Why I think Advanced Access Sucks! (Realtor Websites)
April 11, 2007 — Greg
Advanced Access is company that builds crappy template websites for Realtors. They sell you on their websites and how they will optimize your website to be “search engine friendly”, meaning that the site will place high in the search engine rankings.
What they don’t tell you is how their service is horrible and if they do not build the website the way it was promised- they will not refund your money and will not do anything about it. While I was talking to the salesperson I was told all about how wonderful they were and how they pride themselves on their service. He told me about their 30-day money back guarantee and if I was unhappy about anything I could cancel the deal. What I experienced was very different…
They do not care about you after you have paid.
I paid for their top-of-the-line program, apparently the very best service and site possible from them. This cost me about $3000, plus whatever I wanted to pay for links and ads and such.
I was told they would build a website and optimize it for home searches in Salt lake City, Utah, but because they already have another client with Salt Lake City as their main city that they would make another city my “main” city, but it would still be completely optimized for Salt Lake City and really wouldn’t matter which city was named as my primary.
This was a lie. The site was built around another city and when I asked them to optimize it for Salt Lake City, as promised I was told they wouldn’t because another client had a site optimized for Salt Lake. I went over exactly what the sales person had told me and the service personnel said the salespeople would never have told me what they did and they would not do anything about it. The website was built as a template and the linking strategy and optimization would be according to their program and I could cancel or just accept their program.
They have a 30-day money-back policy, but it took them longer than that to even put the site together. In fact the site is still not completed and it has been about 60 days. When I informed Eric Mendes (a service rep) about this I was told the 30 day policy began the day I signed up, no matter how long it took them to build the site. He was not willing to discuss my concerns or offer any solutions.
So even if the product is not available to see, the policy expires. I called back and asked for Eric’s supervisor. They directed me to Casey Griswold, who informed me that he was, in fact Eric’s supervisor and after explaining the situation he told me that he didn’t care whether the product was what I was promised and the 30 days had expired and if I wasn’t happy I could cancel the website, but will receive no refund or concession of any sort.
I told him that I work with a lot of agents and couldn’t understand why they would want to give such horrible service to someone who could refer a lot of agents their way, to which he responded that he didn’t care.
Their business is built from online leads, not from referrals, and I don’t see this changing with the horrible service and ridiculous policies they have. Not only will I never do business with Advanced Access again, but I will let everyone I know about my experience and how I think Advanced Access, Eric Mendes, and Casey Griswold have bad business sense and no respect for their paying customers once the credit card has been charged.
Advanced Access= Buyer Beware
Beginning in February ‘08- There will be something much better - See it here:
April 11, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Wow. So much for customer service…
Thanks for letting us know. I suspect more people than AA would care to admit will see this.
April 11, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Hi Greg,
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll put this vendor on my “do-not-buy” list. I know it’s no consolation for the hassle you’ve had, but with just Jay’s answer and mine, they’ve already lost $6000 in potential business!
April 11, 2007 at 11:19 pm
LOL why oh why do Internet people screw over active bloggers.
Having followed BlueRoof for quite some time, I completely believe you Greg. Final a complaint with the appropriate consumer protection wing of the state government.
April 12, 2007 at 12:16 pm
your reaction is very understandable. i’d be pretty steamed myself had i had an experience like yours. but the one thing i have to say that i would have done differently was cancel WITHIN the 30 days. Had my sales person told me i had a 30-day money back guarantee i would’ve assumed like most business people that that means cancel “within 30 days.” why didnt you?
April 12, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Wow, I had the exact same experience with them. Two cases like this is too few to cry “lying in wait conspiracy” but very suspect… However, I was eventually able to get my money back. I did some internet detective work to find out who was the company’s CEO and emailed him directly. He sent an email to someone in the company and copied me telling her to refund my money. I wish I still had this contact information for you but it is worth a try.
A 30-day guarantee of course starts AFTER the product is delivered. A typical 1-year guarantee on a newly built home does not start at the day they break ground, right? Can I get an “Amen?”
April 12, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Thanks for the warning. I don’t know if they are in California yet, but I’ll be sure to spread the word. I’m an agent with Prudential California Realty and a lot of our agents are starting to get Websites.
Why would a company want to upset someone with a widely read blog (especially that agents read)?
Now other people are talking about them, too.
http://www.reliberation.com/blogs/phoenixrealestate/archive/2007/04/11/one-bloggers-thoughts-on-a-p2-competitor.aspx
April 13, 2007 at 12:03 am
Will,
I didn’t go into it thinking I wanted to cancel, and frankly didn’t think they would start the 30-days the day I signed the agreement. I thought it was 30 days from the time the site was finished. My mistake- the site still is not finished- they still haven’t added the home search function (for a home search website)!
