Zillow Group, Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:You cannot deny responsibility for harming me by simply stating that you use a proprietary algorithm to estimate a very complex real world market.  I have clicked on the button on your website that says, "I disagree with my Zestimate" and spoken to at least two realtors now, that I was connected to using this method through your company, and both of them have offered opinions that disagree with your algorithm. That means several experts that your company connected me with are disagreeing with you. Furthermore, I've had an actual estimation of the house conducted that disagrees with it. Just stating that something is computer driven does not absolve you responsibility for hurting an actual person. I realize you wish to remain a blank corporate face but what your business does has an impact on real people. Please respond to my request to speak with a supervisor about this matter (Heather S. continues to ignore this) and update or remove my listing immediately. You are actually damaging my ability to sell this home and potentially costing me thousands of dollars. Sincerely,[redacted]

This individual has been in communication with our Consumer Care Team over the weekend (see attached transcript). To recap, we were able to get this individual's listing posted and confirmed they were able edit the listing from their desired account. Regarding a number to call, we currently do not operate a centralized live call center. The fastest way to reach our team is typically through our Help Center via email or by voicemail. We do our best to address all requests as quickly as possible in the order we receive them, but the time frame does vary based on volume.  Additionally, we offered to follow up by phone during normal business hours to discuss any remaining concerns and provided a direct phone number of a Consumer Care representative who can assist them in the future. If this individual needs further assistance, we encourage them to contact us at the number provided during our previous correspondence or to reply to the email.

We have taken down the active For Sale listing provided by this individual's real estate agent as requested. The property status shows as "off market" which means the property is not for sale or for rent at this time. As a reminder, property data appears on Zillow regardless of if the home is...

actively listed for sale or for rent.We display property information on Zillow to provide consumers with transparent real estate information. We receive this information from public records gathered by a third-party data collector from your county and from user-provided data.  Our mission is to empower consumers with information and tools to make smart decisions about homes, real estate and mortgages. Additionally, as stated in our Terms of Use, "For materials you post or otherwise provide to Zillow Group in connection with the Services (your "Submission"), you grant Zillow Group an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free worldwide license to (a) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, prepare derivative works of or incorporate into other works, and translate your Submission, in connection with the Services or in any other media." For these reasons, we do not remove entire property pages from Zillow.
We provide homeowners with the opportunity to edit a number of facts that appear on their property page. By editing your home facts directly, a homeowner can ensure the home information is as up-to-date and accurate as possible but we do not remove entire pages from our database or remove public record information. 
For more information, our Terms of Use can be found here: http://www.zillow.com/corp/Terms.htm.

Complaint: [redacted]
I...

am rejecting this response because: They mislead paying customers by not making clear that canceling a contract still means they will continue getting billed month to month. And when you try to contact a representative about it, they do not get back to you. Their system does not allow you to delete your credit card information. Only a sales associate can do that. They did not provide me with a copy of the contract when I first opened my account. I have sent Michelle an email regarding that and she never responded. They have shady practices so to trick people into signing contracts they do not need to be in. They can play on technicalities all they want but it doesn't make it ethically right.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I was never contacted. I'm going to send these help tickets to google and see if they will de list your site our remove it from top placement since it has so many glitches and you guys dont care to fix them.Sincerely,[redacted]

To Whom It May Concern:If [redacted] would like to discuss her cancellation and our policy further, she can contact [email protected]. I've also included a link to our terms and conditions, which [redacted] agreed to below.http://www.zillow.com/corp/SATerms.htm

In reviewing our records, this individual is actively working with our Consumer Care Team to on this issue (Ticket #[redacted]). We are currently awaiting a reply since we need for more information from them in order to get the listing manually posted. We would encourage this individual to reply back...

to our Consumer Care Team's email so we can continue to assist them further.

In checking our database, we were unable to find this phone number posted anywhere on our site. After further investigation, we believe someone may have been manually inputting the number into the contact forms on the property page and submitting inquiries. We have put a block in our database that...

will prevent anyone from submitting any new inquiries with this phone number. Thank you for bringing this to our attention and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Aloha Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. As long as they...

agreed to cancel the $1,400 fee for cancelling the contract. Thank you for taking care of this matter, really appreciate it!Sincerely, [redacted]

