Here is an example of what you don’t want to do in customer service for your Clients. Let me tell you an experience I had over the weekend.

Recently I signed up for AT&T U-verse service to replace my Cox cable.  This was against my better judgement but the recent installation of fiber optic into my building was too tempting.  I ordered the service, a very nice installation technician came by and installed my service, explained everything, and even set up my remote controls.

I was impressed when the technician handed me a card with his personal cell phone number to call if I had any issues with U-verse.  Wow, I told him,  ”AT&T has really changed, what a breath of fresh air.”

Fast forward when I get a letter from AT&T asking me why I had not paid my bill.  Not ever getting a bill I was surprised.

The notice was not too pleasant and informed me if I did not pay by a certain date my service would be disconnected.

Fair enough, I knew it would take some time to set up an account for auto payment so I put the bill aside until this last Sunday when I had time to work on it.  From previous experience I know it would take an hour or better with AT&T.

So first thing on Sunday morning I called the number on the letter and it was answered by a rather smooth talking computer.  After 1o minutes of working through the phone tree I got down to where the system asked for the last 4 digits of my social security number.

Now keep in mind I know my social security number, and yet after 3 or 4 tries I was informed the entered number was not my SS#.  Repeated attempts to get to a live operator failed and I was at a dead-end on a Sunday morning.  I hung up in frustration.

No worries I thought, I will just go on-line and set up an account to pay the bill.  Going on-line I went to the website suggested and started to fill out the required information.  Asking to establish my  AT&T access ID I put in my e-mail address – jeff@jeffreydouglass.com, entered a strong password and pressed the enter key ….

What the heck?

The system returned “the access ID contains profane text”.  Several more tries resulted in the same warning so I tried several other e-mail address’ before one seemed  acceptable to the system.  Note that the instructions state that I can use numbers, periods, (,), hyphens (.) or at symbols (@).

Here is what I get back….

Mind you I am in San Diego in my office – not Istanbul.

I’m frustrated at this point not being able to pay the bill via telephone or on-line and decide that AT&T must monitor the social media channels, and maybe I can get some help from them.  I tweeted out a series of tweets in total expecting some help.

Having enough I go about my day certain that someone from AT&T will reach out and help.  Unfortunately no one replied, called, or sent me an e-mail.

Monday came and I never had a chance to make another call to AT&T.

Tuesday morning I got up, had several strong cups of coffee and dialed AT&T.

When I inquired as to why I did not get a regular bill she told me it was mailed to me.  Since I don’t delete e-mails I searched my archive and found only 3 e-mails from them, none of them a bill.

I paid the bill over the phone and got the confirmation.

Everything was fine until she told me that I would now have to pay a reconnection fee since the service was terminated.  I explained to her that had spent several hours on Sunday morning doing everything I could to pay the bill and all of the problems that I had.

She suggested that I should have gone to a local AT&T store to pay with my credit card.  I suggested that perhaps I should be able to pay on-line as I have for my AT&T cell bill for the last 3 years.

The representative curtly told me there was nothing much she could do, but if I faxed her the screen shots of my “profane e-mail” and out of the US ISP, she might be able to do something.

She informed me that the screen shots would have to be dated, so I could prove I was trying to pay the bill prior to the cut off date.  I informed her that my screen shots did not have the date attached, but why in the world would it matter, clearly I was trying to pay the bill, and now I am a liar too.

At this point I asked for a supervisor, and after another 5 minute wait another representative came on the line.  I explained the situation and why I felt the service termination was undue.

“Well Mr. Douglass, you should have paid this bill long ago and not wait to the last-minute.  What is it you want me to do at this point?”  You understand that if I waive the $30.00 termination fee, YOU will be charged the next time your late without any recourse!” (You Deadbeat).

Anyway, since I have no TV tonight I thought I would post what I consider to be a total failure of customer service!  Shame on you AT&T for treating your customers like cheats, liars, and deadbeats.

PS – I pay my bills on time and this was a series of unfortunate occurrences that led to this very unpleasant experience.

Trulia announces changes to save broker relationships.

Yesterday, Trulia CEO Pete Flint announced some ‘broker friendly” changes on their corporate blog.  You can view and see the entire Trulia post here.

The listing syndication discussion will find anything from the extreme listing syndicators need to be wiped off the face of the earth, they need to pay for data, or they are saving organized real estate.  As usual, somewhere in the middle of the spectrum lies the solution for all.

The two lighting rods of the listing syndication discussion are Zillow and Trulia.