Brian-
Exactly- how would I know if I was happy with the product for 30 days if it wasn’t even done?
Missy,
I told them that I do technology training for Prudential and that I blog and would share my experiences about how they handled my account, whether it was good or bad, but they didn’t seem to care.
This is a new day for customer service because people can actually research companies and discover whether they treat their customers well or not.
Bottom line- offer good service and if you mess up don’t charge people anyway. You learn a lot about people with the way they handle their mistakes.
April 13, 2007 at 6:28 pm
There are three sides to the story. Your side, AA’s side and the truth.
What ever they did though, you felt powerless and cheated, thus this post. The moral of the story for me is not to not use Advanced Access but to make sure that my customers and clients do not feel powerless and cheated. Just because I’m right doesn’t help my business. Our policy: no policy. CUSTOMer Service should be custom to each person.
April 14, 2007 at 3:18 am
Update- A representative of Advanced Access has contacted me (Anna Bourland) and informed me that she has read this blog and the company is concerned with my situation.
She says she spoke to the president of the company and they will be refunding my money.
Too bad this was not done in the beginning, but at least they are making it right.
April 14, 2007 at 10:33 am
I think we all have a least two stories like this from either website builders or lead generators. It took us about six months to resolve a similar situation and a friend of ours about the same.
What did we learn - Use Skype with Hot Recorder - and record all such calls with sales people.
Add that to the list of spy tricks!
April 14, 2007 at 11:34 am
I had the EXACT same experience with z57. Tons of promises, but the $700 startup and $50/month wasn’t enough to make your site successful, they try to schedule to meet with a “coach” for better SEO. For your site to really work as promissed (maybe), expect to pay $2000/month. Forget it. Buy a mac, download rapidweaver http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/, and make your own!
April 16, 2007 at 4:53 am
Does the car warranty begin when they are building it, Will, or when you drive the car off the lot?? Of course Greg’s 30 days should beging when his site went “live”.
Just curious Greg, why a new site, is it one for lead gen, or replacing BR, ??
April 16, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I had technically the same experience with them. I spoke with about 3 customer service persons. someone from customer service named William Holten, “Quality Assurance Manager” emailed me, he requested for me to call him in order to complete my cancellation and authenticate my request and verify some some additional information. Insted of doing this he insisted for me to continue the services and threatened me to bring the account to collection in case they cannot draft the payment to my credit account. I told them repeatedly that their product sucks!
April 16, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Anyone can tell me the name, email, phone no. of CEO of advanceAccess. I would like to get in touch with him.
April 17, 2007 at 9:02 am
So, who to have design a ne site then? Feel free to visit my new blog, especially John Harper and Greg.
http://mikeelliottsblog.wordpress.com/
April 19, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Mike,
I had the new site built because the websites I have were all built around my preference of having visually appealing websites that don’t include a lot of text and links. But search engines don’t like those sort of websites because they don’t have a lot of text to tell if they are relevant to the consumer’s search.
So I wanted to build a website that was designed from an SEO (search engine optimization) standpoint to see the difference with traffic, lead conversion, and just overall experience for the consumer. I want to see the difference actually owning a website that was developed to be search engine friendly versus the type I own now.
I don’t know who to use because this was my experience with one of these companies.
April 20, 2007 at 4:02 am
Interesting. My experiences (with all web designers) have all been bad as well. I wish I had a suggestion for you. Best of luck with that.
April 20, 2007 at 4:04 am
Can’t you just have that added to your current site?
May 23, 2007 at 11:54 am
Our office currently has an Advanced Access website, and I agree with Greg. The service is absolutely horrible. They do not return calls, thay do not return emaisl, the only time I have ever been able to get any response out of them for anything is by threatening to pull our account. Right now, they’re having major problems. As of right now, 1:47 PM Wednesday, May 23, their servers have been down since Monday. Someone at their company had the bright idea to put the main servers AND the back-up servers on the SAME POWER SUPPLY, in the same place. Really intelligent huh?? At first, we lost everything, our site, our emails, all of it. Then yesterday we got email back, but no site until later in the day. As of right now we have a site, but most of the things in our website editor are not working. I have gotten nothing but a run around everytime I’ve called and been able to actually get through. Here is an email I sent to them last night:
—– Original Message —–
From: Susan M. J
To: support@advancedaccess.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 11:45 PM
Subject: Your Techs have a problem with “time”
Hi,
I spoke with one of your techs Monday who stated to me that the problem would be rectified by the end of the day. Tuesday morning the problem still wasn’t fixed, I called again and was told it would be just a ‘little while longer’. I called again this evening 6:30 and was told the servers would be back up in a “couple hours”.
