Replacement and Credit Policies: What the Fine Print Actually Says

Three Policy Types You Will Run Into

Roofing lead and appointment vendors fall into three rough buckets on this issue. The first is a free, automatic replacement guarantee with a stated window: The Lead Giants publishes a 24-hour replacement guarantee on its pricing page, a specific commitment you can hold them to. The second is credit-only, no-cash-refund, the pattern documented at HomeAdvisor, where bad leads convert to account credit rather than money back. The third is a dispute process: Minyona's published FAQ walks through turnaround time and how a bad lead gets resolved case by case rather than under an automatic rule.

None of these is inherently a scam. But they are not the same policy wearing different words, and the difference changes who eats the cost when a lead or appointment does not pan out.

Why "Credit Only, No Cash Refunds" Is Weaker Than It Sounds

HomeAdvisor's policy issues credits, not cash, for leads a contractor disputes successfully. That sounds reasonable until you are trying to leave the platform: a credit only has value if you keep buying, which is exactly the leverage a credit-only policy hands the vendor. Pair that with early-termination fees that can run up to 30% of the remaining contract, and cancellation fees that contractor complaints tracked by the BBB and a documented lawsuit writeup describe as exceeding $1,500, and the real cost of walking away from a bad relationship gets steep fast.

The lesson is not "avoid credit-only policies at all costs." It is: know before you buy whether a bad month leaves you with cash back, a credit you are locked into using, or a fight.

What an Unprotected No-Show Actually Costs You

The math is direct. If one in five appointments you paid for is a no-show and your vendor does not replace it, your real cost per booked job runs roughly 20% higher than the sticker price suggests, before you even factor in close rate. That is the entire argument for a real replacement guarantee: it keeps the price you see close to the price you actually pay. Our cost-per-booked-job guide walks through the full formula if you want to run these numbers against your own vendor.

Five Questions to Ask Before You Trust a Replacement Policy

1. Is the replacement automatic, or do I have to file a dispute and wait for a decision?
2. What is the claim window? The Lead Giants publishes 24 hours; ask any vendor who does not state one directly.
3. What counts as a valid reason: wrong number, no answer, not a real prospect, all three, or something narrower?
4. Is it a credit toward a future purchase, or can it offset an invoice I already owe?
5. Is there a cap on how many replacements I can claim in a month?

Get these five answers in writing before your first invoice, not after your first dispute.

The Cleanest Policy Is One That Never Bills the No-Show

The simplest fix to a weak replacement policy is not negotiating a better one, it is buying from a model that does not bill you for a no-show in the first place. VA Horizon's roofing appointments are exclusive, double-confirmed, and on-criteria or they are not billed at all: a no-show never appears on your invoice, and weekly billing runs from logged, receipts-backed appointments you can check against what you actually received. That removes the dispute process entirely rather than making it faster.

Sources

The external data in this guide draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.

• The Lead Giants, roofing appointments pricing
• Hook Agency, HomeAdvisor reviews
• BBB, HomeAdvisor complaint profile
• RoofCalc.org, HomeAdvisor contractors want their money back
• Minyona, roofing leads pricing

FAQ