A recent search of Downtown San Diego real estate turned up “602 listings” on Trulia while our regional MLS reported 170. Much of the inaccuracy comes from multiple input sources, contingency status, and the egregious practice of calling a “distressed property” a listing.  There is a white paper attached to this post for further information.

In a nutshell these are the areas that Pete Flint said are going to change.

1. They will be enhancing the listing agent and listing brokerage on every listing on Trulia.  This is where most of the controversy comes from the real estate industry that are listing agents.  The complaint has been the consumer was not able to clearly identify who the listing agent and brokerages is, left to fall victim to some buyer’s agent.  Interesting enough, most IDX solutions do not list the listing agent or brokerages prominently - so I am certain we will see more of the “only the listing agent/brokerages, can truly represent the Seller conversation.
2. For those agents and brokerages that feature listings (pay for placement) Trulia will remove competing agent or broker information.  Again ties in with the concerns in number one.
3. Perhaps the most important in my mind for the real estate consumer is data accuracy.

We will enhance listing management and claiming processes to improve accuracy of the listings we display. It has always been our goal to display the most accurate listings information to home buyers and sellers. That said, as you know, data accuracy is a complex challenge due to the fragmented nature of the real estate industry’s data management systems. This challenge is not unique to Trulia, and we continue to invest significant resources towards developing effective solutions, but we need your assistance. Our interests are fully aligned with yours on this subject; data accuracy is a shared responsibility we need to solve together. We ask for your help and support, and are committed to continue to work with the industry to improve data quality on all levels.

The data accuracy is pretty simple to solve by using a syndicator, but that will cost them.

The most disappointing thing about this is no mention of calling a property that has a NOD filed a listing to exaggerate the actual properties that are so sale.  I am working on a video of this unfortunate practice which will be posted soon.

Hats off to Trulia to at least opening the discussion. I will be checking back to see if accuracy has improved.

Moving from a revenue source that sold agents that wanted to appears on listing searches, to one relying on the listing broker or agent playing ball will be a risky one.

Photo courtesy of Collin Harvey via Flickr

Watch this interesting video from Jack Miller of Goodlife Team regarding Trulia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K5aNS6F24I

“In 2011, 3 of 4 homes we sold were on the market for half the time of our competitors or better and our typical home Seller walked away with $9,857 more money in their pockets than if they worked with someone in another company”.

The underlaying statement is that only Goodlife can respond to buyer’s inquiries on their listings.

I respect everyones right to make their decision in business and the GoodLife team is well known for excellent client service.

I’m concerned that too many real estate folks are trying to put the cat back into the bag and moving away from the consumer  choice of whom they want to represent them.  Secondly the cooperative nature of the industry working together as listing and selling agents, and insisting where the consumer goes for a home search.

If I were a buyer that heard the Seller made over $9,800 more by working with the listing agent I would ask how that benefits them?

Great for the Seller, not so good for the home buying consumer.

Cleaning up some of Trulia and Zillow deceptive or questionable business practices and using reliable syndication feeds will much better serve the consumer than forcing them to call the listing agent.

A few weeks ago I read a post stating how much time they  wasted watching their Roomba robot vacuüm worked.  Fixated on a large dust bunny in the middle of the floor and hour was spent on the couch watching the Roomba missing the obvious need to cleanup that one spot.

Zillow uses an automated market value estimate known as a Zestimate.  While amusing, the computer algorithms that produce these values have little to do with the real world, yet they are fun to watch.  Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy and while amusing, I’m not sure of any value it has brought to the real estate space.

What is my point?

Over the last several months I’ve written articles on the inaccuracy of both Zillow and Trulia.  For instance in a recent search for real estate for sale in San Diego’s 92101, Sandcor MLS found 170 homes Zillow 368, and Trulia 602!

Today I had a lunch with some respected social media contacts and the discussion led to the lack of open discussion about these inaccuracies or why it should be important.  It seems that many of the voices have disappeared from the discussion, leaving the real estate consumer trying to search for a home using a blind robot.

Come on Zillow and Trulia, let’s have some consumer and industry outreach to show us that you really give a damn about accuracy, or is it just about trapping the home buyer in to paying for a foreclosure search or connected them with the “neighborhood expert” who’s only real qualification is the credit card he used to buy the zip code.

Not enough open discussion is going on about this important issue.

Photo courtesy of Chris Bartle via Flickr

More news today that Todd Carpenter is joining Trulia from AGBeat.  Todd was  with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) as Director of Digital Engagement.