It is now almost midnight on Tuesday, and I still cannot access our virtual office editor.
Perhaps on Monday when they said the problem would be rectified by the end of the day, that wasn’t an entirely complete statement. Perhaps they weren’t talking about the end of the day THAT day, maybe they meant the end of the day Wednesday or Thursday…? Is that it…?
Or Tuesday when I was told it would be ‘just a little while longer’ until everything was fixed, perhaps that particular time frame was stated to me by one of your techs operating from a different dimension, where another entire day really IS ‘just a little while.”.
And I’m wondering….doesn’t ‘a couple’, mean, ‘two’? Or is it different in the magical, mystical land of Advanced Access Technicians, where a couple actually means …. more than 5?
I’d call back tomorrow, but I see no point, because my tomorrow and your tomorrow apparently do not exist in the same time frame.
Thank you.
11:41 PM/EST
or “87:63QZ/AAT” (Advanced Access Time, and no I havent actually seen your clocks, I’m just guessing.)
Susan
++++++++++++++
Honestly I was just trying to sound as ridiculous as theyre being right now.
Anyway, we’re pulling our account as soon as our other site goes through with REMAX.com.
Do NOT use Advanced Access, unless you like these types of problems.
May 23, 2007 at 1:09 pm
It appears that all this feedback has helped me in my decision not to use Advanced Access……In talking with some friends who use this product…..they explained that the site has been down now for almost 3 days…something I am not looking for.
I have researched a company called Birdview Technologies….who seem to have all the solutions I am looking for, as well as what my office is interested in as well. Take a look for yourself to see if it’s something that could work for you
May 24, 2007 at 8:06 am
Has anyone here ever dealth with Agent Image? They seem to have some good options for custom and semi custom…
May 24, 2007 at 9:49 am
Mike, agent image is great. They have good service and they work with you on what it is you’re looking for. I’ve been really happy with their service and product.
I recommend them to others.
June 5, 2007 at 1:14 am
I have tried many different web template sites such as advanced access, z57, Agent Image and more
1. Worst thing is in the way their sites are built, their code is horrible when it comes to getting on the search engines, and if search engines see a whole bunch of sites with the same code structure, they all will do poorly.
2. You NEED a webmaster not a web servicing company that has loads of people and turnover so you have to keep restating your issue again and again
My Recommendation (and Savior)
Go to front page placement dot com
You will get one point of contact who is an actual webmaster, not a monkey on a phone that knows a little to impress you
These people specialize in Search Engine Optimization.
I’m a mortgage broker and have thrown away thousands of dollars in the wrong places like these service companies mentioned, I will be cancelling my advanced access website as it hasn’t garnered me one lead since last september
Now most of my business comes from leads generated by the awesome top ranking site that was completely custom made for my company.
I take pride in the fact that my website is on the front page of the search engines for some extremely competitive terms, but mostly I’m happy about a site that actually produces, this choice has made up for the past mistakes I have made.
Trust me get one guy that knows what he is doing and you will be a lot happier
July 13, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I too am a former Advanced Access customer. To say they sucked is the understatement of the century. The sites is basically a front end for a bunch of affiliate marketing links.
When I cancelled I had a similar experience to Perla above. After 5 weeks of pulling teeth to get my domain transferred elsewhere and the service cancelled I got a voice mail from Ryan Smith, a “quality assurance manager.” After two weeks of phone tag this cheeseball finally sent me an email telling me that they couldn’t cancel service without my calling him and telling him to cancel the service (something I had done with another rep 7 weeks before!) I finally was contacted by his manager, Michael LaLonde, as rude, arrogant and condescenging a person as it has ever been my displeasure to talk with. As of today, almost two months after my cancellation request, the service may finally be cancelled.
If anyone reading this has had cancellation issues with AA, please contact me. From the many posts I’ve read on other blogs, my experience is not unique and I’m looking to get a class action suit going.
July 14, 2007 at 12:02 pm
A little late in the game here, but this is interesting reading.
I’m a web developer that works with Realtors, so I’m familiar with some of the challenges.
First, I am sorry to hear you had so much trouble with AA. If they told you they’d do something, they need to do it. If they already had an SEO client in SLC, they should not have sold you their services. It’s a conflict of interest for them to have more than one person paying for SEO services in a single area. I personally feel that any SEO expert should be careful not to step on their clients’ toes by working for competitors as well.
