A Great Concept but Totally Misrepresenting Itself – CallerSmart: Reverse Lookup Review

After downloading and having this app for a little over a month and subscribing to the premium service I have to say they are not words to correctly convey my level of disappointment. I saw it and download this app after applying for a loan through a phone app (which incidentally I advise everyone - NEVER DO THIS). Immediately I began receiving numerous calls and messages cleaning that I had loans approved for up to dollar amounts for above what my credit score could’ve realistically supported. So I was searching for a way to tell which ones were legit and which ones were scams and report them. So I immediately downloaded this app and I paid for premium service. I have to say my experience wasn’t bad the app works everything‘s fine it just doesn’t do what it represents itself to do at least by the way I understood it and what I felt I was led to expect from it. And referencing the other review on here that begins with the phrase FRUSTRATED, I have to agree and mirror that user experience exactly. As a collection of tools to help you manage your phone number I would give it up to 4 stars. But this app doesn’t come at you representing itself to be a collection of tools to help you manage privacy on your phone number. Instead it represents itself to be a reverse call look up service. To be clear a TRUE call look up service should be able to provide you comprehensive and accurate details concerning the number you are researching such as its origin, through which company it’s provisions by, current subscriber, type of line or service etc., generally as a free or low-end subscription fee offering. At a premium many of these services will provide you more in-depth info such as address, legal info, social media accounts, complaints, public records, etc. That is what I was looked my for and expecting. And if that is the kind of service you’re looking for let you LET ME STOP YOU RIGHT HERE. That is NOT what you’re going to get with this app. First of all I looked up many numbers, at least 10. Every single number I looked up maybe without exception gave me either useless information, cryptic irrelevant information, conflicting information or information that was all three. The app appears to rely solely upon community driven report data submitted by from other app users. Almost every number I looked up seemed to be a recycled number that apparently had changed hands several times. It was also my experience user submitted data was mostly vague, very brief, incomplete and lacked any details to give it any credibility. Every lookup returned 50/50 trust rating. I personally found it completely useless and frustrating. There appeared to be no way to determine which of the reports pertained to the current owners or operators of the number being researched. This is not what I was looking for. Now I do want to applaud this company for what they’re attempting to do because generally I like the idea of a community generated experiences database providing information whether yours was a common experience. But in my opinion for that to be successful there has to be a way to encourage the people leaving the information to be more specific and provide details and that information has to be filtered and somehow verified that it applies to the current subscribers of the phone line or service... and I would have to be moderated for accuracy. But I’m not a legal person so I don’t know that for sure.I was only going to give this aft two stars but I’m bumping it up to three because I do not believe the developers are deliberately trying to deceive anybody. I do believe that they’re optimistically representing their app by what they want it to be when it grows up... in other words, their vision. But there is some considerable daylight in between that ideal and what the app is capable of now. This all comes down to choices and marketing and positioning. Developers: I’m speaking directly to you. I’ve been a marketing and advertising person my entire career. I’d like to add it was a very successful career and I know what I’m talking about. I’ll further qualify it by letting you know that all of my experience happens to be in the technology marketing and advertising sector. Guys this product is not ready to be positioned in the market as a reverse call look up service. Focus on its strengths as a community driven effort to provide accurate data and consumer reporting. Position it as a community of concerned persons collaborating to report fraudsters scammers and shady companies. Solicit users who will join you to help generate accurate and detailed content on their experiences to crack down on phone and privacy scams and protect other consumers... because those kinds of users are out there. There is a whole market segment of end-users fanatics who love these kinds of opportunities and make doing this kind of stuff a hobby. I would suggest making the app a little bit more social so that users reporting on numbers and experiences from those reports can compare notes and receive updates in real time to keep your information accurate and up-to-date. I think I would also be wise somewhere to include a disclaimer about all of the information that is generated through this means. You might even be able to develop an additional revenue model of supplying this information to companies at a subscription for them to see what the general perception is about how they’re conducting business through the telephone. You might even be able to create a platform for them to respond in the same way that developers are able to respond to the reviews they receive here on the App Store. If you’re interested in well I’m telling you reach out to me and I’ll give you my full professional advice for free. I believe in what you’re trying to do. It’s an awesome idea... just not how it’s currently being executed.
Review by macbookbro1967 on CallerSmart: Reverse Lookup.