My Hammer - Find Local Tradesmen for any Job (FREE)

soulmate4ever

I've used Checkatrade.com many times, it doesn't cover the whole of the UK but if you live in the south you'll be OK finding a trade. I'm very impressed, in the past years I've had a large patio built, fencing put up, a block pave driveway, a garden wall built, trees removed, I'm sure there are more I just can't remember. All have come from Checkatrade and all have been fantastic.
The great thing is you can give checkatrade your feed back and they put it on their web site for everyone else to see. If you need a trade you can then see what everyone else has said.
I've also used Buy with confidence, again I think this is for down south only, this is local government so they must be good !! They too have a feed back system but there doesn't seem to be many, perhaps in time they will have more.

Hope this helps someone.

zax47

baldelectrician wrote: »

I had a try with My Hammer.
Was not inpressed

Used it before they changed the site for thr worst.

I have noticed that certain 'traders' with a less than fantastic reputation use it, and the price has been cut to a non-realisitc rate that either means work not is carried out to the wiring regs or quality of materials used is not of a high standard

That completely ties in with my experience of myhammer - a total waste of time. It certainly changed for the worse, I did a couple of little jobs through it, maybe 18 months ago when it was new, but the quotes some people are giving are just ridiculous. It may be free for the customers but it sure as hell isn't for the tradespeople.

knowloads

My hammer useless. My workman same.... few leads for penny jobs and if the 'cient has already sorted it we still have to pay for the lead.

judygarland

OMG. I feel ripped off. My OH has been a carpenter for 25 years and I've been looking into better marketing ideas. Just tried the ratedpeople website and they were offering £10 membership trial for 3 months. You can then look up leads for jobs. There was one job on there for someone wanting a back door fitting and wanting to pay £100 or less. To put in a quote to do this job, the site want to charge me £14.00 + VAT! What a rip off. Bearing in mind that you are up against two others, this is very costly. I can run an advert in the local paper for less than £10.00 per week and would be far more successful at getting work!

sueaye

Does anyone know if you have to pay an invoice? I accidentally clicked on 'send contact details' and they sent an invoice- they won't sent the contact details until I pay- so do I have to pay?

1jim

To be honest I was one of the doubters (see first page for my inital reaction to myhammer), however I had a further attempt december/january. I bought some of the cheap £1 a roll loft insulation when it was on sale from NPower and planned to lay it myself- I then realised that I had neither the time nor inclanation to do it, I placed an ad on my hammer and got around 6quotes for the job, I could see who had done work previously and read the feedback, a few emails to the trader reassured me that they were legit, there was a free phone number to use, I was a little concerned because it looked like they were coming 150miles to do my job- I was reassured that they lumped jobs into areas and did them on same day etc (this was also confirmed by the guys who did the job) and at the end of the day I figured if the work wasnt up to scratch then I could withhold payment. On the day the work was due to be done I was phoned to say they were running 30minutes late because of traffic (I have never come across a company that phones to say will be 30mins late), 2 nice guys came in and worked non stop, cleaned after themselves and took away all of the packaging. Gave me a reciept for payment. I would definatly consider using these guys again and would give my hammer a go again when I need more work doing. I know I could have used a local company to do the work and I did try, I contacted in excess of 10 local handmen and not one replied to emails or returned calls when I left messages to get a quote for the work. All in all my experience with myhammer was stress free and I would use them again

knowloads

FREE maybe for the public but traders pay £40 a month to be a part of MyHorror and 95% of requests are just looking for ball park figures. 12 months down the line and I have had one job. Most of the traders just put stupid low prices then mulitiply by 10 when in of the customer. The sites do no chec ks and are making money by charging commission or up front fees. there is no guarantee that the traders are any good either.

dacouch

Just to add balance Flapjack works for vettedtradesmen so please take this into account when reading his spam

jasperhound

:mad:
As a tradesupplier on the MyHammer platform, I have 2 concerns, one from a consumers point and one as a user of MyHammer.

From a consumers perspective I am very concerned at how easy it is for any tom, !!!!!! or harry to quote on a customers job requirements. I continually see jobs being awarded to so called trades persons for figures I would lose money on, let alone break even. As a qualified NICEIC registered electrician there are stringent rules & regulations that have to be met including Part P & Building Regs notification for most jobs apart from minor works. Work in Kitchens & Bathrooms almost certainly require Building control notification and this can be a minimum of £200 for starters unless your Electrician/Installer is a member of a government approved body such as NICEIC, Electra, Napit etc. Safety is surely being compromised by allowing non qualified persons to quote on jobs involving electricity & water, in installing a shower for example.
I have voiced my concerns to MyHammer, but they fail to respond.
Be very vigilant if using MyHammer as there seems to be no safeguard in allowing the Cowboys of this world to thrive on this type of platform.

*****To Trades people considering signing up to MyHammer*****

Having signed up to a 3 month trial I have had nothing but headaches. If you have problems with MyHammer you may find that trying to get things resolved will cost you money in phone calls, time wasted in emails, loss of possible earnings through quotes being placed & questions asked, being deleted from your account as they continually place restrictions on it.
Due to what I can see as total incompetence, they are failing to bring my account up to date. They are continually placing restrictions on my account due to what they claim is an unpaid Invoice that has been paid via transfer to their account, at their request, due to problems with their accounting system. Then, when they acknowledge its been paid they lift the restriction but within a day or two the restriction is back on again. This has now happened at least 8 times!
I have sent over 10 emails, telephoned (0871) over a dozen times, & written to the CEO with no response to this issue.
The operation is based in Germany & you speak to German girls when you phone who would not put me through to their accounts department nor let me speak to supervisors if indeed they exist. I have now hit a brick wall and when seeking advise from 'Consumer Direct' have been told that taking action against a German Company may be difficult to accomplish.
Never have I dealt with such incompetency, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

p.s. I have a further issue with them now that I won't go into, but, once again they have failed to respond to my emails. :mad: