Power of the Internet - Against Contractors

[Dick Seibert]

A couple of years ago many here remember the campaign of a man building a straw bale house against Kolbe & Kolbe windows, he called himself "Fighter" on these fora. He built a website attacking Kolbe & Kolbe and eventually settled his claim, his settlement included cash (an amount larger than the cost of the windows and the replacement of them) and an agreement to take down his website along with a standard non-disclosure agreement. In the current issue of Remodeling Magazine there is an article by Sal Alfano about a website attacking Pacesetters, a large window replacement company, I was surprised to read that the website actually precipitated the bankruptcy of Pacesetter, I thought that Kolbe & Kolbe was overreacting to Fighter's website, but I guess not.

As it happens, thousands of people were not only listening but telling Pacesetter horror stories of their own. Soon, PacesetterSucks.com rose to the top of the search engine heap. (It still shows up as the first unsponsored link in a Google search for “Pacesetter windows.”)

When the Inneses signed their contract with Pacesetter in 2002, the company had been in business for 40 years and had about 1,500 employees; three years later, Pacesetter filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. While that may have protected the company from creditors, it didn't stop the Inneses, whose Web site continues to track the business dealings of former Pacesetter owners and top management. (Read the whole story in “Pacesetter's Perfect Storm,” a July/August 2006 feature story at www.replacementcontractor.com.)

I relate this story not just because anyone can start a Web site like PacesetterSucks.com, but because these days nobody has to. Contractor-rating Web sites are already big business. All a homeowner has to do is log on to a site such as www.angieslist.com, and they can learn everything they need to know about your company's performance record — not from the firm's marketing department but from the people whose opinion matters most to potential customers: your past customers.*

Here is a link to the PaceSettersucks website, all I can say is that contractors better keep clients happy, especially those who can build a website at little or no cost, this power isn't just limited to aggrieved new tract home buyers, and you can't get liable damages form someone telling the truth.


* http://www.remodeling.hw.net/industr...ticleID=680836

[Allan Edwards]

Joe always mentions this in his seminars, I think he uses the example of KB Homes Suck as the example. You're right everything is out there now. In Texas, every builder and remodeler has to register every house, and any complaints are public record. I checked Perry Homes and Weekley Homes, each had over 11,000 homes registered with no complaints! I find that amazing, I don't think the public is that aware of the TRCC in Texas.

https://www.trcc.state.tx.us/(1rcdx2...ID=4745&type=B

https://www.trcc.state.tx.us/(1rcdx2...ID=1638&type=B

This is public record. As are bankruptcies, liens, lawsuits, loans, deed transfers, etc.

[jstoddard]

Right on Dick - The web is the great equalizer... nobody can hoard information, and everyone can publish to a global audience, in near-real time, from anywhere they happen to be and from almost any gizmo you can think of, including their cell phone. At his GenY panel, Scott Jagoe pointed out that kids today text with their phones still in their pockets - they can publish to their blog just as easily.

I talk a lot about this in my presentations, because frankly - builders and remodelers aren't getting it, and 'experts' in the industry who should be embracing it and teaching it aren't getting it either.... and are either still dismissive of the Internet in general, or just plain ignorant about it - meaning they haven't done their homework and should be listening and learning, not talking. At the last NAHB board meeting I attended, a fairly powerful volume builder got up and did a rant on how he and his company was "really focused on technology" in one breath... but "I've never been on Google or Wiki-Blog-whatever and never intend to" on the other. Right.

JLS