"If they can't find our mortgage calculator then I don't want them conducting crucial industry research and statistical data" - Greg Costley, HomeSeekers.com CEO Hell hath no fury like a listing site scorned. HomeSeekers is openly disputing the integrity of the "survey" that Gomez just released which ranks online home buying sites, claiming the study "contains errors and selective disclosure." After coming in ninth place, HomeSeekers could be peeling sour grapes, but the site claims it isn't just sore losing - it plain didn't get its money's worth. Seems HomeSeekers paid Gomez $35,000 to find out why they weren't ranked higher in the site's previous survey, and found they didn't fare any better this time around as a paying customer and after making significant changes to its site based on Gomez' consultations. Gomez.com's real estate analyst Nick Karris told this reporter last year that its business model is basically gathering information on a consumer category, creating survey rankings (Scorecards) on each company, and then "consulting" with the participants on ways they can improve their rankings. They do this by sharing what they learned from among the category's leading competitors. That means you pay them to tell you what you are doing wrong and anything you are doing right your competitors pay to learn about. The result is higher standards for the category, and a better online experience for the consumer. What some would call altruism on behalf of consumers, others might call a subtle coercion. As the self-appointed watchdog of the online world, Gomez scorecards are free to consumers to view the results, and are used by consumers to make buying decisions. But how do the companies feel? Are they compelled to participate lest they be left out of the survey, or worse, rank low in the ratings for all the world to see? An industry consultant representing one of the survey's other participants said, "It is disheartening to find out that information which you supply to an analyst firm such as Gomez may be sold to help a competitor." That's what HomeSeekers says happened. The site was ranked lower in Gomez' fall/winter survey than they felt they deserved. After the survey was published, HomeSeekers pointed out errors to Gomez which the site refused to change. Gomez did offer an apology to HomeSeekers for posting the wrong number of listings, 500,000 as opposed to 850,000, but continued to publicize the survey and post it on the Gomez site with the lower listings unchanged. If the 42 percent listings shortfall had been correct in the first place, HomeSeekers would have placed higher in the rankings. "The scorecard gives them credit for 850,000 this time," says Chris Musto, director of financial services for Gomez.com, declining to address why the score wasn't changed previously. Deciding to play ball instead of make war, HomeSeekers said it reached out to Gomez.com to find their methodologies and to correct the errors in time for the spring survey. HomeSeekers said it pointed out errors and also made substantial changes to its site, based on Gomez' recommendations. What they got was not what they wanted for their money - a ninth place ranking riddled with "omissions and errors" that HomeSeekers says Gomez refuses to correct. "We rate about 1000 e-commerce firms in our scorecards, (about 29 industries) and we do this quarterly in an objective reproducible methodology from the consumer's point of view," explains Musto. "We don't look at market share or brand, it is what you are doing to earn market share." "A lot of firms aren't happy about that. They wish we would have looked at them differently," he says. "HomeSeekers didn't do as well as they wish they had." Including the listings has failed to move HomeSeekers forward in the rankings, a fact which riles HomeSeekers CEO Greg Costley. He says that Gomez also encouraged HomeSeekers to make other improvements such as site speed, with which HomeSeekers complied, and now that criteria is no longer included in the rankings. Adding insult to injury, the site has six errors alone in the feature analysis section, incorrectly stating that HomeSeekers does not have school reports and crime reports, monthly mortgage payment calculator, mortgage calculator liked to listings, an online privacy statement, searching by age of listing and consistent navigation. "We feel it is tough to expect Gomez to score us right when they're not even certain of the services that we do provide on our site," says Costley, who demanded an explanation of Gomez's methods which he says still isn't forthcoming. Gomez says it spent four hours on the phone with HomeSeekers trying to explain the survey results, but failed to appease Costley. "This lack of substantiation and the continuous errors prove that surveys on the Internet require scrutiny and that even information distributed by reputable research firms like Gomez can be misleading, said Costley. ''For our $35,000, we expected honesty and accuracy - yet we continue to be disappointed."