“If your havin weed problems I feel bad for you son! I got 99 problems but a weed ain’t one.” – Anonymous

This time of year can be very frustrating for Arizona Landscaping.  In most parts of the state our weather is just warm enough to allow weeds to take over our yards. In a matter of a week we can find half the yard covered with weeds and the yearly battle to control them begins.

There are two basic groups of weeds, those that are grasses and those that are broadleaf and they can be classified as annuals or perennials. Annual weeds grow from seeds. They grow, flower and produce more seeds and die within one season. Perennial weeds can live for several years. The control methods you choose will depend on what type of weed you are dealing with.

Weed Control

Depending on the size of the “weed outbreak” you can choose to either manually remove the weeds or apply applications of herbicides. Should you choose to manually remove the weeds (recommended for smaller jobs), you can accomplish this with sharp hoes, shovels, or hand pulling. If applications of herbicides are to be used, it is important to select one that will target the weed you are dealing with and not harm any surrounding vegetation.

In gravel areas both annual and perennial weeds can be controlled with the application of a post-emergent herbicide. Post-emergent meaning weeds that have already sprouted and are growing. The most common products for this application contain Glyphosate or Glufosinate as active ingredients listed on the label.  These herbicides work by translocating the product through the leaves to the roots where they interfere with the growth process. Both these products are non-selective, meaning they will kill any growing vegetation, both grass and broadleaf.

In lawn areas the best weed control is a healthy lawn. Turf will out-compete most weeds and regular mowing will remove the growing tips of the weeds. Any chemical weed control should be practiced only on well established lawns as newly installed or seeded lawns are often injured by weed control agents. Spot treatment with Glyphosate is effective especially in dormant winter Bermuda lawns.

Pre-emergents work very well in preventing weed seeds from sprouting and work best in gravel areas. Do not use a pre-emergent if you plan to establish a Bermuda grass lawn by seeding. The same is true in the fall if you overseed your hybrid Bermuda or Bermuda grass lawn – it will prevent the winter rye grass seeds from sprouting!   Many pre-emergents are available from your local nursery or home improvement store. Ask the sales staff for assistance if you are unsure which product is a pre-emergent.  Apply twice a year in April for summer weeds and September for control of winter weeds.

Caution: Never use a total vegetation killer that is a soil sterilant. These products kill existing vegetation, persist in the soil for many years and can leach into surrounding areas seriously affecting or killing plants there. If you have an area in your yard where nothing will grow, a soil sterilant like Triox may have been applied there in the past.

Be careful when using products that contain 2-4-D. They are designed to be applied when the temperatures are cool. During most of the year this product volatilizes (turns to a gas) and can cause damage to surrounding vegetation as it drifts through the air.

Remember! Always follow label directions! The average homeowner applies 9 times more chemicals to their property than a farmer does on the same size land. This can be deadly – to plants, pets and humans. The key is to get the weeds under control now and the rest of the year will be cake.

Landscape Design
Beautiful landscaping in the desert? It’s not as hard as it sounds. Many Arizonans don’t realize how easy it is to have a beautiful landscape without water-thirsty grass, trees and shrubs. Instead we opt for rock or cactus gardens – or worse, no landscaping at all. You don’t need a high water bill to maintain a beautiful landscape and with the right landscape design & install you can spend your weekends enjoying your yard instead of pruning and mowing it. Here are a few tips to follow for a beautiful, low maintenance, low-water use landscape design for homes in the Phoenix metro area.

Select plants that are appropriate for your area.
There is a wide variety of beautiful landscaping plants that will easily stand up to our sweltering summers in Phoenix and the ever famous cool winter nights. It’s easy to find plants that are drought tolerant; the challenge is in finding plants that won’t freeze in the winter time or properly placing ones that might. Depending on where you live in Arizona, you’ll need to make sure that your plantings can stand the area’s winter temperatures. It seems counter-intuitive, but even in Phoenix, many low-lying areas get especially cold on freezing winter nights. And many plants that seem to thrive in other parts of town just won’t be able to take below-freezing temperatures in these areas. Keep this in mind when designing your landscaping, if you are not sure contact a local nursery or call a licensed landscaping professional. Local nurseries often have staff on hand to answer questions and help you choose plants that are just right for your area.

Here are some popular low-water use plants that do well in the desert, are heat and cold tolerant, and will give you plenty of foliage and color:

Trees – Sweet Acacia, Shoestring Acacia, Palo Blanco, Desert Museum Palo Verde, Desert Willow, Texas Honey Mesquite, Palo Brea.

Shrubs – Wooly Butterfly Bush, Pink Fairy Duster, Little Leaf Cordia, Hopbush, Turpentine Bush, Texas Ranger, Green Feathery Senna, Mexican Bird of Paradise.

Vines – Lilac Vine, Cat Claw Vine, Carolina Jasmine.

Cacti and Succulents – Purple Prickly Pear, Golden Barrel Cactus, Parry’s Agave, Octopus Agave, Weber’s Agave, Yellow Bulbine, Grass Tree, Cande-lilla, Giant Hesperaloe, Bear Grass

Grasses (careful to only plant non-invasive grasses) – Regal Mist, Deer Grass,

Ground Cover – Trailing Acacia, Gopher Plant, Trailing Rosemary, Gazania, Mexican Primrose.

Perennials – Desert Marigold, all varieties of Penstamon, Paper-flower, Chaparral Sage, Globe Mallow, Autumn Sage

Install an irrigation system
Even if you’re planting low- or no-water use plants, a good multi-zone irrigation system is a must in the desert. A few scorching hot days without rain or water can kill off even the most drought tolerant plants. You spend a lot of money and time installing a great landscape – think of irrigation as a relatively low cost way to protect that investment. Believe it or not, a drip irrigation system is the most efficient way to water your landscape. A slow drip will deep water your plants and minimize evaporation compared to watering with a hose. Also, an irrigation system allows you to control exactly how much water your plants are receiving and make adjustments based on the time of year: less water in the winter, more in the summer. It’s tempting to turn your drip system off in the winter, but it’s important to keep watering during the cold months. Most plants go dormant in the winter, but their root systems continue to grow. Watering in the winter will give you more growth in the spring and will help your plants fend off frost damage.

Think about color
Even if you’ve got a super low-water use rock-and-cactus landscape, you can add lush pops of color with well-planted pots of flowers. And if you like plant, pots give you the opportunity to change out your flowers with the change in season.

Consider artificial grass
The variety of artificial grasses available on the market has grown considerably in recent years, and artificial turf is more realistic and affordable than ever. The advantages are pretty obvious: Artificial grass is low maintenance (no mowing, over-seeding, or fertilizing,) uses no water, stands up to abuse from kids and pets, and is green year-round.

If you still have questions or would like further information we suggest you contact a local professional landscaper. With ServiceJockey.com you can submit one request for Landscape Design & Install quotes and we will match you with four top-rated Phoenix landscapers who will provide you with free information and competitive quotes.  To top it off, we will pay you for simply using our site. That’s right, you can get paid to have companies compete for your business!

Click Here to read the 10 Tips for Hiring a Quality Landscaping Contractor

It has been 5 years since the National and Phoenix housing market crashed, and we are still looking for a sign that it is improving.  While we wait for that elusive sign, we are observing many good friends and colleagues shut down their business which begs the question, how much longer can most of us stay afloat before we find ourselves in the same position? What can we do to give ourselves a fighting chance to survive and put ourselves in the position to thrive once the market improves?  Although the answer to that question may vary for each landscaper, the bottom line is that it is important that you spend your time focusing only on what you can control.  Here is a list 3 critical items we believe you can control and should make your primary focus over the Holidays in order to start 2012 off with a bang. The objective of this strategy is to maximize the number of referrals you will receive and supplement your slow periods with cost effective advertising that guarantees results:

1. Make sure your current clients are happy with your work. Make a courtesy call to all current and past customers to see how things are going, wish them a happy holiday, and at the end of the call let them know that “you are never too busy for any of their referrals.”
2. Set up a very inexpensive automated follow-up/Drip campaign for all current and past customers that will send a card, or Post Card (with your handwriting) 3 to 4 times per year. Consider adding the prospects you spoke to this year that did not turn into new business. Then follow up with these customers to make sure they received each card that “YOU” sent them. With Sendoutcards.com, you can do this for less than $5 per customer per year and they will send you a notification each time a card is sent out to your clients.
3. Phase out OLD SCHOOL advertising methods of advertising such as Radio, TV, Direct mail, and Print advertising. Here’s why? In this economy most cannot afford to risk $800 to $10,000 on Radio, TV or Print advertising with no real guarantee that they will get a positive return on their investment? Replace these sources with a couple reliable companies that can bring prospects to you on a Pay for Performance basis. Pay for Performance advertisers are not difficult to find, but you must make sure that they are honest, they provide good leads, the have great customer service, and you know someone personally that has had a success with them.  3 reliable Pay for Performance companies you can look into are:
   1. ServiceJockey.com: Is based in Mesa AZ Founded in 2009 and is a member of the ALCA (Arizona Landscaping Contractors Association).
   2. ServiceMagic.com: Is based out of Denver Colorado, and is the largest Home Improvement Pay for Performance lead provider.
   3. Constructiondeal.com: is based out of Los Angeles CA and has been around since 2004.

