Thats going to be a tough sell. I did the same. I went to the Manager of the complex I was bidding on(why all this started). I said to them why were they using CD. They said because of all the “fly by nighters”. NO problem I said. Here is my insurance…liability, truck, references, favorite color…etc. They said they couldnt do it…had to go thru CD. I even tried to tell them if they trained one of thier employees to be in charge to justc check out any bidders info…insurance, refernces, etc…they can save money too.
Just wanted to reply to your post. I have been unfortunately forced to have to use Compliance Depot for most of our big properties we clean for. Let me first start off by saying Compliance Depot is not a scam, they do what they say, and keep track of insurance requirements and such, but I must say they are the worst company to work with. The customer service sucks, it takes sometimes over a week for them to “review” the documents you send them, they say they will call back and never do. I literally have to call them every couple days and find out why we are not in compliance or why they still after 5 days have not updated our documents to show we have everything correct. For us we have to go through them, but it is a headache and by far the worse company to deal with. I wish the property management groups would leave compliance depot and go with a better company, which I am not sure if there is another one out there available. I just hope soon another complance company will start and our customers switch over, because Compliance Depot is about as worthless as my dead dog.
I happen to be a member of compliance depot and i can tell you that trying to deal with them is the most aggravating experience i have ever been through.I have been in business for 24 years and a few of our clients require us to sign up with Compliance depot .If you try and call their office,you can’t get anyone on the phone.If you leave a message no one ever returns your call,and when you do talk to someone you have to end up doing their job for THEM.When you fax them any info,they end up losing them.I have talked to other business owners about this same problem.We are paying for a service that we are not receiving.I and several other owners are thinking about approaching the news media about this ruse.I have already talked to an editor with our local newspaper and she is urging us to expose compliance depot for their inconsistencies.Our main problem with this company is they lose all fax’s you send them and the wording in contracts that change every year.Compliance depot NEVER contacts us on changes in wording and we are paying for this service??? We end up having to call them and HELP whoever answers the phone figure THEIR problem out.TOOO much aggravation for something that we are paying for.
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The expereince seems to BAD (when it doesn’t work) or GREAT (when it does).
A property manager not advising you that you need to be Compliance Depot approved, before you bid is disingenuous …and may be intentional or not.
Having experienced similar difficulties, here’s my suggestions and MO:
- Recognize that so much multifamily real estate is corporate now.
- I always ask any sizeable real estate entity if they have a corporate vendor qualification program (Compliance Depot will emerge).
- Find out who the ownership is … so you can investigate online, and see how many properties are in your area.
- Do a cost benefit analysis: $95 and some admin pain for access to how many units? < The bottom line.
- Remember, you don’t have an exclusive, but you are in a smaller pool.
- Market the PM’s at each property … once you’ve become approved.
- Monitor your CD account … it’s not hard once you know the tools.
- School your insurer to adhere to the CD Client specific templates, and to send the new Certificate of Insurance to you to verify … then you forward it to CD.
- I’m not sure at what level (we’re at 9 CD clients) you get assigned a CD account manager, but having consistant inside advocate helps.
Good luck … a little like driving on auto-pilot, but when all cylinders are firng it does work.
If enough legitimate contractors will simply refuse to service accounts which require vendor screening, there won’t be anymore unannounced $95 fees or administrative headache. I can bring a background check straight from my local courthouse (which is good enough for the military and federal government), have a certificate of insurance faxed for free and meet any other reasonable request myself without the need for some third party using scare tactics to justify an otherwise pointless administrative service.
David: If you can change the CD paradigm, more power to you. I’ve fought “Big Corporate” for 35 years, and learned to choose my battles.
The large real estate entities who subscribe to CD want a blanket (particularly multi-state, multi-legal/insurance environments), one stop shop solution for ensuring that their i’s are dotted and t’s crossed for W9, labor insurance, vehicle insurance, and general liability.