That being said, if a company is good at SEO and they only take 1 client per market, you should expect that it will be expensive. Good SEO really is a lot of hard work. A lot of research, content development, tweaking and tracking is required. Developing good back links can be difficult, especially for a site that is specifically for commercial purposes.
Here’s the thing: Web development has a low barrier of entry. If you have a computer and some time on your hands, you can learn it. Will you be good at it? Not likely. I’ve spent 7 years as a software engineer for Fortune 500 companies, start ups, individuals, mom-and-pop businesses, etc. I manage servers, write back end software, analyze performance, design and do SEO. AA probably has a lot entry level people working for them at very low salaries (for the industry). There’s no dedication from those employees. It’s a paycheck and nothing more.
So, my suggestion to all Realtors is to find a web developer or firm that has a VESTED INTEREST in your success. It could be a one-man operation or a small firm where all the employees have ownership. In these cases, the “salesperson” will likely be the person doing the work themselves. This means they won’t over-promise and under-deliver.
Side note: AA’s web designs are some of the worst in the world and quite frankly, I believe companies like them are the reason why so many real estate agent sites look horrible and get zero results.
As far as template sites go: While custom is obviously the way to go, templates can be beneficial. They’re much more cost effective than custom websites, so if you’re on a budget they’re not a bad idea. You just have to pick the right one. If they offer a free trial, that will likely give you an idea of what you’re getting.
And as a web developer who works with Realtors, I’d like to thank Greg and everyone else for all the insightful feedback. Helps me know what I’m up against.
August 14, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Sorry to hear about your bad experience Greg. This kind of treatment of customers is what gives people a bad impression of the SEO industry that I represent.
Here’s another blog post on this subject you might find interesting:
http://www.armingyourfarming.com/realestatemarketing/2007/06/why-i-dont-do-seo-on-advanced-access.html
Take care.
-Brandon
September 15, 2007 at 7:41 am
Hi guys -
I just did a search for “Advanced Access” sucks because I used to be one of the saespeople there. At first, they sell us on the service as well. Eventually, I found out two very important things. One, Realtors don’t want to be web designers. Two, their (AA) service was terrible.
I was let go for spending too much time with my agents trying to optimize their sites and training them. My job was to keep selling these websites and not worry about training people on how to use them.
Well, I take umbrage with selling something that is not properly represented once service is needed. So - I started my own company. Since my degree is in Web Design and I had all the contacts and DID provide GREAT service, I found myself very busy rather quickly.
So - as an insider, I would completely agree that their service is absolutely terrible with their new ownership. Before they were bought out, they were a pretty good company though.
Bottom Line - Stay away from AA and most template companies if you really want to be at the top of the search engines.
Paul
October 10, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Greg,
Not much has changed since you started this thread. Just more quality agents have left Advanced Access due to the continuing problems, especially down-time and customer service. As a current AA client, I experience their difficulties staying online each week and especially on weekends when more buyers are searching the net. Why am I still with them? After being with them since 2004, I still have about nine months to go. After their infamous “Black(out) Monday when the lights all went off for about 36 hours, nothing seems to be working right on a regular basis. To top that off, customer service provides mostly ‘canned’ responses and seldom anything informative. Weekends go by with no reps answering the message board pleas for help. Anna Bourland is on leave for a while and was good at CS but she is/was only a go-between to appease the agents. What they really need is a good house-cleaning from the top down with each and every person there filling out a description of what they actually do during their 8-hour shift and compare that to what their job description is. If someone asked you what you did over the last eight hours, could you warrant your paycheck? Are they understaffed or just “poorly” staffed with unqualified employees? One thing is for sure, their customer service needs a lot of improvement.
Feel free to add your comments at my AAPowerOutage blog at: http://AAPowerOutage.wordpress.com/
October 17, 2007 at 6:58 pm
I am having the same experience with Advanced Access. I wish I looked online for these comments before signing on with them. I’ve learned my lesson. I currently have a “website” with them and it is still not fully operational after a whopping 4 months! I have over 50 listings and cannot get pictures to load or anything on any more than 2 of them as of 10 minutes ago. I’m going to work to find a solution, but so far, have been completely defeated.
They may make a little off of me for a year as they won’t let me out of my “contract,” which like someone said earlier, ended after 30 days, and they hadn’t even gotten my site working right by then (or even now 3 months later). If they do actually allow my service to end as I have requested repeatedly, I will put a notice on this site letting people know and give full credit to the gentleman or lady who helps me at AA, but until then, I can only hope.
Feeling abused in Michigan,
John
October 24, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Well, I must say, I’m in shock.