Whether you decide to follow one of the 3 suggestions or all of them it is important that you do what is best for your business. That said; don’t let complacency hold your business back and don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone a little bit or a lot at a time.  Remember that although this is a difficult time to pursue the American Dream it is still possible. As the old saying goes “With nothing ventured nothing is gained”.

You have decided to hire a licensed contractor to complete your Home Improvement or Landscaping project, but you have never hired a licensed contractor before. We have interviewed our Top Rated Service Jockey Phoenix Landscapers and found a number of tips the Arizona Registrar of Contractors recommends when searching for a Licensed Contractor in Phoenix and surrounding areas. We have combined their suggestions into 10 tips that are designed to help guide you through the process of hiring and working with a high quality Phoenix licensed landscaping contractor.

Tip # 1: Only Hire a Licensed Landscaping Contractor!
• Before you set an appointment with an Arizona Landscaping Contractor to give you an estimate, it is important to check the status of their license at www.azroc.gov or call 605-542-1525.
• Make sure to check the status again right before you sign a Contract with a Landscaper.
• According to the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, the State Recovery Fund has a lifetime limit of total payable claims made per Licensed Contractor of $200,000. If a licensed Contractor has reached that limit, any additional claims will be denied. In other words do not hire a contractor that has maxed out their Lifetime limit.
• While checking on the status of each Phoenix landscaping contractor’s license you might want to inquire about any claims that have been made on any of the contractors that are competing for your business.
Tip # 2: Get Multiple Bids from Phoenix Licensed Contractors.
• They should be specifically licensed for the trade related to your project
• Contractors have been known to miss appointments they set to provide estimates. For this reason, schedule at least 4 appointments to get competitive bids.
Tip # 3: Request a List of All Sub-contractors that will be used on your project.
• Make sure they are properly Licensed
• Although Service Jockey pre-screens all of our Phoenix Licensed Contractors, we are unable to check up on each employee and subcontractors they use, therefore consider looking them up on the Sex Offender list as well. Search the Sex Offenders List at http://az.gov/app/sows/home.xhtml
Tip # 4: Get EVERYTHING in Writing!
• In case you have to make a recovery claim or file a judgment against a contractor, having everything in writing will help you recover what you are entitled to.
Tip # 5: Get & Verify References.
• Get at least 3 references from recent jobs from each bidder.
• Review their past work in person.
• After receiving bids you can see the ratings, each contractor has received from prior Service Jockey Customer by logging into your Service Jockey account and viewing the profiles of each contractor.
Tip # 6: Keep Detailed Records.
• Keep a file of all papers relating to the project, including change orders and payment receipts.
Tip # 7: Confirm that All Contractors have Workers’ Compensation Insurance
• If a licensed or unlicensed contractor does not have workers compensation insurance their employees or subcontractors can sue you if they are injured while working on your property.
Tip # 8: Agree on a Pay for Performance Payment Schedule.
• Make the payment schedule based on Work Completed to your agreement/contract (exception pool contracts).
• Don’t make payments ahead of schedule or before work is completed according to your agreement/contract.
Tip # 9: NEVER Pay in Cash!
• Be cautious if asked to make a large down payment
• Be cautious if asked to pay in full prior to the commencement of the project.
• A Contractor will only ask for cash if he/she is trying to avoid paying taxes.
• Cash cannot be easily traced and documented which is needed when filing a claim
Tip # 10: Make Final Payment Only after Final Inspection is Satisfactorily Completed.
• Make sure to have the agreement and change orders with you during the final inspection to make sure you check that everything in the agreement has been done to your satisfaction.
• Do not rush through the Final Inspection. Take your time.