The original desired resolution for this complaint was to update the square footage for this home, which has already been completed. The rejection reason addresses a separate issue but we're happy to provide additional information.  Regarding the Zestimate, this is an estimate calculated by a computer-generated algorithm. As a result, we cannot manually change or remove individual Zestimates. The Zestimate is calculated from public and user-submitted data for each individual home, taking into account items such as home facts (beds, baths, sq ft), sale history, and tax history. Past sales data and tax history are provided by public records and will not be removed from our site.  Most upgrade information is not in the public records and is not easily quantifiable. We do not know about home updates and remodels unless they have been reported to the local tax assessor, so these items are not used in Zestimate calculations. While we do utilize user-submitted data that is measurable (e.g., additional bedroom count, bath count, and square footage), there is no way for us to systematically gather and verify the type of remodel or build information where the value is based upon how the final product appeals to the buyer. Because of this, the algorithm can't use that information. Although Zillow strives to provide accurate estimates, the Zestimate is meant only to serve as a starting point in determining a home's value. It is not intended to replace a comparative market analysis or an appraisal, as they can take into account market intricacies that the Zestimate cannot. We encourage buyers, sellers, and homeowners to supplement Zillow's information by doing other research such as:* Getting a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a real estate agent* Getting an appraisal from a professional appraiser* Visiting the house (whenever possible) We understand that some homes may be unique in ways that are not well captured by existing data and our current Zestimate model. To provide more information on a home, we encourage homeowners to include an Owner’s Estimate in the Zestimate Details section of a property page. This provides the opportunity for the homeowner to explain what they feel your home is worth given its unique features. While we monitor customer feedback for systematic issues with the Zestimate formula, we do not change or remove individual Zestimates in response to customer feedback. Reports of possible issues with Zestimates are recorded to help with efforts to improve the algorithm as a whole in the future. To learn more about the Zestimate, please visit this link: http://www.zillow.com/zestimate/.

Zillow receives sales information from public records gathered by a third-party data collector from each county and from agent-provided submissions. On occasion, this information can get misreported to us which looks to be the case here. After verifying with county records, we have removed the...

erroneous sale transaction and updated the last sales data in our database: [redacted]  With regards to the Zestimate, this is an estimate that is automatically calculated by a computer-­generated algorithm using the data available for each home. The algorithm uses public and user­-submitted data, taking into account items such as home facts, price history and tax history. As a result, we cannot manually change or remove an individual Zestimate.Although Zillow strives to provide accurate home valuations, the Zestimate value is meant only to serve as a starting point in determining a home's value. The Zestimate is not intended to replace a comparative market analysis or an appraisal, as they can take into account market intricacies that the Zestimate cannot. Zillow makes this clear on each property page and our website (http://www.zillow.com/zestimate/).People ultimately have more fundamental reasons that drive what they choose to buy or not buy. Our data shows that half of all sales are generally above the Zestimate.  Zillow encourages buyers, sellers, and homeowners to supplement our information by doing other research such as getting a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a real estate agent; getting an appraisal from a professional appraiser; visiting the house (when possible). We understand that some homes may be unique in ways that are not well captured by existing data and our current Zestimate model. To provide more information on a home, we encourage homeowners to include their estimated value by providing an owner's estimate in the Zestimate Details section of the property page. This provides the opportunity to explain what they feel the home is worth given its unique features.While we monitor customer feedback for system wide issues with the algorithm, we cannot change or remove individual Zestimates in response to customer feedback. Reports of possible issues with Zestimates are recorded to help with efforts to improve the Zestimate algorithm as a whole in the future. For more information on the Zestimate, we encourage all of our users to visit this link: http://www.zillow.com/zestimate/.

We recently implemented a new verification process for manually posted listings on our site to help improve listing quality. Once a listing is submitted, it can take some time for our Listing Verification Team to review and approve the listing. There has been some delays with this new system site...

wide and have been working to get listings reviewed and posted as quickly as possible. In reviewing this individual's listing, it appears that our team has already been in communication with this individual throughout the process and was able to successfully post this listing today. The home appears actively For Sale By Owner on Zillow: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/123-Dawn-Dr-Washington-MO-63090/6750...⇄ If this individual needs assistance in the future, we encourage them to contact our Consumer Care Team via our Help Center at www.zillow.com/help.

