Lowes Porch Program Referreral Service Reviews?

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73cj5

Member
Got a call to participate in the Lowes Porch program.

Basically a referral service to customers for jobs that their in house subs cant handle.

Said they take 4 EC per area.

99.00 per month, with a 3 month minimum.

Anyone try it yet?

Most people that are looking for a service usually call an EC. I don't see them wandering around in Lowes looking for one:) Possibly range/dyer/AC/H20 circuits??

Any feedback appreciated, thanks!
 

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
They want you to pay for referrals. For work they contract for. Wholly cow I am in the wrong biz
 

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
hard to say.

for $300 you can find out if it is worth it to you. that is pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.

I believe here in Kalifornia that might be considered a kickback and is illegal as Lowes would be the seller of goods and services.
 

ceb58

Senior Member
Location
Raeford, NC
I believe here in Kalifornia that might be considered a kickback and is illegal as Lowes would be the seller of goods and services.

I think they got spanked here in NC. They were bought before the Elect. contractors board for being unlicensed. The way the law reads is you must be licensed " to engage in the business of offering electrical contracting services "
Any way, the way they used to do it was they offered the customer a flat rate to, say, install a celling fan for $99.00. Now you as a contractor that worked for them was paid, say $60.00 to install it. You had to furnish insurance, tools and travel to the site for this $60.00. The way you made money was when you arrived if they did not have a fan rated box, you up charged for installing one. Also you tried to upsell separate line for fan and light with wall mounted speed control and dimmer. If you were just swapping fan for fan you would probably pocket $15-20 after all expenses.
The thing I would want to know is, do they give a price for the work or are you just going to compete against the other 3 EC's for the bid?
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
pay the money and let us know in 3 months how it worked out for you.

I have known some people who think this kind of deal is the greatest thing in the world since the cost of marketing to get the additional business is very low. others are offended by paying for leads.
 

MarkyMarkNC

Senior Member
Location
Raleigh NC
I think they got spanked here in NC. They were bought before the Elect. contractors board for being unlicensed. The way the law reads is you must be licensed " to engage in the business of offering electrical contracting services "

They must have found a loophole around that, as I've been getting spam phone calls from them every other day lately.
 

LEO2854

Esteemed Member
Location
Ma
Got a call to participate in the Lowes Porch program.

Basically a referral service to customers for jobs that their in house subs cant handle.

Said they take 4 EC per area.

99.00 per month, with a 3 month minimum.

Anyone try it yet?

Most people that are looking for a service usually call an EC. I don't see them wandering around in Lowes looking for one:) Possibly range/dyer/AC/H20 circuits??

Any feedback appreciated, thanks!

Do not pay them anything, look up your business name right now on their site and call the tracking number on another phone, your real phone will never ring/ or ring once and no one will be on the other end.

The phone you called you will get a recording telling you that your company is not available and your call will be redirected to a contractor who's paying them. Nice guys...:happyno:
 
Do not pay them anything, look up your business name right now on their site and call the tracking number on another phone, your real phone will never ring/ or ring once and no one will be on the other end.

The phone you called you will get a recording telling you that your company is not available and your call will be redirected to a contractor who's paying them. Nice guys...:happyno:

Well you are so so wrong. You need to claim your company and sign up, no payment necessary unless you choose other services.

Here is the big caveat.
When you Sign up you agree to recorded phone calls. Ok so what. Well you provide a phone number for your company and what is shown on the Porch add is a new number that is forwarded to the number of you company. When the Porch customer calls the number provided you get caller ID of the customer . YOU HAVE NO IDEA THAT THAT CALL IS BEING RECORDED. After all you gave consent. So now you have no idea if any call you get is being recorded.
 

Little Bill

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
Occupation
Semi-Retired Electrician
Well you are so so wrong. You need to claim your company and sign up, no payment necessary unless you choose other services.

Here is the big caveat.
When you Sign up you agree to recorded phone calls. Ok so what. Well you provide a phone number for your company and what is shown on the Porch add is a new number that is forwarded to the number of you company. When the Porch customer calls the number provided you get caller ID of the customer . YOU HAVE NO IDEA THAT THAT CALL IS BEING RECORDED. After all you gave consent. So now you have no idea if any call you get is being recorded.

No he is not "so wrong"! They have since been "spanked" and changed (supposedly) how they operate. True you didn't have to pay to be listed on the site. But what was happening was they were putting contractors/electricians on the site with a phone number. It may or may not have been the correct phone number. But in either case, when someone called the number it was transferred to someone else that was paying to be listed. The problem was that the customer had no idea that who they thought they were contacting was someone else.

I saw this first hand and also know of several that contacted them to complain. They (Porch) promised to change that and claimed they didn't realize they were doing anything wrong.:roll:

They were luring customers in with legitimate contractor names which some might even know/heard of but a totally different contractor was reaping the benefits. There was no disclaimer stating that who the customer called might not be who they reached.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
If you were just swapping fan for fan you would probably pocket $15-20 after all expenses.
The thing I would want to know is, do they give a price for the work or are you just going to compete against the other 3 EC's for the bid?
That's it in a nut shell. If you are at a point in your life where making $15-20 per job is what's going to feed your family - well then you have to do what you have to do.