If you follow these suggestions, you should protect yourself from making most of the mistakes that are commonly made by homeowners and get the most out of your investment. In case you find that you have to file a Complaint or Claim with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors or the State Recovery Fund you will find direct links to fill able PDF forms provided on www.azroc.gov.

Arizona Registrar of Contractors Fill able Complaint Form

Arizona Registrar of Contractors Fill able Residential Recovery Fund Claim Form

Find out about the 5 Huge Risks you take when you hire an Unlicensed Contractor

Click here to read 4 Risks of Hiring Unlicensed Contractors

When most of us set out to hire a contractor to complete a home improvement or landscaping project, our primary goal is to stretch our budget as far as possible. If you are anything like me, to stretch your budget you probably struggle with the idea of cutting some corners such as hiring an unlicensed contractor to complete the work for you. More often than not, an unlicensed contractor will be cheaper than a licensed contractor, however hiring an unlicensed contractor comes with a tremendous downside. Here are the four most notable risks you assume when hiring and unlicensed contractor that one should consider:

Risk # 1: By Hiring a person who is Unlicensed or has a Suspended or Terminated License on the date your sign the contract, you forfeit your right to make a claim to the Arizona State Recovery Fund in the case you are ripped off, the agreed upon work is not completed and the person you hired is missing in action, or the person files for bankruptcy. The Recovery Fund will pay an eligible person up to $30,000 per residence.

Risk # 2: If the person you hire is unlicensed, they most likely do not have Workers Compensation or Liability Insurance. If they are injured while working on your property, they can sue you for their injury and force you to pay for the medical bills, loss of income, and pain and suffering.

Risk # 3: If the Unlicensed person you hire also happens to be in the country illegally, you could be fined up to $2,000 for hiring each undocumented worker. Licensed Contractors are very sensitive about losing work to unlicensed and undocumented workers so the risk of you being reported is much higher than you think.

Risk # 4: The most common risk you will be taking by hiring an unlicensed contractor has to do with the quality and warrant ability of the work they completed. More often than not, people who hire an unlicensed contractor to complete skilled Home Improvement and Landscaping Projects end up having to hire a licensed contractor to come in and fix the work the unlicensed person did Costing way more than had they just hired a licensed Contractor in the first place.

In this economy, the temptation to hire an unlicensed contractor to complete your Home Improvement or Landscaping project is greater than ever. At the same time if it turns you are not satisfied with the way the project turned out after hiring an unlicensed contractor, your pockets are not as deep which may prevent you from being able to hire a licensed contractor to do the job the right way. Therefore, your best option is to hire a licensed contractor even if it costs you more money.

How Businesses Make Money off of the Trust of Consumers.

The Lead Generation Industry

The internet lead generation business essentially began in 1998 with the launch of LendingTree and GetSmart. The purported intent of these companies was to aid consumers in obtaining free quotes and lower rates by having service providers compete in reverse auctions. Their primary function, however, is the sale of personally identifiable information to vendors who use the information to contact individuals. The industry saw considerable success and soon spawned several similar companies, including RealEstate.com, ServiceMagic, and LowerMyBills.

These profiteers of personally identifiable information make a great deal of money too. The average price for a mailing address or phone number is two to thirty cents per contact. As for emails, most lead companies do not sell email contacts directly, but rather they retain email contacts and rent them per email transmission at 45 cents per email, allowing them to make even larger profits. That may sound like lemonade stand money, but considering they sell 250 to 100,000 contacts at a time, they are making enormous profits. Just consider: last year Infogroup boasted revenue of $500 million, Hoover’s revenue last year was $88.7 million, and Experian pulled in revenue upwards of $3.88 billion!

Spam

Spam is the use of internet media to send bulk messages indiscriminately. Spam can appear in email, instant messaging, search engines, wikis, internet forums, social networking sites, and many other internet outlets. Cisco Systems reports that 6.6 trillion spam messages were disseminated in 2009. Spam is often used to spread pornography, computer viruses, Trojan horses, and other malware, to enact phishing schemes, Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, and to commit fraud and identity theft.

