Hoovers, a division of Dun and Bradstreet

Dun and Bradstreet has been trying to get me to purchase "sales leads" from them, via their Hoovers division. I am always skeptical of the quality of purchased leads, mailing lists, etc. So I asked for a free trial. They gave me a 24-hour free trial.

Here is what I did, to check their accuracy.

1. I searched my company. They listed 42 employees. Only 15 of them worked here currently. Some of them worked here previously, but others I didn't know who they were at all, and some hadn't worked here for over 5 years. Out of those 15 that DID work there, only 11 had the correct title or a title even close to what they really do. So basically, 11 out of 42 had any accuracy at all.

2. Then, I searched for myself. There were three listings, all of them were me. The first one was a company I hadn't worked at for over 4 years, although it said it was the current place of employment. The second listing was my current job, and that was accurate. The third one was my side business.

3. When I clicked on the listing for my side business (the third listing from #2 above), the name was correct, the address was outdated by almost 3 years, phone number outdated by 4 years, but the kicker? My fun little online business selling health products was listed as an automotive service and collision repair shop.

So basically, my review of Hoovers is a negative one. I don't even give them 1 star. No reason to waste your money, no matter how much they profess to update their information every week!