Forced Partnership

I told Spectora technical support “You folks need to remember that real estate agents are our friends, not our clients.” By the way, there is now another ticket open called “Fixle Escalation.” I told them they need to address this ASAP or they will start losing clients.

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I’ll check them out. There are several including George’s that have my attention.

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I have used HomeGauge for 16 years. Best Product out there at the time…Then they were bought by American Family Insurance and it (my software) became a platform to sell policies…They finally, after we HG inspectors told them they needed to back off, they at least made it more of an opt-in for MY Customers when retrieving their reports…then American Family sold HG to Spectora…(or something like that)…Frankly I felt like I was married to HomeGauge so I stuck it out…Now that Spectora is pulling this crap… I am finding (that selling my company as well as the HomeGauge lifetime lic.)…ie Recent Retirement (officially announced just today) more enjoyable than ever.

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I cannot believe these deadbeats think they’re going to pull this crap and run off with my prepaid subscription fees. I am actually angry at this point. This is unacceptable. I think we collectively need to consider if we have standing for an injunction to stop them in their tracks while this gets sorted out in court. I’ll be driving to my local courthouse since they’re going to try keeping my money for their pile of crap spamware. Entitled corporate maggots. There needs to be consequences for this stuff.

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I think y’all missed the core of the issue with Spectora just a little bit. Those that have been vocal, including myself, do not want the pop-up at all. It’s not about the insulting rewards points. It’s not about what they might do later. And it’s not inspectors being paranoid about data. To rub salt on the wound, giving us one week of notice right at the start of our busy season was just disrespectful. These are our businesses and our vendor decided that they are entitled to our customers. This defies common business sense and I think that they will crater under it if they don’t back down. You’re right that it sucks to switch software, but you’re underestimating the power of anger, vindication, and conviction. Unlike these new investors, many of us don’t set aside all human decency to chase a dollar. Many of us are not going to be run over by a business that we pay for a service. Speaking for myself, if they had just raised my monthly subscription fee about 20%, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. I don’t believe in spamming customers. I do not care what justification they have. I don’t want it and it’s my business. I started a business so that I call the shots. I don’t bend to the will of agents and I surely won’t roll over for a software vendor.

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I was going to suggest to them they could offer a “Subscription with ads” and a “Subscription without ads.” :sweat_smile:

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You guys are quick to dismiss the Spectora “points” but let me tell you, I have around 3 gazillion Marriott Bonvoy points that allows me a late checkout when desired and in the 8-10 years that I have been a member I have taken advantage of that little perk maybe two times. Just recently I received an email from Marriott stating that I can receive 200,000 points (this sentence is true) for every person I send to them who applies for a Marriott credit card!

So, if it’s not too much of an issue, I would really appreciate if some of you can head over to Marriott.com and apply. TIA

Oh, and don’t be so quick to discount “point” systems.

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How will they know you sent us? :thinking:

That’s the weird thing Spectrora doesn’t seem to understand. With technology evolving at such a rapid pace, creating custom software is getting easier and easier. The only hang up doing your own tech support.

But I’ve seen 6 or 7 “new” software vendors pop up in the last 6 weeks. Plus now I have seen a few people say they just going to build their own. Even my wife brought up last night it wouldn’t be that difficult to hire someone to build it out. Then my kid could figure out the server (he already built a game server). I get a dozen emails a day offering to custom build an app for me.

Spectora was already facing being obsolete in a few years without major improvements.

Instead, they decided to sign their own death certificate.

Remember Circuit City? They were once the most successful tech retailer in the country., valued at I think it was 12 billion dollars to out of business in a very short period of time. Why? They didn’t pay attention to the consumer. Spectora is small potatoes to Circuit City, yet making the same mistake.

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I had to go through my email trash to retrieve the pertinent info and I misspoke, I could receive up to 200,000 bonus points per year, 40,000 per for each friend. I have a unique URL https://www.referyourchasecard.com/252u/WT28RCBIEB

Feel free to flag this post :grinning_face:

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If you leave Spectora, do you still have rights to your past inspection reports? Wasn’t it an issue a few months ago with Spectora claiming that you have no ownership to the files and customer information? Or am I thinking of a different company?

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Clients should still have access. Inspectors should have auto backup turned on so all their reports are backed up to their personal or business Google Drive. The only question would be how an inspector could access the HTML version of the report once they lose access to the software. The only way I can think of is if they have a “client view” type of link saved somewhere. That would be something we have to do manually. However, it really isn’t necessary to have access to the HTML version of past reports, as long as you have the PDF.

For me personally, I will also pay for at least one year, maybe two years, of access even after I have switched. This will make it much easier if I have to look up some legacy inspections or data.

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What was the deal a few months ago? Wasn’t that Spectora?

You could be thinking of the ReportHost fiasco, where ReportHost sued Spectora for providing supposedly patented narratives to their clients. Spectora settled and part of the settlement was the removal of inspector access to all reports that were created using a template that had any of those dumb ass “patented narratives.” I honestly don’t remember how it ended up. I never lost access to anything that I know of.

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That’s the one.

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I tweaked my comment after you quoted it. The reports didn’t even have to have the supposedly patented narrative in them to be affected. They only had to be created from a template that had the narrative. So most of the actual affected reports never even had the narrative.

I’m getting SPAM from software companies I’ve never heard of offering to help me with the Spectora fiasco. I blocked out the name, since I know nothing about them, and I don’t want anyone to think I’m promoting them.

But it’s interesting how much of a wildfire Spectora’s imminent suicide has become.

Switch to Software You’ll Love
Streamline your home inspection business with (company withheld) Backed by 40+ years of real estate software expertise, (company) features cutting-edge tools designed to save you time while delivering the high-quality reports your clients expect.

We make switching easy with:

What we don’t do:

  • Charge hidden fees

  • Market to your clients

We built (company) to make your life easier, using AI to shave time off every inspection without overstepping-you get the speed of modern tech, but the report is still 100% yours.

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Yeah, they are like sharks, or ambulance or storm chasers lol. But, there is probably several thousand home inspectors suddenly looking for new software, so gotta strike while the iron is hot!

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