The typical click-through for spam is less than .1%, meaning the conversion rate for spam is well below .1%. Despite the drastically low conversion rate, spam persists largely because of the extremely low investment, which, for the spammer, is generally next to nothing. The cost is borne instead by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), search engines, and the internet community in terms of bandwidth, anti-spam filters, memory usage, loss of productivity, and loss of time, all of which eventually cost someone other than the spammer money.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing is a form of direct marketing involving a salesperson, often referred to as a representative or associate, or a recording soliciting a prospective customer to purchase products or services via telephone. Chances are you have experienced telemarketing, and you may have found it irritating or annoying. Business-to-consumer telemarketing has garnered serious criticism and legal attention for annoyance, invasion of privacy, and use of deceptive tactics.

Rules and Laws

While spamming remains largely unlegislated and unregulated, most ISPs have terms of use policies that specifically prohibit many forms of spam. Nonetheless, enforcement of these rules is difficult and has led to a software “arms race” between ISPs and search engines on the one side and spammers on the other. It is also worth mentioning that, while spamming is not inherently illegal, many of the activities related to spamming are punishable by law.

It remains unclear whether or not telemarketing is legal in the United States; many argue that it is an illegal invasion of privacy. Congress has passed several laws and acts that limit the scope of telemarketing. These laws are enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Two of the major initiatives to help limit telemarketers are the Telephone Consumer Protection act of 1991, an amendment of the Communications Act of 1934 and the national Do Not Call Registry.

According to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act:

• Solicitors may not call residences before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m local time.
• Solicitors must maintain and honor a “Do Not Call” list.
• Solicitation calls cannot be made to cell phones or residential lines with artificial voices or recordings

National Do Not Call Registry stipulates:

• A person may receive calls from companies with which they have had an existing business relationship, unless the person asks specifically that the company not call again.
• A person may receive calls from a non-profit organization
• A person may receive survey calls
• A person may receive calls from bill collectors

The Economic Report of the President shows that the National Do Not Call Registry has been extremely popular, with 72% of Americans registered on the list. In an effort to circumvent these laws, acts, and initiatives, however, many companies make non-profit survey calls and request permission to conduct a follow up, which results in a solicitation call.

What You Can Do

• Join the National Do Not Call Registry by calling 1-888-382-1222
• Never supply your personally identifiable information to a company that does not expressly state how your information will be used
• Never supply your information to a company you are not certain you can trust.
• Do not participate in surveys administered by institutions you do not know or do not trust
• Visit the FBI’s webpage on avoiding common fraud schemes http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud
• Use common sense

The incredible travels of one quote request

If you have completed an online form in order to request a particular service, you have probably wittingly or unwittingly provided third-party companies with your personally identifiable information (PII).

Here’s how it works. When a lead generation website, such as LowerMyBills, LendingTree, or Service Magic, offers free, competitive quote services, they will require you to complete a form that asks for personally identifiable information in order to provide their services. When you complete the form and submit your information, the company stores that information in their databases. They then fulfill their obligation to provide their promised service by selling your personally identifiable information to companies directly related to the product or service you wanted. You are then contacted by these companies, and they make offers for their products or services. Thus, the lead is generated, and the service request is fulfilled.

In the interest of making money, however, companies rarely stop there. Once your information has been compiled, stored, and processed, it is then typically sold to third-party companies. These third-party companies collect data on millions of users, and then make their money by reselling that information as sales leads.

Some of the major players in the business of buying and selling personally identifiable information are Sales Genie (a part of the larger Infogroup, Inc.), Experian (one of the three major credit bureaux), and Hoover’s (a Dun & Bradstreet company). According to their corporate website, Hoover’s controls information on over 85 million individuals, along with information on an even larger number of corporations and other entities. As one of the three major credit bureaux, Experian owns information on an even greater number of individuals, and they combine the information you provide with information they have amalgamated from assessing credit. Sales Genie is a member of the data, research, and marketing company Infogroup, Inc. who controls information on a staggering 220 million consumers. To place that figure into perspective: that is almost three-fourths of the total population of the United States. Infogroup also has third-party licensing agreements with most of the major search engines, including Yahoo!, AOL, Google, and Ask.

On their website, Hoover’s consistently refers to your personally identifiable information as “proprietary business information.” That terminology may seem like some fancy obfuscation (and it is), but it is an important and telling phrase that reveals the overall attitude regarding personally identifiable information within the lead generation industry. Proprietary means privately owned and controlled; hence your personally identifiable information is no longer yours once you have submitted it. These companies assume ownership, and as owners of valuable information, they will sell it.

