mybuilder.com - any good?

RogerEngland

if you are doing the work yourself 'Mick App' is better as it gets you all prices for materials from the suppliers.

JeezCrikey

noodle_doodle wrote: »

I didn't know mybuilder had changed the charging system so tradespeople get billed for even showing interest in a job. Probably explains why my recent posted small jobs have had very poor responses, whereas years ago (pre-2012) I'd get a fair few responses for them (stuff like replace dimmer switch etc)

I've also had the problem of shortlisting people, telling them they've got the job, and then them not turning up at agreed times. If they've had to pay mybuilder 'cos I've shortlisted them you'd think at least they'd turn up for the job to make the money back?

The fees have become exorbitant!!! Nothing less than 5 for the smallest job. I told them their pricing structure didnt make sense but they ignored me. For example, someone wants a curtain rail put up - a small job less than an hour. If you are local and contact me direct then I would charge my call out 30 quid. If i have to pay 7 quid to mybuilder for this then rounding up I have to charge 37 which is more than likely going to be too much. So I wont bother responding because if you shortlist me i will pay 7 quid and you wont hire me anyway. Totally stupid but hey the internet wizards are so smart they know better. Its the same for big jobs. They can be 20 to 25 fee - then you talk to some dreamer who wants an estimate so they can budget for it. Forget it. These sites were created by tradespeople and then taken over by little idiots in t shirts and jeans who think they are smarter than the rest of us.Only people still on there are newbies who are trying things out or shonks who cant get work any other way. BEWARE!!!

JeezCrikey

Cloth_of_Gold wrote: »

I thought I'd report back on what happened in the end. None of the people I contacted through MyBuilder responded, even though I put a detailed job spec on the site and it was a few thousand pounds worth of work. As I described above, the site passed my details onto 3 other people, one of whom I invited to quote. He did come round and gave a quote but it was lacking in detail and he wanted quite a bit for materials, most of which I was supplying anyway, and a very high fee for removing the building waste (which there wasn't that much of).

In the meantime I had found CheckaTrade and someone I found on there came round and gave an estimate. Two others provided an estimate without coming to view the job. These two were quite high (one very high) so I didn't pursue them. The first one was ok and as they seemed to know what they were talking about it I accepted, subject to clarification of a couple of points. However, despite having accepted their quote in principle, and chasing them, I heard no more from them.

I then tried Trustmark but there was no one very close to where I live. I did nevertheless contact the three nearest. One didn't reply to my message and the other two said I was too far away. By this stage I was getting desperate and so I rang a local builders' merchant who gave me the number of a company who regularly use their business. I have to say I didn't have much hope that this would work but I rang the number anyway and someone came down and had a look. I was impressed with him and when his estimate came it was similar to the earlier one I had accepted and so I gave him the go-ahead. Although the work took a little longer than I had anticipated they did a good job and were polite, friendly, hardworking and reliable and I am going to use them for other jobs in the future.

My experience then was the websites were of no use at all and although I got the job done in the end it was really down to pot luck.

wow what a saga for you... luckily all sorted. I hadnt thought of using a builders merchant for recommendations but that is actually a brilliant idea. A local, knowledgeable and convenient resource - far better than some numpty on a website.

Anyway as far as your idea of how mybuilder works you are slightly off there - the trades choose their geographic area of interest on there and so you might see them pop up but they wont respond as you are out of their zone. Also mybuilder doesnt recommend your job... it just sends out an email to all trades fitting yours and their requirements ie it matches you. They then respond.

To be fair I never ever respond to a job invite as those always tend to be over subscribed ie someone invites 20 people and I have to pay a fee to be shortlisted. Odds are I wont get the job as I am not the cheapest.

JeezCrikey

naomig wrote: »

Very informative post. Thanks you. But I have a question:

1. You state above (i have boldened it) that it’s difficult to fake large jobs feedback as the tradesman would have to pay the commission for it making it a very expensive practice but is there any way of actually finding out what the value of previous jobs was set to on mybuilder.com? I.e., is it impossible for a tradesman to get his friend to set up a fictitious job titled "New extension build" just for the fake positive feedback and for him to accept the job for say £50 and therefore only paying £2.5 commission?

Someone here is in the employ of the websites. The fee per quarter is no where near where the so called new trade was saying even back in those days. Total nonsense.

Anyway a big job fee is say 50 quid while the job itself is worth thousands so the 5% fee structure doesnt hold across the jobs. Even the t shirt and jeans / venture capital brigade arent that greedy. So getting fake reviews is easy enough especially for big jobs - its more cost effective then actually. The fees for smaller jobs are well in excess of 10% already so thats where it isnt practical.

Incidentally mybuilder became part of a much larger organisation... assuming they bought the company for a bundle (like how ikea swallowed up taskrabbit) then they need to raise their revenue to justify the stupid price they paid for a site with such fundamental flaws. The legal position of all this is so tenous. All it needs is a major incident and the whole thing will unravel.

Mitzi77

It says all over the site they are impartial. We hired someone off here and were completely ripped off the company wasn't even legitimate. Found out he is a car salesman not roofer as he claimed. No come back if it goes wrong. Might as well use the yellow pages