I just called American Express to file a complaint about Advanced Access and request a chargeback for the fees that I have been charged even though my website still does not work right after 4 months and not being able to get them to respond to any calls or emails requesting the name and phone number or email address of the CEO.
I filed a chargeback once before when I had gotten taken by a company called “Top Search Solutions” last year and American Express really stuck up for me and we won hands down once all of the evidence was examined. If you have American Express, you already know how great the service is.
The lady at American Express looked at my account after I told her the issue with Advanced Access, and she said that according to my latest activity, I had just been credited the fees back and that there was a note that I was not going to be getting any more charges. Can you believe it?
I was not getting anyone to answer my emails or phone calls, but at least the folks at Advanced Access did the right thing.
Well, I am a man of my word, and I had said that if they did comply I would post the good news on this site, and I am just following through with that promise.
I’m not saying I would ever use Advanced Access again, but I may consider them if the service level ever improves over there. At one time, their sites really ranked high, so that is why I went with them in the first place. I wonder what happened?
Feeling better in Michigan (despite the bad market),
John
October 25, 2007 at 12:03 am
John,
I’m glad to hear you were taken care of- Some companies need to realize that people are talking about them and they should take care of these types of issues BEFORE they get out into the consumer dialogue.
What’s right is right, and if a company doesn’t deliver what they promise- they’ll pay for it, as they should.
Good service deserves to be rewarded with the business…
December 3, 2007 at 11:15 pm
I am writing to let you know about my horrible experience with Advanced Access. I purchased their template website and premium marketing package for $4399. After 10 months of waiting for results, I was disappointed to learn that I only had 30 unique visitors for the previous month. 30 visitors? That is a ridiculously low number.
I was told at the time I signed up for my Premium Marketing Package that the metatags and keywords would be customized for each of my webpages. This was never done. Instead, all of my webpages have the same metatags and keywords. So, for example, when you search in google for my website only one page shows up as having been indexed.
I was also told at the time I signed up for my Premium Marketing Package that I would receive a monthly analysis of my website with personalized suggestions as to how I could add to, or alter, the content of my website to increase my search engine rankings. Despite this promise, the first time I received an e-mail from AA with specific suggestions on how to improve my search engine rankings was 9 months after I signed up for the package. These suggestions were only provided to me after I called AA to find out what was going on with the search-engine optimization of my website. During this call, I was also told that the person who had been assigned to optimize my website was no longer with AA and that I would have to be assigned a new representative. Had I not called AA, I don’t know when you would have figured out that no one was working on the search-engine optimization for my website.
These are just some of the ways in which AA failed to live up to the promises that were made to me when I signed up for the Premium Marketing Package. More than 10 months after I signed up for the Premium Marketing Package with AA, my website still has not been optimized. As the statistics for the last month show, I had 30 unique visitors to my website.
I sued AA in small claims court and obtained a judgment against them for all of the money I paid them. I have not received any of it yet because they are appealing the Judge’s decision. It is ridiculous that AA forced me into the position of having to sue them for their failure to optimize my website, and that they are still refusing to admit this failure by appealing the Judge’s decision.
I strongly encourage anyone who is considering hiring AA to optimize their website to do their homework. Knowing what I know now, I would never choose to work with them again.
Very disappointed,
~Amanda
December 11, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Anyone looking to hire someone for website design or internet marketing would do well to check out our totally free real estate marketing resources. Regardless of who you choose to design your site, core marketing elements should be implemented to emphasize the most attractive aspects of your business, and the right campaigns should be launched to aggressively advertise those services you offer. We don’t talk about trying to fool the search engines or any of that stuff; simply making your site the best quality website it can be is all that it takes to make a difference.
December 28, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Thank you for the comments I just got a last day sales pitch from AA with no setup fee, year end special. No AA for me!
January 2, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I recently agreed to the Advanced access not setup fee agreement with only a $49.00 monthly payment, 30 day trial. I cancelled via e-mail and phone message within a week and left over 12 messages only to get a response after the 30 days was up and they refused to cancell and demanded the full 12 month payments by made. The management is so unprofessional and are worse than used care salesmen, I was only dumb enough to be taken. BEWARE ADVANCED ACCESS ARE CROOKS!
January 9, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I couldnt agree more Greg! I had a similar situation with them as well. Except I did not pay $3000. I bought the middle package for $599.99 and nothing is customizable like they say it is, it took them 15 days to complete my IDX, their customer service sucked big time and when I complained they basically made me feel like I was completely out of luck. I filed them in BBB and Consumer Affairs. So now after I spent a boat load of money with them, I still had no site. So I did some research and found a company that actually does care, lets you customize your site to the fullest and had very good customer service. This company is called Superlative. My site is being upgraded(for FREE) right now otherwise I would share it as an example. Check them out, you don’t need to pay for links added or nothing. Their IDX updates every 20 minutes and their servers never go down. I have been with them for almost a year now and I am definitely going to continue my service. Advanced Access SUCKS!!! And I hope they go Bankrupt!!!
