a low ballers war and stop using them. Thus I will not be using them as I am not a fan of lowballers. JMO


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## MSS Mow (Mar 19, 2006)

I signed up with them a while back and have gotten a couple solid leads. I can see it working better in an area with fewer contractors. I did struggle to receive a credit for a duplicate lead charge, but after talking with a supervisor, I got the $18 charge reversed.


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## buddy4781 (Oct 24, 2010)

NOT a fan of any on line services like that. I have found that those leads are all price shoppers and not real concerned about service or quality of work. Bottom line for me is they were not profitable leads.


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## LitchfieldCo (Dec 8, 2010)

*Truer words have never bee spoken*



ADBsnowremoval;1082666 said:


> I have not used service magic for snow plowing, but i did use them shortly at the start of my concrete season this year. I found it to be a royal pain in the butt, and charged $$$ for leads that would not even return calls, not to mention there are many other companies getting the same leads. Service magic was not a fair company to due business with IMO, but it may work for others. We have been very busy all year, and are booked through the end of the year with concrete work, but that is from our 39 year history and great reputation. I would not recommend using them. JMO.


We have been a member for years and the same think they send leads to us and when we accept and cannot get them on the phone we still have to pay.... THEY**** BLOW! Use caution.:yow!:


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## CHCSnowman (Nov 11, 2006)

The bad thing about SM is your competition. It would be very easy for them to sit here and put in 5 different addresses in a zip code area that I serve. Then 3 local roofers are going to pay $40-50 each for 5 bogus runs. That can potentially cost each of us $250. 

Then you figure SM in turn, takes them 5 bogus addresses and sell them to other lead services. Them 5 bogus addresses can potentially generate as much as $750 directly for SM........and maybe $1000 or more indirectly, since SM sells the leads to other lead services after 48-72 hours. 

When we were messing with the lead services....SM would send us an address, it would be a dead lead.......then 4-5 months later, we would get a lead to the same address. This led many of us to wonder if the leads were not actual customers, but instead a database that the lead services use to send bogus leads. Who is to say the lead companies are not sending out the bogus leads intentionally??? What a marketing plan huh?

Just something to think about. I personally wouldn't do it. I would go to work for Lowe's or in the case of snow....Brickman or even Craigslist before I would rely on and pay SM.

I do like BidClerk.........but the jobs are very competitive since EVERYONE is free to bid. No snow plowing though.

Best to you all.


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## jenton (Nov 2, 2008)

DONT waist you MONEY.


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## BlazingSun (Oct 17, 2008)

SM may not be the deal for everybody but I will put my opinion in here. First off, YOU decide what services and zip codes you want. You decide your spending level, you decide if you want leads turned off, you decide EVERYTHING with SM. I joined them 3 yrs ago while my wife was going through cancer treatments, didnt have time to advertise so signed with them. I have since used newspapers, fliers, yard signs, yellow pages etc. SM has provided the most leads of all combined. In 3 yrs I have spent just over $4000 with them, and made over $350,000 PROFIT. Yes you get some bogus leads, some don't return calls or emails. Some are tirekickers. I get more exposure from SM then I do anything. As for as getting the jubs, I average about 75% closure rate with them. They only send to 3 of their listed contractors. I have a very diversified company and have signed many "upsells" with leads that SM never gets paid for. As for as one poster stating only lowballers use SM, run your business better and you can bid lower and land more work. I get many jobs from SM where I am not the lowest bidder but have a better presentation. There are no contracts with them. You can stop getting leads at any time you want. Its worth taking a month or two and trying it out to see how it works for your company.


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## tcdodge5000 (Sep 9, 2009)

SO, you only have to compete with 3 other contractors in your specified area. So how come the other contractors are stating that they are up against 5-10 different contractors for each lead and get bogus leads. Also repeat that process for minimizing bogus leads and increasing closure rates.


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## Dr Who (Dec 16, 2010)

they called me twice, was my fault casue I went to there website, just to see what it was all about.

I agree, I am not paying for something that I may not get.

I also had Snow Plowing Plus call me, I tryed them but its the same deal, only you do not have to pay for hte leads but reather you pay them 20% of the job when you complete it. Only problem with them (in this area) is they have a 135.00 minuium, and that is about 100 bucks higher then what alot of people are paying for residental (excluding the low ballers). I have had 2 leads from both of them and they were both just a joke.
I am not going to fool with them anymore either


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## BlazingSun (Oct 17, 2008)

tcdodge5000;1178746 said:


> SO, you only have to compete with 3 other contractors in your specified area. So how come the other contractors are stating that they are up against 5-10 different contractors for each lead and get bogus leads. Also repeat that process for minimizing bogus leads and increasing closure rates.


They have a closed mind about pursueing these leads. Not saying other contractors are stupid, I did the same thing until I changed my insight. about it. I get a text and an email when I get a lead from SM. I call IMMEDIATELY and touch base with them about their project.
A lot of folks will hit several different websites like SM so they in turn have numerous contractors calling them.. I asked all of my leads how many other sites have they signed up with. I asked all of our leads were they hear about us. 
Yes we get some leads that we cant get a hold of, but if the number is bad or address doesnt exist, we request a credit and 99% of the time, receive it.
If you are a small contractor seeking more work, I suggest you try it. If you are a large company, it may not be the best for you.

I asked SM if they sell leads and was told NO so thats the first that I had heard about that.


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## Mick76 (Aug 2, 2009)

reviving this thread for a bit.........

how many of you are advertising strictly for commercial snow removal with service magic? And hows has that turned out for your company? I'm seriously considering signing up them this year. Have you guys gotten alot of calls from NSP's trolling service magic? I just won't want to pay for leads from NSP's...... Any thoughts to the above questions?.....


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## BossPlow614 (May 27, 2009)

I received a call from them a week and a half ago, they left a message but I never got back to them. Wanted to do a little research, and this thread seems to do it.


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## Glenn Lawn Care (Sep 28, 2009)

I used Service Magic a few years ago and I hated them! I got a few jobs from them but most of the leads I got were garbage! And you have to pay for leads even if you don't get the job. I would not recommend them at all!!!!!!! :realmad:


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## R.J.S. SNOWPLOW (Dec 9, 2009)

I lost my contracts due to lowballers
I joined sm and got a lot of good leads from them


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## fsnowguy (Mar 8, 2011)

I can't stand servicemagic


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