I have been buying leads on and off from PAA now for years and I have to say that current "quality" of so called leads that I am receiving are worse than ever before.

9 out of 10 are not leads at all.  I've had two in the last 24 hours.  Both showing dates of birth below age 21.  One had an unobtainable phone number the second one did answer.  It was a very young girl, who had put a completely false address down and a price range of £150,000 to £199,000 - so I've been charged £47 for this.  She went on to tell me she was just messing about and won't be able to afford to buy a house for at least 3 or 4 years.  When I politely asked her if she didn't realise a local mortgage broker would call and that this was made clear on the online enquiry form she started screaming abuse at me down the phone, then hung up. 

I will be requesting a refund on both these so called "leads" 

Enough is enough PAA, you must know by now that agents like me aren't happy, otherwise you wouldn't be making posts about refund policies.  YOU MUST DO SOMETHING TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF THESE LEADS OR YOU WILL LOSE US ALL. 

I'm certainly at the end of my teather with it now and unless I see a dramatic improvement FAST then I'm cancelling my DDI 

Just an update on the last post. 

I did claim a refund on the above two posts and as expected PAA only upheld the refund on the "lead" with the unobtainable number, which was a bid lead I paid less than £10 for.

The other one, I was charged £47, they will not uphold simply because the mobile number given was answered.  This is absolutely pathetic and I rang PAA and spoke to Pippa and told her all the circumstances (again) and she promised to look into it and get back to me, one way or the other, within the hour. 

THAT WAS THREE DAYS AGO AND I'M STILL WAITING!!! 

Great customer service PAA..............................................NOT!!! 

I cannot continue to give PAA hundreds of pounds of my hard earned cash much longer for this dribble we get in return.  As a result of the poor quality leads from PAA I've been forced to try another lead company and they appear to be better in both providing proper qualified leads AND have a more realistic refund policy (based on mutual trust). 

Unless something drastically changes with the PAA systems to prevent the dross coming through then I'm off and this time i won't be coming back.

YOU CLEARLY HAVE PROBLEMS PAA...........FOR CHRIST SAKE SORT THEM OUT BEFORE YOU LOSE US ALL.

Hi IFS

I'm sorry you've not had an answer. I'll ensure we get on it first thing tomorrow.

Cheers

Dave

Hi

I think the quality of leads for Paa is getting worse as well - interested in the other company you have mentioned can you pass over the company details so I can have a look at them . Thanks

I did get a refund for this one eventually. 

Thanks PAA

I've made a couple of posts about an un-nerving thing I found out about today.

Moneysupermarket.com and many of their affiiliates are running PPC campaigns on keywords associated with customers typing in a request for a quote only into google and instead of directing them to their comparison tables are directing them to the request advice page and then selling the leads on to us. And you wonder why your conversion has gone down?

This is misleading and against FSA principles for business.

Beware!!!

Just started bidding again in the hope of some money earning opportunities and every lead from Money Factor has led to the conversation of "I didn't want advice I am nowhere near my end of date". I have looked on the site and there in small print are the words an adviser will call you. So no refund and yet another time waster slipping through the net. We brokers are pulling our hair out waiting for the quality of all lead providers to improve, I do have a conspiracy theory bubbling in the back of my mind about the demise of the cold call and the rise of lead providers, or am I the only one ;)

Hi Barney, and welcome back!

I'll ask the BDM who owns the Moneyfactor relationship to check this out tomorrow. If it's not clear enough, it'll not help them long term, and in any event there may be a problem with express consent.

I hear your your plea for improved quality, and would reiterate it's a goal we share. All I can say is that at the very least, with PAA the source of the lead is clearly identified, and if Moneyfactor's quality is not where you need it to be, you have complete scope to vote with your wallet. All I'd ask is that you redirect the spend to another source within PAA - the choice is yours, a choice you won't be offered elsewhere.

cheers

Dave

Hi Barney,

I would be very cautious about which PAAlead.com source you buy your leads from. I have just finally completed my treating customers fairly action plan and in it i have concluded that I need to be sure that my lead providers are being “clear, fair and not misleading” in all their financial promotions. This is not only an FSA requirement, though, its good business practice.