And sell it, and sell it. And sell it some more. The next phase in the lead generation process is the wholesale of lead information to other marketing, sales, and business development companies. These companies can buy consumers’ mailing addresses and phone numbers à la carte, or they can subscribe to a lead service on a monthly basis. Because these companies receive discounts for buying information in bulk, subscription is the more common option. Email lists are generally not sold to third-party vendors, but rather rented to vendors per email. Typically, a vendor has contracts with various websites that have large subscriber bases or customer listservs. When consumers opt into a listserv for promotional offers and news updates from a company and also opt into being contacted by affiliates, then companies can rent their email addresses to vendors, who masquerade as affiliates of the company.

The next phase in this sordid exchange of information is perhaps the most nefarious. The third-party companies that purchase, rent, or subscribe to leads will follow their leads by attempting to contact these them. To a discerning web user, it soon becomes quite apparent that their information has been disclosed to third-party vendors. The junk and/or spam email filter is quickly bombarded with blast emails advertising credit card offers, weight loss solutions, pornography, and a wide array of other scams and schemes that usually bear little relevance to the product or service originally requested. Because the lead generation websites also collect and sell your physical address and cell phone number, email is not the only medium these third-parties will use either. You can also expect a spike in traditional junk mail and telemarketers. The number of times you are contacted by third-party companies is essentially limited only by the number of times the lead generation and marketing companies decide to resell your information.
When a consumer asks why they are being contacted or how their information was obtain, third-party vendors typically respond by saying the original lead generator provided them with the information in order to fulfill a service request. Often times, they mention that they are one of the lead generator’s preferred service providers, or that they are an affiliate or sister company of the lead generator, when they typically are not.

The ultimate question that arises from an analysis of the lead generation process is where the consumer is actually benefitted. In other words, is the service valuable and worthwhile to the consumer, or is it simply an elaborate scheme to obtain and monetize consumers’ information? The truth is that the rates the consumer receives are still typically near market value, because the entire process is under heavy control by the lead generator and its interested affiliates. Given the nuisance of being contacted by solicitors and receiving spam, as well as the dangers of having your personally identifiable information compromised, it is difficult to see much value at all in these free, competitive quote services.

There is, however, an alternative. ServiceJockey was created with consumer privacy in mind. This concern for consumer privacy is why ServiceJockey has taken innovative steps to ensure the safety and privacy of consumer information. The ServiceJockey.com website is fully encrypted, and all servers are stored within the United States. User information is shared only after a user completes a quote request. If ServiceJockey should ever need to access a user’s personal data outside of the normal process of connecting the consumer to local-area service professionals, the user will be asked for permission, and ServiceJockey’s intentions will be disclosed fully. The best part: when consumers use ServiceJockey to complete quote requests for the services they need, ServiceJockey reimburses the consumer with a portion of the money made from generating their lead, effectively undercutting other lead generators’ stronghold on the lead information marketplace and empowering the consumer with control over their personally identifiable information.

Each time an end user submits any personal information to a website, they are entrusting that website with highly sensitive information.The unfortunate reality, however, is that not all websites that seek user information are trustworthy. Many of these websites abuse the trust of end users by reselling their information to third parties.

What do the lead generation websites do with a user’s information?

The majority of the lead generation websites gather an end user’s information, known as personally identifiable information (PII), every time that a user requests any additional information from a website or banner add as well as any time that a user completes a quote request form. In the process of requesting additional information or requesting a quote, these websites generate a “lead.” This lead indicates an interest in a particular product or service.

These lead generation websites then sell the information they have gathered on the end user in the form of a lead to companies that provide the goods or services in which the end user has expressed an interest. On average, these leads are sold for between $10 and $70 dollars, most of which is profit. This is a considerable amount of money to be made from an end user’s personal information.

How many times does a user’s information change hands?

A lead generation company is primarily concerned with monetizing (i.e. making money) off a user’s lead information. For this reason, the lead generation company will store your information as long as they can, and it is feasible for them to hold your information indefinitely. At the same time, they will disclose your lead information to any company seeking leads for their business. If a lead generation company is unsatisfied with the amount of money they have made from those transactions, they may then sell the information to a third party marketing company, which will then redistribute that information again in the interest of monetization. The theoretical amount of times that a user’s information could change hands is unlimited.