AGBeat has confirmed that Todd Carpenter, National Association of Realtors’ Director of Digital Engagement has accepted a position at real estate search giant, Trulia. Carpenter is the first to have been in the Digital Engagement role, and as he leaves, it is unclear as to whether or not the position will remain within the trade organization.

 Carpenter’s new title will be the Senior Management Industry Engagement and he will be starting toward the end of the month. A Trulia spokesperson told AGBeat that Carpenter “will be an industry voice” and that the company plans on putting him front and center as he engages the real estate industry.

I recently did an analysis of how inaccurate both Zillow and Trulia were on listing counts and the bait and switch of using foreclosure companies to boost listings, you can check out the article Searching For A San Diego Home.  While Zillow has been the lighting rod for most of the 3rd party syndication sites, Trulia is far worse in accuracy and transparency for the real estate consumer and returned 602 listings in downtown San Diego, while our MLS reported 170.

Both Zillow and Trulia have snapped up well-known voices in the real estate space.  What is really interesting is the dialog has fallen silent with little coming from Jay Thompson or Bob Bemis.  I think this is more about keeping the noise down than actually wanting to improve accuracy or change the fact they want to dominate the real estate space.

While I started out on the side of free enterprise and competition after the announcement made by Jim Abott, taking a closer look at the issues has turned up some pretty dark agendas at foot.  I wrote a followup post after taking a closer look at the issue where Jim has some good points.

I believe that both Jay Thompson and Todd Carpenter won’t be able to put up with the agenda or be silenced.  My hope is they will make some difference, but I truly believe this is about removing the thinkers from the conversation.

Not a good thing.

Photo courtesy of Roger Price via Flickr

San Diego, CA. For Immediate Release April 1, 2012.

RealtyV2 is announcing today in response to all the crazy real estate models, the 150% commission plan. Unheard of in the carrot and stick mentality of all the clueless real estate agents searching for something to0 good to be true.

The 100% models are rushing to up the anty in the war for the most real estate agents.  Legacy models ready for more heavy financial loss.

Instead of the associate being paid a portion of the commission due to the Broker, RealtyV2 will actually pay 1 and one half times the commission or 150%.  In addition, errors and omission insurance provided free of charge through Lloyds of London, every associate will get a free iPad3 with an unlimited data plan, an iPhone and Android.  Free BMW’s will be available for Client relationships, an in-house attorney for legal help, and a full-time massage department.

Additional benefits will include complementary health and dental plan from Sharp Medical, paid Sandicor and Board Dues, and a $500.00 per month marketing allowance.

The company is also in negotiations to buy Zillow and Trulia to promote all associates listings for free.

Associates that sign up today will also get a free world-wide trip around the world on the first class luxury liner “Ship of Dreams”.

Last year RealtyV2 announced the very successful Really Crappy House Division.  Our goal this year to is hire over 600 clueless real estate agents that actually believe that everything should be free and provided to them and the brokerage should not have anything.

Jeffrey Douglass says he expects to hear from associates from all major brokerages as they finally have a viable option.

Photo courtesy of Flicrk

Speaking with colleagues in the industry reveals the collective belief that the industry has survived  the disruptive forces of change.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

My friends over at 1000 Watt think otherwise, and I’m inclined to believe their assessment of where we are in the shift.  Check out the great graphic and article.

The industry has yet to be truly disrupted.

You may be incredulous. But consider that the real estate brokerage model is fundamentally the same as it was in 1995, commissions haven’t moved much, and there are in fact more Realtors today than there were back in the mid-nineties.

 Innovation, certainly. Disruption… not yet.

Not unlike a rollar coaster ride, we’ve made it through the start of the journey, a few quick climbs and drops, but just around the corner lays the upside down track.  Hold on!

Surprising news today as it was announced that Jay Thompson will be joining Zillow as the Director of Industry Outreach and Social Media.  The announcement on The Phoenix Real Estate Guy by Jay had this to say.

Believe me, I know what some agents think of Zillow. I got yelled at on the NAR Annual trade show floor for wearing a Zillow t-shirt (which BTW is too small now. Wonder if I can get a new one? Or a hoodie!). Granted, I have freely admitted that I don’t fully understand the fear of Zillow some seem to have (I wrote this almost five years ago. And this, over five years ago). I think it’s mostly the unknown. Or the misunderstood. So what say we try to fix that?

I’m betting that Jay will be sporting some new Zillow caps, shirts, and swag soon.

I wrote my congratulations to him on his blog and I certainly am being sincere in saying he has the best chance to make some big changes in the problems areas of the 3rd party syndicators.