Complaint: [redacted]We are rejecting Zillow's response because Zillow is not being truthful. The purpose of their website is to offer information about homes for sale and they charge a fee for realtor subscriptions. Since our home has never been for sale in 35 years and is not now for sale, and we have not subscribed to their service, there is no logical business reason for Zillow to insist on publishing any information whatsoever about us or our property. When Zillow representatives speak about "public" information, they mean they have specifically gathered information on us and our home from tax records and other government sources that are not readily available without some specific digging into city and county websites and which do not appear in general search engine results. They then take this information and prominently display it in such a manner that it turns up in the Number One position in broad search engine results when looking for our name and/or address. They publish this information for their own profit. This is does not happen with tax records. Most worrisome is the degree of disclosure they make about our home because by doing so they are causing concern for our personal safety, and they have been notified of this.  We consider their use of our information to be theft and to be very dangerous, and they have been notified to remove any and all information related to us and our home from their website as well as the websites of their subsidiary, Trulia. Zillow's insistence that we engage and pay for a lawyer in order to relay this request for removal of information is simply a smokescreen to try to duck the issue and make us go away. They have already been notified in writing that we are not now nor ever have been subscribers of their service and we do NOT authorize the use of our information on their for-profit websites. We insist our request be honored.Sincerely,[redacted]

Because the specifics of the Zestimate calculation are proprietary, we cannot provide more information on an individual Zestimate or specific reasons for an individual change. This estimate is the product of a computer-generated program. It may fluctuate when any new information is made available or if there are updates to the Zestimate algorithm model. It's likely that when this individual posted their home for sale, they edited some of the facts about the home. As a result, this triggers the Zestimate algorithm to recalculate an estimate based off the new facts. Again, we would like to stress that the Zestimate is not an appraisal and we make every effort to educate our users that the Zestimate is only an estimate.  It is a starting point and does not consider all the market intricacies that can determine the actual price a house will sell for. We make this clear to all users on our site (http://www.zillow.com/zestimate/).  We have already shared this individual's feedback to our developers but we do not have an option to manually change or remove an individual Zestimate in the manner this individual is requesting.Regarding the yellow banner on the top of this listing, this banner was added as part of our new listing verification process and is currently present on all listings that are manually posted to Zillow by an owner or an agent.  Our goal is to educate potential buyers and renters to make informed decisions about listings they are interested in, and to provide information on how to identify a scam or other suspicious listing as they correspond with listing owners.  Currently, we do not have a feature to remove this banner from listings.Lastly, Zillow's business is primarily funded through advertising as outlined in our Terms of Use Section 4 (https://www.zillow.com/corp/Terms.htm). This allows us to offer services like providing For Sale By Owner listings to consumers free of charge. If this individual no longer wishes to have their property listed For Sale By Owner on Zillow, we ask that they please let us know and we can cancel the active listing.Beyond this, there is no further action we can take at this time.

We have removed the "Price Cut" text from this listing. The change can be viewed here (http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/[redacted]-Sag-Harbor-NY-[redacted]_zpid/?vie...⇄ and in the attached screenshot.

Zillow receives property information from public records provided by third-party data providers and from user-provided submissions. Property pages are not managed by Zillow directly. On occasion, this information can get misreported to us which looks to be the case here. This is why we provide...

homeowners with tools to edit a number of facts that appear on a property page. However, we have gone ahead and updated the home facts mentioned within this complaint on behalf of the homeowner as requested. If this individual needs to make additional changes in the future, they can learn more about editing home facts here: https://zillow.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/212561918-How-do-I-correct-the-bedr...⇄

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Peter failed to make any contact between my request to cancel and the date that I was forced to escalate this to the Zillow resolution team; in additiom, said terms and conditions state quite clearly that a "month-to-month" which I was told I was on may be canceled at any time.  
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: 
In response to the comments from Zillow please note that an email explanation received by Zillow representative Heather P dated December 21, 9:15 AM PST indicated that my home was placed in a a different town in New Jersey "due to system error", thus resulting in misleading and inaccurate information of the value of my home in their Zestimate. (All email correspondence from Heather was provided in my complaint). I am in the process of selling my house. Since many buyers consult Zillow for the location and pricing of homes, I am being financially compromised by Zillow's mistake in devaluing my home due to their error. As a retired senior citizen, my home is my most important asset. 
I am asking that, since this matter is solely Zillow's mistake, they should immediately fix it.
I am told by Zillow that the information contained in Zestimate page is public information. If so, Zillow should not inaccurately manipulate this information to the detriment of the public. They should be responsible for taking all necessary actions to ensure it is accurate. 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
The business Zillow has continuously put me off and made multiple excuses with invalid cause, they have yet to offer any solution to me. Please reopen this...

matter of the case. Thank you for your help regarding this. 
Sincerely,[redacted]