How easy is it to purchase a user’s information?

It is alarmingly easy to purchase a user’s information. Some companies screen to whom they sell, but most sell indiscriminately to any buyer. There are hundreds of companies waiting to purchase verified email addresses, home addresses, and phone numbers. These companies range from magazine subscription companies and credit card companies to scams and pornographic sites. Moreover, there is software available that makes it easy for companies to store user data and redistribute it as they see fit.

Risks to consumers

If the user is not particularly cautious, then the risk of phishing schemes becomes increasingly high. Phishing is a nefarious and unlawful method of obtaining personally identifiable information, passwords, and credit card information by impersonating a reliable, trustworthy entity. Often, phishing schemes prompt a user to transfer money on a dummy website that appears in the form of a trusted website. Phishers specifically target people who use social networking sites, online banking, online brokerage, and online financial services, such as LendingTree and LowerMyBills, because these people presumably have a disposable income and are actively seeking to transfer money. While the risk of being phished utilizing a reputable lead generation website is relatively low, the websites that may contact a user via that lead generation website may have lower security standards (or none at all), and the risk of a phishing scheme increases. Thus, the risk of a phishing scheme drastically increases each time a lead generation website discloses information to a third party. Phishing is a major cause of denial of access, identity theft, and financial loss to internet users, and is one of the highest safety concerns on the internet.

Risk to user’s computer (viruses from spam)

The initial lead transactions are a low-risk concern for end users, but, as with phishing scams, the more a user’s information is distributed, the greater the risk of computer viruses becomes. As your personally identifiable information trickles through from lead generator to service provider to third parties, your system is increasingly put at risk. By the time your information has been sold to third parties, there is no control or accountability over who is contacting you. At that point, it is highly likely that you are being contacted by companies whose emails unknowingly contain viruses as well as many companies that intentionally disseminate viruses. Even with an advanced spam or junk filter, many of these viruses can still get through to your inbox because of the sophistication of these email viruses. Because email advertisements are increasingly graphic based rather than text based, and because the code lines in graphic files are more complex than text files, viruses are easier to write and embed in files. These conditions all spell a greater risk for the end user.

Part 3 of 3

Over the past decade, there has been a steady rise in comparison shopping websites that have garnered a lot of attention, both good and bad. These sites seek to amalgamate online lenders and vendors into marketplaces where consumers can quickly receive quotes and compare rates on a variety of goods and services, in particular, loans, refinancing, and home improvement services. These websites prompt end users to complete online forms that ask for information necessary to provide a quote and then sell the information gathered in those forms to service providers in the form of a sales lead. The end user is then contacted by the service providers, who provide the end user with quotes on various goods and service in which the user expressed an interest. Within the business world, this process is often referred to as “lead generation.”

We wrap up our three part series by taking a look into the business practices of ServiceMagic.

ServiceMagic

Headquartered in Golden, Colorado, ServiceMagic is owned by the internet conglomerate InterActiveCorp (IAC) (NASDAQ: IACI), which also owns ask.com, match.com, OkCupid, Urbanspoon, College Humor, Busted Tees, dictionary.com, and several other prominent websites. ServiceMagic also has partnered their website with Expedia.com, GetSmart.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, and RealEstate.com, all of which are brands of the aforementioned Tree.com parent company.

How much of a service does ServiceMagic actually provide?

ServiceMagic boasts a network of over “80,000 customer-rated service pros” that are amassed to compete for you business like LendingTree and LowerMyBills, however, ServiceMagic sends requests to only four service providers in a highly controlled reverse auction. ServiceMagic claims that their service saves users time and stress, yet with the amount of junk email, junk mail, and solicitation calls their service generates, how much time is actually being saved? ServiceMagic also has a bad record of generating less than four quotes and sometimes generating only one quote. Obviously, there is not a great deal of competition in one quote.

If ServiceMagic cannot guarantee the competitiveness of their quotes, the ease of their service, or the quality of their service providers, then what is so magical about ServiceMagic’s services?

How many times is a user’s information sold?

As with the other members of the Big Three, ServiceMagic retains the rights to any information you supply them, and they make no promises that they will not distribute your personally identifiable information. Having said that, there is no real limit on how many time a user’s information can be disclosed.

