Checkatrade

Plasterer

I'm on mybuilder.com got 57 (100% positive feedback) over four years,
57 people from all over the Midlands (Europe actually, went to morzene Alps France to plaster a chalet) can't be wrong.. Can they?
Ps never threatened anyone for good feedback 😀

leveller2911

Plasterer wrote: »

I'm on mybuilder.com got 57 (100% positive feedback) over four years,
57 people from all over the Midlands (Europe actually, went to morzene Alps France to plaster a chalet) can't be wrong.. Can they?
Ps never threatened anyone for good feedback ��

Checkatrade is financed by the tradesmen and when you have that conflict of interest there is only 1 outcome and that is they are not impartial for fear of tradesmen leaving .

If they leave then Checkatrade make no money so its not in their interest to upset their members. Its not rocket science to see the flaws in the business model and thats exactly what it is, a business.

Checkatrade are not there for altruistic reasons , for the good of Joe Public they are there to make lots of money. People need to view Checkatrade as nothing more than a directory of tradesmen, same as the Yellow pages.

Best was to get a good tradesman is to talk to neighbours,friends ,family ,word of mouth is by far the best way.
Look at examples of their work ,make sure you see their Public liability insurance.


I get all of my work by word of mouth, I don't advertise and never have(apart from my previosu van being sign written). If you do a decent job for a decent price customers will find you. A few business cards given to a customer works wonder for networking. That together with planty of clean dustsheets,clean van and taking your workboots off when entering a customers home works wonders, As does a decent hoover with a HEPA filter.:D

My old grandad use to say to me "always leave a customers home cleaner than when you arrived" and it makes a big difference. Most trades such as carpenters,Joiners,electricians,heating engineers etc don't need to pay the likes of Checkatrade ,why bother being listed in a directory full of other tradesmen doing the same thing ?. Even posting flyers in the local supermarket/shops your competing with far less competition.

cepheus

Plasterer wrote: »

I'm on mybuilder.com got 57 (100% positive feedback) over four years,
57 people from all over the Midlands (Europe actually, went to morzene Alps France to plaster a chalet) can't be wrong.. Can they?
Ps never threatened anyone for good feedback 😀

For what it's worth, mybuilder.com are highly rated on Trustpilot

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.mybuilder.com

deaston

I got some quotes for some gardening work and one of the tradesmen kept texting and emailing me asking if I wanted to go ahead. I replied and said we'd decided to go with someone else (this was because he turned-up a coupl of hours late to quote and kept swearing whilst he was here). The reply I got was incredibly rude and unnecessary.

So I thought I'd rate him on Check-a-Trade. They told me as he hadn't actually done any work, I couldn't leave a review.

Another occassion, I left a negative review for a wallpaperer (who'd done a truly shocking job) and, again, was told I couldn't leave a negative review.

What's the point if the only reviews they allow are positive ones?! Never used Check-a-Trade since.

Plasterer

deaston wrote: »

I got some quotes for some gardening work and one of the tradesmen kept texting and emailing me asking if I wanted to go ahead. I replied and said we'd decided to go with someone else (this was because he turned-up a coupl of hours late to quote and kept swearing whilst he was here). The reply I got was incredibly rude and unnecessary.

So I thought I'd rate him on Check-a-Trade. They told me as he hadn't actually done any work, I couldn't leave a review.

Another occassion, I left a negative review for a wallpaperer (who'd done a truly shocking job) and, again, was told I couldn't leave a negative review.

What's the point if the only reviews they allow are positive ones?! Never used Check-a-Trade since.

Sounds like check a trade really is a rubbish website. I know that on my builder. Com you can definitely leave negative feedback because as sad as I am I quite often check my Local competitions feedback and it makes me grin a little when I see some of them get slated fir poor work (childish I know,but does put a smile on my face)

cepheus

deaston wrote: »

.....I left a negative review for a wallpaperer (who'd done a truly shocking job) and, again, was told I couldn't leave a negative review.

What's the point if the only reviews they allow are positive ones?! Never used Check-a-Trade since.

Why couldn't you leave a review in this case?

dacouch

cepheus wrote: »

Why couldn't you leave a review in this case?

He who pays the piper calls the tune.

These rating websites don't like to publish negative reviews as it upsets their paying customers.

The BIS (DTI in old money) were mooting reviewing business reviews as they felt not publishing negative reviews could be unfair on the consumer.

vivienneh_2

I used Check a Trade for a renderer who turned out to be a waste of time. I left a negative review on his page after he left with my money and didnt complete the work. He was allowed by them to reply to my review in which he lied through his teeth. I'm furious that I can't reply to that to say he is lying. He was saying he told he about rotting wood when he didnt even mention any wood, also its concrete in question not wood. What a waste of time and infuriating.

cinereus

Completely agree that checkatrade is a complete scam and con. Having twice had to go through the process of trying to leave a negative review (wonder why almost everyone is rated 9.8+?), I can see they know which side their bread is buttered on...

One tradesman who did 15 mins work before missing 5 appointments in a row (yes really) tried to weasel his way out saying he had not every carried out any work and therefore Checkatrade don't have to take my experience into account despite the time off work wasted and the delays to getting the project finished.

He was almost right to be fair - but he had done about 5% of what I'd employed him to do and I'd been inconvenienced enough I thought it fair to be able to leave a review.

The second trader spent weeks working in my house and I paid them on completion of work as they said they'd email over an invoice later. It later turned out they'd just made the problem worse and caused about £500 worth of damage. After stalling for another two weeks saying they'd take a look, they then refused to come back to fix it even if I paid a call out fee. And several weeks of chasing later, they still haven't sent the invoice for the money paid.

Again Checkatrade refused to let me publish any sort of review as they then denied I was a customer of theirs (!!!!!!?!) despite photographic evidence and records of phone calls and said without any invoice as proof (the one I'd asked for repeatedly) they would side with the trader. If that's not a one-sided con, I don't know what is!

aZooZa

Sorry for a late thread revival - especially as my first post here.

I'm very interested in this space (trader trust reviews etc.) and I was just wondering if anyone can suggest a model where this would work fairly, for both parties. I noticed a strong disposition towards the way TripAdvisor works; i.e. immutable reviews, and maybe this is an important criteria for someone wishing to start a CAT-style business.

The 'Which' scheme seems to be thorough in its vetting procedures, but is a non-refundable deposit of £240 and then £58/month value for money?

How about doing this on the blockchain (immutable) and funding it all via a new crypto asset which is given free to traders which (in simple terms) they use to 'pay' for their listing and the resources offered by the review website? As the supply of free tokens starts to dry up, a market for that asset develops -- those that took advantage of the initial giveaway could just find themselves with a fungible windfall...

This might sound a little specious, but it's possible. Revain have done it, and at the moment they only review ICO's and are not geared to this trade market at all. Their coin asset is listed on major exchanges and has been quite resilient.

Regards!