Broker Services in Alton IL ~ Avoid
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At the encouragement of management at our firm, a colleague and I purchased a pre-qualified call list from Broker Services in Alton, Illinois.
Bottom line: Total waste of money.
Now I understand the vagaries of using call lists but the premise behind this particular list is almost fraudulent. The sales pitch says the list is derived from contact response to an internet and/or direct mailing in which they expressed dissatisfaction with their current advisor/broker. The list was generated from data compiled within the past month. All numbers reportedly screened for the Do Not Call lists.
Well, we started dialing upon receipt of the list. No one we reached said the responded to any sort of query. And some had no advisor/broker whatsoever because they had no money. A significant slice of numbers were disconnected and when we scrubbed the list against the DNC List we discovered another slice were indeed on the DNC list.
The kicker was when working down the list I came across the name and number for another associate at the firm. I asked him and he replied he and his wife had not received any queries or responded to any solicitation of information. Additionally, he reported the telephone number listed for him was one he disconnected several years ago.
We called Broker Services to complain. Their response was "the list is not perfect..." They offered to give us two "new" leads for every disconnected/DNC List number. Big deal.
We took this up with management since they recommended this service. Because Broker Services is on the approved vendor list, they may try to get them removed from that list.
I believe you and I may have purchased a list from the same company. My BOA sent out intro letters last week to some of the people on the list. I spent some time on Tuesday running around my city ringing those doorbells. The very first person I spoke with said they were broke. The only other person I spoke with said she hadn't responded to any sort of postcard, internet ad, etc. Some of the other houses I skipped because, well, let's just say they weren't the nicest houses.
I started doing some cold calls yesterday. Out of the 25 calls I made, 19 of them had numbers disconnected. Two of them were fax machines. A few no answers, so I'll assume those numbers were good. And finally, my favorite, one rang to a detective's desk phone. I'm probably now a murder suspect.
The only positive I can see out of it is that the NAMES at least seem to be correct. The strange thing is that when I do a reverse search on www.anywho.com the numbers match what the list says. I'm not sure how to take that one. I haven't yet contacted the people I bought the list from. I'm going to give it another couple of days to see how many more disconnects I get. I figure at least I have names to mail letters to and try to follow up in person if I can reach them by phone.
Just FYI, Broker Services is on the list of companies that Jones DOES NOT recommend to us.
How is this for timing!
They called me today.
They where trying to sell me, current clients of ML over $1 million that are unhappy and mad at ML.
My question was how did you get the names of ML clients to ask them the questions?
I declined.
I purchased a list from them a couple of years ago and challenged the charge with my credit card company and got the money refunded. Funny thing is that they still call me!! If you paid for it with a credit card, just challenge it and tell the credit card company that you didn't get what they promised.
Update.
I completed the 171 dials on my part of the list. 53 numbers or 30 percent were disconnected, not in service, fax machines or on the Federal Do Not Call List.
In addition, one person, who according to Broker Services, replied to the Broker Service query within the last month, has been dead for four years.
What a waste of time...
I used to work for this so called company , and I will tell all of you right now "DO NOT TRUST WHAT IS SAID" . A script is used when a person first start there and then develops a personnal dialog...We were told to tell the broker what they wanted to hear. . It's not on the line of fraud , I believe it is fraud...any questions please feel free to contact me
I used to work for this so called company , and I will tell all of you right now “DO NOT TRUST WHAT IS SAID” . A script is used when a person first start there and then develops a personnal dialog…We were told to tell the broker what they wanted to hear. . It’s not on the line of fraud , I believe it is fraud…any questions please feel free to contact me
I recently was called by a person from Broker Services, so as a prospecting tool I want to make sure they aren’t selling me numbers without the research. It is very hard for a company to claim that they know so much about these people without being able to capitalize on it. The rep told me twice, “all it takes is for one to pay off.” 1 out of 40, which he is somewhat right. If you land a client that has $200k in a retirement account I’d say it is worth my time, but how much of their data is true? I still don’t know if it is worth my time or money, but after reading the reviews even though they are back in 2011; I think Broker Services business model hasn’t changed.
This firm is fraudulent to say the least. I unfortunately fell for the same sales speech. Of the 112 names, 79 were on the do not call, 9 were clients of my firm already, 8 were do not call or do not mail. I ended up with 19 names.
This is a joke. It is unethical and this company should be put out of business.