Deceptive practices

In addition to advertising deceptive rates like the other members of the Big Three, ServiceMagic also deceptively advertises that their service providers are pre-screened. While it is true that they screen their service providers, it is largely an advertising stunt. They check merely for minimum accreditation, licensure, and other credentials, meaning they screen out only the service providers that are entirely unqualified to perform any services.

Lack of accountability

There are several things to keep in mind with ServiceMagic:

• The companies to which ServiceMagic sells a user’s information (often called clients, partners, or affiliates) are permitted to maintain that information whether that user elects to use the clients’ services or not.
• The user has effectively provided “written instructions” in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for the company to access the user’s credit report and credit score, expressly for the purpose of matching the user with credit card offers, simply by submitting a quote request.
• The user has released and remised the company and any of its partners from rights, claims, complaints, demands, causes of action, legal proceedings, liabilities, obligations, legal fees, costs, and disbursements which may arise from use of the service
• The user acknowledges, consents, and agrees that the company may access, preserve, and disclose the information collected as the company deems necessary

Again, there is little to no recourse or accountability according to ServiceMagic’s terms of use.

Part 2 of 3

Over the past decade, there has been a steady rise in comparison shopping websites that have garnered a lot of attention, both good and bad. These sites seek to amalgamate online lenders and vendors into marketplaces where consumers can quickly receive quotes and compare rates on a variety of goods and services, in particular, loans, refinancing, and home improvement services. These websites prompt end users to complete online forms that ask for information necessary to provide a quote and then sell the information gathered in those forms to service providers in the form of a sales lead. The end user is then contacted by the service providers, who provide the end user with quotes on various goods and service in which the user expressed an interest. Within the business world, this process is often referred to as “lead generation.”

Today we continue our three part series by taking a deeper look at LowerMy Bills.com.

LowerMyBills.com

LowerMyBills.com is a website owned by the global credit information group Experian plc., one of the three major credit bureaux. To many, LowerMyBills is most immediately recognizable through their highly successful advertisement campaign, which features oddball images, such as prancing cowboys and dogs in goggles, which are largely unrelated to refinancing, but which have nonetheless generated some of the highest web traffic on the internet. According to the New York Times Media & Advertising blog reports that LowerMyBills is one of the most prevalent advertisers on the internet, spending $74.6 million.[1]

How much of a service does LowerMyBills actually provide?

LowerMyBills functions much like any lead generation website; they make money generating leads by offering competitive quotes. Like the other members of the Big Three, LowerMyBills does generate leads and link consumers with lenders who provide quotes. The catch with LowerMyBills, however, is that they provide advertisement links featuring low refinance rates that link not to lenders but rather to other lead generation sites. This tactic allows LowerMyBills to make money from the sale of leads and from click through advertising without actually providing real quotes. The question that begs answering, of course, is: how much of a service does LowerMyBills even provide?

How many times is a user’s information sold?

According to the London Times, LowerMyBills’s parent company, Experian, has amassed geographic, demographic, and credit information on over 450 million consumers, 130 million households, and 30 million businesses throughout the world.[2] Experian maintains this data as part of their credit reporting services. What else they do with the information is relatively unknown, although most companies attempt to make as much money as possible from lead information, meaning that they will sell it to multiple third-party marketing companies who in turn sell that information to other lenders or lead generation sites. Moreover, the information they gather could feasibly be stored indefinitely, making the entire cycle theoretically endless.

Deceptive practices

Each of the Big Three has been criticized for advertising deceptively low rates that are nearly impossible to guarantee or even provide most consumers, but LowerMyBills is perhaps the king of advertising deceptive rates. In addition to featuring dancing cowboys, goggle-eyed dogs, and airbrushed models, LowerMyBills’ advertisements also prominently display unbelievably low refinance rates. Sometimes these rates are well below the market rate. These uncommonly low rates often attract users to fill out requests, thus earning money for LowerMyBills. Lenders then contact the user and provide quotes that are much closer to market value. Thus, consumers are deceived into believing that they are getting the best rate possible, when, in reality, they are getting rates that are close to or above market value.

Lack of accountability

Unlike other members of the Big Three, LowerMyBills does not provide a phone or hotline number on their website, making it effectively impossible to opt out of their email, mail, and phone lists. This provision, or lack thereof, ensures that LowerMyBills can continue to disseminate your information as they deem appropriate or necessary without subjecting themselves to any accountability.

[2] http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/support_services/article6736684.ece