Jay, First let me say they could not get a better guy to help them clean up some of the big issues they have.

Second you have a big job ahead of you! Congratulations, it sounds like it will be a challenging opportunity and living the urban lifestyle is great!

I had wondered why you’ve been so silent lately regarding some of the conversations on-line and my series of articles on some of the gaming being done by agents on Zillow and Trulia. I found one local San Diego agent that 134 listings on Zillow, and not on in his name on Sandicor MLS. While Zillow and Trulia should not have to police unethical agents, I truly believe they should take steps to make that less likely to happen. Of course the other side of the coin is the membership and the lack of desire for anyone to make local complaints and the total ignorance of some of the rules and regulations that keep our industry in check.

Seems to me the biggest problem is agent load, not syndication so I hope you can bring that conversation back – I have always been a fan of having competition in the real estate marketing space and both Zillow and Trulia have pioneered some pretty awesome mobile and desktop tools. Realtor.com has done a pretty good job too and is certainly much more industry friendly with no FISBO and misleading possible foreclosure leads.

Please tell me that you’ll be addressing these issues, as Brain at 1000 watt said, it is better for all of us to get along, than to start an all out war and let the “lets return to the MLS books” cries of the clueless to tame the internet and regain control as the gatekeepers of the data.

What will be more interesting Zillow will listen and do something, or is just trying to buy up goodwill – knowing Jay they better be serious about some real change!

Spencer must be elated that he won’t be on the road anymore explaining for the 560,000th time what a Zestimate is to a room full of angry real estate agents waiting for the MLS books to return and do away with the nasty Internet.

God speed Jay, you are going to need it my friend, I am cheering for you from sunny San Diego.

Photo courtesy of Jo Jakeman via Flickr modified in Photoshop CS5.

Consider from the consumer perspective – 43 listings of which 19 are sold.  Many of the sold listings were HUD.

I have a few more Zillow posts before I move on from the subject of 3rd party syndication accuracy issues.  I wanted to compare the misuse of agents overstating listings on these 3rd party sites by gaming the system between Zillow and Trulia.

My last post found a Prudential California Realty Agent that was showing 134 listings on Zillow.  Looking at Trulia it is difficult to sort agents by listing numbers but I found a few that were suspect.

One agent associated with Allison James seemed curious with 43 listings showing up on his profile.

Further investigation of the Allison James agent  43 listings revealed the sales were reported (listing agent) under another Allison James agent. I would assume that he had permission from the listing agent to use the listings, but I still believe it’s misleading to the consumer.

More concerning was that about 19 of the listings had been sold months ago and were HUD listings by Allison James.  Take a look at the listing detail on a property that sold in December of last year.  Approximately 4 were pending or contingent and a number could not be on Sandicor MLS.

At the bottom of the listing the contact information was for the agent that appeared to have the 43 listings.

This type of inaccuracy is not possible in the MLS nor a listing aggregator like Realtor.com.  Like the Zillow example these results are not from a listing syndication feed and seem to be broker or agent load.

Is anyone else upset about this and how it reflects on our industry?

Note:  I’m not trying to single out any company or agent, these two examples just seemed to be the most extreme cases that I could locate in the time frame I had to investigate this issue.  While I am not naming the agent in these examples the listing brokerage is named.

Agent has 134 Listings on Zillow and Zero on Multiple Listing System!

Zillow makes a case for being as accurate as they can and policing listings.

I can take 20 minutes of time and go through and find offender after offender of listing hi-jacking.  One of the most significant offender was a Prudential Agent that claimed 134 listings.  When I search Sandicor MLS I could find no listings under that agent’s identification number.

Looking at a half dozen of the listings, it does appear that they are Prudential listings, but barring the permission of all the actual listing agents, he has hijacked them and appears as the listing agent to the consumer.  As a betting man, I would assume that most don’t realize that he has claimed them as his own.

If you are a real estate agent you might want to check out your listings on Zillow, you may find someone else has hi-jacked them.

Another Prudential agent shows up with 34 listings with no listing syndicator.  A independent brokerage had an agent with 25 listings.  It is pretty easy to pick them out since the listings are not from a syndicator.

All of the suspect listing agent scored very high in reviews and many were Zillow Premier Agents, like the agent with 124 listings.  The question is, an agent that would game the system, and steal listings, should they be a Premier Agent?

My point from the start of this conversation was with syndication data can be accurate.

Here is a tip Zillow, look for high volume listings by an agent and check the source….if you actually care about accuracy.