January 9, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I was one of AA’s very first clients. I was a raving fan for a few years and sent them literally hundreds of clients.
I left a few years ago and did my own thing, then switched again to my present site.
What has happened at AA over the last two years is beyond belief. Once the company was sold, things went from bad to worse.
The marketing plan they soak people for is pathetic and they’ll never get the .NET code right for their “new” 4.0.
Stay away.
January 10, 2008 at 3:02 pm
If you need any help or contact information for any of the executive team let me know. I spent 6 years with Advanced Access as a Director/National Speaker and recently resigned in December. Too many icebergs surrounding that ship. Especially with a blind captain. Sorry to hear the problems you all are having.
January 12, 2008 at 8:59 pm
This outfit has a 1 year minimum in the contract. I had to close my real estate office for health reasons and the sales manager said that I signed a contract and would be billed for a year. I cancelled the credit card and told them to sue me. I figure if a $600. seal will upset them this much they deserve to get screwed. They never dis supply me with a website but Mr. Personality (sales mgr) still maintains I owe them.
I would not use or recommend them for anything
January 17, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Juan, would you mind posting an email address where a former frustrated AA client could contact you for information on how to get in touch with AA’s upper management. I am still trying to get my money back from them after the crappy job they did ont my website. Thank you!
January 20, 2008 at 8:53 am
I had Advanced Access for a little under a year, I ran into them due to a seminar from a Roger Butcher seminar (http://www.rogerbutcher.com) and I found them HORRIBLE to deal with. The same guy “Mendes” or whatever his name is dealt with me, I paid them big bucks and finally I decided to learn some html and I did it on my own. I get better results with my semi designed site than I ever did with these shysters. As for the BlueRoof 360, it looks good but it’s too expensive and I don’t want to be in someone else’s control.
January 21, 2008 at 7:45 pm
As requested from several emails to me through my personal site I have elaborated and posted the contact info for management.
I spent almost 6 years with Advanced Access and after seeing things rapidly fall apart since the departure of John Morris, I finally resigned in December. The only thing I can tell you is good luck. You’re going to need it. The Customer Service Director doesnt actually deal with customers, and the General Manager (previously known as the President - pre Dominion Enterprises who is now being shopped by Landmark by the way, owner of Dominion Homes Media) doesnt understand the needs of his clients and according to the final Newsletter I received as an employee ‘07 was the most profitable year in the company’s history! No mention of the fact that what was the heart of the company has jumped ship seeing the iceberg ahead.
In case you want it, the phone number for Justin Davis is
714-685-5128 Office Direct
Aron Spegon is the Director of Customer Service (no number available, lol)
And if you’re interested in who is in charge of denying you your money back even though your site is not up 3 months into your contract you can call the “Director of Sales” Casey Griswold 714-685-5135. Office Direct - in charge of sales and quality control. Has the last say in who is able to receive a refund on their 30 day money back guarantee.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Btw…
it is easy to assume that I could be a disgruntled ex-employee or Gruntled Ex-Employee (if you’re into the office) but the reality is that I came to the point where I didnt believe what I was saying anymore. My clients used to send me thank you emails. Then 4.0 came along, and agents started having trouble with our Customer Service department. Sitting in the Director meetings I realized the importance was not placed on our clients being satisfied with the service they were receiving, but on the sheer volume of calls we were answering. Nevermind that a client would call me and tell me that the cs rep they spoke to made them feel stupid and never answered their questions.
The simple truth is that the decision makers in place don’t understand who our clients were. Average age 50+ with a relatively low tech measure. (No offense intended) Being a traveling rep in the field, speaking at 3 State Associations tradshows and representing the company in 10 states I spent a significant amount of time face to face with our clients and was able to see first hand what you/they wanted. Even though those things were requested and sent on to said decision makers nothing was done other than to force the senior staff into essentially a forced resignation. Larry Lokker who many more of you will know than myself has moved onto what was previously Realigent now Fidelity. If anyone is looking for a referral to a good website I can point you in the right direction. You can email me at info@next-genconsultation.com . And no I do not own a company that does websites
Sorry I rambled. Hope the contact info helps. GL!
January 23, 2008 at 8:42 pm
btw… I just confirmed with several AA sources that all AA websites are currently down.
