Has anyone in the USA been approached by them.

I have gotten to emails saying that I signed up for the lead service.

I never did.

Anyone else contacted by them?

Harris,

Last week I received an email from Eventective, and I haven't signed up with them either. They claimed to have a lead for a beef producers meeting in my area that had thousands to spend on entertainment. They wanted me to pay for the lead. Since I'd never heard of them, I did not pursue it.

Has anyone worked with this organization before?

Read this before you decide:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/archive/index.php/t-119497.html

Thanks...

I am getting these too and I did some research.

I have found a lot of people in the same boat.
Never signing up and getting these so called "leads".

I have found many people who have actually sent them money and not one person has ever received a response from anyone.
Not a 'no' or a 'yes'.
I searched and searched and no one has said they got a gig out of it.

One guy said he tried to hire himself from there and ended up getting replies from several other people before he even got his request in the mail.

Someone else noted that there is google ads on the webpage for other event websites.
Sounds pretty stupid to have your competitors on your own website.

This has scam written all over it.

Randi

I've heard similar things here. Do some searching (on yahoo and google at least) and you'll find these guys (eventective) have lots of people mad at them, but no success stories, no good references, and they seem to be trying to nickle and dime people with $2.50 leads, PLUS upgrading your listing. Good luck!

Something to remember is that someone logs onto Evenective, puts down what they're looking for, and, based on your website's info, you are sent a link to the lead.

Based on my Evil Hypnotist Monkey, I've gotten a ton of offers for groups looking for hypnotists.

The event planners - or event throwers - haven't asked for your specific info. They;ve just enterede some search criteria. It could be as simpel as Looking for Entertainment? Yes No. They click Yes and BOOM, they offer it to you.

It IS a lead.

It's just not very specific.

And it's probably worth as much to you as hanging outside of a party supply store and asking anyone coming out with a bag, "Hey, need a magician?"

Actually...

Folks:

I work in a marketing capacity at Eventective and would like to respond the concerns you raise. I regret that this forum only recently came to my attention, as some of your posts are already a few weeks old. But I hope the following information is useful:

--Please be advised that Eventective is most definitely *NOT* a scam. We have been in business for 5 years and are dedicated to aggregating content so individuals planning events of all types can find the venues and vendors they need under one "roof" online. We are but one of a number of companies providing this service, but we have more site traffic than our competitors.
--There is no charge to be on our site, unless you choose to upgrade your listing to have more visibility to the 1.2 million people who use our site every month.
--We do charge a nominal fee ($2.50) for leads generated by users of our site. But if you purchase a lead from us that turns out to be invalid, we *AUTOMATICALLY REFUND* the lead fee as a credit that can be used for future lead purchases. Where else do you have an opportunity to pursue new business for as little as $2.50 with no risk?
--There is no charge to you for consumers who come to our site and want to contact you directly, and you can also buy bundles of leads at a discount.

We'd welcome an opportunity to try our service, and would be willing to extend $25 in free lead credit to members of this forum. Please email me directly on dsholes@eventective.com if you are interested.

Thanks for this opportunity to respond.

Thanks for your reply, but there are more concerns that have been voiced in this and other topics.

Why are so many magicians (and photographers and DJs) getting "spammed" with your event leads when they haven't signed up for anything? It's obvious there's some type of automated handling that adds to your database.

I myself started getting your emails and had never signed up for anything with you. Where did you get my email address and why did you assume I wanted emails from you?

Why aren't you listed or accredited with the BBB?

What about putting vendor's photos on your website without their permission?
(http://henryblogs.blogspot.com/2008/11/eventectivecom-is-scam.html) Two photo forums, one DJ forum, and another cake decorator forum had similar posts!

Lots of posts have people who paid for the leads, but got nothing in the end, like this one: http://start.prodj.com/showthread.php?p=432666

I can't seem to find many instances of people getting gigs and being satisfied from using your website.

It just seems there's lots of negative criticism on the web concerning eventective, even though I've never used you. Maybe you can clear up some of these concerns for us!

Dear "Dearwiseone":

Thanks for your post. You are correct that it is possible to find criticism of our company on the web. Some of these criticisms are justified--and in those cases we listen and make improvements as quickly as possible--while others are based on misperceptions and/or inaccurate data. So I will try to clear up the misperceptions in your post while also acknowledging that you do have valid criticisms of our company:
--All of the information in Eventective database is fact-based information that is available in the public domain. We deliberately do *not* aggregate information that is proprietary. We do take screen shots of companies' web sites, but this has been ruled by the courts to be in the public domain. This is a common, and perfectly legitimate, business practice. Nonetheless, when a business complains that information on our site is proprietary, we remove the information, even if we believe that our use of it is legal and justified. When you do see photos, descriptions, and other information on our site, it has been put there by the listing owners or with their advance permission.
--Many of the businesses that receive the thousands of leads generated by our site every day appreciate having a targeted, low-cost source for new sales. Any business that does not want to receive leads from our company has an option to opt-out at any time.
--One of the biggest challenges we face is getting consumers to (a) provide details about their event and (b) to respond in a timely manner to businesses receiving their lead. This is an ongoing challenge for us as well as our competitors. We are constantly testing different approaches to maximize response, and at the end of the day we automatically refund lead purchases when the consumer does not respond.
--For examples of businesses that are using our service with success, please go here: http://www.eventective.com/tmplt/tmplt.aspx?cmsuid=testimonial.

Again, I would like to offer free leads to any users of this forum so they can try Eventective for themselves. If you would like $50 in free lead credits, please email me at dsholes@eventective.com.

I was just notified that the link cited above is broken. To see examples from businesses who are using our site with success, please go to: http://www.eventective.com/tmplt/tmplt.a......timonial instead. I accidentally inserted an additional period in the URL.

I'd like to point out that I jumped on board with eventective and decided to spend $80 on an annual program. I never have any problem trying out new programs like this. If they don't work, you don't do it again. I should add that I have used many other lead generation/online booking/directory services online. Some have been tremendously successful, some stink.

I have only been using the program for about 3 or 4 months, but so far (and granted, it's early), it has been - without a doubt - worthless.

VERY FEW of the leads that come to my attention are qualified, so there's no point in even buying them. They're people looking for venues, caterers, etc. I've had at least one that specified they were looking for entertainment. That is, until I actually contacted them and they said they were sort of forced to click the box in order to get further. To eventective's credit, they DO issue a refund for money spent on false leads. The problem is, not many of the leads are qualified to be sent to me to begin with.

In addition, my agents constantly get leads with my name on them that are for events taking place in their region which is 700 miles from me. They are mostly small events without a budget to fly in a non-local entertainer.

Finally, they offered me $20 in free leads for ordering on the spot - so you can imagine the sour taste in my mouth to see them offer $50 in free leads here to people who aren't even buying a program with them.

Unless something changes, I certainly won't be using their services after this year.

I do not know how they are collecting our email address, but I ignore them.