This is strictly my opinion and I'm not casting disparaging remarks toward anyone but IMHO working as a sub for HD or Lowes gives the impression that you're a bottom feeder and you work cheap & dirty. From my own experience I've worked on jobs where subs like kitchen cabinet installers were hired by homeowners, came in and installed their cabinets in record time, didn't care about coordinating with other trades or whether your wires were where they were supposed to be or not. They're taking jobs so cheap that spending a few minutes more on a job results in a loss. Personally speaking, I wouls stay away.
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
That's it in a nut shell. If you are at a point in your life where making $15-20 per job is what's going to feed your family - well then you have to do what you have to do.

This is strictly my opinion and I'm not casting disparaging remarks toward anyone but IMHO working as a sub for HD or Lowes gives the impression that you're a bottom feeder and you work cheap & dirty. From my own experience I've worked on jobs where subs like kitchen cabinet installers were hired by homeowners, came in and installed their cabinets in record time, didn't care about coordinating with other trades or whether your wires were where they were supposed to be or not. They're taking jobs so cheap that spending a few minutes more on a job results in a loss. Personally speaking, I wouls stay away.

I have known a fair number of small businesses that operate in a similar fashion. You might be surprised to find out just how profitable such a business can be if they are really, really good at a few tasks.

I used a siding guy that was a friend of my brothers. He did mostly new construction for GCs, but also took some side jobs doing existing homes. He was very quite inexpensive compared to everyone else I talked with. Was very upfront with me about the time frame involved. He told me it would be done within a few weeks but no way to tell when exactly. I found out he had started when I came home one night from work and about 1/3 of the house was sided. A few days later when I got home it was done.

This guy did not even have a yellow pages ad. Had a magnetic sign on his truck, apparently because there is some kind of state law says he had to ID his vehicles in some way.

Not having to spend a lot of time marketing yourself is a huge deal if you can screen out the chaff calls. It eats up an enormous amount of most small business owner's time and they do not even realize it, and most small businesses are very bad at marketing.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
...impression that you're a bottom feeder and you work cheap & dirty.

well, you are doing work where there isn't any money.

if you look at the stuff home dipsnit offers and their flat rate install
prices, and back off the HD profit off the top, and the material cost....

there is no money left after that.

a ceiling fan install for $89? so, they get a quarter or a third, you spend $30
on stuff, including fuel, and you make $30 for an hours work. and spend an
hour getting there to do it.

$15 an hour? around here, the home dipsnit labor pool in the parking lot
is $100 a day minimum. you'd make more as a day laborer in the parking
lot than as a licensed contractor....
 

73cj5

Member
Got another call today from them.

It is not a subcontract with rates as I am told by them.

Said homeowner walks into Lowes and needs help with an install. Department manager looks up contractor in their CPU and gives them your contact info.

Customer calls you for quote. Work is then between you and customer.

Porch verifies licensing and insurance and monitors performance. Basically prequalification of your services.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Got another call today from them.

It is not a subcontract with rates as I am told by them.

Said homeowner walks into Lowes and needs help with an install. Department manager looks up contractor in their CPU and gives them your contact info.

Customer calls you for quote. Work is then between you and customer.

Porch verifies licensing and insurance and monitors performance. Basically prequalification of your services.
It's hard to believe Lowe's does something for nothing. What's in it for them ?
 
Yea and if you sign up you agree to recorded phone calls from the customer although you have no idea what calls come from porch or anyone else.

So for all you know is any incoming call is being recorded.

I have tested this. If you call Yourself with the unique number they provide to the customer. It is forwarded to your company phone , tells the customer they maybe recorded for quality. ....Yada yada. . However when you pick up the call you have no indication that you might be recorded.

That might be ok in some states but certainly not in ca.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Yea and if you sign up you agree to recorded phone calls from the customer although you have no idea what calls come from porch or anyone else.

So for all you know is any incoming call is being recorded.

I have tested this. If you call Yourself with the unique number they provide to the customer. It is forwarded to your company phone , tells the customer they maybe recorded for quality. ....Yada yada. . However when you pick up the call you have no indication that you might be recorded.

That might be ok in some states but certainly not in ca.

Those are known as "single-party" states; only one party has to agree to the call being recorded. "Dual" or more correctly, "multi-party" states require that everyone be notified if a call is being recorded.

This dilemma is why you should never agree to do an install on a security system that adds audio to video; you can run afoul of your state's wiretapping laws. Central stations can likewise get in hot water if they are in a single-party state and a client is in a multi-party state. Parents check in on the kids, see a wild party in progress and start complaining to the other parents. Whoops! no, you are frequently NOT allowed to record audio even in your own home! Other parents file criminal/civil cases, much unhappiness ensues.
 
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