January 23, 2008 at 10:23 pm
same old shit…12:30 and my site as well as all AA sites down…no CS because they are closed…maybe tomarrow they will open and resolve the problem…my clients in Erope will have to wait..I hope.
Losers
Robert from Fla.
January 23, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Gene
Let them Know how incompetenant they are…go gene.
January 24, 2008 at 2:50 pm
i was thinking exactly the same
January 28, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Jane Ellsworth-Purcell is one reason that this company went down the way it did. She lacks integrity of telling the truth to many customers. Beware of future dealings with her.
January 28, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Quite a statement Jim. Though i’m not really sure how you came to that conclusion. Jane was instrumental in the growth of Advanced Access from literally being a company in the garage of John Morris to being what it was pre Captain Edward John Smith and 4.0.
The policy of zero innovation, and complete isolationism is why AA is in the position it is now. Without Jane introducing the concept of Affinity Agreements at Advanced Access how else would they be able to state that they are the, “Preferred Provider for Over 40% of
NAR Membership.”
Since John detached himself from AA and placed the ship in the hands of the current regime all decision making was made by the Captain. I like to think that most people know that the most successful people in the world surround themselves with excellence. John had Justin Lajoie, Jane Purcell, Jerra, Kristi and a handfull of others. He knew who to trust with what.
Since his departure there was no direction. Any and all suggestions for innovation were shot down as quickly as they were given. Jane was isolated and cast out. I know this from first hand personal experience.
I personally submitted several proposals for the advancement of our products and services. Only one of which came to fruition only for me to have it stripped away and given to one of the Captains cronies. I guess I should have kept those Aces up my sleeves. I was even laughed at by aforementioned Capatin and crony during a Director’s meeting when I suggested we offer support for our Spanish speaking clients and or their website visitors.
And you want to blame the deckhand who was shunned by the Captain for the Titanic hitting the iceberg?
fyi… I no longer work with Jane, but can proudly say I did, and that your ill will is baseless and unwarranted.
January 29, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Just wanted to give you an update on my attempts to get a refund from AA for the $5400 I paid them for my website, “premium” search engine marketing, and fees that were charged by AA to me allegedly for 3rd party directories.
I sued AA in small claims court, won a full victory at the trial level, which AA then appealed. I just won again on Appeal and now have a judgment against AA for $5400 + $105 in court fees. Note that this judgment includes the fees that AA charged me for submissions they allegedly made to the 3rd party directories.
As a real estate broker & lawyer, I was able to defend myself and not get taken advantage of by AA and their crappy service and website. If you are in a similar situation, and would like some direction on how to proceed, just let me know.
~Amanda
February 1, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I read these posts with considerable interest, being a former AA customer. Here’s my questions today–can anyone recommend (if allowed here) companies that do provide good and reasonable services for real estate web sites? Thanks in advance! (Sorry!)
February 1, 2008 at 3:36 pm
James,
Yes- blueroof360 has the very best agent websites, lead management, client management and community.
Go to http://www.blueroof360.com
February 6, 2008 at 8:04 am
I am glad to see that I am not the only person that has to pt up with these clowns. It is obvious that with all of the bad press on this site they do not care about the reputation they have.
I have researched many web hosts and page designers and have not found anyone that has a 1 year minimum in the contract but was told by Eric (Mr. personality) that I would have to pay for the year even due to health problems I will be closing down my real estate practice.
I would NOT recommend using this outfit for anything.
February 14, 2008 at 12:04 am
As a former employee of Advanced Access I can atest to this gentlemen’s comments. I worked in the service department and often delt with problems such as this person had. The policy was along the lines of “oh well go ahead and cancel, you’ll be back” though our job was to basically lie, though managment there at the time saw every complaint like this as a case of buyers remorse. I even had one manager tell me that all clients lie and that they’re just out to take get something for nothing.
Stay away from Advanced Access at all costs. The sales department is full of people who overinflate the abilities of both the product and the service staff (i knew several personally who admitted to me that they lied to you people to close a sale) who by the way is full of inexpireinced customer service practioners as the company can’t hold onto it’s employees for more than a few months at best.
March 4, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I have been with them since 2002. I have paid thousands only to have a Website that goes down at least once a month or more. One time it was down an entire week. They always say the same thing Server Issues. Well I am cancelling my credit card payment and when they call I will tell them I had Server Issues. I will be changing my website ASAP.
March 13, 2008 at 9:30 pm
They have to be the WORST Solution out there!!
My email service has been super spotty and they just blew a contract for me where my clients did not receive the counter. Their tech support is completely unresponsive – I’ve sent them 10+ emails regarding my email and have either not heard back or when I have they send over some 12 years bubling idiot. AVOID their service at all cost.
