Is BoomTown Dead?

What would you do if you were a team leader of a large team closing a few deals a week, or you were a brokerage whose entire company closed dozens of deals per week, or even that single agent living deal to deal with little time/money to have something go wrong?  One thing you would do or have done is make sure you got yourself a killer IDX/CRM like BoomTown, CINC, kvCORE, Lofty or Sierra.

In early April, the same move that would ensure you were successful turned into a hot nightmare for those who ran their business with BoomTown.  One day, it all kind of went dark.  Errors when trying to log in and all signs of websites stripped of their data.  It is about as bad as a worst-case scenario could be.

The upside to this mayhem of a scenario is that today on April 16th, too many days after the darkness took over, BoomTown sprung to life again, well partially.  Ok, actually it is still not fully functional but after twelve days, you have to find your wins. For twelve days agents, team leaders, and brokerages couldn’t even change their system because in order to do that you need to be able to log in to export your contacts.

We all know that BoomTown is a solid product but what will be interesting is the fallout (not the movie) that will occur now that everyone can log in again and export their information.  Would you stick with it?  Chalk it up to the good old cost of doing business?  Would you export and run?

One thing you can’t do is look for any damages.  Although millions in commission may have been lost, the user base will be hard pressed to get more than an “I’m sorry” and possibly some pro rated time on the platform.

Will BoomTown hold everyone to their contracts or show some form of humanity and let people go for this expensive mishap? How BoomTown manages those that wish to leave will speak to it's character and how it views its userbase.

How could a software service go dark for nearly two weeks, cost an unknown amount of lost commission, and not have to pay out for the loss?  It’s those sneaky Terms of Service (TOS) or how BoomTown calls them, the Terms Of Use (TOU). 

BOOMTOWN MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, SECURITY OR ACCURACY OF THE SITE OR THE CONTENT FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICE AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL BOOMTOWN AND ITS SERVICE PROVIDERS, LICENSORS OR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR OTHER TYPE OF DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR COVER OR LOSS OF USE, DATA, REVENUE OR PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE SITE, WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE, OR FOR ANY CONTENT, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE SITE, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, THE FAILURE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY TO ACHIEVE ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF BOOMTOWN OR ANY OF BOOMTOWN’S SUPPLIERS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES.

IF, NOTWITHSTANDING THE OTHER TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, BOOMTOWN IS DETERMINED TO HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY LOSS, HARM OR DAMAGE, YOU AGREE THAT THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF BOOMTOWN AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, MANAGERS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS, CONTRACTORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, LICENSORS OR SUPPLIERS SHALL IN ALL CASES BE LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

So it’s back up again which is fantastic for those customers of BoomTown.  The question is, what kind of damage has been done to the brand that was acquired for many millions?

If anything, this should convince agents to add a new layer of security to their tech stack.  Going dark is about as bad as it can get.

Time to hit those phones, texts, and emails BoomTowner’s . . . you have some catching up to do.

If you have any thoughts on what agents can do to protect themselves against this in the future or about BoomTown in general, please click the link below and let us know.

https://www.kirbly.com/kirbly-in-your-korner