The Rental Guide Bait & Switch Scam Artists Vancouver, British Columbia

I had been searching for residential rental listings online, and as a result of having called about a particular listing that interested me, I came into contact with an agent of Rental Guide, who immediately began to pressure sell me on their "relocation services" meant to help me find the apartment I wanted as quickly and painlessly as possible. He cited all the problems that tend to go with searching for residential listings all on one's own without professional guidance and assistance by a company like Rental Guide.

I was told that all my efforts to search listings online via Craigslist or newspaper classifieds etc.. would not produce the same results as I would get if I used their service, since all their listings would be filtered and customized to suit my personal requirements and preferences AND that they were able to acquire listings that were exclusive and not available from any other source!

Both my husband and I were told that we would get our money back should we find the service unsatisfactory. This was stated to us, very clearly, by one of their agents at the front desk because of our hesitation to sign on and pay the fee right then and there. They practically bent themselves into pretzels trying to convince us to pay the fee... and to hurry the process.  We finally agreed that with a money back guarantee, there was absolutely no reason why we shouldn't at least  try their service.  Afterall, we have been desperate to find a suitable apartment or suite as soon as possible. So we signed on and paid the fee of $100 plus tax.

We were given a sheet of listings for that day along with an online user name & password to log on to their daily listings site. I was eager to start using their online listings page and began doing so immediately.  I spent a solid 6-8 hours, each and every day searching for listings using this Rental Guide service as well as some other sources especially Craigslist, Kijiji, etc.
I began to notice that ALL of the listings on our Rental Guide [paid] site were the very same one's I was finding on these other [free] sites. And there was nothing whatsoever "customized & exclusive" about the listings they were sending me.  To make things worse, there were MANY listings that were designated as "new" but were in fact, grossly outdated and many of these had already been rented, sometimes up to 2 months prior!

 Other problems included wrong contact information on listings. When trying to use the contact info on these listings, I discovered that phone numbers did not match the the right listings, emails were misprinted and there were many typos and errors in these listings. But things got even worse, I was actually met with hostility by landlords that I was able to contact because [as they related to me]... they were sick and tired of receiving continued numerous calls about rentals that either no longer existed, or NEVER HAD EXISTED in the first place. These people expressed anger at this Rental Guide service for apparently using their listings without their knowledge and permission. A few of them asked me for the company's phone number and then called them up to complain.  

Meanwhile I tried for over 10 days to  make any kind of progress at finding a decent lead for an apartment or suite using Rental Guide's search list and was completely unsuccessful. Listings that are not current, listings with errors and listings that lead to hostile contactees has consumed valuable time and energy, has caused us undue distress and deep discouragement with Rental Guide.

 I had called their office many times to complain, and I got someone to speak to on only 3 occasions. The first two conversations ended in a promise to resolve these issues. But the last conversation which took place today, Wednesday June 29, 2011, is what finally caused me to write up this report.  You see, after all the run around, the excuses, the fast dancing and the assurances that I got by their manipulative and fast talking agents...... I had yet another bad listing that I wasted  time trying to follow up on because again.... the contact info was incorrect. So I called their office and asked for that *refund* that was originally promised to us, because we had determined that we were NOT satisfied with their service afterall. After 10 consecutive days of searching their lists I was unable to find one decent lead for a rental..!!  

Their response was to make more excuses including  their ongoing computer problems..etc..etc.. and then they resorted to personal insults and blaming ie calling my online search practices and skills into question. They were not willing to take any responsibility whatsoever for these issues but instead became condescending and rude. They flatly refused to close out our account and give us a refund and then hissed something about reading the "fine print". The fact of their verbal assurances [right to our faces] that we would recieve a money back guarantee, went completely unacknowleged, was denied and buried while they called my husband and I liars.  We are senior citizens  I  believe that we have been manipulated, deceived and ultimately robbed by this company.  $100 may not be much to some but for others,  it can be a lot of money to lose for nothing.