Disgruntled customer
April 14, 2008 at 9:35 am
That whole story is a shame. Service is the prime differentiator in the web industry these days since technology and features can be so easily replicated.
April 15, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I fell prey to AA lst year. Cancelled in March and did actually get the transfer done within a couple of weeks but can’t get the “Quality Control” guy to CMB to do the final OK, Two months later, they are still popping by account. 10 Calls and later, I’m still waiting for Ernest to call.. Any suggestions?
April 23, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I have never experienced such poor customer service as I have with AA. I added “quick homes” to a basic site and the product has never worked. After being told it would take 3 months to fix I should have had a clue. Of course they still wanted to be paid. I have never received a call back after leaving a message. Rude comments from customer service and a run around attitude are standard practice for this firm. After 10 months, many phone calls with no response and a lot of money, I canceled my website. Next month they charged me again claiming that I have to give a 30 day notice to cancel. I was not renting an apartment! Then they claimed they did not receive my confirmation of my cancellation until nearly a month later. They firmly believe that a customer should pay for poor service and broken promises. It is obvious I am the fool and they are going to bank with my money.
May 3, 2008 at 8:47 am
I too had the same problems with Advanced Access.
Day 1: They switch over my e-mail. PROBLEM. Now I can’t access e-mail and they can not correct it until Monday.
Day 3: Finally get my e-mail back and we begin building the site. Now the bugs start. Everything I was promised would not work they way they said it would.
Now the sales pitch. We are having problems with that, but if you buy this package it will correct it. IF I BUY? Should I not be getting what I bought to begin with. I demanded a refund and they denied me. That was within 30 days. They just gave me more time on the contract.
Their exact response was this. We can not guarantee that the software is bug free and we will continue to fix the bugs. This does not mean we have not provided you with the product. So I ask, if you buy a car and the engine does not work, does that mean they have met there requirements? We never said the car will run! Seriously!
I bailed and watched my $1,500 go down the drain. I needed a better company that was actually in touch with reality. Worse Part is that my State Association. NYSAR, promotes the heck out of this company. Feeding us to the sharks I guess.
I promissed them I will cost them what they refused to refund and I will continue to warn everyone how bad this company is.
STAY AWAY FROM ADVANCED ACCESS!
May 15, 2008 at 9:14 am
I gotta say, after having an advanced access site, I have not experienced the central problems all of you have. However, I have experienced some Customer Support issues, but they were no different than any other custumer support issues I’ve had with anyone else. don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to advocate AA or say that they’re the best, but here are the benefits I’ve seen dealing with them… They are template based and all I have to do is go in and choose a template (I think I saw over 100), I can change my meta-tags, which most companies like z57 don’t allow you to do. That’s important to me because I can make sure that my site ranks in the search engine and i don’t have to rely on any company to do that. One of the support people their, Renny, is probably one of the most helpful & knowledgeable people there. He takes his time, teaches me what I need to know, and his Search Engine Optimization understanding is far beyond anyone I ever encountered there. Another one is Christopher daniele. Maybe you all should try asking for either Renny or Christopher and see what happens then.
Another problem it looks like everyone is having is that everyone is relying soley on Advanced Access to do everything. that’s the first mistake. I found out early on that Advanced Access is designed for the clients to do their own thing! Period! If you’re looking for someone to do your site for you, then Advanced Access is not for you. They will gladly walk you though anything as they did me, but don’t expect them to do your changes for you. that’s your responsibility. We’re Realtors, so we shouldn’t be so lazy as to use the excuse “we sell houses, not work on computers”. My philosophy is this, if you don’t know anything about computers, DON’T GET A WEBSITE!. That’s the bottom line. To me it’s like buying a car and not knowing where to put the gas or oil. We need to take more responsibility for things we do instead of blaming large companies and expecting them to do everything for us.
Like I said, I’m not advocating for Advanced Access, but I do believe in being fair. I had Quickhomes and I tried to cancel it because it didn’t work for me. They told me someone would call me in about 48 hrs, but I didn’t get a call for about a week and a half… So What! They called and I asked about my credit. it took them about 2 1/2 weeks. Yes, I had to call and remind them, but they did credit my credit card. Did it take them a long time? Yeah, it did, but they did take care of it. I’m sure I wasn’t the only client they had to deal and I don’t think it’s fair to insist that I be dealt with first and right now. I guess we just need to be a little more patient and stop thinking that we’re owed everything.
Just my two cents and my experience. Hope I didn’t offend anyone.