I find that the main challenge is getting the certificate of insurance renewals to match the template requirements … attorney’s want what they want. Pay to play is all this is. Is the multi-unit exposure worth some hassle? At this time we’re giving it a go, and have a few successes. Our business is emergency response (or not) … and not windows.
I wish you the best of luck, bro. But don’t you find it strange that you now have to go through a lot more trouble just to clean windows than you go through to fully restore fire/smoke/water damaged properties for corporate insurance? You’d think if anything was bureaucratized, it would be corp. insurance rather than property management.
Points well taken re:
(1) “find it strange that you now have to go through a lot more trouble just to clean windows”.
(2) “You’d think if anything was bureaucratized, it would be corp. insurance rather than property management”. Oh, yaaaa!
Compliance Depot is the worst possible company that I have ever had the misfortune of being forced to work with. They are completely and totally inept. They claim to know what they are doing but they don’t. They waste my time over and over again for the stupidest reasons and have no understanding of insurance, worker compensation or liability. I am making it my mission in life to put this company out of business permanently. If you are with Compliance Depot get out as quickly as possible, if you are a vendor advise your client that these people serve no purpose and have nothing to offer other than a headache and more problems. I will tell everyone I know that this company is worthless and should be shunned by all! Their representatives are idiots, the supervisors are worthless idiots, and good luck trying to get a Manager on the phone since they cannot transfer the phone to them at all. These people will pay for what they have done and I’m going to be the one that gets them. If you have had a problem with Compliance Depot out of Plano Texas please contact me anytime @ [email protected] and I will begin the process of a class action lawsuit against this worthless company.
Thank you,
J.P. Rajao
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Man check out the FB comments below…
BTW - We had some one ask for us to use this the other day… I sent them this thread and havent heard back…
I really wish I found this tread before I used Compliance Depot. Just so people don’t make the mistake I did, I’ll share my awful experience with them.
I run a painting and cleaning business and I was recently asked to use compliance depot for for many of my clients. First of all, they refused to give me any information on what I was paying for UNTIL i paid for it. My mind screamed scam but I had not other choice so I applied. Since then I’ve been on the phone 5 times a week for 3 months trying to get my paper work up to their standards. All my insurance paper work is correct and has the insurance they require but I’ve been rejected for the incorrect VERBIAGE most of the time. Pretty much it doesn’t matter if I have the correct insurance if the wording doesn’t match exactly word for word to what they want, even if it pretty much says the same thing. Another thing, I’ve been told by one of my clients that recently started using compliance depot that they tell their clients not to pay the vendors for they’re past work until they are approved by compliance depot first. I have over $10,000 that most of my clients say they can’t pay me because I haven’t been approved by compliance depot. As a result, I’ve lost many of my clients because they just couldn’t give me work because of compliance depot. I lost over 1000$ to compliance depot just to have them to keep rejecting me and making me lose my clients.
Don’t use compliance depot. I promise you it’s just a waste of money and your time. Now i have to get back to calling them again to try to get approved again so I can at least get paid for my past work…
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Sorry about your experience. I still say that if enough service businesses simply refuse to work with compliance depot or their customers, then compliance depot will have to go away. If no one will service the accounts of their customers, they will become a burden to business and property owners, who will quit using them. Simplistic, I know - but simple is often the best answer.
Just looked them up on yellowpages.com. After 8 reviews and 16 ratings, they have 1 star (out of 5).
And “compliance depot scam” came up 2nd listing on organic google search of their name.
17 ratings. 
Curt, you should not register with Compliance Depot prior to you winning a bid. Our job is to make sure you meet the requirements of the client. When you call us we can send you a sample insurance certificate once we link you to the client. However, in some cases the client needs to link you meaning that we cannot send you a sample immediately. Remember, we do not choose the requirements…the client does
Yay your finally here!
Uh, what? If you were talking to me I think you missed my point.
How can we submit a complete bid without knowing all the expenses involved??
We give you a sample certificate prior you paying the fee. The fee overs all paperwork processing and the background screenings