I have seen conversion levels fall off a cliff by buying moneysupermarket.com leads recently where all the customers have been telling me that like you have found, they weren't expecting a call. I did my own research and found that the way moneysupermrket.com advertises on Google means that customers typing "online only life insurance quotes" will find moneysupermarket.com at the top of the rankings, when they click on this they will be directed straight to the "request advice" page.

If that customer then unwittingly fills in that form expecting to get an online quote, which is what they asked for, what they will actually get is a happy smiley broker calling them looking forward to giving them advice but instead getting the phone put down on them because that customer only wanted online quotes. I have mentioned this several times on this board, Dave must have read it, but he is up to this point avoiding posting a reply. Also, Moneysupermarket.com are still linking quote shoppers directly to their request advice page.

There are other lead providers who will make refund if the customer admits they didn't actually want a call and aren't so worried about the bottom line that they employ people to police this. I think the key lesson here is to mystery shop each lead provider as if you were a customer and only pick the ones that you can be sure are not misleading customers and that have a solid refund policy in place. Then your conversion should improve.

I know PAA are reviewing things as Dave called me last week to chat through some of my concerns. 

I agree it is VITAL that PAA urgently review these online enquiry forms and make them IDIOT PROOF - prospects should be educated that a human being will call them, who will be a local broker/insurance sales.  Clearly from all our experiences this isn't happening now. 

You cannot blame the prospects really if PAA don't spell things out clearly enough on the plethora of websites they now "white label" to. 

C'mon PAA, market conditions are bad enough for us brokers, with mortgage cases now becoming difficult to place.  Having poor quality leads coming through as well is just compounding our problems.

 HEAR HEAR!

The big problem for PAA is that anything they do that improves the quality of leads will reduce the quantity. As they get paid on leads that don't want contact with an adviser and are uncontactable through telephone numbers submitted a reduction on these will reduce the profit that PAA receives. PAA's directors responsibility is to their shareholders, not us brokers and therefore their job is to maximise profit for them in any legal way possible. The only way that PAA will take any serious action to reduce the number of useless leads is if brokers stopped taking leads from them, which will immediately hit the bottom line and force the directors to rethink their policy.

It does no good at all to beg and plead with the company for them to take a more reasonable attitude. They are crying all the way to the bank worrying about their brokers getting useless leads.

You are right that PAA gets paid for the lead, regardless of whether any business results or even whether the consumer filling in the lead form is interested in hearing from an adviser. We could indeed as you suggest make money by taking a laissez faire attitude - goodness knows other companies do.

But for how long?

Just as you know full well that you won't be in business for very long if you build a reputation for delivering bad advice and a poor service, so do I. I have written elswhere about my desire for a true partnership with our members - a real win-win. Only those lead providers with a reputation for delivering value will survive and prosper long term, and I certainly intend for PAA to not only survive, but maintain its leadership position.

I am equally frustrated by the slow pace of change you're seeing. Believe me, it is not borne of a cynical desire to exploit our members.

Best wishes

Dave 

Then why are you continuing to provide leads where the customer does not want advice. Why do you not make it abundantly clear to the client that they will be contacted by an adviser. Why are customers that require online quotes being diverted and asked to fill in forms requesting advice. These issues have been stated many times on this forum. If you are frustrated by the pace of change why don't you speed it up. I understand that you have quite a lot of influence on this matter. You are very well aware of the feelings of many of your customers.

Why do you not refund uncontactanle leads unless it can be proved that the number is wrong. Often the phone rings on and on without being answered or is a mobile connected to an answering machine. How do you think we feel when expected to pay £40 or so for this?

As I mentioned in my previous communication you will be doing good business as long as your customers are happy to pay for the quality of leads that you provide.

A appreciate that you do not have a "cynial" desire to exploit your members. I am sure that you would much prefer to generate the same profit and maintain a happier customer base. Unfortunately at the moment you do not seem to be doing anything concret to filter out the "leads" that are the root of the problem.

Echo that. I only want three things from a lead provider.

1) Clients that I can get hold of.

2) Clients that want advice, not quotes, quotes are what you get from websites not regulated professional advisers.

3) Leads that have been sourced ethically and compliantly

I would buy leads off paaleads.com all day if they could achieve this.